First Day of School

Wednesday was the First Day of School for Timmy and Annie, and it started off well. After our grocery delivery earlier this week, we now have more than raisin bran to eat for breakfast. The children were happy to have some familiar foods again. And kudos to Colin for trotting all the way to St. Alban's today (about a mile), which allowed us to be on time. Generally he prefers to leisurely stroll the city streets.

Timmy and Annie are attending St. Albans Catholic Primary School. Timmy is in year 4 (equivalent to 3rd grade), and Annie is in year 2 (equivalent to 1st grade). Interestingly, religious schools may be state-funded (or public, in US parlance), and that's the case with St. Albans (though this situation has generated some debate in the UK). Many of the primary schools in Cambridge are Church of England schools, and there are two Catholic schools (the other is St. Laurences).


(These photos are of the outside of the school taken during Mike's trip here in July. That's the best we can do given that our camera is still a couple of weeks from being returned to us repaired.)


Attitude is everything. Annie has a great one about school. She loves her uniform ("Thanks, Mom, for buying me these new school shoes. They're soooo comfortable."), her teacher ("I love her a lot"), her classroom and her two new best friends (Kitty and some other girl whose name she doesn't know). According to Timmy, Annie was surrounded by about five friends on the playground. He apparently kept a lookout for her throughout the day and even tried to sit with her at lunch, but she was nearly finished and then left for recess.

Timmy's attitude is more cautious. It takes him longer to feel comfortable and warm up to the people around him. He reported that the best thing about the day was lunch. He's getting "school dinners" which means hot lunch, cafeteria style, for the next six weeks. It's a good arrangement for Timmy and me since he likes hot meals and I find it difficult to pack balanced lunches for him. On the first day he said he ate meat, potatoes, cauliflower, and bread. He skipped the spaghetti and salad. You have to commit to school dinners for six weeks at a time. Annie might like some of the food, but since she wouldn't like it most of the time, we've elected to pack a lunch for her.

After dropping them off, Mike went on to work, but the school office manager advised me to take Colin over to the Mums and Toddlers group in the church hall. The church, Our Lady of the English Martyrs, is a large, somewhat imposing place. When we went to Mass last weekend for the family Mass, it was mobbed. I don't think we've ever seen so many small children at a Mass before.


We did go in and I met a few women while Colin was happy to play with some different toys. After, we had planned to catch a bus to do some shopping to get school clothes for Colin, but we apparently were standing at the wrong bus stop so no bus ever came. Eventually we just walked home and stopped at a few shops along the way. Including all that plus picking up the kids from school at dismissal, Colin and I walked over 4 miles. Give that little guy a hand!

One of the "mums" I met today has children in the school and knows both Timmy's and Annie's teachers well. She had praise for both of them and especially noted that Timmy's teacher is very funny. Now Timmy has come home telling me that his class will have swimming lessons every Wednesday and that he is supposed to bring a swimsuit. I was waiting for him to say that the pool is on the 5th floor. I really think this is a joke, but Timmy is a believer. We'll see.

Colin begins school next week. His class is called Reception, which is for children turning 5 during this school year. There was no place available to him at St. Albans so he will attend St. Philips Church of England Primary School. His teachers came to visit us at home today. Colin was very pleasant and chatty with them. Since the Reception program is a full time program, there is a gradual acclimation process over the next few weeks.

That's enough for today. It will be interesting to see how everything goes next week, on our next first day!