Starting School: Class of 2011

Starting school brings about big changes for the family. Whether you're excited, nervous or a bit of both, I think that it makes a huge difference to those first few days if your child knows at least one or two other children in his or her class. If there are children who were at nursery together then that's wonderful. But if you've moved to a new area or gone to a different school, you may not know any other children who will also be in your child's class.

The aim is to find other children and mums who will meet up for a coffee, play date or trip to the park before school starts. If you know any mums at all with children at your new school, even if they are in older classes, use them for local information. They are very likely to know someone whose younger child is starting in reception. If you can find someone, ask if they'd be so kind as to meet up for an hour or so over the next few weeks before school starts.

Well, today we did just that. We arranged a play date for all the children starting school in September 2011 with Bianca. So all the little people at the play date today by now know their starting BIG school in September. But do they actually understand what happens at BIG School. At lease if anything after this play date we know that on that big day they will recognise a few friendly familiar faces in thier class.

Thank you to everyone who came today!