Parents more anxious than children on first day of school

THE ANXIETY of the first day of school yesterday was felt more by the parents than the pupils themselves.

“At one point there were more parents than pupils,” Selloane Morwe, principal of Boitshoko Primary School quipped.

She said she was “surprised” this year that there were more fathers outside the Grade 1 class.

“This time around a lot more fathers attended their children’s first day of school which was a nice sight to see,” she said.

Inside the classrooms, the children were happily getting on with their day, looking confident in the tasks they were busy with.

This, Morwe, pointed out could be as a result of them progressing from Grade R at the same school.

“I am very happy to be at school,” was the general sentiment shared amongst the pupils at the schools visited.

A lot of them also preferred to be at school than at home. “I have already made lots of friends,” a pupil at West End Primary School said.

According to the Grade 1 B teacher at West End Primary School, Sherron van Wyk, the little ones were quite happy to start their school careers. “They were quite happy to start school. There were definitely not a lot of tears shed by the Grade 1s.”

At Olympic Primary School, the same sentiment was shared. The children were quite happy to be in class. Some of the pupils here also said they would much rather be at school than at home.

There were a couple of hiccups at some of the schools such as power going off and classrooms reshuffled but as one of the teachers said, “All in a day’s work. It’s the start of a new year, these things are bound to happen. One thing I know for sure is that I wouldn’t exchange it for anything.”