Researching, visiting and choosing a high school with your child is both exciting and terrifying. And it can also be a little sad as you look back over the last decade with your child and remember all the firsts and lasts that have already come and gone. Here is our story…
You can read the first part of this story here…
High School – Why Did My Kid Grow Up So Fast?
Mummy (10 years parenting)
High School. Big big school.
It has loomed as a distant milestone, dark and foreboding, far off in the future.
Only a whisper of a thought in those early days of pregnancy. Conversations of when he goes to… as we dreamed small and big for his future.
An uncomfortable idea; as the apron strings were knotted tightly from the day he was born – and during those long days and nights of him being a newborn.
For so many months we held his hands to steady his steps, our backs breaking from the constant bending. Never once wanting to think of the day he would head off, walking alone to primary school. High school. Any school.
I remember his first steps, when he finally plucked up the courage to let go of the armchair and wobble over to the sofa – only 4 little steps. But after that he never looked back. Crawling was for amateurs after all.
I was there on his first day of nursery, first day of primary school, first time he rode a bike on his own, first nativity play, his first sports day…
I have collected many ‘first’ milestones and waved off so many ‘lasts’. The last time he rode in the pram, the last time he fell asleep in my arms, the last day of nursery, the last time he needed me to read him something and then suddenly he was reading it all by himself.
I can’t remember the last time he needed me to lift him up because he couldn’t see.
And now he is the same size as me. And I doubt he will stay there for long judging by the amount of growth spurts he has had this year alone.
Choosing a high school feels like a big milestone. By the time he leaves this school, he will be on the cusp of adulthood. And towering over me. Although I think he’s quite looking forward to that.
I’ll have to practice my ‘mum stare’ looking up.
He walks close to me as we head back out of the gates of this high school. Our last open day finished.
High school is finally here.
How to Apply for High School
For more information on high school open days, how to apply for high school and other useful tips for you and your child, click here.
You can now read our 5 Ways to Choose the Right High School for your child here.
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