Put to the Test What Happened Next?

Everybody has the capabilities

to be the best, to do what they want,

to go where they want.

And at your age, there's lots and lots out there.

So, if you work hard, this is where your dreams start, isn't it?

# This is the day

# This is the day

# That the Lord has made That the Lord has made... #

In 1998, BBC Northern Ireland broadcast Put To The Test,

a child's-eye view of the 11-plus.

# ..And be glad in it

# This is the day that the Lord... #

For months, the camera followed a group of children in North Belfast

from practice papers, to exam nerves and results day.

My ma and my daddy wanted me to do it.

I thought I could have got a good grade out of it, so that's why I tried it.

The film showed seven Ballysillan pupils

competing for a place at grammar school

and their hopes for a better life.

I'm quite confident in him.

I don't know about an A. Definitely a B.

But it depends on the questions they're given.

This was the first time Northern Ireland

had seen the controversial transfer test

from the perspective of teachers, parents and children.

It was a very stressful year for all the age that we were.

Susie.

Tell me how, Susie!

Tell me how!

It was just massive to everybody, everybody wanted to do so well

and just wanted to do the best for our wee school.

Hands up those people who want to work over break.

14 years after the award-winning documentary was shown,

we revisit three of the pupils to find out, when the cameras stopped,

what happened next?

There are 22 pages in the test paper,

and when I say turn over, please turn to page one

and commence...

The school in Ballysillan was really the only school

that was prepared to let us in,

and it was also the kind of school that we wanted to make a film in.

It wasn't a middle-class school with a middle-class catchment.

The film was sort of made by myself, Carlo Gebler,

David Barker and Andrea McCartney.

People decided that we could be trusted

and should be let in, cos it is quite something

to allow somebody to follow your child as they take this test.

Filming in Ballysillan Primary was on the say-so of one man -

the principal, Adrian Thompson.

Morning.

-ALL:

-Good morning, Mr Thompson.

Well, that was really pathetic!

'It was 1997. I had been there ten years at that time.'

There had been the problems with the paramilitaries,

the problems with the political unrest.

'We were the constant within the Ballysillan area.

'The school was always there, and we were there for the children.'

Hopefully, most of you will be doing the test,

and we'll be working hard with you.

Ashley.

'Mr Thompson, you know,

'he was very supportive through that whole process with us.'

He was scary, but he was a brilliant headmaster.

We have your daughter in tears, feeling very unwell.

And will you come up and get her?

The test, we all thought we were probably going to pass it.

You know, we were only kids, innocent kids.

We didn't know what it entailed, you know what I mean,

how hard it was going to be for a child at that age.

He's got the ability to do this test, I know he has

and so does the teacher, but Paul has this thing,

he says he wants to play, so he plays next door, outside, football.

I says to him, football isn't going to get him an education.

-You know, you can play football later on.

-It will. Footballing will.

It won't.

Thinking back and looking back,

I don't think I had much interest, when I think about it.

Did I learn much? No.

I was more interested in getting out to the playground

for the 15 minutes to play football.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming along.

Really, today, it's to help you and help ourselves

decide upon who is going to be taking the tests and who isn't.

Based on the results that your child gets in these two tests,

a grade will be awarded,

and you'll find that the grammar schools, the criteria will be

children with grade A will be selected first.

I think our P7 class in 1997 was about 21.

I'd say about one-third of the children in the Primary 7 year

would be entered for the selection procedure.

If I get an A, then I know I'm smart. If I get a B, I'm a wee bit smart.

If I get a C, I'm a wee bit dopey. If I get a D, I know I'm dopey!

See you later. See you Thursday.

You look at those three there, you know, lovely children,

you know, full of hope.

Whole lives ahead of them.

And you wanted them to succeed, you wanted them to do well,

because they were prepared to put in the effort.

We were talking about fractions...

'Maths came naturally to me.'

But the problem I had to face

whenever I became a primary school teacher

was that maths doesn't come naturally to many people.

We can talk about... The simplest form of fraction is one-half.

'I had to go back and see how many ways

'I could introduce a different concept to a child

'so that they could understand that concept and apply that concept.

'And the most difficult thing is, of course, fractions.'

-Victoria.

-'I think everybody struggled with maths.

'Everybody in the class did.'

But it was just... I'll never f... Watching it back scared me!

And we...

What do we do?

We're ignoring it.

There's a part where we're in the revision room with Mr Thompson.

I'm just looking around myself, like, wasn't really interested.

It looks like I was more interested in playing with a bit of paper on the desk.

Look at it.

By simply looking at it, we can... It is shouting at us.

It's telling us exactly what it is!

Come on, folks!

This is Primary 4 work.

Whenever you see the blank expression, you know,

mm, there's nothing there, is there?!

You know, they don't understand what I'm talking about.

'No, Adrian, you're not doing it properly.'

Can I take one-half and just simply move it across here and write down...

OK, I'll write it as a decimal - one-half. Brilliant. Smashing.

-No problem. Can I do that, Susie?

-No, sir.

-Why not?

He was getting through to people,

even though sometimes he would have raised his voice

and it would have scared the life out of you!

Tell me how, Susie!

Tell me how!

I would love to know how.

When I watched that back, I just froze the way I did that day

and went, I remember, I remember him shouting at me.

I remember not even knowing what to say!

It scared me. I'm shaking - look.

I can remember it, sitting there and this room echoing

and him shouting at me!

You must tell me the process that I must use to do it.

It's like drawing teeth.

Embarrassing.

HE CHUCKLES

If you want to succeed in life,

and you live in this part of the world,

a way is to pass the transfer test/11-plus,

go to grammar school, go to university.

It is a route to prosperity and success and good fortune.

And parents who know that...

..therefore are extremely anxious

for their children to have that opportunity.

That's why it becomes something the whole family becomes involved in.

My ma had actually got a tutor, who came...

I think it was a Tuesday night he came for an hour.

I used to be out in the street playing football.

I used to see the car turning up, the suit,

the fella in the suit would walk up the driveway,

and I can remember a fight

having to get me in to do the maths and the English.

I felt under pressure because my ma was paying the tutor,

so if I felt like I had to impress my mum, my dad and the tutor,

and I didn't really want to let any of them down either, to be honest.

You're going to do your best, aren't you? What have you to do?

Read all the questions...what?

Carefully.

Are you nervous.

No.

Will you be nervous on the day?

Yes!

Felt sick with nerves,

because this whole year had built up to this sort of day.

You were up early and, you know, getting all ready,

making sure you were in school early and, you know,

just getting yourself all ready for it

and making sure that nerves didn't get the better of you.

Excuse me.

Girls, very quietly, come on.

Boys.

Went in sat down, and that's whenever it hit us, I think.

There are 22 pages in the test paper,

and when I say turn over, please turn to page one

and commence work at once.

Sat in this room

with this woman walking up and down with high heels clicking.

I cannot answer any questions or help you in any way during the test.

You may turn over and begin.

I think I finished a little early.

I remember looking round myself, thinking,

"Why's everybody else still writing and I've finished so early?"

I remember thinking, "This can't be good!"

-Sir, it was easy.

-Good, good.

-There's nothing in it you didn't know?

-No.

The last two pages - horrible.

Honestly. Horrible.

The language used on the last two pages

is totally inappropriate for children within our area

and possibly even inappropriate

for children who are doing GCSE within our area.

SCHOOL BELL RINGS

Education is a class issue.

The more middle class you are,

the more enabled you are by your culture to succeed at the 11-plus.

In 1998, the transfer test

was at the centre of an intense political debate.

Opposing sides clashed

over the best way to educate Northern Ireland's children.

We are dealing with children

and we have enough money to make sure that every child in Northern Ireland

gets the best that we can afford, regardless of where they live,

regardless of academic background and regardless of parents' income.

I would have thought the selection for the appropriate school to go to

would have been better on academic qualifications

rather than on money or social standing.

-You're telling me...

-Don't shout me down. I'm speaking.

I have taught with children that you have rejected for 40 years.

-40 years?

-For 40 years, yes.

We all, privately, off camera,

had long conversations about the educational system

and the fact that, you know, we have grammar schools then

that were producing highly-educated people,

and at the same time, we were...

we had other kinds of schools that were producing people who,

when they left school at 16, could not read or write properly,

or at all.

And, you know, how good is that kind of an educational system?

Well, not very good at all, frankly.

I was sick in the end, though, cos...

Cos we've been friends since we were in nursery.

Worked out, yes, wanted to go to college, wanted to do...

become this big, best person that I could be.

Just if you pass, you pass.

That's what they keep saying - if you pass, you pass.

If you don't pass, you fail.

I tried to encourage some parents to allow their children

to be entered for the selection test because I felt that

being in Ballysillan all your life, being born in the area,

growing up in the area, staying in the area until you're 18 or 19,

then simply living in the area, getting married...

it's not a healthy option, really.

I wanted them to go out from the area,

meet new people, meet new friends, have a different social network,

get new horizons,

rather than simply the restricting horizons

which we had in the Ballysillan area at the time.

# One more step along the world I go

# One more step along the world I go... #

Thanks.

-Mummy and you will open it together.

-I don't want to.

Please open it.

I refused to open it. I was...I was afraid of the grade.

I was afraid I'd let my ma down,

so I actually let my mother open it.

I was like, "Ohh..." You know, nearly crying.

My ma was like, "Don't worry about it."

My daddy worked in the post office,

so he was able to get my letter before it went into the postman's.

D. Ah.

Disappointment. Sure.

D.

I was a bit annoyed.

I was annoyed at myself, I was disappointed at myself,

because I felt that I could do better than that.

I got a D, but I'm not disappointed, cos I tried it.

It was really, really hard.

You know, you'd prepared for all this work, worked so hard,

and for my daddy to phone and say, "Look, you got a D,

"but it's OK, you've done your best."

But deep down, you didn't feel like you did.

Deep down, it made you feel that you're stupid, you know,

you got a D, where are you going to go now?

It wasn't so much the failing and not getting to go to a good school.

It was letting the teachers down who had tried so hard with you,

and letting my mother down, letting my father down,

paying the money for the tutor.

I felt more I'd let people down

more than losing the grade to get to a good school.

Just two days after the results arrived,

Put To The Test was broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland.

Within the next week, I was getting letters from many people

who had viewed the programme and said, you know,

they really thought it was an excellent programme

and they thought the school had been doing a very good job

with the children.

But after that,

some people felt that to air views that perhaps

our system is not satisfying the needs of all children

was not the right thing to do.

The Education & Library Board were horrible to him

and called him into their office and banged desks

and stamped feet.

Just think, I've got to do it all over again next year!

Two of the Ballysillan children made it to grammar school.

Paul, Ashley and Victoria went to secondary schools close by.

I went to the Boys' Model.

Actually, it was the best school I could have went to.

It was brilliant.

Went there for six years and I really enjoyed it.

Going through school,

I think the Boys' Model taught me as much as I could take in.

I felt they were very good.

People made out the Girls' and Boys' Model was just a stupid school,

people don't do 11-pluses, that's where they go.

You know, and then we were put in with that sort of category,

so you thought you weren't going to do well, so why try?

Do you know what I mean?

You're knocking a child doing the 11-plus before they even start.

I was very easily distracted, very easily led,

and just sort of lost interest then

after a while.

I'd rather have went out with my friends than, you know,

than sat in the house with my head in a book.

Didn't really get much from the Girls' Model, at all.

I passed my GCSEs, I passed them all,

but not with flying colours or A's or B's,

but a pass is a pass.

I passed my PE, I passed my English in sixth year,

GCSE, that was a resit.

I got a C in my maths.

My history, I missed the second paper,

so I didn't get a grade in my history.

And my technology, I passed.

I could have applied for a university,

but I just thought, "No, I think that's my learning done in schools,

"I think I'm going to go and try something else now."

Paul, Ashley and Victoria left school before their A-levels.

Eight years on, a lot has changed.

'I have about...

'Well, from I was 16, I'd say about eight years' experience

'of working with young people.'

SHE CHUCKLES

Right, well, write it down and try and work it out first.

'I'm a support worker for the APP Project,

'so it's achieving personal potential'

and it's basically an after-schools project for young kids,

P6 and P7.

'I mean, it's not a job to me. It's something that I love doing.'

Ashley.

Obviously watching the programme, seeing I was at that stage,

what was I like when I was their age, it actually shocked me.

You know, I had very low confidence, self-esteem,

and I was just sitting there in the room with my mouth hanging open.

..Right, OK, don't panic. What is it?

'My whole sort of personality has completely changed from then.

'I've really built my confidence up and my self-esteem

'and people helped me do that.'

So, I really wanted to go into youth work to help other young people.

Victoria manages a busy Belfast bookies.

I'm working for McLean's bookmakers.

OK, Dougie.

I was a cashier, applied for there, I got the job,

and now up to managing it.

You're responsible for everything in this whole shop,

down to the machines, down to the customers,

down to making sure every docket's filled, pay ins, money.

You're responsible for your other members of staff.

Everything that goes on in this shop falls down to the manager.

When it comes to running a business, Victoria has previous form.

At just 16, the young entrepreneur had her own furniture shop.

I stood on my own two feet and it helped me mature loads.

'If you want it, you'll get it.'

All right, Joe, thank you.

I joined the British Army, I was a paratrooper.

That's, like, the elite group to join in the Army.

I went through my first phase training

and then I got a problem with my knees.

I can remember having to go and see the Army medical doctor

and he told me, "It's not good news.

"We're going to be sending you home."

I can remember just saying to myself, "Where do I go from here?"

I was just completely lost again as to where to go.

After leaving secondary school, Ashley and Victoria both got NVQs.

But it's their personal qualities, not qualifications,

that have made the difference.

My strength would be, you know, working with people...

'..being a good listener,

'being able to communicate properly, and having patience for people...'

Cos we need to be tidying up soon.

'..understanding people.'

What you're going to have to do

is you're going to have to add all the saved people up.

I didn't really learn any of this until I left school.

'I was sitting doing cashiering,

'picking up things off the manager that was there with me,

'and I was like, "I want to do that."

'Within six months, I'd done my manager's test

'and I was doing managing.

'You know, if I aim for it, I will get it.'

You can always better yourself in a job. Always.

I have to express that one-half either as tenths or hundredths

or thousandths.

'I was never really good at maths in school.

'It just takes that something to click and you've got it.'

But it just shows you can turn it around.

Zero, then three. You always start across, so you go along the corridor

and then up the stairs, right?

'I enjoy helping them with their maths

'and trying to explain what things mean.'

It's not just about going, "You do this and that's the answer."

It's about explaining to them, getting it into their heads,

so that they can go, "Oh, yes. I understand."

-You always go along the corridor.

-That's minus four.

'I think Mr Thompson would probably be quite...

'probably proud that I've came this sort of route.'

How do you think Mr Thompson would cope in a bookies?

Very well.

He'd clear the place.

Paul's qualifications came a little bit later.

With them, a new job, and a new purpose in his life.

The first day I walked in and I used the welder

and I've seen the type of work it does

and, you know, how it joins metals and things like that together,

I liked it straight away and I thought to myself...

I've never walked into a job like that

where something's clicked in my head, thinking, "This is what I want to do."

Because I went back and learned and got the qualifications,

I think it's opened up all these jobs to me and why I have a job now.

I'd see myself being a welder, probably, for the rest of my life.

Ten years after the original documentary,

the Department of Education axed the 11-plus.

No amount of shouting, sniping, bully tactics,

either in this chamber, on the sidelines, in the media,

will stop the progressive reform process

that's underway and moving forward.

I will not be swayed.

But the very next year, two new tests,

with up to five papers, set by the grammar schools,

replaced it.

Nothing changes, really.

We still have the grammar schools

making their selection through tests.

I have to keep faith with my children

and I have to ensure that each child in my school

has the best opportunity possible...

to do the test, well-prepared,

to be selected for grammar school,

and I will continue to keep faith with that.

But that doesn't mean I agree with it.

Whilst selection is important and there must be selection,

I've always felt that the age of 10, 11, is too young for selection.

I'm a great believer that the age of 13, 14,

is a better time to make selection of children

to determine their academic future.

Who's that?!

Well, now I'm married - I'm married two years coming.

I've had a wee baby boy six months ago, Alan,

and we're happy as Larry.

Couldn't ask for any better.

The way I felt when I got my result,

I would not want my son feeling like that,

cos it's the worst feeling in the world.

It feels like you've failed the whole start of your life

and I do not want him to feel like that.

If I'd have gone to, you know, maybe a grammar school,

I probably...

Well, like to think

that I maybe would have done a bit better in school,

maybe would have had more qualifications,

maybe, you know, better grades

and maybe took a different path.

I don't know, because I was always involved in the youth and community work anyway,

and that's a passion for me,

so I think I always would have been there, you know, doing that.

I'd say had I went to BRA or one of the other good grammar schools,

obviously it's better standard of teaching, they say,

so I think maybe I would have ended up in university

or better grades, which would have enabled me to go to university

and probably got a better job.

But I'm...

I say better job - I'm happy enough with the job I have now,

so, you know...

I don't care. It doesn't bother me now. I've got what I've got.

You know, I wouldn't change it for the world.

# ..Keep me travelling along with you... #

D. Ahh...

The maturity of the children which they demonstrate at the end

is the best thing in the film.

D.

I mean, I sat the exam myself and failed it, abysmally.

We said to people, this is something

that lots and lots of people have been through

and it is a good thing to... put it in the light

and let people see and know what it is like,

because it's...it's part of us,

and they agreed with that.

'I know the young people I've worked with before, you know,

'they've came in and they've said to me,

'"I can't do this, I left school, you know, when I was 16."

'And I just say to them, "Listen, I left school when I was 16.

'It doesn't stop anybody, no matter where you're from,'

whether you're from the worst estate in, you know, in Belfast

or whether you're from the Malone Road.

It doesn't matter.

It's about your capabilities and what you do with them.

I think anyone that gets a D or a fail in the 11-plus,

I think they can do pretty much whatever they want to be anyway,

or whatever they want to do.

I soldiered on in Ballysillan, enjoying every minute of it,

'up until 2008,

'and I retired.'

I've come up here to Donegal.

One always wants to know what's happened

to the children you had in your care,

for whom you were the steward, more or less, for their future,

'and there isn't any child that I have looked at him and say,

'"I can't remember him.

'"I can't remember her."'

I did love my time in Ballysillan

and if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.

I really wouldn't.

# ..We will rejoice

# We will rejoice and be glad in it

# And be glad in it This is the day... #

'Yeah, I think most people did write you off.

'You weren't accepted in these good schools if you got a D,

'you know what I mean,

'so that there's hard for a young child of ten, 11, to take in.'

You know, "You're not good enough for school, you're not good enough

'"to wear our uniform, so lift yourself up and get on with it.

'You put on a Girls' Model uniform and you go to school

'and you do your work.'

But I think out of us all, we've all done quite well.

We're all in jobs, you know, we're all working, you know what I mean.

It's... We've not all done bad.

'If you want it, aim for it and you'll get it.

'Aim high and you'll get there.'

There's me!

Do you know me?!

# ..You'll be telling me the way, I know

# And it's from the old I travel to the new

# Keep me travelling along with you

# Give me courage when the world is rough

# Keep me loving though the world is tough

# Leap and sing in all I do

# Keep me travelling along with you. #