Year 7 Summer Term !

[MargaretMountford]

Here is a brand new thread for the new term !

Me too LGP, me too!!!

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).

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 !

oh,hope sleepover went well LGP !

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I totally agree, Roisin. I was quite pleased when she was put in for the Junior Maths Challenge and found it really difficult. (Which reminds me, I wonder when they get their results.) Level 6-8 would be very hard I imagine, as I suppose that would probably cover topics up to the end of year nine. Well done to your DS for being able to tackle it.
Oh yes, and another funny one from the Science teacher - he said her target for Yr 9 was level 6 but she had already achieved it. I've heard other parents at the school complain that their children were given really low targets - surely children coming in with good level 5s shouldn'be given level 6 as year nine targets? It worries me that the school does not have high expectations of its pupils.

LGP, I think you are originally from the same country as me? One of the problems I have is that I think I got a lot more homework at secondary school than is common in the UK - can't remember the first year specifically but it was common a lot of the time to have several hours homework every night.... I remember once visiting my cousins here and was very surprised that my cousin who was doing his A levels had time to sit around chatting and listening to music on a school night.

I have similar feelings about my dd - she often complains about being bored at home, homework seems to have tailed off considerably and we also had embarassingly glowing reports from all her teachers at parents evening! We actually spoke to her form teacher who said that it is a very academic school (which is true - gets very good results for a non-selective school) and not to worry about dd being stretched enough - apparently she often sees her doing her homework at break/lunch time so maybe she gets a lot of it done before she gets home...

But I must say that I am slightly worried that standards overall are low if dd is deemed to be so good - she is certainly bright but not exceptionally so imo.

The target thing varies from school to school. Some set easy targets so they can tick the box that everyone achieves their targets. (Do remember that many students 'drop' between KS2 SATs and the start of secondary.)

Other schools set very challenging targets without a real expectation that many students will hit them!

Before the demise of SATs there were ceilings for yr9. KS3 SATs went up to L7 only in English (and it was very tough to get a L7), Science and Maths went up to L8.

But now that SATs have gone these ceilings aren't really there, and many schools are actually accellerating students more. So ds1's school has plans for early entry GCSE in Maths and Languages in yr9, and then to go on and do AS/A levels in yr10 & 11.

Yes, Grapefruit, we did get more homework in the old country, didn't we? So I'm on a learning curve about what's expected of them here. But your worry sounds the same as mine - sure I'd love to believe that DD is a child genius, but I think she is just an averagely bright child in a school with low expectations. Their 5 A*-C at GCSE was 38% this year which is well below national average. But on the other hand it is a friendly school with good pastoral support and they seem to be dealing much better with behavioural issues than they did a couple of years ago.

That's interesting about targets Roisin. I think DD's school must fall into the ticking the box category.

ds1 doesn't get loads of homework, and it does tend to go in cycles - ie not very much at this time of year.

But he is often really inspired by about 50% of his homeworks, and I usually end up trying to persuade him to hurry up and finish it and spend less time on it!

This week, for instance, he is working on an optional homework that his history teacher suggested he might like to do. He's creating an animated powerpoint (it's rather good, actually) for him to 'teach' the lesson to the class! Apparently a few weeks back his answer to one of the teacher's questions spoiled his thunder, so Mr.S. has suggested ds1 do the lesson instead. (ds1 worships Mr.S. and usually spends hours and hours on his homeworks.)

Roisin, does your ds go to a single-sex school and if so how are you and he finding it? (I am already agonising about secondary school for ds1 - think a mixed school would suit him better but he is unlikely to get into one in our town so it is either single sex here or try for a selective mixed one in an adjoining borough...)

No, it's a mixed school. There are no single-sex options round here, but I would necessarily object to them, unless there was a massive focus on sport.

It is interesting how it varies by area. There are no single sex schools in our part of the world at all, the only one I can think of is a private school on the other side of the county.

Can I have a quick boast proud mummy moment?

ds1 just got his results from his maths test (that he didn't enjoy as it was so challenging) from earlier in the week (see post above).
He got a Level 8!
He was the only one in his half year group to get L8. And he isn't even 12 yet.

Level 8 is amazing! Well done Roisin's DS!

I have a little boast proud mummy moment too. DD came home and said she got a bronze award for the Junior Maths Challenge.
I am really pleased for her.

well done roisin's ds and LGP's dd !!!!!

Hey well done LGP's dd too!