We can build a clock, but we can't tell the time.

 Ask a year 7 student to tell you the details of the English Civil War, and there's a fair chance you'll get a fairly decent answer. These kids know their onions, and will often amaze you with their knowledge.

 

 However ask a group of year 7 students to form a straight line, and you'll be met by a chaotic mess, confused stares, and at best a messy zig zag. 

 They also cannot sit still for more than two minutes, keep their hands to themselves, and they absolutely cannot stay quiet. Turn your back for three seconds and one boy will have another in a headlock.

 Every lesson is interrupted by numerous latecomers, and learning postponed further as the teacher has to hand out basic equipment to the five or six children who don't even have a pen. These kids have time to stop at the shop to buy an Easter egg and a can of red bull for lunch, so surely they can buy a pen. 

 This might all sound old fashioned, but students simply cannot manage the basics at school. 

 They talk over the teacher, utterly oblivious to just how rude they are being.  Silences are to be filled with noise, rarely cherished.

Students don't underline titles, forget to start sentences with capital letters and rarely ever use a ruler. 

 There are the more extreme cases of students who cannot read, don't know their address, and in extreme cases have no idea when their birthday is, and I'll discuss them at a later date. However, even the best students struggle to get the absolute fundamentals right. 

 In fact they don't even struggle, they just can't do them at all. 

 This might all sound churlish and curmudgeonly, but I genuinely believe that getting the basics right allows students to truly go on and get the best from their education. 

 If the teacher doesn't have to spend ages correcting trivial mistakes they can concentrate or delivering outstanding lessons that challenge and inspire.