In the mood for blogging
I haven’t been, but this morning I am … nothing at all to do with having smashed some tetris scores 
Not much to report really, hence the silence here. Everyone is just getting on with life and enjoying it mainly I think.
Josiah’s having a bit of a stress over violin - but this is nothing new 
The boy can’t make his mind up, one minute it’s the worst thing ever and anyone who suggests any practice is evil so a tantrum must be thrown, and the next minute he realises he’s grown out of his quarter size violin and could really have a half size, actually he’d really like one and he doesn’t want to give up after all.
Orchestra was a bit of a problem this week because there was not just one, but three changes during the section rehearsal (new tutor, different and bigger group of children, different room) and he just doesn’t do change well at all, so that was a tough one to get through. I am absolutely worried stiff about his Suzuki graduation concert next weekend as I’m really not sure how best to prepare him. It’s never ever the actual violin playing that is the problem, put it like that.
Joe’s really enjoying his new Tae Kwon Do classes though. These have (thankfully) stayed with the same teacher, in the same room, with a small group of children!
Abbie is fabulous 
She cleaned out the guinea pigs on her own yesterday (well, Joe was meant to be helping but I’m not sure he did really!), and is generally just good at getting on with things. She’s really happy with her new teacher this year which is great as I suspect she might end up with the same teacher next year as well.
Anna, meanwhile, seems to think that high school is the ticket to everything … and naturally, that means that she can act like a 16 year old even though she is still only 11! Hmm. She joined the choir at school this week which I think was a good move, she’ll enjoy that. She’s also planning to stay on at the primary school choir as their accompanist which will be good for her as well, but that doesn’t start up again until after half term.
Homework etc. doesn’t seem to have been too strenuous yet, neither have the lessons themselves. They spent one whole day last week doing Cognitive Ability Tests (as if they didn’t test the Y6s enough last term!), quite what the purpose of that was, I don’t know, as Anna says they’re already in groups for subjects, but there we go.
Apart from school, Anna’s particularly enjoying the church youth group which she started going to a couple of weeks ago.
Work for Steve and me just plodding along I think. Steve is sort of waiting for the ‘credit crunch’ thing to hit the garage but so far, other than actual car prices going down significantly, business itself doesn’t seem to have been too badly affected. Only time will tell.
My school had parents’ evenings this week which I opted to stay for because I am so nosey. No, seriously, it helps you to be able to support the children better if you have an idea of their family life, not to mention what it is that their parents want for them. All the children come to school on county transport, so we never get to meet the parents otherwise! I enjoyed taking my class out to Gym Club in the week too, and another highlight was spending an afternoon in a different class, just helping out as we had less children than usual and they were a member of staff down.
Still umming and aahing over this blog. A couple of blog-friends have stopped recently and I guess I have sympathy with the reasons for stopping a public blog, so watch this space. I might write more behind the safety of a password!
September 21st, 2008 at 8:52
Violet spent an afternoon doing CATs this week too. I guess it’s for baseline measurements so they can assess the ‘value added’ by the school. I know I’ve seen league tables where the difference between ‘expected’ GCSE results (presumably predicted from stuff like these CATs) and actual GCSE results is judged - Violet’s school didn’t add much, lol!
Looking forward to seeing you next week
September 21st, 2008 at 9:42
C’s teachers said that they found the primary school assessment tests a bit variable and therefore ended up with different abilities of children in the same group. C is pleased this year that she’s more streamed.
I know why you haven’t had time for blogging; you’ve been too busy with tretis. Don’t you get bored of it?!
PS. feel free to password your blog (I’m increasingly fussy about you reads mine and it’s not easily searchable) but if you don’t tell me the password I shall get seriously miffed! x
September 21st, 2008 at 9:43
PS. for ‘you’ insert ‘who’ - of course I don’t mind YOU reading my blog!
September 21st, 2008 at 14:02
I kind of assumed that second hand car sales would be less badly hit by recession than new, iyswim. Likewise people driving old cars or more likely to need things fixing.
My blog is perfect as only two people know where it is. I must start insulting more people on it.
September 21st, 2008 at 14:29
well, if you go private, please let me read! Have no intention of stopping blogging or going private. if i stopped blogging i would forget everything!
September 21st, 2008 at 15:45
Lovely catch up Sarah.
Good to hear Anna is getting on well at school, not so good about the 11 going on 16 but hey ho she’s a nice kid so hopefully it won’t be too bad for you.
I used to love Tetris on the gameboy, have steered well clear of it on the net or I know I’ll get hooked, lol!
Lxx
September 21st, 2008 at 15:56
It does seem weird to stream them immediately - although I know a lot of places do. It can only be a fairly crude judgement - is there much moving around afterwards? Violet gets setted for Maths at Easter, but apart from that I don’t think they set until at least Y9, possibly only for GCSEs. (But then they’re presumably more of a muchness.)
September 21st, 2008 at 16:25
Alison, it perhaps depends on the size of the school? I am very pleased that C is streamed as she is in amongst kids of the same ability as her. It means the lessons progress at a suitable pace for everyone.
September 21st, 2008 at 16:26
And, yes, it’s relatively rough-and-ready to start off with but there hasn’t been a massive amount of moving around.
September 21st, 2008 at 17:55
I know nothing about it all Ruth, I’m just going on gut feeling
Violet’s school is smallish - 3×31 in her Y7 - but I guess because it’s selective there’s not so much variation in the first place.
September 21st, 2008 at 18:53
I have just been reliably informed by Rog that I’m talking about setting and shouldn’t use the word streaming. Ah well, I hope I was making sense anyway!
September 21st, 2008 at 20:02
re. blogging - I’ve talked about it before and not done it - I guess I just feel uncomfortable with it now and again. I wouldn’t stop altogether as it’s for me rather than anyone else, although I like comments etc., it’s mainly for me to look back on. I kind of like leaving it public as the search terms that people use to end up here amuse me greatly; beetroot risotto is almost always top of the list!
September 21st, 2008 at 20:10
and, lol, get this. One of Steve’s hillclimb mates googled for Mamhead Hillclimb, found the blog, then put two and two together and clicked through to the garage link, to find Steve’s phone number and ring him about some other track day. Can’t decide how that makes us feel!
September 21st, 2008 at 20:17
You never know, he may buy a car from him…