Mid August start of school, in winter crispness as we are in the Southern Hemisphere… Sweaters needed in the morning as it’s pretty cool…but by the time 9:00 am comes around, we shed them willingly! Emma has started in Year 6 in Mrs. S’s class, an American from Minnesota, the last year of the primary years and Alex is in year 4 in Mrs. D’s class, a Brit married to a Portuguese who has called Malawi home for over 20 years, after a stint in Zimbabwe.
Our new school is on a sprawling campus, including trees, lots of grass, a full size football pitch with tracks all around, a netball field, tennis courts, two pools, a fill size gym with stage and classroom buildings all over, as we start in Reception, the equivalent of Pre-K or KG1 and go to year 13, the equivalent of Grade 12. The admin and some teachers also live on campus. This is truly a school community!
And with a whole bunch of teachers living within walking distance of the school, it’s quite convenient. We’re barely 5 minutes walk from the school gate… great thing right now, as we still don’t have a car!
The school is an IB school, with PYP and DP already authorized and currently implementing the MYP, making the transition from the British Curriculum to the IB. We are starting along a new director whose vision is establishing and confirming a school identity and striving to implement the highest standards in education. I think I can live with that and work along just fine!
We had a full week induction/training/classroom readiness time… before welcoming the students on Monday, August 15th, unfortunately for only 2 days as calls for protests forced us to close the school for 2 days in its first week. Better be safe than risking students’, staff and parents’ safety and setting ourselves as an unnecessary target! So, We had school Monday and Tuesday, school is closed Wednesday and Thursday and we are reopening on Friday! Kind of a strange way to start the year, but we are dealing with it!
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