Princess Beatrice of York news and pictures 6: January-April 2007

[chrissy57]

Yes, it was Beatrice.

[Warren]

The story of Beatrice and her 'unsuitable' boyfriend, Paulo Liuzzo, can be found in this thread starting at page 3, post 53 (February 2006).

[Avalon]

Pictures of Beatrice, skying with her parents in Switzerland can be found in the York Family Pictures thread.

[iceflower]

Princess Beatrice and her boyfriend Dave Clark on a shopping spree whilst on a ski holiday in Verbier, Switzerland on February 14, 2007

Bea looks very good on these pics and they make a nice couple, I'm only a bit confused as the guy looks a bit different to the one on the other pics I've posted last saturday??!

Bea and Dave
More pics can be seen here!

[ladejesus]

They look so cute together. Thanks for the pics iceflower.

[iceflower]

You are very welcome, ladejesus
I found two more close ups of Bea taken during her walk with Dave, I really like her hairstyle like this:

Bea 1
Bea 2

[Bella]

Originally Posted by iceflower

You are very welcome, ladejesus
I found two more close ups of Bea taken during her walk with Dave, I really like her hairstyle like this:

Bea 1
Bea 2

Thanks, Iceflower. With the snow falling these holiday pictures look even more pretty. Beatrice is always smiling! How refreshing.

[Incas]

Beatrice seems to have grown taller.

[TLLK]

Does anyone know what Princess Beatrice has planned for her future? Will she go to university or into a career?

[lady_windsor]

does anybody know where Eugenie is and why she is not with the rest of her family for the ski holiday? I would have imagined that they would all go together as they have in the past, however, there seems to be no pictures of her out skiing.

[HighGoalHighDreams]

I would imagine she is fulfilling school commitments, as her school has different holidays than Beatrice's.

[chrissy57]

I am surprised that Beatrice's school has holidays only a month or so after the Christmas break ended.

Does anyone else find this strange?

I know in NSW all our terms are at least 9 weeks.

I also realise that other countries do things differently but I do find it strange that a school would be having holidays only 5 - 6 weeks after the beginning of the term.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by chrissy57

I am surprised that Beatrice's school has holidays only a month or so after the Christmas break ended.

All schools here have a February half term holiday, this year, at most English and Welsh schools it is 12th February – 16th February.
The next one will be the Easter Holiday, which this year is 2nd April – 13th April.

The Scottish schools tend to be a week or two in advance of these dates (they had 5th February - 9th February).

[chrissy57]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

All schools here have a February half term holiday, this year, at most English and Welsh schools it is 12th February – 16th February.
The next one will be the Easter Holiday, which this year is 2nd April – 13th April.

The Scottish schools tend to be a week or two in advance of these dates (they had 5th February - 9th February).

Thanks for that information - I learn something new every day.

So then let me get this right - they do 5 weeks of school and then have a week off and then do another 5 weeks and Scottish schools had what 3 weeks at school and then a week off. Then at Easter they get two weeks (the same as us) but that will be our first break after starting back on January 30th.


Crickey at that rate I would never get through the syllabus we have down here - I struggle as it is but if I was having holidays every 5 weeks or so I would have no hope and nor would the kids have a chance of getting on top of all the work needed in their 5 or 6 subjects for the HSC exams.

[Charlotte1]

Originally Posted by chrissy57

Thanks for that information - I learn something new every day.

So then let me get this right - they do 5 weeks of school and then have a week off and then do another 5 weeks and Scottish schools had what 3 weeks at school and then a week off. Then at Easter they get two weeks (the same as us) but that will be our first break after starting back on January 30th.


Crickey at that rate I would never get through the syllabus we have down here - I struggle as it is but if I was having holidays every 5 weeks or so I would have no hope and nor would the kids have a chance of getting on top of all the work needed in their 5 or 6 subjects for the HSC exams.

But with the UK system, A-levels you study 2 or 3 subjects in depth not the 5 or 6 we do in Australia and then take your exams. ( Using royal examples, William took 3 A-level subjects, Harry 2, Beatrice I think 3, she did say what they were in the interview for her 18th birthday) My friend who is a British High School teacher taught for 3 years at senior high school level in Australia and said that it wasn't possible to teach to the same depth as she could in the UK where the senior students studied fewer subjects as fulltime secondary students. Also a lot of the work the UK students do now is course work so even with mid-term holidays they would be expected to be doing some study or 'catching up'.

Unlike the US and European school systems where the end of the academic school year is in early June, the UK schools go until the end of July. Although private schools and those taking their exams finish earlier which is the same in Australia.

[chrissy57]

Originally Posted by Charlotte1

But with the UK system, A-levels you study 2 or 3 subjects in depth not the 5 or 6 we do in Australia and then take your exams. ( Using royal examples, William took 3 A-level subjects, Harry 2, Beatrice I think 3, she did say what they were in the interview for her 18th birthday) My friend who is a British High School teacher taught for 3 years at senior high school level in Australia and said that it wasn't possible to teach to the same depth as she could in the UK where the senior students studied fewer subjects as fulltime secondary students. Also a lot of the work the UK students do now is course work so even with mid-term holidays they would be expected to be doing some study or 'catching up'.

My friend who has just come back from teaching there last year, and a number of colleagues who have taught there as well actually say the opposite - that the standard isn't as high in the England in the subjects as it is for the HSC in NSW. The English standard may be similar to other states - I don't know their standards having never seen the quality of the work presented. The friend who was there last year also described it as the most frightening experience of her life - she felt safer in Johannesburg than she did teaching in England - maybe that is way she described the standard as so low.

In NSW our students most certainly do course work (referred to as Assessment Tasks) throughout the final year. In the final result their scaled assessment mark counts 50% with their external exam counting for the other 50%. They would certainly spend their holidays studying and catching up and preparing assessment tasks - e.g. my school returned three weeks ago and most of the Year 12 students have already had to complete in class or hand-in 4 or 5 assessment tasks. I am the 'good guy' as my first task isn't due for another week (it is only a 3000 word essay this time). To prepare for these tasks they students had to work on them over the Christmas break. They will do half-yearly exams in about 6 weeks and in some subjects will do another assessment task before then - or they will do two next term before doing another one or two in third term (depending on whether or not they did one in fourth term last year).

From my own personal experience I spent time in Oxford in 2005 looking at the various textbooks that had A-Level on them hoping to find some books I could use with my Year 12 classes. I wouldn't use any of them with Year 12 as they are too basic in standard. My Year 12s like them as they set out the material in a basic way allowing them to then go and locate the in depth material they need to reach HSC standard.

Unlike the US and European school systems where the end of the academic school year is in early June, the UK schools go until the end of July. Although private schools and those taking their exams finish earlier which is the same in Australia.

That is very interesting news as when I was there in 2002 and in 2005 I couldn't move in many places because of the kids that were in the places I wanted to go. This was late June through July (in 2005 I was home and back teaching by mid-July)- if they weren't on holidays the truancy rate must have been very high. These kids certainly spoke with English accents in England so they weren't tourists. As a result it made sense to assume that they were all on holidays - now I realise that they were skipping school.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by chrissy57

That is very interesting news as when I was there in 2002 and in 2005 I couldn't move in many places because of the kids that were in the places I wanted to go. This was late June through July (in 2005 I was home and back teaching by mid-July)- if they weren't on holidays the truancy rate must have been very high. These kids certainly spoke with English accents in England so they weren't tourists. As a result it made sense to assume that they were all on holidays - now I realise that they were skipping school.

The end of the school year, this year is 20th July, the start of the new school year is 3rd September. The children that were about could have been on one of the many educational trips to London, that UK schools encourage. Many schools offer the chance to go and see the sights, go to the theatre etc.

I'm sorry you feel that the UK education system is so far behind the Australian one. I expect that is why so many people from different countries, do everything they can to get their children into English schools and of course British universities.

[Warren]

Further discussion of different education systems may be conducted in Member's Corner.

thanks.

Warren
British Forums moderator