Starting School

Starting School

The last week has all been about starting school for Monkey.  The reality for me that everything is about to change.  I’m sure that he is going to cope with this transition better than I am.

I’ve been getting rather anxious, worrying about which teacher he would have in Reception, would Monkey be with his best friend, will he be ok.  We’d only recently discovered that things are changing at the school.  From September Nursery and Reception will merge, offering two classes with a mixture of ages.  I’m still not sure how I feel about that concept. But I’m trying to tell myself, that actually there will be far fewer children of Reception age in his class, and therefore, in focus time, than in other schools in the town.  Hopefully this will give him the confidence to thrive, in a smaller group.

Anyway, with starting school, it was time to meet the teachers last week and find out which class he would actually be in. Daddy P and I went along with Monkey to find out more.  Monkey was rather bemused, why are we here at tea time Mummy?  Why are you and Daddy sitting on little chairs?

The Head welcomed everyone, it seemed to me that a lot of parents hadn’t turned up for whatever reason.  A shame I thought.  We met families from our old Pre-School which was nice, as well as seeing familiar faces from the current Nursery class.

The new class structure was explained, it seems to make sense in theory.  Time will tell, if it works in practice.  There is no kitchen at our school, so with the introduction of free school meals for Reception etc, meals are being brought in from another school on the other side of town from September.  I think most of us parents are a little anxious about it.  I like the idea, and am seriously hoping that a group setting will improve Monkey’s eating habits.  Once he’d eat anything, now …..  It did make a few of us chuckle that they’d allocated 20 minutes for the children to eat their lunch.  Uum, we will see how that one pans out!

Then it was time to find out which class Monkey would be in.  One teacher who’d I had a little disagreement back at the beginning of the school year, the other I’d heard really good things about.  The screen came up with both classes, I nearly panicked as I couldn’t see Monkey’s name at all to start with.  But then, yes, he was there, with the teacher I’d heard such good reports about, with his best friend G, and also with the daughter of a lady I’ve become friends with too.  Phew!  All is good with starting school.

The choice of teacher also means that Monkey will physically move class too in September. I’m sure there will be some teething problems with this change, but I was more worried about how he would cope with the change after 2 years in the same space.

Monkey doesn’t seemed phased about the change of teacher, although I’m not sure he totally understands what’s happening.

Today, he might get a better understanding.  Today is his settling in day in his Reception class.  I’m dropping him off at his normal Nursery Class, then my understanding is, he’ll spend the rest of the day with his new teacher and class mates.  I’m sure it will be fine, fingers crossed anyway.

Starting School

I can remember this time last year, being so worried about moving him from his old Pre-School.  Was I doing the right thing?  Would he be ok?  He has coped so well with the change, even with the Nursery Teacher who left after half a term.  I look at him today, and I know wholeheartedly that I made the right decision.  He’ll be starting school in September, but he’s already in the building. He already knows the teachers, the key workers.  He knows the uniform, he’s started going for some full days.  He will know the majority of his class mates already.

For me, starting school is going to be tough.  I have no idea what the next year will bring with regards to working.  I still can’t bring myself to think of someone else taking or picking up my son from school.  I can’t quite cope with the idea that this summer could be our last full summer together, with no commitments.  Yes, I am avoiding dealing with that!

But today, I’m watching my son on his starting school journey. Remembering my own school days, the friends that came and went, the friend that I still have now.  The teachers and my first headmaster.  I have found memories of my First School, and in fact all three of my school’s in Surrey; can’t quite say the same for the one in Oxfordshire! But hopefully Monkey’s school journey will be a happy one, where he flourishes and becomes a confident member of the class.  It’s an exciting time for my little boy and everyone else starting school in September.  I wish them all the best with it.

4 thoughts on “Starting School

  1. To me it all sounds really confusing. Weird to have reception in with a nursery class when they’ll be learning such different things. Especially as at our nursery school, it’s on a different site from school. At the moment they walk up to school to play in the reception playground sometimes, but when nursery school moves just out of the village they won’t be able to do that any more which is sad. Also how does the food work given that reception get meals, but nursery aren’t included in that free allocation. Interesting.

    Ours have reception and year 1 together and that works, although I presume they split of for different levels of learning.

    N seems to think he’s going to school this year, but he’ll be the eldest in his day nursery (unless a new child starts). Think it’ll be a long year for him to wait to go to school, but gives me a chance to think about how to sort out a school run 5 days a week.

    Hope he enjoys his settling in day.

  2. I think he’ll be absolutely fine, it’s so easy to worry about so much as I did with M when she started school. We had only been there once for the induction day, we knew no one, but she has coped fine, ok there’s been a few little ups and downs along the way but I think children cope with change better than we think. I think Monkey is in a really good place knowing the school already, knowing the surroundings so less will change for him, he’ll just be moving on and learning lots of knew things. It’ll probably be a few weeks of tiredness at first due to full days but just let them relax in the evenings and don’t be worried if he won’t tell you anything about his day. I find it very frustrating that M will rarely tell me what she’s done at school but I guess that’s the child getting their own little bit of independence and as long as they are doing ok then I try not to worry.

  3. I think it is much worse as a Mum than it is for the child. I struggled so much with letting go that first year whereas E was pretty much oblivious to it all! I am sure he will be absolutely fine and will settle in in no time at all. I hope his taster day went well, though he doesn’t look too happy in that photo! No matter how difficult the first year seems, things do get easier x

  4. I think that children are often more resilient to change than we give them credit for, often it’s the parents who have a harder time on the first day of school.

    I hope that Monkey has a great first day 🙂

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