Eliot is on the first of three extra swimming lessons at school tonight.  A few weeks ago, there were several of his classmates that were similarly selected to get extra swimming lessons to accelerate their collective swimming skills.  The thee part series of lessons begins after school for around one hour tonight.  The lessons are all on Tuesday nights between now and the end of term.

Poor Elliot decided last night that he did not want to do the extra lessons as they would extend his school day by over one additional hour.  We negotiated with him and Mummy will go and watch the last 15 minutes or so and then bring him home.  He also will have access to the Xbox tonight if he wishes – let’s see if he remembers that part of the deal…

We have just attended a parents evening for Elliot and have walked out feeling very proud and somewhat elated to just how well our eldest is doing at school.

A copy of his first report card at Silcoates Juniors is enclosed and it shows just how well he is doing. This report card is mainly about the effort that Elliot is putting in rather than grading at this stage although there are some early indicator grading for English, Mathematics and Science.

So, he is excelling with effort for IT (guess no surprise there) and swimming and is driving hard with all else – apparently the music teacher gave the whole year 3’s. The actual grading system is as follows:

Effort assessment:
1 – Outstanding
2 – Pleasing
3 – Satisfactory
4 – Room for improvement
5 – Unsatisfactory

Attainment grading:
A – working significantly above the expected standard
B – working above the expected standard
C – meeting the expected standard
D – working towards the expected standard
E – working significantly below the expected standard

Apparently Elliot always jumps in to get involved during class work time and offers suggestions almost first every time. In the teachers’ words, he is not shy or embarrassed to get stuck in and put himself out there. This definitely surprised us as we thought he would be like daddy and hold back, letting others drive. He is getting much better with swimming time and not being quite as nervous about leaving his clothes in the changing room – Mrs Sugden has been taking his clothes into the pool area so that he can see they are safe while he swims. Elliot asked Mrs Sugden to not do this anymore about three weeks ago and he has not been anxious about this since apparently. He still has anxiety issues most days about something or other but the teachers seem to be on top of it and seem to know more about it than we do so we are feeling very comfortable with how this is being expertly handled.

We need to work on arts and craft at home to help with his Creative Development – the Lego is helping here but we need to get a paintbrush in his hands etc more often.

All in all, he is doing GREAT and we are so very proud 🙂