7 posts tagged “school”

Right now my girlies and their pals should be relaxing after (hopefully) whizzing through their first major exam, R.E. GCSE.

It was only yesterday that H breathed a sigh of relief that all her SATS were over, but they are in a group of kids that are guinea pigging taking a GCSE at 13-14 in Year 9 instead of Year 11. I helped out with their revision by making flash cards, which I dutifully wrote out in the neatest handwriting I could manage with my dodgy old wrist and it was so weird listening to them quizzing each other on euthanasia and conversion last night, knowing that they were doing it to gain a mark that may or may not mean something to their future.

My biggest hope is that they have learnt what it takes to work at their exams so when they finally get their options for the next two years that they work hard at it to get what they want.

Thank you for replying to the message about your marraige experiences.
It was really helpful towards my homework/coursework and it was interesting to find out how different some marraiges have been.

Thanks again
H x

Well, the summer holidays are truly over. Not only have the kiddoes gone back to school but it is freezing!

Our twins are in the second year of high school, which means they've done 18 months worth of French lessons. Why then, can't they say even basic things in French?

This is just one of many things that are a little bit of a bugbear about their school.

Yesterday, we waited to collect them as it was a bit chill out and thought we'd missed them. I called J to check where they were but they were still in school. When they finally came to the van, almost 30 minutes late, Nik burst into tears. Something had happened in P.E. and the teacher had a go at Nik about it and made her upset, then refused to let her out of school until she'd calmed herself down, telling her not to have a strop like a 5 year old. We called Nik's mum up to let her know and took her home, a little more settled than she'd arrived. Our own kids have been upset by teachers there before and they both feel they have been victimised by different teachers. I've put this down to teenage hormones, but I do make a note of grievances, just in case.

We have to contribute quite a bit financially towards things that would have been given free when we were at school, and it costs £10 to let them bring home anything they make, except they are rarely allowed to bring anything home.

Looking through their workbooks, there is rarely any marking. How can the teachers know that the kids are doing okay if they don't look through books anymore? There are workbooks that they have which have never been required handing in. Other times, they've done work and it's been marked but it looks as thought the teacher has been looking at something completely different to us. Shoddy work marked as great and work that's taken them hours to do and which covers all bases asked for and more being marked as okay.

Spelling doesn't seem to be an issue with teachers anymore. In fact, one of the other kids was showing me something they'd done last year and there was barely a word that was correct and yet, the teachers are happy with that sort of effort from 11-12 year olds. I, on the other hand, am not. I've started giving everyone, KT included, a regular spelling test and any that they get wrong, they have to write five times over, neatly. If it's not neat, they have to do it again. Sounds mean? Actually, they quite enjoy it and beg for more.

One of the biggest problems KT has with the school is the amount of homework that has to be done on the computer. Both girls get literally hours worth of homework requiring online research, online school sites where they are set homework to do, using Paint or PSP to create something for art, using MS Office for powerpoints, spreadsheets etc. - there is even an increasing request from teachers to do the work and email it to them. One child using the only computer is bad enough, but having more than that is frustrating - partly because there seems to be a lack of input and interaction by the teachers.  

 Yesterday, J was doing some maths homework online, (the teacher sets the work and the kids all have to go to the site to do it) and told us that her teacher had said that when they were done, they were supposed to take a screenshot and print it out as proof that they've done it. Will she heck as like. What's wrong with him looking at the site and checking? If he wants visual proof that they've done work, let him use his own printer ink to knock off as many copies of the worksheet as he needs and hand them out to the kids to fill in.

It makes me wonder what the strike today is all about - I know some teachers do an awful lot of extra work outside of hours, but in general it appears that many do not.

Instead of housepoints the girls can gain achievement awards for outstanding work. If they manage to get 50 or more across 5 subjects, they get a gold award - 50 more and they get diamond. Well, they both narrowly missed out on a diamond award, but I am still incredibly proud that they'd gained their gold before Easter. At the award assembly, I noticed their form tutor looking ecstatic - 17 children in her form managed to gain gold, more than any other form throughout the school.

Well done, girlies!

As the school year rushes to a close, there has been a lot that the girls have been up to. One of those was that their school created an Arts Week, where the kids could chose from 27 pathways to work with professionals for a week instead of following the curriculum. There were all sorts of things to do: some kids made their own instruments, others composed their own rock songs. A big top was set up on the school field and about 200 of the pupils got to learn circus skills, both setting up and performing. Skating, journalism, comedy and dancing were some of the other courses that could be partaken, and the excellent school jazz band went over to Holland for the week to perform in concerts and I am certain that they would have gone down a treat. As for the girls - they did the forensic science pathway which meant they got to do a day of circus skills as well. I got the impression the whole team was slightly disappointed that there wasn't a cadaver involved, but J did get to be a magistrate when they went to police headquarters and one of the gals has decided that maybe she'd like to be a fingerprint technician when she leaves school. No idea whether she'll change her mind (again) but it's good to see them enthused about things.

You probably can't tell from the title, but I'm being sarcastic. One of the twins has been quite unhappy for the past few weeks and wouldn't tell me why. Yesterday however, I probed harder as she seemed more upset than usual. Two delightful young men in her science class and one in her French class (who teams up with one of the science class lads) have been calling her names since September. Mostly, it's been about her height, as she still has to have the growth spurt her sister has enjoyed and is one of the shortest kids in her year and although she was really miserable about it for ages, we managed to overcome that hurdle by pointing out that her time will come and anyhow, fabulous things come in small packages.

So, she's shaken off the constant jibes about her height (she feels they are constant, who am I to say they aren't?) but these three lads, especially the one who is on both classes mentioned has taken to calling my 11 year old daughter a prostitute. It appears to be his new favourite word as he's called her it at least six separate times that I know of. He says it, she says, in quite a mean way as well, and his each of his two buddies have joined in on one or more occasions. She complained to one teacher, but obviously, nothing was done. I've gotten in touch with the school and am awaiting news on how they are going to deal with it - whilst her hormones are all higgledy-piggedy, now is not a good time to get a low self-esteem.

Eurgh to kids who get off on bullying others.