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Sunday 20 May 2012

Sir Ken on education....

http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

Another fantastic TED presentation by Sir Ken Robinson as a follow-up to his 2006 talk.
Saturday 12 May 2012

Proud Mummy moment....

Jasmine has been doing gymnastics in various forms over the last 3 years.  She started with a general class for pre-schoolers, had a brief stint with the next age group up that caused her such trauma that she almost gave up completely, then back to the first group before doing several months of trampoline classes.  


As mentioned a while back, Jasmine changed to rhythmic gymnastics last year.  In recent weeks, I've been noticing some of the senior coaches noticing her, particularly when the girls started using clubs.  A couple of weeks before the end of each term, they have an assessment day where the coaches decide which class to recommend for each child for the following term.  This week, Jasmine was taken aside by one of the senior coaches while the regular coach was with the rest of the class.  Sure enough, at the end of the class, Jasmine was recommended to go into the rhythmic squads!  Her coach came over to me to explain that changing class was optional, to which I said I figured she'd been doing it long enough to progress.  The coach agreed with me, saying, "She's REALLY good!"


Basically, she'll now be doing a 1.5 hour class instead of a 45 min class, focussing on more specific skills which will lead on to competitions if desired & non-competitive club displays and expos.  As the classes are a bit later in the afternoon, I'll probably have to re-jig our days slightly to make sure Jasmine's not too tired at that time, but she's going to give it a go for a term & see how it goes.  She's sad not to have the same coach next term, but is also getting bored with the level she's at now.  It's the first time she's ever been promoted, and I think long overdue.  Even other parents shared their surprise when she was not promoted after the first term of rhythmic.


I did shed a happy tear, as did Jasmine's Dad when I told him that night :)