End of Term Reflections
I would like to round up this term’s reflections by thanking a number of people. It has been a tough last half term for personal reasons with a death in the family. So, a big thank you to every one of you who just got on with their homework and actually done without any input from me, the week I took off for mourning. For all of your condolence cards and kind thoughts.
A big thank you for everyone who has turned up for swimming week in and week out, some days we have not loved the weather as we left the pool often getting as wet as we were in the pool before we got home, or at least before I got to the next home school lesson. We have had a pretty direly late autumn and early winter.
So, my next bit thank you goes the Orchard Training Homeschool Garden Club, who have been very tolerant of rescheduling of the club meeting times due to the weather. Since we returned from the half term break, we have had Storm Ciaran, Storm Debi, Storm Elin and Storm Fergus, so our weather watchers tell me. Although we have not necessarily had the worst of these storms, here, we have had an awful lot of rain! All of which makes it hard to get outside and do stuff!
The next big thank you goes to the Orchard Training Cookery Club who voted to cancel the gingerbread houses event this year as it looked like the funeral was going to fall in the middle of the event and you all thought it was too much for me to organise in the same week. I really appreciate you girls and the kindness you have shown and all the lovely baked goodies that keep appearing to cheer me up!
What has cheered me up is the Leader boards – won by the Y8 girls in first and second places again with a Y6 boy in third place the first half of the term and a Y2 the second half of the term. Year’s 3, 4, 5, 7 are doing ok but not quite reaching the top three spots this term. A new leader board will start as we return (January 2nd2023) and will count only correct answers this time. This is to stop the learners who rush the answers and answer lots and lots of question and thus scoring high on the leader boards. Remember, it is so much better to go slower and get the answer correct than rush, guess, get it wrong and answer even more questions. Worker Smarter Not Harder!
Any completed comprehensions need to find their way back to me for marking. I can’t mark them if they are on your bedroom floor, behind the sofa or in the home-schooling cupboard. You do actively need to return them to me.
And talking of working hard, this term we have already answered over 50,000 questions. Those questions stretch from knowing the difference between a short and long ‘a’ sound, right up to transformations of linear functions! I know some parents have or heard those lessons and thought we were talking a foreign language. You might not feel comfortable or know how to do some of the work in your units just yet – but you are putting the effort in and over time it does become a lot easier! We will continually build on that - and yes - there will always be a bit you don’t know, or understand and will have to work on that bit: but that is how life works. Well done, everyone!
We have been so busy I have not been keeping up with the blog in the last few weeks so expect to see a number of stories to come out over the next few days.
Finally, a bit Thank You for all my lovely Christmas presents! It is so kind of you to think of me and go to the trouble of either baking (espeically that fabulous exceptional banana bread – I want that recipe) or sneakily asking me what things I liked, going out and finding them. I was a bit slow on the up take when you started. It wasn’t until the chap in Year 12 told me “World Peace” is not something he could apparently deliver this December and could he have something smaller as a possible suggestion I caught on. I love the home-made wreath with the red roses from the Garden Club. You are all beautify and talented and it is my pleasure to teach you all!
Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!
