Well that’s rather annoying!
As today’s school day draws to a close for Little Bean, she will have completed her first half term at Primary School and let me tell you, she is ready for this break. Most evenings when I collect her from school at the moment, she cries within half an hour of the school bell ringing. I put it down to tiredness myself as I think it has taken her quite some settling in to her new routine.
People keep asking me “how is she settling in at School?” and to begin with I kept saying, “yeah she’s doing great” and I really believed it. Let me take you back a few posts to ‘School Admissions: The News We Didn’t Want’. We appealed and was told that “yes, we believe that prejudice has been shown against your daughter”. Our hopes were up that maybe, just maybe there was a chance she would get in to our first choice school and join all of her friends from pre-school, but just a few days later we received the letter which said “nope sorry no space at the inn” (well you know what I mean). So we went through the motions, we visited the school for taster days, we got the uniform and Little Bean started school. Initially I was very happy, Little Bean really did seem to be settling in well, she likes her teacher, she would wake up each morning asking if it was time to go to school yet. But now just a few weeks later, all of that has changed. I now have to persuade her every morning that school will be fun, we have arguments about getting her uniform on and this is something I have never experienced with her EVER. She is always keen to go off and do things, in fact when she was at pre-school I would threaten NOT being allowed to go to pre-school if she was misbehaving and she would correct herself immediately.
So can you imagine my disappointment this week when another parent asked me again “how is she getting on at school?” and me telling them that I was a little worried about her. She complains that she misses her friends and that the boys and girls at her new school don’t want to play with her, that she plays on her own (or chases a boy around the playground from the year above!!), she came home with a bruised nose this week where a boy had punched her on the nose and has varying other incidents to report. The parent then went on to report that her son (who had got a place at the school we wanted Little Bean to go to) had told her about a ‘new boy’ in his class. So she did a little bit of detective work and was told that yes, despite being oversubscribed, the Reception class had started this year as a class size of 29 NOT 30!!!! Because one parent chose not to take up their child’s place and didn’t tell the school about it so for the first week or so they were a child down. That space has now been filled by another child who we assume would have been first on the waiting list (or at least I hope he was on the waiting list) as we would have jumped at the opportunity for Little Bean to have switched schools.
Fingers crossed this half term holiday will be just what Little Bean needs as I hate to see her so low, I’m really hoping that things start looking up for our little lady because at the minute I am feeling really let down by the system again and it’s not a nice feeling to have.
4 Comments
Gemma
October 25 at 1:41 pm
I think it take a good term for them to settle – which has really surprised me. Unfortunately, they do seem to stick to the children they know already – sorry I know this isn’t helping – there is a little boy in my son’s class who came from a different pre-school and he seems to be struggling with the whole friendship thing. My son sticks with a boy from nursery even though he doesn’t seem to like the things he does all of the time. I think they are expected to take on so much new stuff that they take refuge in who they know already (gosh so sorry this sounds awful) but I see my son starting to spread his wings and talk about children who are new to him – I am sure once they’ve had a recharge over the break they may all be better able to cope with all that is school and the friendships will start form based on actually getting to know and liking each other.
mummymatters
October 27 at 11:07 am
I really hope that you’re right and that this holiday will recharge her batteries enough to get her back into the right frame of mind. You just feel so helpless when you can’t be there for them 🙁
MumtoC
October 25 at 4:57 pm
Oh no! Its so hard to hear when our little ones are upset. If you feel concerned about anything, especially if another incident like when a boy punched her on the nose, mention it to the teacher.
We’ve also had varying degrees of ups and downs. At first C was looking forward to going to school, then when we got through the half days and into the full days he took a bit of a downturn and got upset when I left him in the morning. He has got a lot better with this as the term has gone by.
He is in a class with 4 children who he went to nursery with but, as the term has gone on, he only seems to just play with 1 of them from time to time. We had an incident a couple of weeks ago where 1 child who C went to nursery with (and he knows really well) smacked C so hard with a plastic bowl that it made C’s nose bleed like niagra falls! C’s teacher dealt with this very seriously and there hasn’t been, and I hope there never will be, another incident with this other child.
The other difficulty with C has been at lunchtime. He takes 3 items in his lunch box (one slice of bread with meat or cheese), a piece of fruit (banana or pear) and raisins. He mostly eats just the sandwich, and nothing else! After a couple of discussions with the “lunchtime supervisors” (or dinner ladies as we used to call them!!) and his teacher, it was decided to give him a “buddy” to sit with at lunchtime. C and his buddy will eat together and wait for each other before going to play outside.
I just wonder if you had a discussion with Little Beans’s teacher at the beginning of next term if they could find a “buddy” for Little Bean to play with during classroom time?
Have the school given you a date for the first parent’s evening?
mummymatters
October 27 at 11:04 am
I did mention it to the teacher, she said “oh well I knew nothing about it”.