I’m still in shock that we’re back at school in just 2 days! Summer has flown by so quickly and I’m feeling a bit sad that I haven’t managed all the day trips and fun activities that I’d planned. My youngest daughter is going into Year 1, which is hard to believe considering it feels like yesterday since my 8 year old started school.
I really wasn’t ready to let go of Zak when he started school, it’s so much harder with your first when you don’t know the staff or how things work. I was used to nursery where we got a full handover at the end of each day including a run down of everything he’d eaten, who he’d played with and if he’d been happy. To go from that level of feedback to almost no information at all was a big change for me.
I think I tried to pretend the who thing wasn’t actually happening and found myself frantically hunting for uniform a week before he started. He was fine on the first day, quite happy almost, excited about starting his new adventure with some of his best friends from nursery, but by about day 5 the tears started, and when he cried, I cried. Luckily it didn’t last too long and he had a lovely Year R, although I think it took until about Year 2 for me to get used to the idea of how much life had changed. Now I have three children at school it already feels like a very long time since the preschool years and my life is very much focussed around school. I feel very lucky that my children have access to such a great education system and have loved watching my children learn not only to read and write but grow in confidence, make friends and generally thrive in their new environments. It makes me very sad that not all children have the same opportunity to learn, did you know that there are 130 million children around the world who will reach year 5, just a year in front of my own son, and yet still lack the basic reading, maths and writing skills they need to reach their full potential. On top of that another 58 million children are not in school and have no access to the most basic of education. My children are so lucky to be in a kind, caring and nurturing school where they feel safe, which is a great privilege, but should be a basic right for all children all over the world.
Last week Persil launched the Learning for Tomorrow Initiative as its first step in committing to improving the future of children around the world by supporting 10 million children to reach their full potential through access to education and new learning experiences.
“Persil has supported learning experiences where children explore, experiment and exercise their creativity for more than a century. We believe this is the best way for them to develop essential life skills and prepare themselves for a bright future. Even now, there are millions of children around the world, including here in the UK, who don’t receive that opportunity. Working with Unicef on the Learning for Tomorrow Initiative is our first step to ensuring each and every child has access to quality and enjoyable learning experiences – now and for generations to come.”
Clare Logan, Brand Manager for Persil UK and Ireland
To celebrate this amazing new initiative Persil are running a Photo-A-Week challenge. Each week for 4 weeks, Persil will announce a school theme on their Instagram page asking you to upload your photo to Instagram. Make sure you mention @PersilUK using that week’s competition hashtag to enter.
We’re really looking forward to seeing the first theme and can’t wait to answer and help spread the word.
The initiative is funded with an initial €1.4 million donation from Persil and Unilever Global Partnerships, which will contribute to Unicef’s education programmes, providing access to quality education opportunities for 10 million children in Brazil, India and Vietnam.
This film created by BAFTA-nominated director, Amanda Blue shows mothers discussing the momentous milestone of their child’s first day at school. Starting school is such a huge thing, I didn’t feel it quite so much with my third daughter, but with Zak, I found the whole process quite heartbreaking even though I knew it was the best place for him, sometimes it’s hard to let go.
To find out more about the Learning for Tomorrow Initiative or read about Persil’s partnership with UNICEF, visit www.persil.co.uk/learning-for-tomorrow.
What are your memories of your child’s first day at school?
Sponsored blog post in collaboration with Persil.
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