End of Primary School at Bickleigh Down
Ben’s last year of term didn’t go as planned at all, what with the Covid lockdown closing schools from March until June. Luckily, Ben’s year was allowed to go back to school, mainly because it was a crucial time in their education what with going to secondary school in only a few months! We did have to think about sending him back though as a lot of other parents continued to keep their children home, in case of catching Covid. Ben was desperate to go back from June so we let him as it was only half a term anyway!
So, Ben really enjoyed going back to school for those few weeks and seeing his friends again. They did do some work as they would normally have done, but not in the same way and probably not as much as they would normally have done. For a lot of the days, the teachers tried to get them active by doing sport and PE a lot, as they were all stuck in for 3 months during lockdown. Ben was happy with that though! 🙂
His last few weeks in primary school flew by in the end and before we knew it – he had left!!
All of the plans that the school and parents had to celebrate the year 6 children leaving had to be abandoned due to Covid regulations, which was a massive shame. The school couldn’t put on their usual leaving party and the children couldn’t do their year 6 leaving assembly. It was quite upsetting for us as we had heard lots about previous assemblies and how emotional everyone ended up being. Such a shame. Anyway, the parents of the children ended up coming up with new plans for them so Ben did have a bit of a send off in the end – thank goodness!!
It ended up that Ben and some of his friends would be dropped off at his friend Jake’s house and they would then be picked up by a limousine and taken for a ride into town and up the Hoe for some photographs before coming back and being dropped off at the Lopes Arms for a meal (all a surprise!). As usual though, it didn’t turn out as planned as the traffic was so busy going into town that they didn’t make it to the Hoe and ended up at Central Park for photos. Ben didn’t mind a bit and was having the time of his life in the limo!! Haha. All the parents were at the Lopes waiting for them to arrive in the limo and they looked to have had good fun! We all then went in to sit at our socially distanced tables and had a nice meal. For nearly everyone there (children and parents) it was the first time we had all been out for a meal since before lockdown, so it turned out to be a really nice evening for the parents as well! Ben and his friends went off on their own to the local green to play football every now and again, as a lot of his friends weren’t going to Ivybridge so could possibly be the last time he would see them!! Very sad really, but the evening was very good and Ben really enjoyed it! As the weather was nice and hot, we all ended up sat outside on the tables, after we had finished our meals inside. We walked home from the pub at about 10pm with the Greenslades after Coby and Aaron (and some of their friends who were there as well) had run out of steam from playing together in the beer garden.
We can’t believe that Ben has now finished his time at primary school at Bickleigh though – the time has absolutely flown by! It seems like it was only a couple of years ago that he started out in foundation and he will now be moving on to secondary school. It was a real shame that the school couldn’t do the usual leaving events and the initial plans for them to leave were scuppered by Covid but he had a real nice send off in the end. 🙂
