All change ...maybe

Well Jason is contracting for a well known oil company. So life is a bit different as I'm doing all the school related trips during the week as he can't get back to do them.

It has been a significant change. Quite unsettling in some ways, but reassuring to know that we are both supporting the family unit financially.

As usual I'm spending lots of time worrying about schools, either schools now or in the future. Because I live in the Consett area I guess I have a general phobia of the more trendy labour council approach to schooling that happens in the north east. I tried to overcome my fear by getting more involved in the process, but it still scares me.

I guess the reason is that I'm never really sure that the children come first. Too much is driven by centralised policies to improve standards. Why on earth teachers can't just teach without all the meddling and paperwork is beyond me.

I have one vaguely bored child who is underchallenged, and one struggling child who could do with more individual attention. The underchallenged one doesn't rate as a genius so won't get extra help, the struggling one isn't classified as having special needs so equally can't get any help. Thankfully both of them are well behaved.

I'd like to send them to private school but I don't have a spare £20K a year to fund that, and due to the above reasons neither of them is likely to get a scholarship. I can't reduce my earnings enough to qualify for a bursary. So every now and again my fingernails take a battering as I have a serious fret on the subject.