YEAR 8 YEAR 8 YEAR 8 !!

[MaryAnnSingleton]

here we are, all ready for the new term !!

ds1 was in tears tonight. He lost his planner (homework diary) at school at some point during the day today. He dashed round frantically looking for it at the end of the day, but couldn't find it, and didn't want to miss his bus.

I think he was just upset and emotional because he's so tired.

The diary had some homework sheets slipped inside it as well.

He hasn't lost anything at all since September, but I'm sure it will turn up on Monday.

Aww Roisin

Fingers crossed it will turn up on Monday. Hopefully, some kind soul will have picked it up and taken it to the office.

DS lost his house keys at school last week. Fortunately, for him, the back door was unlocked but had the chain on so he put his hand around and took the chain off. He normally comes in through the front door. He has gone to the office but nothing has been handed in.

We had a good parent consultation at the beginning of March.

Well done deaddei's DD!

Hope it turns up Roisin. DD touch wood hasn't lost anything since Yr7, which is amazing for her!

Dd is in a performance for Bugsy Malone, the BTEC Perfoming Arts group are doing it as part of their course work. Due to all the snow days school had, the actual performance dates have had to be put back till the end of April and DD will be going into school during the Easter holidays to rehearse. She is also going on a Performing Arts trip to London in June which looks like it will be fun they will see two musicals, have a back stage tour plus a visit to the Tate Modern. She's really looking forward to going.

Last term she was named Maths Rising Star for her set which was fab for her. My heart sunk a bit when she told me this term she has a trainee teacher ( apologies to any trainee teachers) but it's actually worked out really well as her old Maths Teacher is also in the class so they have two for the price of one when it comes to teachers. Last week she came home buzzing with enthusiasm due to the fact they have been doing problems taken from GCSE papers and even though they were hard they weren't that hard.

So all is well schoolwise here apart from the fact DD will be sitting GCSE's next year and she keeps falling out with one of her friends - which is actually rather amusing as both DD and friend are drama queens. DD regales me with the latest tales on a near daily basis.

Wow. That all sounds brilliant magentadreamer. How much ££ is the London trip?!

The trip is £160 but when you factor in the price of tickets etc I don't think it's too bad. Dd is already planning her packing list! I can see 28 girls turning up with trunks on wheels and the 12 boys going with their gym bags containing a clean pair of socks,pants,lynx,hair gel and a toothbrush.

No, that's good. London theatre tickets are £££ normally, so they've done well to get it in for that.

Did your dcs do the UKMT Junior Challenge papers today?

ds1's team (4 students yr8 and yr9) won the regional finals of the Team Challenge and will be going to the National Final in London in June.

He enjoyed the individual comp today, so hopefully did well in that too.

Yes, DD did, got a bronze last year, might have been silver, anyway, thought the paper was not a problem. Her school doesn't do the team thing, just the maths challenge for indivs.

A boy in the year above her, last year was something like 2 in the country overall, amazing!

DD did it too, got a bronze last year also, but she only did two or three of the questions in the second section this time, so who knows. She quite enjoyed it though.
Well done to your DS, Roisin, that's amazing. Don't know if DD's school did the team challenge, but there's a girl in her class who got gold last year, so I hope they got the chance to compete.

DD had her parent's evening this week, but DH had to go as I had Brownies. Apparently, she 'should be thinking about university'.

ds1 got a gold medal, and 2nd highest mark in the school, in the Junior Maths Challenge with 4 others from his school. His best mate got into the Junior Olympiad!

I can't believe that yr8 is almost over. In September ds2 will join ds1 at the school as well.

Oh, are the results out? DD hasn't had hers yet. Well done to your DS, Roisin, that is amazing. He must be a real maths whizz.

I can't believe yr8 is nearly over! ds1 is very busy atm with major events on for 3 of the remaining weekends of term.
This Sun/Mon London for big maths thingie
Then a full Saturday on a 'G&T' writing course, 1 hr away
Then 4 days (over a weekend) on a residential...

He's going to be on his knees, isn't he?!

DS is having a "stressful" week (his words) - sports day, geography trip, Carnegie prize book shadowing event and tonight he was in a Latin play in a languages thing at school. He has been sulking for days about having to wear a toga but seems to have survived the experience!

How did your DS get on in London Roisin? DD goes on her London trip tomorrow, she's rather excited. They've to be in school by 7.30am and set off at 8am. Thankfully we live 5 mins walk from School so she won't have to be up too early. From Sunday - Thursday she's got loads of activities around the visit of some German students from their linked school in Cologne.

I'm going to have a bloody big little brag. DD got her report last week and it was fantastic. Her English teacher said she was a joy to teach ( we've never had that comment before) Her Maths teacher mentioned 3 times how good at Maths she was. Her German teacher said she should be very pleased with her rapid progress this year and her Science teacher said they have high expectations for her at GCSE. I'm really rather proud of her

Oh, thanks for asking magentadreamer. He had a great time: loads of fun!

Didn't do brilliantly in the overall results of the competition. But it was a fab experience for them just being there.

Fabulous report there for your dd. You should be very very proud of her.

Quick question re KS3 levels - I understand they are expected to progress by two sublevels each year? What would you do if that did not seem to be happening in some subjects (but teachers seemed pleased with attainment & effort nonetheless)? I have raised this before with the school and didn't get anywhere....

Two sublevels per year is an aspirational target. It equates to two full levels between KS2 and KS3. In many schools most students do not achieve this.

Does he have targets? Is he meeting his targets? Can you give examples?

At ds1's school we don't actually get levels on reports. We are given his end of yr9 targets and then below/on/above target.

Sorry for not coming to you Roisin - RL!

We don't get told what their targets are. We get an interim report in the early part of the Spring term and an end of year report. If they have done an end of year test we usually get the test marks and the average class mark (but as classes are not streamed this seems a bit pointless tbh)

As an example, dd got the following KS3 levels in the past two years, from her first interim report in Y7 to her end of Y8 report

English 6c, 6c, 6c, 6b
History 5a, 5b, 5b, 5a

So from my perspective she has made very little progress in those two subjects (though I realise that they are ok marks when looked at individually)

I struggle a bit with assessing how well dd is doing (or not) as I didn't go to school in the UK and find the system her so different....

Decorhate are your DD's assessments like this for all her subjects? Looking at DS's from the autumn term of year 8 to this summer the changes in his levels are not consistent across everything so in some subjects he's stayed the same, in some he's gone up one sublevel and in others he's gone up a whole level. Do you have to wait till next spring to find out year 9 levels? I would want to know earlier than that there had been some progress in English.

Yes will have to wait till next Spring for next report. She has done really well in Maths, Science and languages in terms of how much she has progressed.

I am assuming she is fairly good at English if she got a 6c in the spring of Y7 so am a bit baffled at the slow progress in that subject. Twas so much easier in my day when you just did tests and got A, B, C, D, etc!

When I raised this after her previous report I was told that the grade might just be higher or lower than expected if it was based on only one paper, that a Level 6c in Y8 was not equivalent to a Level 6c in Y7 and so on and didn't feel like I got anywhere tbh...

Not been on here for ages been a bit hectic! Am coming on to have a rant tho (there is no one else here to vent my spleen at and I need to vent .

Have just got dd1's academic progress report through the post. She is doing excellently in most things and I am not really worried just annoyed with her maths teacher. She is just slightly below her end of year target and he says she is not on track to achieve it. This is the man who never marks her book - how does he know if she is on track or not? What about positive reinforcement for the children, how do they know if they going about things the right way etc. Last academic review day I left a feedback form for him asking about it and of course he never came back to me.

Last year and in her last year of primary she was absolutely flying in maths and we have had letters home praising her. She doesn't think this teacher is as good as the one she had last year and doesn't explain things as well. I don't think he is very sympathetic to the pupils either judging by some of the tales she comes home with.

I am waiting to ask dd if he has looked at her book since my question.