But I Smile Anyway…

I feel bad calling him Lil Man, but in stature he still is, so I guess I can carry on using the moniker!

Anyway, as you all know, he embarked on the next stage of his educational journey on Monday, starting BIG SCHOOL or secondary school.

I was so nervous. Much more nervous than him, or if he was, he did a great job of hiding his nerves!

But we walked in together, and he disappeared off…

He used his new mobile to text me at break, to say everything was ok, and let me know when he had lunch.

His grandad was there at the gate, waiting to pick him and they walked home with a few of the other boys he knows already, and their respective carers.

So my baby got home in one piece, with a big grin on his face!

And over the last 2 days, he has surpassed himself, in my eyes, anyway. He has come home with achievement points each day (one was an Ethos Award and the other a Star of the Class Award!), no forgetting anything, rudeness or bad behaviour, that would result in behaviour points, and 100% attendance, to all his classes.

How do I know?

Well, nowadays there is this whole system that is like Big Brother for schools!

His school sends all parents a special login to a service where we can see a child’s timetable, and each subject teacher registers them every lesson so you can make sure there is no truancy happening.

If you are like me and you worry, but don’t want to be too obvious, this site is perfect. If he forgets to text to say he arrived (which he has forgotten every day so far!) I can check to make sure he was registered initially.

I can see if there are any positive/negative points awarded, so they can’t hide that detention…!

Even their homework is on there so we know when things are set, and due. A good idea so you can give them gentle reminders to make sure they don’t forget. (forgotten homework is a behaviour point or even detention!)

We know when they have PE, so can make sure they always have the relevant kit in school. Sadly they don’t have lockers or even coat hooks, so this all has to be carried around on the day, along with the relevant subject books for that day.

And all his academic progress will be on there as they get assessed, for us to see.

I can pay online for his school dinners, if he wants them, so he doesn’t have to carry around money. They have their thumbs scanned at the beginning, so when they want to buy food, they scan their thumbs, and the relevant amount is deducted. And, I can check to see what feed items he has bought too, so if lunch is consisting of 3 desserts and chips, we can try and rectify that, because we know… no more fobbing mummy off with “I ate [insert all healthy food followed by a fruit dessert because that’s what mummy wants to hear!}”

We also have the ability to email their teachers directly of we have any worries. I did this today, to clarify a couple of points, and assured them I would not become one of those parents who is constantly on their case! And I got the most amazing reply back from one of his form tutors, telling me what a pleasure our son is to have in class, and how much they love to have him there! I’m not that naive that I would think my boy is something extra special to them.  They probably would say the same for all the children, especially so early on in the year, but it still makes us feel so proud of him!

So, all in all, he has settled beautifully! And yes he has his phone, which he spent a few days going crazy on, WhatsApping his friends constantly, but the novelty has worn off now I thing

And yes he has his phone, which he spent a few days going crazy on, WhatsApping his friends constantly, but the novelty has worn off now I think, so it is there for the emergencies that I said he needed it for!

Signing off as a very happy mummy! 🙂