Today my younger two have been invited to go to school dressed as their favourite characters from a recently read book. Given that the school reading scheme is at about the Janet and John level this does not give much scope. The boys are also supposed to have been reading daily at home and keeping a diary of that which they have read and understood. Why is it all down to us, as parents, to suffer this? Of course I want my children to be at least proficient in basic skills but FFS what are we paying the teachers for?
As for National Book Week .... it will come as no surprise to learn that it is "sponsored" by a book seller.
Last evening we sat them down and went through their individual days, lesson by lesson, in an attempt to discover what they had learned (Learnt ~ if you prefer). The elder now knows that i comes before e except after c. That is the sum total of 6 hours of education. The younger knows the words to the first two lines of a song in Welsh .... he has no idea what the song is about, just what he thinks the Welsh words sound like. THW who can, to her credit, speak a little Welsh was able to disclose that he isn't singing in Welsh at all but has taken the Welsh words, as spoken to the class by a native Welsh speaker and "translated" them into a language of his own that is closer in fact to English. The native Welsh speaker is his current class teacher and her English is so poor that on Parents evenings she has to have someone present to translate to all the English parents. There are no children in that class where Welsh is spoken at home.
