The first day at school

By Sam Ryan, MyBluewaterTutor

We have now reached the end of the summer holidays. The six weeks have flown by! To all those parents that have a child starting school for the first time, here are some tips and advice. Believe me when I say, I have learnt from experience!

Be organised. Check what your child will need for school including what the uniform requirements are. I sent my own daughter to school on her first day in a bright red cardigan when the school colour was burgundy. My husband dropped her off and did not realise. She stuck out like a sore thumb when I collected her that afternoon. Thank goodness for ASDA!

On the subject of school uniform, don’t leave buying it until the last minute. Shoes too, the queues for Clarks and Startrite are always long. There is nothing worse than queuing with a hungry child to buy shoes they do not want. Children picking school shoes is a lengthy experience without adding hunger into the mix! Again, I speak from experience. When my elder daughter was younger, we used a shoe shop that kept all stock upstairs. My daughter would have the poor sales assistant running up and down the stairs only to finally choose the first pair brought out.

Also, specialist school uniform shops will have a lead time on uniform ordered. There is nothing that screams ‘Mummy forgot to order PE shorts’ more than your daughter doing PE in last year’s shorts – shorts that now look like hot pants!

Logistics and uniforms aside, starting school is such a precious time and one that many parents wish to mark.

I recently read an article about just this! You could measure your child with a piece of string and repeat this when they finish year 6. It would be lovely to compare how much they have grown. The same could be done with painted hand prints to compare the increase in size.

Another idea was to interview your child at the start of each academic year. Ask the same questions each year and see how the answers differ. Good questions to ask could include:

• Who is your best friend? • What do you want to be when you grow up? • What is your favourite book?

Alternatively, how about burying a time capsule in the garden? The whole family could choose something to put in. You could include a newspaper with the date they started school, a pair of their socks to show how small their feet were, a receipt for the weekly shop, a magazine to show what was on trend. The list is endless.

Whatever you decide to do to mark the occasion of your child starting school, enjoy it and savour the memory. Children seem to grow up ever so quickly!