Will starts school

Though it seems about two minutes since I was waving James off to school for the first time, suddenly it was time for Will to start - and I must confess to feeling less emotional about it than I did the first time round.

I think Will has been so ready for school for such a long time now - every day he sees his brother go off to school, and then return home (mostly unscathed) with tales of what he has learned and who he has played with (OK, I admit, I have to drag most of that information out of him, but I can pretend it's freely given and that I live in sitcom-world). Will is familiar with the playgrounds, the buildings, most of James' friends... so I wasn't surprised when he headed into his classroom quite happily on day 1.


I'm not going to pretend that he hasn't had a couple of momentary wobbles in the first few weeks - like the time he said he had a headache in the morning, so I said that if he went to school and still really had a headache, his teacher would call me.... so eventually at midday the call came from the school 'Will is complaining of a headache' - when I picked him up he was grinning from ear to ear, and insisted on eating his lunch as soon as he got in the car cos he was starving. 'Will' I said, 'is there actually anything wrong with you?' 'No' he said 'I mean yes...'

His teacher did apologise for calling, but said he had been adamant all day that his head hurt and his mummy had said that if his head was still sore, the school would call his mum. He has been assured that this should not be repeated, for the sake of his health...

Apart from that he has been mostly fine. We have established that three kisses (no more, no less, and none on the lips) is the right amount before he stands in his line to go into school, that he can't scooter to school with his exceptionally large bag on his back as he falls over, and that (lo and behold) his teacher agress that we need to work on his 'inside voice'!

James has been really pleased to have Will at school too - and Will has spent most of his break time playing with James and his friends - so much so that his teachers have had to encourage him to play with his own classmates sometimes. But he is making friends slowly in his own class and I hear him making plans in the morning about who he is playing with at lunchtime and who he is playing with at little break. I hope he settles in as well when we go home to Scotland!!