Re: School leaving age?
 

Goodness knows. Probably shipping everyone off to Harvard from the age of 4 and paying for it with chocolate coins :confused:

Re: School leaving age?
 

Did you think the same when they made the limit 16? Before that didn't many people leave at 14? Being a whipper snapper I can't remember what happened before the 16 limit. ;)

Re: School leaving age?
 

Yes me too.........:D

Re: School leaving age?
 

do not honestly remember when it was raised to 16, i must have been a whipper snapper then:D twas 15 when i left, but it didn't really matter cos there was employment fer all,;)

Re: School leaving age?
 

When I left school aged 16, in 1959, the legal leaving age was 15. Pupils taking O levels, usually at High or Grammar Schools, stayed on until 16. I'm not sure when the legal age was raised to 16 but it was in the 60s.

The leaving age had been 14 before the war and prior to that pupils could leave school on a "part-time" basis at 13. My dad fell into that catagory. He left Hyndburn Park school in 1922, when he was 14, but for the previous year he had only attended school half days, the other half he worked at Steiners. He got his further education at Night School and he was doing that until he was 18.

Re: School leaving age?
 

Re: School leaving age?
 

Yes, you're right, Willow. I googled it and it was 1972.

Re: School leaving age?
 

I left the High School at 15 but I had gone there at age 10, so I did my GCEs at 15.
I had a job lined up before I took my exams and started at Mullards as an office junior 2 weeks after I left school.

It was only when I got better results than I expected that I started thinking about a Civil Service career, and I had to wait until I was 16 before I could start there.

Re: School leaving age?
 

All i can say is thank god i aint at school now!!!!:p

I think my mum left school when she was 13 - she was in northern ireland though mind you that was at the start of the second world war.

Re: School leaving age?
 

Bloody stupid and nothing but damaging to thoser who would have carried on education anyway - they are stuck with the retards who have wanted out since 14 and the tutors and teachers have to spend time and effort keeping these lot in instead of teaching those who are actually interested - thank god im going uni in a couple of weeks and have avoided all this.

Re: School leaving age?
 

In the 1980's I had the privilege to teach a group of totally un teachable boys.
They were in year 11 and non academic. Before I got them they had seen off 3 supply teachers in 2 weeks.
Talking with them was an eye opener and taught me so much. They could see no point in school. They knew they were not going to get any worthwhile exam results and 10 out of 12 of them already had jobs to go to. Ok admittedly most of these were jobs with family or friend where all they really need was brawn not brains.
They could not wait till they were 16 and could escape the educational system. Had they had to wait to be 17 or 18 to leave there would have been a riot.Even Aa formal training system would have been very unwanted and resented as they just wanted their freedom

My opinion is that some people are not ready for formal education as teenagers. Education should be open to all throughout life and let the individual decide when and if they are ready to study. I predict disaster if kids who dont want to be there are kept on until they are 18

Re: School leaving age?
 

methinks you predict very accurately polly.;)

Re: School leaving age?
 

My son couldn't make his mind up what he wanted to be.
He got 'chucked out' of Sandy Lane college after trying 3 different A level courses in 3 years.
He eventually got 4 A levels part time in one year whilst signing on, and got a mature student degree at Preston Poly.

Re: School leaving age?
 

I left school at 15 too....but i am sure we were all as clever as the kids these days,,,maybe its because we listened to the teachers

Re: School leaving age?
 

ya touched on summat there granny, the only remote chance of this being sucessfull is to reintroduce respect n discipline back into society n i dont just mean the kids, n we all know that aint gonna happen.;)