In a
nutshell, I ran around the school in a rasta hat. All will be revealed…
After this
weekend we only had one more week of school before half-term. For those who
didn’t have this joyous occasion when they were smaller, let me quickly
explain. Inbetween each term or semester you get a week off for holiday. There.
Explained. If you didn’t have this when you were in school, you’re probably now
also jealous.
We spent our
final week jumping between student assessments and watching Oliver Twist, so it
was a relatively relaxing week for us. Extra-curricular activities – in
addition to the additional lessons taken after school – dominated our week.
Musical and sporting excellence is a feature of our school, and it was time to
show this to a wider audience.
On Monday
our school football team played against the American school in Astana, QSI.
What started as a bright and warm afternoon soon turned bitterly cold and
windy, yet the weather failed to crush the spirit nor the talent of our young
soccer stars. Our school won the first match 2-0 before losing the second by a
single goal. I had more fun interviewing those involved after the match on
behalf of the school magazine. It’s funny how many of the kids thought that
they were the player of the match.
This
happened after school on Monday, but on the Thursday our classes were interrupted
by our ‘Olympic Trial’ – a lap around the school to see who were the fastest
kids, and arguably more importantly teachers, in the school. We decided this
would be a golden fancy dress opportunity, so out came the hats. Two things of
note. One: The fastest child is in Year 3, so is only eight years old. Two: I’m
apparently the fastest person in our school, cruising to victory in the
teachers’ race in a time of 2’33’’. I do run a lot anyway, so I had a bit of an
advantage.
Kazakh fun fact: I'm not quite as quick as Olga Shishigina, the Kazakh 100m hurdler who won Gold at the Sydney Olympics of 2000 in a time of 12.65 seconds. I'll starting training...
The final act of half-term was to watch our children perform a musical concert for their parents. Many of my class performed on the piano, before one of them performed a street dance on stage. Surely the first time N-Dubz has been played to a large crowd in Kazakhstan. The piece de resistance was the two Year 6 classes joining together to sing a song called ‘Cool Cat’, which impressed the parents enormously. I spoke to many of them afterwards and they all seemed very happy with their child’s progress at our school.
The final act of half-term was to watch our children perform a musical concert for their parents. Many of my class performed on the piano, before one of them performed a street dance on stage. Surely the first time N-Dubz has been played to a large crowd in Kazakhstan. The piece de resistance was the two Year 6 classes joining together to sing a song called ‘Cool Cat’, which impressed the parents enormously. I spoke to many of them afterwards and they all seemed very happy with their child’s progress at our school.
So that’s
the first half-term finished at Haileybury Astana. I could fill page after page
with what has happened, what hasn’t happened, and what will happen. All I will
say is that I have found myself a dream job that, at this moment, I wouldn’t
trade for anything in the world.
Love you all
Matt
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