Starting school in a pandemic

Ava has nearly finished her first year of school and what a strange year to start school . She had no induction days, we weren’t able to go into school at any point during the year . I don’t even know what her classroom looks like . She had a gradual introduction to school which was hard on her to get to grips with and also a logistical nightmare for us.

We had time off school because of staffing issues , she went to school through lockdown but was in a class with children in multiple years. Ava had to be off school when we had to isolate due to me having Covid and we had to homeschool.

It’s really be a school year like no other. As much as Ava loves going to school and she settled in perfectly I do feel a little sad that she had the introduction into school life that she did.

Parents evening has been done over zoom with a very limited time slot . Which meant the conversations with her teacher were very quick and I felt like I hadn’t got what I wanted from them . Working in early years myself I have a good grasp on where she should be academically but it would of been nice to have a proper conversation with her teacher.

To limit the amount of face to face interaction with parents hand overs are brief and I have to rely on Ava to tell me things. Like what actually happened when she received her 3rd bump to the head letter that week. This is hard as I’ve felt I’ve not been given the opportunity to air my concerns or even just have a conversation.

We’ve not been able to do so many firsts which I thought we would be doing. Like sports day or going to watch her in her Christmas performance. Instead we had to watch them via YouTube. Which I know isn’t the schools fault but I cannot help but feel a little sad.

When you have a child and you think about them starting school . You think about all these little firsts. So not to have them have made things for me a little crappy.

However I have noticed that Ava being at school through lockdown benefited her so much . The small class sizes and also having mixed ages in one class really did her well . She was taking in what the older children were learning and strived to be like them . For some children I imagine this could of been quite daunting . For Ava though it gave her the push to keep learning. To push herself to try her hand at harder activities.

Before lockdown style school . School we’re having Ava cry regularly because she couldn’t do something . Mainly because she was scared to get it wrong, she would get upset before she even tried. Then when she went into this mixed age group class. It gave her the confidence to keep going to have a try. She learnt that it’s fine to get things wrong as long as she gives it a go.

I do hope that come next school year she gets the school experience I hoped she would . The trips , Christmas performances and summer fairs. All the exciting things about school she has missed out on this year.

Have you had a little one start school in a pandemic? If so how have you found it ?