YEAR 8 YEAR 8 YEAR 8 !!

[MaryAnnSingleton]

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

no homework yet,though I think it's been set - he just doesn't have to hand it in yet ! still, he is quite disciplined about doing the stuff in time - I'd just want to get it done, if it were me ! We need to do lots of singing practice for his exam too.
Hooray for food tech again this term - next week it's fruit cobbler

No homework so far.

Dd a bit upset after their form tutor had given them the big Attendance Talk about how absences are going to ruin their life chances and then made them put their hands up if they had had an attendance of less than the statutory whatever percent last year.

Dd has a chronic medical condition that involves lots of pain and illness. And which is no doubt going to affect her life chances. She didn't enjoy this bit

(also wonder how it affected her friend who was absent a lot last year during her mum's last illness )

I know they have to give the talk, but couldn't someone have given them a hint to send certain students out of the room on invented errands first?

DD has had English homework. She had to identify the subject and verb in five very simple sentences.
Mind you, it is the first English homework she has had since March.
She is more than a bit fed up with English.

Doesn't sound very inspiring, LadyGlencora. Having said that, as a university teacher I am enjoying this new generation of students who turn up at uni able to tell a subject from a very: quite rare when I first started teaching in this country 14 years ago.

Yes, Cory, I agree about that. But she did learn all this stuff in Year Four and she is so frustrated with going over it again and again. It's not just her, all the literate children I know at her school are really frustrated with their English classes, and parents have been raising the matter with the school for years now, but they are adamant that setting for English is not an option.
And their GCSE results are frightful.

That doesn't sound so good. Dd's school does set for English, and for lots of other subjects.

Cory, the school sets for maths and science (and MFL). As far as I can judge from DD's experience and those of the many other children I know at the school, these subjects are well taught and the standard is high. The head has told me in person when I questioned why it does not set for English that the head of the English department, who does not believe in setting, has the final say and cannot be overruled.

I don't think they set for English at my dd's school either LGP (and it has a reputation for being quite academic...) - so far it's just Maths but we have a parents meeting in a few weeks so should know some more after that...

Re the periods thing, my dd's body shape has definitely changed over the past year or so and she has lots of bumps (whiteheads?) on her forehead so I won't be surprised if she starts soon too...

DS got a fair bit of homework tsonight which to be fair to him has got on with it (after raiding the biscuits) as soon as he gets in from school.

There seems to be a little bit of a problem at home time with the buses. Too many children and not enough buses , not sure why there isn't the same problem going to school. Last night some children were asked to get off (to make way for the yr7s) and get one of the other buses that had to make a detour through our village and then the same tonight although DS offered to get on the other bus along with a few others tonight rather than being told he had to by the driver.

That's strange about the buses, but kind of your DS to make room for the Year 7s .
I gave DD1's English homework to DD2 (9) and DD3 (7). They both did it in two minutes flat.
Hope your DD had a better day today Cory. That was incredibly insensitive of her tutor.

LGP - I think I will see what happens over the next couple of weeks and then if it keeps on happening, I will ring the school. The obvious answer would be to put on an extra bus but I suppose it all boils down to council budgets?

Cory, for your dd.

Hope buses work out bellavita -what a pain..am so grateful ds can walk to school. We get attendence letters,colour coded,green amber and red - along with a stern warning letter explaining the meaning of the colour -this seems to be a new initiative as we got our first during the summer hols -as far as I know it wasn't spoken about to the children in school.

I don't know what they do re attendence at DD's school - although she must have had four or five days off last year with various bugs. I do know that absence was one of the things highlighted as a problem in the last Ofsted, but what they have done about it I do not know.
(Nor what they have done about improving their GCSE 5A*-C rates, which was another target, and which have actually fallen since that Ofsted, but that's another story).

Oh well, dd is now off with the next bug and has been for a few days. Here we go again...

But the school knows about her problems and I am not expecting any difficulties.

Your poor DD, Cory. Hope she is feeling better soon.

DD went back to school 10 days ago. She's had homework most nights much to her displeasure as she wants to finish the latest Robert Muchmore book!

Thankfully they have now started streaming from Yr8 so some of the more rowdy elements have been weeded out. Within the two streams the school also set for Maths, Science and English. Dd has signed up for a number of clubs - Drama,Karate, Sewing and Art. She was a bit miffed as the Craft club she loved isn't on anymore I think the TA who ran it has left.

According to DD the GCSE results this year were the best ever with 75% gaining 5 GCSE at A-C. I'm hoping that they'll let us know what the % was when Maths and English is included as the school does offer a fair few BTEC's "worth" 2/3/4 GSCE's. The school has a catchment area which in parts is extremely deprived, many children enter the school well below expectations so even if a good few of the results contain a BTEC or two it's still a fantastic result and down to the appointment of a new head two years ago and some superb teachers. 5 years ago only 40% got 5 GCSE's and only 25% when Maths and English was included.

sounds great, magenta, and shows what a good head can do

Hi magentadreamer; she's being very disciplined not finishing the latest RM book. I was reading ds1's copy, and stayed up about 2 hours later than I should have last night to finish it! I think it's considerably more violent than some of the previous ones, so I'm going to have to be careful who we recommend it to, as some people still want to censor readers at this age.

Those sound great results MD. The school usually publish the latest GCSE results in their prospectus and they may be available online if they have a good website.

DD1 has lots of homework for the weekend. She is busy trying to learn Tom Lehrer's Elements song which their science teacher introduced them to, not that he intended them to learn it by heart, but she has taken it as a challenge!
Your schools results are great MD - it's amazing what a good head teacher can do.

arf ! I learned that too ! I love it - has she seen the youtube versions ?

Yes, we watched Tom Lehrer singing it.
She knows the first verse now. It is surprisingly hard to learn.

DS has just had his first school guitar lesson - he was the only one that realised his name was on the list and hence the only one for the lesson. He does have private lessons, but we thought it would be useful to do extra at school. He was very excited when I rang him from work (I ring him at 4.20 to make sure he has got in [blush}. He let's himself in on a Monday and Tuesday as I am at work until 5.00pm (Dh gets home about 5ish).

The school bus situation seems to have sorted itself out which is good.

good news about school bus bellavita and about guitar lessons !
ds home in a pickle because he'd not had enough time to finish cooking his fruit cobbler -he was sure that the teacher was cross with him and that everyone would think he was slow -he can be very hard on himself.

Oooh, DS is doing Food Tech too, although he won't be cooking until the week after next.

Aww though for your DS - could he finish it off at home?

All the new Yr7s (well some of them) are doing cooking at my school and today they made fruit salad - can remember when DS did this last year!

He has also been given a practice pass for the music studios and that means he can go in there at break/lunch and use the guitars - he of course is made up with this arrangement.

sounds great-the practice pass !
ds brought it home and we finished it off in the oven and it was lovely. Apparently according to my friend,the teacher (different one from last year) is a bit stern and I think ds just finds doing stuff like peeling and prep. quite tricky,as he does have probs with fine motor skills. He seems a bit happier now !