Girls winning prizes in 2011

February 4, 2012 Leave a comment

Lucia and Madeleine had a fantastic year in many respects, but it was in the classroom that they really excelled.

Madeleine had a big challenge when she started at Dio in February 2011, moving to her third school in just four years, and joining a well established group who had mostly been together for three years already. It was a big learning curve for her, and it would be fair to say that for a start she floundered and even begged us at times to send her back to her old school. It was heartbreaking to know that she wasn’t happy, but we believed in her new school and luckily, Dio more than met our expectations. She was assessed and it was decided she needed extra tuition in reading, which she had four times a week for most of the year. She worked incredibly hard, and eventually found within herself the desire to meet the high expectations that her fantastic teacher set for her. Together, Madeleine and her teacher saw a major improvement in her achievement, and at junior school prize giving, Madeleine received her class prize for progress. I couldn’t have been more proud and blinked away tears and clapped furiously as she stepped on stage to receive her certificate.

Madeleine receives the class prize for progress

Lucia also had another really successful year in the classroom. She does well in pretty much all areas and receives glowing reports from her teachers on a regular basis. She was singled out for the Principals Award for her class, which is awarded to the pupil who (to paraphrase) is a bit of an all-rounder in the classroom, and a nice girl as well.