Ok so before all you teachers instantly take offence to that I will openly say I do not think secondary teachers are paid enough for what they have to deal with and I could not for all the money in the world even contemplate teaching teenagers!! I appreciate you all have several classes with probably 30 moody, whingy, bolshy annoying teens in every class driving you to complete distraction getting on your last nerve at times…………….. I repeat I COULD NOT DO THAT JOB.
That said, when it comes to your own child and you can see him being persecuted for being fidgety, talking, moving, getting distracted and distracting others. Now I am not a mother who sees her children as little angels, I am fully aware that my 15 year old son is ‘high maintenance’, loud, demanding and can drive me to total distraction on a daily basis, so I do appreciate how that could be a pain in the arse to deal with in a class of 30 kids. So when the said child does not change over the years, finds it hard to focus and is the king of ‘low level disruption’ but is generally a very likeable boy surely some alarm bells would be ringing from the school side of things?
This has been a stressful time waiting on these. Not that my son has seemed stressed in any way shape or form. He has had full confidence in himself which is a good thing. But as a parent we know the pitfalls, we have been in that position ourselves and we generally want our kids to do better than we did.
Our son just wanted to get back into his schools 6th form ( I think it is totally ridiculous that they don’t automatically get a place- but that could be my age showing). That meant he needed an average of B’s across the board on a points system. There is so much pressure on the kids at school today not just from school but in a lot of cases from parents as well.
We have had several chats with my son along the way and said whatever he gets and whatever the outcome there will always be a solution. My actual words were ‘ If you don’t get the points and grades you need for 6th form it really isn’t worth throwing yourself on a train track over it’. Ok may sound a little harsh but you do hear of the stories of the students who feel they are failures just because they didn’t get A*’s in every subject.
A lot of events recently have seen me take a rosy, nostalgic look back at the past, my 20th wedding anniversary, my eldest turning 16 and taking his GCSE’s and soon to be a 6th former!
I cant believe how quickly the time goes and how we find ourselves wishing it away and then wanting it back to enjoy it for a bit longer. It really only seems like weeks ago that my eldest started school, he was so cute and dinky ( now a hairy, spotty teen!) that I almost forget that he was once that small.
Soooo cute!
When they start they almost seem to small/ young to be there and yet shockingly look so grown up in their tiny uniforms at the time. There have been so many changes over the years too, from being in ‘Infants’ and then into ‘Juniors’, a week long school trip away from home and then the 11+, and then the huge upheaval and transfer into secondary school. Now it’s all attitude, independence and exams.
One thing that hasn’t changed though is the school uniform, as I have boys it’s always been charcoal grey trousers and white shirts and neutral black shoes. Now anyone with boys know you tend to buy more than you think you will need ( because you WILL actually need it) and I would rather have too many shirts than not enough- boys tend to miss their mouths a lot! I have only ever bought my uniforms from one retailer as I have never had cause to go anywhere else. George at Asda have kept my boys well clothed for school at very reasonable prices with packs of 2 polo shirts starting at £2.50, packs of 2 shirts from £3 and trousers from £3. Both the shirts and trousers not only wash up well but go in the dryer week after week over the winter and have kept their shape and quality throughout. Their school trousers also have the fabulous invention of adjustable waists as both my boys are skinny malinkies and although need the leg length their waists fall a bit short when filling the trousers out.
All grown up at secondary school!
This year however, my eldest will be going back as a 6th Former ( still shocks me to say it *consoles myself with wine*) so he will be needing a suit instead. I am going to think of it as normal uniform though and buy accordingly ie: several pair of trousers and one jacket and about 7-8 mixed shirts to match ( yes even at 16 he misses his mouth!). To be honest most places now sell mix and match suits for that reason and so I think my first port of call will again be George at Asda hoping the quality will be similar to that of the uniforms I have bought over the years, we have already seen one that would suit him lovely in a navy pinstripe with slim leg trousers.
As always with uniforms the best time to buy them is literally as they finish this summer term as most retailers have their best deals on- 3 for 2 etc and I do like to get them sorted and out of the way so we can enjoy the rest of the summer holidays. My eldest this year has an extended summer break as he finishes after his exams……………. I think I will need to bulk buy a stash of wine and chocolate to cope…………….. or maybe just send him to stay at my mums for a while!
DISCLOSURE: this is a collaborative PR related article however all views and words are my own.
It’s all gone past in a bit of a blur………………………the last month or two!
I hope I am not the only one who feels like this. Thankfully I have photographic evidence to prove that it all took place.
Where do I start?
There’s been a bit of this:
My 42nd *cough* birthday!1 week scout camp for my youngestA trip to Duxford…. Love it there!10th Anniversary of my Dad passing away :((
Good ‘ol Hamleys
Hubby’s birthday
A bit of that:
YAY………….the Paralympics!GoalballGB wheelchair tennis………..AMAZING!Wheelchair basketball…………MANIC GAME!A new secondary school for my youngest!My youngest turned 12………….now that makes me feel old!
Oh and a LOT of the other:
A biggy at last 🙂Ok admittedly they are not always big!!!!
Looked like a huge goldfish????
So there you have it, my life in pictures- and if you flick through them really quick it’s like one of those picture books!!
A-Arguing…..yes it has started early in the hols with my 11 and 14 yr olds who do NOT get on together!
B-Brother…..I have 2 but my older is travelling over from America and we all haven’t seen him for a long while so should be fun.
C- Cornish Pasties……………one of the treats of visiting mum, the best Cornish pasties!!
D- Danny Boyle……oh what a genius job he did with the Opening Ceremony.
E- emotional as my youngest left primary school and exhausted after all the Leavers celebrations.
F- Family History………….I had the full run down of where we all came from as my younger brother has researched it all in recent months but saw the pics for myself in a recent visit.
G- Great Britain………..C’mon, the nation is proud!
H- HOLIDAYS! at last the long awaited and sometimes dreaded school hols……..I for 1 am glad not to have the early mornings
I- Injustice as my bank account is hacked to the sum of £590 and used for online Bingo!!!!!!!!! Bizarre.
J- Joking
K- Kids………cannot live with them and cannot live without them!! Wish they would just get along and make everyone’s life a little easier.
L- Laughing………..a weeks worth with a stay at my mums!! Don’t ask but she thought Ciabatta bread was called Carburetor bread!!!!!
M- Medication…………has been increased and added to……….but still in pain.
N- NEED a proper holiday, with sunshine and things to visit……….oh and the money to enjoy it!!
O- obviously the Olympics!! Something I wasn’t too bothered about until the opening ceremony and now watch everyday
P- Paralympics! I have been so into the normal games we have bought tickets to a paralympic event to get into the spirit of the whole thing and want to see the Olympic park.
Q- Queen………what a star to get involved in the Games with Mr Bond himself!! Brilliant.
R- Relax………..a few days away and I did just that.
S- SUNSHINE………..yes we had it ………for a week, but oh how lovely it was. Please come back soon.
T- Travelling. To go and visit my family I have to travel from London to Plymouth. Worth the travel but oh sooooooooo tiring for me.
U- Unwashed!!! Not me of course but my youngest on his return from his week long scout camp………………..NASTY!
V- visiting family and relaxing, which I managed to do last week.
W- Wedding! Yes I’m excited to have a family wedding next week. I cannot wait, have a new frock and everything!
X- X marks the spot……..not for treasure but my fishing spot. Have been again and looking to sort my next day there!
Y- YAWN………….more than a regular occurrence for me regardless of how many coffee’s I have.
Z- Zonked!! No other word for it. I am officially Zonked to within an inch of my life at the moment.
Lets face it most of us would like to think that we are, right? Well truth be told I struggle with my son’s yr 9 maths homework ( I’m better at spelling and literacy I think!), but thankfully my OH is good at maths so we get by with helping out with home works. So do you have a bright spark at home? How do you think they would fair against school children from across the world with maths, spelling and science?
This is what the World Education Games is trying to do.
To celebrate the World Education Games we put Britain’s best young Maths brains to the test against the general public and then the world famous ‘Human Calculator’ This March, hundreds of thousands of school children from around Britain will pit themselves against students from around the world to find the best young Mathematicians, spellers and Science brains in the universe during the World Education Games ( 6th– 8th of March).
The three-day global competition will test students during a variety of online games set against the clock and our best young brains will be battling for honours during World Spelling Day, World Science Day and the opener – World Maths Day.
The games are being backed by world famous Maths entertainer Scott Flansburg AKA ‘The Human Calculator’ who holds the world record for the for adding the same number to itself more times in 15 seconds than a person could do with a calculator.
So to see how our British competitors are likely to fare during the World Education Games we challenged some of the big hopefuls to a ‘calculation off’ with ‘The Human Calculator’ as well as members of the public.
This originally started in 2007 with a World Maths day but has progressed since then with popularity to include spellings and science.The World Education Games are aiming to unite children from across the world in education and learning.
So take a look at the video below to see if you can answer some of the questions posed to people in the street!
Are You Smarter Than a 10 year old?
For more information visit the website at: http://www.worldeducationgames.com/
Yes, it’s a very nervous day in my household today. It’s the day my youngest son’s 11+ results arrive on our doorstep.
As the day has drawn closer I have noticed him getting more and more concerned about it. He is hoping to pass but we have tried to warn him that it doesn’t always go to plan and not to be too disappointed if he doesn’t get through.
However, what makes it worse is that he is a bright boy. He absolutely has the potential to pass. He has done some work towards it but we tried not to put extra pressure on him as there is never any guarantee.
Going on his work at home, if he finished the practise papers on time he then didn’t do very well. But if he concentrated and didn’t finish the paper on time, quality rather than quantity, then he tended to get a good score.
On both of the test days he came out saying that he had finished the papers. So not a great sign at the time.
But you just never know. We are not holding our breath as parents however, we are trying to prepare for the meltdown that will be if he doesn’t ‘pass’ the test. I know he will feel a failure, and may feel a little resentment against his brother, who did pass a few years ago and attends the school my youngest really wants to go to. So, tomorrow going into school will be hellish for him.
You see most people have the opinion that he will pass. I’m afraid that they mistake his confidence, which he has in abundance, for ability. I think he feels under pressure because of this.
These are children who are only 10 or 11 years old. They are too young to have this much pressure. I know of many parents who openly talk about it all in front of them and therefore, the pressure of not being a ‘failure’ is all too apparent.
My post does not arrive until lunchtime. Blimey I don’t think my nerves will stand it.
Little does he know that I will be steaming that letter open to find out the result before he opens it on his return from school. I need to be prepared in order to deal with any of his disappointment straight away.
On the other hand he may pass and be overjoyed. Who knows what the day holds.
Either way we will be treating him to dinner out to at least celebrate the fact it will all be over!
It’s 11+ tests tomorrow and I don’t know who’s more nervous…….mum and dad or the son who’s taking it!!!
We have a 13 yr old who has already gone through this who comfortably passed his and attends a really nice grammar school close by. This school is perfect for him as it is mixed and because he is a sensitive soul we thought it would be better for him. He loves it there ( as much as any boy ‘loves’ school!) and has made a great set of friends that from the beginning of year 7 to today in year 9 have all stuck by each other.
However, I think this makes it more difficult for the second child. He also wants to go to the same school as his brother, he has already had a look around and loves the drama department there ( as some of you may remember he is a budding ‘actor’!!). He is also a very capable child and has been in top sets for maths and literacy in junior school. But there is no guarantee that he will get through on the test!
He has worked hard towards it with his dad ( which we did with our older son) however, we have tried not to put too much pressure on him about it. Rightly or wrongly we never sent either of our boys to a tutor in order for them to pass. Any work they have undertaken over the summer has been worked through by my OH who seems to have the patience of a saint when it comes to school work!! We live on the border of Kent so the children can also apply to do the Kent 11+ too and I know some of the kids from his year have taken that on Saturday. He decided (just like my eldest) that he didn’t want to take this test as it would possibly mean that he would end up in a school out of our borough that he would have to travel to, and therefore lots of his friends would not be living close to him. So in the end we didn’t register him for that test as there would be no point sending him to a school he didn’t want to go to.
So now all his hopes are on the test tomorrow and Wednesday. He seems confident and we have confidence in him. But is it wrong to try and prepare him in case he doesn’t get through? That is what we have been doing. Trying to tell him it isn’t the end of the world if he doesn’t pass. It doesn’t make him any less capable than his brother. There is a lot of competition between them over the silliest of things so this really would cause a major upset!!
We certainly don’t want him to feel any sort of failure. We don’t want to be seen as treating him any different from his brother if he doesn’t get through.
So the next 3 weeks waiting for the results just won’t go quick enough!!! Talk about wishing your life away. As with his older brother we have told him that the letter will arrive and we will not open it as this will be his job when he gets home from school. ( What we won’t tell him is that we will have steamed the letter open at lunchtime when it arrives so we know the outcome before he gets his grubby mits on the thing!!)
And then the drama will start!! The next day at the school playground………….kids and adults alike all eager to hear if your child has passed or not!! Whispers behind peoples backs about the shock passes and ‘fails’ ( although no child at the age of 10 and 11 should be seen as a failure!!!) But that’s what it all comes down to with a lot of parents these days.
So on that note……
A HUGE GOOD LUCK TO MY SON AND ALL THE CHILDREN TAKING THE 11+ IN THE NEXT 2 DAYS
