High Schools

We've started visiting high schools for Jess. There must be some mistake, as she's far to young! We've been to Greenshaw and Overton Grange thus far. Overton Grange is a very new school and so looks all nice and bright and modern with wide corridors. The main corridor looked like a shopping mall. I was expecting a branch of Next and a Boots in there. It has nicer school uniforms (i.e. blazers) but overall we didn't think that much of it really. The headmaster tried to tell too many jokes and stuff in his speech, which isn't really what you want a headmaster for.

Greenshaw was better. It was the school I was going to go to if I didn't get into a grammar school. It's a bit older and feels a bit wonderfully chaotic, in that there are classrooms spread around a bit, as it's been extended over the years, and the corridors are narrower. It feels more like a proper school than Overton, which was more like a hospital. The staff were friendlier too, and always greeted you as you walked in and were happy to have a chat with you. The headmaster was really boring, and far more like you'd expect a headmaster to be. Rather than trying a motivational-type speech like the Overton guy, he just laid out the facts and explained their policies. Much better, if more sleep-inducing. Greenshaw admit a portion of selective (i.e. have to pass an exam) students as well, so their standards are quite high. Plus of course it's literally a walk in the park for Jess to get there in the mornings which is a big plus. She won't have to cross a single road. They are now a "Computing and Maths" speciality school, which I was hoping would mean all kids study Computer Science, but it seems to mean that they might study a bit of programming at A-Level, if they want to. They don't even do Computer Science GCSE's or A-Levels anymore.

We STILL don't have the car, or a firm date of when they'll get the part. So we're stuck with the Stupid Zafira. They were going to change it to a Focus, as the Stupid Zafira was too expensive to hire (tip - FIX OUR BLOODY CAR QUICKER!) but then the hire company said that because the Stupid Zafira was on such a long-term hire the price would be the same as a Focus anyway, so we kept it.

Not much apart from that. Vicky is arriving tonight to come and live, so I'm running to Heathrow to get him.

Joe is still staggering around occasionally. He's done about 10 steps now, and at the weekend actually managed to walk from Ele to me, but stop at his toybox en route, grab a book from it and then carry on to me.

-Neil