NovWriMo Plus Forum

That's a very good question, Phoenix. I've never thought to ask him. I'll start working on finding out how he feels about campus life.

His school included him in the Aim Higher group (for bright students who might otherwise not consider progressing to higher education because of disabilities or socio-economic problems). The group goes on all-day visits to universities and, even though he resisted at first, he's enjoyed his visits and managed the refectory okay. Maybe that's because one of his best friends is in the group, and a couple of teachers are on the coach.

He's really good at Mathematics so, a couple of years ago, he was a quarter of the school's Maths Challenge team and he seemed okay with that. A teacher took the team, in the school minibus, to another school, to compete against around twenty other school teams so there were plenty of children there. His only complaint was that they moved the teachers to teams from other schools and he didn't like the teacher his team got. He said all the teachers were helping their new teams but his strange teacher wouldn't help because it wouldn't be fair. My son has a great sense of fairness and gets really stressed when he thinks people are cheating at anything but he said the teacher should have helped because all the others were.

He managed two residential trips and several day trips when he was at infant and junior schools. The teachers were there, together with his classmates, so there would be plenty of familiar faces. Maybe he's getting more anxious because people expect more from him now, or maybe it's an adolescence thing.

Thinking over what discussions we have had, he probably isn't considering attending an institution far enough away that he couldn't live at home. He's also talked about going to the same one as his friend.

A couple of times he's suggested not going to university because he doesn't want to build up a student debt. This is England, so the government paid my husband's and my university tuition fees and maintenance grant but students are now expected to self-finance, using a government loan which they pay back when they're earning enough. This is still in the news so it's probably on all their minds. However, my son might think it's a good way to back out of higher education because he has other worries about it. I'll have to get him to talk about his concerns, so I can see what to do to help.

Well, you're certainly helping me get things clearer in my head.
Thanks,
Cathie