How is it this time already, I only just gave birth to Tobias, right!?!? Tobias starts school this September (2021) and I knew because of COVID especially I had to seriously start thinking about what schools we wanted to consider for all our children to go to in the future.  We started making a list last August and contacted each of the schools during the 6 weeks summer holiday.  I’ll be honest and say in the beginning I was just going off other people’s recommendations and opinions. I then had a look at what our catchment schools were and started to wonder how we would be able to apply to others outside our catchment area. Nothing against our catchment schools but I just wanted to find something that:

A. Had knowledge of extra support that may be needed.

B. Had the same sort of outlook on learning as we do.

C. A good outdoor area and facilities. 

D. Somewhere bigger than just 30 children in the whole school

E. A church school

The problem is we’ve been really spoilt with the nursery and pre-school we’ve used for each of the boys. They’ve both been amazing places and I just can’t imagine them being anywhere else. 

Things that I’ve been told to look out for when looking at schools are:

– If you think your child will be happy there.

– The feel you get for the school.

– That you get shown around the whole school.

– Whether the school ethos matches your own.

– If the children are working well together and cooperating, and the noise levels in classrooms.

– Whether the children’s’ work is on the wall.

– Try and see what playtime is like.

– Whether the head teacher knows the children’s names.

– How likely you are to be able to get into the school.

– Whether you are at the right feeder school for your chosen secondary school (scary thought!).

– After school club facilities. 

We knew we wanted a church school and that narrowed the list to 7 schools in our local area.  Only four of the schools got back in touch to invite us to view the school, which we did after school times or in holiday times.  After a lot of debating I put all five choices down in order of what we felt would best suit our family.  Really, I would have been happy with either our first or second choice.  We found out in April 2021 we got our first choice and now the whole uniform shop etc has begun!

I’m just in shock that we’re at this stage already.  Pre children, this is the stage I envisioned, dropping my children off at school, picking them up etc, that’s what I thought parenthood was all about and I can’t quite believe we’re here already, at this stage!  But in the same sense I’m not ready to give up on our current preschooler bubble of fun, I’ve cherished these days and it’ll never be the same again! 

Much love

Rebecca