Friday...a big day in the Young household...Tom's first day at QES! Obviously it has all been a bit strange this year, normally Y6 get visited by teachers at their primary school to talk about what will happen and to get the chance to say who they want to be in their form with. That didn't happen. They also would normally have an evening and a day at school in the summer term so they could get familiar with the layout, where their form room would be and meet their form tutor. That didn't happen. We didn't get any communication about Tom joining the school until the penultimate day of the summer term (I was quite unimpressed - at that point we didn't even know what day they would start, whether they would need uniform etc etc and I was beginning to feel a bit lost by the whole thing!) So the children had to enter a huge school not knowing where their form room was - the school had to station teachers all around the school on day one so that they could direct lost looking children to the right area. It wasn't so bad for Tom as he arrived by school coach and a teacher climbed on board and directed them.
So, we got up at 7am...yes 7AM - didn't know there was such a time! Tom got changed into his school uniform - tying his tie properly (we gave him lessons earlier in the week), had breakfast. Then a packed lunch (the school are providing lunches but it is literally a choice of 3 sandwiches / salads for £3.50 a pop - figured it was cheaper and better to do our own, especially as Tom doesn't really like sandwiches). I made him a tuna pasta salad, whilst he chopped up some cucumber, peppers, got a packet of crisps, babybel, grapes, brunch bar etc, he then packed his bag, complete with hand sanitiser, made sure he had his mask (they have to wear them on the coach and in corridors etc at school) and we waved him off to the bus stop (Community Centre) at 8am ready for his bus at 8.12. We weren't allowed to go with him. Liz Holman appeared at ours at 8 too, she had sent Annabel off, but wanted to check she was ok so came to ours to watch the coach go past. It went past, we couldn't see in (it has tinted windows - another Bibby's service) no children came running after it - so we guessed he got it ok. (Turns out there were only the 4 of them on it for the whole journey: Annabel, Kiera, Tom and Caitlin)
I had an unsettled day. Tom was absolutely fine about heading off on his own to the new big school, whilst I was all unsure about the whole thing. I had so many emotions running through my head, I really didn't know what to do with myself! Mainly I didn't do that much and sort of floated around the house for the day. He returned home around 3.15 (3.15?! part-timer!) he was a little tired, meaning he couldn't really tell us much about his day. He hadn't met his form tutor because she has Fridays off! I wasn't impressed. So they didn't get transition and then the one day which is reserved for them to get to know their tutor, she isn't there. He took in his holiday homework and the form tutor he got didn't know anything about it?! He seemed ok about the day though. They had an assembly, went on a walking tour of the school most of which he won't be allowed in. The children have been bubbled into their year groups, meaning they don't get to meet or see anyone else at the school - only their year. Also they have been sectioned off an area of the school and are only allowed in that area. There are 256 pupils in his year so plenty of people to meet and luckily there are some science labs in his area meaning that they 'might' be able to do some experiments. Problem is that teachers aren't allowed within 2 meters of students, which sort of makes it hard to monitor / help them in lessons.
Tom came back home with a significant amount of his lunch! They only get 30 minutes for lunch (time has been shaved off lunchtime and they don't have registration in the afternoon to free up time to load the coaches at the end of the day which now takes an age as it all has to be done in age order (each year bubble has to sit in allocated spaces so they don't mix, meaning they have to get on the coach in a certain order which takes time). This means that whatever Tom has for lunch he has to like so he eats it quickly. I'm not sure what the answer is as Tom doesn't really like traditional packed lunch fair and when at school he really needs a hot lunch, which is not on offer at the moment. I wasn't happy with him, he was a little tired and grumpy when he came home and I'm sure that is because he didn't have enough to eat.
Anyway, back to business, Tom had his last cricket match for Ingleton today - a rearranged match against Sedgwick. Ingleton won easily, everyone hitting boundaries and getting wickets. Was a great end to the season.
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