Orientation at Ollie's New School

Ollie and Mike at the sand table.

Ollie will be starting "big boy school" next Wednesday. It's just nursery school, but since it's held at Merrit's school, Ollie thinks he's big like Merrit!

Public school starts a whole lot earlier in the UK than it does back home. US primary/elementary schools cover, usually, Kindergarten through Fifth Grade. But in the UK, what we'd call Kindergarten is called Year One; then they have what they call Reception, which is a full-day, five-day-a-week program for four-year-olds; then, for three-year-olds, they have what they call Nursery, and it's a half-day, five-day-a-week program. So, primary schools here cover Nursery through Year Four (which is the grade Merrit is in now).

All that to say, Ollie--even though he's just three--is going to the same school as Merrit. Today he went for a two-hour orientation. He met his teachers, explored the classroom, had a snack, and so on. We dropped him off and he did just fine. When we picked him up, we could tell he'd had a great time.

Apparently his teacher, who's taught Reception for the last six years, has been "THE" teacher that all the parents in the school hope their son/daughter gets. We are excited that Ollie has her for his teacher and really like her a whole lot already.

Here are a couple more shots of Ollie scouting out his new classroom:

Ollie's new teacher showing another little boy around.

He kept his glasses on the entire time, reported Ollie's teacher!