Her first impression of her new school was that the teachers and students are very friendly and welcoming and she noticed how her fellow students voiced their opinions and thoughts without being afraid of the teacher’s response.

On the very first day of school, she was informed that the IPC topic for the term was people migration, so to capture the children’s interest, she and her classmates got an interesting assignment to do at home in the evening or the next day before going to school. They had to imagine that there had been an earthquake and they had to leave their home in 5 minutes and the parents had to time them. They were given only 5 minutes to find and pack the most necessary things to bring with them to give them the sense of urgency. My daughter rushed around the house to find the things she thought she needed on her journey and had lots of fun doing it. She packed it all in a bag and brought it to school. At school during the IPC lesson, the children were asked to pair up and set up a camp in the classroom and use the things they had brought along. For example they had a cloth, so they could built a shelter. My daughter came home and said she and the other children had so much fun doing it that none of them wanted to finish the lesson, but wanted to carry on.

Another thing my daughter found really cool was the interactive whiteboards in all the classrooms. During the lessons the teacher would show them videos and pictures from the internet and visit websites with educational games and tools and as the whiteboard is a touch screen as well, the children can interact with it by dragging and dropping the answers from one place to another over the whiteboard, as they would be able to with a mouse or a mousepad on a computer, while playing a game. 

My daughter is also excited about the art lessons, as in her old school she had been used to just draw and paint pictures, which she found very boring. In Tenby she is currently working on a piece of artwork using different fabrics, materials and designs, which will be sown and pasted onto a cloth, and she can’t wait for her next art lesson to finish her artwork.

Also the PE lesson was exciting for my daughter, as she is learning to play basketball properly and was taught the rules of the game, special techniques and the skills required to play basketball well. 

On Friday the school’s Principal invited all the students to participate in a competition to design the logos for the 4 different houses, and the winning entries will be printed on the PE shirts in future. The students were told that they were allowed to submit designs for all 4 houses and not only their own house. They have 2 weeks to submit their ideas.

Every day the students have a break for half an hour and lunch for one hour and they are encouraged to try and finish their classwork during the breaks, so they don’t have to spent time after school finishing their homework. They are allowed to go to the library during the break or lunch, where it is quiet, to finish their work, and my daughter explained to me that it’s easy to concentrate on doing her work in the library, because it is so quiet. They are not allowed to speak in the library and the librarian will ask them to keep quiet, if they make noise, which I remember the librarians did in my school many years ago, and is therefore a welcoming concept, as it teaches the students to pay respect for the establishment and learn to study quietly, which are good virtues and skills.

My daughter also told me enthusiastically about the student council. One girl and one boy from each class had been selected by the students during a vote and they were now representatives of the whole class. This means that every student in the class can make suggestions and present ideas that the student councillors will bring to their school council meetings for discussions and report back to their class what had been discussed and decided at the meetings. 

After only one week in Tenby, my daughter has made many new friends who are very nice to her and she likes all her new teachers, who are very friendly and understanding and she is looking forward very much to start her second week.