Firstly, thank you so much for those of you who have sent me lovely comments about my blog – I was unsure about how it would be received but am soooo pleased that some of you relate to it and enjoy reading. Thank you again for taking the time to message me xx
Have had another busy week; on Thursday we went to Pizza Hut with my best friend Nikki and her two kids, Matthew and Jessica, old friends that we’ve spent a lot of time with over the years, going camping, doing all the birthday things together, Disneyland and more. Made a concerted effort to take the kids out for a meal and Pizza Hut was the natural choice, due to the half price vouchers that are going round on email. We, as always, had a good laugh together, the kids are like cousins together and Nikki and I work well as a team in controlling them all in public places! Nikki’s wedding in May, I'm chief bridesmaid so watch this space for photos…
On Wednesday we went to the open evening of The Academy – the school which Luke goes to and quite probably will be Eli’s secondary school too. It’s only 12 months old (Luke was one of the first intakes), is a new, flashy building and has a young, dynamic, lively, tanned teaching staff. It has more money than it knows what to do with (even employing toilet attendants, no less) and it has the most up to date facilities and enormous grounds. Great, but none of these things impress me – am not a materialistic person – and so it was with great interest that I listened to the Principal’s speech on Wednesday night, waiting to hear what she, and her designer suited staff, can offer my children. The school has ‘replaced’ a local comprehensive, an under-achieving school which had a reputation for very negative reasons. I’ll be honest, I’ve been worried about the ‘sort’ of kids that mine will be going to school with. The school that the Academy has replaced produced a lot of under achievers and truancy. Luke, the sheep, will be very easily led astray, so it was with baited breath that I sent him on his way in his blazer and tie a year ago. A year on and he’s doing astoundingly well in his subjects, getting higher grades than his targets. And that’s the measurement.
I’ve battled for the last few months about where to send Ellis. I want him to fulfil his potential and so always assumed that he’d go to the boys’ Grammar. One visit to the Academy and I'm now sure that he should join his brother there. Their structure, their policies, their ethos (what a great word!) suits me and my children’s life. We want to learn in a safe, friendly, fun environment, we want to reap rewards of hard work with tangible benefits (plus the very long school day of 8-5 means no homework!).
I went to a catholic girls’ school and, although I enjoyed it, I can see now that it was not as rounded an education as it could have been. I have fond memories of staff and pupils and on the few occasions that I've re-visited the school, I have enjoyed the memories that came flooding back. But my children were born in a different time to me, a different century almost, and, whilst faith and some old Victorian values are very personal to me, they’re not a part of Luke’s life, or Eli’s. My boys are so much smarter than I was, so much more streetwise, so much more popular and I’d be doing them an injustice if I tried to relive my teenage years through them. I want them to do well in sixth form and go on to uni, and if they’re the sort of people to want that then they’ll go. As MM says ‘Ellis will be Ellis, wherever he goes’. And so I base my decision about their secondary education on 21st century living (not swayed at all by the free breakfast provided at the Academy, get in!)
Ellis is doing the washing up, Luke’s doing very important things on the Playstation and Max keeps coming up to me and putting his arm around me. (There are very emotional decisions being made on X-Factor at the moment, Austin’s through, yay!) And I'm ignoring the monstrous pile of ironing and am really excited at what my boys have got to look forward to, even if they don’t know it yet.
Have had another busy week; on Thursday we went to Pizza Hut with my best friend Nikki and her two kids, Matthew and Jessica, old friends that we’ve spent a lot of time with over the years, going camping, doing all the birthday things together, Disneyland and more. Made a concerted effort to take the kids out for a meal and Pizza Hut was the natural choice, due to the half price vouchers that are going round on email. We, as always, had a good laugh together, the kids are like cousins together and Nikki and I work well as a team in controlling them all in public places! Nikki’s wedding in May, I'm chief bridesmaid so watch this space for photos…
On Wednesday we went to the open evening of The Academy – the school which Luke goes to and quite probably will be Eli’s secondary school too. It’s only 12 months old (Luke was one of the first intakes), is a new, flashy building and has a young, dynamic, lively, tanned teaching staff. It has more money than it knows what to do with (even employing toilet attendants, no less) and it has the most up to date facilities and enormous grounds. Great, but none of these things impress me – am not a materialistic person – and so it was with great interest that I listened to the Principal’s speech on Wednesday night, waiting to hear what she, and her designer suited staff, can offer my children. The school has ‘replaced’ a local comprehensive, an under-achieving school which had a reputation for very negative reasons. I’ll be honest, I’ve been worried about the ‘sort’ of kids that mine will be going to school with. The school that the Academy has replaced produced a lot of under achievers and truancy. Luke, the sheep, will be very easily led astray, so it was with baited breath that I sent him on his way in his blazer and tie a year ago. A year on and he’s doing astoundingly well in his subjects, getting higher grades than his targets. And that’s the measurement.
I’ve battled for the last few months about where to send Ellis. I want him to fulfil his potential and so always assumed that he’d go to the boys’ Grammar. One visit to the Academy and I'm now sure that he should join his brother there. Their structure, their policies, their ethos (what a great word!) suits me and my children’s life. We want to learn in a safe, friendly, fun environment, we want to reap rewards of hard work with tangible benefits (plus the very long school day of 8-5 means no homework!).
I went to a catholic girls’ school and, although I enjoyed it, I can see now that it was not as rounded an education as it could have been. I have fond memories of staff and pupils and on the few occasions that I've re-visited the school, I have enjoyed the memories that came flooding back. But my children were born in a different time to me, a different century almost, and, whilst faith and some old Victorian values are very personal to me, they’re not a part of Luke’s life, or Eli’s. My boys are so much smarter than I was, so much more streetwise, so much more popular and I’d be doing them an injustice if I tried to relive my teenage years through them. I want them to do well in sixth form and go on to uni, and if they’re the sort of people to want that then they’ll go. As MM says ‘Ellis will be Ellis, wherever he goes’. And so I base my decision about their secondary education on 21st century living (not swayed at all by the free breakfast provided at the Academy, get in!)
Ellis is doing the washing up, Luke’s doing very important things on the Playstation and Max keeps coming up to me and putting his arm around me. (There are very emotional decisions being made on X-Factor at the moment, Austin’s through, yay!) And I'm ignoring the monstrous pile of ironing and am really excited at what my boys have got to look forward to, even if they don’t know it yet.
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