School life, between the linesBy Eleven Plus Diary
School stories, admissions adventures, and the things parents talk about on the way home.
School life · School cookery, from classroom to kitchen
A York school newsletter hoped Year 7’s cookery had reached families. A page later, it knew where one flapjack had gone.
School life · Reception home visits
Before Reception, the teacher visits your house. One of you is preparing for an inspection. The other is looking for somewhere to park.
School culture · Wales
Ysgol Dyffryn Conwy’s 2015 eisteddfod began with a prize for noise and ended with a poet nobody could identify until the name was read out.
School life · Holy Island and Lowick, Northumberland
In 2004 a seven-year-old on Holy Island gave Tes the best exit line in British education. I have been using it ever since, and I live nowhere near the sea.
School life · Parents’ evenings; Kingsway School
Online parents’ evenings come with a countdown clock that hangs up for you. I had prepared nine questions for the maths teacher. Here is how the five minutes went.
School life · School open evenings
I was choosing a secondary school. My ten-year-old was running a separate inspection, and his had a points system.
Parent life · Britain
At one primary’s summer fair the headteacher helped operate the human fruit machine, and called it a privilege. I volunteered as a reel at ours, and the privilege went to my head.
Parent life · Britain
Buy the uniform in June and the boy keeps growing. Leave it until August and the shop has a 26, a 40 and a queue.
The school archives · Oxfordshire, Nottinghamshire & a national school project
In 1985 a ten-year-old in Oxfordshire wrote her day down for the BBC’s new Domesday Book, and nobody cut a word. Then my daughter got the same homework, and I was in charge of the pen.
The school archives · Thundersley, Shirley & Stoke Albany
For most of the twentieth century a child was put in charge of the school ink. I have just been put in charge of the PTA urn, and I have been reading the history.
School life · Britain
In 1970 a Dundee pupil reported that his whole class had passed the cycling proficiency test. His last sentence is the one that matters.
School history · Nottinghamshire and Berkshire
In September 1918 a Nottinghamshire village school went blackberrying for the Ministry of Food, and the log book kept score. I ran our Sunday on the same lines, and it rained.
