Jack Flanagan
Leaving school in 2005 Jack Flanagan © Carl Rose Jack Flanagan was born in Hull and moved to Sheffield in 1998 when he was nine years old. In this extract, taken from an interview recorded by Ingrid Hanson for the Burngreave Voices oral history archive in November 2006, Jack describes some of the problems he has faced in school and how he has finally found a way to overcome them. Secondary school was OK to begin with. I started to like it for the first year but from Year 8 onwards I just got bored with school. And I was having a hard time because I was bullied, so I wasn't really enjoying it. I didn't get much help from the teachers so I felt disillusioned with everything and a bit helpless. The end of school for me really was the start of Year 8 because I felt completely disillusioned and I didn't want to be there. It felt like a prison. But realistically the end of Year 11 when I did my GCSEs was the final release, being let out after all that time. I got the grades that I wanted to get on the course that I'm now studying for, at Hillsborough College. It's a BTEC National Diploma in Public Services and I'm currently in my second year. I'm really enjoying the course and I've met a new group of people who I really get on with. My aim is to join the police force. I've always wanted to be a policeman ever since I was younger and it's been a really big ambition for me. |