New School Year Approaching

I know it may seem odd to be already thinking about the new school year but there are a couple of logical reasons for it (well logical to my mind that is). Firstly I have today received a London 2012 Paraolympic Games package through the post containing 4 tickets and passes and an official programme thanks to the lovely people at Sainsburys! I was lucky enough to win tickets through them a while ago. I am stupidly excited about this but the events we have are on September the 4th, the kids new school year starts September the 3rd. We live in Yorkshire, the games are in London. So I have spent the day trying to work out logistics. I obviously need to ask for authorised absence for the boys - I am actually against taking kids out of school however I also feel this is a once in a lifetime experience and one which will teach them a lot especially about disabilities and how they have no need to stop you. My plan is boys start back to school on the 3rd, meet their new classes and teacher, we get the train to London Monday night, spend the following day in Olympic Park and then get the train home that night so they only miss 1day of school. My second thought about a new school year stems from the special needs teacher being on sick at the mo - long term as her husband died at Christmas, I just pray she is back in September. Last year she told us early who Little Man was going to the following year so we had about a week to prepare him for when their classes were announced. He is very out of sync at the moment and waking about 3am wanting to 'chat' or tell me about his dreams and all conversations relate to change. I am on my knees and have spoken with the headmistress and asked if we can know his teacher again to try and aleviate some of the anxiety he is experiencing. The school has just had an ofsted which wasn't great. They recognised that the infant and primary school merged a year ago so this headmistress now has 500 children under her care with 2 deputies so she is so busy it's a nightmare. Due to ofsted there is now a massive shake up of staff so they are appointing a number of new teachers. I can't complain as I feel the teaching has been excellent. Little Man has gone up 6 reading levels in a year and he can now read. Ok so his Maths and literacy is still very poor but they have done loads to help. Mini man has come on as well. Compared to our old school which had an outstanding ofsted the teaching seems better, but attendance record for this new school is very poor which ofsted don't like. The changes in teachers bring me to my third point. I was in the school office this morning and loads of candidates were arriving for interviews for the posts. Talk about me suddenly feeling my age - it was a bit of a slap in the face infact. Next year one of my sons could be being taught by a teacher, a qualified teacher who doesn't even look old enough to of taken his GCSEs, let alone have a degree. More than glad looked about 16 (but obviously weren't!). On the reverse side that must mean to them that I look ancient :(