First day at school

Like a lamb to the slaughter...

This was easily the hardest moment of the 3 weeks so far- leaving Cassi at her new school. We had of course managed to build it up for her as the most exciting thing ever, and so kitted out with her new chicken bag and a few useful French phrases (like "je peux aller aux toilettes"!) she arrived full of enthusiasm.

Her day started with a bit of colouring, and then all the class (about 20 with 5 absentees) were called around the benches and the day's routines began. The first thing they had to do was count the absentees and some of the other kids couldn't manage to get to 5 without a mistake. I was relieved for Cassi that she can count to 10 in French perfectly (although she sometimes misses quatre out becasue she doesn't like it!) The children had also had to identify their name on entering the classroom and some of them even struggled with that so I felt reassured that Cassi would not be the class idiot even if she was the foreigner!

So once she was engaged in an activity, I headed home. It was a long 3 hours before going to pick her up for lunch, but we were incredibly relieved to see a smiling face rushing out to greet us at 12. The hard thing was having to take her back again after lunch, but at the end of the day the teacher, Mme Garnier assured us that she had been "parfait", and had even introduced herself to the class in French. Bless!

As the week progressed she made a couple of friends ( including another Kassy!) and seemed to grow in confidence, although she was shattered by the end of the week. I think it was a good call to send her for this week, as at least she is now on half term and when she goes back next Thursday it will not seem so unfamiliar.