School days – end of year 2 and garden party
School’s out for the summer. With it being the last week of the school year this week’s school days has been a busy one as usual.
Garden party
N’s school have a tradition of having a garden party each year. The children perform some musical pieces, and parents can come and watch with everyone picnicking on a school field. I’ve missed the last couple of years, because with work, I have to limit what I go to, given everything comes at once in the school year. But this year N really wanted me to come.
His class were performing a dance and their recorder piece. His joining the school choir meant that he was also singing. So I couldn’t really miss it.
It was a hot afternoon and was lovely to sit out and just relax. But apart from seeing your own children perform and chatting to other parents, I think N enjoyed it more than I did. Most of the kids went rushing off to kick a ball around and play tag on the field after doing their performances and eating all the food. So the poor performers left didn’t really have a great audience and we struggled to hear.
N’s performances were highly amusing but very sweet to see how enthusiastic, or not, some of them are. The recorder wasn’t too painful with them playing in a group. It was interesting to see how many children after two terms, are still playing with the wrong hand at the top.
N’s class danced to a couple of tracks, one of them being YMCA. All I can say is that N might want to get it perfect but he might need a bit more dance training. Watching him attempt to kick across his body had me in hysterics. Let’s just say his coordination isn’t quite up to that at the moment. He obviously has his father’s dance genes and not mine.
It was so sweet watching him and his friends in the choir. Three boys in his class of joined in the last few weeks of term but they’d learnt the song and enjoyed singing it. N was so pleased to get his choir badge for taking part this year and it’s proudly placed it somewhere he’s not going to lose it over the summer. He tells me they get a different colour badge each year they’re in the choir.
Performing arts show
Earlier in the term N’s class took part in the performing arts competition at another one of the primary schools in the catchment area. Unfortunately there are only a couple of schools turning up but N’s class were the ones that won the competition and came home with the cup. As most parents weren’t able to attend the school decided to put on the show so we could all go in and watch. Considering they hadn’t performed it for a while they did very well. And it was very emotional for their teacher because so many of them have grown and progressed so much this year.
Transition day and VIP
The last Monday of the year is always transition day. It’s the day when the year 6s go up for their secondary school day and the new reception children come up to the school for the day. Which means all the other children go up a year into their new classes.
N will be going into Key Stage 2 and doesn’t seem fazed by it at all. He’s going to miss his year 2 teacher and TA, but he’s looking forward to having the Class 3 teacher. It’ll be nice for him to have a male teacher again, they are lucky that they have male teachers in a primary school when so many others just have women teachers. For boys, sometimes it’s nice to have a experience of a male teacher before they go off to secondary school. Especially for someone like N where his dad doesn’t take an interest in education, so having a male role model to show that it is important is really essential for him. Plus his cousin is just leaving that class and has told him the teacher tells lots of jokes and is cool, so N thinks it’ll be fun.
It seems they had a great day, doing artwork, getting their pegs ready and preparing for the first day back in September. N was so chuffed to come home with a VIP sticker as well. There’s nothing like impressing the new teacher on the first day in class.
No reading books over summer
N was so disappointed to come home from school without a reading book for the summer holidays. He’d said a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to have 14 books over the holidays and that he was determined to read them. But I presume they’ve not got them because they’re going into a totally different class. But the teacher did say they were expected to do some reading every day to keep them up to speed. So that’s definitely going to be a challenge with N.
While we sometimes go to the library and N chooses his own books he’ll never actually read them. So this summer we’ll really have to make the effort and make sure that he’s reading some of the pages in the books I’m reading to him at bedtime. He has started reading a David Walliams book on his own as well as reading parts of the Tom Gates bedtime book,so maybe there’s hope that he’s got back confidence to try reading books on his own.
End of year party
One of N’s classmates had an end of year party. Lots of water play and hotdogs, just before the heavens opened for a heavy 5 minute shower…the first rain we’ve had in about 8 weeks. It was a lovely thing to do for the end of year.
So that’s year 2 over and done with. Despite having reminders in the morning, I still forgot to take a last day of the year photo. So instead did one over the weekend in normal clothes. N is sure he’s not grown, but I knew he’s grown about 4 cm this year, and I can really see facially how much older he looks. I’m sure next year will be a massive change year as well. That move from infants to juniors is a big one and one I hope he gets on well with.
How did your school year end?