More school!

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This morning I wandered off to work in the heat and was totally sweating by the time I finished the 15 minute walk to school! At first we were introduced to several key members of staff, including the Grade (Year) Co-ordinators and Subject Co-ordinators. It was good to meet them and interestingly I have realised that about 90% of staff are female. There are about 4 male teachers who I have met so far, but the rest are women! Not sure why but very interesting. We spent the rest of the day learning about the basics of the IB Programme. I was pleased I had done some reading before as it made it a little easier to understand. I think we all felt much better after today and we were all impressed by the organisation of the 'curriculum' for want of a better word. There is a great plan in place, basically 3 projects which we work on, but we call them 'Units of Inquiry' and each one lasts about 6 weeks. The focus is very much on allowing the students to find things out for themselves and answer questions themselves, using any and every research tool available to them. We were told to always answer a question with a questions and get the students to find the answers out. The whole programme is based on virtues and morals needed for the real world. Stuff like patience, honesty, integrity, respect. I cannot tell you how many people told me how lucky I am to have my children experience this education system and I totally agree. I am very excited about Sophie learning this.

I spoke to the Grade 1 co-ordinator this morning and she is going to see how Sophie goes in the Induction mornings next week and maybe start her doing Chinese Maths to stretch her and help her learn Chinese also. How groovy is that?!

Well, we finished at a respectable 2.30pm today so I was able to wander home and shortly after the rest of the family arrived home from the supermarket. From what I have been told, they had a "quiet"-ish day today, going to exchange a faulty toaster and the weekly shopping (as our supermarket here is even more rammed at the weekend than Tesco back home!), and trying to open a bank account. They also went to post a small package to the UK as we seem to have brought Kerry and Mark's spare keys with us (oops!) and this cost about £3.50 but they took one look at the lovely blue envelope I had put it in and made Ian put it in some huge padded number! We are now eagerly awaiting news of how long it takes to get there! Watch this space.....

When Sophie came home she was able to try all her new school uniform on which I had collected today. OMG, there is so much! We have attached some photos, it is so cute. There is a summer outfit of shirt and skirt, pe top and shorts, then a winter shirt and skirt, with bow tie and blazer and tank top, with a long sleeved PE top, fleece and trousers! Added to which there is a school bag, which also has wheels for when it is too heavy! I have a few name tags to iron on now!

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Comments

[Julie Bedford]

Sophie looks so cute!! And so grown up. Love the winter uniform. Only 1 more week to go here before reality hits and term starts. Keep up the blog, love reading it. Love to you all.