Happy Holidays!

It’s time for a break, isn’t it? This has been a long semester, and we now have almost half the year behind us (19 school weeks finished, 20 to go). But right now, we all have two whole weeks of sleeping in, and I for one intend to take full advantage!

January is a busy month for me because it’s when most of the expat teacher recruitment takes place, so I won’t be around much. I’ll be in school on January 2nd, then again on the 15th and 16th, and then I’m back here full time from January 24th.

​But the next two weeks will give us a chance to take a break from school, which I think is important. Although “being at school” takes up only 15% of a student’s year, it’s a very hectic/busy/frantic 15%, and as such it can be tiring. It is for teachers too. So it’s time for a break.

Time to focus on the glue that holds together the other 85% of the year – the family. I hope families are able to be together at this time, with no business trips to get in the way of the “together” time. I am acutely aware of how very quickly our children grow up (my “little boy” turned 32 yesterday), and how much we must cherish the time we spend with them.

And if you celebrate Christmas, I hope it’s a great one. When you have small children, Christmas takes on a whole new meaning as you view it through their eyes. I can still remember listening in to a conversation my little boy (when he really was little) had with his friend Douglas. Douglas was explaining his intention to leave some milk and cookies out for Santa, which gave my son an opportunity to display his superior knowledge of the subject. He turned to Douglas with a look of scorn, and said
“That’s no good – Santa’s a beer drinker”
(Children have the ability to force us to see ourselves as the rest of the world sees us!)

I still have not written my letter to Santa, but one of the Nursery classes has offered to help me with this so I should be in good hands. There’s really nothing material that Santa can bring me (I have everything), so perhaps I’ll just ask for a world in which we all get along.
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Yesterday a little girl (JKG I think), took my hand in hers, and ran her fingers over all the veins and wrinkles of the back of my hand that come with age. She then looked up into my eyes with an expression of concern and asked “What happened?”
Honey, I wish I knew!
Happy holidays!


Neil McWilliam
Head of School - OGC Campus