Well I wasn’t really expecting that. Any of it!
Firstly, I can’t believe how time flies. It seems just months ago that I walked Courtney off to school on his first day. His sister Megan had yet to put in an appearance and he just seemed so tiny. Smiley, but tiny. Eight weeks later Megan appeared and immediately he grew not only in size but with the responsibility of being a big brother.
Today he left primary school and in 6 short weeks he’ll be starting anew at Lymm High School – at the bottom of the pack again. As one of his friend’s dads put on facebook tonight, he left his twin boys at junior school this morning and picked them up as little men! Over emotional, schmalzy – you bet! We have an excuse though, at either end of the day we, the parents of these little men and women were bombarded with emotion and memories.
It started off at 9 this morning with the leavers’ assembly. The whole class put on a performance, pretending they were at a reunion in 2070 – the perfect backdrop for looking back over their school years. Sketches they’d written which were funny and witty, all dressed up in their old people’s clothes (in Courtney’s case, his dad’s fleece, shirt and tie – who says Andy dresses older than his age?!). They sang some songs – Take That’s Greatest Day, Heather Small’s ‘Proud’ and some others which I can’t remember – I may have been to busy snuffling into my kleenex. All performed to a backdrop of photos of their time at school. They looked so young and child like – it’s difficult to explain but it feels like a big thing that they’re going from a small village school with a class of under 30 to being in a year group of over 300.
More emotion was flung at us as this was also the leaving assembly for the Headteacher, Mrs Morgan. The fondness and respect and love the children have for her was so obvious and she, and the rest of the staff were going through tissues like nobodies business.
So I left there feeling rather bereft that a big chunk of Courtney’s childhood is done and dusted. Ahead is the whole teenager thing (he’s been practising that quite a lot already), the grunts, the groans the horror of being seen out in public with your parents (especially Andy in THAT fleece!) but we’ll see him at the other end and we’ll also make sure we’re around, being old and deeply uncool, along the way.
Megan and I decided that we would go and pick Courtney up from school today as when he gets to high school he’ll be chucked off the bus at some point and he’ll amble home himself. I so wasn’t prepared for the year 6 kids coming out in floods of tears, their shirts signed by friends and teachers – I may have started my glass of wine a little earlier than usual today!
I’m not Courtney’s real mum. She died when he was very young and I met him shortly after I’d met his dad when he was just three. I can still feel today his little hand trustingly put in mine as we walked across a snowy car park on that first meeting. From that very first day he’s accepted me into his life as his dad’s partner and as his mum and I will never be able to thank him enough for that – he could have made it so much more difficult for me.
Courtney, Renee would have been so proud of you today – you are an exceptional young man and I couldn’t love you more. Despite all the emotion of today, I can’t wait for me and dad to stand by and see you through this next exciting stage in your life – we are so confident you will do well and make us proud. Good luck Mush!
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