Warning: lots of proud-mummy bragging coming up. So if you cannot stomach the glee and the gloat, skip this post.

We had a meeting with Gillian’s co-form teacher yesterday on her first term progress report.

I am VERY happy (no, ‘happy’ does not even begin to cover this. Over the moon more like!) to report that she is now 2nd in class, up from her usual seat at the 6th position. She has not left the top 10 for more than a year now, but she is moving on!

Out of the 5 subjects she took, she scored straight As for 4 subjects and a B for English. Even her B was 3 marks behind the maximum in class, giving her 3rd place in class for the subject. More importantly, it was far better than her previous grades in English, which had been steadily slipping for some time. So it came as a nice surprise that she was improving.

In all the subjects where she scored As, she was never beyond the 5th placing in class, except for Science where she took 10th place.

However, the biggest surprise came in Maths. She, who always, for as long as I can remember, struggled in Maths, failing most of the time, actually scored a brilliant 91/100, making her 3rd in class for the subject! Yes, I had to scrape my jaw off the floor when I saw that. KH was grinning from ear to ear!

So we are all very very proud of her. She has come a long way from those unhappy early primary and EM3 days when she was failing, feeling lousy and being sneered at by her peers. She is in a good place in her life now. She's hitting her stride, growing in confidence and maturity (her teacher says she's level-headed, staying far away from the trouble-makers in class, hangs out with a good crowd, is always polite and greets her teachers), finding her own unique niche in life. While we have the opportunity to push her up to the Normal (Acad) stream, we’re happy to keep her in Normal (Tech). I believe in the big-fish/small-pond concept. So better for her to do well in this stream and build her sense of confidence and self-respect.

The teacher shared about one of Gillian's classmates who had gone over to the Normal (Acad) stream in Sec 1 mid-year after doing very well. She could not cope with the higher acad level and had to return to Normal (Tech). But the net result was that she was so demoralised by her return, seeing it as a failure, that she reacted very badly, changing from the hardworking girl she was to one who made a series of rash, bad decisions in her behavior. That is sad to see and I am determined for that cautionary tale not to become Gillian's.

No, we will stick to Normal (Tech). I have learned the very hard way that certain kids just do better in a different academic flow. As I posted before, Normal (Tech) is not a 'bad' stream and certainly, the kids there are not 'stupid' or 'hopeless' as society would like to think they are. They are just a different bunch with different strengths and who can find their own interpretations of success. My child is not a label and I am happy for Gillian, that her successes have allowed her to re-define what she wants, opening new vistas of opportunities she would otherwise not have had.

Its early days yet but we have begun looking at ITE courses together already. With these excellent results, she can have her pick of any ITE course instead of being trundled to the bargain basement courses. And being in a better course means you are surrounded by like-minded kids who have also done well, this means a more motivated,driven cohort and less opportunity for mischief overall.

But I am getting ahead of myself. It’s only the first term so she’s got to show that she can maintain these results for the rest of the year. Still, it’s a great start and if she stays on the momentum that her triumphs have given her, she should have no difficulty in staying on course.