Deary Me

For various reasons, I've been reflecting on the children's time at school so far, and realised with rather a jolt, that we are nearer the end of the Primary school journey than the beginning. Way nearer!

Though I'd absolutely love to go back and have that time again, the school itself has changed so much that I came to the conclusion that I'm happy not to to have them in those early stages today.

The school wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, (!) but I think I may (may!) look back on those grumbles one day and realise how lucky we were to be in such a small, personal environment. When Betsy started, it was an Infant school with an intake of 90 (which to be honest seemed massive to all of us at the time) but now they take 120. The infant school had 240 children, now it has 360. They also had a tiny group of children with severe learning difficulties called 'Pear Tree class'.

Now they are merged with the Junior school to make it a 'Primary School' (initial caps required). They have four forms on entry and children joining now will be in a single school of 820 children - almost four times bigger than what my children found scarily huge when they were small. Pear Tree class is gone, to be replaced by something called 'The Unit'.

When we first visited the school, we were shown around by the Head, who greeted every child we passed by name. Now I have heard the staff are too busy to show people around and a parent does it.

The ramshackle patchwork group of buildings are being pulled down and replaced by a single solid grey brick building that runs right across what was the playing field. To be fair, though it extremely ugly, I'm sure it will be fabulous inside.

Perhaps I'm just at the age where I think that the way things were is always better than anything new, but I can't help thinking that when it comes to a primary school, big can't really be better, especially when you are only four or five and you're just starting out.

Anyway. Another beautiful day. Took the children to the park for a picnic after school (which was where I was pondering all this stuff). It was really warm still and the deer were cooling off in the lakes.