School Report

Rose ... is as good as gold at school, bless her. (Actually she is pretty good at home too!) She is very proud of the fact that she has never, ever misbehaved at school or been told off for anything by her teacher. She likes learning, and her teacher describes her as "a little sponge". Everything just soaks in. Reading is coming along fast, though she tends to need a bit of coaxing when she is ready to move up a reading level as her confidence lags behind her ability. On the whole, though, she is getting steadily more confident. She was actually excited instead of nervous about getting to collect a merit certificate in front of the whole school (at her school the kids get stamps on a merit card for good work, and after 25 stamps they get presented with a certificate). On the other hand, when the school had a professional theatre company in to perform a pantomime, Rose took one look and bolted straight back to the classroom! Fortunately her teacher had more sense than to send her back and she apparently had fun helping to do "jobs" while everyone else watched the show.

Marie ... her new school still seems to be a good fit for her and most of her teachers were complimentary, though a bit more focus and a bit less day-dreaming would be good.  She is now at the stage of choosing GCSE courses. Compulsory subjects are English Language, English Literature, Maths and Science, for which Marie has been put in an advanced group where they take three separate GCSEs in Physics, Chemistry and Biology; she then gets to do four more subjects of her choice. Her options form had to be in by the end of last week and her final choices were Art, French, History and Business Studies. Art she has always enjoyed. Her choice of history surprised me as she has always complained she doesn't like it. Apparently "history is much more interesting at this school". Glad to hear it! Business Studies is her makeweight, as there was nothing else that particularly wanted to do. French has become a favourite since she started at this school in September. I can't say enough positive things about her French teacher, who has somehow managed to enthuse Marie into working hard and using what is turning out to be a latent talent for languages. The UK National Curriculum is graded in Levels, with the average rate of progress being one full Level every two years. At the end of last school year Marie was graded as Level 4b for French (below average for her age). Suddenly she has shot up to Level 6a/7 (well above average) - in theory that is 5 years worth of progress in 6 months! At the parent-teacher consultation I said how impressed I was with how well she was doing given that she had only been at Level 4 last year. Bemused teacher said that simply wasn't possible! Amazing what a bit of effort on Marie's part can achieve.

Helen ... is also still loving the new school but had a disaster with her Product Design course when she lost a folder containing an entire term's coursework. Faced with the near impossibility of catching this up we have come up with a Plan B. She dropped Product Design - a shame in a way as she was good at it, but she did admit that the amount of work was beginning to overwhelm her even before she lost the folder - and is planning to add in Maths and ICT (information technology) next year. Usually young people in the UK who take A level course take three subjects at A2 (advanced) level and one at AS (advanced subsidiary) level. Helen will end up with two A2s (English Language and Media Studies), two ASs (Photography and Maths) and a BTEC (technical / vocational qualification) in ICT. If she decides she wants to go to university she may need to take a second year of Maths to boost that up to an A2, which she could do during a gap year, but currently she thinks she would rather look for an apprenticeship in something media or ICT related, possibly web design.

Merrick

Last night Angel and I went to watch the first performance of Star's Year 8 school play. There is a tradition at her school that Year 8 perform a play or musical before they move up to Upper School for Year 9. Angel's Year 8 play was Oliver!, performed with more enthusiasm than polish. The new headteacher is a drama enthusiast and has moved the bar up several notches. This year's play was Merrick, based on the life of Joseph "John" Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man (remember the film?).

Merrick was quite a challenge for youngsters of that age (12 and 13), but they did a great job. It was performed in the round, with the minor characters and chorus all sitting in a circle around the main floor area and moving in and out as the play required - the crowd had an important role in both conveying and manipulating emotion, being variously threatening to and supportive of Merrick. The boys who took the main roles of Merrick and his doctor Treves were excellent. Merrick's deformity was conveyed simply by acting, without any special makeup. The highlight for me was a monologue given by Treves describing Merrick's condition, while Merrick himself conveyed the reality of his disabilities simply by movement under a single green spotlight. Difficult to describe, but a real emotion grabber, beautifully acted by both boys.

Star is not really a drama person, so I was slightly surprised she wanted to be in the play rather than backstage, even as part of the chorus without a speaking part. I think she has enjoyed the experience - always a bit hard to tell with Star. She has certainly enjoyed several non-uniform days and missing lessons for rehearsals! All the extra rehearsal time definitely paid off, based on last night's performance. And I have to say I am in agreement with the headteacher, who feels that youngsters gain more from the challenge and experience of performing a well-rehearsed play than they miss from a few lost lessons.

Sounds Write

I meant to report back on my visit to the Sounds Write open morning at Cherub's school last week, but time ran away with me ... catching up now before I forget the specifics.

I am very impressed with the Sounds Write programme, which is a phonics based literacy scheme, covering reading, writing and spelling simultaneously. We were given a talk about how the scheme works, and then the opportunity to watch a Sounds Write session. I particularly liked both the integrated nature - reading and writing together - and the way children start straight into blending and spelling simple words at the same time they start learning the alphabet.

The early stages are based on letter groups. The first group of letters they learn contains 'a', 'i', 'm', 's' and 't', and they quickly add the second group ('n', 'o' and 'p') because the number of words that can be made with the first few letters is very limited. First the sounds of the letters are taught, as phonetically accurately as possible ('mmm' rather than 'muh', for example), along with visual recognition of the letter symbols and correct letter formation. Then right from the first lesson they start learning to blend two and three letter words, and to separate words out into their sounds.

Before I describe the session I watched, a note about equipment, which is very simple. The children each have wo-wo boards ("write on, wipe off" white boards), marker pens and erasers, which they use much like old-fashioned slates. I must say, I wish that as a homeschooler I had known about wo-wo boards. Wrongly written letters and misspelled words can be easily replaced with correct ones, which fits nicely with Charlotte Mason's theory that children should have to look at errors (they can fix the wrong spelling in the mind), and also avoids tantrums from perfectionists who have "spoiled" their page! The teacher used sticky post-it notes with the letters written on and a white board - the letters can be easily moved and reaaranged by the children.

The session started with "symbol search", in which the teacher pointed at letters on a chart and the children made the letter sounds. Then she taught (or reviewed) the letter formation of 'a' and 'p', which the children practiced on their wo-wo boards. Next came working with a "letter line" to make the word 'pat'. The teacher spelled out the letter sounds p-a-t, helped the children to work out that there were three sounds in the word, and drew a line on the white board for each sound. She put sticky notes with the three letters on the board in random order, and got three volunteers to arrange them correctly on the letter line - she repeated the sounds very clearly, making it quite a simple task. Then a fourth child spelled the word by pointing to each letter in turn, saying its sound, and then saying the word (p-a-t, pat). Finally the children copied the word onto their wo-wo boards.

Next came "word swap" where the teacher asked the children to think about the word 'pot' and listen carefully to the difference between 'pot' and 'pat'. She put the letter 'o' on the board and asked for a volunteer to swap one of the letters over to change 'pat' to 'pot'. After that things got a little harder. She wrote the word 'pin' on the board in sticky notes, helped the children to spell out the sounds of the letters, than asked for a volunteer who thought they could read the word - which Cherub did correctly (well done Cherub!). Then more writing practice as they all copied the word 'pin'. Finally the teacher gave them a word (I can't remember what) verbally, and asked the children to try writing it.

The children worked in groups of fifteen, with a teacher and (for the two younger groups) a classroom assistant who helped any little ones having trouble with letter formation. The session lasted about 20 minutes (maybe a little more?), and I was very impressed with how engaged the children were. The progressive nature of the session meant they were all able to join in at their own level - whether it was recognising letters, slightly hit and miss attempts at writing, or being able to blend and break down simple words. Considering that they were a group of four year olds who had only been doing this for three weeks, I was very impressed at how much they were able to manage.

As for Cherub, in a month her letter formation has dramatically improved, she is practicing writing words at home (off her own bat), over the last week has really clicked with blending three letter words, and best of all seems to be thoroughly enjoying the lessons.

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.

Cherub School Update

Two months in and I am still very happy with Cherub's school experience ... and more importantly, she is happy too. I love the set up in the early years unit, with special themed play areas that are kept for the whole half term, and other toys and activities rotating daily. Currently the themed sections are a Halloween party (table setting and play food), a creche (Cherub heaven! She loves dolls), and a workshop. The workshop amazes me, as it includes real tools. I can't imagine many schools allow four year olds access to saws and hammers, but there are pictures on the school website to prove it - and using them very carefully they are too, with fingers well out of the way! And of course they are closely supervised.

We are still loving the story sacks. This week's is an owl sack, with Owl Babies, a book about owls, three owl toys to act out the story, and a set of bird cards for playing various games. Last week was beans, with a bean and a flower pot to plant it in, a book about how baked beans get from plant to table, a CD with fairy tales including Jack and the Beanstalk, and a beanstalk shape matching game. I'm looking forward to seeing what new sack comes home tomorrow.

Cherub's teachers are pleased with the way she has settled in. From refusing to speak to the teachers when she went for her taster sessions, her confidence in them has grown to the point where she made one poor teacher jump out of her skin by sneaking up on her and shouting "Boo!" Fortunately the teacher saw the funny side! She is also beginning to get a bit more confident with the other children and is interacting and playing with them more, having started off very much in her own little self-contained world.

All in all, so far so good.

Story Sack: Bears

Cherub brought her first story sack home from school last week. I just love these! They have a very homeschool-ish feel to me, reminding me a bit of Five in a Row but with props (probably somewhere between FIAR and Before FIAR, as they are aimed at four year olds).

Her first sack has a bear theme and contains:

• Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell - a lovely picture book, and one we own already, in a Little Bear treasury edition bound with three more stories. Until now, Cherub has turned her nose up at the book every time I suggested it to her, but thanks to the story sack has fallen in love with it. I can see we will be on a Little Bear kick for a while.
• Grizzly Bears by Patricia Kendell (In The Wild series) - a non-fiction book about bears.
• Big and small teddy bears.
• Three red cloth lanterns, for acting out the story with the bears - Big Bear brings Little Bear a bigger lantern each time he complains it is dark and he can't sleep, before taking him outside to see the moon and stars lighting the night sky.
• A puzzle-game for pairing up opposites, each illustrated with a bear picture.
• An activity card based on Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? - activities include picture study, vocabulary words, looking at words (rhymes with big and bear, words beginning with B), talking about size, and suggestions of things to do with lights (vary from going out at night to look at the moon and stars, to lighting a candle and talking about candle safety).

First Day of School

I was going to post some cute pictures of Cherub in her new school uniform, but she had other ideas and refused point blank to pose for the camera. All was not lost, as her teacher sent home this photo, along with a little note about her day:

She was both excited and a little nervous before she went - Little Miss Timid is not big on new things, and knew I would be leaving her there on her own - but once we got to school she settled in immediately. We discovered where to put her stuff (peg and drawer with her name on), found her name tag (they have to put their name in a basket to show they have arrived), then she spotted a play area set up as a vet's surgery. Her eyes lit up, and she shot off to play, waving goodbye as she went. This term's theme for the little ones is Pets, which she is excited about. The sticker on her dress says "special helper" - being made special helper for the day meant she got to put the register away for her teacher! By the time I collected her, she was a very happy little girl. She skipped home singing "I love school" over and over, and was on a high for the rest of the day.

So far, so good!

School Plans

I thought I'd jot down the plans the new headmaster has for Star's school - if nothing else, it will be interesting to look back and see how they work out in practice. Star only has a year left there, but Cherub may well move on there after her lower school so the effects of the changes he wants to make are likely to affect her too. Our school system is unusual, in that we have lower, middle and upper schools - Star's is a middle school, for ages 9 to 13. A number of areas tried this three tier system in the 1970s and 1980s, before reverting back to the more typical UK system of primary (age 4 to 11) and secondary (age 11 to 18) schools. This is one of a tiny handful of places where the three tier arrangement has stuck. Personally I like it, and it seems generally popular with parents.

From what he said at Saturday's meeting, the main changes the new head has planned are:

• Putting children into ability sets for maths, English and science, and possibly a couple of other subjects (currently they are only streamed by ability for maths). 
• Reducing class sizes to 20 for maths and English, and a little larger for science (currently there are up to 30 in a class)
• Changing lesson periods from one hour to 50 minutes, and increasing the number of lessons each day from 5 to 6 (he believes teachers should be able to put across just as much in 50 minutes, with lessons becoming pacier and with less time for children to switch off)
• Using most of the gained lesson periods for extra sports and performing arts
• Increasing the number of PE lessons from two a week to five a week. Children who really dislike the idea of extra sport can trade in two of the extra PE classes for drama (or other arts based activities?)
• More leadership responsibility for Year 8 pupils (the 12/13 year olds)
• Lots more sports teams and fixtures, with anyone who wants to be part of a team able to take part.
• More, larger scale performance of plays, musicals and concerts.
• More, and more varied, extra-curricular clubs and activities. 
• More trips out, to take advantage of all the amazing opportunities available given that we are in easy travelling distance from London (West End shows, London museums and art galleries, and so on)
• Better communication and feedback for parents.
• Clearer discipline structure.

That is all I can remember! 

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."

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 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.

School Memories

Little Cherub's playgroup is in the grounds of a nearby lower school. Walking past classrooms full of children beginning their school day made me think back to my own early school days. I'm going to share some rather random memories of the village school I attended from ages 5 to 8. Compared to today's schools it was positively ante-diluvian...

** First two years in Mrs. H's class. Mrs. H was an old-fashioned teacher even in the 1960s. We sat in rows at proper little school desks and behaved very well - I think she must have been the sort of teacher that exercised effortless control. I don't remember any misbehaviour, but neither do I remember her being a disciplinarian. We had a spelling test every Friday, always with ten rhyming words (ten, men, when, then ...). Sums were worked in little exercise books and when we had finished we had to take them up to the teacher's desk to be marked. There were afternoon handcrafts (I still have a simple cross-stitch mat I made) and nature walks.

** A young, up-to-date teacher from Liverpool in the next class up. The classroom was larger and we got to move around more.

** Separate playgrounds for boys and girls. In winter the boys made lethal ice slides in theirs. As we had to walk through the boys playground to get to the school entrance (children could only use the back entrance, not the front), the girls slid on them on the way in and out.

** An outside toilet block. Ugh. Unheated and bitterly cold in the winter.

** Walking down to the village hall for lunch as there were no kitchen facilities at the school. Lunches were of the lumpy mashed potato, lumpy custard and eat everything on your plate or else variety. I remember that smushing vegetables and potato together made it more palatable, particularly if there was gravy. After a couple of years the school got a kitchen and meals were eaten in the hall. I think the "eat it or else" rule disappeared at this time.

** Annual May Day celebrations during which there was a display of may pole dancing in the village square. Every child in the school had to take part.

** A TV bought specially so that the whole school could watch the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.

What are your earliest school memories?

Exams, Exams ... And More Exams

For anyone curious as to how the British education system works in the "high school" years, or how it has changed since they were at school ...

Young people in British schools sit two sets of examinations at ages 16 and 18 (except in Scotland, which also has an exam system but one that works rather differently and which I know next to nothing about!). The original exams taken until the 1940s were known as School Certificate, and pupils had to achieve pass marks across a range of subjects to gain an overall pass, first at ordinary level and then at higher level. In the early 1950s the School Certificate was replaced by subject specific GCE (General Certificate of Education) 'O' (Ordinary) and 'A' (Advanced) Levels. O Levels were intended for more academic pupils, and an easier qualification, the CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education) was brought in as an alternative for the less academic. A Grade 1 pass in a CSE was considered the equivalent of an O Level pass.

Typically an academic track pupil would take eight to ten O levels. They would then select just three subjects to study for A Level. This focus on a limited number of subjects in depth, rather than a broader range in depth, is the big difference between the British and American education systems. The same applies at university level, where British students typically take a single subject degree, with little or no study of any other subject during their three year university course.

In 1988 O Levels were replaced by GCSEs. This change was intended to make the system fairer for all, and stop CSE students feeling second class or being discriminated against by would-be employers. GCSEs have a broad range of "pass" grades, from A* to G, and an "Unclassified" failing grade. (The A* was introduced several years ago to identify the best performing candidates, as too many were getting an A.) This is good in theory, but in fact only grades A* to C count as equivalent to an O Level, and therefore as a true pass. Students can be entered for papers in which the top grade possible is a D, meaning in effect that they are guaranteed to fail - unlike the old CSEs where they could achieve an O Level equivalent grade. The A Level system was left in place, but in the 1990s an additional AS Level, intermediate between GCSE and A Level was introduced, in an attempt to encourage pupils to take an additional subject after age 16. To gain an A Level you now have to sit both the AS exam at 17 and an A2 exam at 18.

The other big difference between O Levels and GCSEs is that O Levels were entirely exam based, whereas GCSEs have a coursework component. This means that from 14 to 18 young people are pretty much continuously assessed, either by coursework or exams. Coursework has become increasingly problematic as it is difficult to tell whether the work is genuinely the student's own - particularly since the advent of widespread internet use has made plagiarism accessible to all. From next year coursework is being largely replaced by "controlled assessments", except for subjects where practical work is an integral part of the course. So far as I can see, controlled assessment is essentially supervised coursework.

Every year, the number of passes and top grades in both GCSE and A Level rise, and every year there are accusations that the exams are being dumbed down - which the government strenuously but not very convincingly denies. Just last week I read a newspaper article comparing sample GCSE science questions with O Level questions from the 1960s. The gulf was - predictably - enormous. They had clearly picked the simplest and most ludicrous GCSE questions they could find. Comparing the harder questions answered by the more able GCSE candidates would be a fairer test. Apparently students who achieved A grade GCSEs were given an old O Level paper and scored an average of 16% - but then, they presumably hadn't been taught the O Level course or prepared for that style of paper, so again, not a fair test. My mother has marked religious studies papers for over thirty years, and has marked O Level, CSE and GCSE papers for several different regional exam boards. She has no doubt that there has been a dumbing down. I suspect she is right, but it is hard to prove.

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

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.

School reports

While we were away in October we missed Angel and Star's scheduled parent-teacher evening and the opportunity to get feedback from their class teachers about how they are doing at school. This week we spoke to both teachers on the phone. Guess what? Despite having never been to school before, both girls have settled in beautifully and got glowing reports. I got the impression that the teachers were a little surprised at how easily they had adapted to school, though they were too polite to say so - I am no longer offended by the assumption that home educated children must somehow miss out on proper socialisation, just amused!

Angel's teacher was delighted with her - apparently she is well behaved, polite, working well, popular, throwing herself into everything with enthusiasm and a delight to have in a class. And you would never guess she was new to school.

We expected a good report of Angel, but Star was more of an unknown quantity given her natural out-of-the-box tendencies. Again her teacher was very happy - she is "bright, breezy and buoyant", behaving well, sensible(!), sociable and generally an asset to the class. Interestingly, her teacher was anticipating problems with her as she was very hyper at her taster day back in July, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the hyper classroom monster he was expecting didn't materialise.

So ... so far, so good. We may still be in the honeymoon period, but at least it is encouraging that the girls have both got off to a good start. And I admit to feeling a little smug that at least two teachers now know that homeschooling does not mean deprived, unsocialised children who would struggle to cope in a classroom. Ha!

Book Week

This past week has been Children's Book Week here in the UK, and all three girls have had a suitably bookish week.

For Angel and Star yesterday's school day was dedicated to books. They had a non-uniform day and were encouraged to dress up as a character from a "Book for Bedtime" - Angel and two friends were the three little pigs, and Star a solitary representative of Snow White's dwarves (this was a last minute change of plan!). Instead of the usual lessons the whole school was split up into small groups and each group spent the day writing and illustrating their own book. I'm not sure what Angel's group did. Star's came up with a complicated sounding fairy tale set in Poland, involving Medusa and an invented animal that was a cross between a bear and ... something - Star forgot what, but given that it was called a Fear it probably began with F!

On Thursday Little Cherub and I stumbled into a Bookstart event for preschoolers at the library, with stories and simple craft activities based on Elmer and the jungle. And I did a little shopping at the library book sale :).

Arithmetical adventures

Last week the girls' school ran a workshop for parents to explain how they teach arithmetic to children Star's age. I went. It was ... interesting. For context, I should explain that over the last ten years or so British schools have been encouraging children to find their own methods of calculation. I gather it hasn't worked (how surprising) and they are now teaching selected methods again. Most bear little resemblance to the traditional methods we were taught.

So, for those of you who may be curious, these are the methods that are supposed to produce the most right answers (no marks for efficiency or elegance!) ...

Addition
Straightforward addition in columns with carrying of tens, hundreds and so on.

Subtraction
"Borrowing" tens and hundreds is considered too confusing for this age group because of those horrid problems with zeros in the top line. Instead of subtracting, they are supposed to count on using a number line. So for example, 384 minus 129 could be calculated this way ... start with 129, add 1 (=130), add 70 (=200), add 100 (=300), add 84 (=384). Add together 1+70+100+84 to get 255. It doesn't look quite as bad shown graphically with a number line. Not quite.

Multiplication
For multiplication they use a grid system, which I can't show very well using blogger formatting. Once you see this written neatly, it does make sense as the same method can be used for simple multiplication, long multiplication, problems with decimals, algebraic problems - anything involving multiplication. To find 256 x 34, you would draw a grid with three columns and two rows. Across the top write 200, 50 and 6; down the side write 30 and 4. Then multiply each combination something like this (the asterisks are because blogger won't let me leave a space) ...

**** | 200 | 50 | 6
____________________
30 |6000 |1500|180
4 | 800 | 200 | 24

Then add the six numbers (6000+1500+180+800+200+24) to get the answer (8704)

Angel was taught last week to use this method to expand algebraic expressions such as (3a+2b)(2a-b). It works. You can see clearly what you are doing, and it helps to avoid getting into positive/negative tangles.

Division
Trial and error. Let's try 125 divided by 4 ... you could start with 10 fours. OK, 10x4=40. Not enough. How about 20x4? 80. Not enough. 30x4? 120. Ah! Getting close. Five more to go. How many fours in five? One with a remainder of one. So we have 30 fours add 1 four ... answer is 31 r1. Are you converted? Would you tackle division that way? No, me neither.

Eat your heart out Singapore. Why teach arithmetic the good old fashioned way when you can make it so much more ... um ... interesting.