Rosie Scribble

A six year old talks about love

IJ's class teacher is male, which is rare in primary schools these days. She adores him; he has been her teacher for two years. It has become apparent that she gives him a lot of information about her life and, as it turns out, mine as well.

I dread to think what the poor chap has been told over the years. I would imagine that much of it could be potentially embarrassing and highly misleading,  if today's conversation is anything to go by:

IJ: I was talking to my teacher about you today.

Me: Were you? What were you saying?

IJ: I told him that you were in love.

Me: What? Really? Er... what exactly did you tell him?

IJ: Just that you are in love. That's all.

Me: Oh. And what did he say to that?

IJ: He smiled.

Me: I see. Who did you tell him I was in love with?

IJ: I told him you were in love with me. You are in love with me aren't you?

Me: Of course I am.

Bless her. It is really quite sweet although I do get the feeling that she is disclosing a little too much. Makes me wonder where all this is heading and what she will be announcing yet.

Not that I have anything to hide, you understand.

Competition news: The fabulous new parenting website Ready for Ten (okay, I'm slightly biased!) is offering readers of the site the chance to win £200 worth of spa vouchers. To enter, simply visit the competition page. The site is also running a survey about kids' drinking habits. You could win a facial simply by completing the survey!

Photo credit: rknd

The case of local teacher Peter Harvey

Yesterday was yesterday. Today, locally at least, the news has turned to Peter Harvey. The news story that has hung over our community for the past nine months finally came to an end: secondary teacher Peter Harvey was found not-guilty of the attempted murder of a pupil at All Saints' School. This is the school that IJ's primary school feeds into. This is the secondary school that I went to.

The news that Peter Harvey has been found not-guilty is good news, in my opinion. He was a popular teacher, well-respected by past pupils, who was pushed to the limit by the pupils he was trying to teach; a teacher under extreme stress who should have received greater support from the professionals around him.

When the news broke in July last year that a pupil had been attacked with a dumbbell in the science block, the entire community was in shock. A Catholic school with a caring with a caring ethos, questions were asked to how on earth this could happen. The scenes of police and press reporters camped outside the school's entrance, reporting the story for the world to see, was disturbing, for both pupils and parents to witness.

The boy who was attacked is reported to have made a full recovery.  He has moved on to a different school.

Of course it is not acceptable for a teacher to attack a pupil in their care. Peter Harvey pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm without intent. Quite frankly, he should not have been in the classroom; someone needs to be held accountable for the fact that he was. Policies and procedures need to change. At the end of the day, teachers under extreme stress need extra support.

Nor it is acceptable for pupils to swear at a teacher, to gode him to see what effect it will have on him knowing he is in a vulnerable state, and to then record his distress on a mobile phone. It is a poor reflection of the state of some secondary school classrooms today. I hope this is an isolated case of poor pupil behaviour but I suspect it may not be.

I now hope Peter Harvey is able to start re-building his life. And I wish the young fourteen-year-old boy well too. There are no winners in this case but finally there is some closure.

The question now is: what is really going on in our classrooms?

Two little lost girls

Today after school we went to the park, just as we have done for the last few days. We are making the most of the sunshine while it lasts and IJ seems to have bags of energy that she needs to run off. Taking her outdoors means that she does not use the sofa cushions as an indoor trampoline, and the sun seems to give us both a boost.

Yet I write this with a heavy heart. 

At the park we were joined for a while by two nine-year-old girls. They were clearly good friends and were enjoying themselves on the slide although they did look a little weary, as if they had been playing outdoors all day.

It turned out that they had. They had left their homes at half past eight that morning, dressed in identical jeans and black hooded sweatshirts,  and they had not been home since.  A friend politely asked them why they had not been to school.

They said they were ill, apparently. One had a sore throat and the other a headache, at least that is the story they had decided to give the grandparents who would have brought them to school that morning. When asked if their parents knew that they had been playing outside all day, they claimed that they did but that it didn't bother them.

They were very taken with our friend's young daughter and fussed over her. They seemed to be craving attention so we let them hover round us for a while. Once they had worked out that we could be trusted, one girl mentioned that she was worried about her SATS exams. The other said that she struggled at school and didn't think she was good enough.

They were talking to us as if we were their parents, yet we weren't and I wonder where those parents actually were.

Then they spotted someone, I don't know who but it panicked them and they fled. They didn't leave the park by the normal entrance; they jumped very confidently over a five foot fence as if they had done this many times before.

It left me wondering what would become of them. Their sweatshirts both had the word 'Happy' on them, yet I didn't think they were.

Photo credit: Flickr  - Burning Image

The Gallery: Portrait

This week's Gallery theme is: Portrait.

This seemed a near-impossible task until I glanced up at my living room wall and spotted IJ, aged 6 months, looking back down at me. It's one of my favourite photos.

I could have included it under Tara's earlier theme of Joy, or even last week under Pride, but then I would have been stuck this week so it's just as well I didn't.

Visit Tara's Sticky Fingers blog for all things Gallery-related or click on the widget in my sidebar.

You know you are getting old when ...

You know you are getting old when ...

1. Your child asks you what a CD is and wonders how it ever fitted into an ipod.
2. You start to find the television show 'Loose Women' uncomfortable viewing.
3. You realise the 'blond' bits in your hair can't possibly be blond because you're brunette.
4. Your child asks you if you had white teeth when you were younger.
5. The market research guy asks if you would be very offended if he asked your age.
6. You start tweeting that the skirts on the contestants in #Dorothy are just too short.
7. You realise that even your younger sister has little memory of Margaret Thatcher.
8. The reality hits you that the country could soon be run by someone not much older than you.
9. The ache in your left knee can't be the result of your latest jog around the park because you never jog.
10. You query if you need a more expensive brand of anti-wrinkle cream.
11. You conclude that Topshop is for teenagers.
12. The clothes in Marks & Spencer suddenly look surprisingly durable, and you make a note for future reference.
13. You pay greater attention to washing instructions when buying clothes.
14. A stint of gardening suddenly seems a sensible form a exercise.
15. A reduced subscription offer to Cosmopolitan magazine no longer appeals.

I'm calling this the birthday effect, when suddenly that extra year seems to make a lot of difference.