to be scared of sending my little ones to school

[ScarlettAlexandra]

they are both small now 3 and under and i do all the child care. after reading the threads about schools enforcing bed times attendance even when you little ones are ill. I'm pretty freaked out. please tell me all schools are not like a little dictatorship.

Me too.

And I'm a teacher.

I don't want DD to ever go to school. 2.7 now.

Enjoy the time now, they spend enough time at school without you worrying about it now.

And no schools aren't like that at all on the whole. Pick well one that your comfy leaving them at.

No, we are all cruel and vicious people who live to make your children suffer, and eat the ones that don't conform with onion gravy.
Haven't you paid attention to all the threads? Schools are places of terror, staffed by automatons without a brain or a soul.

how do you know what its like without hanging around the gates and harassing parents, there should be a web site like compare the market for schools

Not all schools are like this. I've managed to find a lovely and very reasonable school. The new head did try to dictate boys hair length, but that back fired when Y6 boys spent the day with pig tails rather than have it cut.

But some schools can be quite ridiculous. You will need to learn to conform. (DS'1 Y2 teacher used to trip this out quite a lot)

steiner school? home school?

just trust your instincts when looking round - it'll be fine

I think MN will give you a pretty skewed view of things like Schools, inlaws, playgroups and even coffee shops!

Don't worry about it now. The best thing you can do for your child is support the school as much as possible in helping to educate your child.

It's not as grim as it can sound on MN...people come here to vent that's all.

what's a steiner school? sandyboots

You have to conform at a Steiner school too, just to a different reality to the majority.

Please don't be worried.

My wee 4yo has been in ft school since september less than a month after turning 4, and its the best thing that ever happened to him, he went from being painfully shy, speech problems and possible developmental delay, to happy confident, talkative and acheiving among the top in his class.

It really has been the making of him, and he loves every second. And no telling us what to do by the school either, lovely teachers and helpers.

He runs in every day smiling, his teachers are wonderful caring and helpful. And he comes home with loads to tell me.

Don't worry,they will be fine and will have a wonderful time. just ensure between now and when they start school that they are confident about toiletting,hand washing,using cutlery,changing for p.e and they will be off to a flying start!

Oh and ds has hair past his shoulders and no ones said a word.

Just because they go to school doesn't mean you stop being the parent and it's parents who make most of the decisions concerning their children.

Not that that is always a good thing....

that's good ds has a mad head of curly hair.

Since being in MN, even the park scares me senseless. I always check MN when I get back to check for threads about my DCs and I squabbling over discarded toys in the sandpit/trying to run off with another boys scooter/demanding Pom Bears/being hoiked back from trying to climb up the slide.

School=new levels of judgement.

School is fab. The school gate is a source of lovely new friends.

scarlett I don't know the ins and outs but they just sit around looking at twigs and stuff like that AFAIK

[thread hijack: motherinferior i have just seen you [mildly misleadingly quoted] in the london review of books - am very impressed]

You decide when your child is well enough to attend. Attendance has to be worse than eighty-something % to get most schools really geared up for actual action (as opposed to sending a letter).

As your children get older, bigger and visibly more robust, it will feel much less scary, I promise. Little tiny ds talking about 'cuggles' did not look like a school-child. Socking great ds with his taekwondo suit on (or off) LOVES school and has a ball there.

I must get that LRB

YABU to be scared, yes.

School's great :) And in our school, the only style that's been vetoed is the blue hoxton fin (this is an infant school after all :o)

Other than that, there are fab exciting things in the playground, days where they get to dress up as stuff, learning about different cultures and people and all sorts of good stuff. Plus I'm making some more friends so it's good for me too :)

My children love school, dd1 is 6 and in her 3rd year of primary school and dd2 is in nursery school. They really look forward to it, I had a row with dd2 last week as I kept her off, she wasn't well. They learn, play, make their own friends.

I find that on MN and most forums you only hear the bad things, not a lot of people post about how good their childs school is, how much joy their child gets from finding their own feet etc

My kids schools have never tried to enforce bed times, even if they did send a note I would think they must be having problems with one family and trying to deal with it subtly (not a family I know just the generic it must be aimed at someone else).
DCs senior school is strict on uniform (but has understood that DD is so skinny it is very very hard to get longer skirts in the regulation style). They don't care about hair length, but will make boys as well as girls tie it back if it gets too long in science lessons. They do also dislike extreme colours.
No school I know has tried to make kids go when they are ill, some parents do because of their jobs, but that is another story.
The key thing is most teachers like kids, that is why they do the job.

I think when you hear talk of bedtimes, attendance etc. schools are generally trying to guide and provide support. Our school recently had a 'be on time' week and they got stickers for arriving on time - it was all done in good fun. Don't be scared.