Alexander Copeland, 9, is a Year 4 pupil at Lawn Primary School in Allestree, Derby. He shares his thoughts with Hannah Frankel
What’s your favourite subject and why?
ICT, because I like going on computers and we often get to do fun things in class such as PowerPoint presentations.
What makes a good teacher?
They must have knowledge of subjects and be witty. They might also be funny.
What do you most like and dislike about school?
I like challenges because I like a good challenge. I dislike the state of the toilets. The wallpaper is peeling off and beige isn’t exactly a fashionable colour. I’d like it to be white.
What’s the best lesson you’ve had?
The ones where we are put into random groups and asked to do things, for example, we built a bridge out of straws. Then we tested them with weights to see which was the strongest. Mine wasn’t particularly great.
What stops you from learning?
We haven’t got blinds in our class so the sun affects me. It can get in your eyes and get too hot. It’s sort of distracting.
What three things are needed to make a good school?
Good teachers, well-behaved pupils and nice looking areas inside and outside. I don’t like litter on the grass - it doesn’t make the school grounds look good. I like everything to be perfect.
If you were headteacher, what would you introduce at your school?
Drinking fountains because there aren’t any.
What would you like to be when you are older?
A commercial airline pilot because I like aeroplanes. I study them. I have a lot of books and even an airband radio.
How do you think our society sees young people?
As naughty people who ask their parents for everything and try to rule the neighbourhood.
What’s your favourite DVD or TV show?
The Simpsons DVDs, my favourite TV show is Air Crash Investigation. I like the Seconds from Disaster documentaries on the National Geographic Channel. I’m fond of conspiracies.
What’s your most treasured possession?
My Thai Airways International Airbus A380 model. Either that or my airband radio.
What’s your favourite clothes label?
I don’t have one because my mother does all of the shopping.
What’s your earliest memory?
Doing maths on a calculator in nursery.
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
I would travel in time. I would go back to find out what happened during an early historical event. I’m not sure which one though. And I would like to see the technology they will have in the future. Maybe they will have cars that float like hovercraft. The experts are already saying that the Airbus A390 will be a seven-storey airliner, but I don’t really believe it. It would not have enough engines.
What celebrity would you most like to be?
I wouldn’t like to be a celebrity. I think my life is good enough. Anyway, if I was a celebrity the paparazzi would make me stay at home.
What’s your proudest achievement?
When I passed Level 6 in my swimming lesson course. I got an airband radio.
“If I was prime minister for a day I would ... ”.
Give all of the schools in our country pound;50 million.
“I wish adults would sometimes ... ”.
Joke about things instead of being serious.
YOOF SPEAK
Your weekly guide to those classroom and playground phrases that seem to make no sense
- Vanilla: boring or dull, especially used in relation to fashion.
- Book: being cool (the first option given when using predictive text on mobile phones).
- Hench: strong, tough - particularly to describe a boy.
- Rents or mouldies: parents (as in the mouldy oldies).
- Za: pizza.
Source: The A-Z of Teen Talk by Lucy van Amerongen (aged 15 from Cheltenham Ladies’ College) Ravette Publishing.
If you’ve overheard some good slang email slang@tes.co.uk.
