The Start Of The Autum/Michelmas Term 2025!

As always, never happy to see the end of the summer holidays and send my children back to school but this year hurts a bit more than any other. It’s not just that they’re going back, it’s that Posie is starting and for the first time there won’t be any more pre-school days in my house. I’ve loved being a pre-school Mummy and ending that chapter, this end of an era, well… It doesn’t sit with me well. I’ve cried when each of them started, of course but this time the tears are harder. This time I know more than ever exactly what I’m losing. And for them, oh isn’t it wonderful! To watch them grow and learn and become such brilliant people. The head teacher from our primary school found me on the playground to give me a piece of work she had found in a cupboard she’d been cleaning out. It pre-dated her role at the school and had been left. When she saw it was by Florence Knowles she saved it for me and as if I’d not broken in half gifting Posie to the school day already, it completely got me. For it had been written by my 6 year old Florence just after we moved here, and it was brilliant. She was always so clever and the work was exceptional for a child of that age but what it also showed me was that 9 years have flashed past and she is a teen about to do her GCSEs. Did I blink? I tried so hard not to… And I will keep trying. I will keep trying to drink in every second as I’ve loved all the years so I know I’ve got fabulous things to come with the younger three! Experience has taught me each age and stage is a favourite, I miss what went before but what comes after is amazing too. I just hope, hope, hope it does go slowly.

Florence – U5/Yr11

Florence Knowles goes into her GCSE year and frankly, looking at that piece of year 1 work she did, she was ready when she was 6! She is lovely, and as beautiful on the inside as she is on the out. Her work ethic, her determination, the way she gives everything to whatever she is doing, means I can’t wait to watch her achieve some brilliant things this year. Aside from the exam she has plays and shows she wants to be in at school, exams she wants to take at dance, and more besides. Go smash it all Florence Mary Ladybird!

Jimmy – U4/Yr9

Jimmy says he is locking in this year. Apparently he and his friends have discussed it and this is the year they are making sure the work gets done. And I am so pleased to see him look so excited for what’s to come. He is engaged with rugby inside and outside school and can’t wait to get started in this year’s school fixtures. He also wants to be in the school musical and when he was emailed before the first day asking if he’d go and give a talk to the new L4 starters he practiced and felt so proud of himself – so he should! Go Jimmy!

Raffie – Yr3

Raffie, my brilliant baby boy! He LOVED reception, but hasn’t been a school fan since and so it was with happy heart to pick him up after the first day and see that his face was beaming. He still said, as standard, that he doesn’t like it, but I can tell that he did! His writing is so great these days and I know he wants to unlock more of the praise he was beginning to get at the end of last year. I can’t wait to see him do it!

Posie – Reception

Oh Posie Popplechops how can this be?! My darling girl, just a baby really, and yet here we are. She always says “I’m not an actual baby but I am the baby of the family!” and she’s right… I guess… But in my eyes she will always be that little sweetest peach and I can’t stand it that she’s going but… She will be ruling reception before long and doing all the brilliant things that she can do, as well as learning all the other new brilliant things she will learn. She will LOVE it. She IS loving it! 2.5 hours a day for the first full week and then she’s in all the time – except… Well, I won’t be able to resist a wag day every so often and so we will still have some Mummy days too. Sorry (not actually) folks, that’s just the way it is!