Words

A student in my youngest group is really, really funny. We'll call her Bird Girl, because it reminds me of her name and demeanor. She likes to use the longest words she can to talk about things and, as we do a lot of talking, she gets to do this a lot. She also writes reams in her exercise book when given a task such as 'discuss and write down what you think we mean by a 'square root'. She covers her mini whiteboard whenever I ask a question. It's all very like me!

Also like me, Bird Girl writes as small as she possibly can. In tiny colourful handwriting she uses up every square of her exercise book, drawing lines with her ruler to separate the different pieces of work. She likes word problems and puzzles, and enjoys thinking for herself.

Does she sound bright to you? Does she sound engaged? I imagined from the first few weeks that she was near the top of the class (set 2), and the tests confirmed it, including the recent whole-year test that I neither set nor marked. She's clearly pretty able. However, when I told this to her parents at lats week's parent's evening, they were astonished. 'Bird Girl really struggles with maths. She was in the remedial group at primary school, and had extra help. She's never enjoyed it and is very anxious.' I looked at her (students come to our parents evenings) and asked if she felt that way. She said she used to hate maths, but she really liked it now, and also, it seemed a little easier. I don't know, but I suspect it's the general creativity and language-linked aspects that helped her. It seems sad she's never encountered these before!

P.s. A very big shout out to my most faithful reader, my sister, whose birthday it is today! Happy birthday sis!