Lightening Online

I’m currently involved in a joint venture between the Governing Council of the school and the Parents & Friends Association to revisit our Presentation Awards offered at the end of the year with the view to possibly making some changes/ filling in some gaps in the awards currently offered.

The plan is to involve staff, students and parents in the consultation process.

There have been a few issues raised in regard to our Presentation Awards.

One is that the kids just don’t care (or aren’t motivated by the current awards offered).

Another is that the book prizes are a certificate for a bookstore without books the kids are happy with (we’re a bit limited out here).

Another is that some kids avoid presentation morning IF they are getting an award (???? Guess changing the awards isn’t going to change that!!!). 

SO…

I need ideas, thoughts, feedback.  As much as you can give me.

What sort of things should a school be awarding at an end of year Presentation Morning?

What sort of “prizes” are appropriate AND appeal to kids (particularly secondary kids)?

How do we encourage kids to value learning more?

books, book prize

It’s that time of year again.

Parent-Teacher Interview time.

Personally, I quite like them.  I guess we’ve never really had an unpleasant one.  It’s a great way to touch base with the kids teachers and raise any questions/concerns we may have.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall at others though and see what is said and what other parents say about their children (yeah, I’m nosey like that ).

I went along with my little list of questions.  As it turned out, I had 1 for each teacher, so not too bad.

And the Verdict?

Trailer Boy - started the year on level 1 readers (so basically little to no progress over the first year of school in terms of reading).  Is now up to level 8!!!!  We are so relieved.  And the main thing?  He’s so HAPPY at school and so interested in learning (such a turn around from last year).

Singstar Princess - is apparently an absolute delight to teach!  How nice is that?  Her teacher is delightful too and the whole style of the classroom set-up and learning really suits her.  She’s the only 1 of our 3 that really “fits” in the system.

Lleyton - he’s doing well as expected and getting along with his teacher.  Just working on the homework issue now.  Not that I’m a big fan of homework but he really needs to get into better patterns in preparation for high school.  It’s not his fault he’s not already in that pattern.  Year after year of teachers setting spelling words that are too easy for him or finishing off when he’s always finished has meant that he really hasn’t done much homework so far in his school life.

Overall, we’re really happy with the teachers our children have this year (it’s not easy to have 3 kids in 3 different classes and be happy with ALL of them).  Our kids are settled well and learning well.

What a relief!

Now, if I can just get the school to deal with the swearing bus driver, I’ll be a happy parent (*sigh*).