Back to skool!

Our apologies to those of you who have been waiting for an update. This week has gone by in a whirl what with school starting properly on Tuesday. The boys set off bright and early to catch their bus to Pamapuria, only to see it leave earlier than expected. We now leave at 7.55 and hang around at the bus stop. Their bus stop is outside the College, so I can drop them off on my way in. Handy eh!
They seem to have settled in OK, enjoying the activities and especially the daily swimming. the only sour note was some teasing on the way home on the first night, but this seems to have been promptly nipped in the bud by the principal. Stuart and Eric are in separate classrooms after all but meet up at break. They haven't said much about it, we are probably heading into the period where what happens at school remains a mystery to us parents apart from brief insights at parents evenings, or when one of them deighns (?) to enlighten us with a tit-bit.

My first few days back have been ok really. I have a range of classes from Y9 to Y12 none of which are particularly frightening especially when compared with UK classes. The Y12's are biologists and I think that class will stretch my subject knowledge nicely. All the classes have responded favourably to my teaching methods. One of the big surprises is the level of parental finance that is expected over here. Our boys were each given a bill of about $75 each to cover their stationery and trips and photocopying for the year. Students at college are expected to provide their own stationery including exercise books. Senior students have to buy their own textbooks costing around $22 each for maybe 4 or 5 subjects. The crunch comes when students sit in a lesson without this stuff and there is a grey area over what teachers themselves should provide for needy students!

Beyond school, we have had a quiet week. We managed an after school swim on Thursday down at Ahipara. Fantastic breakers which attracted surfers and body boarders. As it has been very humid here, it was great to get thoroughly doused in the surf. Not so good when Patrick got hit by a surf board and we had a few anxious hours assessing the emergency health system. The upshot was that he was bruised and shocked but there was no lasting damage.

Today is Saturday. Patrick and Stuart have signed up for the local football team "The Pirates".
Eric and I checked out the local recycling facilities. They have a rate of 45% recycled here. This is a lot to do with the $1.50 charge for each bag of rubbish removed on bin day. Not a lot of evidence of fly-tipping either.

This afternoon popped down to school to the opening of the new Library. Guest of honour was the PM Helen Clark - see pics below. Again the comparisons with UK were marked. Not only the Maori protocol of greeting and extensive speeches, but also the suggestions that Ms Clark go back to Wellington and get Mr Mallard to send up a big cheque to pay for a new technology block, marae and swimming pool. I didn't get to talk to the great woman in person, but the cream scones were nice.