Learning made fun

New Musical Minis Franchise In Lanarkshire

TWO Musical Minis Mums, Ann Raeburn and Karen Smith, were so impressed with the programme they decided to set up their own Musical Minis franchise in Lanarkshire.

Ann, a mother of two children, aged 3 ½ and 2, wanted a career that would continue to fit around her family life and to use her experience gained over many years working with children. Ann has been working with children since in her teens when she was a volunteer with Mencap. She has also worked in children’s homes and more recently ran the Mother and Toddler Group in Chapelhall, Airdrie. Ann was introduced to Musical Minis having brought her children to classes, the same being true of Karen.

Karen, who has a child of 3, used to teach ballet and tap to children aged between 3 and 15. She too was looking for something that would allow her to maintain a good work life balance.

To find out about Lanarkshire classes, click here.

Attentive August

USUALLY August is a quieter month for both franchisees and Head Office as apart from a few one off sessions classes stop for the Summer. This year however, a number of franchisees have been busy running Summer parties and continuing running classes in Children's Centres. At Head Office I've no time to relax as organising, our 21st celebrations seems to be a never ending task.

This August has certainly been wet. Luckily franchisees had decided to hold inside Summer parties. In Ayrshire these were combined with visits from Childrens characters and became an instant hit - so much so that Liz Rowe, the Ayrshire franchisee, has decided to take Musical Minis on tour around Ayrshire on different Saturdays this Autumn.

Brussels - Chocolate, Waffles And Beer

AS I've mentioned in previous blogs I do find it important to have a complete break from work and escape from my daily routine, including dealing with admin tasks like the phone and emails. This Summer has been so hectic that it was difficult to have a full break, however, I realised I needed a few days off so as to work more efficiently in the next few months. With this in mind Rob, Emily and I settled on a 4 day break in Brussels.

We booked on Eurostar which apart from the queues to get through the ticket barriers and passport control was an easy journey. The 2 hour early morning trip, sitting opposite a large loud foreign man on his mobile phone, could have turned in to a disaster but thanks to the tunnel we were spared from his shouting and only had his snoring to put up with!

We had booked for 3 nights at the Hilton Brussels Hotel a decision, in the end, we were pleased with. There are many parts of Brussels worth visiting and we didn't find one particular area worth staying in above others. Our hotel was within walking distance of most of the major spots in Brussels and was in a road with many designer shops. We ended up in 3 different bedrooms in the hotel - one smelt of smoke, one had thick dust on the windowsill but the 3rd was perfect. The hotel staff were really friendly and went out of their way to help us - we were particularly impressed that after Emily ordered a waffle for breakfast one day the waiter remembered and asked her if she wanted one the next day when he saw her. The Senior Duty Manager, Saad Boumraya, was particularly helpful and we really had the feeling he was intent on making our stay the best he could. His attitude was reflected amongst his staff and we were delighted that we could make proper use of the concierge service - they were knowledgeable, friendly and always keen to assist. When we returned after a trip they had recommended, they asked how we enjoyed it - such a contrast to our experience at other hotels we had stayed in recently.

Time To Examine The Exam Boards.

I AM puzzling over the fact that exam boards have the power to influence our children's lives and yet don't seem to be equipped to do so.

Every summer our teenagers sit GCSEs, AS levels and A levels. The young adults do their part with studying but the exam boards seem to let them down. This has been seen very clearly with my own daughter, Emily.

Emily has bad eyesight so in exams she has modified papers and extra time. Last year she had GCSEs and whilst she was fully prepared the exam boards seemed less so. On a few occasions Emily realised the boards had mucked up. For example, in her German paper she finished early and on comparing her modified paper to the normal paper noticed that the last question had been left off. In her maths paper the modified version was so large and had so many pages with graphs separate to the questions that she found it impossible to handle the paper - in fact she had to be given an extra desk to cope with the paperwork! It seems unfair to burden a child who already has problems with yet more due to ridiculous papers which haven't been checked for feasibility and completeness.