I go to a school (ND) and at ND we have some of the worst teachers ever. I’m not talking very strict worse, I’m talking teachers that don’t know the concept of geosynchronous orbit when they’re supposed to teach it. We don’t have mirrors in the guys washrooms because people would break them and stab others with the shards of broken glass (but it’s still much easier to bring a knife to school). At ND there is very limited course selection and very large class sizes (I’m one of 34 children in a philsophy class) and the quality of the education as mentioned is absolute crap.
Now, not too much farther away there is a school called SPX and its only 1 zone away. I know lots of people there and quite frankly it would be an honour for me to attend there. The quality of education is much higher, the people are much nicer, and the teachers acctualy see pontential in the students. Today I left my 2nd period class and took the bus to SPX and went to Guidance.
Me: Hi, is it possible for me to register here?
Nice Lady (NL): What school do you go to?
Me: ND
NL: I’m sorry but we aren’t taking any transfers
Me: Why not?
NL: Well you should just stay at ND, what year are you in? (thanks for answering my question)
Me: My last, but I’d like to stay another year
NL: Why didn’t you register in grade 9?
Me: I didn’t know I had the option
NL: Well you should have done it then.
Me: sigh SPX is much better leaves
Now I’m stuck. I really really REALLY hate my school. Now academically I can be doing better because I haven’t really done my homework. On the other hand nearly all my teachers view me as a model student, I’m on the Peer Support team, involved in rugby, volleyball, soccer, and football teams, the head of our debating team, loaded with ambition and knowledge, and full of zest. I want/need to go to SPX but how? Friday I’m going with my mom to try to talk to the principal of SPX.
Dopers, please… help me sell myself. I don’t mind telling a giant plaid lie here because this is my education, it’s what determines my future. Please, I’m begging, how the hell do I get into the school? http://www.occdsb.on.ca/ That’s my boards website, IMHO my school is nowhere close to fulfulling the goals setout in the mission statement.
What should I include in my letters though? What I’m afraid of is them telling me: Stay at ND and we’ll fix the teachers for you. Its no solution to have to readjust 16 teachers for me rather than to accept me in to another school.
Look for any ‘objective’ reasons that might work; ie, would it be a shorter drive? (bad idea if they’d have to change the route of the school bus though). What classes or programs do they have in SPX that they don’t have in ND? You need that program, particularly if it’s true.
If they have a competitive need to have good-grade-getting or test-passing students in order to look good to the State or other money source, SPX might want you but ND might want you even more–you or your mother might say you’re not being challenged, or the distractions of fellow students with knives is affecting your grades.
SPX should want you from the sound of it.
Call one of your friends there, get an introduction to an SPX counselor or teacher who would want to help, and ask them what would be good points to bring up.
Oh, forgot to mention primary and secondary education is free here. My plan was to get my vice principal to vouch for me but I really don’t think he’d like to. I think the problem is that the counsellors have been told not to allow people in, however I think that they mean people who won’t try or would only burden the school as oppose to try and raise the bar.
My backup plan was to get thrown out of ND but then I realized SPX might not want a trouble maker.
Even if you’re right about the teachers, I don’t think it will sit well with any school to hear you criticize them. They might wonder if you will have problems with authority at their school. They just don’t know. So I wouldn’t focus on teacher quality in your plea.
You might say that you feel the faculty’s strengths aren’t in the specific areas you are most interested in. And/or you feel that the learning environment really isn’t optimal, and you’re having a hard time fulfilling your educational goals in a disruptive atmosphere. Make yourself out to be a good kid with high aspirations who is just in a place that’s a bad fit.
And as someone else said, don’t assume the “no” you heard is the final word. You’d be amazed how often the advice “Keep asking until you get the answer you want” works. If your meeting with the principal is a no-go, then contact the superintendent if need be.
See… those statements come in the wrong order.
“We aren’t taking transfers” should be regardless of “What school do you go to?”, otherwise what you are saying is “We aren’t taking transfers of no-goods from your crappy school”. Nice Lady is perhaps not so nice…
I agree with everyone who said not to take no for an answer. What you most likely need to do however is prove to them how unlike the others at your school you are. It probably sounds a bit mean or a betrayal or whatever, but it is clear from your post that you are interested in a greater challenge than your present school is capable of providing. Consider making some sort of portfolio of your work and achievments, both scholastic and extra-curricular, include references from teachers, employers etc.
If it takes an extra year of secondary education to pull it off, so be it, it sounds like it would be a great investment in your future.
They shouldn’t. Consider how things work at the post-secondary level: people transfer all the time. They get somewhere, realize it’s not the right place, and successfully transfer to another school.
I wasn’t aware that you ‘chose’ this school–I figured that you had to go there because it was your district.
having just gone through the college application process, i can tell you that the best thing you can possibly do to get into spx is to be persistant. like iteki said, put together a resume of everything you do, any awards/honors you’ve won, and bring up the point
the first thing i thought when i read the op was exactly that. it’s like when you walk into a store that has a ‘help wanted sign’ posted in the window, ask for an application, and they look at you, decide you’re not good enough, and say that they’ve filled all their positions and that they’ve forgotten to take the sign out of the window.
talk to your friends who go there. ask them who would be the most likely to help you. go to a higher power. the principal, the school board, the superintendent. if you show them you’re motivated, they’ll be much more likely to listen.