Skool open day

Last Sunday was another open day at Sunami primary school. Or not really an open day, but a “come along and view a normal class” day. These are held a couple of times each term including on a Sunday every now and then, presumably to give all the overworked fathers a chance to come along too. So Sunday was a normal school day for Felix, the poor little blighter, although he got the following Monday off which was in fact way cooler.

The class we were instructed to view was science, which I was quite excited about since it’s usually more interesting than the good old chalk-n-talk approach of other subjects like maths and Japanese. And I was amazed to find that the teacher had all the Year 4 kids working with bunsen burners heating up bits of metal as part of an experiment to see if metal expands when it gets red hot. Even more amazingly, the kids did what they were told and nobody got burnt. For the record, metal does seem to expand when it gets hot.

That’s real flame in there!

The idea was to heat up the little ball over the flame and then see if it fits through the metal rings — those are the ones being modelled by responsible young Felix while the teacher looks on unimpressed in the background. (Actually he’s a great teacher and Felix loves science classes.)

Then after lunch there was another one of those friendly events involving the parents. This time it was a dodgeball game for which I had bravely volunteered Eleni’s services. As with the Mihara Games, it involved several practice sessions beforehand, although these seemed to be more for the fun of it than a genuine attempt to develop playing skills.

The dodgeball championships were held in the gymnasium and all the kids were up on the stage cheering on their parents. Eleni put in an excellent effort — Ruby and I agreed that we’ve never seen her move so fast, except maybe when she encounters a cockroach in the kitchen — and the Year 4 parents ended up in second place, winning all their games at the group stage but losing out in the Grand Final to Year 5.

Although initially I was less than enthusiastic about these events I’ve come around to the realisation that they really do a good job of bringing people together. To this end, I’ve volunteered Eleni for the parents vs kids beach volleyball championships in December on behalf of Ruby’s junior high school. This one sounds a bit more serious with practice sessions on Monday and Friday evenings so by the time December comes around I’m confident she will be fully integrated into the local community.