Good morning Friday

[JoM]

Morning all, it's foggy, drizzly, damp and downright miserable here.
The gym is done and I'm trying to find some enthusiasm to walk Billy, I think he's feeling the same as he's content to sit on my feet while chewing his rubber bone. He really didn't want to go out into the garden when I got up, he kept getting half way down the path and would then turn around and slink back in again, thinking he hadn't been noticed
Another morning, another argument in our happy home Tom is being so difficult and I'm going to try and contact his tutor today because it's only been since he's joined the sixth form so I'm wondering if he's having issues with settling into the new regime or if he's just decided to flex his muscles at home a bit now that he's being treated more like an adult at school (not that we're treating him like a child here). He's out all day tomorrow though with friends, they've got tickets to see Bowling For Soup in Birmingham tomorrow night so are making a day of it, so I'm hoping he'll come home from the concert in a better mood.

Have a good day everyone!

[Diflower]

I do hope something works Jo, it's very wearing ((((x))))

[Lozzles]

Jo, we had problems with A when he went to college. Turned out he couldn't cope with the course and was skipping lessons. We talked to the college and they gave A another chance and put him on a more suitable course. All ended well x

[JoM]

Thanks Di and Loz, just waiting to hear back from the school. It's a shame he's no longer in the house system as the house manager he had (and who Joe has) is wonderful, like a real mother hen who the students in the house adore and I know she would've made it her mission to make sure he was okay. She actually emailed me after he got his GCSE results to say how proud she was of him, and that she'd gone into school to see 'her kids' pick up their results which I thought was really lovely.

[Workingman]

Jo, my lad initially went up to the school's 6th form. It wasn't long before we noticed the change in him, behaviour wise. It turned out that he thought that his lessons were only an extension of the CGSEs and he also wanted to drop maths - his A* subject taken a year early - and do biology. Biology was a subject he had never studied before but had become and interest and the school could offer no way of dropping one for the other.

He felt trapped and was unhappy, hence his "rebellion". We eventually got him into a dedicated 6th form college with subjects he wanted to take and he began to soar.

Please, I beg you, have a word with Tom and try to, patiently, tease his problems/worries out of him.

[Kaz]

It's a difficult age for boys I think! I had problems with Chris at that age, and it turned out that like Loz's lad he was unhappy with his college and the course. He found another and did well.....

Have a hug as it is very wearing indeed, for all concerned (((((((Jo)))))))

[JoM]

Thanks all, it is a difficult time isn't it Kaz?

He seems really positive about his courses, we went together to walk Billy one night in the week and he was telling me all about them and seems to be particularly interested in law. I'm not sure if he might just be tired though. The workload has increased and he's already got ring binders which are bulging with papers for each subject and they're not even at half term yet, and for some reason he has classes until 4.20pm everyday but on a Friday, apart from two classes on the morning, he just sits in the sixth form centre all day as he has nothing else on his timetable. Mon-Thurs though he's not getting home until gone 5 whereas he used to be home just after 3.30. He used to get home, do his homework, have his tea and then have time for himself when he'd perhaps go to the gym, he's now lost that time and has been to the gym once since starting back to school. Plus he won't go to bed at a reasonable time, we can see he needs the sleep and make suggestions that maybe he should go to bed but he knows best...

[Kaz]

He's just 'finding his feet' as a young man rather than a young teen Jo, by the sound of it........It will all come good ((((((((Jo))))))) xx

[Weka]

Those are really long hours for a teen!! How come his classes aren't finishing until that late? I hope he gets use to the pace of his classes so he doesn't burn himself out.

[Kaz]

School was 9am until 4.15pm when I went Weka - these days 3.30 is more normal but some colleges finish later........