Cutteslowe Primary School

One of our tasks as we settle into Oxford has been to get the girls into some sort of educational institution. We've been trying to organise this for about 4 months now. Most schools in Oxford are full, but our local school (about 1.3 km walk from our flat) consistently said they would have room. And, it turns out that they have room not just for Ella, but also for Katy.

We visited the school on Tuesday afternoon to scope it out. The deal is that Ella has gone into year 1 -- their second year of full-time school, which may stretch her a little -- and goes from 8:50 am to 3:00 pm each day. Katy goes to a nursery in the same school, but only from 12:15 pm to 3:15 pm. Since it takes half an hour to walk each direction that leaves little time for Nat to lounge about at home by herself, but it's better than nothing. "When would you like them to start?" asks the Deputy Headteacher ... "Errr, well, how about tomorrow?" Done.

So, Wednesday morning arrives and we all march off. Ella is dressed in her school uniform. Ironically, the uniform is identical to that of Aranda Primary School, which we left at home, so we're patching her together with what we can find. (Other parallels with Aranda -- the headteacher is Mr Gray, and there is a Miss Jones co-teaching Ella's class; but of course she's not cut from the same cloth as our own Miss Jones.) Katy doesn't need a uniform, to her great disappointment. But getting to go to the same school as Ella probably makes up for it.

The school itself is sort of interesting. It's called Cutteslowe Primary. Cutteslowe itself was an estate built before the war -- i.e., built to house the working class, and apparently a pretty rough neighbourhood. When they started building posh houses nearby, they built a wall across the suburb to keep the rich people safe from the thugs that lived on the estate. Like that would make a difference?

The wall is now gone, and I gather that Cutteslowe Primary pulls students from both sides of the old wall. The school itself looks like a cross between a factory and a jail!! It has a large chimney stack on top of it (see photo) and is surrounded by 8 foot padlocked fences. Apparently this is normal, but I haven't ascertained whether the fence is designed to keep the kids in or to keep the riff-raff out. So far, both girls are happy. They seem to be making friends and like their teachers; Ella is looking forward to "forest school" where they go each Friday (except for today, unfortunately).