The End Of The School Year 2022/2023!

Hardly feels five minutes since the picture above was taken in anticipation of the beginning of the school year for 2022/2023. Raffie was a pre-schooler about to hit reception while Jimmy was to go into his final year of primary school and we had no idea which school he would be going to for his next adventure. Florence was to begin U4 (year 8) and Posie, my littlest lovely, was to miss them all. As she has done, all year when they’ve been at school instead of at home with her where she thinks they should be! As do I!

So, the end of the year and where are we?

Posie is still in love with her big siblings and prefers them at home, dancing to her tune as they all do. She talks non-stop and runs everywhere! She is a fire cracker, a real ball of energy and so bright. She is absolutely brilliant and when she stood at the top of the slide the other day and declared herself “bigger” as a result of climbing the ladder, it epitomised how clever this little tiny girl is. There are no flies on her as Gram would say and she is still the most fun, enjoyable company. I love having her home and am sad to think that at Easter she will be the age the others all were when they went to nursery meaning she will have to go too. Still, it’s a long way off yet. She’s 2 going on 12 though, rules the roost and is beyond entertaining!

Hard to imagine Raffie as a pre-schooler when he is now such a school boy! He absolutely loves being at school and thrives. Not one backward glance all year, not one tear squeezed for me, ha ha! While other kids clung to their Mummy’s skirts and cried almost daily, some for the whole year, Raffie was as confident as he could be and has continued to be so. He got reading almost instantly, it just clicked into place and now he’s flying. He has lots of friends and enjoys crafting (I have so much recycling modelling in my house now) as well as Friday, his favourite day of the week as they do “Fishy Friday”! My “baby” boy is still very tiny, but also much bigger. He plays football (well) and he dances in an all boy’s dance company called Legacy, which he LOVES. He has grown in confidence and ability all round! He is sweet and kind and cuddly and he gives the most magnificent hugs and kisses. He loves hard this slip of a blondie and he’s loved hard right back. By us all. He’s magnificent! Year one will be a breeze!

Jimmy, as beautiful of heart as he is of face and he’s had a terrific year. I know his year has been made all the better, all the sweeter and all the more special for having such a fantastic new head teacher in his school. If only she could have been there all along! It goes to show that having been very unhappy at times in the previous years proceeding COVID, one good leader in a school is all it takes to turn it around even with years of poison left behind. Jimmy began the year a little hot headed, angry at the way he’d been treated in school and with leftover residue of unsettledness from the pandemic lockdowns but this new head understood Jimmy, and she was like an immediate tonic for him – a real remedy. He was like a different child within weeks of her being there and this dark shadow cast over him lifted. We got, for the most part, our bubbly, happy, sunshine filled boy back and with that he has been able to show his true potential. He’s loved playing football for our village team, got really stuck into things he enjoyed at school and he just relaxed and smiled more, just as we like him! He got into the school of his dreams following in his big sister’s footsteps and it wasn’t an easy process. He worked hard, knuckled down, set his mind and went for it. And that’s Jim all over, when he wants something he GOES FOR IT! I love that about him and I love that he has all this opportunity at his feet, largely created by him, for himself. Go Jimmy, he has the world at his feet!

Florence works hard, she always has. She has this need to be the best at whatever she’s doing and she strives and strives until she gets there. I remember her being like this as a tiny baby. She wanted to sit up and by hook or by crook she was going to do it, but as soon as she could she needed to do the next thing; crawling, walking, talking… And it goes on. It continues to go on, only these days she wants to speak perfect French and Spanish and dance like she’s never had a day out of a studio. She wants to act and sing and earn money to pay for her surf lessons and let me tell you this, Florence gets where she wants to be. She runs a glitter bar at children’s birthday parties to pay for those expensive surf lessons, she studies so hard until she gets a near on perfect mark in exams (and then still isn’t as happy as she “only” gets 92% when she wants 100%!) and boy does she set the stage alight when she’s on it. My jaw hit the floor when I saw her dance recently. Am I biased, yes probably… But I’m also a realist and I know a great dancer when I see one. I just wish I’d had half her talent… Because what she actually has, to go alongside this performing skill (her acting and singing is as wowing as her dancing,) is her determination and work ethic! And that special something no one can ever quite put their finger on… She is, above everything else, a gold hearted person, she has so many friends and she is kind. Always. We are so proud, so proud it makes me well up actually! No wonder her school invest in her, no wonder she has a scholarship from the French Hugenot society and no wonder she is so liked by everyone. Way to go Florence, keep being you and the world is quite literally your stage for the taking!

We had a jolly good year I’d say!

So now we head into the holidays and I’m so glad to have my four little chicks bobbing along behind me for the summer. We’ve had a year of performances and football tournaments, of exams worked hard for and of learning new things. Every single one of them have made me proud. I must be doing something right because they’re the proof. They’re all brilliant and as I smile while writing this, I know that though there have been hard bits, times when they’ve behaved badly, made a mistake, upset themselves, upset each other and us… (as have we because we are all human), those times pale into insignificance compared to the good bits. And I have many plans for the sunshine weeks we now have off with our babies and luckily, for us, Jonny also gets to be at home too. He will work (obviously, he’s a teacher and if you know one then you’ll know), but he gets to be home! And that’s just where I (and Posie) like everyone to be, home, together! Like most we are feeling the pinch when it comes to the pennies but we are luckier than lots and we know that. We head into the break with resourcefulness and plans for a thrifty camping holiday, with a more luxury (yet still in the UK) week in Southwold. I’m a great money pot juggler and a family holiday, be it away to foreign climes or in a tent in Cornwall, are so important to family life and I made having a break away all together a massive priority – and with Gram of course! So we look forward to that, as well as time at home and time together on the beach doing our favourite things. And relax, school’s out for summer!

Here are some, but definitely not all, of our school year highlights! From inside school celebrations at becoming prefects and gaining awards to performances and museums, trips, residentials, celebrations outside school for things we’ve achieved in it! World Book Days and other dress up days, football tournaments, ballet and dance, learning to read, writing brilliant things, learning fantastically, of AMAZING exam results and of coming firsts, but also not coming firsts and owning it, and of getting into schools and of first productions and more, more, more! They’ve all worked hard!