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I’m pleased and proud to say that both Emma and Sam have been counting down to today. Sam has nearly burst with excitement on a couple of occasions. They were both very confident setting off this morning to Newland House – Number 11 with their mammoth backpacks on.


After a special pancake first day of school breakfast, it was time for the uniforms! I can’t decide if they looked swamped in them or grown up?

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Emma’s teacher Ms Brown greeted Emma by saying – “This must be Emma”. Emma’s face lit up and her response was a sweet “How did you know?” complete with hand on her hip. I’m really happy that Ms Brown is from NZ. Obviously we’ve chosen to live in the UK, but it’s so nice to add a bit of NZ to the occasion. She seems really nice and very competent. I’ve heard plenty of good comments from some of the other parents whose older children have had Ms Brown in the past. Emma’s class name is “Blue class”.

And as if having Ms Brown in blue class isn’t enough, Sam’s teacher is called Mrs White (no lie). And to completely confuse a twin mummy that has to remember which colour teacher name goes with which child, I also have to remember which colour class name they match too. Sam is in “Orange class”. This caused a bit of controversy when we first found this out as Sam’s favourite colour is Blue, and as a result they both wanted to be in the opposite class. But that doesn’t seem to be an issue now.

Gavin took the day off which really helped. There was no need to rush anyone as we had two sets of hand for uniform dressing and then we could each take a child into their class so no need for one to go in alone.

We weren’t there very long at all as they both settled really quickly so we could head to the “Blue class” parents coffee morning. We’ve been lucky to have a couple of meet ups over the summer so I am getting to know some of the mums already. It’s a very social school and we have 2 further planned get togethers already – one after the parents welcome evening on Monday night and another coffee day at someone’s house. I would say half of the mums have older children already at the school so it’s great to talk to them and pick up all the tips.

Gavin and I head from the coffee morning to an early lunch at the lovely Loch Fyne and all too soon it was 1pm and pick up time. The children are only going until 1pm today and tomorrow and then from Monday it’s full time from 8:45-3:25. It seems a massive day for my little four year olds, but it I think the afternoon is fairly relaxed where the children can move between the two classes and there are lots of story times and an extra playtime about half an hour before they come home.

We had two very happy children greeting us at the classroom doors. They have to formally say goodbye and shake their teachers hand before they leave. Sam was beaming. And when I caught up with Emma she was also very happy having earned a sticker for good behaviour. So now we just do this for another nine years! With the added bonus of 31 degree temperatures, today was just about as perfect as it could have been.