Starting School | Indiana’s First Term in Reception

With October half term over, and the countdown to Christmas well and truly on, I thought I'd take the time to write about Indiana's first term at school. Although I'm still in a bit of denial that she's a school girl (she's still a baby in my eyes!), Indie has settled into the routine of school really well.

At Indie's school they staggered the reception children's starts. Half of her class did morning sessions and the other half did afternoons. Indie had just over two weeks of afternoons, before she actually went in full at the end of September. And although these were great for easing her in gently, they felt far too long in my opinion. Indie is one of the older children though (she's 5 in a few weeks), so maybe that's why she seemed ready a lot earlier!?

Despite being ready, those first few weeks of full days were still rather exhausting - for all of us! The school day starts at 8.30am (8.45am if we're running a bit late!), and I collect her at 3.10pm, so it's a much longer day than preschool ever was. I don't think she ever stops when she's there either; with so much to see and do, she doesn't want to miss out! It has meant plenty of overtired outbursts in the evening, and keeping weekends as simple as possible. But we're hoping as the weeks go on, she gets used to the busy weeks a bit more.

I can tell she has already picked up and learnt so much over this first half term though. From her very first day, she has been coming home and telling me about the phonics she has learnt - pointing out the letters, singing the little phonics songs and always, always writing and drawing. I think I could decorate our whole house with the amount of artwork she comes home with - it's impressive she gets anything else done during the day!

We are so pleased that Indiana has settled into school life so well, and so quickly. Despite not knowing anyone on her first day, she's made lots of new friends already, and there's no issues with her eating her school lunches either! We have our first parent's evening this week, so I cannot wait to hear about how she's getting on even more.

I really hope she keeps her love of school for a long time - we are just so, so proud!