School's Out For Summer...

That's it then. The bell tolled at 12pm and the summer holiday's began. Kids ran for the gates to escape for the summer and Mum's sighed at the thought of the next 60 days! 60 days, I swear they weren't that long when I was a kid!

The last day of this term is everyone's favourite. There's normally many more parents than ususal there to pick up kids especially those with kids in P7 who are leaving Primary School for High School. There's often a few tears and the P7's all come out carrying there school sweaters which they've had signed by as many pupils, classmates and teachers as possible.

The school have a "buddy" system where the new P1 kids get assigned a kid from P7 to look after them in their first year. Jake had a great buddy called Mark who has looked out for him all year, shown him the ropes, swapped sandwiches with him at lunch, bought him things, helped him with his reading and basically kept the wee man under his wing all year. Mark is off to High School next term and Jake will miss having him about. We went out yesterday and got him a gift to say thanks for all he's done for Jake. Even today though Mark had thought of Jake and brought him in some sweets to say goodbye. Jake was more excited that Mark asked him to sign his sweater though! He's a real credit to his folks that boy and if he keeps his good attitude he's going to turn out to be a lovely man.

In addition to a gift for Mark it's become something of a tradition for the kids to take in something for the teachers. So it was 2 boxes of chocs, 2 wee "best teacher" teddies and 2 thank you cards for that. Chloe's teacher is leaving this year as she was undertaking her probabtion year at the school and is now moving onto her first proper teaching role. It's a pity she couldn't have stayed. She's proper new school teaching with lots of interactive stuff, visits and projects to get them intrested. Chloe has been more enthusiastic about school this year than ever before and I reckon a big part fo that is down to her teacher. She'll be asset wherever she ends up and I think Chloe was a bit sad to see her go (I'm guessing there were tears but she's not said yet!).

Jake's getting a probationer next year, a female who's name escapes me now, which will be fun for her. A class of twenty five 4, 5 & 6 year old's to contend with! Talk about going in at the deep end!

So I've now got 60 days ahead of me in which I need to keep the amusement levels of my two treasures at such a height as to keep me sane and stop them from nagging me about being bored. I've been working on this already. Over the next 7.5 weeks we will be at the beach, hitting every country park this side of the border, going to the museums, doing the festival, visiting relations in other towns and I am sure at some point we will be hauling ass across the border and heading to Blackpool...5 year old has already asked today if we can go!

Right now I've sent them looking for frogs in the burn...should keep them amused until tea time!

Jenny xx