It lives!
Apologies for general vanishing; this was not entirely my fault as the uni decided that fresher's week (ie all last week) was clearly the best week ever to take the network down for maintenance. I don't think even St. Hugh's ever managed that level of genius.
Speaking of St. Hugh's, graduation was last Friday, and was clearly the best day ever. I was absolutely in love with my gown and hood, the gown esp - it was all big and swishy and long and amazing. Here is a picture of me in said gown. The ceremony itself was amazing - the entire thing is still conducted in latin, and is pretty much unchanged from the 1600s, which makes an amazing thing to be taking part in - there's a real sense of history behind it. It's also great to finally have a day when you can just be proud of and celebrate getting a degree from Oxford, which is after all a pretty special thing. Once we'd formally been awarded our degrees (you do a bit first where you promise to be a good ex-scholar, basically, then you go out, put on your new hood and come back in to formally be awarded the BA), as seen here, we all went back out and did the throwing mortar boards up thing, and had a good laugh. Then it was back to college, return the gown *sob* and listen to the principal's speech - and Mark, Tom, Rosie and I got a mention! He made some comment about students, despite 4 years of study, not quite being wise enough to realise that if you barbecue on the lawns, you will burn the grass. And we did indeed bbq on the lawns more than once, including one memorable occasion when we were told that we looked "seedier than Hampstead Heath on a bank holiday Monday". Anyways, hurrah for graduation. Best day ever, I think. For further reflection, what Matt said.
They Boy was here over the weekend, and we had many funs, depsite my having a bit of a cold. I'll be in Oxford this weekend for his bday anyway, so hopefully I'll be in somewhat better condition and more fun will be had. :)
Then this week we've been back in uni, which has been ok. All the rushing round to different rooms makes my head spin a bit, and the crowded classrooms are a bit unpleasant - in Education Studies this afternoon, there were five or six people round tables designed for 4, it does my head in a bit. Fun has been had - we got to play with instruments in Music, and got to go outside a bit in science too. We had an Ed Studies seminar today, which actually left me feeling quite unsure about how we do primary education in general. The teacher was pointing out the huge differences between the foundation stage (nursery) and key stage one (ages 5-7), for example that in the FS, there is an integrated curriculum, informal outside access, child initiated activities and learning, and lots of play based literacy and numeracy, whereas in KS1, the curriculum is subject basic, play and breaktimes are regulated, learning is teacher/adult initiated, and there are literacy and numeracy hours. You do have to wonder if we're doing right by our kids with all this, especially as it's such a difficult transition for kids - understandably. And of course, it's all to do with standards and assesing all the time how kids measure up to targets that have been set by outside agencies, taking no account of how that child learns and where he or she is at. I guess my feeling is that we need to relax a lot with our younger children and introduce them gradually to school - as the class teacher today say, so often KS1 ends up intruding into the FS in order that our kids are ready to meet targets, whereas it should so clearly be the other way round. Chances are that changing things would actually benefit our kids as well - in other countries, where a FS type approach prevails until age 6 or 7, children learnt to read and write more quickly and generally have higher levels of attainment. The problem is, it will take someone very brave to stand up and change all this.
Speaking of St. Hugh's, graduation was last Friday, and was clearly the best day ever. I was absolutely in love with my gown and hood, the gown esp - it was all big and swishy and long and amazing. Here is a picture of me in said gown. The ceremony itself was amazing - the entire thing is still conducted in latin, and is pretty much unchanged from the 1600s, which makes an amazing thing to be taking part in - there's a real sense of history behind it. It's also great to finally have a day when you can just be proud of and celebrate getting a degree from Oxford, which is after all a pretty special thing. Once we'd formally been awarded our degrees (you do a bit first where you promise to be a good ex-scholar, basically, then you go out, put on your new hood and come back in to formally be awarded the BA), as seen here, we all went back out and did the throwing mortar boards up thing, and had a good laugh. Then it was back to college, return the gown *sob* and listen to the principal's speech - and Mark, Tom, Rosie and I got a mention! He made some comment about students, despite 4 years of study, not quite being wise enough to realise that if you barbecue on the lawns, you will burn the grass. And we did indeed bbq on the lawns more than once, including one memorable occasion when we were told that we looked "seedier than Hampstead Heath on a bank holiday Monday". Anyways, hurrah for graduation. Best day ever, I think. For further reflection, what Matt said.
They Boy was here over the weekend, and we had many funs, depsite my having a bit of a cold. I'll be in Oxford this weekend for his bday anyway, so hopefully I'll be in somewhat better condition and more fun will be had. :)
Then this week we've been back in uni, which has been ok. All the rushing round to different rooms makes my head spin a bit, and the crowded classrooms are a bit unpleasant - in Education Studies this afternoon, there were five or six people round tables designed for 4, it does my head in a bit. Fun has been had - we got to play with instruments in Music, and got to go outside a bit in science too. We had an Ed Studies seminar today, which actually left me feeling quite unsure about how we do primary education in general. The teacher was pointing out the huge differences between the foundation stage (nursery) and key stage one (ages 5-7), for example that in the FS, there is an integrated curriculum, informal outside access, child initiated activities and learning, and lots of play based literacy and numeracy, whereas in KS1, the curriculum is subject basic, play and breaktimes are regulated, learning is teacher/adult initiated, and there are literacy and numeracy hours. You do have to wonder if we're doing right by our kids with all this, especially as it's such a difficult transition for kids - understandably. And of course, it's all to do with standards and assesing all the time how kids measure up to targets that have been set by outside agencies, taking no account of how that child learns and where he or she is at. I guess my feeling is that we need to relax a lot with our younger children and introduce them gradually to school - as the class teacher today say, so often KS1 ends up intruding into the FS in order that our kids are ready to meet targets, whereas it should so clearly be the other way round. Chances are that changing things would actually benefit our kids as well - in other countries, where a FS type approach prevails until age 6 or 7, children learnt to read and write more quickly and generally have higher levels of attainment. The problem is, it will take someone very brave to stand up and change all this.