School!!!

These holidays include school and work. Many people think this is a crazy proposition and that we are robbing the kids of their summer and their holidays. It is true that it is a bit of an effort but, a bit like in the case of the sequoia trees, it's an effort which should ultimately yield satisfactions and an unforgettable experience. This is what we've told the kids to persuade them to go along with the flow and follow our advise, suspend disbelief and trust that it will all be good ultimately, and not too much of a drag. There's always the option of years of therapy to repair the damage ... 

Olly outside his school

In any case, the Monday after we arrived in Davis we set off on three bikes to take Olly to school. He was initially going to go to a school near Anabel's but there was no room there, so we were directed to Birch Lane Elementary School, a Montessori school. We had contacted them ahead of time and sent some of the paperwork needed so, when we got there, they were expecting us. The office assistant called Mr. Monticello, who is Olly's teacher for the next three months, and he came to get us from the office. We walked to the classroom and chatted about the storm of the weekend and how he felt it particularly seeing as he lives on a boat! When we got to the classroom he told us that he has been teaching in that classroom for 20 years, as that is where he did his teaching practice. We were the first to arrive as it was a little early, so there were no kids. The classroom is well-resourced (e.g. modern furniture, projector, book corner, reading armchairs, etc., etc.). Olly was assigned a desk next to Andy, a boy we later learnt is from El Salvador. And that was that. He stayed and we left. We went back to the office briefly to leave the money for the week's lunches. They all seemed very friendly and very used to the idea of kids coming and going. 

Anabel had Monday off because it was High School Teacher's Day (a fact that made Olly very jealous and us very happy as we could accompany them both on their first day). So, on Tuesday, we were off to Davis Senior High School. This is a much larger establishment which caters for over 1500 students in years 10, 11 & 12 (all at the same time and not in shifts as her school is at home) is much more college-style (e.g. teachers stay in their classrooms and students move around to different classroom, students do not join a group or class but rather have a schedule of classes to attend). 

Anabel outside DSHS

The first step was getting through the administrative hurdles. Although we had also written ahead of time, there were some things to iron out still. One was Proof of Residence. I had sent our rental contract and explained that we would not have utilities in our name as it was all taken care of by the university. This did not suffice, so I had obtained, also ahead of time, a letter from the head of the Department of Linguistics explaining the matter. At first this did not seem sufficient but then it was. The second hurdle was vaccines. In the case of Oliver's school we had been asked to complete a form back home and have it signed by his pediatrician. I had asked on email if we had to do something similar in Anabel's case and they replied that they knew nothing of what happened in elementary schools and that we should bring her vaccination records with us when we arrived. This we did but, of course, it is all in Spanish. This meant that they gave us a form to take the booklet to a medical centre to have it checked and certified as they thought she might be missing a vaccine or two. This obviously pleased Anabel greatly, as there loomed in the horizon the prospect on needles! We left the school and we went off to the medical centre, some 2 miles away. There they gave us an appointment for Friday (not before filling out an interesting questionnaire)
and a slip of paper with which we returned to the school.

Play close attention to the detail of the identity questions

With this, she was able to have her first meeting with her tutor (a kind lady called Cristina) who arranged her timetable according to her interests and prior experience (including dance, History, Biology, French and English classes and no Maths!). She then stayed to have the introductory tour of the school (a massive place), which was lead by one of the Teaching assistants, and get her books to start classes the following day.

Anabel's books

Here are some pages from her French book. For those of you interested in teaching methodology, I would suggest you abstain yourselves from too careful an analysis!