Induction day at infant school

It's an odd thing. But today our little ones began an adventure that will take them all the way to adulthood. I've been wondering how it would go for a while now, imagining Fia would take it in her stride, stepping up through the doorway into school; the year 'R' entrance where they are so carefully welcomed in.

Accompanying her into the room that will be her home each and every week day come September, I watch as she looks about her class, settling down on the floor amid the bricks. Here she will be nurtured and taught all the exciting stuff that lay ahead. You know, life. This is where it all begins.

A quick kiss and a promise to return soon and I wipe back the tear that has caught me off guard. But you know, it seems only yesterday that I was doing this with Esme.

Parents are gathering and many as excited and eager as the children they've moments before walked away from. Not many anxious faces, lots of familiar ones. A tea or coffee sipping group stood snatching glimpses of those they recognise but don't yet know. It's so much easier for our children isn't it? Just down from where we are in the hall, they're getting on with it. Thrown together to learn, to play, to begin anew. School life.