Ton, I hope the little one is feeling better today xx
Di, that's good news about the drops and lovely to read about Minnie's walk
Debbie, I really hope L settles soon. I don't think Joe's properly settled in yet and like H, he's just gone into Year 9. I don't think he deals well with the change of teachers every year and the lack of consistency that this brings. I know when I was at school we had the same teachers for the main subjects for our first three years and then for O Levels we had teachers who were new to us but who we then had for the duration of the exam years. So far, apart from his PE teacher, he's had a whole new set of teachers each year.
He came home from school on Monday really fed up and upset. It was school photo day and his house badge was broken so his tutor sent him to the office to get a new one so that he had one to wear for the tutor group photo. Because the office is the other side of the school to his next lesson, and he had to wait for other people to be dealt with, he was late and the teacher gave him a break time detention. She called me at lunchtime to say he'd been 4 minutes late to class and he'd not turned up for his detention so she was giving him a longer after school one. I called him to see what he had to say, firstly about why he'd been late to the lesson and then why he'd not gone to detention, and he explained it all. Photos for his house were scheduled for before break but they overran and he was actually late for his next lesson too because of that (but that teacher was understanding). I emailed the teacher and explained what Joe had told me and just got a snotty reply simply stating that his photos were scheduled for before break. I emailed his house manager and his tutor to verify what Joe told me, and they both did so have spoken to this teacher and she finally agreed to cancel his detention. I don't know her and Joe's only just started in this class but Tom said she's known for being unfair.
Add to this the fact that he's been lumped in lessons with boys who I know by reputation to be troublemakers, and knowing Joe the way I do I know he can be easily led and isn't mature enough to make sensible decisions, it's all a bit of a worry at the moment
Poor Joe 
although very windy. Michael was here today, going to regularly have him a second afternoon each week now that he is in playschool and doesn't go to the childminder any more. He was in great form, played lots of golf in the garden and a riotous game of hide and seek with Grandad when he laughed so much that he almost wet himself 
On countdown for our holiday now 
xxx
But it will all work out in the end.
