English Alive is busy, busy, busy ! There is so much going on at the moment that it is hard to keep up !

On the great side, we had a wonderful parent’s information morning last week for the KG parents and will hold another this weekend for the grade school parents. This is the first time that we have held these meetings and are there to explain the basis of our classrooms – why we have toys / why pupils work in small groups instead of lines / why we teach pupils to read the phonetic way instead of reciting A  B   C   etc !

Through dividing the KG section so that each year group had an hour’s session, this meant that our information could be closely targeted and parents really gained a lot.

We are also busy with our environmental campaigns  - we are now a registered eco – school ( working towards bronze level ) and have integrated this as part of our competition entry into the international school enterprise challenge   where we are hoping to grow vegetables and sell them to parents –  don’t forget to like us on facebook for a chance for us to win the photograph section of the ongoing competition.  Facebook  (     http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.374764609267734.86091.113240922086772&type=1 
Please note the picture above...this is the picture you will want to "like" in the competition!

On the more frustrating side,  we still don’t have any authority textbooks – we are regulated to cover the topics ( in order ) – although we do it our own way through activities, discussion and experiments – however after 6 weeks of school there is still no sign of them !

However the most frustrating thing this month is the new regulation that all schools ( whether you make any money or not ) need to have a cash register ( at an astronomical price of approximately £ 200 !!! – money that could have bought much needed pencils, art supplies and football goalposts ! ) . All transactions need to be recorded on the machine and a daily report printed out to submit at the end of the year. In principle this is fine – HOWEVER – you are only allowed to go wrong twice a year  ( and the machine isn’t the type that you simply type in the amount – instead you type in a code ) and if ( when ) the power goes you have to phone them up and tell them so that you can give a written receipt.  A report needs to be made every week day ( whether the school is working or not ! ) meaning that if we go away then we need to get someone to go to school and print out a report stating that we made no transactions !

Still – patience is a virtue and living in Ethiopia is very good to develop this quality !