Skool teetchers

Tonight we went to the parent teacher(s) thingies at the school. They both have 3 teacher classes...one permanent and two part time.

First we went to Matilda's class. I asked 'OK what's she doing wrong?' They grinned, hesitating, and looking a little uneasy. Then they pulled out a test she did this week that shows she has a reading age of 14! I asked if there's anything she's weak on and they said she talks too fast when public speaking, and her desk is a tip! That's it! I looked over at her desk and sure enough, it was crammed with so much stuff it barely shut. There was a pair of shorts hanging out of it, and stuff bundled onto the chair, hidden under the desk. She's got several books on the go, and Mr Manning mentioned that she borrowed 'Danny the Champion of the World' last Thursday, and brought it back to him on Friday, read!
Then they didn't really have much more to say - just grinned!

So we went to Phoebe's class to wait for our appointment. We were invited in to wait, and read some of her cute stuff whilst we were waiting. When we came to our turn, we were the last, they all gathered round and we ended up having a bit of good laugh and a chat. We knew Phoebe was doing OK, but I at least wasn't expecting her to be doing much more than keeping up. Remember that last year she started off in prep, was moved up to year 1 and this year she's in a year 2 stroke 3 class. They've got her in the year 3 end and they said she didn't even struggle with reading stuff that would be typically given to 8 and 9 year olds! Mrs George reckoned that she could have given her the next test up (I guess 9 to 10 year olds?) and she'd have been able to hold her own. This was a bit of surprise to be honest... her reading style can be a bit wooden. They said that, understandably, because she's two years younger than the kids she's learning with, she's not as 'organised' as they are, (are we seeing a family trait here?) but academically is well capable and reckon that next year, once she's learnt the ropes about organising herself, are wondering what she could pull out of the hat!

Mrs Bird (a lovely, motherly lady) recounted an occurrence recently where they were talking to the kids about wishes. They said to write down what they would wish for if they could wish for anything. Lots of kids wrote stuff like 'Wish I had a Nintendo DS' or other kid type things like that. Phoebe wrote 'I wish I could feel the cool chill of the breeze on my face at the stepping stones'. (This was one of her favourite places in the UK, a little spot where there were stepping stones across the river Brue in Bruton in Somerset, where Molly and Josh used to live). Daile and I had to blink back a tear. I looked at Mrs Bird and she was doing the same! Talk about empathy!

Great to have such nice teachers, and they've both got the same classes next year so we're set for a while.