Changing Schools

Today Jeff and I had an interview with the principal of a different Christian school and a tour of the facilities at their primary school. Then this afternoon I took Joshua there when I picked him up from his old school. I dropped off his enrolment form for him to begin there in term 2 (after Easter) and we met the lady who will be his teacher, and were able to have a look around his new classroom.

When we told Joshua that we were going to move him to another school, he was quite upset at the prospect of losing his friends from the old school. But I was able to remind him of how he had felt when leaving our old church, and how God had given him lots of friends at our new church. I told him the same thing would happen at the new school. We prayed about it as well, that God would help him not to be too sad. Meeting his new teacher and seeing the classroom made a huge difference in his attitude! He was very sad and downcast when we arrived at the school, but cheerful and upbeat when we left. I am so thankful that Josh was able to meet the principal and his new teacher, so that his fears were somewhat alleviated.

This school is a lot closer to our home than the school Joshua is in at the moment. Presently, we spend at least 2 hours each day between us dropping Josh off and picking him up. That's a lot of drive time! Although the new school isn't in our home suburb, it is a lot closer and also the route to it is along some less busy roads. We will save at least half an hour, probably three quarters of an hour, on travelling just by changing to this new school. Hooray! (Also, this school starts and finishes a bit earlier, so Josh will have a little more time with us in the afternoon, which is very handy.)

The school is just a primary school, not primary and secondary, and is a lot smaller than his present school. This makes me feel a bit better from my own personal preferences, and especially with a view to Anna fitting in easily and with confidence when she attends next year. So that is another advantage, although not the reason for the decision.

I am really pleased with this change, and getting more pleased the more I think about it. The only sad thing is that Joshua will only keep up his friendship with one of the boys from his present school, not all of them! He will see L each Monday at Boys' Brigade still, which is a great thing as our families have been friends since shortly after we moved here to Perth.