Snippets

Some short takes for Sunday as I didn't get round to writing any on Friday!

1. The bright spot in what was otherwise a rather stressful week (dealing with other people's issues - nothing major, just frustrating and time consuming) was that Helen acquired a second part time job. A new retail park is opening at the end of November in the nearest large town and she applied for jobs in a couple of clothes stores. She was offered both and accepted this one. The other was a well known pile-it-high, sell-it-cheap, disposable fashion chain.

2. Helen and her boyfriend A have been together for a year now. Although we had met and chatted with his parents in passing we decided it would be nice to get to know them better and invited them over for tea. As we talked it became apparent that A's grandmother and my father both came from the same village and were almost certainly related. A bit of digging around on Ancestry and I worked out the Helen and A are fifth cousins. Small world!

3. When buying hair dye that is called "dark chocolate", do not be seduced by the word chocolate into ignoring the word dark, or you may end up with hair that is more Morticia Addams than the natural brunette you were anticipating. Just saying.

4. As I think of things that I want to include in these quick takes posts I make a brief note of them as there is no chance of me remembering them otherwise. Unfortunately it is not a foolproof method. One of my recent notes reads "chocolate mousse". Huh? If I ever remember what I was thinking of I'll let you know.

5. Rose is given a homework project once a term. The whole school gets given the same task which is very broad, allowing them to do pretty much anything they like on a given topic. This term the topic is Amazing Feats. After disentangling "feat" and "feet" and some discussion of what might be considered amazing, Rose proposed a suitable topic ... the inventor of the tooth fairy. Sadly I felt this was not a viable option. She is now dithering between doing something about the Games Makers (the 70,000 volunteers who helped with the London Olympics and Paralympics) or something about amazing women.

New Names for a New Year

I have been thinking for a while that Angel and Star are both outgrowing their blog names. I want to stick to pseudonyms for the sake of the girls' privacy, so I have decided I am going to switch to using their real-life middle names. The New Year seems like a good time for a change, so meet:

Helen (Angel)

Marie (Star)

And Rose (Cherub)

Tevye and myself will stay Tevye and the Bookworm. Whether or not I will remember I have changed the girls' names is an open question!

Quick Thoughts

1. Too late for 7 Quick Takes this week, and I'm not sure I can come up with seven things to say, so this is just a random number of quick thoughts. I keep having ideas for things I want to write about here, but then I forget what they were. I have just got so out of the habit of blogging. There always seem to be so many other things to do when I am online at home. I thought maybe I could blog on the train, but that is my main reading time and I don't want to lose that. Meanwhile, this poor blog gets sadly neglected. Maybe 2012 will be my Year of the Blog!

2. Angel went for a job interview on Wednesday for temporary work over the Christmas period for one of the big department store chains (the one with the dark green and white logo that has a sister chain of supermarkets). She may or may not get the job - she won't hear until next week - but I am hugely proud of how capable and independent she is, and how confidently she tackled a group interview / assessment where most of the other applicants were much older than her.

3. A lovely moment from our trip away earlier this week.
Tevye [to Cherub]: Are you enjoying your holiday?
Cherub: Yes!
Tevye: What's been the best thing about it?
Cherub: Being with you.

Learning Styles

Angel is now over half way through her GCSE exams (yay!), with the worst - biology, chemistry and physics - behind her. I have been fascinated by her revision style. I had never realised how much of an auditory learner she is. Apparently when it comes to Angel and revision, podcasts and audio are the way to go. For English Literature and the sciences (the most memory intensive subjects) she downloaded a mix of literature guides and  podcasts, recorded herself reading Of Mice and Men aloud, and has been studying by iPod.

For me, this is like watching a Martian at large - a completely alien way of studying. I am the most un-auditory person going. I find focusing on something I have to listen to very difficult indeed, and choosing to listen to something in order to learn it would be torturous for me. I learn best from books, and always have. I remember once having a conversation about lectures with some students. Some of us were frantic note takers because it the only way we could process a lecture was by converting it into text. Others needed to listen and would only make notes after the lecture once they had processed it aurally. Both groups were amazed that anyone could study the other way.

What is your learning style?

Star, by Angel

Angel needs to build a small portfolio of photos to demonstrate that she should be given a place on the photography course she wants to take next year. Here are some pictures she took of Star last weekend:

 

Bother. I uploaded these from my iPad, and have lost resolution. No time to sort it out tonight. You get the idea!

Sixth Form

First a note for anyone outside the UK who isn't familiar with the English school system (I say English rather than British because I think the Scottish system is somewhat different). In September Angel starts Sixth Form, which covers Years 12 and 13, the equivalent of Grades 11 and 12 in the US (ages 16 to 18). Sixth forms can be part of a secondary or upper school which takes students from ages 11 and 13 respectively (our local school area has upper schools, but this is unusual), or they can be a separate Sixth Form College with just 16 to 18 year olds or part of a further education college which also teaches vocational courses and takes students of any age - similar to community college in the US I think. The name Sixth Form is a hangover from an old system in which school classes ran from First Form through to Sixth - Charlotte Mason structured her courses this way and it was still used when I was at school. Under this system Star, who is in Year 8, would currently be in Lower Fourth or 4b. Logical, huh?

At 16 English school students sit a set of GCSE (General Certificate of Education) exams, usually in around ten subjects. From then onwards education takes a different tack to the US, concentrating on depth rather than breadth. After GCSEs some teens go on to jobs, apprenticeships or vocational courses (J-next-door will be starting a hairdressing apprenticeship, for example), others stay on at school to take AS (Advanced Subsidiary) and A (Advanced) Level exams. These are known as Advancecd because they used to be taken after O (Ordinary) Levels, which have been superseded by GCSEs. Confused yet? (If you are a Harry Potter fan this explains OWLS - Ordinary Wizarding Levels. Get it?). Typically those who stay on for Sixth Form take 4 AS Levels in Year 11, then drop one subject and do a second A Level year in the other three. The subjects they choose can be focused in one area (sciences, arts, languages), or can be a mixture; they can also be traditionally academic, or more vocationally orientated.

Angel is most definitely a doer rather than a thinker and has ignored the traditional academic courses and picked four subjects to study at AS Level that are practical and business oriented. Good choices for her, I think, as they use her strengths - the GCSEs for which she is predicted an A are English language, English literature, graphic products (sort of graphic design-ish) and ICT (information and communication technology). Looking ahead to careers, possibilities are things like art editing, web design or something techie-media related, and she would prefer to go straight into work after A levels rather than go to university. The four courses she has picked are:

Business Studies - the AS level course covers planning, financing and managing a business.

Media Studies - a mix of analysing media content (TV, radio, web sites, magazines, newspapers) and production. In the first year there is a project which requires producing linked pieces in two media chosen from video, audio, print or website.

Product Design - covers everything from resistant materials (wood, metal, plastic) to fashion and graphic design. For the AS students put together a portfolio of four different practical projects - the three I can remember are a sales leaflet, an art deco style mirror, and a child's chair reflecting the style of a chosen designer (they had some of these on display in the product design studio, and they varied from a mock-Lego chair, to a Rennie Mackintosh inspired one. I suspect Cherub may benefit from this project!). For the second A level year the student has to design and make a project in consultation with a client. After speaking to the teacher and her enthusiastic students, Angel was sold on this course - I think she will love it.

Photography - covers both traditional and digital photography, ranging from developing black and white film in the darkroom, to Photoshopping digital images. The course explores many different areas of photography - portraiture, documentary, photojournalism, environmental photography, still life, and experimental imagery. They get taken on trips to galleries and museums, and are given a lot of freedom to experiment. Again, I think Angel will have a ball. She is already saving for her own camera, and has started taking pictures to make a mini-portfolio to get a place on the course - they want evidence that would-be students are serious about studying photography and have at least some creative ability.

Assuming that the timetable can accommodate this combination of courses, I think she is going to have a busy but interesting couple of years, and will come out with a set of useful skills that will help her get a job in anything involving media production - or if she changes her plans, to get a place on some sort of media-techie related university course.

Angelic

She is, you know. Thanks to Angel, Tevye and I are having an especially nice weekend.

Last week Angel and J-next-door announced that they were planning to cook dinner for us and J's parents on Friday evening - a belated wedding anniversary celebration for us, and to celebrate A-next-door getting a new job. They did an amazing job, shopping, cooking, washing up ... the lot. This was the menu:

Starter: Vegetable kebabs
Main Course: Chicken in white wine sauce (all cooked from scratch), boiled new potatoes and steamed broccoli
Dessert: Fruit salad, ice cream and melted chocolate

Then last night she babysat while Tevye and I went out for a meal and to the cinema. Tapas, followed by Julie and Julia. I loved the film ... food, blogging, more food, a little romance, humour, food - what's not to like? A bit too much of a girly film for Tevye, though. Came back to Angel dealing very competently with a distressed Cherub, who had had a coughing fit that made her gag and was upset because she thought she was going to be sick (she wasn't, fortunately).

I also came back to a nice bunch of artificial flowers Star had bought for me while shopping in town with her friend earlier.

I love my daughters.

Angel's New Year

For the first time Angel's school are moving her cohort up from Year 9 to Year 10 for the last half term (seven weeks) of the academic year so that they can start their GCSE courses early. The current Year 11 are on study leave and sitting their GCSE exams, so the teaching timetable is free enough to switch over the Year 9 courses at this stage.

In my quest to bore you all with trivia satisfy your curiosity about the UK school system, I'm copying out her new rolling two week timetable. Mondays and Thursdays are given over to compulsory ("core") subjects, and Tuesdays and Fridays to her chosen options plus PSR (Personal, Social and Religious Education); Wednesdays are a mix of both. Angel is taking GCSE in physical education, but also has to take the compulsory core classes, so PE crops up in both sections.

Week 1

Monday - Maths, Biology, English, Chemistry, PE (Core)
Tuesday - PE (GCSE), Graphics (= graphic and product design), ICT (= Information and Communication Technology), PSR, Health and Social Care
Wednesday - Health and Social Care, PSR, PE (GCSE), English, Maths
Thursday - English, PE (Core), Physics, Maths, Biology
Friday - Health and Social Care, PSR, ICT, Graphics, PE (GCSE)

Week 2

Monday - Chemistry, Maths, PE (Core), English, Physics
Tuesday - ICT, PE (GCSE), Graphics, Health and Social Care, PSR
Wednesday - English, Maths, Graphics, Physics, ICT
Thursday - English, Chemistry, PE (Core), Biology, Maths
Friday - PSR, Health and Social Care, ICT, PE (GCSE), Graphics

Independent Learning Week

One of the things I like about Angel's school is that it is good at teaching students how to learn. This week Angel's year have had Independent Learning Week. The idea is that they each pick a topic - anything they like, but the title must be phrased as a question - spend three or four weeks researching it, and then their lesson time for the three days before half term is given over entirely to writing up their assignment. They were all given a booklet setting out what was expected and when, and how to approach their projects, with planning sheets and checklists. Most of the research was to be done as homework, though they did have a couple of library sessions in school time.

According to Angel, most of the girls picked topics to do with fashion and beauty, and most of the boys sport. I'd like to say that Angel bucked the trend and picked something deep and meaningful, but no ... her title was "Will we all have plastic surgery in 100 years time?". Whatever the subject matter, it was a very useful experience. It gave her practice in targeting research to a specific question, setting out her findings coherently, using evidence, footnoting, preparing a bibliography, and working to a tight deadline. Having the solid block of time (15 school hours) to write up the project meant she was really able to immerse herself in it.

I asked her this morning what conclusion she came to ... "Maybe. Sort of ... it's complicated! You'll just have to read it when I get it back."

Floor Routine

Here is Angel's floor routine, thank to K-next-door. Her camera is higher tech than mine and has sound. She also knows how to work it, which helps tremendously!



ETA: Angel says she rushed her floor routine due to nerves and her vault was very scrappy, but all she cared about at the time was getting over!

Flying Angel

Yesterday Angel took part in her first gymnastics competition for five years. I had forgotten what a long haul these can be. This one ran over time by an hour and a half, making it a very long afternoon.

Angel competed at Level 5* in the 13+ age group. It was a two piece competition, so just floor and vault - no beam or bars. She was being a bit ambitious as she wanted to compete in the same group as her friends, despite the fact that they have been doing gym for much longer (she only went back four months ago) and train twice a week (she only goes once). Two weeks ago she could only manage a handspring over the vault from a trampette, and couldn't land her front somersault on the floor. After putting in some extra training she landed both on the day, and finished a creditable 9th out of 19.

I have never managed to master the video function on my camera and my attempt to film her floor routine failed. I did manage to get her vault, though (complete with swirly blur at the end):



* UK gymnastics levels work differently to those in the US. In the UK, there are a couple of general gymnastics (beginners) levels, with the proper artistic gymnastics levels starting at Level 6 and going up to Level 1 (international standard). Looking at this list of skills for the various US Levels I'd say Level 6 UK = Level 4 US, Level 5 UK - Level 5 / 6 US, Level 4 UK = Level 6 / 7 US.

A Rant

... about something that bugs me.

Teenagers.

Not the kids themselves, but attitudes to them. If I had a pound for every time someone has groaned or expressed sympathy when I tell them I have a fourteen year old, I'd be a rich woman ... well, OK, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but I would certainly have enough to keep me in chocolate for quite some time.

I always told Angel was looking forward to her becoming a teenager - quite genuinely, and also hoping to counteract some of the bad press teens get - and I was right to do so. At fourteen she is a mature, responsible young woman, and a joy to have around. So far, the teens have been her easiest age. And it really bugs me that people assume that as soon as they hit their teens kids turn into some sort of parental torture device. How often does that become a self-fulfilling prophecy I wonder?

Pondering Schooling

Yesterday was the first day of the school Easter break. At 9am Angel was sitting at the computer working on an English assignment - an essay looking at the character of Lady MacBeth, as shown by two specific scenes. The promptness, I have to admit, is not due to any enthusiasm for Shakespeare, but due to her Born Organised personality (to use Fly Lady's terminology - she inherits this trait from one of her parents. It isn't me.)

What surprised me was not the efficiency, but the quality of her work. Literature is not her forte. She has spells of reading for pleasure, but is more inclined towards Harry Potter than Shakespeare, to say the least. But she was tackling the topic logically and with some fluency, with the appropriate use of quotes and some real understanding of the context of the play. Why? Because she has an excellent teacher who has brought out the best in her. Last school year she had a teacher she disliked for the first half of the year, and a substitute for the rest. Her English work was run of the mill. In UK terms, she was assessed at Level 5b (potential C grade GCSE). This year every piece of work she has done has improved on the last, and she is now up to Level 7 (potential A grade GCSE) - which I guess translates in US terms to improving from Cs to As. Her maths experience has been similar to her English one - a couple of good teachers, improved confidence, and dramatically improved grades.

Would she have reached the same standard if she was still homeschooled? I very much doubt it. I'm not sure I would have had the courage to even try tackling Shakespeare with her, fearing it would turn into a battleground (it really, really isn't her thing!). Could I have got her essay writing technique up to the same standard? Probably not at this stage. At school, she works because it is expected of her and there is no mother-daughter relationship to cloud those expectations - she can't negotiate with a school teacher the way she would negotiate with me.

On the flip side, get a bad teacher - or even worse, no teacher - and school can be a disaster. Last year she had a substitute science teacher for half the year; this year she has had two terms of shortlived substitutes, rarely having the same teacher for more than a week at a time. There is a critical shortage of science teachers in the UK, and even Angel's highly regarded Upper School is struggling to fill teaching vacancies - what the situation must be like for some schools, I shudder to think. Guess what Angel's science grades are? Level 5a / C ... way below what she is capable of, and I'm pretty certain that if she was still homeschooled she would be doing quite a bit better.

As I gain experience of having children in school, I am increasingly aware that the way children respond to both school and homeschool is very individual. One child may thrive in school; another wilts at school and thrives at home. There is no doubt that academically, school is the right place for Angel. She learns better in a group than on her own, and given the right teacher she does very well - better than she would have done at home.

7 Quick Takes

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1. I am vindicated. After years of torturous maths lessons, Angel has finally admitted that yes, she accepts that she really can do maths, as evidenced by being moved up to the top maths set.

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2. One reason I'm glad to be British ... a senior government minister can have green custard thrown in his face and the protestor responsible doesn't even get arrested. And all credit to Peter Mandelson for taking it with rather more good humour than John Prescott did during the egg-throwing incident.

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3. The older I get, the more my reading skews towards non-fiction, but I have just thoroughly enjoyed two pieces of fiction: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, and The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, recommended by Shari and Lissa respectively.

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4. Getting into Grandma's car after lunch, Little Cherub asked if I was going to "push" the car. I think she meant drive.

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5. How to find easy-to-pull-down trousers or leggings for a newly potty-trained but very tiny 2.75yo? Ones that pull down as opposed to fall down? The best fit seem to be ... gulp ... Gap, which is sadly out of my budget. I know they fit as she has one pair from an outfit that was a gift, and I found another pair in their sale. But £20 for a pair of toddler jeans, anyone? Dresses are not working for the time being as she can't manage tights yet.

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6. Mister Linky has reappeared as mysteriously as he disappeared from my computer. Joy! I can now find other people's Quick Takes and Day Books.

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7. Little Cherub is taking a nap for the first time this week. Even more joy!

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Read more quick takes at Jen's Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes Friday

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1. The potty training is going well. We made it to Jo Jingles, the supermarket and out for lunch today without any mishaps, though she did decide she had to check out the facilities wherever we went, whether she needed them or not. She is also very proud of her "big girl" underwear, announcing to the two elderly gentlemen at the next table "I'm wearing pants!", much to their amusement.

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2. Someone asked in the comments on my GCSE options post about the school day here. Angel's school day lasts from 9am to 3.45pm, and Star's is the same length but runs quarter of an hour earlier (the schools are adjacent and it spreads out the drop offs and pick ups to have staggered start and finish times). After taking out registration and breaks they both end up with five one hour lessons each day. Star has a simple 25 hour weekly timetable; Angel's school uses a two weekly rotation, with a 50 hour timetable spread out over ten school days.

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3. I may as well explain the typical English school year too. Most schools work a three term year. The first term runs from early September to a few days before Christmas; the second term from early January until Easter; and the third from after Easter until late July. There are two week breaks at both Christmas and Easter, a six week summer break, and a one week half-term break in the middle of each term, giving a total of 39 school weeks, less a few odd days here and there.

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4. Angel made her option choices. She started the week dithering over whether she wanted to study Health and Social Care, and by the end of the week had decided she liked the idea enough to push it up the list to second choice. Her final list in order of preference was (1) Graphic products, (2) Health and Social Care, (3) Physical education, and (4) Information technology, with Geography and Leisure and Tourism as reserves.

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5. Some more background ... the English school system usually has two tiers, primary (age 4-11) and secondary (age 11-18). Our education authority is odd in that it has a three tier system of lower (age 4-9), middle (age 9-13) and upper (age 13-18) schools. This was tried by a few counties over the past decades, but I think ours may be the only one left still using this arrangement. Angel's unusually large year group - and therefore unusually large list of options - is a consequence of the three tier system. If the school took kids from age 11 instead of 13, each year group would have to be smaller to keep the school a manageable size.

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6. Finally changing the subject (this isn't quite turning into Quick Takes: the School Edition) ... I have a confession. I am an inveterate book cheat. I find it very hard to read a book without flipping from the beginning to the last few pages to see what happens in the end. I used to think it was impatience, but I've decided I actually enjoy the journey more when I know where the book is heading. Having said that, I did manage not to look at the end of the last Harry Potter book in advance.

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7. It is Lent. I have given up chocolate. And what do I see half price at the local supermarket? Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which I adore, and which are sadly expensive here (if they can be found at all). What to do? I ended up buying a load of them and giving them to Tevye to hide until Easter.

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Read more quick takes at Jen's Conversion Diary. I can't add mine as Mister Linky is hiding ... but I can ask for prayers for Jen, who is booked to have her fourth baby induced on Monday.

GCSE Options

Background for non-UK readers: From age 14 to 18 - the equivalent of high school in the US - school students in the UK study for a series of public examinations. The first two years are spent working for GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) or an equivalent qualification in a range of subjects. English, maths and science are compulsory for everyone, and individual schools will often add one or two more compulsory subjects. Then students add extra subjects of their choice, usually taking around 10 GCSEs in total.

Angel has to choose her GCSE courses for next year this week, and I thought it might be interesting for those of you who are home educating, or whose children are not at this stage yet, or who are not in the UK, to see what options she has. It is very different from the way things were when I was her age and had a very limited choice of O-Levels (the predecessor of GCSEs, taken by those of us over a certain age!). Her school is a large comprehensive - over 300 students in her year alone, of all abilities. I suspect the size means that they have a bigger choice of subjects and subject combinations than most.

Four subjects, typically resulting in 6 GCSEs, are compulsory ... English (separate language and literature GCSEs), maths, science (usually a double science option giving 2 GCSEs) and religious studies (general philosophy and ethics, supposed to be suitable for those of any religion or none). The most scientifically able can do separate physics, chemistry and biology GCSEs, and strugglers do a single science GCSE. There is also two hours a week of compusory PE. All in all, the compulsory subjects take up 30 weeks of their 50 hour / 2 week rotating timetable.

In addition to the compulsory subjects students have to choose four optional ones, each taught for five hours over a two week period. Most options result in a single GCSE, but there are also some subjects that give qualifications considered to be an equivalent level - applied GCSEs (work related and more practical than standard GCSEs), City and Guilds and BTEC (practical qualifications) and ASDAN (general skill development). There are four specialist options which are taught for 10 hours every two weeks. Students taking one of these only choose two other options.

There are very few formal restrictions - no subjects that overlap, and only one 10 hour option - and the timetable is adjusted to accommodate student choices as much as possible, but some courses have limited space (particularly the specialist ones) and some combinations may turn out to be impossible to timetable. To allow for the possibility of not getting all four of their choices everyone has to pick six options in order of preference and the school prioritise those who have put a subject first or second on their list. They recommend picking options from different subject groups to give a good variety of courses, and strongly recommend taking a modern foreign language, though this is not compulsory (much to Angel's relief!). The way courses are assessed vary. Some just have an examination at the end of the two years; most have a mix of examination and coursework or a project, in varying proportions.

This is the list of options:

Specialisms (count as two choices)

• Care of Animals / Horticulture - BTEC Certificate in Land and Environment with emphasis on animal care and either BTEC Certificate in Animal Care or BTEC Certificate in Horticulture
• Engineering - City and Guilds
• Construction Skills - City and Guilds
• Hair and Beauty - City and Guilds

Modern Foreign Languages

• French
• German
• Spanish

Design and Technology

• Carpentry and Joinery - Institute of Carpenters certificate
• Food Technology - GCSE
• Graphic Products (graphic techniques and product design)- GCSE
• Resistant Materials (woodwork and metalwork) - GCSE
• Systems and Control (electronics) - GCSE
• Textiles (needlework, fabric and fashion design) - GCSE

Business Studies

• Business Studies - GCSE
• Business and Communication Systems with CLAIT (computer literacy) - GCSE
• ICT (information and communications technology, ie. computer studies) - GCSE

Humanities

• Child Development - GCSE
• Geography - GCSE
• Health and Social Care - Applied GCSE
• History (Schools History Project) - GCSE
• History (World) - GCSE
• Leisure and Tourism - Applied GCSE
• Certificate of Personal Effectiveness - ASDAN

Creative and Expressive Arts

• Art and Design - GCSE
• Drama - GCSE
• Music - GCSE

Physical Education

• PE - GCSE
  

There are also alternative courses in Food Studies (cookery), PE and drama that are not examined, or lead to optional qualifications such as sports coaching certificates.

Angel doesn't have any specific career plans as yet, just a few vague ideas - something sports oriented, physiotherapy, and web design (or something else along those lines) are possibilities. She definitely wants to take PE, graphic products and ICT. All have a strong practical element, which suits her as she is a doer not a thinker. For example, for graphic products she will spend much of the second year of the course producing a design folio and a model or prototype of her design. For her fourth option she is dithering between health and social care, leisure and tourism, and geography.

Little Miss Night Owl

Angel, knowing I was ill and Tevye was tired, offered to sleep in Little Cherub's room last night and deal with her if (when!) she woke up. We gratefully accepted.

Angel's approach is rather more go-with-the-flow than ours (which is more along the lines of nurse, then return toddler to bed regardless of protests). Apparently Cherub woke at 1 a.m. and chatted away happily for an hour and a half before falling asleep again. Then she woke up for the day at 5.45.

And yes, I did truly appreciate the uninterrupted night's sleep. I did hear chunterings from Cherub's room, but was far too tired to worry about them. Isn't Angel a sweetie? I do hope she is not suffering too much after her long night. Cherub is making up for hers with a nice long nap this afternoon.

The School Week

For the benefit of anyone curious as to how the British school week compares to the American or homeschool version, here are breakdowns of the girls' subject timetables for this year. Both have a 25 hour week, and each lesson lasts an hour.

Angel (age 13, Year 9 / 8th Grade)

English - 3 hours
Maths - 3 hours
Science - 3 hours
French - 2 hours
Spanish - 2 hours
PE - 2 hours
Personal, Social and Religious Education - 2 hours
History - 1 1/2 hours
Geography - 1 1/2 hours
Performing arts (music and drama) - 1 hour
Art - 1 hour
Technology - 1 hour
Food science (cookery) - 1 hour
Information Technology (computers) - 1 hour

Star (age 10, Year 6 / 5th Grade)

English - 6 hours (daily lesson, plus an additional "Big Writing" class)
Maths - 5 hours
Science - 3 hours
Humanities (history / geography) - 2 hours
PE - 2 hours
Art - 1 hour
Music - 1 hour
Information technology - 1 hour
Design and technology - 1 hour
French - 1 hour
Religious Education - 1 hour
Personal, Social and Health Education - 1 hour

Where did my little girl go?

To the Middle School Prom


In a limo


With J-next-door


And some very smart boys (the boy in the white suit was elected Prom King)


Gulp!

Answered Questions

When we made the decision last year to send Star to school we had a number of doubts and questions ...

"Star ... is a quirky personality who may well turn out to be a square peg in a round hole at school and we are far less confident that school will be right for her in the long term. So why send her? Partly because we hope the structured environment will be good for her, and partly because she wants to try. This year is a natural starting point as her year group will be beginning Middle School, so if she is going to try school this is a sensible time. We are going to reassess things after a year, and it may be that she will come home again. If so, then it will be with a number of answered questions, both for her and for us. Watch this space!"

It seems our questions have been well and truly answered . With her permission, here are her class tutor's comments from her end of year report ...

"This is an excellent report reflecting her general attitude in school and positive nature. Star has made good progress, attaining high standards across the curriculum. Her attitude to learning and the school experience is enthusiastic. She is always organised with her Planner and in bringing the necessary equipment to lessons. Homework tasks are presented on time, to a very good standard. Star relates on a very mature level to adults and has positive relationships with her peers. She is a polite, friendly girl who works well on her own or with a partner. Star has contributed often to the wider community of the school. With her attitude and aptitude, I have complete confidence that Star will do well. She has been a valuable member of the class, always ready to help and provide support. Her next class tutor will be lucky to have her in class."

We didn't have the same doubts about Angel, and so were pleased but not surprised that her report (which she is also happy for me to share) was written in equally glowing terms ...

"What a super report! Angel has made excellent progress in the time that she has been with us. She settled in so well, it is as if she has always been here. Angel displays enthusiasm for all aspects of the curriculum and is keen to do well. She has a very mature approach to her studies and I have been impressed by her determination to produce a high standard of work at all times. She is a conscientious pupil who always gives her best, is keenly motivated and sets her own standards. Although quiet, she is always polite and helpful, and has developed more self confidence throughout the year. She has been a pleasure to teach. I wish her every success for the future."

It seems the anecdotal evidence about home educated children adapting well to school, proving to be mature, responsible and well motivated, is on the nail.