I have completed my second week at school and they have been busy preparing for the Christmas presentation which is to be held on Saturday so each morning they have had an assembly mainly with the songs which they are going to sing on the day. I myself was asked for a contribution so I sang the See Saw creep through the door song which Abigail and Bradley have sung whilst at Westgarth very embarrassing however I had already taught it to the reception children with Aunty Alberta so they all joined in. It has proved to me this week how passionate the Gambians are for their music and dance as Aunty Alberta was really getting into the swing of things as she got the children to sing along to the Christmas songs. I would say that Tuesday was by far the best day so far as I managed to do some phonics and practise writing the letters with grade 1 children whilst Mr Jadama filled in the exam reports ready for the parents open day on Friday. I also saw the baton being held by a school girl who was running down Kariba Avenue towards the traffic lights as I was leaving school to go and pick up Bradley.

Zenith Christmas Presentation

On Wednesday it was Zeniths parent open day, Christmas presentation and party, we had been told to arrive at around 8.30am first dropping Bradley off at his class we went to see Abigail’s work and chat to the teacher. The teacher was pleased with her progress she just needs to talk a bit more as very quiet which is the norm for Abigail. We then went to see Bradley’s report which again was very good. Paul then left to go to college whilst I went back home to get their party clothes to wear after the presentations which were supposed to start at around 10.00am. After a lot of waiting the presentations finally started at around 11.30am surprise, surprise nothing is on time here, first up was the school choir then a group of children playing the recorder then Bradley’s class did some reciting of the alphabet and a couple of songs. Abigail’s class was next with a song and play Three Foreigners came from Timbuktu. After this there were poems and another play eventually the performance finished at around 2.00pm.

Abigail and Bradley quickly got changed and by now the music was blasting out with some children dancing along to it. We were then told that the children’s party food would be served and they had to go back to their class for a head count. Thirty minutes passed and eventually Abigail’s class were ushered upstairs to get their food. The younger children then had to do the same with me holding Bradley’s hand I was asked to wait by his teacher who took him and some others upstairs. Whilst I waited myself and another teacher stopped anymore from going upstairs as there was not enough room. During this time young children aged three and four were trying to come down the steps with a can and foil container of food in hand. The steps are very deep so it was an accident waiting to happen in the end I was picking them up and carrying them down with a couple of other teachers talk about bad planning.