With M's permission (it was given on the condition that I sympathise with her over her painful back tooth that is coming through, which I did most genuinely), I'm sharing some of the things that have happened in her school life recently.
Since making the decision to go back to school after Christmas, M has been continuing to settle in and get used to school life. We had a 'progress report' in March which clearly shows that she is working hard with an 'outstanding attitude' to study and homework in nearly all subjects (and good in the other one), and as far as I can make out from the rather bizarre reporting scheme they use, she's making good progress academically too. They use letters that are reminiscent of the Hogwarts mark scheme!
She has been participating in plenty of extra-curricular things at school. As well as playing her French horn in the concert band, including a performance at the recent showcase evening, she has played in another inter-school netball tournament and joined an after-school dodgeball club. She also volunteered to help with the school's Comic Relief fundraising efforts.
We had a bit of a hitch recently when a book, that she found in our local library and wanted to read, wasn't in the accelerated reading scheme
that the school uses, and she was convinced that she would be given a
detention if she read it. No amount of persuasion or reasoning from me
would convince her otherwise, but fortunately an email to her English
teacher explaining the situation sorted it out.
On Monday this week, on the way home from school, M told me almost in passing that she had been given three awards in the half-termly achievement assembly, and once home produced certificates for 'outstanding attitude to study' in German, science and, rather oddly since it was the only subject she was not given outstanding for in her progress report, maths.
Today put not only the icing on the cake, but the cherry on top of that too. A letter addressed to M arrived through with the post today; it was from the headteacher. It was a letter congratulating her on and thanking her
for her attitude to work, behaviour in and around the school and her
commitment and dedication. Her tutor and head of year had nominated her for one of these letters, which, she was told, are not sent out regularly and not too many students receive one. Shortly after she'd read this letter, an email arrived from her form tutor, who is also her maths teacher, to say that she will be moving to the set above after the holiday, that she 'has come on a long way during this year and this is testimony to her hard working ethic.'
Twelve months ago, we were happily home educating both K & M, a couple of months later M made the decision that lead to the most difficult six months of her life. She was extremely unhappy and doubting her decision at times, but has shown amazing strength of character throughout. I am incredibly proud of her anyway, but to have her efforts recognised like this is truely heart-warming.
Thursday, 30 March 2017
Wednesday, 8 March 2017
First News vs The Week Junior
It’s taken rather longer than I intended (doesn’t everything!) but I’ve finally got round to comparing First News and The Week Junior, as I promised after asking for experiences on Facebook. We’ve been getting First News for a couple of years now and, thanks to Z, I didn’t need to do the six weeks free trial of The Week Junior as her boys get it, so we borrowed a couple of copies.
At first glance, the obvious difference is that The Week is in magazine format, slightly bigger than A4, and with slightly glossier paper; whereas First News is a newspaper, not much smaller than a standard tabloid. They are a similar cover price, at £1.80 for First News and £1.99 for The Week Junior, although both offer discounts with regular subscriptions.
In terms of content, they are both filled with colour pictures with short articles and have pages devoted to ‘Big News’, home news and world news over the first few pages, as well as a page with the week in photos and sports news. Both also have a puzzles page and a page for contributions from the readers. They both have at least one book review and entertainment news. Each has a section on science and one about animals/the environment. There is a double page that The Week Junior has with no First News equivalent, which is ‘Do something’ on one side and ‘How to...’ on the other. ‘Do something’ tells you a bit about an activity (chess and skiing in the two copies we have), with a little blurb written by a child, presumably a reader and then information how to get started if you are interested in giving it a go along with a website or two to find out more. Based on the sample of two, there seems to be a format of some kind of science experiment (growing crystals and building a washing-up liquid-powered boat), a recipe and one other thing (improving your score at Scrabble and speaking confidently in public).
Having been lent a couple of copies of The Week Junior, I dug out the First News from the same weeks in order to give as fair a comparison as possible. They were from mid-January 2017, around the time of Trump’s inauguration as the 45th President of the US, so it was interesting to see how they present him and the many controversies surrounding his election. It is very clear that both publications are trying very hard, and I think succeeding, in presenting the information and facts as clearly and straightforwardly as possible. They present opinions as just that, explaining people’s opinions but without telling the readers what to think. Neither paper shies away from presenting difficult subjects but does so at an appropriate level for their target readership.
As I said, my girls have been getting First News for a number of years and it is read from cover to cover on a weekly basis. I asked them to have a look at The Week Junior, which they did, but I don’t think either of them really read one properly (they really don’t like change!), so it’s difficult to offer a genuine opinion from the target readership from my girls. I’m convinced that if they’d been getting The Week Junior for the past few years and I’d brought home a couple of copies of First News, I’d have had the same reaction.
I asked on Facebook (and in real life) for thoughts from other parents and children who read one or the other, here’s a selection:
E – “If I were going to get one or the other, I think I’d go for The Week, because of the extra science bit, because that’s what my children go for.”
L (11, one of E’s children) - “I prefer The Week because it’s got a bit more science in it.”
At first glance, the obvious difference is that The Week is in magazine format, slightly bigger than A4, and with slightly glossier paper; whereas First News is a newspaper, not much smaller than a standard tabloid. They are a similar cover price, at £1.80 for First News and £1.99 for The Week Junior, although both offer discounts with regular subscriptions.
In terms of content, they are both filled with colour pictures with short articles and have pages devoted to ‘Big News’, home news and world news over the first few pages, as well as a page with the week in photos and sports news. Both also have a puzzles page and a page for contributions from the readers. They both have at least one book review and entertainment news. Each has a section on science and one about animals/the environment. There is a double page that The Week Junior has with no First News equivalent, which is ‘Do something’ on one side and ‘How to...’ on the other. ‘Do something’ tells you a bit about an activity (chess and skiing in the two copies we have), with a little blurb written by a child, presumably a reader and then information how to get started if you are interested in giving it a go along with a website or two to find out more. Based on the sample of two, there seems to be a format of some kind of science experiment (growing crystals and building a washing-up liquid-powered boat), a recipe and one other thing (improving your score at Scrabble and speaking confidently in public).
Having been lent a couple of copies of The Week Junior, I dug out the First News from the same weeks in order to give as fair a comparison as possible. They were from mid-January 2017, around the time of Trump’s inauguration as the 45th President of the US, so it was interesting to see how they present him and the many controversies surrounding his election. It is very clear that both publications are trying very hard, and I think succeeding, in presenting the information and facts as clearly and straightforwardly as possible. They present opinions as just that, explaining people’s opinions but without telling the readers what to think. Neither paper shies away from presenting difficult subjects but does so at an appropriate level for their target readership.
As I said, my girls have been getting First News for a number of years and it is read from cover to cover on a weekly basis. I asked them to have a look at The Week Junior, which they did, but I don’t think either of them really read one properly (they really don’t like change!), so it’s difficult to offer a genuine opinion from the target readership from my girls. I’m convinced that if they’d been getting The Week Junior for the past few years and I’d brought home a couple of copies of First News, I’d have had the same reaction.
I asked on Facebook (and in real life) for thoughts from other parents and children who read one or the other, here’s a selection:
E – “If I were going to get one or the other, I think I’d go for The Week, because of the extra science bit, because that’s what my children go for.”
L (11, one of E’s children) - “I prefer The Week because it’s got a bit more science in it.”
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