Wednesday 24 September 2008

At last!

Amazing what can happen in 24 hours. D has come home today with all the bumpf needed to do Stats 2 in Further Maths! Now all he has to do is get on with it, which shouldn't be an issue.

Yesterday he sat in on an AS Geology class. He sorted it out himself with the teacher, and is going to sit in on a couple more before getting it added to his timetable.

Today he received a letter from college - no, it doesn't make sense to me either seeing as he's there all day - asking him to attend ICT Key Skills workshops to work towards Level 2. Umm, the boy is studying A-Level Computing. I hardly think that his ability to file handle and make Office do its thing is going to be sorely tested here. This is the boy who, at 6 years old, was rescuing his primary school teacher's files and folders from wherever she'd hidden them on the class PC. Ah well, the hoops we have to jump through just so the boxes can be ticked.

As a total aside to all this, my daughter loves me! What did I do to bring this about? I made lasagne for tea, a whole load of it. Then she promptly invited a friend over to help make a big dent in my hoped for freezer supplies. Now A will be taking some to work tomorrow for his lunch so I may be lucky to get 3 portions frozen. Not bad for 3lbs of mince ;-)

Monday 22 September 2008

What would you do

D has settled well into college. So far the work isn't stretching him and he is considering adding AS Geology to his timetable. Our biggest gripe is that he hasn't had a Further Maths lesson yet.

Why? Well it seems that the first module they do for the AS is Statistics 1. D has done this, and passed with an A, for his A2 Maths (Maths and Further Maths are two different courses, although the modules available are interchangeable). Now college have known he would be starting full-time there since November. They knew in February/March that he would be sitting the Stats 1 module in June. They've known since the middle of August that he got an A. They've known since 29th August exactly what his finalised course choices are. YET THEY HAVE YET TO DECIDE WHAT MODULE HE CAN STUDY INSTEAD!!!! They don't want to have this issue next year for the A2 so they need to decide what they will be teaching next year so that D can choose something else instead. Wouldn't you be a bit peeved that here we are two weeks into the year and he still has to do any maths?

I've told D that when he sees his tutor, who happens to be his Further Maths teacher, on Wednesday he is to tell him to sort it or I will lose patience and be in to see him - and that it won't be pretty if I do.

Thursday 11 September 2008

Did you miss me?

It was the summer holidays and not much was happening here in Dark Corner. The kids were quite happy to bask in the afterglow of their exam results. K got back into studying last week and is making inroads into Maths, Chemistry, Latin, French, ICT, and Ancient History. She only plans to sit exams in the first two, the rest are to build up a portfolio to impress college ready for next year.

Speaking of college, D has had his first day today. It was an orientation day - to meet their tutor and the other students in the tutor group, to sign up for some extra-curricula activities, sign up for a NUS Extra card and bag lots of discounts at various places, sign up for the gym, get a library card, check out the college cafes, grab a locker, etc. He's really hyper. He's made a couple of friends, one of whom has almost the same timetable as him, and signed up for basketball and archery. The NUS team gave him a free UV anti-theft marker to write his postcode on all his valuables, so he's been busy finding things to mark. His timetable has plenty of gaps in it so he has room to do most of his homework at college. In fact, he hasn't shut up since he got in. Long may it continue.

I have a few possibilities on the job front, all office-based. Fingers crossed one of them comes up trumps. A is working hard, as usual, and liaising with D on which nights D will need a lift home from college.

Random mutterings on whatever takes my fancy. I used to Home Educate but my little angels are at college now so I'm 'redundant'. I'm just writing about everyday stuff. It's mainly light-hearted but sometimes serious. No offence is ever intended.