Bitter Sweet Symphony, by The Verve
never stop exploring your SELF
Bitter Sweet Symphony, by The Verve
I share a magazine article lifted from SMH’s Spectrum. It is about solitude. I love this article because it describes my husband’s nature so aptly! I can see clearly our future, our retirement. He reading a book, and I reading my book at both ends of a comfortable couch. Our silences will not be pregnant; they will not be heavy. Our silences will be comfortable and harmonious … Oh wait, there will be beautiful music of Vivaldi’s violin strings playing in the background.
I can’t wait!
One Sunday morning, I was reading a magazine article in Sunday Life about mums of various ages getting a tatoo. Why do women do it?
Today, 28th of January, is Gab’s (10 y.o. son) first day at a new school. He is in Year 5. He was accepted into an Opportunity Class program for ‘gifted’ kids.
It is also his first time to ride a bus to and from school. In previous years, Gab was ferried to and from school.
Mum: “I will take you to the bus stop and board you into the right bus. Then I will drive to your school and meet you there. In the afternoon, the same thing will happen. I will be at school to take you to your bus, and I will meet you again at the bus stop near our home. Easy. Remember, that you’ve done your dry-run with Dad in the previous weeks. So everything will be alright.” (This was me trying to calm myself aloud …) “Besides there will be other kids in the bus with you, so just follow them …” [Read more…]
One fine Sunday morning in 2008, i read a newspaper article about the rising cost of education in Sydney. Gab was in Year 3 at that time attending a local Catholic School.
Thinking aloud, I said, “Private schools are so expensive. We will need to spend anywhere from AU$10,000 to $30,000 per year! Even the government high school kids need to spend up to $5,000 for extra curricular activities.”
Gab was sitting beside me and started to read the article with me.
Suddenly, he closed the newspaper that we were reading and muttered. “Don’t stress, Mum. I will get into a Selective High School so Mama will not have to worry about money.”
Truly, these were Gab’s words!
“Alright, son. Here’s the plan, in order to get a Selective placement, you need to move to a public school for Years 5 and 6, preferably get into an OC Class“.
“Yes, Mum.”
Bingo! The planets just aligned. How it happened, I had no idea.
In a nutshell, Selective High Schools are run by the government to provide an educationally enriched environment for highly achieving, academically gifted students.
When the kids were little back in 2002, I decided the education path they were to take. I’ve always known that I preferred public education over private schooling (aside: I attended a public high school). First, I did not want to pay exorbitant school fees. I wanted our already high taxes to work for us. Second, public high schools lead in school performance anyway. For me, it was a no-brainer.
However, one does not just walk in to these high performance schools. One has to take very competitive examinations to get in. In New South Wales, the top government schools are called Selective High Schools. The name, I am guessing, probably means ‘selected students’ (aside: Aussies can be very literal in their choice of words).
First question to self: ‘How do I prepare my children for Selective High School? I am not deluded as to assume that they are very smart children when they grow up.’ Second question to self: ‘How do I make my children take the exam willingly with minimum fuss?’
The answer to the first question is easy. There are many avenues available: enrol the kids in a good public primary school, send them to coaching classes, get them a place in an Opportunity Class, or (heaven forbid!) all of the above! Simply put, an Opportunity Class is a precursor to Selective High School. Government schools have OC Classes in Years 5 and 6. Again, children take tests to get in.
I resolved to take the OC path. Now, how in the world can I make this happen? How can I make the kids want to prepare for the test, let alone sit for it?