And now I'm feeling much better... my son started playing piano, and it suddenly hit me... he's performing Beethoven, Bach and Scott Joplin, after only a year and a half's study! Practising became his obsession about six months ago, and wow, has he made progress.

Seeing the calm that playing gave him made me realise that the stressful things don't matter. The school can say what they like, but my boy can study deeply, master a topic, and fully understand it... if it's something he loves.

That's what I have to do, make sure the school, as much as possible, presents him with something he loves.

I'm thinking of cancelling one of his GCSE's that he's struggling with, if the school promise to let him have access to a piano for those hours. That could well give him an oasis of calm, and would benefit his other subjects.

What think you?