We were back at the Junior school at Silcoates last night for the Year 1 introduction meeting where we found out lots of things about Elliot’s new class etc.

There are currently 27 children in the year, split into two classes, with Elliot being taught by Mrs Chambers. we spoke with Mrs Chambers for about 10 minutes after the event and were left impressed, feeling that his new teacher will be similar in many respects to Mrs Forge (his current Reception teacher at St Hilda’s). This is great news for Elliot and she already seemed to know a lot about him, we guess from the first day that he spent up at the school a couple of weeks back. He is going to be in the same class as three other children from his current class so there will be some familiar faces although the two classes will host a total of 7 children from St Hilda’s. Curtis, Charlotte and Jessica will all be in his class and Jack, Romilly and Gracie will be in the other class.

The setup is very similar to St Hilda’s where the children have some duties to perform each morning as they arrive etc (unpacking their school bags into the appropriate containers and the like). The style of education feels like it will suit Elliot well and we look forward to his going in September.

Vicky is still a little unsure as to how well the morning drop off will work out, as the are two options;

1) Walk him in all the way to the classroom having left the car in the car park
2) Drive around and drop him off by the drop off zone where there will be teaching assistants waiting for them

We suspect that we will be allowed to take him in for the first month or so and then he will want the second option since all the other kids do this… In other words he wants to feel more grown up etc 🙂

The challenge really is getting Elliot into class before 8:30am as this is school start time – we struggle to get him to St Hilda’s for 8:50am so will really struggle from September. Further challenge is that Olly will be at Sunny Hill so there are now two different locations for the drop offs. Hoping that we will be able to drop Olly off at 8:00am but the obviously means earlier start still 🙁

Last night the heavens opened and an almighty downpour ensued. It was actually pretty quick to dry up on the driveway etc, but then rained again throughout the night – great as the grass seeds may get additional help to grow now 🙂

Simon got off to Sherwood Pines today with Tim for the first time in nearly six months – was a great run although Barbara threw him off about half way around and knocked the wind clean out of him. No damage to Barbara but he has a couple of grazes etc. Unlucky…

Typical that the weather has changed just before he half term break – guess we may not be doing quite as many outdoor activities next week as we had hoped for.

Vicky and Simon went into school last night to see what the plans are for the end of term Filey Trip. There are quite a few other parents also going along so Simon managed to get himself a seat on the bus (previously we had only requested a seat for Vicky). Let’s hope for a non rainy day as it would really suck if it rained :-(. There are two coaches going with children, teachers and some parents from foundation through to year 2. Should be real fun:-)

The boys have been on separate school trips up to their new schools from September to have a look around etc.

Elliot went to Silcoates on Monday and met his new buddy called jake – a boy from year 6. we think he was expecting somebody significantly older as he said that Jake was only a small boy 🙂 He really seemed to enjoy it as he was telling us about their swimming pool that was inside and that they got to choose their own lunch 🙂 Hopefully this is setting the foundations for his enjoying the school from September – he has two more visits in the coming month or so to familiarise himself with the place etc.

Olly went with 5 of his classmates to Sunny Hill to visit their nursery and meet the new teachers. one of his favourite teachers called Lauren went with them as she is accordingly going to go to the school next year also. He also seemed to enjoy himself although in many ways he would probably enjoy it regardless 🙂

It will be kind of strange for the boys when they go to their new schools next year as they will no longer see each other during the day and even when Oliver is at the Junior school, he will be somewhat segregated from Elliot so will most likely not see much of him there either. That said, we think they only really see each other at lunchtime at St Hilda’s in any case, and this will continue at Junior school in that they will use the same lunch hall 🙂

We have a parents meeting at school tonight to discuss e plans for the upcoming Filey trip – Vicky is already planned in to go with them all, so Simon is hoping to get in on the action too as it seems that there are a lot of other parents going on the trip.

WOW – what a weekend – 27+ degrees BOTH days and not a single cloud to be seen over the whole weekend 🙂

We therefore spent the whole weekend in the garden, ensuring that we maximised the time that we had with the sun.

Tyler stayed over on Friday night and while they (Elliot and Tyler) did not go to sleep until well after 10:30pm, they were both wide awake and dressed at 5am (Elliot usually takes around 30 minutes to come around so… 🙁 ).  We had the paddling pool out for Pepsi and Max although by mid-afternoon, they were not getting a look in – Elliot, Oliver and Tyler took over the running of the pool 🙂

It seem that Tyler and Elliot were singing and dancing during this shot 🙂

The BBQ was cranked on and we had a fab evening meal with Clare, Frank and all the kids.

Simon has also planted the grass seed in the areas that need grass to grow and filled in some top soil, so hopefully we will see fuller grassed areas in the coming weeks 🙂  We also managed to cut the hedge along the rear of the garden and will finish it during the week once the old clippings have been taken away on Tuesday morning.

We have two more days of nice weather ahead of us this week apparently and then the rain comes on Wednesday and the temperature drops back down to 12-15 degrees Celcius.

Enjoy it while you can 🙂