Another week and another month has gone by! We’re looking at the first Semesteral or mid-year exams coming on very soon. The first exam is predictably Hindi which is two weeks from now and then towards the end of the month both GG & BB start their school exams.

GG’s week was more stressed out than BB’s. She had practice twice during school and once more on Saturday. Actually they’ve been having practice quite often on Saturdays, but because of her Hindi classes, her school is asking her to come only twice – the two Saturdays before the event. She comes home so tired when she has practice though and then getting up in the morning is a chore for her, but she has been a trooper. I also realise she’s matured faster than BB who still seems a bit silly to me, especially when I compare them (which I try not to do, but sometimes, it does pop in my mind!)
While GG did not too badly for her first series of class tests, she does need to do much better for this mid-year exam if she wants to top her class. I seriously think that topping her class and getting the school award will do wonders for her self-confidence. She suffers from a case of serious exam stress and this was the big reason she didn’t do well at the PSLE exams last year. We didn’t realise how bad this stress was until it was too late and now I need to get rid of it before she sits for her O levels. So an injection of self-confidence will help her a lot.

Her school concert is a day before the Hindi mid-year exams and so she needs to manage time to work on that too. She’ll be back home after the concert close to 11 and then the reporting time for the exam the next day is 7:30 am! The centre is a bit of a drive (approximately 30 mins) from our home, I don’t know how she is going to manage this as she is like me in the sense she needs her sleep or turns grumpy and cranky!

BB on the other hand was super cocky during his term 1 exams and this showed in his results! He actually failed in English Literature and didn’t achieve targets for any subject. In his case, though he does not study in a top school, I have noticed his peers and classmates, all get good scores. Again, if wants to win school and class awards, he really needs to buck up this term and needs to go up a full band for each subject. Hindi is of course going to be the weakest link, and I think I need to step up and especially from next month when I will be at home, which will co-incidentally be during their holidays, I plan to work out an intensive time-table for both of them.

Friday I got a very hesitant message from BB telling me he wanted to tell me something. My mom antenna went up and I immediately called home to speak to him. He told me his Form teacher wanted to speak to me. From the way he spoke, I knew something was wrong and asked him the reason. So the reason he told me was that during CCA on Wednesday, he accidently hurt his classmate with his penknife. They were using that to make balsam wood planes. So I spoke to his teacher and the story was slightly different. According to the teacher, the other boy wanted to see BB’s penknife and BB shouted ‘No’ while pulling it away from him and in the process, the sharp tip hurt the boy. It was apparently a deep cut and required stitches. I was quite upset to hear this. The teacher asked both boys to write an incident report and since their versions differed, he spoke to me. Now the impression I got was the teacher believed the other boy and the reason was he said, “The other boy is a top student and also a student councilor”. I don’t agree with this reason because I firmly believe that just because you are a top student and a school leader does not mean you don’t lie or twist the truth. I am not disbelieving the boy and know BB shoulders more of the blame, but I didn’t like the way the teacher used these words. This kind of reinforces my belief that in this society we live in, it’s just academic excellence which matters and nothing else! Which is very sad as you need all kinds of people in a society and just academic excellence is not a blueprint for a child’s success in life!

Anyway, BB has been asked to do another reflection and the teacher did say this incident will not be escalated and the other boy’s parents also are not pursuing it further, which is a huge relief!

So that was pretty much the children’s week.

This is the first week of school and both GG & BB’s schools have started working on their mid-year exams. GG is super busy with practice sessions for her programme next month.

I also went for the Parent Support Group meeting in BB’s school and once again wondered why GG’s school is not so proactive in engaging parents. Her school also has a PSG in place (all schools do) and we did meet the members in the first week of school when they invited new parents for a talk by the principal, but after that complete radio silence. I also sent an email to the PSG and am still waiting for a reply – nearly 3 months later….

As I type this I realise we didn’t do anything of note this year in school, or maybe I am not observing enough? Never mind, this shall then be a short post and I will endeavor to do better next week!

This week was the school holiday week and which is essentially a term break here for primary and secondary students.

Both GG & BB were home some days and had to go to other places for workshops etc. GG went back to school one day to practice with her choir for their performance next month and then had to go to a public library far away in the east for a workshop conducted by the National Library Board. BB on the same day that GG went to the library workshop had to go to the opposite side of the country for an environment workshop.

Speaking of BB, I was super upset at him this week. The workshop he was to go was because he is the Environment rep in his class, a responsibility he took up willingly. But for some reason, he didn’t want to attend the day-long workshop and so he lied to me that he was given the consent form in error. Initially I accepted his statement, but then on thinking it over, it didn’t feel right. If the form was given in error, why was his name and class on the form? So I asked again and this time, I told him I knew he was lying and I will call the school to check. I also told him to tell the truth. He confessed. I was so mad at him!! But ultimately on the day of the workshop, he developed stomach pain and decided not to go for it after all, such an anti-climax!

GG had a wonderful time at the camp and I am really glad she enjoyed it. The camp is a prelude to a book and reading competition and the best part is that GG was nominated as the best participant of the camp and got a book prize for it. According to the teacher who nominated her, she displayed leadership skills, and this is something I’ve known for a while. I absolutely hate when schools choose leaders and prefects based on grades – and it’s a documented fact that good grades do not equal to someone being a good leader!

Anyways, school starts tomorrow and both BB & GG now have to start preparing for their first semester or mid-year exams….