Saturday & Sunday were sunny! I'd forgotten what it was like to sit out in the sun. We went swimming again on Sat which started off really nice but turned a bit violent. I don't know who really did do what, there were a lot of allegations flying around but definitely J's foot made contact with Adam's mouth causing him quite a lot of pain, although J says it was accidental. And in front of several witnesses Adam splashed J excessively in the face so he backed away & bumped his head on the side of the pool & got out in a bit of a huff. There then followed quite an argument over swapping their sweets, A was demanding three fangtastics for a little bit of candyfloss which seemed a bit excessive to me but J had never had candyfloss before so gave in.
For the rest of the day J was in a foul mood. I was trying to get him to do some exam work & he was being just plain uncooperative. Part of the problem is he's feeling tired & overworked understandably but also he's decided he doesn't want to go to senior school at all. He will almost certainly have to be separated from his friends, he'll have to get up earlier to travel further in order to get to a school where he'll have to work harder & might not make any new friends. What he's thinking is 'What's in it for me?' & I can see his point. This morning he asked if I could home- school him but I don't think I can manage it & anyway it would be all day shouting at him to get off the computer & do some work.
Anyway it's all getting seriously stressful. Added to this when I phoned up the council they told me that although we're outside the admission area for our nearest school the next nearest one doesn't actually have an admission area they go on the distance you live from the school and we must be one of the furthest ones away. So if that one is oversubscribed & J doesn't get into a selective school he could end up in one of the undersubscribed (for undersubscribed read 'sink') schools miles away.
I've just about given up hope of him getting into local grammar & I'm not sure he'd cope with all the work if he did. We're pinning our hopes on technology college but he'll still have to work hard to get through entrance test. When we were at the 'meet the new teachers' meeting the other day his teacher said he'd be better off at grammar long way away than local one & not to worry about the travelling, he'd get used to it. At this point his teacher from last year came past & said she totally disagreed & it wasn't fair to make children travel that distance. When we mentioned the technology college his teacher said to be careful about applying there as exam is really hard & some children who get into local grammar don't get into there.
Anyway from next Monday we start looking round schools so might get a clearer idea.