Catalogue of disaster

The 6th form English resit class? It's like watching a car crash in slow motion.

1. English teacher number 1 is there for two weeks, then resigns and is not seen again.

2. Teachers number 2, 3, and 4 are cover teachers brought in for the emergency. Cover teachers are treated so badly I wonder what satisfaction can be had from the job. Some of them are not English teachers. Or secondary GCSE teachers. By now the students don't turn up much anyway.

3. After an endless stream of supply and cover staff, by October, no teacher has learned anything about Shark: not that she's not a resit candidate, not that she loves Shakespeare, not even her name. She still doesn't know how coursework is to be handled, not the texts she's to be examined on, or who to ask.

4. A teacher emerges! They are going to live in Asia, so they're only here until Christmas. But! A permanent teacher! Sort of. For two months.

5. I email the department head, suggesting (not for the first time) Shark is removed from these classes and she teaches herself at home. I ask for the exam information and use phrases such as, 'I need to secure an approach that will benefit her before it is too late'.

6. Shark is given an assignment: 'Imagine you are an elderly man reflecting on your years watching football'. I email the department head to quote the GCSE Edexcel specification for writing on 'situations or problems that are within [a student's] general experience'.

7. By December, it's not the exactly the first time I've emailed the department on this, yet I'm still pointing out that Shark is not a resit student, and I've had it up to here with assignments that don't make sense and bear no relation to a young woman's outlook on the world. I get a telephone call of a great feather-smoothing variety.

8. It's January, and a new assignment, Why is your family such a drag? As example, one of the English teachers hands out a magazine article they've pulled from an American site: Why you'd love to avoid educational excursions with your boring family, and instead stay at home to cruise your phone, but hey! It's as likely as that time you asked mommy for a Barbie Corvette.

And I suddenly understand why some parents go into schools and want to smash things up.