Dear son….

This weekend it has been your birthday. You have had 11 whole years on this planet.

happy birthday.

Yes i know its crap that you have to take and exam on your birthday. I know how you have curled your lip numerous times when we have mentioned the fact that you have to first do the test before the presents. Thats not us being mean btw. There just isnt enough time in the morning for you to enjoy it without rushing off. believe us.

it sucks.

really.

There is no way around it. We know the reasons, the whys the what ifs, the crazy, looney school entry system that exists here. If i had my way then no-one would have to sit exams to get into school. But…you do and it has fallen on your 11th birthday.

Thats rubbish.

BUT you can do it. Face the miserable part of the day and then embrace the rest of the day with gusto and blow a huge raspberry at the pirates that put an exam on your special day.

Go on.

We won’t look.

I have been there. You are talking to a pro. My birthday is in June. Every single year of my secondary school life i sat exams if not on, around my birthday. I know how you feel, i know you want to shout and stamp and scream ‘but it is MY BIRTHDAY!”

you can do that. You can shout it.

Doesn’t change it though sadly.

This secondary school circus is just that my boy. A circus. The over-subscribed, results driven, tutored, schooled and preened test takers can whirl parents facing the year 7 changeover into some sort of crazed, frantic fools. Forgive us.

We want the best for you and essentially that doesn’t actually have to include going to the highest league table school (between me and you those league tables are not totally true anyhow!). But we are plagued with a million different options and changing systems in education. The people who run our country who make silly decisions with a flick of their ink pen that have a massive effect on you.

Ignore all that nonsense…thats what it is.

Dont forget that you are in the massively privileged percentage of kids in this world who can CHOOSE to go to school. Who will come out of  WHATEVER school you go to with the ability to earn a living. That puts you in SUCH a blessed and lucky group.  You don’t need to sit an exam to know that. It is your right and it is one that you should value regardless of all this jumping through hoops, exam, points system craziness that might make you feel like you somehow don’t make the grade.

Its good to not loose sight of that and dont forget that it might seem all very uncertain to you at the moment as you look into a new season but the one certain thing is that we are right there behind you. We have your back.

AND… We know you are going to be great, wherever you go..because you are a GREAT KID.

xx