I can’t quite believe that it’s time to write this post, but our last ever first day back is just 3 days away. For the last 23 years, the end of August has been full of back to school shopping but now this is it. The last one. Our baby is going into year 13 on Tuesday, his last school year. This is the beginning of our year of lasts, and I don’t quite know how I’m going to cope with it all.

At some point in August 1999, I went to the school uniform shop at Barlborough Hall School and bought a teeny tiny blazer, track suit, book bag, rucksack and swimming bag for our then almost 3 year old. I was a full time student, my husband was an accountant, and for the next 2 years, my student loan alongside nursery vouchers were going to pay school fees at Barlborough. The choice to go there was partly because our local state nursery couldn’t give us flexi-hours, and we had to choose mornings, afternoons or full time, it was partly because the day nursery I was using while I was at university charged for holidays, and I worked nights so didn’t need childcare in the holidays. It was also because Barlborough is just the most beautiful school, housed in an Elizabethan mansion with huge emphasis on pastoral care, and once we looked round, we couldn’t say no.

The first day at Barlborough Hall was Tuesday 14^th September 1999, 5 days after our eldest’s 3^rd birthday. Our youngest’s last day will probably be on the 30^th June 2023 (the prep school is part of the Mount Trust, alongside Mount St Mary’s College, so it doesn’t feel like two separate schools just one educational path from 3 through to 18), and I remember joking years ago about when the time came for him to finish, we would have spend almost 24 years – almost half my life – with the school family, and here we are, with just under 10 months more to go.

Our youngest passed his driving test over the summer holidays, so we have asked him if we can do one more school run each on Tuesday before he drives himself to school – and I’m sure that’s going to feel so emotional.

Over the next few months, there will be ‘one last’ bonfire night, Christmas carol concert, parents’ evening, panic over revision, exam series, and then speech day and the leavers’ ball. It was hard with our eldest, and I know that this year will be harder.

We have made fabulous friends on this journey, and we have met some fantastic teachers. This year, however, doesn’t just mean the end of education, it means the end of an era, the end of a huge, important part of our lives. Additional needs and health problems for both of them has meant that we have had to be more hands on and involved in their lives than some other parents may have been. They will always be our boys, they will always need us, but at the end of this year everything changes, and we have to let go.

It’s going to be an amazing year. I am going to make sure that I take the time to take in every moment, take endless pictures in my mind and let myself bask in every emotion and feeling.

Here we go, for one last time.