Nice People Thread Number 10 -the official residence of Nice People

silvercar

Listening to the radio today and found that dogs and cats can also donate blood! I never knew (a) that animals could donate (b) that animals can only receive their own species' blood.

lostinrates

silvercar wrote: »

Listening to the radio today and found that dogs and cats can also donate blood! I never knew (a) that animals could donate (b) that animals can only receive their own species' blood.

Vets' dogs often earn their keep .

We're animals. We donate . unless black pudding counts we're fussy about which of our cousins blood we get. The type thing of humans I don't know much about.


( you might like this one silvercar. Sometimes with horses the colostrum comes through too early. ( horses can delay labour in quite a special way, which is an adaptation to being a prey animal which they use to keep stud hands awake all night , but also, because of odd breeding practise and other things, some of which are normal this can just be....how it happens). So its not THAT odd to milk of the colostrum and freeze it. If you have spare (:( ) there is a nationwide network you can advertise I to donate to others, You can also advertise a mare available to attempt a foster.

vivatifosi

Out of interest lir, how do doggy blood groups work? Do they have universal donors and recipients like humans? How many blood groups?

LydiaJ

michaels wrote: »

Last night was parents evening, although I mostly doubt that they know which kids our ours as they always get described as well mannered and a pleasure to teach, it was encouraging to hear they were all enjoying and relatively good at maths. DD1 had got a spelling wrong this week (her first one this year) and her teacher felt compelled to tell us that is was OK which made me wonder what sort of parents she thinks we are.

I question for Lydia or anyone else, our appointments always seem much quicker than everyone elses, 'Your child is a pleasure to teach and working just above their level, they need to concentrate on checking their work not just pushing ahead as quickly as possible'. Others seem to be having long conversations which makes me wonder whether we are not taking enough interest/not researching enough/trusting the school too much? I am happy to trust that the teachers know what they are doing and would raise any issues but is that naive, should we be looking at taking extra steps to supplement what the state is providing and finds adequete? I am fine with happy kids and above average is a bonus but DW comes from a culture where education is everything and would probably like them pushed harder.

If you get in and out of your parents' evening quickly, being told that your children are lovely and that they are doing well, then don't worry. Be happy - smug even.

From the teacher's point of view, when you have a student who is intelligent, hard-working and well behaved, you say so, and then there's not much else to say.

The long appointments are for the parents of students who aren't coping or won't behave, or can't be bothered to do any work. Then you have to explain exactly what the problem is, and what you have done to try to address it, and why that has or hasn't been working, and what the parents need to try to hammer into the student's head because they're not taking any notice when the teacher says it. Often, the parents also want to talk about what the student says about the situation, how they behave at home, what the parents have tried so far to help the kid, and what they think it might help if the teacher did.

I've had DD's parents' evening tonight. In and out in a couple of minutes. They showed me a graph of her levels and the national averages, told me she's behaving well, and discussed when and if she should be moved up to the next rung of difficulty in homework. That was it.

With DS, I'm one of the parents who takes ages, I'm afraid. What with his dyslexia and his emotional complicatedness, there's always something that needs saying, and I don't get any emails from the teachers in the way that Sue describes. Last time I spent the whole parents' evening telling one teacher after another that they can't assume that he will tell them when he wants to use a word processor, because he inexplicably finds that insurmountably scary, so they need to offer it to him, or tell him how he can help himself to it, or something.

As to whether you should be doing anything to supplement the education that the school is providing, well that rather depends on how good an education the school is managing to provide. If the school is full of generally high achieving kids and/or is doing marvels according to the value added data, then the teachers will have high expectations of yours and will teach to an appropriate level of depth and breadth. If the school is known to have kids coming out of it less able to cope with the next educational stage than their peers, then you may want to provide some kind of extra help - although for most people all they really need from parents at this stage is encouragement, an understanding of what constitutes good behaviour, a bit of explanation when they get stuck on homework, and plenty of opportunities to do extra-curricular stuff.

However, if you live in a grammar school county and think your child would suit a grammar school (some do, some very much don't) then they'll probably need some coaching to put them on a level playing field with all the others who've been coached.

Finally, if your child is some kind of prodigy who needs their special talent nurturing, then organise relevant nurture for it. If your child has some kind of learning difficulty or special need, then do not expect the school to cater for it automatically - or not fully anyway. These are the minority of cases - children who significantly don't fit the standard "box" - and schools do not have the time and resources to invest in the individual help that your non-standard kid needs, so do your own research, and learn what helps and what doesn't. Then either fight for them to get the provision they need, or pay for it, because it won't be handed to you without a struggle in these budget-shrinking days.

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

Out of interest lir, how do doggy blood groups work? Do they have universal donors and recipients like humans? How many blood groups?

Hmm, this is out of my area and a long time since I read anything IN my area that's related so I'm not going to try and explain antigens. (I'd have to go and read myself you see because I really wouldn't be able to answer!)

IIRC |

Dogs ARE able to act as universal donors but do have blood groups which demand respect. So you'd use the practise dog for a first transfusion then determine blood type and use appropriate blood subsequently.


Edit: google says eight blood groups. This is a nice chart. https://ahdc.vet.cornell.edu/clinpath/modules/coags/typek9.htm

Interesting note on greys which I think I knew and had forgotten. I had forgotten all of that blood stuff.

Generali

Wagamama isn't a posh alert. It's not bad and quite reasonably priced although I suspect it's about as Japanese as I am.

I got the picture wrong BTW. It's facing my work. In fact you can see my office in the picture!

It's a lovely sunny morning here although autumn is clearly on the way. The mornings are getting cooler and more dewy. Autumn isn't like in England here sadly. Local trees don't shed their leaves as the need to conserve the water in them. Imported European ones get really confused and usually shed at the height of summer due to water stress and again in the depths of winter. I miss a good autumn with all that amazing colour and food.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

Wagamama isn't a posh alert. It's not bad and quite reasonably priced although I suspect it's about as Japanese as I am.and doesn't pretend to be. A Chinese guy set it up didn't he. I cannot remember but its something like that.

I got the picture wrong BTW. It's facing my work. In fact you can see my office in the picture!

It's a lovely sunny morning here although autumn is clearly on the way. The mornings are getting cooler and more dewy. Autumn isn't like in England here sadly. Local trees don't shed their leaves as the need to conserve the water in them. Imported European ones get really confused and usually shed at the height of summer due to water stress and again in the depths of winter. I miss a good autumn with all that amazing colour and food.

Its spring now. Remember spring, the time of year we are thinking about blossom and getting muddy sludge?

silvercar

If you get in and out of your parents' evening quickly, being told that your children are lovely and that they are doing well, then don't worry. Be happy - smug even.

From the teacher's point of view, when you have a student who is intelligent, hard-working and well behaved, you say so, and then there's not much else to say.

One of DS1's super teachers used to supplement this with, "if there is one thing that you as parents could do to further enhance your child's education it would be......."

He would suggest things like discussing the news or reading and discussing a particular book.

You could ask the question, if you felt you wanted to get value for your evening.

lostinrates

Doozer g, you ds looks like you in more than avatar hair. But.....how has he got younger looking?

neverdespairgirl

LydiaJ wrote: »

The long appointments are for the parents of students who aren't coping or won't behave, or can't be bothered to do any work. Then you have to explain exactly what the problem is, and what you have done to try to address it, and why that has or hasn't been working, and what the parents need to try to hammer into the student's head because they're not taking any notice when the teacher says it.

I remember my mother saying something similar to that about parents' evenings, and resisting my Dad when he said, "so the long appointments are for the thick and / or idle, then?"