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PAGE 2

School Time Line

1999 - 2002: St Bede's Prep School

• Spring Term 1999 Age 9
  
  
  • Started off in a class with a really nice teacher and some children who did not want to learn
    
  • Started in Maths set 2
    
  • I was teased for trying to learn
    
  • I learnt how to touch type
    
  • After school exams I moved up to set 1 in maths
    
  • After one term I started to use a computer in school
  
  
• Summer Term 1999 Age 10
  • My First real term of using a computer in school - If you click here you can see a typical example of my work at this time. This is before I spell checked it and it is full of spelling mistakes click here!
  
  
• Christmas Term 1999 Age 10
  
  
  • This year I am in a really nice class in year 6 and I have lots of friends
    
  • I am still in the top set for maths
    
  • I have discovered that I love science and I am quite good at it. I am very very very very keen at computers
    
  • I have started to do an activity called website design and learnt how to make this web page. My teacher 'Mr. Barclay' was amazing and without him I would not be able to do this site
    
  • I am finding French and Latin very difficult as spelling and reading are hard enough in English
  
  
• Summer term 2000
  
  • I scored for the 1st XI in cricket.
    
  • In the school Exams I came top in Maths and Science
    
  • In the key stage 2 exams I got a level 6 in Maths and a Leval 5 in science (not 6 because I did not do the paper).
    
    
• September 2000
  • I am now in year 7 and I decided to give up French.
  • This year we are set for nearly all our subjects. My sets are as follows:
    • Maths - set1
    • Science - set 1
    • Latin - set 1 !!! !!! !!! !!!
      • I don't know how
    • English - set 2
    • Everything else we do in our form groups
  • Instead of French I am doing 2 maths, 2 science and an ICT.
  • This year we have got some new teachers. One of them is the new head of maths.
    
    
• March 2001
  • I am now nearly at the end of the Easter term. I have liked being in year 7. I have a really nice form teacher called Mrs Collins. All my subjects seem to be going OK. I still find Latin very very hard but I was surprised because I did OK in the exam. I thought I would be bottom as I am in set one but I wasn't - I don't know how! I was really pleased with my results but I was lucky because I was allowed to use my laptop. I think one of the reasons that I did well in Maths and Science is that I do extra Maths and Science. This is because I have given up French and this means I have some free periods when I do this.
    I also had some extra Latin lessons in the Christmas holidays as I did not want to get too far behind otherwise I might not be able to catch up with the others.
    
    

  I have also spent a lot of time writing a Cricket scoring programme. I have written it on Excel and I can't wait to try it out when I score for the cricket team next term. My biggest worry is that some of the schools do not have an electric point near where I score from. My battery is really good but it may not last through a whole match and it would be terrible if it ran out. I don't know what to do about this. When I am scoring for the home matches it should be fine as we have a little room where we score. I wonder if the programme will really work? It has taken me absolutely ages.

  • I have been having extra help from Mrs Jenion who is the Learning Support teacher. I have been learning the spelling rules - it seems really odd that most people know them but I don't. I have always tried but they have never really got in my head like the others. BUT I am very gradually getting there! and my teacher is brill. When I was little I learnt all the Letterland letters. I have only just learnt that a 'c' does not only sound 'c' as in 'cat' but also says 's' as in 'circle'. Also 'g' does not only say 'g' as in 'get' but 'j' as in German. I think I learnt Letterland too well! - I wonder if Letterland still exists.

• July 2001
  • I have now finished year 7 and I have had a really good fun year at school. My work (except Latin!!) has been quite successful especially my maths and science. I now do all my English and writing using Microsoft Word and I have the automatic spelling correcter turned on. This makes my spelling much better as it does things like correcting 'stoping' to 'stopping'. It also highlights other mistakes and I can correct them later. I obviously can't use this in my exams but for general use it is magic and people, including me can read my work. Unfortunately there are still some words that it can't work out but these are so much fewer than they used to be.
  • School is really so much better now that the teachers really know me. They know I am not stupid and they are really helpful and don't make a fuss at all.
  • I have had lots of emails from teachers asking what I have found helpful and so I thought I would make a new page listing all the things that the school and other people have done to help me. Some of these things might be useful to other people.
  • My cricket programme was successful last term and it made the scoring more fun.
  • I still usually print out my work at home but for exams and things like that I take in my portable floppy disk drive and save my work, and then print it out using one of the school's PCs and printers. This works well and is really easy as my iBook (using Microsoft Word 2001 for Mac) is really compatable with a PC.

• September 2001
  • I am now back at school and I am in Lower 6th and it is my last year at my school. Next September I start at 'senior school'. The class I am in started Greek this term - well after I made a lot of fuss I have been allowed to give up both Latin and Greek. This is quite brill as even when I tried really hard at Latin I just couldn't keep up with the others in the group. I now have lots of free periods as I don't do any languages at all. I did think that I might try and have another go at French but in the end I couldn't because there was not a low enough set that fitted into my timetable. I can't say I really minded but I am lucky because I am having one French Conversation lesson each week. This is with a teacher and one girl.
  • I have had fun deciding what to do in all my free periods. I can fit in extra maths lessons with the scholarship group. I enjoy these lessons. I try and work on this site in others - I have even got some time allocated for answering emails. I have no excuse now for not answering. I now spend lots of time in the Learning Support room. Mrs Jenion (the teacher) has got really good work stations and it means that I can work there when I haven't anywhere else to go. It is also quite interesting as I keep listening to all her lessons and I am learning all the stuff that I seem to have missed. I sometimes join in and I am learning lots of extra things just by being there.
  • I am starting a Visual Basic Course at the local College very soon. I think it might be quite hard work but I am looking forward to doing it.
  • Maths and Science are still going well and I am coping in English. I enjoy History and Geography and I use my iBook all the time.
  • We have exams at the end of November but at least I won't have Latin or Greek!

• June 2002
  • It seems ages since I last updated this page. Well here I go!
  • I have had a really fun year at school - I have been in the Lower 6th in a really nice form. We have had to work quite hard but all our exams are over now.
  • I started this year (my final year) last September and I thought that I would be going on to St Bede's. That all changed when my Dad got the job of Estate Bursar at Charterhouse in Godalming. I was organised to take the Scholarship exams to St Bede's - these exams were in February. Suddenly I had to change my plans. The school was not sure if I should take the Scholarship exams to Charterhouse as they are much harder and I had not been prepared. In our school you have to get into the Upper 6th if you want to have a good chance of getting a scholarship to any other school than St Bede's. There are only about 6 people in Upper 6th and I was not one of them. When we looked at the Scholarship papers we realised that I had to take English and Maths and 4 other papers out of 6. This worked out OK as it meant that I could leave out Latin and French. This was lucky as I have given both these subjects up! When Charterhouse realised that I was dyslexic they organised my extra time and they also made sure that my desk was near an electric socket so that I could use my iBook (laptop). They even rang us up to find out which side I wanted it! After each exam I handed in a floppy disk with the work on and also any other sheets that I used. I even used my iBook (laptop) in the Physics practical to record my experiments. It was really easy to put the results in a table and so much neater and easier than if I had tried to draw a table and write the results in it
  • I took Maths II, History, Geography and Science. I had some extra lessons and I took the exams in May. Well I was very suprised as I was given a Major Exhibition with special mention of my IT and Maths. I think my English really let me down but I must have done the other exams OK.
  • I am just off to Leavers' Camp - we are going to Ashdowne Forest for 3 days and we are camping. I am really looking forward to this - we start off having to walk for about 4 hours to get to the Camp which will be tough.
  • We only have 3 weeks left and all our work is finished and we are now on the Leavers' Programme. We have lots of outings and plays and things like that.
  • In about October last year I started my Visual Basic Course at The College in Eastbourne. I finished the course this May and now I have got a City and Gilds qualification or at least I hope I have. I am still waiting for the certificate to arrive. The course was quite good although we seemed to spend lots of the time just working through things on our own. I liked it best when the teacher actually taught us something - by the end of the course there were not many of us left. I had to pay 3 times as much as anyone else as I was Under 16. Some of the other people also had other subsidies and it did not really seem fair that I had to pay so much.
  • I have really got keen on programming and making sort of games. I have made 2 and I am trying to sell them. They are only £5.00 each and they do seem to work!
  • My next plan is to Learn VB.net so that I can put things on the Internet. I am going on a course in July to learn this and then I hope I will make some more games
  • I am looking forward to going to Charterhouse. Since I have been at St Bede's Prep I have had so much help working out coping strategies that I am confident that I will be able to manage. Charterhouse does not actually have a proper learning Support Department but I think I will be OK. I am a bit worried as I think I will have to start Spanish and I do find languages very very hard. I am just hoping that I might be able to fit in some extra IT instead. Actually running this website and making my games does take quite a long time. The IT teacher at Charterhouse seems to be very good at programming so I am very keen to learn some more.
  • During this term I have been scoring on my iBook for the School Cricket team again and I have used the programme that I made 2 years ago.
  • The worst thing about this last 6 months is that Dad has already started his job and mom and I are still waiting to join him. He just comes home at Weekends and it is much more fun when he is here all the time.
  • The next time i write this I will be at Charterhouse and I also hope that we will have moved properly and have sold our house.

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    1989 --> 1999	2002 --> now