The Trinity-Whitgift thread of 2013 continued

[Somelikeithott]

Hi all as I posted on previous thread, I realised we had hit the 1000 mark, do felt obliged to open a new one. Hope everyone finds this thread easily

DS was such a pain in the a**e yesterday, couldn't wait to get him on the coach. Think it was due to nerves but he was unbearable. Big sigh of relief when we got back without him but - yes we are already missing him a little now. Last heard from him getting on the Eurostar.
Hope u all remembered to disable data roaming on DSs mobiles? One week of YouTube clips and game downloading would cost a small fortune

Burnt -thats fab that you've heard from your DS

Fatal - yes, a PM would be good as I haven't heard about the blog. Thx

Hi fatal, pls can you PM me the blog as well.

Burnt, you are not alone on the DS not being himself front, but people keep saying they will come back different boys ( a good thing, I hear). So can't wait to see what miracles LG would've produced.

Hectic, yes miss DS already and his little sisters haven't stopped talking about him. Still nice not to have to referee early morning arguements.

Fatal - could you plse pm me the blog too ?

PM'ed you, burnt. Anyone else?

Hi Fatal, sorry to trouble you but wld also appreciate details if blog if you could pm me too? - much appreciated! Got a call at 6.30am this morning from Dds (upon waking I think) to let me know he was in Switzerland (or at least thought he was - think he was a bit bleary!) Hoping to hear news of arrival at some point today - but assume / hope too much fun being had to think about home!

Thanks fatal, I've had a look on there now, nothing yet ( didn't expect anything yet). They'll just be settling down.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone

Just heard from Ds. They are in Italy now and had a swim already. Journey sounded great.
Ds sounded very grown up - we were quite taken aback

Ds has just rung - his phone isn't working so he was on the school emergency one! Very brief conversation but all well - tired after the journey though. I expect given the phone situation I won't hear much else this week...

Hi All, Is there anyone's DS studying in U1KJD (in W)?

Blog is now active!

Mine are having a ball.

I was thinking about something ( probably over analysing), just wondered if anyone has an idea or heard how the boys are allocated to their classes. DS told me there will be 23 boys in his class ( 22 now, and 1 joining later?????), but 19 in each of the other 2 classes. I know siblings, cousins etc will be allocated to different classes.

I'm not bothered by this, but just made me wonder about it all.

On a separate note, what a change in the weather! About 15 degrees Celsius lower than last Thursday, feels like its freezing. Brrrrrr!!

Hott - I had heard that there used to be some kind of loose streaming/setting from the outset based on entrance resultd (primarily VR I think) but get the impression that W do not like to talk about this.
When I enquired I was told it was based on a number of aspects including similar interests etc. Doesn't explain differences in class sizes though.
I can imagine that there is a gap between the state and independent primary boys in terms of languages etc so maybe thats taken into consideration when planning too?? Although I think the forms are quite mixed in that regard (not sure just assuming).
Do they stay in same form group all the way through?

afaik - in upper first - classes are determined by language choices and setting then happens within that class. (For example, those choosing Latin, Spanish and Japanese will be in a class etc .. rather than ability)

Someone told me the classes do get mixed up again next year, presumably to prevent bullying/cliques. The latter may or may not have any bearing on the truth. It does seem logical that the lower first group will be shuffled around next year though when all the new boys in upper first join.

Very interesting bod - I did notice the discrepancy between the form sizes and thought it was a bit strange, but I guess there must be a logic in there somewhere... You're jolly good at asking the questions I never realised I wanted the answers to!

Looks as if they've had some lovely weather in Verona today anyway (and plenty of amazing Italian gelato, lucky boys!) I can just spot ds in the background of one of the Sunday photos by the pool

Crossed posts; that makes sense frazzled.

think i spotted my Ds in background too .
Ive been really anal and looked at live webcam of LG just to see the weather! it does look lovely there. keep thinking im going to see a raft full of hyper boys come floating past .

Regarding forms, I was also wondering whether there was some method applied to class allocation. I did wonder if they had grouped together sports scholars (would maybe make some sense for Games lessons) but can't really see a pattern forming anywhere! My ds seems to have a mix of state primary and prep boys in his form (from hearing about his new friends / talking to parents), although that doesn't reveal anything about any allocation criteria of course. Since they will all be mixed up again in U1 surely doesn't seem to make too much sense to stream them at this stage?? If there is some kind of setting then I suppose that's not a bad thing either - I know I'd like my DS to feel that he was in a similar place to other boys in his form. BoD - I did read on the website curriculum pages that they offer L1 boys Italian and Latin because it is unlikely that either of these have been studied before regardless of previous schooling, thus putting boys on as equal a footing as possible to begin with. Then further language options to be introduced in U1 which, as Frazzled explained, becomes the starting point for class allocation in that year. My ds went to a state primary so was sort of hoping that he would be able to develop French or Spanish this year as he is likely to have had less focus on this than those coming up from prep. Let's hope he is putting his Italian phrasebook app to good use this week at least!

allnew - you could be right, I thought though that Homefield for example do Introductory Italian and on to Latin before year 5-6.
in any case Im not that concerned really as im sure the school know exactly what they're doing.
re Italian this week - Im hoping that Ds doesn't just learn another 5 ways to order pizza!

DS claims they are starting languages from a basic level in U1, as if they have never studied them. I was worried he would be very far behind because he chose French, which was non-existent in his state primary, but he says it makes no difference (of course it must be easier for the boys who already know the language, but he certainly doesn't seem to notice.)
So I wouldn't worry too much - but others may have a different experience. DS isn't too always too aware of what's happening around him.

Frazzled - that's reassuring to know! My ds was taught French from Year 1 I think at his primary - but was not particularly enamoured by his french teacher in the last year, so think that curbed his enthusiam for it! I'm hoping / sure Whitgift will get him interested again. He seems to have really enjoyed his Italian lessons / at home practice so far. Nothing like a large chocolate gelati to inspire him to have a go (ordering one!) :)

Thanks for responses, it's all very interesting. As someone mentioned the school know what they are doing. I was just trying to figure out the logic behind it all. DS said its because his teacher is so clever, he can handle more boys. lol!

They do look like they are having the time of their lives. A bit of rain forecast for today, and looks like rest of the week is going to be good for them. Either way, I'm sure they'll make the most of it.

Checks LG website for updates

YAY!! Tuesdays blog is up!!! LOL