Tuesday, September 22, 2009

school stress

Monday evening was our appointment with Jasmine's 2 teachers, we really weren't sure what to expect, as far as we were aware there's been no trouble at school, we're 4 weeks into term, she'd just got her first mark for German (5, the top mark being 1). I was dreading being told that my child is a complete monster/class clown/bully...but it's none of those.
She's lazy.
Does the bare minimum she can get away with.
Possibly doesn't take life seriously enough (she's 8).
But she's clever & this is the problem I guess, they want her to achieve her potential and so she has to buck her ideas up and work! School gets serious from year 3 on here and she has got to react to that!
Poor Jas.
So we have to work with her on her maths, work with her on her reading, check over her homework to ensure she's put enough effort in etc etc etc.

We were reasonably impressed that they wanted to talk to us so early on in the term, better that than leaving it till half way through the year when it's too late to turn things round in time.
With the schooling system here in Germany, the children part way through year 4 (aged 9-10) are assesed for streaming into high schools & that then sets them for life effectively (kids do transfer between the 3 levels of school but not frequently - why would they want to leave their friends?) gymnasium puts you on the route to Uni, realschule has that possibility also but I think you have to transfer for the last 2 years & gesamtschule is for the rest...consequently years 3 & 4 are important and so we need to make Jasmine aware of that, otherwise she's going to end up in a different school to her friends...

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