I can't talk... it's 7am.

So this week I began the exams. Not my exams, obviously, but a large bunch of delightful 16 year olds who need someone on hand for pens, pencils, rulers, numerous toilet trips and general consolation during their GCSEs. On Russell Howard's radio show they were discussing how most invigilators are about 125. They were right. When I wandered in the other morning I'm pretty sure one such lady was about to ask me if I was taking the exam. Anyway, in conclusion exams are boring for everyone involved. At least if you're taking them you get to sit down. Standing up for nearly 3 hours is really no fun. Neither is having to take someone to the toilet ever 2 minutes. I'm sorry, lovely pupil, if you think it's a fun way to fill the time instead of actually doing your exam, but quite frankly I'm sick of trailing back and forth. So you can just cross your legs.

In all seriousness though, I do find this job a little disheartening. In maths yesterday, most of the kids turned up without even a ruler, in some cases not even a pen or pencil. I can't imagine caring so little about something relatively future shaping like GCSEs to show up completely unprepared. At my school, (approximately 3 miles away from this one), we were threatened with not being able to do the exam if we didn't have the right equipment, which to a future-conscious 16 year-old was pretty terrifying.

It gets worse though. Today was English Literature, and someone asked me how to spell literature. I don't really have the words to describe how I felt. Amused, briefly perhaps, but mainly very very concerned. For starters it was on the paper right in front of her. And secondly: COME ON! At least she cared enough to ask though.

Granted it isn't the worlds' best school, and a lot of the kids don't have the easiest of backgrounds. But it's the sense of apathy that worries me. Fine, maybe they don't plan to enter higher education. But is that a reason to waste an entire 5 years of secondary school learning just because you 'can't be bothered' to write something in 2 1/2 hours? It's disheartening to say the least. With more than a month left of this job, my plan is to ignore it, otherwise how on earth am I going to get out of bed in the morning. The 7am starts are bad enough (I am literally on auto-pilot, I have a routine, I stick to it, if anything else happens I may have some kind of breakdown. Communication is out of the question), without worrying about the demise of our population.

In more exciting and optimistic news, I'm going to be writing for The Line of Best Fit soon. It's a fanzine, like Tasty, but on a slightly bigger scale, they seem to have a lot more material and more high-profile albums, gigs, etc. I love Tasty, but I am more than comfortable there, so it's time to step up a gear I think, but I'll continue to write for them - every little helps, as they say.

Fun and games, fun and games....

Toddles.