End of an era

I’ve completed my last school run, which feels very strange and rather sad. I actually enjoy the school run. In the morning it’s our chance to have a chat about anything and everything. As I work from home, I love the simple act of saying good morning to lots of people in person as opposed to on screen. In the afternoon it gives me a golden opportunity to talk to them both about their day. Also, how will I ever get my 10,000 steps in now!?

There have been a lot of goodbyes. The girls have said farewell to friends that are going to different schools. I’ve realised that there are so many people that I simply won’t see any more by virtue of the fact I won’t be doing the school run.

It’s goodbye to things like nativity plays, special assemblies and book looks. There’ll be no more invites to see their school year netball team play. I will miss all of these things. Then there’s no more Sports Days. Although, is it bad that I’m not devastated by this one ?

I’m looking forward to not having random dress up days, not having to cobble stuff together for World Book Day and the stream of last minute events that seem to pop up. However, I dare say, I might miss them a little when they’ve gone. I’m also sad that they’ve outgrown things like the Summer Reading Challenge, which has been a holiday staple in our household for many, many years (details of this year’s can be found here).  

Whilst they are sad to leave they are looking forward to the next chapter, and in the last few months it’s felt like they’ve been outgrowing the school. 

What secondary school means for us

They’re going from a school with 360 pupils to one with well over 1000, which will be a bit of a culture shock. There is also quite a leap up in independence at secondary school; information is no longer spoon fed and details of many things are communicated directly to the students without the safety net of a parent email. They’ll need to take more responsibility and will certainly have to improve on their listening skills! I think the increase in workload will be another shock for them.

Whilst they’ve been at primary school I’ve been very hands on; secondary school is a different kettle of fish. I will have to get used to not being involved in the minutiae of daily school life. By the way, when did I become old enough to have three secondary school-aged children?  

The transition

There have been some good transition events run by their new school. These enabled them to get a feel for the school and meet their teachers and new classmates. I’m sure this will help make the whole process less daunting come September.

It’s the end of an era and the start of an exciting new journey. It’ll be a time of adjustment and growth for all of us, but I’m sure they’ll love it. Time will tell if I love the transition as much.

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Secondary School

It wasn’t that I made decisions lightly before, but all of a sudden there feels a whole new gravitas; secondary school really determines their future (or does it?). All of a sudden it’ll be ‘choosing options’, mocks and then GCSEs plus the general journey of moulding a young adult.

It’s been weighing heavy.

Grammar Schools

I’ve never had a burning ambition to send my children to a grammar school and there are aspects of the grammar school/selective system that I fundamentally disagree with. However, when we discovered we were realistically only in the catchment area for one school, which wasn’t a particularly well-performing one, I thought it was something I needed to consider just to give more options. I felt it was my ‘duty’ not to just go for the easy option. The aforementioned is the easiest option due to proximity and the fact my daughter wants to go there as many of her friends will be going there.

Tutoring

In the interests of keeping our options open, we got my daughter a tutor. This wasn’t hothousing, it was just an hour a week (alternating between maths and English) for a year to get her used to some of the skills required for the 11+ /common entrance and to practise some papers. We did find she encountered quite a few topics, which hadn’t been covered at school.

We only did an hour of tutoring a week as I felt if she needed more than that, then grammar school wasn’t the right thing for her.

The journey so far  

I had a very negative perception of our local non-selective secondary school mainly based on league tables. Sofia and I went to its open day whilst she was in year five (a year early) and I have to admit I found the pupils all lovely and really engaged (half the entire school was on show not just a couple of cherrypicked students) and the new head, who had been at the helm for eight months, was dynamic, enthusiastic and charismatic (more so than the heads of the grammar schools I’ve subsequently been to). I’ve also been impressed by the school’s use of social media to communicate with its pupils; linking news articles to specific things they are covering on the curriculum. I also spoke to people who had children at the school and guess what? They all loved it and said their kids were thriving there. T

What now?

Sofia’s done the first common entrance. We’ve told her, and strongly believe ourselves, that it isn’t the be-all and end-all if she doesn’t pass. However, if she does well, there’ll be a further exam. What I do know is, she’d much rather be a big fish in a smaller pond. If she felt she was off the pace in a selective school it would completely dent her confidence and I can see her getting totally dispirited instead of being spurred on to attain more. What I certainly don’t want is to get onto a programme of constant tutoring to compete.   

I’m a strong believer that the best course is the one that makes you happiest and as her current form teacher has said “she’ll do well wherever she goes.”

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