Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Too much! I don't mind the holiday work so much but Leave Weekends should be free to spend time with family.....oh, and catch up on sleep.......prepare for your son/daughter to need to catch up on sleep!

I actually wouldn't even mind the holiday prep as much if it was actually marked or if all the students did it.....sorry, a bit of a bugbear for me I'm afraid.

Leave Weekend prep seems to be much as they would have on a normal weekend..........holiday work is variable but there is less of it lower down. (My son is 3rd form).

Oh, and on the topic of single parenthood and wrestling with the dilemma of boarding: I knew it was right for him; it was me I was worried about.

Once I had worked that out, there was no question about accepting the offer.

18 months in - no regrets..............in fact, if I knew then what I know now, then I'd have saved myself a lot of anguish.

Poo, I had hoped there be none on the weekend

pinkhebe wrote:Poo, I had hoped there be none on the weekend

If you are commenting about homework, DS/DD is going to get more and more and more day in and day out.
I'll even admit it is good for the soul; he/she will be able to work very hard and long hours through uni and employment no matter what they throw at him/her. I ended up with about 4 to 5 hours sleep each night (Kit didn't find out!) - and after that experience ghosters were no problem at all.

sejintenej wrote:

pinkhebe wrote:Poo, I had hoped there be none on the weekend

If you are commenting about homework, DS/DD is going to get more and more and more day in and day out.
I'll even admit it is good for the soul; he/she will be able to work very hard and long hours through uni and employment no matter what they throw at him/her. I ended up with about 4 to 5 hours sleep each night (Kit didn't find out!) - and after that experience ghosters were no problem at all.

I agree, I was just hoping to have some fun on the Leave Weekends

I don't recall much work in the holidays at all (I was there in the 90's though...)

What I would say about taking your kids out at the weekend is that to be honest, after a year or two, your kids will be quite happy to be at school - I knew some of my contemporaries that put their parents off from coming!

It may ramp up later, but we have not had any homework on leave weekends (or holidays) yet whilst DS has been in the 2nd form. That is unless he has not told us !

Nope, we don't get any either (one in Third Form and one in UF). The occasional bit of unfinished prep at leave weekend, possibly, but I would say 90% of the time nothing at all. During the holidays they occasionally have a bit, but nothing major, maybe a bit of research, a poster to design, something like that. They are more likely to have revision than actual written work. Maybe YadaYada's son saves up his prep to do at home?

Great Plum wrote:I don't recall much work in the holidays at all (I was there in the 90's though...)

What I would say about taking your kids out at the weekend is that to be honest, after a year or two, your kids will be quite happy to be at school - I knew some of my contemporaries that put their parents off from coming!

I didn't realise you could take your children out at weekends I was talking about Leave Weekends when I thought we had to collect them, or have I misunderstood (again)

I am however pleased that they don't have much work to do (at least to begin with) at home

My son definitely doesn't save his prep up.

He was set one lot of prep for this week but as he didn't leave school until Saturday he got it done on Friday night.

I have asked him about the holiday prep he had at Christmas. It turns out it was optional but he didn't realise this so spent a long time doing it but it was obviously optional for the teacher to mark it as well.

Leave Weekend prep has been normal weekend prep and has usually been 2 pieces this year. Maybe it depends on the subject teacher and he has got unlucky this year.

pinkhebe wrote:I didn't realise you could take your children out at weekends I was talking about Leave Weekends when I thought we had to collect them, or have I misunderstood (again)

I am however pleased that they don't have much work to do (at least to begin with) at home

Yes, you can take them out on Sundays (with prior notice to the houseparent) although as Great Plum says sometimes they have made plans with friends, or there is something spontaneous (waterfights in summer are very common) and they miss out on some fun. Houses sometimes organise fun things too, so it's worth checking with the houseparent when you make arrangements.

out of interest, if they take music lessons, how many a week do they have and for how long?

Not sure if it varies on different instruments, but my daughter has one 35 minute lesson per week, and has one compulsory practice session (two sessions in 2nd form), but can go to music block and use a practice room as often as she likes (within reason, and if there's one free)

lonelymom wrote:Not sure if it varies on different instruments, but my daughter has one 35 minute lesson per week, and has one compulsory practice session (two sessions in 2nd form), but can go to music block and use a practice room as often as she likes (within reason, and if there's one free)

thanks, I think I was hoping they'd have more lessons seeing as the lessons are more than twice what I'm paying at the moment.

I've had a lot of questions about the boarding side of life at CH, but I've just realised I have no idea about the academic side, nor can I find any info apart from the structure of the day and lessons taught.

So how are the years taught? How many classes are there per year? are they streamed according to ability? Will they be with their housemates?

Any help would be appreciated, as J's peers are finding out about how their new schools are run, I'd like to give him the same information.

Thanks