Monday & Tuesday were J's induction days at his new school. I got in a slight panic as I'd never driven there myself but the journey was quite straight forward & I came to the school entrance & turned in, wondering why there had been such a long queue of traffic ahead.
'Er, Mum, it said visitor's entrance the other way,' said J.
Oops. I was in the teacher's car park.
Two caretakers stopped work & leaned on their brooms staring at me as if I was the vilest criminal that ever lived. At this point I realised that to get to reception J just had to cut across the grass and sneak round the side of the building and I'd miss all the traffic.
Neat eh?
Anyway when we went to pick him up (going in the right entrance this time) he was full of it, his tests had been easy, they sell ice cream in the snack bar on hot days, he liked the teachers & best of all he'd made a friend!
Great, wonderful, such a relief... But then...
On Tuesday I dropped him off at school & went to the housegroup. We were sitting in Lucy's lovely garden having a discussion about 'dealing with distraction' when my mobile rang. It was the education office saying J had got to the top of the grammar school waiting list & they were offering him a place!!!
We went back to look round grammar, we've had a lot of discussion, a lot of agonising & a lot of advice from a lot of people but in the end we've decided to stick with technology college.It's where J really wants to go & somehow it just feels the right school for him. He's also worried about how sporting the grammar school is which I can understand. Also P isn't happy about how far he'd have to travel.
So that's it. The good thing though is that he seems very positive about his school, feels it's his choice & says he's going to work hard. I've told him he's got to get good GSCEs to prove the people who are saying he should go to grammar school wrong. We are thinking that perhaps he'll try for grammar school in the 6th form but that's a long time off. We'll see.