The Institution

Tears of frustration welled up in Guy’s eyes. He’d been due to be released 10 minutes earlier but the huge black warder, a mountain of a man, was determined to prolong his agony for as long as possible. Guy would not be allowed out of the institution until his parent had signed his release form and furthermore, understood the terms of his release. Admin completed, the large green gates, which the warder guarded with a zeal bordering on sadism, slid apart on their well greased runners. They did not make a sound. The only sound was me muttering under my breath. Guy wasn’t in any sort of trouble. This was just me trying to get him out of school early!

My kids will go pale when they see the title of this blog posting. It’s about their school and the one thing they hate, is to be exposed to school outside of school hours. They don’t dislike school amazingly enough, it’s just that the several hours a day they spend there, having their brains exercised, is quite enough thank you.

College La Sine is about 10 minutes away from our house and generally Guy and Kitty will catch either the 7.30am or 8.30am bus. Apart from Wednesdays when they finish at lunchtime, they will be ‘released’ at either 4pm or 5pm, so it can be quite a long day.

I used the word ‘released’ in the last paragraph deliberately as kids are not allowed out of school unless they can prove that they have finished for the day. A rather large black bouncer guards the gates and this is not to stop trouble (nobody would dare) but to check the kids’ school agenda (or diary) to establish if they can be allowed out. To be released early they must have either a teacher’s or a parent’s signature.

The school have also recently introduced the  ‘system from hell’ as far as the kids are concerned. It’s an IT system, accessed via the internet which provides a daily, let me repeat, daily, performance view of the child’s progress. It lists all their tests and their marks, the work they do in particular lessons and also their homework for the current evening. No more little fibs about ‘having no homework’. It’s all there in the ether.

I first saw the systems the school employs when we took Guy there for his first day. Each child registered their palm print on a biometrics system and thereafter, each lunchtime they have to place their palm on a reader which detects if the child is due a school meal – i.e. they’ve paid. It also alerts the school if they have paid for a meal but have not entered the dining room. A letter is then sent to the parents the following day. Strangely, the children are not allowed to take lunchboxes to school. They either go home (or at least leave the school premises if their agenda says they can) or stay and have the school 3 course menu.

In some respects it must be like a prison for the kids but they get used to it and as far as the parents are concerned, if a child is due to be at school, they will be at school. No chance of them sneaking off to Vence about 10 minutes walk away with their mates for a coke and a sandwich at lunchtimes, never to return to their lessons.

The only way to ‘escape’ the system, is not to go to school in the first place but again, as soon as the register is taken, and it is taken three times a day, if a child is detected as ‘missing’ the old letter writing system bursts into action and the parents will know the following day and a response is required. It is virtually foolproof. I have however, worked out a few wrinkles in the system but, of course, Guy and Kitty read this and it would be remiss of me to give them ideas but it wouldn’t surprise me if Guy hadn’t already hacked into the school systems (he is after all on the techie committee) and sorted a few things.