Life is not measured ....

Louise and Daniel start at Lyttelton Main School

This morning I watched them in the playground for the first half hour as the whole of the school did “jump gym” – it started with a warm up and run round the playground and then they boogied to 5 or 6 songs with actions. It was great to watch them all lined up in their classes and expressing themselves. Louise got the hang of the moves quite quickly, Daniel looked a bit bemused by the whole thing but “likes to wiggle his bott” (his words not mine) so I’m sure he’ll get into it next time round.

Daniel is in the new entrants class. His teacher is Mrs Dann, she’s like a big cuddly grandma. He was very quiet on the first day but soon opened up when Mrs Dann took an interest in his books from Longcot. He came home very pleased with himself on the first day as he had gone up a level – they have a chart where they move up the colours if they do something special – he had helped the girl sitting next to him get their truck pictures right – when they get to the top colour they get to choose a present from the box. It’s a bit like the yellow chair in class one at Longcot. Louise came home with Q bear for the night yesterday and sat on the fish cushion – similar concept.

Louise is in year 2 but from Monday will move to year 3. The school is similar in size to Longcot with 100 pupils and they have mixed classes. On Monday they have a fifth teacher starting so are able to spread out the classes a bit – Daniel’s class will have fewer children (about 14 I think) and after much discussion between the head teacher Mr Thawley and the other staff, Louise will move into class 3. Louise’s teacher will be Mrs Rossie-Tong who has taught in the UK – she might even be English but we have not met her yet.

The kids are settling in well, I think Daniel will find it more tricky for the first couple of weeks as he misses the guidance of his big sister but he has two buddies which is really helping. Miss Harris and Miss Lister you did a great job with them, I am very proud of the way they have handled themselves this week (and through all the changes we have thrown at them recently).

We live up the hill and it is only a short walk to the school each morning – slightly longer walk up the hill (including a road called Stevenson’s Steep – which it is). The kids were thrilled to discover that they could take their scooters to school so we now whizz down the hill each day.

Photos of the house and school

posted by Sharon, Ben, Louise and Daniel @ 3:26 am