Year 5 children in West Sussex are taking part in secondary school taster days and tours – and our columnist is finding it hard
One minute you’re waving your little one off for their first day at school, book-bag in hand and uniform fresh and clean, the next said school is reminding you to book your child in for taster days at high school.
It always seemed ridiculous when I was a child and my parents said the days, months and years used to ‘fly by’. Back then, a day felt long. A week never seemed to end. And a year may as well have been a lifetime.
But now? Well, time just seems to be permanently on fast-forward and I’m struggling to get my head around it.
My daughter might only be at the end of year five, but it turns out now is the time to start looking at secondary schools.
Maybe it’s due to Covid seeming to steal a couple of years from us, but it really doesn’t seem like more than a year or two ago that she was starting in reception and we were finding our primary school rhythm.
I just can’t believe the end of her primary school era is only a year away. Something that didn’t even seem like a consideration back in 2018 is well on its way to becoming our new reality.
But it seems whether I’m ready or not, starting to look towards our next school journey is something I am going to have to try to come to terms with.
She is booked in to try out several of our local schools. For a fairly average-sized town, we’re really lucky to have so many high schools in quite a small vicinity.
They’re all really good, too, which means we have options. The only issue with that is that I’m a life-long indecisive and I’m nervous about making the right choice.
Do we have the final say-so? Does my daughter? Which one will really nurture her talents and ignite her creativity?
For someone who often doesn’t know what she wants for dinner, I fear this weighty choice might lead to a few sleepless nights.
On the plus side, my daughter, so far, seems to be taking the inevitable progression of time and her school journey in her stride.
Talk of walking to school on her own, being able to choose what subjects she wants to study and the real biggy, getting to pick whatever she likes to eat from the school canteen, are so exciting to her.
I’m sure once the end of year-six approaches next year there will be nerves, but for now it’s lovely that she’s embracing this next step.
We’ve already looked at one school and wow, it was impressive.
My conclusion was that not only would it be a fantastic place for my daughter to learn, but also that school is a bit wasted on the young.
When you’re knee-deep in your education, and it’s a given that you’ll get to study all these wide-ranging and interesting subjects, you take it for granted as we all do.
But with the power of hindsight you realise what an amazing experience it is. Now, thinking about spending a day going from learning to play an instrument, taking part in cool experiments in a science lab, channelling my inner Da Vinci in an art room, playing a game of rounders to perusing the works of some of the literary greats sounds wonderful.
I wonder if there’s scope for an older pupil to enrol…
I can’t let this column go by without thanking Mother Nature for turning on summer. Hallelujah. It has been a LONG winter. I’ve only just ditched the winter duvet and have finally stopped taking a jacket with me everywhere I go.
Now, please, please, can we just have this weather continue for the next few months? I know us Brits are never happy and the second the temperature rises people are moaning they’re ‘too hot’. But in general I think we’re happier when the sun is shining and it’s warm outside.
And with everything going on in the world the last few years, we sure do need as much positivity as we can get.
So, here’s to lazy summer days and long summer nights, with a sprinkling of Aperol spritz along the way.