red mum

I JUST got a text from the Young Wan which says (and I quote exactly):

“Im got picked 4 france.! =D =D YAY”

Mmm Im got delighted for her!.

Wonder where she’s going to find the €500 for this exchange trip. It is something we have discussed in theory where we agree she should take part in this exchange trip, however we never discussed money until last night when she was telling me she was surprised it was €500 as she thought it would be more… Jaysus they are very good with others money.

So even if the money is found between now and the dealdine which I suspect maybe sooner rather than later, she may sort out her bedroom as you wouldn’t voluntarily make anyone go in there, never mind stay.

I JUST received this text from the Young Wan:

“gusse who shortlisted in student of the year!? x.X.x.X.”

Herself and four others were put up for student of the year by the teachers, I’m delighted, I will have to have a word about spelling though

It certainly makes a change from ‘can do better’ Well done honey.

RMcolumn April 4 – Picking the Leaving

THE TIME has come for the Young Wan to pick her subjects for the Leaving Cert. As important as this is the preparations into it all feels a bit hit and miss to be honest. Aside from the fact that reaching this stage is urrghh, I can already feel the pressure of LEAVING CERT EXAMS starting to rear their ugly head.

I found the pressure of the Junior Cert dreadful and it was only once it was all over that I was able to give a half sigh of relief, the full sigh didn’t come until the results arrived in September. And the thought of two more years of constant fretting about how much work the Young Wan is or isn’t doing leaves me absolutely cold.

Of course the Young Wan was also under pressure but at times you wouldn’t have known it at all.

So now we are at the choosing the subjects stage and the proceedings were kicked off with a parents meeting in the school during the week.

Oh God don’t get me started on parents meetings; the fact that they are held during the day is one of the most ridiculous and lazy things I have ever heard in my life. I have the utmost respect for teachers, I think they have a very hard job, but take a fecking night and talk to parents, believe it or not some of us work and believe it or not it can be hard to get time off work to attend this things.

And in some cases I am quite sure if a parent can’t make it there would be some who think they are not interested in their child’s education.

The Young Wan’s parent teacher meeting this week started at 12.30, so I was in work a couple of hours before I had to leave. It was due to finish at 3.30pm so it is not even a full morning or a full afternoon, it was half and half meaning that I was only in work for about two hours that day as there seemed little point in trying to head through all the traffic to get back into work for the last hour/half-hour.

I am lucky that I am allowed the time to do this, flash back to a couple of years ago and another work place and that would not have been an option at all.

Anyhoo back to the meeting; we sat there as each teacher got up and in English and Irish and explained about each of the subjects.

“Biology is the study of living things…” When I heard that or something similar, I thought ‘shoot me now’ but I sat on and listened to all the different subject descriptions, how much work they have to do and then my ears pricked up at the mention of a lottery.

All the chosen subjects have been placed into three lines with about three subjects in each. Each student has to pick one from each line but nothing is guaranteed. So far two of her preferred subjects are on one line ruling one of them out. That in itself was bad enough, but I understand that.

However it turns out because so many kids are in her year there will be a lottery for some of the subjects. And most of the year seem to be leaning towards biology which is one of the Young Wan’s best subjects and now she will be competing in some nonsense lottery and may not be able to take her best subject!

I understand the school is understaffed and doesn’t have enough teachers to cover all the subjects but if she doesn’t get subjects she has more interest in and is better at I will seriously be re-evaluating whether or not she can stay at that school.

After all surely it is also in the school’s interests to have their students get the highest results they can, but maybe that just makes complete and utter sense to me. I’ll keep you posted…

THE Young Wan did a talk in her school this week about how good Transition Year is and how much she has enjoyed it. The evening was for held for the third year students and their parents to tell them all about the forthcoming Transition Year and they had three students talk about their experiences, one of whom was herself.

Just listening to her tell me about it, it sounds like she did brilliantly. I am VERY proud of her. If she keeps going on this vein I won’t have anything to write about her or in my column I asked her to tell yourself about the evening and over to herself.

Howya? Well tonight i was talking in front of the whole of third year =S <----That described my stomach before i went on,and of course i had to go first just my luck, but it was fun when i got into it :D.

See i wrote a really good speech before hand sitting in my friend’s kitchen with her adorable kittens sweep and simba (Who spent half the time clawing his way up my skirt onto my knee).

I was really quite happy with it, and relaxed on the bus back to school. All the parents were going into the hall when i went to look for it…Yep you guessed it i lost it and had to rewrite it again, I wasn’t a happy hippo i’ll tell you that much. So anyway i finished it in good time with the principal’s fancy pen

So we listened to them blab on for a good bit and then the fourth year coordinator called me up first, I was a bit shakey at first but i got into it quick enough and i was comfortable after a while, I was telling them about all the courses we did and the courses i enjoyed and what being in 4th year was like. But i didnt know how to end it so it kinda went like *ehhhh……Tadaaaaa?*

That got everyone laughing

So yup i’m quite pleased with myself at the minute

Isn’t she great Well done Honey. (Ooh and this is post number 700)

OH what joy, WHAT JOY! I just got an excited phonecall from the Young Wan who has received her school report AND it is great! No herd of elephants flew by the window either so it must be true.

Some of you long-term readers (if there are any ) will know of my utter disgust when my smart girl started secondary school and I stopped receiving the reports I was used to in primary school. Before I would get reports or go to parent teachers meetings where I heard amazing things about my wonderful intelligent child. I was soo gobsmacked the first time I went to a parent teacher meeting in her new school, I was just not used to hearing about her not doing her best in school.

We had the Junior Cert and survived, with honours and all and just enough under achievement to boost herself into pulling up her socks without giving her a bad Junior Cert. After all if you don’t study and get good results you could be forgiven for thinking you are able to wing these things. At least with a low honours grade, the Young Wan was disappointed with her own performance knowing she was capable of better, I felt the same but still was delighted that we were not looking at repeating the year or some awful stuff like that. I don’t think I would have had it in me, it was stressful enough first time around.

And now she is really flourishing in Transition Year, of course that has a lot to do with no hectic studying, not that it was being done before anyway but she is really enjoying all the different classes. She is loving the opportunity of trying new things, work experience, you name it, she is loving it. So it is all good despite my misgivings about Transition Year.

And now the cherry on the cake is the deliverance of an *ahem drum rolls please* excellent school report. Methinks the Young Wan will be receiving some love in the shape of phone credit this evening. Well done Honey, I am delighted.