A foray into the school office

Well, not INTO the office, but valuable time spent poking my head through the hatch. I don't actually know who I spoke to - you see, if I was any good at schmoozing and networking I'd have made sure I knew exactly who it was - but she was enormously helpful and lovely.

The results of my enquiries:
- Daughter is still not on the milk list, but might be for next week, I need to check again after pick-up today (so much for a slick online process; it's over a week since I registered her)
- I have a school timetable, it is identical to the LEA's (fine) but does seem to have only been distributed via the end of term newsletter, which would again be fine if Reception parents without older children had been sent a copy
- the Reception parents' meeting is on the 17th, again this was in the newsletter, and we are supposed to be hearing about it soon - this is pretty short notice for anyone who needs to arrange babysitting cover in order to go (eg single parents or anyone whose partner is away)
- there is no second booklet, despite the note in the first booklet that says there is a second booklet to come!
- apparently we should have been sat down when the children visited last term, and told about various practical things like milk and PE kits, but this didn't happen - this is 'should have been' as in 'this used to happen' rather than 'this should definitely have happened'

It seems that part of the problem is that there are very few parents as utterly clueless as we are, and the induction procedures have maybe got a little slack for that reason. Over half this year's Reception intake are siblings (official siblings, ie siblings of children further up the school) and at least two children are younger siblings of secondary age children, so while they are not siblings in intake terms (ie get preference over non-siblings) their parents HAVE been through the system before.

It sounds like the website is out of date because the woman who does it has been busy doing network stuff instead. I may have inadvertantly not-quite-volunteered to help out. Will see if anything comes of that.

And if I want to help out in class I need to talk to the class teacher (even though it'd be the opposite class, as that's the policy in Reception). It wouldn't be until after half-term, and I need to be CRB checked (I knew that, and I've been 'done' before, so no big deal).

The big (half) day

Daughter is at school. We were ready to go about 20 minutes earlier than we needed to be, so Husband could see her all dressed up (and hair done, which is a change from previous uniform fashion shows). I mentioned about ten minutes later that I could see children on their way to school, and she wanted to go. We held out five minutes and off we went.

Despite only half Reception being in it was very busy. It doesn't help each child having at least one, often two parents with them, not all of whom are actually looking out for other people's small children milling around their knees. We waited a while, with Daughter getting increasingly attached to my leg, then went in.

We found Daughter's peg - right in the corner, which is handy to remember, although a bit lacking in space. She is next to the only child from nursery in her half of her class, and sharing a double peg with a little boy. There doesn't look like an awful lot of space with these double pegs rather than separate ones - not for a PE kit, art apron and full winter regalia. Daughter's is pretty full with the PE and art stuff plus a light waterproof. Water bottle goes on a shelf above the pegs (will be interesting to see how much has been drunk when she comes home) and book bag in her drawer.

I was alright until I got back to the house and spotted another first day mother getting into her car opposite and looking a bit pink and watery. But anyway, now I just need to do constructive things for the next couple of hours.