Mr C’s sweet peas

These have such a beautiful scent - not overpowering, just gentle.

I had a rotten night, waking so often, dozing off to podcasts and waking again. The leg hurts more at night, possibly it doesn’t like being still. Consequently I have felt tired and fed up today and haven’t achieved much. I did some prep for tomorrow as Carol, Phil, Katy and Colin are coming to eat with us.

I realised that after I’d written about Ella and Nathaniel’s school reports I’d not mentioned the boys. Thomas got a wonderful one, working hard with 1s for effort and exceeding expected levels in Maths, English and Science. But poor James. He is at the bottom levels for all subjects except in PE he is exceeding expected level. All this is because of his form of dyslexia which means he can’t record in writing what he has learned and this means he can’t be assessed at a higher level. Yet for example his English teacher says “he demonstrates a clear comprehension of the set books and has an aptitude for discussing literary techniques. He can identify similes and metaphors and can explain their effect with impressive clarity. He asks interesting and insightful questions that deepen the entire class’s understanding of plot, character and themes.” The others all say similar but he needs to concentrate more. They say it’s crucial his attitude to written work improves or he won’t reach his potential. (But he can barely write and can’t spell no matter how much he practices). It’s so disheartening for him and it’s a worry that he’ll mess about and get into trouble when he can’t achieve in the expected way. It’s too bad we have to conform to a set way of learning.