YEAR 8 YEAR 8 YEAR 8 !!

DS1's school was closed for two days last week - they didn't actually go back until the Tuesday (Mon was a training day). The bus never turned up on the Tuesday, DS came home and I rang the school and she said they were closing it, it was closed Wed too. Back Thur/Fri.

Oh no roisin - all that way!

LGP - hope you get some respite soon.

Hardly any homework at all for DS. He made a fab ginger sponge cake though yesterday in food tech.

Happy New Year Everybody!
On the first day back I forgot to check the radio and sent ds1 off as usual. It took him 2 hours to get there on the bus, find out it was closed, and get back on the bus!

His school was only closed for 2 days though, so he's completely back in the swing of things already ... with stacks of homework too.

Oh no LGP - DCs school was closed for three days last week and that was quite enough. DD2 has AS exams at the moment and is relieved that the snow is thawing. DS would have liked a few more days at home playing on his xbox though.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and is now back at school... unlike DD. Her school reopened this morning, but get this - only for years 7, 10 and 11. We get the pleasure of the Year 8s and 9s at home again today.
At least the primary school went back yesterday or I really would be tearing my hair out.

DS1 didn't get to school yesterday because of the weather. He waited the allotted time for the bus but if it doesn't come after 20 mins then they can come home - it came after 25 mins... according to the school. He was determined to play out in it yesterday rather than have to go to a Yr8 disco and risk being asked to dance by a girl...

Well done your DS roisin

Have a fab christmas everyone. x

Hooray! We've all broken up now for Christmas.

ds1 has had another fab term, culminating in a HT's award in assembly today. They give out quite a lot - c.20% of student I think, but he's had one every term, which is fab. I guess they are for effort. He also got History and English awards this term as well, and excellent interim report.

I feel a bit sorry for ds2 who will got there next year (hopefully), and has to follow in ds1's rather large footprints.

Shall I get "Don't compare me to my brother" tattooed on his forehead?!

Helloooo

I am glad Deaddei that something is being done about those girls. I work in a school where there are the most disruptive children... it is shocking. I love the job, really I do, but some of the kids are in constant trouble, being excluded, secluded, safey netted. It really is an eye opener.

DS1 informed me tonight that he needed his new jeans taking up (sewing machine job) for his school disco tomorrow at the local rugby club... kids eh! I have just finished faffing.

I really wish he was a bit more like your DS Roisin with his homework. I have now banned his i-pod during the week.

Have a good christmas everyone

She plays violin. The concert was lovely although it didn't finish until 10pm and DD3, who is seven, was almost beside herself with tiredness by the end. The standard of playing and singing was really impressive, four different choirs, the orchestra, a strings group (which DD also played in) several individual singers - everything from opera to christmas carols - it was all great.
Deaddei - glad the girls have had some consequences and your DD had a better day. Let us know how the meeting goes in the New Year.

Oh well done LGP's dd. What instrument does she play?

Deaddei - hope you get the issues sorted.

Well yesterday, 6 girls made one of the teachers cry!
I got a call from head of year to tell me these girls have been given internal exclusions till end of term, and their parents have been told the next step is external exclusion (but not permanent)
DD came home and said how WONDERFUL lessons were today.
Have a meeting scheduled for first week back!

That is so true, Deaddei. Good luck with your meeting. It is so unfair on the hardworking, well-behaved children when a badly-behaved minority can disrupt the whole class. It is one of DD's biggest issues as well.
Roisin - DD is getting on great this year. Apart from the disruption issues that Deaddei mentions, which only happen in certain subjects, she has a lovely group of friends and seems to be enjoying school a lot. Christmas concert tomorrow and she is playing in the school orchestra so I am lookiing forward to that.

I've just sent a letter in to the year head asking for a meeting in the New Year- there are some very disruptive girls in dds teaching group- permanently on report, and as a result not much teaching is being done in certain lessons.
It makes me so mad that the same girls can have this effect- we had it in yr 7, and it's just as bad now. Just because they don't give a shit, I'm not having dds schooling affected.
Not sure what will happen- but another parent is coming in too, so that's extra support.
Our girls are so NICE- not in top academic groups, but excellent results, top marks for effort and generally helpful and responsible- if they were in the top teaching groups this wouldn't happen.

It's very quiet here now. I guess that means everyone is getting on very well?

Hey! How is everybody doing?
ds1 is getting on fine.
On Saturday he's going on a school trip to the Trafford Centre - basically shopping all day with bowling alley too. I'm a bit as his normal limit for shopping is about 30 mins!!! This might be interesting!

He is still spending too much time on his homework. He loves writing essays and his teachers don't set upper word limits ... I think they might start doing so just for him!

He does get fantastic marks for them and fortunately doesn't get stacks of homework anyway, but when he has an essay (English, history, etc.) it's like it takes over his whole life/all weekend until it's done.

Dd's Science teacher has impressed me, Dd had her half term Science test on Thursday and yesterday came home with it all marked!

Dd's school is linked to a school for the visually impaired in Africa and in her after schools craft club they've all been making bags to send over. Her house is also raising money for braille slates.

Dd is also learning lines for an audition. The Btec Performing Arts group is going to do a prodction of Bugsy Malone and Dd would love to take part, especially since they'll have slurge guns!

One more week and it'll be half term

That's great LGP. Well done dd!

ds1's group did their presentation today and he was pleased with how it went.

Now he's got Geography group homework, and he's designing a powerpoint and writing a script!

DD is in a teaching group with three of her closest friends and they tend to do all their group work together. There are little spats occasionally about who does what, as they are all quite strong minded and keen to do things their way, but that's all part of learning to work as a team. I think they all make a good contribution to the finished work.
Last year each group had to prepare and deliver a maths lesson to the class and at parents evening we were told that DD's group had done such a good presentation that the teacher had shown it to the entire maths department as a model. (Sorry, couldn't resist a little boast)

Mmm Roisin I'm not keen on group work for exactly this reason - it always seems to be my DCs doing the lion's share of the work. Recently DS has only done group work with people he has chosen to work with and so he picks all the other serious hardworking boys

Are your yr8 children coping OK with group work? Last year ds1 often got the lion's share of the work, but he gradually learned through the year to not just volunteer to do everything himself. But now it's like he's back to square one.

He was off sick on Monday and missed English. The homework was to prepare a presentation on the Amazon Rainforest in their group for Thursday. Today ds1 was put in a group of students who were all off on Monday. He has come home with a powerpoint presentation to write, find pictures, design, animate and generally create for tomorrow. Now, he is half way through and will certainly end up with an excellent product. But what are the rest of the group contributing to this?!

I don't make a big deal of it. But I do just gently say, "Hmmm... What are the other members of your group doing tonight in preparation for this?"

DS1 goes up at 9.00pm often saying to us though that he isn't tired although more often than not, we have to wake him at 7.00am and he groans and says he can't get up! He may listen to his i-pod for a bit or read which I don't mind. On weekends it is more like 10pm.

DS2 (10 next month) goes up to bed at 8.30 on a week night but on a weekend goes at the same time as DS1.

I feel that DH and I need our time too and because I am in bed about 10.15ish on a weeknight, I am not about to have DS1 going just before me .

ds1 generally goes upstairs to his room at around 8pm, sometimes he's allowed on the PC at that time and goes up later.

Generally he doesn't go to sleep til 10 or later, but I still pack him off upstairs. I often want to watch something that is not appropriate/appealing for him/them, and I want my peace/my space.

If there's something on that he wants to see (rarely), then we record it for us to watch at a more reasonable hour.

Too often late, late evenings at weekends soon slip into late, late evenings during the week. I work in a secondary school and I regularly see children who are far too tired to cope with the rigours of a school day, let alone learn anything.

For us it works very well for the children to go upstairs at an early hour. They then have 'screen-free' time (no computers or TVs upstairs), and it gives them the opportunity to relax, chill and wind-down from the day. They also use that time for reading, which they both do prolifically.

I think you need to gradually let go of the idea that the evening is Adult Time. Your children are fast turning into young adults and before you know it, you cna't really carry on packing them off upstairs at 9 o'clock or whatever without it seeming ridiculous.

The weekend is their fun time too and often part of that fun is hanging out with friends, watching tv or a film, playing a game and not going to bed until later, knowing they can have a lie-in in the morning.

I send my 12-year old to bed at 9 on school nights and 10 at weekends. I'm sure she's up to stuff in her room at the weekends but as long as she's not downstairs I'm ok(ish) with that. I think I'm considered to be (well, according to dd) quite strict about bedtimes.

We had all just watched Strictly together. She wanted to watch the rest of X-factor, which we were taping, but I said no, we could wait and watch the whole thing today - as I was not about to let DD2 and 3 (who were tired) stay up until 10pm.
We had Emma on tape but couldn't watch it as X-factor was being taped. Also she was clearly quite tired and I felt she needed to go to bed.

My dd is 13 and theoretically goes to bed at 8.45 and lights out at 9.15 during the week. The intention is that she should be well asleep by 9.30. But Friday and Saturday nights are different - Friday is late because of Scouts, and Saturdays are late because - just because. Could you have watched something together? Dp, Dd and I watched Emma last night - it was really nice.