The news was delivered with little fanfare, please don't take too much notice of it mum, and I really am OK about it.
To our utter surprise he did not get a distinction in his clarinet exam, having scored 132 in his mock.
He did not even get a Merit which starts at 120 marks.
"Did you pass?" I was getting a bit worried.
He did pass though, at 118, just two short of a merit.
He mucked up his sight-reading enough to have failed it. Despite a perfect score on his aural, similar scores on his set pieces compared to the last grade, the seismic shift in his sight-reading and a slight dip in scales and arpeggios meant a good pass, that's all.
That made him take stock. He must work on his exams. So far things have been too easy for him. He's been winging it. Then he has a really strict examiner, and he falters.
We hope that this means he would work harder on his sight-reading for his Grade 5 Piano. He needs a distinction to be considered for a scholarship.
Meanwhile he is somewhere between Calais and Saalbach on his first school ski trip. Twenty hours of travelling by coach. Cattle class.
Apparently he found a seat on the coach and quickly bumped his head. He's not used to seats being so close together.
Still waiting for the text that says they have arrived safely.
