I received an email on Friday that a place has become available from the waiting list and that we'll get a letter to confirm in the next week. It still feels a bit unreal, we had been warned repeatedly about the waiting list so to get this less than a month after applying has thrown me off a bit. Now, I'm trying to figure this all out which I've never done before and support her as best I can.
My 12-year-old (Y7) has always been home educated, but over the last year she's been talking about considering school. She said she started thinking about it after seeing her older brother (Y9) looking into his options for GCSEs and vocational courses - and how she definitely doesn't like the look of the options he's looking at - and I think it is in part a bit of wanting a fresh start after an emotionally rough few years (multiple deaths in the family, her grandmother who she was close to died last December after a long illness) and always having been more a social if anxious butterfly so I have expected it. I fully support her, we toured a secondary school that is newly opened this year that specializes in one of her big interests which she really liked the look of, and to help her prepare, I added some new things to her lessons that are part of the school's (mostly Spanish and more music theory). Obviously in so short a time, we haven't gotten far, but I'm hoping it will help her feel a bit more confident.
I'm now trying to think of everything and hoping others have experience that can help her. The other home ed families I know, their kids are mostly like my oldest and using one of the local colleges' home ed programmes for Y10 or their kids are younger and/or not looking into going into school at all. Practically, I think I'm getting a handle on it a bit though I keep thinking of one more thing to consider (like she'll probably need a phone now, a bag with no logos or anything, the school has a "haircuts must not be shaved" rule which my understanding is that that means no less than a 3 so the Michelle Williams style pixie cut she's asking for will probably be fine but I might double check to be safe, I should probably arrange that eye test before she goes...my head just keeps creating to-do lists so I need to balance that as well as trying to not break the rules or be too annoying asking for clarification too much), so it's more supporting her in the home and on the emotional side of what is a big change and step into the unknown.
So yeah, child who has never been to school before going into school mid-year 7 with a mum who has never sent a child to school before and didn't go to British schools and is excited and overwhelmed a bit trying to make this a good start.