We detest maths........

I am hoping to get my car back at the end of the week.  I have been driving a Seat Ibiza which is very nice and new but just a bit, well, ordinary.  So I am expecting a car that looks just like it did two weeks ago - or even a little better and a bit newer on the one side, lol !

We had our first CyberCrop on Bubbly Funk Forum at the weekend and it was such fun!  Hard work and a tiring day but a laugh and we had a lot of new people join us too which was great. 

I have to go to Abi and Jake's school this morning as its Pupil/Tutor Review Day, where they go in at an alloted time to chat with their tutor along with the parent.  Should be interesting chatting to Jake's tutor, say no more, but I do have a query about Abi's report which we got at the end of last week.  Abi has been consistently good throughout school, top sets for everything except Maths where she is second from top.  This is good though as Abi is like me and hates maths.  She always does her best though and despite a lack of confidence in the subject she is in the second group out of about eight groups.

This school term she has had a new maths teacher who is very good and has given Abi more confidence in herself about the subject and made her try even harder to get her head around it all.  She studies hard and spends hours, and I mean hours, going through her maths exercise book and plodding through the questions.  She has been dedicated in a way I have not seen her before, spesh with a subject she doesn't like.  Thats the thing about Abi, she tried her best in everything she does and I love her for that.

Their reports are graded 1-4, one being unsatisfactory, 2=satisfactory, 3=good and 4=excellent for three areas - Progress, Homework and Behaviour.  Abi strives and maintains a report of 3's and 4's and was expecting nothing less that this for this last report.  Imagine her horror and upset when she is graded as a 2 for effort in maths.  Any other subject I don't think she would have minded too much, but her exceptional drive to get better in maths this term has surprised me and I would have expected that to be reflected in her mark.  She had a 3 for Progress and Homework and a 2 for Effort. 

She was that upset she cried.

For some students this can make or break.  You can either be knocked down to a point where you can no longer be bothered if the effort isn't recognised or it can make you work even harder.  I've tried to make Abi think the latter way, but time will tell.  I do worry she will give up as it is a subject that holds no interest for her - I mean Maths, bleurgh, who likes Maths!  lol (I know there are some of you out there, but really...?!)

Soooooo, I am going to ask for an explanation of this mark.  Watch this space.  Not a big problem I know, but Abi is studying for GCSE's now and I want her to be encouraged not put down and this made her feel as though all the effort she had put wasn't worth it.  I hope I managed to bring her back up though.

Blimey, I wrote quite a bit about that, didn't I.  Must be bothering me more than I thought.  I was upset for her though and I will fight her corner as any Mum would do........:)

Right, off to get my baby boy Cam up and ready for school.  He will hate having to go when the other two are home, lol.......

Comments

[Janice]

Oh Caroline, I'm not surprised you and Abi were upset. Sometimes you just want to thump those self-satisfied teachers. Hope she keeps working hard, even just to get a decent mark in her GCSE and then concentrate on the subjects she really likes.

[Angelnorth]

Oh, poor Abi! Maybe the teacher just made a mistake when they wrote the grade in? I don't really see how you can get a higher mark for progress and homework if you haven't put the effort in. Hope you got a reasonable explanation, Caroline and that Abi won't let it get her down too much.