Thomas Deacon City Academy
I had been meaning to write something about this place since the little piece that reached the news about 'the school without a playground', which was just another of those mind-boggling examples of how the school system fails to treat pupils like human beings (though Mirinda informed me most vehemently yesterday that you definitely don't call it 'playtime' any more once you get to secondary school, so why is it still called a 'playground'?). So then Dunk just sent me a link to The Fraud Academy with an article about city academies in general, and some comments about Thomas Deacon specifically, and how the pupils will not have breaks between lessons:
"What will the children do in their breaks? Simple. There won't be any. The head, Alan McMurdo, says they can drink water while they learn. Actually, what he said was, "[Pupils] will be able to hydrate during the learning experience." That's the way these people talk."
I am now a bit concerned that I am not able to ensure that my children are adequately hydrated without access to a qualified teacher to ensure they are doing it properly and at regular enough intervals. Maybe I can just spend the next week finding more and more ridiculous examples of 'school speak'.