Week 17

This was the last week of school.  We have been winding down for weeks now there has been no pressure to do any work, but this week Mrs Clements didn't set much at all - she just set 3 competitions: 1: draw a summer themed picture (not a chance), 2: write a summer themed poem (not really Tom's thing), 3: bake a summer themed cake (no contest - it will have to be that!) 

It stated that the entry had to be 100% the child's own work, the norm in these competitions is that the mums do it and enter it as their kid's effort.  I have never done that so Tom has always entered his own work, then we get to see the other entrants and see that there are 'professional' looking entries which have obviously never been near a child's hand!  It's impossible to stop, it is always going to be the case, but at least Tom can be proud of his efforts.  However, he was making and decorating a cake with fondant which meant that I had very itchy hands.  I directed but didn't do anything.  I showed him how to do things, then destroyed whatever it was so there wasn't any of my work for him to use.  I then took photos of every stage so it could be seen that Tom did it all.  He used past cakes of mine as inspiration but it was 100% his own work.  It took him 4 hours to decorate it and he stayed focus throughout.  He didn't win, but the cake that won was entered by a pupil who has a history of entering perfectly crafted items throughout their school career (and as a result has won pretty much everything).  Tom was proud of himself and rightly so - he was a winner in our eyes. 

Tom with Mrs. Clements and Mrs. Denby

Monday afternoon we went round to see Luca, he had some second hand school uniform for us.  They played cricket for the afternoon together at Burton astro turf.

Tuesday we had the Year 6 leavers picnic.  Normally the school do this all singing all dancing leavers assembly which is constructed to make everyone in attendance cry, that couldn't happen this year, so the school organised a picnic instead, inviting all parents but no siblings.  It was lovely, a relaxed atmosphere, everyone got on, the children played (it was the first time the whole class had been together since March) and the rain stayed away.  It was supposed to be for 45 mins, but think we were there for 1.5hrs (it was always going to overrun).  At the end, Mrs Clements did a lovely speech about the class and she presented them with a handmade brass keyring with their names and IPS on it (she used to be a blacksmith) and a booklet of memories - all tailor made for each child.  We gave Mrs Clements and Mrs Denby (her TA) some presents too.  We then got a lovely thank you email.  It was a nice way to end their time at the school, it was nice to leave with smiles and finally I felt some closure - that he had actually left school.  Found myself ordering all bits of QES uniform I haven't been able to get hold of.

The Year 6 boys

Wednesday we finally heard from QES with a form name and tutor for next year.  To be honest, I haven't been too impressed with the communications from QES.  They close this Friday and we don't know yet what day they are due back, if they are wearing uniform, how on earth they find where they are going to on day one when they haven't had an induction so don't know where their classroom is - etc etc.  Settle got all that info last week.  Also, every year the children have been able to say who they want to be in class with but that was taken from them as well, once again Settle managed to do this but QES didn't!  I was a bit on edge about it all, and then when the forms came through there was no indication as to who everyone is with, so the mum grapevine had to get going to find out who was with who.  Took a day, but Tom is in with Matthew from IPS.  He wanted to be with Caitlin but as usual the assumption is that boys want to be in with boys and girls with girls!  Out of the boys, Tom said Matthew was best.
There will be 20 something other children as well in his form, so he doesn't have to stick with him.  I've been asking around re other children who don't go to IPS, most aren't in Tom's class (there are 8 forms in total - so not surprising), however, I did find out that the other Gingerbug owner, Clare's youngest son, Isaac, is in Tom's form.  He lives in Ingleton but goes to Leck School - I didn't know of his existence until about 2 months ago.  We are going to get them together during the holidays so that they both know another friendly face when they arrive.  Anyway, his form tutor is Mrs Armitstead, she teaches French and Spanish, apparently form tutors do more than just take the register these days, they actually take an active interest in each child and are their first point of contact to resolve any problems.  The children will get taught in these forms (mixed ability) for the first year and then streaming will start to occur (normally they get taught in streams for English and Maths in the first year - but because there haven't been any SATS or even any formal teaching since March they can't do this this year)

Thursday - the leavers hoodies finally arrived!  Lots of excitement, we went up to school to collect them and gave Mrs Clements hers - she was overjoyed by it - never seen her so animated!  We finally got joining information from QES, they are starting on a later date than advertised (thought that might be the case).  Still not sure about buses etc, but they are going to place staff at selected entrances so they can direct children in to where they need to go (normally the children spend 2 days at school in the summer term so they get to meet others in their form, their form tutor, find their way around and know where their classroom is).  On the first day it is just going to be Year 7 at school, the second day Year 7 & Year 12 and then after that the full school.  Each year is its own bubble and given an area of the school that they can be in.  Teachers will come to them rather than they go to teachers.  Not sure what happens re science, art, home economics, design and technology etc as they all need specialised rooms.

Hoodie models

Thursday evening was spent at Meadow Falls, we always said to the Holmans that when they were allowed to open again, we would book a pod with them.  This was the first decent day to do so.  We booked the nicest pod and took our bbq and some lovely Cornvale produce with us for tea along with some potato salad and regular salad I made earlier, oh and some beer and wine.  We had a lovely evening, sat by the fire pit, chatting and watching the kids entertain us.  Didn't get to bed until very late and we slept well.  In true Holman fashion, they wouldn't let us pay them, so we had to go home the next day, look up on the website how much the pod cost, then send Tom in with an envelope of cash so we could pay them!  We like camping there, not far to get to / come home, really lovely site, very clean and the owners are a good laugh.  

Tom and Luca rehydrating

Friday I spent most of the day at home whilst lots of excited children arrived to collect their hoodies.  We went out for lunch at Goat Gap which was very lovely once again (had to queue in the rain but it was worth it) Luckily the rain cleared in time for cricket so we had another lovely gathering with some prosecco and cider (turns out that Tom likes Bulmers cider!) whilst the boys were trained.  

Then at 7.30 I headed over to Janine's for a gathering around a fire for her birthday.  It rained so we sat outside under umbrellas being stoically northern.  So, two parties in one night - was feeling very normal!

Saturday - Tom was supposed to be playing cricket but it rained so it got washed off.  Looking at the radar, the Lake District was better off, so we headed over to Windermere and Gummers How for a walk.  Spent a pleasant half an hour watching kestrels diving for food on the hills. We then returned to a sunny Ingleton.

Sunday, Matt was playing cricket for Ingleton in Ingleton so we stayed put.  It was a lovely sunny day, and the village got completely rammed, when I say rammed, I mean rammed - I couldn't even let Tom cross the road by himself it was so dangerous.  People who have lived here all their lives said that they had never seen the place so busy.  Not sure what they were all doing - can't imagine it was much fun to go round the waterfalls or up Ingleborough though.  I quickly nipped out in the morning to get some mushrooms from the co-op (Matt playing cricket means mushroom pasta for me and Tom for tea) before the village got busy.  We then spent most of the afternoon watching the cricket (they won with no bother - so we had a happy Daddy!)