Today was all about Dani’s first day in his new school.

On Parade

Dani was up early and dressed himself quickly in his new school uniform. Proud of how he looked, he was ship-shape and on parade long before we had to leave the apartment. That school designed ruck-sack? Hmmm… Bit on the big side?.

I think those hats are great but he won’t be needing that just yet. The mornings have been cloudy and the sun only seems to break through about midday. Still, it makes for a great photo and is officially part of the uniform.

Meeting his “buddies”

Only a 7 minute walk from our temp accommodation we easily got there on time. We were immediately met by the face of the emails we had received – Stephanie. She then told us to wait a while as a couple of “buddies” would be down shortly to meet Dani. This is how they integrate all new starters. A good idea I am sure you will agree.

Soon enough they turned up. A kid called Liam (sorry I forget his surname, maybe Greek sounding? I will find out and report later) and another called Winston Wang. Yes, he looks Chinese. So I guess he must be.

Big Bag Theory

Judging by Dani’s own level of geekiness and some of the other kids I saw, they could start a new club. They could call it the Big Bag Theory named after their school ruck-sack sizes and those nerds on TV.

We met his new teacher, Miss Brookhouse. Although I am sure she would have been there for a couple of days prepping, this was her first proper day at the school also. An interesting mix of subjects and options they have too. During the day we looked over his timetable on the school’s website. Quite impressive. It looks more like a secondary school list of classes. This could lead to some interesting conversations with our son – should he decide to tell us anything about his school day…

Never to old to learn new things…

So, what has Dani’s old dad learnt from this new school start?
Here is a list:

• ‘Invasion style games’ – Space invaders more like!? This actually means sports like rugby and Aussie rule football. Hands up, I have never heard of that one.
• ‘Morning enrichment’ – Yes there is such a thing in schools these days. Amazing eh? It turns out that these are early morning activities for kids whose parents have to dump them off an hour before official start time. Then they can commute with the crowds and get totally stressed out for the rest of the day. Ahhh… So glad to be out of that rat race! (at least for now).
  Among the morning enrichment options is Tap Dancing. Great for a budding Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers. But I would have thought tap fitting would have been a much better option. Why don’t they teach really useful, practical skills in schools?

• HSIE: Which stands for… Wait for it…. Human Society and Its Environment – Oh ohh!… ‘Greta’ type stuff by the sounds of it. Fortunately for Dani he gets the ‘alternative Greta’ side of the coin from his wise old dad.
• PDHPE – Personal Development, Health and Physical Education. Yeah; me neither. Not to worry – or ‘no worries’ as they say in these parts.

That HSIE and PDHPE stuff sounds more like corporate shit than primary school lessons eh? It really was so much simpler in my day…

And ‘morning enrichment’? Feck me! When I was that age we were all thrown into the same classes and whatever that involved. And get on with it! Actually, it would have been just the 3-Rs and little else at that age.

New Kid on the Block…

Last night before going to bed Dani arranged one of his Star Wars Lego figures on the chess board. Here it is. I call this work of art ‘The New Kid on the Block’:

I wonder how much of this was subconsciously how he thought this day might go?…