REPLY

Hi Olivia,
Thank you for taking the trouble to contact me and invite me to your school. There is a lot of mis-information in what you have written about me, but not to worry. I am sure this is just simple misunderstandings. I had no idea that the school had a sponsor who is in the Green Party, but that makes no odds to me either. The Green Party is a broad church, if you will excuse the pun. I do know of a local Green Party member who has done some work at the school and speaks highly of some aspects of what happens there.
I do not know who Mrs James is either, so I am not sure how she finds me to be ‘nasty, mean and argumentative’. I was a secondary school teacher for 20 years and I still work in education, specialising in working with adults with learning difficulties such as dyslexia. I suspect Mrs James has been jumping to conclusions a little bit. I would not be remotely intimidated by visting any school – what could I be intimidated by? The fact of the matter is that I gave up waiting for an invitation to be offered to me.

I would love to vist the school and to continue this conversation. I will happily answer any questions you might have. I will try to arrange this as soon as possible as it is not long to the long summer holiday. I look forward to meeting you soon.

Warm regards,

Andy Chyba
Chair Bridgend Green Party

PS – I have copied this to the school email address you gave me in the hope that someone will contact me to arrange a visit.
I am contactable by email or my mobile 078 1066 3241 most of the time, but if I do not answer immediately, just leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

ORIGINAL MESSAGE

Hi I am Olivia Bassett

I am dyslexic and nearly 15 years old. I am participating in the ACE curriculum and have found it to be helpful in my learning(I struggled with learning in my previous state school) and I attend Bridgend Christian School. I find what you say extremely offensive. The ACE curriculum, I agree that some of it is outdated, but if you were to go to a normal state school and look in to one of their text books you will see that some of their data is out dated as well. The ACE curriculum was made to specifically help children with learning difficulties, as the education in state schools can be very challenging for children with difficulties reading, writing and or math equations. My school has personally asked you to come in for the day and review how we work, but you became quite aggressive when you apparently discovered one of our sponsors was a member of the Green Party and you hesitated, after a while our sponsor agreed for you to come in and review the school, but only if you went for a coffee with, a person we would class as teacher and friend to the whole school, Mr Sheils, but you hesitated again and backed out completely. I am not sure why you did, I’m guessing you felt very intimidated. In the end our teacher, Mrs James, was glad you had backed out as she didn’t feel like she wanted someone as nasty, mean and argumentative as you to be let loose on the children, but I am quite sure that if you would like to have a nice, calm chat with our teacher, I am sure she would welcome you with open arms. The other issue of you implying I and or the other students, or my friends at the school are brain washed and spoon fed the education of Christianity and the bible is I think a little outrageous, I am quite sure I am not being mind controlled, if you would like to visit our school, I would love to continue our conversation, please contact us at 01656 768028, or you can email us, if you would prefer not to speak over the phone, at bridgenchristianschool. I would hope you contact soon because we would love to ask you a few questions as well.

Regards,

Olivia Bassett aged 14yrs