School uniforms and school funding

Watching the news today, I see that school uniforms are in the news.  This is an issue that could have affected me when younger, but I was lucky in that my mother was able to buy the school blazers from any shop. My daughter goes to a school where there is one shop that supplies the uniform.

I understand the outrage that people have at the prices involved, and the view that this may be a scheme by schools to make money.  But let us look at a big issue here.  Schools do not have enough money.  A teacher from the school of my daughter met with the schools minister to discuss this.  My MP was kind enough to write to me when I had forwarded a letter from the school of my kids (they go to different schools) on this and has raised the issue in parliament (I will ignore how his party is the cause of the funding issue).  

So in summary, school uniforms have annoyed parents for a while.  Action can be taken to change the cost to parents, an issue that hits the poorest hardest, but to take action without addressing the funding issues schools have is silly and short sighted.    

Cycling to school

Just chilled today.

My son and I went out cycling today, riding the bike to his new school to be.  We had cycled there before, but not for a while.  And I realised that I had not exercised with the children in a while.  My son has been keen on riding his bike, and has done so at school and also for scouts, but we have not done this in a while.  Earlier in the week, I had a chat with my wife and we agreed that I needed to take the kids out more often.  My aim was to take them out on alternate weekends.  However after this trip, I think that I need to ensure that he is road safe.

We have been told to take him along different route to what I had taken him before.  The issue that he faces on this new route, is that it will involve turning right from Walnut Tree Way onto a busy B-road.  I will have to check that the school is okay with this as it will result in a few more places becoming available during the academic year!

Anyway, he did well, but will need more practice.

Cricket Saturday

The kids have been amazing today.  And yesterday.

After school they both played cricket and despite playing late, they still played in the morning.  My son played despite being hit in the face with a cricket ball yesterday and my daughter was hit by one this morning.

He accompanied my wife to a baby shower in Halstead and while I waited for them, I got some exercise and walked around the town.  I had a late lunch at a cafe that served great chocolate milkshakes and we got back home to a rested daughter to have a discussion about her school report.

Following that, we watched Mean Girls.  Well my son watched a bit before going to bed.  Hopefully he will be refreshed as I hope to take him out on his bike in the morning!  While the film was great in bits, it was a bit corny in places, but overall, I do think that it is a film that he will need to watch before secondary school.

Anyway I have just finished watching Kin, a much better film in my view, but not one for the children to watch!

A hot June

A quick update since my last post.  The children, while still bickering are better than before.

On the weekend, I got to watch the children play cricket, and then it was Pride in Colchester.  My daughter did not like the advice I gave her about the heat as she went into town with her friends.  I took my son in later, this being after he tidied his room, though we left my wife in town to relax after a hard morning working.  My son appeared to love visiting Pride.  We found his sister eventually, though I was a bit suspicious when we did not see her with her friends.  He did spend my money buying a very cool, but overpriced sparkling Pride hat.

The following day we spent the afternoon in the garden of a friend.  They had a family from New Zealand over who had spent a day with us many years ago just before they left the country.  The kids appeared to love it, my daughter getting to mix with girls older and younger than her, and my son loved playing with the other boys.  Fortunately he has much better hand-eye coordination which helped when playing table tennis outside.

And the graphic is about how hot it has been recently, this month being the hottest on record!

Anyway, time for bed.  Goodnight all.

Away from the children in Spain

The title of the post gives this away really.  We are celebrating the birthday of my wife in Bilbao without the children.  And while we miss them, it has been great to get away from them.  And they have been kind and in the days leading up to our escape, they have made it easy for us to abandon them (to the care of my Mother-in-law who has come up to look after them) by bickering.

My wife had an amazing birthday party with a band playing, though rain had caused an issue with it.  It was great to see so many people come to see her on her birthday and the location was as fantastic as the band.

Sadly, I was working for a lot of her birthday, but we did get to go out for a meal and the children came along, and behaved.  But after that, the bickering started between the children.

The day before we left, they argued and on the morning that they left, they argued.  And the updates on the arguments continued while we were in the airport.  But our holiday had begun, and we landed in Bilbao yesterday.  As the Guggenheim Museum is closed today, we had to visit it yesterday and we both loved it.  We had tried to take the children to art museums before, but it is not something that they like so being able to spend time without two bored kids there was an experience we savoured.

Today, we have sampled foods, been on a tour of the city, and are now relaxing on the rooftop terrace.  We are back to reality tomorrow, and while we do miss our children, it has been so nice not to have to mediate between them for over 24 hours!

Getting better

I have had a few days off work. One of which was when I was unwell.  I had taken off the day of the EU elections as my son was off as his school was being used as a polling station.  

We went for a walk in Dedham, one which he was not too keen on at first.  Sadly he was not too well in Friday so had to be off school, but improved once he did not have to go in.  It was a shame as he missed “Break The Rules Day” which he has been looking forwards to. The weekend was quite boring as we cleaned the house, but on Bank Holiday Monday, we visited my mother and collected my mother-in-law to baby-sit the kids on Tuesday, which is a long day where they are together.  Yesterday I had plans to take them to Thorpe Park, but sadly I was too unwell.  Tuesday was a long day for me, and one where I was not too well, Wednesday was one where I started to improve.

I got to watch Arsenal lose the UEFA cup final (sorry, the Europa League) with Tony, so all in all, yesterday was particularly cheerful.  We played well in parts of the first half, but our defence, which has failed us so many times failed us again, four times in the seconds half.  

Anyway, that is the end of the quick recap of the last few days.  I am off to bed now.

Miss Havisham

Long story short, we ended up in Faversham today.  Due to the recent rain, there was no cricket today, which was just as well as I needed to nip into work today.  

Anyway, we ended up for one reason or another in Faversham, Kent.  I napped on the drive there and when there we visited a church and had a great lunch.  We had a bit of a tiff when it came to where to eat, but we ended up in a place that has served the best burgers that I have had in a long time, possibly ever.  We had planned to walk about the town more, and for me, to visit the brewery, but as we arrived late and due to the rain and it being cold, the visit did not take in as much of the town as I wanted.

And it was only on getting back and preparing this blog post that I realised that the character from Great Expectations is not Miss Faversham.  Which explains why the family considered me to be insane when talking about the book...