When I was at school, we were making aprons and spice racks. Now JD comes home from Design Technology class with a perspex "China 2025" plaque, designed on computer, built over 6 weeks, cut by laser and illuminated by by soldered LED lights. Whatever next?
0 Comments
JD and I went to a play at his school yesterday. We did think it would be more of a pantomime, but it was fun all the same, and very well produced. An all-girl cast, too, which was odd.
We're having heavy wind and rain here in Chippenham. Some roads have been flooded [like our High Street, see below] and JD's school closed for two days (much to his delight - nobody likes playing rugby in a pond!). Strange times.
JD finished his first half-term at a UK school today. He's settled so quickly and done really well. On Monday this week, he played with Year 10s and a teacher in Badminton Club. Yesterday he came 4th in the Lego Club Finals (despite being a team of one against 7 other teams of three!). And today he cooked spaghetti bolognese in Cookery class. Then today we registered JD to take a Mandarin GCSE examination next Summer. And JD now has 87 online praise points - second in his class and top 10% in his year. We are really pleased with so many aspects of his work/play. Good job, son!
JD got 6 online "praise points" in one day earlier this week, smashing his best ever daily score! It took his total to over 50 - averaging 11 points a week (7-8 is typical, we're told) - and becoming one of the first in his year to earn a "50pts" Bronze medal [below]. More importantly, he is loving school and can't wait to go each day. Having good friends helps a lot, as does the positive and supportive attitude of the teachers. He goes to Badminton, Lego and Science after-school clubs each week and rattles through his daily homework in well under an hour. So far, so good.
One of the new school subjects that JD is enjoying is Design Technology which, this term, takes the form of cookery classes. And we are enjoying it too, for example these tasty low-sugar muffins which appeared the other day. Yum!
JD's school closed down on Monday and Tuesday this week, due to a "catastrophic power failure"! Despite this, JD continues to rack up the e-praise points online, passing 38 in total today. And a nice spread of subjects too...
JD had his first proper Transition Day at Sheldon School today. The new students were asked to wear their Primary School uniforms but we had already disposed of JD's pink polyester Primary School monstrosities in China, so he went in his new Sheldon School uniform instead. ![]() We parked in a nearby Lidl car park, to avoid the traffic, and walked the ten minutes to school from there. Jiajia and I returned for a food shop in Lidl afterwards. The day went well for JD. he met up with his "new friend" Liam again (who has been placed in his tutor group as requested) and met another boy in his class who speaks Chinese. They did ice-breaking activities, had a tour of the school and met their form teacher. There's a second Transition Day on Monday next week, and then we focus on real lessons starting in September. ![]() JD's transition to a British school continues slowly. We had a school uniform fitting event the other day and we are working our way through some English, Maths and Science transition materials the school provided us with. Then we had a message from the school today saying that the students didn't have to wear jumper or ties because of the hot weather. JD was impressed, "Wow! My old Chinese school insisted on full uniform whatever the weather!!" Yesterday we checked out the route to JD's new school, passing through woods, by streams and to the sound of birdsong. Today he went on an induction morning there and thoroughly enjoyed himself, including making a "new friend"! JD then spent this afternoon attacking our overgrown garden, managing to leave it as "just soil" by the end.
JD's new Secondary School in Chippenham was finalised yesterday when we accepted an offer of a place at "Sheldon School" (our first choice). Another small step towards our relocation to the UK.
|
AuthorPaul Hider started this blog to share his rather odd life living in China for over 20 years. Since returning to the UK in 2024, the blog now records his more "normal" lifestyle! Past blog entries
December 2024
Tags
All
|