Now I Can Exhale

I probably don't need to remind anyone about how stressful it was for me to see my year 11s through their GCSE Music exam and coursework submission. It is impossible to truly convey how hellish it was to achieve this--I wanted so very badly for my kids to do well, and yet I didn't have the experience teaching this course, and they had been neglected and let down by their previous teacher.

In retrospect, I can see that we essentially did a two-year course in a little under eight months. Eight months! At the beginning of this, I had no idea what I needed to teach these kids. They did not have the confidence they needed to do well in composing. We rolled up our sleeves and muddled through, and finally 4 of the original 6 completed all coursework and sat the exam.

The exam was quite gruelling--the questions these kids are asked are on subjects I did not learn about until university. They sat it in May and we all heaved a huge sigh of relief. It was now out of our hands--we had done the best we could do.

Results came out on August 19th, and it's taken a bit of time for Kathy to find out what they were. This morning I had an email from her. The subject said, simply, "Grades." I opened it with some trepidation.

One B, two C's and one D!

In GCSE grading, the top grade is A*, followed by A, B, and C. These are the grades required by most higher education facilities for admission. D, E and F grades are lower levels, obviously, but a D is not as bad as it would be in the States. The lowest grade is G, and then there is U, for unclassified, for students who don't submit enough to warrant any grade.

Needless to say, I'm quite pleased. Kathy pointed out that I should be proud:

I think, given the start these guys had and the sharp learning curve you had when you started here, these grades are stupendous. Well done!

So, pardon my bragging and my self-congratulating, but I really feel like I need to shout from the rooftops that my kids and I achieved something really good, starting from ground zero.

I am tremendously proud.