Year 10 is almost done!

Ellie finishes year 10 at school on tomorrow. It really seems this whole school year has flown over. It has been nice to have a relatively normal school year after the last couple of years being disrupted by Covid. I remember Ellie asking on the first day of term "do you think I'll do a full year at school? and I said hopefully. It happened she did a full year, the first since year 6! In year 7 we moved house and she finished school a few weeks before the summer holidays started, then Covid happened and she never had a full year at school in years 8 and 9.

This was a big year for Ellie. She was starting her GCSE studies. She choose photography, geography and engineering as her options as well doing the normal subjects like maths, English and science. Ellie was very glad that from year 10 the PE lessons dropped down to just one a week.

She has done so well over the last year. I can't believe when she left primary school we were so worried about how she would cope in secondary school, then moved house and she started a new school and that was the change that she needed. The school she is at is amazing! The teachers know how to push her and get her working to her full potential and I am so proud of her.

Ellie was almost top of her year group for praise points throughout the year despite still having few detentions for not doing homework. She is great for doing work in class but not so much at home. Thankfully they haven't had that much homework to do, it just seems what they do have she doesn't like to do it at home. 

She has been really enjoying her Engineering and photography lessons and is doing so well with them. We got her a camera for Christmas which has really helped her out with taking photos although the school said it wasn't needed as there are cameras available to use at school.

We finally got to meet all of Ellie's teachers at parents evening in December and it was all positive apart from her Maths teacher who said that Ellie and her friend like to chat, a lot but he can't really tell them off as 9 times out of 10 they are discussing the work. She is doing so well at maths, I think it is because she was moved down a group and now the work is easier to understand.

Ellie was never bothered with English until she got this new teacher at the start of the school year and now she loves it and it's all down to the amazing teacher. The teacher handpicked her class, those kids who weren't doing too well but had potential and she has made sure it was a tiny class with only about 12 kids in to get the most out of them and it's working. We saw her books at the start of the year and the essays were a page long at the most, now they're almost 4 pages long. 

The only subject Ellie isn't doing great in is Geography. I still think it's because she was forced to do that instead of history but she's working better than she was a few months ago, we're not holding out much hope of a good GCSE grade in it.

I remember when she started school in September I told her she was getting one blazer to last her until she left school and every day I would nag her not to lose it and so far so good. She hates wearing it but she is looking after it. She has also got the hang of tying a tie, mostly. We got the proofs for her school photo sent home and it did make me chuckle, they could have at least made her tie her tie properly. lol

Apart from the detentions for not doing homework we have only had one other bit of trouble and that involved Ellie making some bad choices online which resulted in a phone call from school and a ban from the internet. Ellie wasn't wholly to blame for the trouble but she stirred the pot and sat there and watched while others got involved and made things 10 times worse. She has well and truly learned her lesson now.

Earlier this year Ellie had her mock exams and she surprised us with the results. She got quite a few passes and with more work and revising she will be able to do even better. The revising will be starting in September even though she is not happy about it, it will be happening.

Ellie has a good bunch of friends at school, she has finally found her people. Most of them live nearby which means she is always out with them and the one's that live a little further away she still manages to spend time with them too. 

Now we can enjoy the summer holidays but if they're anything like the school year they will be over in a flash! 

Have your children had a good year at school?