Yesterday it started raining some time after I came home from my run. I must have timed it just right. And it continued raining just about all day, until it was too late to consider going for a walk anywhere. Today the sun is trying to break through the clouds so maybe we’ll walk up Lark Hill. Somehow a walk up Lark Hill is better in the sunshine!
The summer is rushing past. It’s almost the end of August. The days are getting shorter. And we’re back to that quandary of what sort of clothes to wear. Layers! You need something light in case the sun comes out, and something warm and windproof but not too heavy just in case you find yourself needing to carry it. And then out and about you also need a waterproof. After all, it might rain, despite the warnings of drought!
Our daughter has spent what seems an inordinate amount of time in school during her summer holidays. I say that as someone who used to spend a fair amount of summer “holiday” time preparing for the coming year. In actual fact, she has been quite sensible about it all, spending some mornings in school sorting her classroom and checking teaching resources and doing family things in the afternoons. The little chap,has been in nursery for these mornings. After all, to keep his place for the next academic year the fees have to continue to be paid. You’d think a retainer would be enough but I suppose they are running a business. So he has gone happily to meet his little friends. His big sister has either gone along to “help” or has spent time with Daddy, with big sister or with me.
And suddenly we’re only about a week and a half away from back to school. Shops are advertising school bags, school equipment and, above all, school uniform. A friend of mine posted this:
NEW SCHOOL UNIFORM BILL
The average cost of school uniform is over £300. A new law comes into effect next month in England to try to help with those costs:
- State schools will need to keep branded (more expensive) items to a minimum and allow high street alternatives
- Second hand uniforms must be available
- Parents’ views will need to be considered when uniform policy is decided
While most people welcome the changes, some feel it doesn’t go far enough as costly branded items are not completely banned.
I find myself wondering yet again why we have this obsession with school uniform. Other countries manage without it apart from in private schools. And yet most people here are quite happy with the idea of uniform, even welcoming the idea as there is no argument about what to wear. Even schools that previously ignored uniform introduced school logo sweat shirts and before you knew it they were back to little girls in grey skirts or gym slips and little boys in grey trousers.. But if you have two or three children, kitting them out for school is an expensive business, even with hand-me-downs from one child to another.
Even the nursery the smallest member of our family goes to has a uniform. Mind you, they also do a “graduation” ceremony for the children moving on to primary school, complete with tine mortar boards. What is the world of nursery education coming to!
Thinking of the cost of things and the current cost of living crisis, here’s a little reminder of inequalities from MP Zarah Sultana:
“If you’re on the minimum wage, it would take more than 3,000 years to earn as much as a topFTSE CEO makes in a year.
Don’t let anyone tell you a pay rise for workers is unaffordable.”
Quite so!
I’ve not quoted the estimable Michael Rosen for a while. This could be why:
“I have 'multiple restrictions' on my 'account', Facebook tell me. This is because of several of my 'Boris letters'. They do not meet 'community standards'. They are guilty of 'hate' apparently. I suspect that someone or some people have complained.” (Michael Rosen).
So here’s one of his latest offerings:
“Dear Mogg
I'm against paid holidays for workers. Most of them don't work and then get a holiday for doing nothing. But thinking of myself for a moment, I have to say, I'm on a damned good squeeze: gadding hither and thither, doing sod-all, on full pay.
Mega siesta
Boris
[Hello Facebook - this letter is in the voice of someone else, not me. It's what's called 'dramatic irony'. The beliefs or views that are implied by the 'letter' are not mine. They are ones that I am attributing to Boris Johnson based on the things he says and writes.]”
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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