The school has laptops but can't afford paper

Tony Blair is soon to celebrate 10 years in office, but how has his decade been for the rest of Britain? Alice Smith describes how 'education, education, education' feels to a 16-year-old.

I was six when Tony Blair came into power, so I don't really know anything different. I know that a lot of people say that they don't trust him, but I have no reason not to. To me, he seems like a normal guy. He's the same age as my dad. He's got four kids, like him. So I don't really have anything against him, even though I don't agree with the Iraq war.

I was about 11 when September 11 happened, and the threat of terrorism is all I've known. It's normality, but it's still scary.

If it's not terrorism, it's some other crisis like bird flu. Or global warming. That really, really concerns me. Ridiculously so. I want to do something, but I wouldn't know where to start.

Sats are pointless exams. They are only there to measure the success of the teachers, not the ability of the student. Someone should just sit in on the lessons instead. We are constantly being assessed. It's relentless. You never get a chance to actually learn anything, even though I am revising about five hours a day, and have been going in to school during the Easter holidays to do revision which is a bit sad really.

I'll tell you what also really annoys me: how much money my school spends on technology.

We all have to have laptops - my year is the last in which they weren't compulsory - and there are interactive white boards, and flat-screen televisions outside the assembly hall that show the netball results, and ones outside the gym that are supposed to show sports games but mostly they just show music videos on mute - how stupid is that? - and then flat screens outside the IT department that say "Can so and so in Year 7 please come and collect her laptop".

But we're not allowed to print off our homework at school because, guess what? The school doesn't have enough money to buy paper.

I'm a peer mentor at school, which means I have to look after some of the younger students, and when I go into their classes they are all just sitting there staring at their laptops. Nobody really talks to anyone any more, except maybe through MySpace.

I much prefer old-fashioned lessons like history and English, where you actually have a conversation with the teachers. I'd rather spend my time debating things as opposed to typing them.

It worries me that some traditional lessons have been scrapped, like languages. I don't particularly enjoy doing French, but I know that I will be glad I did it, and I find it embarrassing when you go abroad and British people don't make any effort to speak the language.

The lack of PE lessons confuses me too, because the Government always goes on about obesity, and yet we only have one lesson every fortnight. And they scrap them entirely at exam time which seems a bit stupid because exercise is a great way to get rid of stress.

What do I do when I'm not at school? I go to a drama group and play football. I used to go shopping all the time, but there comes a point when Maidstone gets a bit boring, so I just go round to friends' houses now. We go for a lot of walks, which sounds quite sad really.

Everyone I know is nothing like the way teenagers are portrayed in the press. The other night, we had a "dinner party" - played games and ate chocolate. There's no binge-drinking, and I only know about three people who have tried drugs - weed - and that was only because of peer pressure. We get a bad press.

I will be able to vote for the first time at the next election, but I'm not sure who I will vote for. There needs to be more of an effort to engage with young people but in a way that isn't patronising.

Everyone gets As now. Teachers say you need to do something to stand out, but I don't see why they can't just take people who really deserve to go.

Daily Telegraph