La Rentrée / The First Day of School

Wednesday, Sept 1, was "La Rentrée" as they call it in France, what we call the First Day of School. 

We do not live within walking distance of the school. It's about a 10 min drive, if you're going directly to the school, and depending on traffic. However one can't really go directly to the school. The parking situation is "complicated." The school, Ecole Jeanne d'Arc, is over 100 years old and the campus is surrounded by a stone and cement wall with a few doors to get in and out. Furthermore, the school is situated on a narrow one-way street, which generally already has cars parked on both sides of the street, to the extent that it is allowed. 

Ecole Jeanne d'Arc, that is central building with the entrance to the front office.

Directly behind this wall is also the school's campus. This is around the corner from the other photo. I'm standing across the street on a four lane divided highway, which people can park alongside. Notice the black car in the middle of the frame? It is parked, You can see that there is a low curb and then another curb for the sidewalk. This is a possible parking option for parents dropping off or picking up students.

On the very first day, every child had a completely different start time and end time, so that was the first "fun" thing to figure out. Simon and Lucy started in the morning, an hour apart, so I brought them to school first. Actually I parked, dropped off Simon with Lucy in tow, walked back to the car to get Lucy's backpack and such, then walked back to the school for her start time.

This was Wednesday's schedule. Each block of color is a different child's hours at school!

All the drop offs went pretty well, except for Lucy's which was a little challenging. For her, I was allowed to accompany her to her classroom and hang out there for a little while; find her hook where she'll put her backpack; give the teacher her gigantic folder thing which all the kids have... which while it is new to me, it actually makes sense b/c it will be a good way to keep oversized artwork in good condition (not sure how/if I'll travel home with it, but that's for another day!). Anyways, Lucy felt shy and a little nervous and she was begging me not to leave and starting to tear up, which was making me tear up... and I had a little moment of realizing what I was doing to my child (also for her, but it that moment "to" her), and I knew it was asking a lot of her and I felt bad about that. I finally pulled myself away and left and felt really sad. 

Smiling, before I brought her to her classroom. With her big folder-thing.

Starting to draw, but ultimately that was not enticing enough to keep her busy when it was time for me to leave.

But the happy ending is that when I picked Lucy up at the end of the day, she was smiling and happy and said that she had had a fun day, coloring and drawing (which are her favorite things to do.) 

And now the past two mornings that I have dropped her off, she goes in through the door with a quick squeeze and "I love you," and "Have a good day," and she's gone!

The other children reported feeling awkward and confused about their first days, but they weren't complaining, just reporting how they felt. They all have a pretty good attitude about it, even though it is definitely challenging. I think they are all starting to make some relationships with their classmates in just these first few days and that is good for them too. 

Parents gathering outside the elementary school door to collect their children.

So the pick-up situation at the end of the day was a pretty big mess, in my opinion. The dismissals were supposed to be staggered, but there was a huge cluster of parents standing outside the elementary school door waiting for their children. The various teachers and/or the director of the primary school popped their heads out of the door, looked for the child's parents, or called out to the parents, then pushed the kids out the door and handed them off to their parent. It seemed SO disorganized. I thought I was going to receive my kids one at a time at their designated dismissal, but they ended up sending them all out to me at once (after I waited around for about 30-45 min.) 

Rather astonishingly, it seems like the teachers actually recognize whose parent is whose, despite the fact that virtually everyone is wearing masks; and I just know that personally I don't think I could ever recognize 25-30 sets of parents from the very first day of school if I were the teacher!

The crowd of parents from the other side of the door.

Walking around and through the crowd of parents and cars.