Culture and traditions

The school cone

When my son Felix started primary school in Leeds last September, he walked through the gate holding a cardboard cone almost as tall as he was. It was decorated with silver stars and filled with pencils, stickers and a few sweets. In Germany, where I grew up, a school cone like this is a normal part of the first day at school, and my own mother made one for me thirty years ago. Most of the other parents at the school gate were not [1] ______ with the custom, and several of them stopped to ask me what it was. By the end of the week, two of them had asked me how to make one for their younger children. Felix, meanwhile, has told his whole class that in Germany the first day of school is 'basically a birthday'.