So, 10am I dropped off a jittery, jumpy, couldn’t-sit-still GP2 for his first exam. “I’m not nervous” he said. Hmm. By the time we got to the school he had my stomach turning somersaults. Maths.
It started yesterday, 3pm. “Mum! My calculator’s broken”. “It’ll be the battery” she said sagely and spent the next 20 minutes extricating [...]
Archive for the 'School' Category
I’m not nervous!
Published May 6th, 2009 in Boys, Children, SQA, School and Standard Grades. 7 CommentsThree weeks and counting…
Nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag
GPM: “That’s 3 weeks. THREE weeks. Well OK 23 days and a few hours until Higher English. You won’t be able to put it off any longer then.”
GP1: “I kno-o-ow.”
Nag. Nag, nag, nag, nag.
“So have you learned that poem? Read that book? Written out those quotes?”
“I’ll do it tomorrow. [...]
Life and times of a teenager
Published March 23rd, 2009 in Boys, Children, Highers, School and teenagers. 7 CommentsNo. 37 Homage to Tracy Emin
Alternatively known as
No. 49. The horizontal filing cabinet
or
No. 51. Revision?
I warned him it would be blog fodder.
:roll:
Subject choice time looms for GP2, my 14 year old son. He has to pick three subjects plus Maths and English to study for Higher. “What do you want to do when you leave school?” everyone asks. “I don’t know!” he wails. “Earn lots of money.” Don’t we all. Did you know what you wanted to do at 14?
Anyhow, Chemistry [...]
Teacher speke
Published February 26th, 2009 in Boys, Highers, School, Standard Grades and Teachers. 3 CommentsParents’ Evening could have been worse, I suppose, but you do have to read between the lines. A little conversation ensued on my Facebook page, to help me in the interpretation. I though you might all like to join in.
Facebook quotes:-
“I used to get comments like, easily distracted, can do it if he makes the effort. [...]
Boys: a miscellany
Published January 28th, 2009 in Boys, Children, Family, Highers, SQA, School, Scotland, Standard Grades and Swimming club. 4 CommentsOne hitherto unforeseen advantage of trundling round the house with the vacuum cleaner is that it gives you space to compose blog posts in your head. One disadvantage is that the instant you switch the machine off, those wonderfully crafted words disappear, sucked up as far as I can tell into the Dyson.
Anyway, there I [...]
Talking to teachers
Published December 18th, 2008 in Boys, Communication, Highers, Internet, School, Standard Grades and Teachers. 4 Comments
The school communication chain
Part 1 Parents talking to teachers
Identify a pressing need to speak to a teacher.
Find out name of relevant teacher from reluctant teenager.
Weekday morning: write note and send it into school with relevant teenager.
Weekend morning: find scrunched up note in pocket of trousers heading for washing machine.
Next week: phone school to speak to teacher.
Teachers being teachers, [...]
Apparently that is my sobriquet amongst GP1’s friends, due in part to my whimsical tendency to insist that he occasionally tears himself away from the X Box to do his homework (well I try) and in part to my - sorry, our - bizarre and totally unreasonable refusal to allow TVs, games machines or computers in [...]
Onwards and upwards
Published October 15th, 2008 in Boys, Highers, School and Standard Grades. 4 CommentsStandard Grades seemed so simple. Were they ever an issue? Did I ever worry that GP1 might not be working hard enough? Surely not. The fact that GP2 is sitting his SGs this year is really just incidental. Because, dear reader, we have Highers looming. I have written very little about GP1 and his meandering [...]
To boldly go
Published September 10th, 2008 in Boys, Marine biology, Miscellaneous stuff and School. 4 CommentsRead in younger son’s physics homework the other day: “The bench moves you fastly to the start and then slowly back through the…”
Nothing to do with hadrons or black holes, fortunately.
Me: “There’s no such word as ‘fastly’.”
Him: “Yes there is. What’s wrong with fastly?”
Me: “The word’s ‘fast’. But that doesn’t really work [...]
Guineapigs
Published August 14th, 2008 in Highers, SQA, School, Standard Grades and Teachers. 2 CommentsIt was the end of June and so the end of term when I found myself reminded of the reason why I adopted Guineapigmum as my nom de blog. Three years ago (was it really that long ago?) the school decided to bring the Standard Grade exams forward a year. The students would choose their 8 [...]
Tutors - help!
Published June 27th, 2008 in Boys, East Lothian, Edinburgh, SQA and School. 0 CommentsSchool’s out. It’s the last day of term. Yay!
But there’s a small problem, and I know I’m probably too late to post this. Everyone’s suddenly on holiday but we need to find a tutor for English Higher for next term. Can anyone in the East Lothian/Edinburgh area point me in the direction of anyone? So [...]
Protective? Or overprotective?
Published June 11th, 2008 in Blogging, Boys, Communication, Family, Internet and School. 10 Comments“You’re an overprotective mum. ”
“No I’m not, I’m just interested. Do you know all the people on your contact lists?”
“Of course I do. Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Well, anyone can see those pictures you’ve put on.”
“No they can’t. It’s private. And I haven’t put my surname, or my [...]
The personal touch
Published May 22nd, 2008 in Boys, Communication, Highers, SQA, School, Standard Grades, Teachers and Work experience. 2 CommentsSo there we are. External exams are over for another year. Next year will be the big one - GP1/Highers (I’m trembling and pale at the prospect) with GP2/Standard Grades (an entirely different proposition). This year, though, was a relative breeze.
First up there was SVS. Once I’d got my head round the fact that
When my tall, laid back (read “idle”), 15 year old son comes in from school each day, the conversation generally takes this pattern:-
Me: “How was school today?”
Him: “Boring”.
Me: “Do anything interesting?”
Him: “Nope” as he disappears into his bedroom to change in preparation for adopting the lounging position in [...]
Ocean Youth Trust
Published March 19th, 2008 in Boys, Ocean Youth Trust, Out & about and School. 2 CommentsI’m not a great believer in the children missing school for any reason. They really have to be close to death before they can stay home sick and it takes a family wedding to get them the last day of term off. But they’re both taking a week out in April to go with the [...]
Oh dear. That was the scoreline at the end of GP2’s first ever rugby match last Sunday. It wasn’t the team’s first match, despite what the scoreline might suggest. But they were playing a team from Gala, in the Borders, and, as you’ll all know, Borders lads are farmers’ sons and built like tractors. Or [...]
High days and Holy days
Published January 9th, 2008 in Blogging, Celebrations, Family, Holidays, Out & about, School, Standard Grades and ovarian cancer. 13 CommentsThis is going to be a very selfish, mean-spirited, churlish, curmudgeonly, whingeing and Grumpy Old Woman sort of post. There. You’ve been warned. For more enlightened, friendly, positive, cheerful reading you could try some of the links on my blogroll instead. Iota’s started posting again about life in the States and she’s always entertaining and currently much more [...]
Tonight is the Ross High School concert, always a good event. Last week the brass players from the primary and secondary schools around the county gathered for their annual Christmas bash, with the Glasgow-based Scottish Co-op Band, home of the brass instrumental teacher, playing the second half of the concert. I think it’s fair to say [...]
Life goes on
Published December 12th, 2007 in Blogging, Boys, Miscellaneous stuff, Out & about, School, Working at home, ovarian cancer and sport. 9 CommentsIn fact, it goes on at such a pace there doesn’t seem to be time to write blog posts. And that’s with no significant work to do for a week or so. Bliss! Christmas shopping and meeting fellow bloggers without feeling that there’s something else I should be doing. Make the most of it. It won’t [...]
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