We attended an open day for our daughters primary school last week. As of September our four and a half year old will be in reception and our three year old will be in pre-school nursery five mornings a week. I feel relieved and sad all at the same time. Parenting is nuts.
It was good to walk around and get a feel for the place. It took me right back to the days when I was at primary school more than 25 years ago *shudders*.
The deputy head talked about the school rules and regulations such as; no wearing jewellery to school, no taking children out of school to go on holiday during term time, bad behaviour is not tolerated etc, etc. We were also given information on the 'settling in' process (which will take three weeks by the sounds of it) and drop off/pick up times. All very meticulous. I did balk at the massive class sizes. Thirty children per class. That's a lot of children.
I attempted to buy the girls school uniforms. That in itself was a task. You have a choice of two colours and you can mix and match with jogging bottoms, skirt, pinafores, cardigans, sweatshirts, polo shirts, cocktail dresses, dinner jackets (I made the last two items up lol), but it's mind boggling how much you have to remember. Unfortunately most items were out of stock. So we have to go back in two weeks, but even so, what I did buy came to £30 - two polo shirts, one sweatshirt, one PE kit, one PE bag and one book bag. I still need to buy a lot of the uniform for my eldest and I haven't even included school shoes, coats, plimsolls....
We're undecided as to whether our eldest will have school dinners. Apparently there's a system in place whereby parents are given an account where they can pay the fee. It works out at £10 a week. I always loved school dinners, but they're not always the healthiest. Although who knows, maybe Jamie Oliver really has turned things around since the days I was at school.
The girls seem pretty excited about this new chapter we're soon to embark on. I am too, despite the crazy schedule which is rapidly on its way.
Tuesday 10 July 2012
New beginnings and School uniforms
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4 comments:
My 7 year old daughter she always asks for a pinafore and she NEVER wears it, so I am giving up buying them this year! I get her a skirt and a pair of trousers and she's happy with that. Asda and Tesco are both good for school uniform value wise. The schools will always try and sell you their branded cardi/jumper/polo but if you check with them, you probably won't HAVE to get the branded stuff. When my son started school (he's now nearly 10) we got everything with the school logo on, and spent a fortune. Now (probably because we have two in school and Bronte starting nursery in September) it's basic plain stuff - let's face it, it will get covered in dinner/pen/glue/paint which will wash out although I did 'splurge' on one 'branded' cardi for my daughter. Most kids will wear plain jumpers/polos. I've lost count of the number of polos I have had to bin this year due to staining, I'd be heartbroken if they were the branded ones. Yes they look a tiny but smarter...but hey....who cares?! Haha.
We are going through the starting school phase in our house too, it's expensive stuff!! Hope all goes well come September :)
Thanks Nicola, I think you have a point there. It definitely felt like we were being flogged the branded stuff and being a bit green around the gills where this stuff is concerned we just thought we'd go branded. Will def ditch that idea and maybe buy one or branded sweatshirts then the rest from the supermarket. Like you say kids and mess go hand in hand so it's just a waste of money buying EVERYTHING branded. Thanks for giving me the heads up. Much appreciated x
Lady_briggs Thankyou, it's a funny old time isn't it? I think I read on your blog or tweets that there is a book about starting school with tips for children and parents? Might not have been you, but anyway I'm going to keep an eye out for it. I don't usually do manuals, but that one looks very interesting.
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