We are rapidly approaching the end of the academic year. A year that has been momentous for all three Baguettes in varying degrees. Éowyn moved to the big campus and automatically went from being one of the bigger children in a small pond, to one of the smallest in a larger pond. In addition to this change of location (and a change of teacher half-way through the school year) school work started to become more serious: there was homework and regular spelling tests culminating in her end of Key Stage 1 SATs. Amélie’s year was, arguably more momentous as she began her journey through full-time education with her reception teacher Miss Snow while Ezra begun his journey of school (or pre-school) life taking advantage of the 15 hours of child care that the government provides for over threes.
All three of the Baguettes enjoy school and that shows in their varying success in their respective development. Amélie is progressing well with her reading and writing and maths. Indeed she has rapidly progressed through the reading levels, finishing the year on level 10, one of only two that have reached those dizzying heights. Her writing is coming along and she has begun to create little books filling the pages with stories. She has also, in some ways more importantly, made some good friends that she so desperately wanted to do at the start of the year.
Éowyn, too, has progressed well. The previous school year saw her move schools and to a teacher that she didn’t get on with and this upheaval and disenchantment therefore meant she did not progress to her potential. This has been highlighted with hindsight in how she has progressed this year and how hard she works for a teacher she likes. Indeed, not only a teacher that she likes but teachers she likes. Éowyn’s first teacher of year 2, Miss Bernath left at Christmas to travel around Australia and was substituted by Miss Jetten. Éowyn responded well to both teachers and their respective teaching styles, progressing well in both numeracy and literacy. Indeed, since Miss Jetten took over and homework has changed she has scored 10/10 in every spelling test – only one of two in the class to have done so.
This may sound like it should be something that Éowyn and, indeed Lucinda and I would be proud of, and yes, we are however until last week we didn’t realise the pressure Éowyn was feeling. A constant stream of 10/10’s is definitely something to be proud of but it heightens expectations, not from Lucinda and me as such but from Éowyn herself. She begun to think that we would be disappointed in her if she got 9/10 or less. We didn’t think we had ever given her this impression and thought we were doing the right thing praising her for her outstanding marks, but that was not what was going through her mind. This came to a culmination and thankfully a resolution when she tried to fake illness on the day of her spelling test. Parents have an innate ability to detect fake illnesses and so we realised something was up and made Éowyn go to school. Wanting to get to the bottom of it I sat Éowyn down in the evening to find out what the problem was.
It was then that she confessed that she thought that we would shout at her or be disappointed in her if she didn’t get 10/10. You can imagine how we felt: the archetypal pushy parents. We had both been trying to praise her for her outstanding scores not put pressure on her to keep that 100% record going but somehow we had got the balance wrong. So, we had a long chat about how test marks are not something to get upset and worried about; doing your best is important but never worry about exams. Exams can’t measure the important things and certainly can’t measure you as a person, just whether you have a got a good memory. Yes, Mommy and Daddy are happy when you do well in a test but Mommy and Daddy are also happy when you read Ezra a story, or cuddle Amélie when she is upset or help Mommy to lay the table or help Daddy in the garden. These things are much more important that whether you can spell ‘discussion‘. We will have to keep an eye on this for the future.
The end of the academic year also means a number of things ubiquitous to schools up and down the country and so it is for the Baguettes. Éowyn and Amélie has their respective end of year discos, held on the same day though not at the same time. Amélie’s was straight after school, then there was an hour or so break for the teachers to tidy the school hall ready for the slightly older children in years 1,2 and 3. They both enjoyed their discos, dressing up and taking a little handbag with some money that they could spend on sweets, drinks, tattoos and glowing rings. When I came home from work, Amélie had returned from her disco and was shattered, getting ready for bed so I picked up Éowyn (and our neighbour’s son Blake).
Éowyn and Blake were hyper when I picked them up. They couldn’t stop talking and telling me all about the evening and the amount of sweets that they had eaten. There is no proof that high levels of sugar caused children to behave hyperactively (is that a word), however I think sweets coupled with the excitement of being at a disco with all your friends didn’t help. It was like walking home with slightly drunk friends who can’t stop giggling and half tell you stories that make no sense to your sober mind.
Unfortunately Ezra is a little too young for a disco, however the nursery organised a pirate party for the class. Ezra was quite excited at home about dressing up as a pirate and looked quite good with his hat, sword and drawn on beard. He seemed quite happy when I dropped him off and all his friends were dressed in their pirate finery. When Lucinda picked him up, however, the teachers said that he got a little overwhelmed with all the piratical shenanigans and spent most of the day sat on the lap of one of the teachers. Poor sensitive soul.
The other main school event found at this time of the year is ‘Sports Day’. Éowyn and Amélie have been placed in the same house at school and with modern school days being about team effort rather than sporting prowess, we knew it was going to save arguments and were thankful. However they had to wait a little longer than we expecting for this year’s sports day. The weather this spring and early summer has been awful, cold and wet and the weather was so bad that the event was postponed for an extra ten days (and even then nearly didn’t go ahead on the second date). Indeed, the weather has been so bad that we have, on more than one occasion, serious considered lighting the fire. 1st July 2015 saw temperatures approaching 37ºC, 1st July 2016 it barely touched 17ºC, however Summer will start soon.
Therefore, Ezra had his Sports Day before the girls. Ezra isn’t very sporting, he can be lazy and you don’t find him running around for the sake of running. Therefore, it was no surprise that he didn’t win any races for in addition to his inherent unsportyness (another new word for you all) he is one of the youngest at nursery. Some of the other children are 18 months older than him and when you are three, 18 months is a significant percentage of your age. Nevertheless in the spirit of ‘no one is a loser’ Ezra received his medal (real plastic gold) of which he was very proud.
Éowyn and Amélie’s Sport Day was all about team races and therefore eliminating the individuality of the races (for both eliminating individual competitiveness and because with 90 children per year and 3 years worth of pupils, it would probably take a two-week tournament to involve all children in all races individually). As mentioned both girls were in ‘Yellow’ house and so the result didn’t really matter, however it was the icing on the cake that ‘Yellow’ won!
Discos, parties and Sports Days are not the only things that have been happening since the last update. Amélie has taken a bit step towards growing up: she had her first solo sleepover at her best friends. Amélie has had one sleepover before but with Éowyn at Éowyn’s best friend, and has had sleepovers with the other Baguettes at Nanny Fran’s but this was her first on her own. She had a fantastic time and was impeccably behaved and so can go again!
Despite the weather we have had recently we have nonetheless had invites to a couple of barbecues. The first was Lucinda’s friend Lisca. Lisca and her family live in High Wycombe and the barbecue was in part to celebrate her birthday and as a good-bye for her, Theo and the kids are moving to Norfolk. There will be no more nipping over for a Saturday afternoon barbecue, Norfolk is a tad further than High Wycombe.
The second barbecue of the weekend was a little closer to hand: next door. Our next door neighbours are completely renovating their house and building a two storey extension so, somewhat ironically, it has brought us closer together as neighbours as we have had lots of, amicable, discussions about the work. We felt very blessed to be invited and kids loved playing in their big garden, especially since they had hired two large inflatables: a bungee run and a basketball game. It must be the ‘in-thing’ to do at barbecues for Lisca and Theo had hired a bouncy castle at their barbecue. We will have to buck up our ideas for our next soiree.
‘May you live in Interesting Times,’ is oft purported to be a Chinese curse. The saying is apocryphal and there is no such evidence of its use in China. The closest Chinese expression is ‘Better to be a dog in a peaceful time, than to be a human in a chaotic period,’ and that is exactly how we find ourselves at the moment. I could write reams about my feelings regarding the result of the E.U. referendum but this is not the forum. However, I will say that it is extremely concerning that the political elite that offered this choice to the general public to placate voters of a far right party had no plan of what to do if the ‘leave’ side won because they are so out of touch with the general public that they never truly believe that the ‘Leave’ vote would win. But win they did and since that vote, the Prime Minister has resigned, the leader of the Brexit campaign has resigned (because he really didn’t want to win), the leader of UKIP whose raison d’être was to leave the European Union has resigned because his job is done. The Labour party are ripping themselves apart because they have a leader than 60% of members like and voted for but none of his M.P.s like and have tried to use this political maelstrom to try to oust him rather than take the Government to task for their lack of vision. There seems to be no leadership and no direction and no one wants to activate article 50 – which is the no turning back exit from the European Union. And in our democracy 0.2% of the population are going to decide our new Prime Minister. ‘(Theresa?) May you live in Interesting Times’.
Work is still manic but for once viewers in the UK can see some our work. The Caribbean Premier League (T20 Cricket tournament) is happening through July and into August and can currently be seen on ‘Dave’ at 1300 each day (that there is a game). This is a rerun from the game that will have happened through the previous night, however they are broadcasting a number of games live. Both the re-runs and the live offerings are coming under my watch so if you find yourself watching cricket on Dave think of us.
Before I leave you today one amusing little tale. Ezra has stopped telling you that he loves you. If you say that you love him, he will reply with ‘I like you.’ Regardless of the incentives you offer or how many times you tell him that you love him we will only go as far as telling you that he likes you. Cheeky little tyke!
I will leave you now to enjoy the photos and see you soon.
Peace and Love
Baggie
