Year 7 Summer Term !

Sounds great LGP, but I agree it would be better if she were being stretched more.

ds1 is in top set for Maths. Today was maths exams all morning. I asked him how it had gone and he was quite despondent and said it was really tough and he hadn't even finished all the questions. I was very surprised by this and asked if it was a test for the whole year group. (At our school that's what they do for the end of year tests to 'level' everybody.) But no, Sean said some students had a L3-4 test, most had 4-6, some had 5-7 and a few (including him) had 6-8! He said there were things in the test that he'd never covered and he found it very difficult. Brilliant! It's quite damaging imo if able students become used all the time to just getting full marks for everything.

Parent's evening went well. Maybe too well. According to her German teacher she is the best pupil in the class, gets 100% in all her assessments and is a joy to teach. According to her French teacher she is particularly talented at French and a pleasure to have in the class. According to her Science teacher she is top of the class and will get an A* at GCSE if she keeps it up. According to her Maths teacher she is really good at Maths, has averaged 93% in class tests (top set) and her project was so good that it has been shown to the entire department's staff. According to her English teacher.... you get the picture.
Each teacher seems to think she is particularly gifted at their subject.
Are they just being nice? DD doesn't seem to think she is any better at schoolwork than most of her friends and she certainly doesn't do any more work than anyone else. And if she really is so good at school and finding it so easy that she gets these kinds of marks without trying, should we be doing more to stretch her, or just leaving it up to the school? I'm a bit nonplussed. This post probably sounds like I'm bragging about her and I don't mean to, I'm just wondering what best to do.

Don't have any specific questions Roisin, apart from wanting to know how they are going to make her work. She is coasting at the moment and it is pissing me off tbh. I can't remember when she last had any English homework - the subject that she gets the most homework in and takes the most time and trouble over is Art. Every time she does her art homework she waits anxiously to find out what grade her teacher has given her, because she knows she has to do really good work if she wants an A. In her other subjects she seems to walk straight A's just for turning up.
But I don't know how to discuss this in the context of parent's evening.

If you have any specific questions, make sure you jot them down in advance to ask.

It's probably too late but I would have also added don't try and see everyone, just those teachers of core subjects plus any others where you/dd have ishoos.

When ds1 gets his report in a couple of weeks there are three options:
a) specific teachers request to see us
b) we request to see specific teachers
c) no p/t meetings.

I quite like this model and wasn't sure which option we would be heading for. But I've just realised the date is when I'm away in France with school anyway! So it will be dh's problem.

Hope DD and her friend have made up Magenta. These fallouts are so traumatic -for them and us!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. We have parents evening tonight - any tips from those of you who have done it already?
This is our first chance to meet any of DD's teachers. DD has already given me instructions - don't say 'I've heard so much about you' or 'It's good to meet you at last' or make any embarrassing remarks of any kind. I don't know how I am going to speak to them at all with that kind of restriction in place.

Glad the sleep over went well and some sleep was had!

DD has had a bit of a pre teen angst week, having fallen out ( again) with one of her friends typical girl stuff and no doubt it'll all be back to normal on Monday.

Sleepover went really well, MAS, they were asleep by 1am. The two new friends are lovely and one of them even read DD3 a bedtime story!

oh,hope sleepover went well LGP !

not mean bellavita - just sensible -well done you !I think it's the only way to encourage responsibility for property.
Having said that,I did whizzz ds back to school the other week when he found he'd forgotten his planner and was distraught - I was very cross with him for being careless but he was in such a state..when we got to school (it was after 50 it was closed so he couldn't go in. Actually he calmed down after that and resigned himself to searching for it next day - and he did fine it, a friend had seen it and picked it up for him. But that's that last time !
He came home yesterday in a very distressed state and didn't want to go swimming,which he'd planned to do with his grandpa - apparently there had been some misunderstanding with some other boy and ds got himself into a state thinking that everyone would not want to be his friend because of it...really things do get out of proportion I think, but he was very upset.Did talk it through and he seemed to feel better. He is being particularly pre-teenish atm, - he was 12 on Monday, so it's creeping up !

Well, I am going to have be a really mean mum.

Do you remember a while back when someone took DS's pe bag by mistake from outside the canteen? We replaced all the kit. (The shorts found their way back a few weeks later by someone from Yr10). Since just before half term, I have said to DS, empty your pe bag and I will wash your kit, on every occasion he has told me it does not need washing . On Wednesday when I hoovered his bedroom, pe bag was on the floor and I thought perfect time to wash it. No white pe shirt in there and he had someone elses rugby shirt. I just despair.

So he finally admitted to me that the reason he did not want his kit washing is because he has not had a white pe shirt since before the hols. He picked up the rugby shirt on Tue by mistake. It did have a name in and he has taken it back to the other boy who incidentally, does not have DS's shirt.

He has just phoned me during his lunch break as I had read him the riot act this morning about going to look for the items in the lost property (he probably thinks it is easier to tell me over the phone) that he cannot find either shirt.

I have told him to wait until Monday till he is with all his peers in the same pe group and ask them all if they have his things. If not, then we are going to make him buy them out of his pocket money that he is saving (for an x-box360).

Me too LGP, me too!!!

Am prepared for plenty of giggling, oh yes! I asked DD what her friends would like for tea, and the answer unsurprisingly was pizza!
It's a funny thing, but although she has has lots of sleepovers already with her old primary school friends whom I know very well by now, I am slightly stressed by having 'new' friends to stay - I find myself needing to tidy up and make the house look nice, which I never normally do before sleepovers.

DS has a new school friend to sleep over this Saturday, he came to sleep a couple of weeks ago too. A very polite boy - he came into the kitchen at tea time and asked if he could help with anything , bless him.

I asked them to go to bed at 11.30 which to their credit, they did and went straight to sleep. Next morning though, they were up at around 7.00

LGP - think you need to be prepared for lots of giggling!

Hah! My dd had 4 friends for a sleepover recently. They were very sweet (more interested in pillow fights than boys still!) & it was lovely to meet her new friends. They got very little sleep though! Be prepared!

Glad the hoodie made it home!

I cannot believe this but I have somehow agreed to let DD have four friends sleep over on Friday night. I know two of them and the other two are new friends - the first time since she started Y7 that she has had new people round.

Yes he did roisin

phew from me too

Phew at rescued hoody!
Did he retrieve it in the way suggested?

oh what happened at the end of my post?

I put "sighs and rolls eyes emoticon", oh well!

Hoodie safely back home

oh bellavita - what a pain

Grrrrrrrr, DS has left his hoodie on the flippin bus

Have phoned the bus co who gave me the number for the depot. Nice man at depot said bus would be coming back through our village at around 5.10pm this evening if DS wanted to go to the stop and ask the driver otherwise we have to wait for the bus to go back to the depot and go and look for it. and rolling eyes emoticon

oh bless her for trying - that is fab -she sounds great !

It's hard isn't it when they try so hard then don't get picked. But well done to her though for trying.

Mmmm yes, Thai takeaway and homemade cake does sound fab.

She isn't at all sporty really, that's the funny thing. She is dyspraxic and has terrible hand-eye coordination (all inherited from me) so her dogged peserverance with all these activities astonishes me. I am proud of her for trying, but it is heartbreaking too, as she doesn't often get picked for teams even though she never fails to show up for practice - she was crying tonight because she wasn't chosen for the rounders team. I don't know what to say to her except keep on doing your best.
Glad your DS had a lovely birthday - Thai takeaway and a homemade cake sounds fab!