Showing posts with label high school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label high school. Show all posts

Friday, 23 September 2011

A September school update!

[caption id="attachment_1139" align="alignright" width="225" caption="'A' ready for first day at High School"][/caption]

Well 'A' has just finished her third week at High School and I'm so pleased to say she's absolutely loving it!  She's finding the lessons so much more interesting and challenging than at Primary School and she's even now starting to get into a routine with homework.  The first couple of weeks were hard as she found it almost impossible to get up and out on time each morning, but after lots of nagging and me finally losing it completely she's now started to pull her finger out!  She joined the Rhythmic Gymnastics club this week and thoroughly enjoyed it and next week she'll be off to school orchestra for the first time.  She helped out at school open evening on Tuesday by taking part in an organised badminton session and then afterwards within the Drama department.  All in all we couldn't be happier at how well she's settle in.

'S' has begun studies for his GCSE's but has had a few problems with the subjects he's chosen.  He has now swapped Woodwork for Food Tech but we're having major deliberations over whether he should change Music for Film Studies.  I think he finds the whole prospect of completing his Music GCSE quite daunting, you see he can't read music and has never had any real instrumental lessons, but the thing is, he has a real musical talent and one we think should be encouraged.  He has the ability to hear a song and magically recreate it on the piano which is something I could never do.  I think his talent would come on no end by continuing with Music but he knows that we will not force him and the decision has to be his.

However, one good thing that has come out of his indecision is that regardless of whether he continues with Music as a school subject he's now decided that he wants to learn to play properly with lessons from yours truly as well as additional theory lessons.  This is something we've tried many times before but up till now he's always want to 'play his own thing' and has not been interested in learning the 'technicalities'.  Will keep you posted on his progress!

Sunday, 31 July 2011

The end of an era

Well here we are, about to begin the second week of the summer holidays and already primary school is a distant memory. For those of you not in the know, 'A' finished her final year of primary school on Friday 22nd July and will be off to much scarier (well, to me anyway) High School come September. The last few weeks of term went by in a blur. We performed our usual summer concert with the school choir back in June and as ever this was a hit with the kids and the parents and even took our ladies choir in for an impromptu assembly performance. 'A' and the rest of year 6 shortly after, started work on their final school show which this year was to be 'Gel'. They performed the show over two nights and 'A' played Mrs Fletcher, a bit of a busy body come tea lady! She had to wear rollers in her hair and her Grandma's slippers but she loved every minute of it. The show was a roaring success and really showcased some new talents that we'd not had a chance to see before.

Last day of term came and went and surprisingly, not a tear was shed in the Griffiths household by Mother or Daughter. The usual traumatic leavers' assembly had been replaced by a more upbeat celebration of the children's time at primary school and although there were a few weepy souls there was not the usual flood of tears that has a kind of domino effect. Even the end of school bell went by without too much trauma. 'A' came out of school with a shirt full of signatures and couldn't wait to put her new found independence into action by heading off to the chip shop with friends (an essential trip that had been planned by the year 6's for a few day's and which we had no choice but to agree to!).

I did wonder if the fact that she'd actually left primary school and a whole chapter of her life behind, would kick in sometime during the first weeks of the holiday, but I can honestly it hasn't. I think the fact of the matter is, she's just ready to move on. If you'd have asked me this time last year I would have said, "she's still my little girl and will never be ready for high school in a years' time". However, she is and I can't believe the change in her over 12 months. Yes, she's still incredibly half soaked at times and has the memory capacity of a tea strainer but she has matured no end and I feel is really ready for the challenge of 'big' school. Whether I'll still be saying that in the Autumn when she's having friendship issues, detention for being late and not handing her homework in on time, remains to be seen! ;) Personally,  think the whole process was easier for me, knowing that I would be returning to the school again in September to continue with school choir.  It won't be quite the same though without my own lovely girl being there each week.  I'm sure she'll drop in from time to time though, should her busy extra curricular school life allow!

[caption id="attachment_971" align="alignleft" width="189" caption="First day at primary school"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_972" align="alignright" width="97" caption="Last day at primary school"][/caption]

Where did those 6 years go?