England's Schools

We are now moved in to our house and have officially lived there for one week!  This week has flown by!!  The kids started school on Tuesday after we chased down school uniforms!  

The local stores carry the gray pants, black shoes and polo shirts.  The school cardigan, sweatshirt, PE kit (gear) had to be purchased by a certain company, which happens to be run out of a lady's house.  We had a good chat as she had lived in Florida for a short time. Karis asked if she would need to take her pants off to try on some PE shorts.  If you're not familiar with British English, pants are underwear and the lady was in the midst of assuring Karis she would not need to remove them when she realized Karis was talking about her "trousers" as they call them.  Ha!!  We had a good laugh over that! To back track a little and tell you of our school process, England has a very different system for school enrollment than we are use to.  In talking to colleagues I was becoming very overwhelmed and anxious about the process. It's not as simple as find a home, go to the closest school and enroll your child(ren).  What was recommended to us was to research schools, find the one we wanted and then house hunt.  Again, this seemed overwhelming to me!  What if we didn't find a house near the school or there wasn't an opening in that school?  The rental market isn't an easy one!!   We knew though that overall Horsham had good schools, so we just went with settling there. I finally decided to just focus on the house hunting and trust the Lord on the school He wanted us in. And wow, did He provide for us!!  The school is about a mile away, so only a 5 minute drive in the mornings.   We were pleasantly surprised that all 3 kids got in the same school, Leechpool Primary.  It's common for siblings to have to attend different schools and then transfer over when a spot becomes available.  I tell ya, God is good in providing for us!! We had a wonderful time on our first tour of the school!  We knew it was a good place!  Then once we got our official acceptance from the county (another process that is unfamiliar to us), we went back to the school to fill out more paperwork and met the headteacher (principal).  We learned that she had bounced around quite a bit as we have and had last lived in Madrid, Spain moving to Horsham to take this very position.  We had a good chat with her and were excited to have that in common with her.  We had even more peace that she would understand our kids and their background.   Of course, the kids were nervous on their first day!  I knew they were in good hands though and they ended up having a great first day.  People were nice, they made friends, they liked their teachers.  I am so pleased!! And on Reegan's third day of school she got this note from a new friend.

How sweet is that?!

The schoolwork is a bit tougher than their used to.  I was expecting that as I know they teach at a different pace and their Math is taught differently.  I told them it might take a few weeks or even months to get into the swing of things, but they're happy, so this mama is happy!

And now the house is so quiet!!  So back to unpacking I go!

The internet is terrible on my phone in our new neighborhood, so it might be awhile until I can update again.  I'll be so ready to have wi-fi hooked back up and be more connected!!  I'm having withdrawals!! Ha!  At least it keeps me going on all the unpacking and cleaning I have to do!!

Enjoy the weekend!!  Our goal is to unpack and stay warm!  It's going to be a cold one!