Nine Schools

It was a normal start to the day. It was a little overcast, but that soon burned off. After the statutory teas and coffees were distributed, I wandered to Zoe's to take Ellie to school. Ellie was very excited because she was one of the kids who had been selected to represent the school in an Athletics Meet this afternoon.

Once home, I got on with a few chores before collecting Maureen and setting off for Sainsbury's. (Though Chris is back from hospital, he can't drive yet.) The shopping trip was remarkably quick. We didn't seem to have as much as usual this week. I stopped in to say "Hello" to Chris when I dropped Maureen off with her shopping. He is looking very well, considering the seriousness of his recent episode. He is hoping to be driving (at least for short trips) again next week.

I stowed all of our shopping away and then pottered for a while. After lunch, I managed a quiet hour with the Kindle before getting ready for the afternoon's excitement.

I collected Ellie from school, and we drove across to Felpham. There, on a huge school field, the pupils from 9 junior schools were gathering in their groups. Ellie's school was one of two schools classified as "small". We had arrived early because of the expected traffic. This worked well, but it did mean we had about 45 minutes to wait for the activities to start. Ellie was scheduled to do the (standing) long jump and the relay. This meant a lot of waiting around. (I should mention that there was a very impressive turnout of parents, along to cheer on the children.) It was clear that some of the larger schools had some very fine young athletes. What was nice, however, was the way all the children were cheered on, even those at the back.

Ellie did well in the long jump. There was no official statement by the time we left, but the results were to be sent to the schools. In the relay, she had a lot of ground to make up after the previous runners had dropped several places. Ellie managed to claw those places back and gain another, but the last legs of the race couldn't maintain what she had gained.

It was a lovely couple of hours in the sunshine, and I grabbed an ice cream for her as it all broke up. We were soon home, and now she just has to prepare for tomorrow's Sports Day at school.