High School or Not?

As mentioned in a previous posting, The Fashionista has asked if she can go to High School next year.

I had always said that the kids could attend school if they really wanted to but when it came to the crunch I confess I have found it really difficult to let go. But she really wants to give it a go, and to be totally honest her Papa thinks it would be a good idea as she gets older.  She is a very mature and responsible girl, so I think it might be nice for her to have a bit of fun with some crazy teens her age. It would be her first year along with everybody else's, so she would start off at the same time as everyone else. She also expressed a desire to attend an all girls school.

So the Papa and I (mostly I really) set about investigating lots of High Schools (girls and co-ed). They all suck; yup that's my findings. Actually some of the schools offer some great opportunities and unfortunately the ones we really liked were private, in the middle of Auckland and cost about $22,000 a year. We did contemplate it but sensibly settled on applying at a public girls high school in a town nearby which we had been considering moving to anyway.

What was funny is that every person I spoke to had good and bad storied about the schools. No people ever agreed on one school, so in the end it's a bit of a gamble I think.

We ended up on the ballot as we are out of the area and actually did not make it in on the first intake. We had already discussed that this might happen and would hold out for the following year but a week or two late we received a week later saying that she was accepted after all. I tell you, it was pretty nail biting stuff! She is over the moon; she has a good dancing friend who attends there which has made her excited about going also.

I still have my reservations about her attending school, part of me hopes it will fail and she comes back to home education but most of me wants really wants her to succeed and have a jolly good time. It is a very, very large school, with a school uniform that has a blazer, tie, etc ... which she is pretty excited about wearing.

 

 

We thought that Agent Smelly might want to go to school also (she would be in her last year of primary next year with two years of intermediate before High School) as she has asked before about going to school. After some to-ing and fro-ing she has since decided that she wishes to stay home and the Papa and I have agreed that a year just concentrating on her would be good for her. She also needs to build her confidence up as she is one of those kids that goes along with whatever the rest of the group wants to do just to keep the peace. She gets taken advantage of by her friends quite a bit, who just walk all over her, it's not necessarily their fault as she never complains except to us later! She may even wait until High School too, so we are going to play it by ear.

As long as they are happy where ever they are and both learning then we are happy.


(The photos were taken when the girls were playing with make up and clothes and having a fashion shoot in their bathroom; they don't actually wear make up out!)