Oldmachar Blog

The Nazi Cliché

2005-03-18T15:55:00.000-09:00

It had to happen. The Nazi cliché comparison is always brought up in arguments throughout the web, so I thought I’d do it too.

Thought World War II, the Nazis maintained concentration camps in which they kept Prisoners of War. In a practice to make sure that the Germans maintained the Geneva Convention, inspectors from the neutral country of the treaty's sponsor, Switzerland sent inspectors to examine the living conditions and health of the prisoners.

In many cases, before the inspectors arrived the commanders of said concentration camps would crack opens the good blankets, duvets, food, and firewood and would intimidate the prisoners not to speak out about their treatment.

The same comparison can be applied...

School inspectors came during the S5 and S6 study leave a few weeks ago... On their return they were confronted with new signs including "You Are Entering a No Bully Zone!", "This Is an Equal Opportunities Area!", "Don't Litter" and cracked and small mirrors were replaced with larger ones which have been in dire repair for years. What made such a difference? It couldn't be the fact that inspectors came? Right? Just days before? No. Our School administration can’t be that sneaky?

Or perhaps an encounter with the S6 year-head that proclaimed that music could not be played in the common room because that would set a bad example to the inspectors. And that it would "only be for a few days". But isn't that creating a false impression of the school?

Wouldn’t the inspectors like to see how the 16-17 year olds act in the environment? Or how about the grade-A students with pre-prepared speeches?

Oldmachar: An "Eco-School"

2005-03-18T13:34:00.000-09:00

In events never seen before since the times of Mr. Leaper and the healthy eating PR exercise, (local TV and media love this stuff) Oldmachar has decided to follow the example of our European counterparts and recycle paper and go "Eco". However, behind this obvious attempt to impose an image of green hippiness lays some fundamental flaws.

Presenting an image of recycling paper waste, many don't see the hundreds of notices, bulletins, registers, notes, newsletters and generic paper which are forwarded to teachers and register classes. Not once ether, in many cases the office give three times the volume, just in case a teacher didn’t notice the others, or lost the first, or second for that matter.

Hmm... Effective use of paper resources.

Is that a rainforest i hear being demolished to serve the bureaucratic Empire that is Oldie?

Until the practice of what seems to be an addiction to overzealous distribution of unneeded announcements and unfit management of resources, no matter what the administration or local media say, Oldie shall never be an "Eco-school" until this culture of hypocrisy dies.

Ironically, the office even send out announces to every class announcing the fact we're eco-friendly. On paper!

Oldmachar Blog

2005-03-18T12:20:00.000-09:00

Welcome to the Oldmachar Blog.

What's the Oldmachar Blog? It's a Weblog about the happenings and daily school life of an anonymous pupil of Oldmachar Academy in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Oldmachar Academy currently has about 1,075 pupils and is situated in the affluent suburbs (well, when I say affluent… it definitely isn’t no the desperate housewife’s) of Aberdeen.

Hopefully this will become the place of recent stories, myths, events, pictures and with any luck, scandals!

With the introduction of the new Administration seeing the hip and pupil-favourite Jim Dalgarno being promoted as Headteacher replacing the outgoing (and often remarked as having a wooden leg and one-man one-suited) Sir. Joseph Leaper, (or is it just Joseph Leaper OBE?) and having a number of incoming year-head staff instigating a coup d'état regime change, we will hopefully blog on a daily or weekly basis about things that happen.