First Day of School 2013!

September 3rd marked a special day in the Schmidt house. Riley started her third year of school in England and Lyla started her first full year as a part-time student!

Super excited for the first day!

Riley, who would be in second grade in the US, has moved up to the Prep School and is in Year Three. This means that she has a longer day and begins to switch classes, as well as participating in more extra-curriculars (is that even possible?!). One of the biggest changes is that she now has alot more adults involved in her education...in addition to her form teacher (classroom teacher), she also had a housemaster, form tutor, headmaster and deputy heads. Holy cow! It's like a real-life scene from Harry Potter! Riley has been placed in Oaksey House, which is one of three day houses (the boarders have their own house). I drop her off in Oaksey in the morning, where they do the register (aka take attendance) and she returns there afterschool to play pool, air hockey, build legos or do crafts. Oaksey has students in Year 3-8 so she will be doing alot more interacting with older students. She has to be dropped off between 8-8:15 and can be picked up between 4:30-6:15...what a very long day for a seven year old! Needless to say, she LOVES it and was very excited to be able to wear her new uniform for the Prep School.

Fancy new uniform

Lyla is starting "kindergarten" here in England but is really only 3 and a half and would be in nursery school in the US. I would say it's equivalent to a preschool program in the US. She'll be going 2 and a half days this year. She has a very nice teacher and has made lots of friends in her new class! 

Cheeky little kindergartener!

Both girls were very tired this weekend after a long and exciting first week! Cheers to a fantastic school year!