Found a school for the kids yesterday, and funnily enough not the one I had originally thought would be my first choice...went to look at both schools that have space for us and simply fell in love with the smaller of the two school, only 75 children in the school with the feel of Hillcrest Pre-primary, in fact the head teacher was so like Rachel Dobson even Megan noticed - anyway about half way through the interview both kids were begging to be there and although they still rated the second school in Haywards Heath with a 8/10, Megs gave the smaller one a 10/10 and Phil a 9/10, so county permitting we should be starting there towards the middle of next week or next Monday at the latest.
Schools here are very very different to what we are used to in South Africa, and are all laid out with a more Pre-Primary School feel (or the ones I have seen are like that at least) then the big outdoor corridor driven feel that we are used to in our primary schools - the small ones here also have combined year classes with about 18 kids in the class and are very focused on the holistic approach as opposed to the purely academic - speak to me in a year and it will be interesting to see if I have changed my view.
I am quite pleased with the combined classes at this stage as county is insisting that Megan start year 6 next year, but because of the way the class is set up she will be able to get the support and fill in of the year 5 at the same time, and although Phil will be in year 3, if he moves ahead and extends into year 4 work that is also fine - they very much teach at the children's pace at both schools I looked at and I believe that their philosophy combined with the loving, nurturing atmosphere will help settle the kids, especially with the baby coming in August.
Have another first...
First time I have left my kids alone at home...Si was running extremely late for the train a couple of mornings ago, so left the kids at home in order to take him to the station. It was a strange feeling and not one I will repeat for extended periods of time, but with no real threat of intrusion, and a lovely 83 year old neighbour just 1 door down, the 15 minute round trip to the station presented no real problem.
Having our neighbours Mark and Stephanie for a ploughmans lunch this afternoon, so looking forward to a bit of adult company and at least with the weather today we can sit outside in our lovely little garden and enjoy a bottle of South African wine and some good food...we have a lovely garden service gentleman paid for by the landlord and he keeps the law mowed and the edges trimmed (all be it in about 12 minutes) - thank heavens coz if it was up to my dh we would be living in a jungle by now (lol).
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