Open Evening

Last week the school had Open Evening where prospective pupils and their parents came into the school to see if it might be the right place for them.  At home, children go to the school where they live or pay to go to private schools.  Here, children typically choose to go to school nearby, but they do not have to.  I find that this makes the schools a little more competitive, but then again, competition is always good when it encourages you to excel.

For Open Evening, I invited a few of my kiddos in to help me present some of the things we had been learning about.  I wanted to have something that the kids could do without a whole lot of instructions as I didn't know how many questions parents may have and something that was enjoyable and engaging for my kids and for those walking around.  I believe it was a success as several prospective students stopped and played maths games, designed a book cover, played some vocabulary games and what-not.  I must brag that the pupils from my classes were spectacular!  They were well-behaved, polite and loved bragging about what a great school it was.  They were kind and welcoming as they played games with others, including some much younger siblings that were just along for the ride!

At the end of the evening, I gave them each a pencil with "Alabama" written on it (thanks to our state representative Paul DeMarco!) and a US penny.  Today, from one of these precious kiddos, I received a note, thanking me for the items and for asking her to Open Evening.  Yes, this sweet little girl thanked me for asking her to come to school for two hours at night and do school work!  It's kids like these that make my job easy!

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