My friends have been talking about Speech Day all year. So, the pictures that they painted seemed to make the day itself seem a little tame. They uttered words like hot, miserable and spending the morning in the school gym. Luckily, the weather was at least cooperative and while it was warm miserable was not an adjective that I would have used!
Speech Day is St. Nicholas's award day. It is held in the sports hall aka the gym. It is usually one of the hottest days of the year apparently. This year it was not so bad, thankfully. We delivered the kids to the school by 9:15am. We drove separately because Sean was taking Mark to Gilwell (the Boy Scout mecca) for a campout when we were done. After we arrived I realized that I had forgotten Mark's permission forms to camp at home. So I turned around and went 20 minutes back home to get it. I arrived back to the school just in time for the official start.
The Headmaster and all the school governors filed in and the president of the governors spoke. It was his last year on the board of governors and he was resigning as president. One of the things that he had done while on the board was to put term limits on service. He had reached his limit of service at 18 years.
Then the Headmaster was given the podium and after his speech he started with awards. There are 3 awards given in each year. They are as follows; Outstanding Achievement, Best Effort and Most Improved. My two middle sons received the Most Improved award.
In the case of my 13 year old I strongly feel that a lot of his award hinged on the fact that he started 2 language courses from almost zero and really caught up to his class mates. Another thing that really went in his favor was how well he did on the end of year Maths test. He had told me during the second term he was ready for the higher Maths class and they were not moving him up because there was not room. After chatting with the his Maths teacher (who is a dear man) he assured me that he would give my son challenging work and when the end of year testing came, he would test him with the higher classes test. It worked well in my sons' favor as he scored higher then half of the higher level class and has secured himself a place there! My 13 year old also has come out of his shell as we were told by two teachers that he really enjoys drama and doing plays. I have to admit I was in disbelief as this is one of my shyest boys! Wow!
My 9 year old, the other recipient of the award also worked very hard over the year. He went from being behind because he had not learned his multiplication and division facts. He learned all of his multiplication facts and started on division. He also greatly improved his handwriting and has the best handwriting in his class. He made great strides in his reading comprehension which has always been one of all of my children's poorest abilities. We also learned that he is very talented in his artwork.
But after describing how hard they have both worked, it was probably based on test scores or how many levels they advanced!
We ended the day with the school ball. We had a really nice time with our friends and I got to do some dancing!
Speech Day is St. Nicholas's award day. It is held in the sports hall aka the gym. It is usually one of the hottest days of the year apparently. This year it was not so bad, thankfully. We delivered the kids to the school by 9:15am. We drove separately because Sean was taking Mark to Gilwell (the Boy Scout mecca) for a campout when we were done. After we arrived I realized that I had forgotten Mark's permission forms to camp at home. So I turned around and went 20 minutes back home to get it. I arrived back to the school just in time for the official start.
The Headmaster and all the school governors filed in and the president of the governors spoke. It was his last year on the board of governors and he was resigning as president. One of the things that he had done while on the board was to put term limits on service. He had reached his limit of service at 18 years.
Then the Headmaster was given the podium and after his speech he started with awards. There are 3 awards given in each year. They are as follows; Outstanding Achievement, Best Effort and Most Improved. My two middle sons received the Most Improved award.
In the case of my 13 year old I strongly feel that a lot of his award hinged on the fact that he started 2 language courses from almost zero and really caught up to his class mates. Another thing that really went in his favor was how well he did on the end of year Maths test. He had told me during the second term he was ready for the higher Maths class and they were not moving him up because there was not room. After chatting with the his Maths teacher (who is a dear man) he assured me that he would give my son challenging work and when the end of year testing came, he would test him with the higher classes test. It worked well in my sons' favor as he scored higher then half of the higher level class and has secured himself a place there! My 13 year old also has come out of his shell as we were told by two teachers that he really enjoys drama and doing plays. I have to admit I was in disbelief as this is one of my shyest boys! Wow!
But after describing how hard they have both worked, it was probably based on test scores or how many levels they advanced!
We ended the day with the school ball. We had a really nice time with our friends and I got to do some dancing!
No comments:
Post a Comment