Pecora Nera

My OH has just been notified which school she will be working at this year. For the first time she will actually be at the same school as the previous year. So we wont starve this year.

Patty

Indie - isnt there a school bus that H could take ? Last year when mine started the 1st media - I enrolled him at the comune for the bus and he loves it. It also takes a bit of stress off me too
I know what you mean about about them going around on their won now. Mine still hasnt 'joined' the pack yet cos we live a bit outside the village and so he usually either goes to a friends house or they come here. But I noticed all summer that alot of his age are just hanging about all day in the village and I'm not sure if I like it - am I being an old fuddy duddy? I just think idle minds make mischief and so I prefer him to be busy - school-sport-hip hop etc etc.
I havent covered any of his books yet - not sure if I'll bother
I bet you're glad he's going to a new school ey ?

Pecora - thats good news about the wife. Me too - have just been confirmed that I 'still' have a job this year. Every year I worry all summer and then its for nothing. Mind you - if I could change job I would but there isnt anything for most of us except teaching !

Pecora Nera

yes we also worry all summer, well at least my wife does I tend to bury things that worry me if I can't do anything about them.. This year she is a "sustanio" think that's right. Helps a child with difficulties. She did this last year and prefers this than teaching a full class. Two years ago she taught English in two schools and across three year groups. The paperwork and end of year reporting nearly killed her...

I am pleased you have got a job as well. It is difficult to find one over here. I am just planning my first trip to the UK for my new job. 15 days... 10 different cities 6 different hotels boh!

indiebird

H's school is 'due passi' from the house it's the other one that's 20mins away. I was planning on giving it a few weeks and then letting him come home on his own as it litterally will take him 2minutes. I'm trying to get him into cross roads by himself/ going into shops etc as I'm beginning to think maybe I've been a bit over-protective but it's flipping difficult!! I am glad about the new school, just hoping it's not going to be from the frying pan into the fire!

Pecora Nera -good news about your wife's job and yours Patty! I might need to scout around for something as it's driving me mad being at home all the time... also people want private lessons but only the evenings and I just don't have time for it really....

Patty

I must admit I find it a bit annoying - when people here discover you are mother tongue, you see their little radars quivering and then they start dropping hints about private lessons and its for their son or daughter or niece etc etc and wouldnt it be just great if you could this for them
I have always said no - I felt a bit mean at first but now I dont. I then explain to them that I teach all day every day from 8.30 to 4.30 and its really tiring. (not that they'd understand). I was offered a private this week and told 'you could ask for 20 an hour' but I dont care if they give me 50 an hour - as Indie says - its always evenings and when you have a family, evenings are just not on. Maybe when I was younger (in fact in Milan I used to do this with baby in next room) but now I'm a grumpy middle aged lady who feels that 8 hours a day is quite enough

Pecora - glad to hear you're starting work - sounds exciting (I'd hate it though cos I dont 'DO' flying )

ps: indie - all the kids here in the medie walk home alone - but I'm just the same as you and think I'm far too over protective !

indiebird

oh God yeah!! I got one this week in the doctor's surgery. A young woman came and grabbed me on the way out and offered my kids homework help in return for help with her English. She wanted to do Saturday mornings and I just don't want that on a Saturday morning. I really enjoy my private lessons but I'm very cheap and think that some of my people want a hell of a lot for not very much money. As 37100 said a while ago, cleaners ask for more per hour than I do! I want to teach some nice people during the day instead.....

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's over-protective.... I was hoping it might be easier with the second one, but seeing as it's your third you're protective with Patty then there's probably not much hope!!

Patty

If it werent for the fact that I have osteoarthritis in my hands I jolly well would go and clean - I'd get more per hour and wouldnt have to smile all day long
I suppose I'm a bit fed up of teaching but sitting here dreaming that someone will ring me out the blue and offer me the job of my dreams (in a library or at the vet) then I'll have to plod on As Pecora said earlier - if I dont teach then we starve.
The positive aspects of my job are that the students are nice, my boss forgets we exist during the school year and lets us get on with it and its about 3 minutes from my house

Pecora Nera

[QUOTE=Patty;8839202]
I suppose I'm a bit fed up of teaching but sitting here dreaming that someone will ring me out the blue and offer me the job of my dreams (in a library or at the vet) then I'll have to plod on

Patty you never know.... I met up with Marco for a beer to discuss helping him with his English. We drank a few glasses of beer. Then he invited me to visit his company for a look around. After walking me around his factory, he suggested we create a company together to market a range of industrial pumps he has the distributorship for....... and here I am. My dream job. I get to live in Italy and fly to the UK to visit customers.

If it worked for Cinderella, why not for us.

Patty

Thats brill Pecora - I'm really happy for you that you got your dream job.
Hope it all goes well

indiebird

[QUOTE=Pecora Nera;8839224] Am loving this Pecora Nera!! Well done you.... just think you'll never be out of cheddar and malteasers again!

indiebird

Well that's both of my kids off to school then! Was chaos at the Ele and was quite amusing to see a very keen dad of a kid in the prima nearly get trampled when the gates were opened whilst he was trying to video his childs walk up to the school doors. I then had to listen to Julia's teachers go on for about 40minutes about the same old guff as normal. I did note though that 3 of the 'naughtiest' kids in the class were no longer there and there was one new boy all dressed in his designer gear.... I'm wondering whether those other kids left on their own or were pushed... I then rushed over to the scuola Media to attempt to rescue my OH from a similar fate, got there and realised I didn't know where I was going. A teacher came over to ask if I was ok (I obviously wasn't the first!) and I replied and she suddenly broke into English with the question 'Are you English?' I was really taken aback we then proceeded to have a lovely conversation all in English... the bad news is that she isn't H's teacher for English but... well you can't have everything. We were at H's school for an hour of info that didn't seem that useful to me but his class teacher who is their maths and science teacher, seems really nice.... for a good year thias year for us!

Lorna at Vicenza

One day! One chuffing day! That's all it took to reduce Chloe to tears.
The maths teacher gave her a really hard time because she hasn't done all of the holiday maths homework (loads of it).
She got mostly 10s last year in her "verifiche" and she got a 10 on her school report, so while she did a lot of the homework on rainy days, her dad and I did not insist that she do some everyday and get it all finished.

I have been awake since five o'clock after dreaming that I was arguing with the maths teacher and asking her if she has a calculator in place of a heart !!!!

How was everybody else's first day ?

indiebird

Poor Chloe! I must admit there was a lot of muttering in Julia's class of 'has so and so done the homework?' and I deduced from that that a lot of the kids had not done it all. Is it unusual?? I must admit that Julia did it all and there was a lot and a lot of stuff that they haven't covered before but she's kinda like that and they do drum it into them at the school... there were mumblings about town whenever I saw a mummy this summer whether there was any need for teachers as they seem to want the mummies to do all the teaching at home.... I must remember though that: 'NON DEVO PARLARE MALE A FRONTE I BAMBINI!!!' Julia also took in 4 books that she had read over the holidays as per instructions to show the teachers and the teachers only wanted to keep them all at school to share with the other kids this year!! Julia said no they were her nice ones and promptly put them all back in her bag!! I don't blame her either!! H seemed to have an okay morning apart from getting Italian homework on the 1st day... it was a good excuse to go round to his mate's house though for the whole afternoon to 'do homework!!'

Patty

Oh Lorna - I'm really sorry to hear that - your poor little girl - what a start to the year ey ! You must be really annoyed knowing that she is definitley not one of th shirkers in the class. My son said some of his classmates havent even opened their maths homework - it was a book about 100 pages - I made him do it all. I dont know what to think - its just weird how some parents dont seem to care at all.

Indie - for your daughter keeping her books - she's learning fast !!!

BTW - i heard on my regional news an interesting piece of news. A small school near us is taking Gelmini to court because they have been asked to contribute 25€ each for loo roll, photocopier paper etc etc. They are really angry and say that the constitution guarantees FREE school for everyone. Well hooray - its about time someone said something. We are always asked to buy loo roll and paper etc amd no-one seems to bat an eyelid. Maybe they just cant be bothered - bit like the homework I suppose ?

indiebird

Wish we only had to pay €25.... our school wanted a load of money for school trips, photocopying (despite the fact that we as parents supply the paper and the teachers always ask if some parent will do photocopying for them) I had to pay €46.80 for Julia and €58.80 for H and we were hassled by phone a few weeks ago because I forgot to pay before and we had a hassley letter yesterday asking why we hadn't paid (every child came home with one!!) so I signed it and wrote 'HO PAGATO' on both. Blooming cheek!! Be interesting to see how they do though.... tho is it Gelmini or is it the actual Institute???