On international ‘be late for something day‘ Ezra began his journey through full-time education. Yes, the youngest of our three children has now reached the age deemed by the UK that compulsory education should begin and thus all three of the Baguettes are at school. They are growing up too fast! Read more
First Day
Back to School
It has become somewhat of a modern tradition that on the first day back to school there is an obligatory photograph taken outside the front door of one’s home of your offspring accoutred in their school uniform. Not completely sure who or when this tradition began and, although I am not one who usually conforms to fashion for the sake of fashion, somehow one feels like one has failed as a parent if the internet does not see such a picture. Therefore, to avoid being tarnished with the epitaph ‘Bad Parent’ without further ado please scroll to the bottom of this update to see this year’s photos.
The beauty of such a photo is that it captures the school uniform how it is intended to look rather than after it has been worn everyday for a couple of months and treated with the respect that only a 6 year old can mete.
I find it amazing that after 6 weeks of waking up at 0630-0700 throughout the summer vacation, both of the girls needed waking up from a deep slumber on the first day of school. Not sure where they get this from as both Lucinda and I enjoy a lie-in (or used to enjoy a lie-in before the Baguettes arrived). There must be an innate ability inherent in all children to know exactly the most inconvenient time possible to wake up.
The 2016-2017 academic year sees Éowyn in year 3 (entering Key Stage 2) and Amélie join year 1. Ezra is still at nursery and will not enter full time education until September next year. He also had to return to school a full day before his sisters because of a tactically scheduled inset day at their school that extended the summer holiday by another twenty four hours.
Éowyn and Amélie, although at the same school, are still at separate campuses and will be until next year when Amélie enters year 2 (and Éowyn year 4). Unfortunately, it will not mean that the journey to school will be a little easier (and consequently the pick up from school) for Ezra will be entering reception and thus attending that campus for two years. So we will have to wait until 2019 for all three to be on the same campus and that will only be for one year until Éowyn leaves Primary school education and enters Secondary education and year 7 in 2020. We have a few years (and many updates) before then, so stay tuned.
Both girls came back saying how much they enjoyed their first day back at school. They both liked their new teachers and were a little over excited to see all their friends again. Amélie’s class has just moved straight into a new classroom with a new teacher, so it should be a straightforward move and so it seemed from chatting to her about it tonight. Indeed she seemed to think it was the ‘best day ever‘ because she was allowed two pieces of fruit; very easily pleased our second-born.
Éowyn, on the other hand, has a bigger change to contend with; for not only is she moving classroom and teacher but the school have decided to completely mix up the classes in her year. This means, unfortunately, she is no longer in the same class as her best friends. This has been worrying her over the summer but today she was extremely philosophical about it and seemed to embrace the change, probably because she likes her teacher and enjoyed talking to new people. Long may it continue. I, as always, will keep you updated through the medium of this site.
Peace and Love
Baggie
Éowyn
Éowyn and Amélie
Amélie
Ezra’s first day at nursery
Monday 22nd February 2016 saw an important step in Ezra’s life – his first day at nursery. It is tradition (on this site) that such an important step is worthy of an update all to itself; this is it.
Ezra turns three in slightly less than three weeks and currently the UK Government pay for all pre-school children to receive 15 hours of childcare (e.g. nursery) per week. They are entitled to this from the term after their 3rd birthday until they begun full-time education. Therefore Ezra will be entitled to this for the Summer term when the schools return after the Easter break. However Ezra has never been to school, or to a childminder for over a year, or indeed spent a significant amount of regular time away from Lucinda and thus we felt that it was a little unfair for him go from 0-60 (o.k. 0-15 hours) in one fell swoop therefore we decided to ease him in gently with two mornings a week.
The decision of where to send him was far easier, we only had one place in mind. Indeed his name has been down for over a year because we so wanted him to go there. When we moved to Staines and applied to change Éowyn’s school to the nearby primary we also had to look for a nursery (pre-school) for Amélie. Éowyn’s school has a nursery but you have to commit to either all mornings, or all afternoons there is no provision for children to stay there all day. This did not suit us for Amélie (and it doesn’t really suits us for Ezra) as we prefer 3 full days (and pay the extra half day) rather than 5 half days. Therefore the decision for Amélie was the second closest school, a further thirty seconds down the road, Our Lady of the Rosary (or Grocery, as Amélie used to call it).
Our next door neighbour Kathy works at Our Lady of the Rosary (so Ezra, as Amélie before him) would have a familiar adult face and it has recently been awarded ‘Outstanding’ by an Ofsted inspection; this, coupled with our familiarity of the school, made it a very easy choice. Hence why his name has been down for over a year.
We took Ezra for a couple of taster sessions and he got on really well so I think Lucinda was more nervous than Ezra as we prepared him for his first day at school. We arrived in good time (we have to set out earlier now as Ezra’s school starts at 08:30) and he wasn’t at all overawed by the enormity of the set he was about to take. He confidently strolled into the classroom and immediately begun playing. Amélie said hello to all her old teachers and it felt like he had been going to school for months. We kissed him goodbye and left him quite happily ironing pizza (as you do) and thus begun our new school routine. I dropped Éowyn and then Amélie off and returned home before leaving for work.
Lucinda picked him up three hours later and the staff said that he had settled well. He had played nicely and there were no tears. Our little boy is all grown up. It is slightly upsetting to think that he didn’t miss us, but that is surely what we are trying to achieve. The only down side was that he refused to have a nap when he got home because he is a big boy, but crashed out in the pushchair (he is a lazy big boy) on the way to pick his sisters up from school and couldn’t be roused until tea-time.
So another step on the journey of life has begun for our youngest child. When did he have permission to grow up?
Peace and love
Baggie
Got my water bottle
Off to school – Huzzah!
Not at all worried