Schools

The girls have finally started school after much ado. Even though we had passports and immigration papers both schools required birth certificates which had to be sent from UK and Gianna needed 5 years of school records - what a nightmare! There was a mountain of paperwork and IDs required by both schools. I hadn't kept the school records and relied on the mums at Stillness to help me in getting duplicates - Thanks Girls!(Will treat u to a bucket of wine when I am back!) After tr eking the length and breadth of Manila and Cainta we settled on Colegio San Augustine http://www.colegiosanagustin.edu.ph/ for Gianna. Our friend Mel went there (some years ago) and mentioned they have a class in each year for non Tagalog speaking children. Its in Dasmarinas Village which is very safe and clean and has good facilities including PC suite, large playing fields, theatre and swimming pool. During our search we visited a number of international schools including Reedley ,Brent, Faith, and the British School. The latter 3 cost between 5k and 7k per year and Reedley although cheaper had no gym or play area and was just grim! CSA however is under 1K, much more affordable and easy to get to, on the train. If she went to the British School it would be half of all the money we brought with us and would involve a very long drive each day. We explained to Gianna we could have a nice house and lots of holidays if she went to CSA or we could be really poor and she could go to British School. ( no pressure there then!)

CSA is VERY catholic and VERY strict and VERY big (5000 pupils). All of which is a culture shock for Gianna. Her class however has 14 different nationalities with quite a few of kids coming from overseas - one of the Indian girls was even in UK for a while. Her current clique includes girls from India, Korea, Philippines and Malaysia - I'm hoping we might get invited over to meet the parents and have dinner! All the kids are wealthy and a lot associated with embassies etc. The parking scrum in the morning is a sight to behold - literally 100s of SUVs fighting their way into the school grounds. Rather ironic as the school is quite big on the environment. Gianna leaves the house at 6 and gets the train to the Village gate where she is picked up by a school bus for the short trip to the school. In theory it only takes 30 mins from our house to village gate but the stations can be so busy in the mornings it can take a while to get in. She starts at 7.25 except when theres Flag ceremony which is 7am. Getting up at 5.15 has its challenges but is quite the norm around here. I am in work between 7 and 7.30 and finish by 4/4.30 so theres time for play and homework before bed. Angelica on the other hand lazes around in bed until around 8am as she doesn't start nursery until 10.30. She goes to a local private nursery which costs around 40 quid a month ttp://goodstart.edu.ph/about/11/Facilities for a couple of hours each day. She seems to love it. They teach them writing and numbers from the start and she has to be able to write her name before going to the next class at 3.5! Even she will have a uniform!

I think the academic programme at CSA will challenge Gianna, they really focus on results and test them every month- we fought to get her into year 4 (year 5 uk) even though she was not 9 when school started. Some of the girls are already 10 as the school year starts 3 months early here. I was worried about her slotting back into the UK system if she repeated a year here although parents that have kids in both CSA and the British school say that CSA kids do very well academically and are frequently placed higher in schools overseas. I think u would have a real problem at CSA if u fall behind or need extra help - its old school approach to teaching - I also wonder about play and social interaction ????? as focus is so much on the academic - we'll just have to wait and see how Gianna gets on.

Theres a lot of praying and religious instruction each day - she has even started humming hymns at home! She told the teachers she was 25% catholic (I think she got mixed up with her Italian blood) the school must have been relieved when she added she was 100% christian!!!!??One of the teachers commented on her long name - "oh that's because mum and dad arn't married" she told them causing much confusion amongst the kids, One asked - "how did your mum and dad have u if they aren't married" Ah bless - not quite sure what other gems she is sharing with her class today! The good thing about the school location, is that lots of ex-pats live in that village, including her best friend Amy who lives 5 min walk away from school. Gianna is able to go and play after school and we can pick Amy up to come back here - a useful way to promote the school to Gianna when she complains about how strict it is. Today she goes to her school club - shes told them shes good at singing/dancing and swimming so waiting to see what she if offered. Theres a whole raft of religious clubs - lets hope she's not catapulted into one of those or we'll be forced into first holy communion next - once she realises u get to dress up and have a party there'll be no stopping her!

Tonight she announced they have a slot each week where the boys get to learn how to cook and the girls how to clean etc. apparently theres a "classroom" with kitchen, toilet bed etc for them to practice on......as all the kids will have maids one can only assume they are being given instruction how to tell someone else to clean the house! I have to say theres a lot I still remember from my girl guides days - how to cut cabbage, how to sew button on....i'm all for practical skills learning. In the virtual world our kids live in they probably think u cut and paste a button on when it falls off!

Shes got in the theatre club - hopefully she'll get spotted by some of the TV people that send their kids to the school and earn us some money! The picture is taken at 6am outside our house.That bag contains her pencil case! - she now has an industrial size pull along for all her books - somewhat ironic that in such a poor country they make kids have all the books and in the UK schools all u get in class is photocopied worksheets downloaded from the internet! Did bring back memories though of backing books - bet you remember that!

The strangest new assessory she has to have is a "grooming kit". They have to take powder, cologne, handwash and cream and a hankercheif and groom thensleves whenever they leave the classroom. Philipinos are very particular about their personal appearance and body odour of any kind is a real no no. Sometimes the gardeners are better dressed than the ex-pats wandering around in ripped jeans/t-shirts etc :)