Schooling Central

Jack has his first ever day of Kindergarten tomorrow! I'm soooo excited I don't think he particularly cares one way or the other though

He went to Pre-K once a week there last year from Easter onwards, so he's familiar with his classroom and teacher, plus his best buddy is in his class too and he knows heaps of other kids in his class as well.

The absolute only thing I'm worried about, is a random freak out when we get there. Jack does not like change or surprises or being in the spotlight. I have told him over and over again what to expect, and who will be there and what will happen and he keeps saying "yeah, yeah" (like leave me alone already Mum! ), but is prone to really bad freak outs when things are not as he expected.

Will post pics of him in his uniform tomorrow! I'm sooo excited, have I menitoned that already?

Well that is something to be excited about

I also have a child that freaks out at the unexpected, and he freaked out at all the transition sessions before school started (one time I had to carry him in screaming ). But we have never had a problem since school started for real. Hopefully Jack will take it all in his stride and have a fabulous day.

Let us know how it went for him and I'd love to see a photo of Jack in his uniform

Annabel.

Annabel your ds sounds so much like Jack sometimes it's scary

Ok, well drop off went well, he didn't really seem like he wanted me there, so I said I was going to leave after his friend got there and he started to get a little clingy then, but as soon as he saw Jack (yes, his best friend's name is Jack too ) he was fine.

His jaw almost droped to the floor when he was told he would have to do a painting of himself today My kid is so not the artist.

Here is my little guy, all dressed up in his summer uniform:

Please excuse the mess behind and beside him

I can't wait to pick him up and find out how his day went!

Ooooo, he looks so cute! And look at the size of that grin

I hope he had a great day. How many days does he go?

Annabel.

Yeah, don't you just love that fake smile! But I think he was a bit chuffed about the fuss we made about him today

Well, it went great My husband insisted on coming too, which was really sweet, but completely unnecessary (sp?), seeing as Jack was fine. It was all familiar to him, having been to pre-k there, so we grabbed his name tag and jumped right into playing. I kept looking around for the other Jack but they were late (shock, horror ), so I said I would stay until he got there and then my Jack got a bit
clingy. Paul left, Jack's friend showed up and I said goodbye. I almost forgot to give him a kiss

It turns out, between the pre-k they ran there last year and the one Jack was doing privately (half a day a week) and kids from his mothers group, he almost knew all of his classmates! That's a bonus

He was thrilled to learn they were going to the school library today, and judging from comments in the car on the way home, that was the highlight of the day Oh and the fact that the other Jack had to sit on the naughty step and he didn't

He was definitly pumped after his first day, and asked when he could go back. And also told me he did everything his teacher told him too, awww He's not normally that well behaved Oh, and he even did a painting of himself! I think I'm going to like this school business

He goes Mondays and Tuesdays, 8.55am to 2.40pm, and apparently he's disappointed it's not Monday tomorrow Yay!

Well you couldn't have hoped for much better than that

Is the kinder part of the school? I think it's like that in Perth (or at least it was when I went to kinder there 30 years ago -someone correct me if I'm wrong!). It makes a lot of sense to have them set up like that. It's great he can visit the school library. Dd's kinder is part of a large private school so they can use the library, multi-purpose room and music room of the junior school. Most kinders here are stand alone units though.

How was Jack today? I quite look forward to Wed (dd goes Mon and Tues) as I find she potters around the house really nicely.

Annabel.

And by the way, his fake smile is 100 times better than the one my kids do

Annabel.

All the kinders except for one that I can think of, are attached to schools here, and the one that's not physically attached to a school is within a kindergarteners walking distance and affiliated with a nearby primary school.

The library at Jack's school is the next building over from the Kindy, he's going to have a ball in there I'm sure

Incidentally, as a little bit of side info for ya - Jack is going to the same kinder/primary school I went to as a kid up until the end fo grade 5. It is bringing back the weirdest, but coolest memories being there that I can't possibly describe.

He was his usual self today, though a bit amped still. Went to Kindergym with all three of them this morning, luckily I had at least 6 other ladies I knew there as an extra pair of eyes because he was being a bit difficult about things.


One thing I was going to mention to you about the sticky re age cutoffs for starting school here in this link: http://schoolingcentral.com/Forums/3-Primary-Years-K-6/87-Australian-school-starting-ages-by-state/territory.html
I guess it's true to a point about having to be 5 on or before the 1st of Jan to start Prep, but everyone here does Kindergarten first. And the rule on that is 4 on or before Jan 1st before they can start, so Jack was 4.5 on Jan 1st this year, and thus eligable to go to Kindy, and will complete a full year of that and then go straight on to Prep next year.

Not that your info is incorrect, but for the purposes of educating first time schooling Mums on how things work, maybe you need include somewhere on the list that those guidelines are the absolute deadllines for starting, but that it is advised to do Kinder in the year prior. I know you probably wont get too many Tassie Mums here, as we are few and far between. But I'm really glad you started this up, as I've found there really is a lack of info about schools in general, and most of what you do learn is by word of mouth. At least here anyway.

Probably should have started a new post for this hey?

That's pretty cool about Jack going to the same school you did

Thanks for the feedback on the school starting ages. I think the confusion is that with preschools attached to schools in Tasmania, you might refer to kids starting school when they are at preschool (and I notice Jack is already wearing the school uniform). In Victoria, preschool (we call kinder) is very separate to school, and so we don't say kids start school until they start full time in Prep. Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.

Annabel.

It is confusing isn't it?

But seeing as everyone here goes to Kinder before Prep, I guess we just call Kinder the beginning of school. I'm just trying to look at it from the perspective of a Mum-to-Be who is already thinking about schools. I'm sure anyone would figure out that their kid can go to Kindergarten here when they turned 4, because everyone elses kids would be starting, but if you were someone doing research prior to becoming a parent, then it might be misleading.