New beginnings and School uniforms

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.