Moving On

 photo: bean-sprouts blog.

Today Lily is breaking up from school for the summer holidays. But the thing that makes this time around different is that come September she won't be going back to her school joining her classmates in their new classroom with their new teacher. She'll be the 'new girl' at her new school starting all over again. They'll be new friendships to build, new rules and routines to learn and a different environment to slot herself into. 

Anyone who knows us or reads this blog will know of what we've been up against with schools. I won't bore you with it - it's old news now. I covered it all in previous posts that you can read here and here. But we're basically moving Lily to a new school that we hope and believe will be better all round. It's a good local school that, unlike her current school will take her through to the end of her junior education. I can't see that far ahead, but for now, at least, it is the best option that has come our way.

It was however a difficult decision to make pulling Lily out of her current school a year earlier than her natural time there would have ended. She started there two years ago and shy little girl in a big school. She's leaving there with her confidence increased ten-fold and a true passion for learning. I have her school to thank for that. They've worked magic with her and I truly believe that without their nurturing environment and exceptional teaching Lily may not have got a place at her new school, and that could have made for a very different educational path ahead.

But, I think any shedding of tears today will me mine, rather than Lily's. Throughout her two years at school four of Lily's close friends have left due to relocation or a place becoming available at a more local school after a long time on the waiting list. So Lily, sees her self as 'just the next one' to move on. We plan to keep in touch with a handful of her special friends as they live so near and we'll try and arrange a get-together during the summer in the park or on the beach.

"Aren't you sad to be leaving your friends?" I asked her. "A little bit. But I'll make lots of new friends Mummy, so it doesn't really matter" was her reply. Six-year-old's can be extremely excepting of change. It's us parents that find these transitions harder I think.