We started off day one exactly opposite to our dawn-rising intentions: with C arriving after every other child in his class was already there and the first period was well underway.
Bangkok traffic jams are legendary, but little did I expect everyone’s predictions that first-day-of-school traffic was going to be “pure bedlam” to materialize into an entire soi (street) at a standstill from end to end. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense given that most of the families of the 1,550 students at our new school, NIST, came to campus, many traveling in their own vehicles.
At 7am, this meant non-functioning school shuttles, with the only real progress being made by the intrepid motorcycle-taxi-riding few, and the even fewer pedestrians. Yes, traffic certainly exceeded expectations.
“I *love* wearing a uniform!”
While the school’s almost 10-acre campus is smaller than its two main rivals, we had enough trouble trying to navigate our way to the right building — one can only be thankful we didn’t choose the school with the 37-acre campus or I would still be out there navigating by the stars!
Once in the right building, we lost time wandering around the right floor looking for his grade. In our defense, this is somewhat understandable considering the square footage for Years 4 and 5 alone (IB parlance for third and fourth grades), is roughly equivalent to the intimate proportions of our entire former school! (MCS friends — trying to find the Mezz did not prepare me well for this level of school orienteering ;0)
Leaving Calvin to integrate into the classroom, I beat myself up on not realizing the ideal start to the year, and we headed to a briefing on music, sports and after-school activities.
To say that the options and quality exceeded expectations would be an understatement. (Warning: potentially obnoxious school facts follow.) Honestly, I remain overwhelmed at this:
- The Falcon’s Fencing Club is run by a former Olympic fencing medallist
- The development soccer/football programme is run in partnership with Chelsea Football Club, with two of their coaches here full time and various other staff rotating through…and the kids play on a FIFA-certified pitch.
- The basketball programme is run by a former NBA player with the LA Lakers.
- The instrumental music teachers are all professional musicians, and the music facilities are what you’d expect at a conservatory.
We all had a bounce on the new embedded trampolines in the elementary school playground.
I’d be the first to note that the most important success factors in making a school a place for an amazing learning journey have very little to do with fancy facilities and everything to do with the quality of the teachers and the way they relate to their students individually. But wow!
The pudding has some time to go before proofing, but Calvin’s assessment of the first day of school was, “Great!”
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