The school boasts a big advantage for us – it’s round the corner from where we live. The Head, however, describes it as “socially mixed” and my middle class soul was a little nervous about this. Of course, I felt bad about feeling nervous and Mr. Waffle, who seems to suffer from none of the usual middle class hang-ups despite having attended fee paying private schools, said bracingly, “What would happen if everyone refused to send their children to socially mixed schools?”  Today, I discovered that one of the consequences of being “socially mixed” is that a lot of the children don’t speak French. The teacher was delighted to discover that madam a) spoke French and b) was toilet trained.  I must say, all of this unnerved me a bit but a lot of the children who don’t speak French are Polish and I found this comforting because I sort of see the Poles as like the Irish; catholic, committed to education etc., no NOT feckless.
Anyway, she’s only 2 and a half, how much of a problem can it be that half of her classmates can’t speak French? But my heart sank as we were leaving and I saw the teacher put on
“Finding Nemo”. Â Somehow it seems wrong, but, you know, good for crowd control.
kristin
(Homepage)
on 15 December 2005 at 16:51
I completely sympathize with your m-c soul and the fear of Finding Nemo. Remember, at this age it’s all socialization (btw, was nemo in french or english?) and even if it’s learning to hang out with poles and watch movies, that’s not such a bad thing to know at 2.5. and she’ll be trilingual in no time. and can i say wow about the potty training? lucy is just 3, and so ready to move on to the next class at preschool, except that she’s got to be potty trained, and she’s resisting peeing at school. sigh.
clever princess, starting school. kisses to her.
Peggy
(Homepage)
on 16 December 2005 at 10:00
You don’t mention anywhere: what was the Princess’ reaction ? Is she thrilled she will soon be going to school? Did she want to stay and watch the film with the others?
on 16 December 2005 at 11:07
FT, indeed.
Kristin, thank you, that makes me feel a lot better. Am sure your toilet training blues will pass shortly though I realise it is a pain at the moment. Nemo was in French, by the way.
Peggy, that was the worst bit, she loathed it and was like a briar for the rest of the day. I think she was slightly overwhelmed by the numbers and she said to me afterwards “That’s not my school Mummy, my school is different”. I’m not sure what she was expecting but it’s fair to say that her expectations weren’t met.
