I notice I said I'd post more about the fair. I should never promise in writing to do these things, as I'm too likely never to get back to them... Anyway, the school fair was a great success. Luckily, the weather held up, so people stayed quite a while and spent lots of money. Which is good for the school - we raised about £3900 at the fair (that's the profit - so that's pretty amazing!). So I guess my hour and a half working on the boys' tombola payed off (tombola: where you draw tickets with numbers on, and a number ending in 5 or 0 wins a prize, you know...). The girls had a great time as well. In addition to the usual jars of sweets, Sarah also won a football (soccer ball), a skipping rope and a police set (gun and badge - luckily the gun doesn't actually shoot missiles of any sort, just makes a loud (and highly annoying) clicking noise. I'm hoping it's made of cheap plastic and will break soon...). Olivia won some bath beads and a punch balloon (purple), so she's happy. And mummy is happy because they were selling 2nd hand uniforms for 50p an item, so I picked up 2 dresses, a pinafore dress, a skirt and two school cardigans for £3.00. Bargain.

Anyway, Tuesday was the Foundation stage sports day - footraces and other activities - all the kids took turns (in groups) doing things like walking on balance beams, jumping off stuff, throwing bean bags into hoops, and so on. Then there was a family picnic, complete with a bouncy castle, hired from the leftover 50p money (the nursery & reception classes ask for a voluntary donation of 50p per week - the money is used for things like cooking supplies and other incidentals not covered in the school budget. At the end of the year, there's usually enough leftover to do something special, like hire a bouncy castle for the sports day, etc.)

Wednesday was Open Night, where parents can visit the child's current classroom and see the work on display, etc, and parents and children get a chance to visit the new classroom for the next year, meet the teachers and so forth. Olivia will be in the nursery again, though she's moving to the morning class, and getting a new teacher, so at least there will be some changes for her. Not too many, though, which is a good thing at her age. Sarah will be in Year 1 and her class will be called Ash. Year 1 is roughly equivalent to 1st grade in the US. Her teacher is actually pregnant, so she'll get a new teacher part way through the autumn term, but there should be some overlap, so I'm not really worried. And all the kids know this is going to happen, so it shouldn't be too hard to deal with.

Only a week (and a day) of school left before the summer holidays - and less than a fortnight before we go to the US - I can hardly believe it's come around so soon. And of course, I still have about 6 weeks worth of stuff to get done before we go. It's not going to happen, obviously!