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Themes Influences on participation in learning
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»Themes/Influences on participation/School experience Loving School School was an enjoyable learning experience for some of the people we spoke to through our research. Where it was a good experience, generally people have fostered a positive attitude towards learning, and have gone on to do further learning into their adult lives. Enjoying education - many who enjoyed learning at school have continued to learn as an adult. Friends - the social aspect of school was what some people remembered as being their favourite memory. "I enjoyed school but..." - a number of people had good experiences at school, but didn't take full opportunity of all of the learning that was available because they didn't realise the impact it would have on them as an adult. Enjoying education - Of those who said that they had enjoyed school, the majority had engaged in further learning as an adult. In the current educational climate, young people are heavily encouraged to go straight from school into college or sixth form and then onto university by the government, which is looking to have 50% of all young people going to university by the year 2010. At an individual level, it is the learning experiences that people have had as a child which will help to determine whether or not they continue with formal learning after they have finished compulsory learning. This is shown by this college student's comments: "I enjoyed school I always have done from primary, that’s why I come here [to college] and I’ll go on to university because I like doing it". If a person finds that they love learning at an early age, they are likely to want to continue learning throughout life, whether in a formal setting or more informally. Likewise, if someone finds school hard, they are much less likely to engage in further learning if they have already been put off. Friends - For some people, their good memories of school are predominantly related to the social side of being at school. The experience of being able to spend every day in the company of friends was more important than studying: "I loved the social side of school and I just took the learning in my stride, I didn’t particularly enjoy the studying, I don’t remember particularly enjoying it, but I loved the social aspect of school" Someone else described school as offering a social education, the importance of which he considered to far outweigh that of the taught curriculum. "It was a great social interaction, but to be honest it's very instructional and very little education, it’s what they deemed I should know rather than what I actually wanted to know..." "I enjoyed school but..." - It was quite common for people to tell us that they enjoyed their time at school, but did not realise at the time how much of an impact their school experience might have on their adult lives. With the benefit of hindsight, people said that they wished they had worked harder, concentrated more, or done better in the subjects they were weaker on. "I don’t think I actually learnt as much as what I could, I don’t think me attitude to school was right; you was just there and you know, you had your mates and I didn’t take it seriously and its not until later on in life that I actually realised how important it is to do as you are told at school, but I did enjoy school but I don’t think I realised what it meant later on in life." This is certainly an issue for schools - how to impress upon school pupils the significance of their school education without putting undue pressure on them. We want children and young people to enjoy their time at school and be able to learn in ways which are exciting and challenging so that when it comes to their time to leave, they are fully equipped to enter the adult world. Part of this issue is the fact that On the positive side, there are now plenty of opportunities for adults to re-enter the education system and study for qualifications at a later date; if a person does not pass their exams at school, they have the chance to retake them at college and study the subjects in a different setting and with different tutors. However, it would be
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