Here is Olivia on her first day of school. She wears a uniform which consists of a blue sweatshirt, cardigan or fleece along with a checked skirt, grey pinafore dress or trousers. At this point she prefers the trousers.
Barton is a small village 3 miles west of Cambridge and they have had a village school associated with the church for hundreds of years (more on that later). The C of E in the school's name stands for the Church of England, which is the state church of England. The school is a public school, in that you do not pay any fees to attend, but it has a religious component due to its long standing affiliation with the village church. We do not have this category in the United States.
Olivia loves school so far. She commented tonight on how kind the students are. It seems like a very warm environment. Her class consists of Year 3s (equivalent of 2nd grade) and Year 4s (third grade). There are 34 students in the room, which is a lot, but there are 2 full time aids along with the teacher, so the overall student to adult ratio is good. Every morning they have a brief chapel session, followed by 2 1/2 hours for either literacy or numeracy (math). After an hour for lunch and recess,the afternoon is devoted to various subjects like: foreign language, music, P.E., religion, art, history/geography, design technology (sort of like home ec. and shop, if I'm understanding it correctly) and science.
Colin bikes her there each morning, and she gets a ride home in a carpool. The bike ride takes them about 25 minutes and they are well equipped for rain but haven't had to deal with that yet, thankfully. Two weeks in and we are well pleased with the situation.
