Sob sob

Friday was the last day of term, and for Jas and all the other year 4's it was time to say goodbye (again) to class and school mates and teachers.

What a palava.


We, parents, started gathering around 10am for the playground farewell at 10.15.  Sekt was opened and distributed, just enough to numb the pain or maybe to tip some moms over the edge.


The year 4's took their seats on the benches (good job I hadn't sat on one, I was tempted) and then the rest of the school children sat on the playground facing and in front of the leavers.


Songs were sung, including the "school song", which caused me to lean over to R and ask, "school song?"  After five years you'd think I'd know they had a school song wouldn't you...whoops!


The hip hop dance from last month's show was performed with the whole school joining in and then a final song and the flood gates opened.  Some of the girls had been sobbing too much to be able to sing but when the singing stopped and the farewells started in earnest...

I guess the problem for the children lies with the schooling system, that allows parents to send their child to any high school they wish (as long as they're accepted that is) and different schools specialise in different areas (this is Germany for goodness sake, schooling is a serious matter, even if the children are only there for half a day at a time)  If you want your child to specialise in sports they can, science also do-able, all girls and taught by nuns?  Yep, currently possible but after this year's intake boys can go too!  Jas will be joining Ben at the bilingual high school* which happens to be the closest and within walking distance, all of the other schools are outside of Kettwig and require transport.  With so many different schools available the children are all going to different places, hence the hysteria I guess.


An end of an era, from August both my babies will be in high school, what a scary thought!




* in year 8 they have history and geography taught in English, which makes it a pretty tough option for the Germans, but for English kids who are now bilingual already...It was the obvious choice.