Ellie and Cari started at St Heliers school this week and Meg started across the road from the school in the kindergarten.

St Heliers school is a primary and intermediate school which means pupils attend from Year 1 to Year 8 (5 – 13 years old) before heading to secondary school. We chose the school (which in turn led to our choice of suburb and house) based on the impression left by the awesome headmaster Mr Craig McCartney. What an impressive bloke, clearly in control of the place, displaying incredible empathy with the children and parents and on a mission to deliver excellence.

Ellie is in year 5 (there are two year 5 classes) and Cari is in year 3 (there are three year 3 classes). There are over 400 pupils int eh school with 62% white New Zealanders (or Pakeha as they are called) or European and 38% are other nationalities including Maori, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Burmease, Tongan, Fijian and Samoan. They are the only Welsh children in the school.

Their first week in the new school goes well, they were made to feel very welcome by the other kids in their class and their teachers and they come home full of enthusiasm (not least because they have to wear a sun hat and are allowed to go around the place bare foot).

Meg also started kindergarten across the road from the school which makes logistics simple. Despite a run-in with a little girl in the sandpit, she is enjoying  the freedom to play with a real hammer, off-cuts of wood and 2 inch nails (no health & safety comfort blankets here). She bang her thumb once the hammer and I am sure that having done it once she won’t do it again.

Children are a great vehicle for parents to get to know other parents and we discover we are living across the road from Ellie’s new friend. Her mum is the chairman of the PTA so I am sure this will help with us getting to know people etc.

Routines are being established and Ruth is now free of childcare responsibilities between 09.30 and 14.00. What will she find to do with her time ?