This week is an important one in our family. My wonderful grandson will find out if his first choice of primary school will be available. This is all done online after various school visits and lots of parental discussions. It’s a far cry from what I did as a parent, and also nothing like what happens here in rural France. Here you send your child to the nearest school. If they can walk, great, if not there’s a network of transport arranged by the local authorities, and there will be a mini-bus or coach.
My daughter experienced school in both England and France. She did the small rural school vibe with lots of outdoor time and great school dinners. She had lovely caring and compassionate teachers and it was very much this that she wanted for her child. However it seems that the whole choice thing has got super complicated now. Things to consider are Ofsted ratings, proximity to home, teaching styles, class size and importantly school readiness.
“What is school ready?” I asked during a recent visit to Somerset. I thought that if you were almost five years old then obviously you were school ready. If you were asking tons of questions, being quite demanding and sometimes annoying to the younger siblings then you were EVEN MORE school ready! Apparently this is no longer the case. Have a look at the illustration above for the general guidelines. It seems being school ready is yet another stress for parents to face, along with basic knowledge of phonics and not feeding your child ultra processed food. It’s a tough job getting it right and hat’s off to all of you trying to bring up children these days.
“I think he’s fine” I said to reassure my own child that her child was ticking the required boxes. ” You read lots to him, he can recognize letters, he eats well, he can hold a conversation, he wees in the loo…surely that’s enough?” At this point my grandson opened a kitchen drawer, selected his special child-safe knife, proceeded to the fridge and took out some mushrooms. From his stool he proceeded to slice the mushrooms whilst telling us he was helping get supper ready. Now I can’t find this on the above list but I’m pretty sure he is “school ready” !!