Well, that’s the 6 weeks Holidays over and done with and the kids venturing into their new school years.
Layton’s off to year 6! This year is all about SAT’s! These are important for this year as they determine problem areas where he might need some help. He’s like a sponge when it comes to retaining information, so hopefully this helps him.
Ellia is now in her last year of middle school – head of the school, which means it’s almost time to go and look at High Schools. There are two she would like to go and look at and both offer different options for subjects. I hope she pays attention to what she would like to do and then she can decide from there.
And then Rubi is about to start Year 11!! Where has that time gone?! Only seems like 5 minutes ago she was starting reception! She is currently on work experience and doesn’t ‘officially’ go back to school until Monday.
She has really started mentally preparing herself for how important the next year is for her and her future. She’s got herself organised and ready for revision. New folders with sections and Polly pockets for all the information she needs to remember for her upcoming GCSE’s. She has recently been diagnosed with Dyslexia. So, we are hoping the correct provisions will be put in place for her to take her exams without issues.
She hasn’t really thought about where she would like to go after finishing school. She knows she would like to have a career around football. She is really great goalkeeper and has recently joined an academy in the JPL (can’t mention the team yet, she hasn’t announced it on her socials), so maybe that’s the progressive route she can go down.
She is also doing photography at school and is quite a natural at getting epic pictures, recently getting a shoutout for photos she had taken at a cup match for her old team. So that could be another career choice for her to look at. She has suggested an apprenticeship, so I’ll probably help her look into that. I think it’s a great choice having done apprenticeship’s myself they are a really way of getting real experience alongside a qualification.
It has never made any sense to me that at such a young age you have to make decisions about what you want to do in life, when you have barely had life experience. It is such a huge responsibility for these young people to think about, especially when life can be so unpredictable. GCSEs are even more imperative to get careers and jobs now. If I’d have gone with my career choice at 16, I’d be either a chef or a hairdresser. Neither of which I am now. I remember the anxiety I had taking the exams, my GCSE results only mildly reflected what I had done throughout my coursework (which my grades were higher in) because I had such bad exam anxiety.
Same as the SAT’s these are just statistical tests to ensure that the child is learning the right things, but the test’s themselves can put such a huge amount of pressure on such a young person’s mind.
I have always told my 3 that it doesn’t matter what the result is as long as you tried your best.
Throughout the next school year, me and Troy will help Rubi with her revision and ensures she gets the correct support from her teachers to achieve the very best she can. I just hope she remembers to ask if she doesn’t understand something.
Troy is back of to college to start his HND in Mechanical Engineering which means he’s going to show me all his work and I won’t have a clue what any of it means! There is a lot of higher-level math involved. I only just scraped through functional skills 2 years ago so won’t be offering to help with that (sorry Troy).
I am currently undertaking my Level 2 AAT. I’ve always enjoyed learning new skills, this one not so much! I do not understand Double-Entry Bookkeeping, and this is the fundamental for being an Accountant. I passed my first assessment with 90% the thing I got wrong.. double-entry bookkeeping! I have just handed in my second assessment so hopefully have passed that too. Then onto the next chapter and then my exams. I stupidly signed up to do my Level 3 & 4 for this course too! I don’t know why I do it to myself to be honest!
I am hoping we are all going to achieve great results this year! It just proves that no matter what age you are, you still can change your mind on what you would like to do and obtain qualifications for that change! As Jessica Stanley (Twilight, Eclipse) quoted “change your mind and change it again because nothing is permanent”. You don’t have to have your life set out for you right from finishing high school, find something you love doing and you will never have to ‘work’ a day in your life!