New kindergarten students start ‘big school’

SCHOOLS: There were some very excited five-year-olds but very few tears at the school gates this morning as Mount Carmel and Binalong Public started the 2016 kindergarten school year.

Bowning welcomed its kindergarten students on Thursday, while Berinba and Yass Public kindergarten students will start their “big school” journey tomorrow.

Year seven students began at Yass High on Thursday.

There were also quite a few new year seven students eagerly catching buses into Canberra this morning from the Yass interchange.

Mr Inkster said Georgia was all smiles at drop off this morning.

“She went really well this morning, she was very happy.

“She was a bit nervous overnight but this morning it went very smoothly. She was welcomed into the classroom by Sue Shepherd, her teacher, and she found her spot to put her bag and then waited for some other school friends to arrive,” he said.

The transition into a classroom might be a little easier for Georgia because she knows two or three girls from her preschool too.

Mum and dad, on the other hand…

“It’s our second time around; mum had a little tear in her eye but nothing that slid down the cheek! It will probably be a bit different when the third and final one goes off to school, but thats’ a few years off.”

In the meantime, Georgia’s big brother Josh, who will be starting third class this year, will be on hand in the playground if she needs a familiar face.

Five-year-old Georgia Inkster gives an excited goodbye to dad Mike Inkster outside Mount Carmel, Yass, this morning.

Big brother Josh Inkster will be on hand for sister Georgia’s first day in kindergarten at Mount Carmel, Yass, today.

Mum Louise Inkster gives a few words of encouragement to excited five-year-old Georgia on her first day of kindergarten today.

FAMILY AFFAIR: Mike and Louise Inkster see new kindergarten student Georgia Inkster to her classroom, alongside brothers Lachlan and Josh this morning.

Yass High principal Sandra Hiscock said there were 94 new students starting year seven this year, and they had settled in well since beginning term one on Thursday.

“That’s a really good-sized year for us in terms of being able to offer lots of electives in the future,” she told Scoop.

“They are settling in really well. We haven’t had any parents concerned, we’ve got a full range of kids coming into the year and they are really settling in very well. They seem like they are very enthusiastic learners.”

She was pleased with a slight change to the uniform too.

“They look fantastic, with the new school uniforms with shorts, and it’s great.

“They seem very confident too. Year seven in my own experience [teaching] were usually not very confident starting in a new situation, but these kids! I guess it’s because they know a lot of children in the town and have their peers, they seem to have settled in very comfortably.”

They were handling the transition from one teacher to many, too.

“We’ve got a lot of new learning experiences for them, with 10 different teachers for each subject, so they’ve had an extremely steep learning curve but they seem to be thriving with that.”

New Yass High Year Seven student Holly Fleming started her high school journey on Thursday.