School visit

Izzy went to her school for the first time today. And fortunately it ended well. When I went to pick her up from nursery she started going all clingy and weepy and on the way down she was crying 'I don't want to go, I'll miss nursery.' Even though I kept saying we were only visiting for a short while and that we would be back in nursery quickly.

Part of the reason she's so upset is that her key worker Tara, who is the last person who originally worked at the nursery at work, before they all moved to the new nursery, is leaving at the end of the month.

When another member of staff told me this on Monday, I realised that Izzy was listening intently and then when we got to the car she began crying saying she didn't want Tara to go.

I've just let her cry mainly, and explained she wants to leave so she can be closer to her friends and family who live in another part of the country (well that's what we were told anyway). But Izzy's taken it hard.

It's probably also a combination of all the changes coming up - school and the fact that we'll be moving house - that are unnerving her.

Fortunately although she was sitting on my lap and clinging to me in the school office, her teacher was really welcoming and came right down to her and said hello and I could see Izzy was won over from that point. Three other children, two boys and two girls, were visiting at the same time. And I was quite impressed by the fact that both parents came for each of the other children.

We then got shown around the class and the outside area and were told to make ourselves at home, basically.

Izzy saw a table with clipboards and decided she wanted to put some paper in and start drawing. Fortunately a boy wandered over and sat down and started drawing with her. He - Beau - was a total sweetie and I started talking to him, asking him his name and whether he liked school, and he happily chatted away about his picture and everything. And soon Izzy was chipping into the conversation as well, looking quite at ease.

So we sat there happily for about half an hour, chatting and drawing, and then he wandered off and the whole reception year lined up to go and visit next year's class teacher. Izzy was then asked to go and draw a postcard that her teacher would send her over summer. Unfortunately she'd had quite enough of drawing by now - she'd done about four outside - and just scribbled her name and scrawled on the card before declaiming she'd finished and went over to another table to play with some houses and cars.

Then they all sat on the floor and listened to a classroom assistant reading out a story. Izzy was a bit quiet at first but towards the end she was responding to questions and speaking up as well. So that was nice.

I have to say colleagues who've got children in this school were certainly right about the fact that the reception year is very good in terms of how they accustom the children to it. Next Friday one of the teaching assistants will be going to the nursery to observe Izzy and another child coming there. Then in summer they will send her a letter to say they're coming to visit.

Then the week before school her teacher is coming to visit us at home. And then the children apparently have staggered starts - in that they come for two to three hours at first, then the hours they attend get longer as they get more used to it. Great for the kids, nightmare if you're working.

So we're going to have to think about what we do with Izzy. The school does have an after-school club, so the club operators pick up the children from school and take them to either a nursery or some place near the swimming pool we go to, and they get to play there and usually have tea, until you pick them up.

I'm not sure I'm so keen on this so am mooting a 6am start to the day. Alex will just have to get involved and get them ready for school, so I can then pop back and pick them up and drop them off. Joy. Will have to see how it goes as we go along I suppose, sigh.