On Monday Mrs Colledge, the Head Mistress of Ingleton School and also the pre-school teacher came to visit us at home along with Mrs Jeffries - her Teaching Assistant. This is a new thing that schools are doing - they come to visit your child at home so they can get to know them better in their home environment - that's their excuse anyway, what they are really doing is checking out the parents - working out which social group we belong to, if we will be trouble, if Tom will be trouble etc. You may think I'm being cynical, but I asked Michelle who is a Primary School teacher if this was the case. She started to give me the official line, but when I told her to tell me the truth she said yes, they are basically snooping on you to work out your circumstances. So the house was cleaned and tidied, some select toys were on show, the wood burner was on (door closed) and we were working on a jigsaw together when they turned up (it is a little bit farcical isn't it?).Anyway I think the visit went well. They did ask us about what jobs we had, personal circumstances etc, but they did also ask questions about Tom and they did interact a little with him, but mainly it was about us. I wonder what paperwork they fill in when they get back?
Tuesday morning Tom had a settling in session at pre-school. I went with him. They were doing lots of Christmas craft activities and a number of parents had been invited to come along and play with their children. Some of the parents came up to me, especially those of boys as there are 16 girls and 4 boys in Tom's class, and said hello. They all seemed very friendly. Tom being Tom decided he didn't want to join in the craft acitivies so I didn't really get a chance to talk to them, he wanted to play vehicles and only vehicles. The mums were then invited for mince pies and a chat whilst the children had storytime. Tom wouldn't let me leave him for storytime, he gave me that look which I knew meant that if I went against his wishes he would cry - he had me in his grasp - storytime is the only formal part of the day and the children have to sit and listen. Tom wasn't interested and messed about, but I couldn't do anything about it as it would have resulted in commotion during quiet time - humpfh! After that it was snack time and Tom was distracted enough for me to leave him, but by that time all the mums were leaving so I still didn't get to talk to them. Oh well, Mrs Colledge said that they are a nice bunch - I'll have to take her word for it.
After snack time it was playtime. Out of a huge shed came a huge amount of cars, trikes, bikes (including some kiddimotos), tractors etc. Tom was in his element so I hung around so he could have a play. Mrs Colledge was very good, coming up to speak to me, explain the reasons why she does certain things and putting me at ease. I also saw her in Head Teacher mode telling an older child off for a minor misdemeanour which was good.
Finally the bikes were collected in and we said our goodbyes. I'm sure Tom will have a good time there, I might have trouble leaving him there to start with, but once he's settled in, I'm pretty sure he'll enjoy it. Also one of the boys, Fred also goes to Smile and they recognised each other and chatted to each other which is good. When Mrs Colledge visited us she said that the boys in the class weren't boisterous boys, she was right, I met them all and they were all nice, calm boys with good manners etc. I didn't see any boisterous behaviour from them at all - the girls on the other hand had some characters amongst them. Some were very very bright as well.
Anyway, I'm sort of looking forward to him starting there. I'm going to throw myself into school life as well in an attempt to meet people and get me and Tom some local friends. Hopefully it won't be too long before we have moved to the village as well which will make everything much easier.
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