We were walking home from school when my five-year-old announced, “Mum, I am doing JSC.”
“What’s that, sweetheart?” I asked, wondering if it was an email I missed about junior soccer or something like that.
“JUNIOR SCHOOL COUNCIL!” she declared proudly.
And I nearly tripped over myself. “What? You got voted in?”
“Yep!”
I was floored. “How … ?”
Let me rewind.
It was three weeks into my daughter’s first year at school when the email with the subject line “School Council Elections” landed in my inbox. The email contained information about junior school council, a group represented by students of every grade – including prep.
Each class would elect two children to represent them. If your child was interested, the email said, they would give a short speech on why they wanted to be a member. They would then present to their peers and a vote would follow.
My first instinct was a hard no. Surely, she was too young. Five years on Earth was not enough to understand concepts like democracy and representation. She wasn’t even deemed ready for full-time school yet. (There is a transition period where preps don’t go for the full five days at the start of the year.)
We had also moved house, which meant she wasn’t at school with her kindergarten or childcare peers. This cohort didn’t know her and I wanted to protect her from the popularity contest and the disappointment of losing.
My partner and I deliberated on it.
Public speaking, advocacy and leadership … weren’t these good things to encourage? But we decided she wasn’t ready. We would wait until grade three, the magical grade in which we decided she might be.
So we didn’t raise it with her. And she didn’t either – until now.
Back on our walk, my daughter told me the council was about making the school better and she had great ideas for that. In her speech, she told her peers that she wanted to make the playground bigger and make things easier to reach, because “as preps, we are smaller than everyone else”.
She told me that she had spoken second-last among six or seven others. She said some of what the others had said first (ha!) and added her own ideas.
When I asked who voted for her, she said, “Mum, you don’t get to know that.”
I was shocked at what this little girl was saying to me. She couldn’t even read!
I was proud – but I was also relieved.
It was then I realised how much angst I was carrying about my daughter starting school. It dated back to the middle of last year when we toured schools, then followed the pressure of choosing a school and the juggle of orientation activities, information nights and play dates, all in the hope that she settled in OK.
Her confidence that day was a sign she was doing well.
Speaking to my fellow first time prep parents later, there was a sense of shift from peak anxiety, sadness and even guilt (talk to any parent with children born between January and April who wrestled with the question “to send or not to send”) to feelings of joy and pride.
One mum was proud of her prep for teaching their younger sibling how to write and sound out words. A dad was proud of his child’s stories of kindness, of how they have been kind to others and how others have been kind to them.
Perhaps the school preparation was starting to bear fruit.
For parents and children taking a little longer to adjust, Derek McCormack, director of raisingchildren.net.au, says this is normal. School is a big change and, as humans, we all adapt to new environments differently. But we know children at prep age are at an exciting point in their development.
“Their independence shines,” McCormack says. “They develop stronger memory, physical and social skills, an upsweep in creativity, imagination, burst of language with ability to speak and form long, complex sentences. Their empathy is growing too.
“Celebrate the new skills jumping out. Stay positive, lead with positive language when talking about school, and provide assurances that it can take time. Seek help by talking to others who get it.”
I suspect parental anxiety will never fully go away but, as we head into term two, I feel more optimistic about school. I look forward to hearing and seeing what my daughter does next, in and out of junior school council.
• Lucille Wong is a Melbourne writer and a mother of two
