First half's been a tense affair

We’re at the halfway point and the half-term break couldn’t have come soon enough. After two weeks of wall-to-wall exams, a week to clear your head and recharge the batteries is very welcome.

If you think of it like a cup final, the first half has been a tense and cagey affair with very little given away by either side.

It has the makings of a classic but at this stage, with two evenly matched teams cancelling each other out, it could go either way. All we can hope for is no Loris Karius-style clangers to throw it all away after everyone has worked their backsides off to get to within sight of the holy grail.

The gruelling exam timetable is like some grizzly punishment from The Handmaid’s Tale. So far daughter #2 has had Spanish (speaking), RE (Christianity and Islam), biology Pt1, RE (themes), chemistry Pt1, drama (writing), drama (acting), English literature Pt1, physics Pt1, maths Pt1 and English literature Pt2.

On Monday we go again with history (Germany), English language Pt1, Spanish (listening and reading), maths Pt2, English language Pt2, history (Normans and migration), biology Pt2, maths Pt 3, chemistry Pt2, Spanish (writing) and physics Pt2.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot. While all that mayhem’s going on, daughter #1 sits her A-levels. So we’ve got English literature, ICT and Spanish. So as you can see we’re having quite the time of it. The house is in lockdown (apart from daughter #1’s sixth form prom last week – when she and her mates dressed up like leading ladies from Hollywood Oscars night).

Daughter #2’s school is even running cramming classes during half-term for anyone who needs it. But when daughter #2 pipes up that the best thing about GCSEs are the memes on Twitter after every exam then it makes you realise there aren’t many chuckles.

The work ethic that they’ve inherited from their mother has got them this far – and if they cling on and the ball bounces their way then they might just get through it in one piece. And that’s the nicest thing I can think to say about school.