parents night and school reports..grandchildr en

Hi Bez...as for friends out of school..no..he doesnt really have many..he has cousins (6 months younger than him)(girls) whom he may see perhaps once eevry 3 weeks..he also has a half sister who is jjust over 2yrs whom he sees when he goe to his dads..but the location where he lives is too busy for him to play out..and he doesnt seem to have reached the stage where they are invited to each others houses..(think people are still very wary unless they really know the other person well) so no he doesnt really have little mates out of school...my DD newish partner does have 3 boys who come up everu 2 weeks for a weekend and he loves it when they arrive.... we make sure he always has at least one night a week football/swimming etc. as some one said...children don't play out the same anymore, people are frightened of letting them out.
I have spoken to another parent whome had a shock at parents night and was told that they think that..the mum should make an appointment with CAM (thinks it is some kind of doctor/therapist etc) her daughter is! pretty active and loves attention..but I wouldnt say it warrants anything like that!
GS has worked hard and got a sticker today!!! aso acheived 5 meters swimming without armbands after 5 lessons so got his certificate and badge and ws quite chuffed...!!
Yes he writes/draws/copies words, loves doing his spellings all quite normal...like I say I think sometimes the teachers froget that they can have a child/children in their class that can be just gone 5 but then have others that are 6..big difference almost 12 months!
we are quite happy....ws just a bit taken aback by the comments from the teachers...!

Wonderful news, Carol
When I was head of the schools' remedial service in the Wirral, I was frequently button-holed at social events by mothers (usually) wanting to tell me which book their child was reading and if I thought it was suitable.
There is a fine line between being an interested parent and being a pushy parent.
Children start school at seven in some Scandinavian countries but their reading skills are better in a year than English children of a comparable age.
Many four and five years olds are not capable of sitting at a table for several hour a day and keeping quiet - they should be running around and exploring the world around them.
I would try to find a less rigid school where this little boy will be appreciated.

My two boys went to a very prestigious school - imagine the pre-A level meeting when we got from the chemistry master - I can't assess T's progress because I haven't seen him in class for months!!!!!!!!! We had not the least flicker beforehand. And how I hated those parents who pop from one teacher to the next just to accept the glorious A student praise! Huh

What a great result Carol for you, your son and your grandson.

The phones are ringing off their cradles today Annobel. The whole family is so excited about this sudden change in what has been a harrowing situation for almost a year. My son now feels able to exert some pressure, and has told ex-DIL 'my mother will pick grandson up at 1 pm on Sunday, and will not be jumping through hoops to get him back dead on 4 pm if the film runs over or they are enjoying a meal together and would have rushed back before.' I will let her know, of course, if we are delayed, but no more driving through McDonalds rather than going in there or Pizza Hut for a treat, for fear of being even one minute late. Happy days again.

Carol I am SO pleased for you, your son and your grandson x

Great news Carol, I hope it goes on to get much better from here.
I do think sometimes people are a bit hard on children learning to read English. As I think I have said before my half-Spanish grandson finds learning to read in Spanish easy because it is easier, without the umpty-tiddle different spelling / phoneme combinations that bedevil the English language. I was reading the other day that children learning English rely far more on activity in the visual patterns part of the brain than children learning languages with a closer spelling / sound correspondence.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...I think people in the future will look back on the way we treat our children in the same way we look at how children were made to go up chimney's and work in factories. Children aged five should be playing not "working"; never mind being kept in at play time and given homework to do after a tiring day at school. I think its appalling. However I fear that some of this is encouraged by ambitious parents.
Schools should be judged by how happy the children are.

Oh yes carbon or how un-bored even.
We have a bright nephew who seems to be finding the whole of his secondary education boring. What a waste.

Great news Carol

DS1 did not respond well to school and had disastrous O-level results, although he was always an enthusiastic reader. But whatever he has done since he has done brilliantly, getting top marks in exams whether professional or academic - in other words, what he really wanted to succeed in. Younger son, who was always more academic and got a very good degree and MBA, used to say, magnanimously, that he thought big bro was the brighter of the two.

Hi bikergran, I am a teacher up here in Scotland and i agree with bagitha and a few other comments. There seems to be a lack of communication between the school and your daughter. Shame on them for that. If any child in my class varied in either their academic or social behaviour I would be looking for the parent at the school gate for a quiet "unofficial" word or writing in the homework diary about my concerns and not leaving it till parents/report night. This seems very unprofessional to me. As for 'ability grouping'? Well this does help me a lot in class to enable me to monitor children's progress and also to highlight problems quicker. However at 5 years old I would not place too much concern on which group he is in just yet. These groups are more for ease of teaching and not labelling children. Please do not worry but DO feel free to(with your daughters permission) talk with the teacher as any teacher who is worth their salt would not want you to be worrying like this. I am well known in school by parents for my approachability and I know that not all teachers are like this but if they do not know you are upset, then they cannot do anything about it.

Nanachuckles - neatly put. Informal friendly contact can be worth so much more than the official communications which can be stilted and inclined to the 'tick-box' approach. On the other hand, although it's far from perfect, I think the system north of the border seems less rigid and less target-based. I feel for the grans here who clearly are very concerned with so many problems which don't really exist up here.

Great news for you Carol no need to tell you to enjoy lol

Nanachuckles thankyou for your kind words.... we have informed the school that if they see any problems or things they are not happy with...then to let us know straight..away....they did apologise for not informing DD and we will certainly bring it up again at some stage..as it seems..there were one or two others with similar problem! thank you all..

Thank you folks - I feel so lucky. I texted grandson and he replied immediately - first time, never been allowed to answer before. Obviously now allowed to use his mobile phone openly, instead of having to hide in the bathroom to text his dad, like he did at Christmas. My son phoned him this morning and he answered - his phone always switched off in the past (son had bought it for him so they could keep in touch last year).

I know how Berliners felt when their wall came down - it's like being liberated!

Carol, I hope you and your grandson have a lovely time together tomorrow.

Sewsilver

When my first child started school, she wouldn`t speak at all, the teacher said that they just couldn`t get a peep out of her, although she was as chatty as usual at home. They didn`t think she was learning, because she wasn`t speaking, then one day, after nearly a full school year, she picked up a reading book in school and started to read out loud! Never looked back after that!