School days – run up to half term

Phew, it’s half term, and for once N won’t be at holiday club at all. I’ve got a flexi day off and the rest of the time he gets to go out on the farm with his dad. N’s going to love it. It’ll be hardcore for the OH though – 4 days plus the weekend and first day back of school to do because I’m away next weekend with my best friend.

Onto this week’s school days.

Spelling obsession

Ever since they were given spellings to learn, N has been obsessed. It’s something every day that he’s happy to do himself, and everyday without me asking. Each spelling page has records of the numerous times he’s practised them.

He’s got all of them right in their weekly test until this week. He assures me that he spelt ‘this’ right but it was unreadable, so no wonder he got it wrong. I think we need to work on not rushing, and writing clearly.

Cross country

This week the Year 1 and 2s went to the catchment secondary school for a primary schools partnership cross country race. N nearly didn’t race because before all the other schools arrived, they were waiting, until he managed to fall (I think off a fence) and hurt his knee and smacked his head on concrete. School had rung to warn me, but assure me he was ok. It sounds like it was thanks to my neighbour looking after him that made him agree to go racing. Although she had to run round with him.

He was so chuffed when he got home. ‘I was number 101 in the boys race and ran all the way’. I’m presuming there must have been around 200 kids given the size of the secondary school years, so not bad considering he’s not really a runner.

VIP

N managed to be VIP again this week. I’ve no idea what for though, it was either a mystery to him, or he’d forgotten…again. He seems to have got a lot more forgetful now he’s in year 1.

Science

I actually found out something he’d been doing when he’d gone up to do some work in with the other year 1s and year 2s. Science. Not just learning, but science experiments. They’ve been doing weather and earth this term, so the experiment was all about making rain. It sounded pretty cool, and I got a full explanation of what they did. Which was a lot more information that I’ve been getting regularly.

Lost trousers

We seem to have lost a pair of his trousers. On cross country day he came home in his tracksuit, but I know he had trousers in his PE bag. I’ve checked his class’s lost property, and at the end of the week, all lost property was laid out for everyone to claim. His trousers still weren’t there. So I’ve no idea where they’ve gone. Extremely annoying because they’re not a cheap supermarket trouser, and they’re clearly labelled.

Open morning and target assembly

On the last day of term, parents can go in to look at their books and the work they’ve done. I love it because it’s a chance to have a nosy, and catch his teacher if needed. N was so excited to show me his maths book. I was quite impressed with how much he has written over the last few weeks. Not a massive amount considering I presume they do some writing each day, but so much more than he ever did last year, and with more confidence. Although maybe a little too much confidence given the wildness of some of his later writing! He also needs to remember his spaces.

In the afternoon it was the target assembly. Each year they work towards completing their targets – all the targets they should have achieved by the end of the year, then once they’ve shown evidence of doing each one 3 times, they tick off their targets to receive a certificate depending on how many they’ve achieved. The first term is just the start point, and everyone receives their kick off certificate which is a nice touch.

They all go up to the front to shake hands with their teacher and line up with their certificate for a photo opportunity. This year, N is in line next to one of the lively fidgety kids, so I have no clear photo of N. The other boy was half in front of N, and wafting his certificate around. Hilarious, but annoying that I couldn’t get a photo.

N was really pleased to have got his certificate but was most concerned that his was yellow card and not the same white that his best friend who’s up in class 2 had. Hopefully he was placated by my explanation that they must have run out of gold (or white).

So he’s now got a week off. And we start the nightmare of trying to get him to read each day even though it’s the holidays and they’re told not to work over the holidays.