I can’t believe that the first half term of Georgie’s school life (not to mention Lydia’s first half term of pre-school) is almost over! She has just 4 days left and then it is the half term holiday, and the girls and I will be chilling out for a week, probably doing some baking, and having some friends over to play.
Georgie is weirdly really excited about the fact a teacher training day on the first Monday of the next half term, so she will get to come along with me to collect Lydia from pre-school! She will get to see her old teachers and a few of her friends too, so I guess I can understand her excitement a bit, especially as she was so happy there.
It is a really good pre-school, run as part of a community charity and has a lovely relaxed and friendly environment that our girls have both thrived in. They don’t get much in the way of funding, so I am currently helping to do some fundraising – and a huge thank you is owed to the wonderful companies that have donated prizes so far! I’ll be posting a big thank you post soon.
Georgie’s school use a system called Tapestry – an Online Learning Journal – to share what the kids are doing at school, make observations about their educational stages and emotional wellbeing, and generally keep an ongoing record of what they are doing and how they are developing. I can access this online and using iOS apps, and get an email notification whenever a new observation is added by one of Georgie’s teachers.
I am loving Tapestry, and the ability to add observations of our own is fab too. I have been able to share with the teacher that Georgie is using the Letterland apps to practise her writing at home, and that we visited the Wonderful World of Trains and Planes recently. It opens up a line of communication between teacher and parent, and I don’t have to rely on Georgie’s garbled recounting of what she is up to at school to find out how she is doing.
I can see something on there and then talk to her about it, and her teacher can put up a photo and then make requests via the app for at home support in learning certain words or so on, it’s just fab.
Georgie is blossoming at school – she loves to learn, she is making friends, and she is proud to be writing and beginning to read more too. This first half term has flown by in a whirlwind of blue school jumpers, shiny black shoes, and notes from school. She’s off to her first school disco this week, and we’ve had our first parents evening already.
Hopefully both girls will continue to do well and enjoy their schools – so far, so good! I’m looking forward to the week’s break from routine next week, though I know they would both rather be at school.
