The end of year 3 – July school days

Another July gone, another school year finished. That’s it, the end of year 3, and it’s been a pretty good year for N. Could have been better (applying his reading, and actually doing reading), but largely it was a good year. As usual July was a very busy month with all the traditional annual activities to round off the year.

School trips

N had 3 school trips in 3 weeks this month. The first was a visit to Think Tank in Birmingham. We loved this science themed museum when we visited before, so N was looking forward to visiting with school. It was a long day for them as they didn’t get back until 3.45pm but he enjoyed it. Their topic this term was the Human Body, so I suspect they looked a lot in that area.

The second trip was to Upton House, which is only a short journey from school. I’m not sure what they really got up to there. Something outside.

Then they visited the Rose Theatre at Blenheim Palace to see Midsummer Night’s Dream. They’d just done their own key stage 2 performance, but even so, I thought it was brave taking primary school children to see Shakespeare. N said the theatre was nice but had lots of scaffolding. But he said the performance was a bit long and that it wasn’t as funny as their school version. He also said it was confusing because Puck was played by a women, as was Oberon (she was pregnant) with Titania played by a man.

Midsummer Night’s Dream performance

i’m not sure N will want to be i the chorus again after they spent a lot of time having to watch and listen to rehearsals and not really doing anything. But he was very proud of their play and rightly so. They did a great job, it was very funny where it was meant to be, and N knew most people’s lines.

Parents evening

It was another positive parents evening. N’s maths is really strong, and he’s improved his reading and writing this year. He’s a lovely boy to have in class which is always good to hear. Considering he does no reading of books at home (or much else), I was surprised his reading age is a couple of years older than his age. But that (and his spelling) doesn’t translate into the work he does on things like comprehension and writing. And this is what I keep telling him, how reading is essential to help with all his other work. Sigh. It’s really holding him back in what he should be able to do and that’s frustrating.

Activity day

Activity day was a bit different this year. N was put out the school wasn’t providing the usual hotdogs for lunch. But it was fair enough that they just had normal lunches. They played team cricket, rounders and also did karaoke. I was surprised when N said he joined in with that – singing with a classmate.

Target assembly

This term N was awarded his gold target certificate. It tops off a good year where he’s grown in confidence about what he’s been learning.

Tonsillitis and bites

Medically it’s not been a great month for N. He moaned about a headache, then had a fever and the doctor diagnosed tonsillitis. There were a lot of white spots on his tonsils. Apart from the headache, and it being hard to swallow for a day, N wasn’t impacted too much. Nothing like his dad when he has it.

The timing of tonsillitis and having antibiotics was lucky because he was bitten by a horsefly on his face in the classroom (straight after it went and bit the teacher). School antiseptic wiped it and put a compress on. It looked a bit violent for 2 days, but after that was improving. I think having 10 days of medicine helped prevent the bite really making him suffer.

Garden party

The annual garden party arrived and thankfully the rain held off. There’s plenty of food, supplied by the parents and children – lots of crisps, nibbles and cakes. It’s not a day for healthy eating. As well as solo instrumentalists playing, the choir also sing. They’d learnt 2 sets of 3 songs, but just sang 3 or 4. I’m with N when he says the younger children don’t really concentrate or learn their words. A couple of them (not even the youngest ones), were off on one side mucking around together while they were meant to be ready for the next song. The choir mistress is certainly more patient than I am!

That’s July over, the end of year 3, and 6 weeks off til September.