A Place for Audrey

I feel like it's the year before my kid is going off to college--will the letter from school come in a big envelope or a small one?? Did she get in? All this hype and the reality is that she's just trying to finish learning how to read and spell fluently...geez. 

As part of the admission process for Oxfordshire County Council, we had to list 3 school preferences, with no guarantee of getting Audrey in to any of them. Since there are only three schools in Henley (well, actually 4, but one is a very religious Catholic school), I just listed the three available with the top two being the ones that were ranked highest for academics. Of course, they wrote today to tell us that Audrey was admitted to our third (and last) preferred school. The first two schools have one Year 1 class each and both are at their class size limit.

So Badgemore Primary it is! We had a visit to the school on Monday and while it's tiny (only 73 students in the entire school), set in the woods, and smells a little moist and animal-y, the staff and head teacher were so warm and welcoming, that I decided to look past all of that. The school curriculum consists of awesome topics like monarchies, the Romans, the Tudors and Stuarts, and they also learn French as a second language. Badgemore is also an accredited Forest School, meaning there's a lot of emphasis on outdoor classroom learning--total plus!

Another plus is that Badgemore has a preschool right next door and starting at age 3, children get 15 hours of free education! Riquesha, Dorian will be in school soon!! We've accepted Audrey's admittance to Badgemore, but are still putting her on the waiting list for our first 2 choices--who wouldn't want their kid going to one of those top-ranking schools? Fingers crossed, but very happy that we've gotten in to a school less than a five minute walk from home.

On another note, we took a 1 mile walk to a new park today. Audrey was such a trooper and didn't whine and complain until our mile walk back home. It still amazes me how much green space you'll find as you walk through towns and villages. There are play structures at most parks, but the fields of green are what really catch your eye. The British people must be very serious about land preservation, considering how little extra they have to work with on this small island country. Whatever their reasons are, we love it!