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Home Visit – Starting Reception at Primary School


I’ve been quiet the last week on the blog and twitter, I have been busy preparing for Boo’s new teacher to come to visit. I have to be honest, the idea of having his teacher visit I found terrifying and invasive. I felt that Boo was going to be judged on the basis of how clean and tidy our home is, and hence my huge decluttering session.

I found myself anxiously cleaning the skirting boards with wet wipes, cleaning the windows of any tiny smears and polishing the dining room table…(after of course clearing the dining room table of all Boo’s craft projects!). Mr G is normally a pillar of calm, but I even made him anxious, suddenly deciding he must redecorate the dining room in case she didn’t approve of our choice of dramatic colour scheme. We found ourselves arguing over whether we should offer her a cup of tea in a mug or the best china, should we greet her in our normal clothes or dress up for her arrival?! So when she arrived in her casual clothes and merrily greeted us with a huge smile, while the learning support assistant sat down and entertained Boo and E with a huge basket of toys, we breathed a small huge sigh of relief.

No white gloves checking for dust, no raised eyebrows at our choice of artwork adorning the walls and shelves, all she wanted to know was about Boo. Not what he could do academically, but a bit about who he is, what he doesn’t like, and how we’d describe him. Describing him was harder than we anticipated, the words ‘sporty’ ‘confident’ ‘active’ ‘competitive’ were thrown around, and then I wittered off into talking about how he liked to do puzzles and ‘small lego’.

The discussion then turned to what they will be learning for the first term, it was all about making their own play dough and baking. I remembered my fear that I hadn’t done enough with him to be ready for school, and smiled as I realised we’ve done lots of baking and making our own play dough, so for the first few weeks at least he’ll be OK! Now I just need to address my fear of the school gates on Boo’s first day!