British school system...

Since the British school system is different from the one we are accustomed to in United States, I thought I would try to explain how things work here. I did borrow the below graph from Wikipedia.com, where you will find a much more detailed explanation if you are interested. Just type in "Education in England".



This chart kind of shows the age of children based on the year. The middle section shows how Alyssa and Nathan's school district (catchment area) is set up. Children attend primary school until they reach 11 years and then they will transfer to secondary school which they will be required by law to attend until they are 16. Kids won't have any more changes until they graduate from this school. They go into secondary school as 11 year olds and have to live in peace with the 16 year olds! Yikes!

This is different than the US schools where law requires student to attend school until they are 18. However, England is currently passing a law to require students to stay until 17 years of age.

Currently, when students reach 16 years they have a choice of going on to "Sixth Form" College, where they prepare for GCE A-level examinations required for University, or they can stop their formal schooling and attend a trade school, get a job, or do what they like.

Unlike the US where about 75 percent of high school students move on to attend university, it does not seem to be as important to students here. I could not find any statistics to support this theory, but this is the impression I have. Parents here don't talk about their children going to university like they did when we were in the US. I remember parents talking about which university they wanted their child to attend as their child was crawling around the floor in front of them! Here parents complacently state that "you can't force kids to go". I suppose that seems strange to me because a 16 year in the US is still considered a minor and are still under the guidance of their parents.

I still feel like I don't quite understand the school system here, but I am trying. The fact that you have to spend two full years preparing for college entrance exams here seems a bit daunting to me. I am personally glad that I did not have to do that. From what I here about the exams, they sound extremely hard and stressful!!

Going to college...

Alyssa just started her final year at primary school, "year 6". In the US, that would be grade 5 because here they start "reception" at age 4 so "year 1" for British students starts when the kids in the US start kindergarten. School started the first week of September and three weeks into the year, I have already recieved a letter explaining that Alyssa needed to apply to the "college" of her choice for next year.

In order to apply, I had a choice of either completing a lengthy application by hand or by going to the county website and applying using their secure application process. Being electronically driven, I chose the website.

Before I began, I had to type in a number supplied on the letter I recieved. The number resembled the codes Microsoft uses for product activation in that it was ridiculously long. After this, I found I had to verify Alyssa's age, current school, address, and any medical history that might have a bearing on school related activities.

Finally, I managed to get to the screen that gave me the opportunity to pick our preferred school. Our "preferred school" is 3 miles down the road from the Hardwick Primary School. It is the only public school in our catchment area. It is a very well regarded school and many families move into the village in order to attend the college. As it turns out, however, a very large development further west has added a heavy load to our catchment area and it is no longer guaranteed that we will get to attend this school. The form informed me that I was "encouraged" to select THREE schools as there is a possiblity that we won't get our first choice. This means that Alyssa could potentially get sent into Cambridge for her secondary school.

This knowledge does not sit well with the other parents I know who are also applying for the "Year 7 transfer". They have said that they chose Hardwick more for the schools that the location (perhaps they don't like to spend so much time driving behind farm machinery to get home). We all have our fingers and toes crossed that we will get our kids into Comberton College so that we don't have to spend more time shuttling our kids to school activities than we currently already do!

Despite all of the handwring by parents, Alyssa, thinks it is fabulous that she will be attending "college" next year as opposed to her peers in the States who will be ONLY be attending middle school.

English spellings

Three things of note in Alyssa's year 6 (5th grade) spelling words. They are "Spellings". Dates are formatted DD•MM•YYYY. Plus airplane is spelled "Aeroplane". (Or "spelt" as they say here)
Aerodrome, I suppose is spelled the same way we would do it.
-Dale

Thank you for your custom?

This was a new expression to us. "Thank you for your custom" Does a custom-er provides a business with "custom", or is it our custom to patronize this Hotel? -Dale

Alps

This was in Chatel, France, a ski town about 75 miles from Geneva. These bits are called the "Dents du Midi".

-Dale

A day at the beach...

To celebrate the end of the finishing of school on July 22, we decided to take a family trip to the beach. We returned to Brancaster, shown to us by some friends that has beautiful sandy beaches that are not overcrowded. We took all of our regular beach gear, awning for sun protection, sunscreen, cooler for lunch and snacks, buckets, shovels, etc. However, we were missing the one thing essential for all British beaches: a wind screen. If you double click on the picture to the right, you will notice all the blue and striped wind screens stuck in the sand. The first thing packed here is the wind screen and a mallet to pound it in. We found that out after our emergency purchase of a wind screen that day. The sand was so packed together from the wind and wet that it was like trying to dig a hole in cement. We spent most of the day righting out wind screen since the wind kept blowing it out since we could not get the wind screen poles deep enough.

After a day at the beach, tradition recommends going and getting fish and chips for dinner. We went to nearby Hunstanton for this. Hunstanton is an established beach town with boardwalks, carnival rides, ice cream stands and all things associated with beach going. The boardwalks were not made of "boards" but of cement and probably served both as boardwalk and protection from the sea.

The best part of our day was that it was nearly 80 F and it did not rain!!

Creative thinking...

Alyssa needed to create a costume for a carnival. I thought it was so hilarious that everyone should see it.

Just in case you are wondering, she was a bumble bee.

Royal Albert Hall

Alyssa and Nathan had the opportunity to sing at Royal Albert Hall in London with their school choir along with 33 other schools
across England. The show lasted over 3 hours and included over 19 songs! Dale and I were not sure who was going to tip over first, them or us! The performance was a massive fundraising effort for a children's charity, Barnardos.

Royal Albert Hall is absolutely gorgeous! It opened in 1871 by Queen Victoria. Today, it hosts leading artists from all over the world have appeared on its stage. According to Wikipedia.com, each year this venue is the site of more than 350 performances ranging from classical, rock and pop concerts, to ballet and opera, to award ceremonies and lavish banquets. Originally, it was supposed to have been called The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed by Queen Victoria to Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences in honor of her husband.

The ballerina and the football star...

We made it through a weekend of a 5-a-side football tournament for Nathan and an elaborate ballet production for Alyssa. Here are a few pictures of events...




Alyssa in the forest scene...










Alyssa in "The Golden Goose"...










Nathan at the trophy ceremony at the end of the season...










Nathan with his team, the Hardwick Harriers

Brussels...

We traveled to Brussels on our way to see the Amstel Gold race in Maastricht, Netherlands. Full of beautiful architecture, a day of site seeing is barely enough time to appreciate all that the city offers. We walked to the famed city square that hosts the City Hall.

We also took a trip through the city to the Atomium, built for the 1958 World's Fair. It is a steel structure (335-feet tall) steel spheres connected together to create an atom magnified 165 billion times.

Finally, we made sure to try lots of chocolate and taste the beer too just to make sure we got the entire Belgium experience.

food

This is Lyle's Golden Syrup. I never saw this until I got over here. It's used on pancakes or oatmeal just like Maple Syrup is. It can also be used to make baked parsnips w/seasame seeds. Yum!

I heard a joke the other day:

Did you know it only rains twice a week in Ireland?

Yup, Monday to Friday and Friday to Monday!

-Dale

Oh the rain... !!!!

I remember hearing when I was little that if you washed your car, then it would make it rain. I must admit that the superstition stuck and even as an adult I dared not wash my bike the day before a bike race. However, I am starting to wonder if I should wash my bike now. After a week of endless rain and flooding, I looked at the forecast today hoping to see the end of this miserable weather. What I found instead is another week of rain. Even the kids were talking about how they don't ever get to go outside during break at school with all the rain. Alyssa optimistically told Nathan this morning on our way to school that next week they would be playing out again. I don't have the heart to tell her what I have read today.