Running Man

On Tuesday Tom went to Sedbergh School in Casterton for their invitational cross country (basically a private school thing, where they invite some 'token' primary schools as well (I think because they have to as they have charity status and have to show some outreach into the local community - pretty much all they do!)

U11s boys race

We were a little confused why Tom was chosen as he has never been chosen to do cross country before, it is always the same people: Lucas, Finn and Lexi, but this time Tom was asked as well?  He was excited, we were confused, even more so when we got the letter detailing what kind of running spikes he should wear (as if - obviously a cut and paste from the private school letter!)  Luckily we have friends who do lots of fell running and one of them has the same size feet as Tom, so he got to borrow her shoes for the race which he was delighted about.

He got the coach from school and we met them all there.  There were loads of schools taking part.  All looking very smart in their PE uniform: special running vests, leggings etc.  You could tell the state schools - they were the ones in uniform didn't quite fit (it is a case of one size fits all!).

The area of the race was proper cross country - huge muddy puddles, bridges, chicken run (with chickens) and long, very long, much longer than any race Tom has ever been in before.  Apparently Tom had got very nervous and upset at school prior to getting the coach.  Luckily his friends looked after him and on arriving in Casterton, he lost his nervousness and got excited.

Mid-race

It was all done properly - so there was a proper walk around the course so the kids knew what they were letting themselves in for.  Then it was the under 9s race in which years 3 and 4 competed, our guys (and they were all boys) did pretty well - all finishing in the upper to middle ranks.

Then it was the under 11s girls race where our one girl, Lexi competed.  We were rushing around to cheer her on, but she disappeared?!  Turns out one of her trainers came off in the mud, she went back to get it and lost her other trainer!  She found one, but couldn't find the other and got quite upset (they were brand new)!  The race ended for her, she was devastated - she's a great runner too!

Tom's race was next and I was nervous for him.  I can remember being in a cross country race at St Crispin's and I came second to last in the whole school which was very humiliating, I have only just now attempted to run again - and only because of health reasons!

Anyway, a huge crowd of boys ran up a hill past us, I saw all the Ingleton School pupils, (they were easy to spot being bright red) except Tom.  I thought the worse, but Matt gave me the thumbs up - I had missed him!

We ran to another spot to cheer him on and he was doing really well, he had a look of focus and determination about him - something we don't see very often.  Wow!  Poor Finn was carrying a trainer - one of his had come off, he had fished it out and was running with it - luckily he saw Kate and threw it at her.  He then completed the rest of the race with one shoe on and one shoe off - what a trooper!

Near the finish

We spent the rest of the race running from viewing spot to viewing spot and each time I shouted until I was hoarse, not just at Tom but all other Ingleton pupils (oh forgot to mention, this was an under 11s race so Tom was one of the youngest!)  Each time I saw Tom he was still running and still looking determined.  He got through to the finishing straight and continued, red in the face running up the hill to the finish, he even overtook someone in the straight.  It was 2.5km long, which is a decent distance and is the longest he has ever run in his life!

We were so so so proud of him.  He was behind Lucas and Finn, but in front of Ellis and Zac who are in Year 6, so he really did do well.  He certainly didn't disgrace himself and everyone was very happy for him. Mrs Barry said how much she was impressed by him.

I asked him if he walked at all, he said no, and that even though he wanted to stop and walk he kept saying to himself no, keep running, keep running.  Considering he was up against children that probably do cross country as part of their weekly sports he did extremely well, we couldn't have been more prouder of him.

Being a private school, he then got to enjoy their facilities: he got a cup of homemade soup to warm up with and then hot dogs "with proper sausages mummy" once in the hall.  We then headed home via Booths where he got to choose his tea.

What a star!

Walk with new friends

Saturday

Tom and George

Tom had football training in the morning, it's got to the stage now where we can just drop him off, so we did.  Matt went down to watch the match at the end and got talking to new parents - the team has attracted a couple of new families this year, thanks mainly to one of the players changing school and telling his new friends about Craven.  One of the families are a bit like us ie not local.  Matt got talking to the Mum, Fiona a couple of weeks ago - turns out they were born in the same hospital in the same year!  Anyway, they are really easy to talk to.  They said they were going for a walk in the afternoon, which was also our plan so they arranged to meet up to do one together at Stocks Reservoir.

We had lunch at Goat Gap and then parked up at Stocks.  We met up with them: two boys who are identical in everyday except one is 13 and one 9, and two very excited spaniels.  We did a small lap: just under 4 miles, exploring forests, moss and lots and lots of mushrooms of all sizes, shapes and colours.  It was a really lovely walk and the conversation didn't dry up at all.  Tom and George (the younger boy) acted as if they had known each other all their lives!

Giant mushroom

After the walk, we were invited for a drink back at their place.  We had a feeling it would be nice, we weren't disappointed: down a country lane in the middle of no-where, a proper cottage with loads of out buildings.  House envy set in, mind you they said they were searching a good 4 years before they found it.  They both work in pet food - met at Leeds University doing animal related courses.  It was a lovey day.

Millie - a mad spaniel

Sunday morning saw me and Tom heading over to Bentham to spend the morning with Charlie and Harry - Charlie and Tom have become quite good buddies recently.  Alice set up a couple of escape room type clues for them to play with as she loves going to escape rooms and was wondering if Tom would like to go with them next time.

The boys then played whilst Alice and I chatted.  Alice is a teacher at Settle College so I tried to quiz her about it and QES etc, she is so professional, she wouldn't be drawn.  Fair enough I guess, but I'm sure Charlie and Harry will end up at Settle College and that wouldn't be the case if she wasn't happy about it.

Matt was supposed to be taking the opportunity of us not being around to go out on his bike, but on getting ready, he found the battery was flat and he couldn't start it, so Tom and I headed home, we had lunch and then we went to Ribblehead for a walk - just to get out more than anything else.  We then decided to go out for tea, Tom suggested the Highwayman (Matt and I went by ourselves a couple of weeks ago, and he had felt left out) so we went.  Good food and service again - we will be regular customers here I think.

Forgetful Tom

So, we have been trying to make Tom a little more responsible for his actions.  It frustrates both of us that he seems to be completely and utterly forgetful when it comes to personal property.  The amount of school PE uniform he has lost in his time at school is ridiculous (it all has his name on it!).  I don't mind this as such as it is cheap and you have to buy it in multiples anyway, but when he looses his Clarks trainers it gets to me.  Also he NEVER tells me when he has lost anything.  Turns out last year he did at least half a term of sports (maybe more) in his school shoes as he lost his trainers and didn't tell anyone.  We only found out because we came to school to see the fun run - who was the only child doing it in his school shoes and school shorts?  Yep, that will be Tom. 

I replenished him with new equipment, came to see him in Sports Day the following week to find that he had already lost his PE shorts and T-shirt again!!!!!!  How?  What does he do to them?  Why is it always only him in his class who does this?  Luckily we are friends with the caretaker.  He found his trainers - in the Year 6 cloakroom (we have no idea how they got there as the Year 6 class is completely apart from the rest of the school).  They had been completely trashed.  They had his name in them, no-one had bothered to look!!!!!!  He has also lost many jumpers - until I wrote in big capitals in marker pen his name on waist.  Funny, since then they haven't gone walk about.  This year I have used huge letters with a marker pen with his trainers and school shoes in the hope they don't go missing.

This year we have tried to impress on him how important it is to look after his belongings.  Also that he needs to remember to bring things home.  What should he bring home:

+ His school reading book

+ His Big Maths - so we can see what they are doing in maths

+ Any letters

Yesterday - we discovered no reading book, still no big maths (we haven't one sheet yet - almost a month after starting school - he says the teacher doesn't tell them to bring it home so he doesn't.  On asking lots of children have been bringing their maths work home), and then when I suggested he did guitar practise instead of reading we discovered his guitar book was missing too.  When Matt went to pick him up from school yesterday he discovered 2 pairs of wellies outside in the garden area - guess who's?  Yes, Tom's!  When we asked him, he said that the teacher didn't say to take them inside!  Sometimes I think he has no common sense, how come all other children managed to take their's inside?!

We have also been asking him to do jobs at home.  He's had these jobs since we introduced pocket money, but he seems to have stopped doing them: emptying the cutlery drawer of the dishwasher, doing the recycling and putting his clothes away.  It's not much, but I have to ask him every day to do them, he basically waits for me to say something to do it, he just can't seem to think to do anything himself.  It's been driving us nuts, we are especially worried that with high school looming, he is going to have to fend for himself and think for himself.  If he carries on like this, he's going to spend most of his first year in detention for forgotten equipment, books and homework!

Oh hum.  We always get a blank expression from him when we ask him to sort himself out.  We are at a loss as to what to do.

Thinking about the next step in education

So this week we got an invitation from Settle College to have a look round during their Open Evening - apparently they invite Year 5s as well as Year 6s to give us an insight ready for decisions next year - you don't get long, think the forms need to be completed by the end of October.

I was surprised to get the invite, but thought it worth our while to go along as then at least we have been in a high school environment and have a feel what they are like and can start thinking of questions we need to ask.

It's not a secret that I didn't enjoy my time at high school so for me it is very important that Tom ends up somewhere he will enjoy and grow in confidence as well as getting a good education.  We are very lucky here in Ingleton as we are in the catchment area of 2 well regarded high schools - so although it is a difficult decision to make, at least it is a decision between two good schools rather than trying to dodge a bad school.

We got there for 6pm when it opened - wow it was busy.  We were welcomed by a smiling very young teacher and sent to reception to sign in.  We were then given quite a poor map and a list of activities for Tom to complete and sent on our way to find everything.

The fabric of the school is tired and old, it is 'of an age' and I don't think it has been improved since it was initially built.  I would guess if I had attended it in the 1980s I wouldn't get lost or feel it was any different going there now!  The only difference is that there is a computer classroom and the library is 50% computers 50% books and the teachers all looked sooooooo young.

It is only a small school, 600 pupils which includes 75 6th form students.

They obviously have to compete against QES for pupils, QES has had millions and millions spent on it in recent years, so it's not facilities that they sell, it is passion.  AND wow, do they have passion!

We went for a talk by the senior management (the assistant head teacher and deputy headteacher - not sure what the difference is?!)  Both speakers were young (late 20s, early 30s) and very very passionate, at one point I thought one of them was going to blub.  You were left in no doubt that if you sent your child there, they would we very well looked after.  Every teacher in the school knows the name of every pupil - not many high schools where that is the case.

The head girl and a Year 8 pupil also made speeches and both were very very impressive.  The thing that hit me was how confident every pupil we met was.  There were loads of ex-Ingleton pupils there, including quite a few year 7 pupils.  I asked parents the next day in the Ingleton playground if the kids were 'bribed' to be there at night and the answer was no, they are given the opportunity, no strings attached, they wanted to show their school off!

There were loads of things to do: Tom got to decorate a cupcake in the food tech room, he did some experiments in the science room, learnt how to hack the BBC website in the computer room, did puzzles in the Maths area etc etc.  Everywhere we went there were mega confident pupils - they all looked me in the eye and confidently answered questions.  I was amazed.  I wouldn't have been able to do that at the same age.  There was a drama production in full swing, music performances going on, it was impressive, we were even provided with drinks and cakes and biscuits free of charge - they were good too, but we knew that as the new head cook at Settle College is the old cook from Ingleton.

The only disappointment was the Languages department which of course with Matt's lineage is quite important.  They teach Spanish and French only.  The teacher kept telling everyone who came to her classroom that they could give up languages at Year 9, she didn't seem keen at all to sell GCSE or A Level languages.  We asked her about school exchanges, they don't exist any more.  We asked if pupils have the opportunity to visit the country of the language they are learning - the answer was no.  We asked about the Dutch school that visit Settle College (The Assistant Headteacher told us about this during his speech), she knew nothing about it and said that pupils from Settle don't return the visit.  We asked the killer question about Japanese and we were told that only native speakers have access to other languages.  I was unimpressed.  Languages aren't compulsory anymore and looking at GCSE results from last year, only 10 pupils took French and 2 pupils took Spanish from a year of 93 students.  I'm not surprised if that teacher was the best they could do.

We didn't get to see Geography or History classrooms which was a bit of a disappointment for me.  This was because we couldn't find them and we ran out of time.

Anyway we came away thinking that the place would suit Tom very well, he wouldn't get lost there and if he gets 10% of the confidence the children were showing I would be very happy.

QES only invited Year 6 parents to their open evening and it has already happened, so we have nothing to compare it too.  On speaking to Year 6 parents, it seems that QES has ALL the money and its facilities are second to non and therefore opportunities are amazing.  However, it has 2,000 pupils and Tom being who he is (i.e. not the top of his class, not the bottom of his class and not naughty) he is likely to get 'lost' in such a big school.

Oh, decisions, decisions, what to do...I think it will be very difficult when it comes to the crunch next year.  I will be quizzing parents with year 7 pupils this year in the hope it helps...

Questions to ask next time:
+ How many classes are there in the year
+ Are pupils taught in those classes for all subjects?
+ If they are taught in streams - is there the ability to move up and down according to attainment or is it set in stone for a year at a time?
+ Sports: cricket - is there a club / team?
+ Is there the possibility to arrange a private foreign exchange, can they help us with this and if it happens during term time will we get fined?

First few weeks back

Three kids on a stone

So, we got back from Japan and then boom - it was the school camp out.  Took me over a week to recover from that and now I'm mega behind with the blog.  Oh hum.

Hanging on 

Sheltering in the hospice

So we enjoyed our last couple of days of the school holidays.  On the last day we had a day out with the Mannings which was fun.  We went for a walk up by Grange Over Sands - got to the top of a hill and found something called the Hospice - a shelter from the wind and rain.  Then down to the prom and a late cafe lunch whilst watching trains shoot past.  It was a really fun day out - they are such good company that family - so glad they moved to Ingleton.

Then Tom started school - so we were back to the routine which took some getting used to.  Second week back we were into after school clubs as well and back to manic weekdays - not being able to think further than two days ahead as so much is going on.

Snug in a pod

Also the campout was on the second weekend so all that week was spent preparing for it and then on Friday - boom it was the campout.

Alice and Richard

Toasting marshmallows

What can I say about the camp out...not sure really.  It was A LOT of work.  The same number of people came this year that came last year so all our marketing and extra events we put on didn't bring anymore people along.  We found it very difficult to find people to help out with the BBQ and bouncy castles, if I could clone myself 10 times I would have done so I could do it all myself.  It struck me just how un-community minded some people are.  It surprises me and saddens me.  This event was put on for the benefit of their family and their school and all people worried about was themselves.  Parents were sneaking off the site, leaving their kids behind to go to the pub (we had craft beer and gin in the marquee) we got excuse after excuse of why they couldn't help out etc etc.  Don't get me wrong, plenty of people did help and were brilliant, but you always remember the negative conversations more don't you?!

Festival umbrellas

Me and Lucy 

We raised £1,300 which was disappointing, it should have been much more.  Liz ended up in tears that night, I ended up in tears on the Tuesday (delayed reaction) we put in far too much effort.  Not one person from the school bothered to turn up during the day so that added to our dismay.

Bentham Fire Crew taking a car apart in a RTA demo

Anyway, I'm not willing to do another one.  If Liz does another one, it will have a different format and the school won't be the main beneficiary.  Guess what: after closing her camp site down for the weekend and therefore loosing income, then working extremely hard all weekend for the school to raise £1,300 they are now fining her for taking Annabel out of school so she can have a holiday (obviously they can't go on holiday during the summer and Owen and Annabel have completely different half term weeks as Owen goes to QES).

It took a week to recover from the camp out and to settle into our new weekly routine.  Tom has been tired since going back to school so he has had plenty of early nights - as have we.

I have also been attacking the house - trying to get rid of stuff.  I started well, but then cakes got in the way and now we have piles of stuff everywhere.  Oh hum, one day this place will be tidy.

Climbing Cat Bells

Oh, almost forgot, last weekend we headed to the Lake District - and climbed Cat Bells which is on Derwent Water quite close to Keswick.  Was a very lovely walk, and we had fab weather, meaning the views were amazing.  We are all a little out of shape at the moment - for various reasons, but we are all trying to get fit again so we can enjoy more of these walks.  I was huffing and puffing too much, but if you don't exercise you don't get fitter.  Need to drop a half stone too, so it should all help.