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baratronOkay, this is a bit ridiculous.
During a one year PGCE course you spend over 20 weeks in total working in a school. At KCL we have two placements - one in the autumn term (Phase A), and one in the spring & summer terms (Phase B). When we filled in the forms for school placements, it was asked whether we had any special needs for placement (e.g. medical, religious, childcare). I wrote "Due to medical reasons, I need to be placed in a school which is 5 minutes walk from the nearest bus stop or station (absolutely no more than 10 minutes walk). This is especially important in cold/wet weather".
So where have they placed me? In a school that's 15 minutes hike up a steep fucking hill! And that's on a day with good weather for the season! I arrived exhausted and in pain - hardly in a good state for an entire day on my feet. The whole reason I asked for that consideration is that I don't want to arrive exhausted and in pain! Things like this make an enormous difference to my ability to do the job.
(I should add that to make my day complete, I then found the science block is up four long flights of stairs, and the lift is broken. But that's not the college's fault. The trainee teachers' mentor was very concerned about whether I could manage the stairs, but as I pointed out, I didn't have a lot of choice. I staggered up the four flights and then didn't leave the science block all day. Tomorrow I don't have a choice, as I have to follow a pupil around the school for the day. Really looking forward to that.)
I'm so unhappy about this, you would not believe. The lift will be fixed in the next few days, it's just one of these things that happens. But to completely ignore what I've said on my form... There is no way I will be able to do that walk when it's icy. The journey is long enough and the hill is steep enough that it took me 8 minutes to walk back down. The school seems really nice, well-organised and friendly, and I don't particularly want to have to go elsewhere. But unless someone will pay for me to get a taxi up the hill in the morning, there's no way I can get there.
When my LEA (Local Education Authority) finally deign to acknowledge my existence, I can apply for Disabled Students Allowance - which includes a component for additional travel expenses incurred due to the disability. There will in theory be no problem about paying for a taxi. But seeing as they haven't even sent me a letter confirming they'll pay my tuition fees yet, and the application procedure for DSA takes several months, the likelihood of me having any money before Christmas is pretty low. And I need the money now.
I'm going to talk to the Disability Office at college - but I'm really worried, because I don't want to get a reputation in my department as a troublemaker this early on in the course. And the office doesn't open on a Thursday, so I won't be able to speak to someone until Friday. I don't know what on earth the department will do in any case, because apparently their policy on refunding additional travel expenses (say for people who've been placed in schools in Guildford) is to only give money at the end of the placement. So they claim they don't leave students out of pocket, but... If I could get them to cover the cost until the DSA claim goes through, that would be okay. But it's a case of convincing them that it's their fucking fault I'm having to pay it.
During a one year PGCE course you spend over 20 weeks in total working in a school. At KCL we have two placements - one in the autumn term (Phase A), and one in the spring & summer terms (Phase B). When we filled in the forms for school placements, it was asked whether we had any special needs for placement (e.g. medical, religious, childcare). I wrote "Due to medical reasons, I need to be placed in a school which is 5 minutes walk from the nearest bus stop or station (absolutely no more than 10 minutes walk). This is especially important in cold/wet weather".
So where have they placed me? In a school that's 15 minutes hike up a steep fucking hill! And that's on a day with good weather for the season! I arrived exhausted and in pain - hardly in a good state for an entire day on my feet. The whole reason I asked for that consideration is that I don't want to arrive exhausted and in pain! Things like this make an enormous difference to my ability to do the job.
(I should add that to make my day complete, I then found the science block is up four long flights of stairs, and the lift is broken. But that's not the college's fault. The trainee teachers' mentor was very concerned about whether I could manage the stairs, but as I pointed out, I didn't have a lot of choice. I staggered up the four flights and then didn't leave the science block all day. Tomorrow I don't have a choice, as I have to follow a pupil around the school for the day. Really looking forward to that.)
I'm so unhappy about this, you would not believe. The lift will be fixed in the next few days, it's just one of these things that happens. But to completely ignore what I've said on my form... There is no way I will be able to do that walk when it's icy. The journey is long enough and the hill is steep enough that it took me 8 minutes to walk back down. The school seems really nice, well-organised and friendly, and I don't particularly want to have to go elsewhere. But unless someone will pay for me to get a taxi up the hill in the morning, there's no way I can get there.
When my LEA (Local Education Authority) finally deign to acknowledge my existence, I can apply for Disabled Students Allowance - which includes a component for additional travel expenses incurred due to the disability. There will in theory be no problem about paying for a taxi. But seeing as they haven't even sent me a letter confirming they'll pay my tuition fees yet, and the application procedure for DSA takes several months, the likelihood of me having any money before Christmas is pretty low. And I need the money now.
I'm going to talk to the Disability Office at college - but I'm really worried, because I don't want to get a reputation in my department as a troublemaker this early on in the course. And the office doesn't open on a Thursday, so I won't be able to speak to someone until Friday. I don't know what on earth the department will do in any case, because apparently their policy on refunding additional travel expenses (say for people who've been placed in schools in Guildford) is to only give money at the end of the placement. So they claim they don't leave students out of pocket, but... If I could get them to cover the cost until the DSA claim goes through, that would be okay. But it's a case of convincing them that it's their fucking fault I'm having to pay it.
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no subject
Date: 2003-10-01 11:39 am (UTC)a) Maybe there is a bus stop round the corner. Even if the person who gave you directions didn't know about it, that might just be because he/she always drives in.
b) Maybe there used to be a bus stop nearby, but it's no longer there, so the information that the placement person had is out of date.
c) Different people have different walking speeds. So, a 15 minute hike for you might only be a 10 minute walk for the person who selected the school, which would then fit your criteria. Maybe you could rephrase your requirements, e.g. "500m on the flat, or 300m up a steep hill". (I'm just pulling those numbers out of the air, so they're probably inaccurate.)
d) Are you sure that there is a suitable school that you could be placed in? This may be a case of "There aren't any that meet your requirements, so this is the best we could do".
I'm trying to avoid GAS here, so I'm just offering alternate theories for what you've experienced, rather than telling you what you should do next.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-02 03:38 pm (UTC)(a) and (b) - I didn't get given directions by anyone, I looked up the journey on the Transport for London journey planner. Which is really damn good these days - it includes all forms of public transport, including changes of bus. No buses go up that hill at all. The nearest bus/stop is the one where all the kids get off, at the bottom. (My technique for getting to every school I've visited so far is to get on a bus and look for kids with the right school name written on their uniform, then follow them. So far this hasn't got me arrested ;) ).
(d) Positive. I looked at the complete list of schools that KCL use on Friday. There are 4 schools in Kingston, 3 in New Malden, a couple in Raynes Park... to say nothing of Earlsfield or Clapham. (Of course, it's possible that some of those schools don't take science students). But I really don't mind travelling for an hour across London (although every other local school on that list has a bus stop immediately outside). What I mind is having to hike for 15 minutes from the bus stop - and it was that I explicitly asked to avoid.
Also, if they knew about the hill but thought it was the best they could do, I'd have liked to have been warned prior to arriving.
(c) is the one I can't argue with. On a map, apart from the name of the road having Hill in it, there's nothing to say it's an unpleasantly steep hill. A to Zs and online maps don't have contour lines. If it was the same distance on flat ground, it would only take me 10 minutes.
I just can't believe none of the other trainees they've sent there in the past haven't come back and moaned about it, you know? Blah.