Back to School - who's really more nervous?

As much as we don't want to admit it, Summer is over, for schools at least and this week saw most of the nation packing their back packs and pencil cases and heading back to the classroom. For many, however, there might have been a few butterflies as they headed to school for the first time. To find out who actually is more nervous, the parents our the kids and to get some top tips on how to prepare, we sat down with Melissa from our Accounts department to see how she coped when she sent her oldest son to High School.

1. Who was more nervous to start a new school, you or Charlie?

'Definitely me but then again I worry about everything to the extreme. Charlie on the other hand was more concerned as he didn't know what really to expect and obviously it is so much different to primary school, things like getting lost as the school is so big was one of Charlie’s main concerns.'

2. Did you do anything different to the usual ‘back to school’ routine with it being a new school?

For example:

• Check out the route to school before the new term, by car, walking or bus?
• Start going to bed earlier towards to end of the summer holidays to get used to the early mornings again?
• Speak to any other parents with children going to same school?

'Charlie had been to his new High School for three inset days so we had already planned his route and how long it would take so that bit was all fine. I made sure he had a few earlier nights and less lie-ins at the end of the holidays as going to High School meant getting up earlier in the mornings. I have a close group of friends who all have children in the same year so we had many discussions about different things, i.e how they would travel to school, what time would they meet, best place to buy uniform from, and many more!'

3. Did the Primary School Charlie was leaving give him any advice or support? Did his new school?

'Charlie’s Primary School were fantastic with their support for the year 6 children, Charlie left feeling confident and ready for his next step in life. Charlie’s new High School offered lots of advice and sent many flyers out with all the important information on, everything we needed to know was covered.'

4. Do you have any ‘Back to School’ traditions? Take a first day of school photo or selfie?

'Yes, I always take a first day Back to School photo, one on their own and one together. I love looking back on their previous years photos.'

5. The most important question, when did you buy his new school uniform?

'I always like to be organised but especially this year with our Wedding followed by our holiday so I actually bought all the embroidered uniform the last week of term, leaving only trousers, shirts and coats to buy when I got back.'

6. Any advice for parents whose children will be staring a new school in 2016?

'Stay calm and positive as this is what your child picks up on….tell your child about all the good times we had at high school and how exciting is it reaching this next step in their lives. Even though I was really nervous about Charlie going to High School I made sure he didn’t realise this. It has all been good up to now so the panicking was for nothing really, he’s made lots of new friends already.'

To answer the question 'Who's really more nervous when starting a new School?', we think Melissa will agree, it's definitely the parents!