Back in May 2020 the girls started at a new school, Queenstown Primary School (QPS). They showed up those first days excited, brave and ready to be with peers in a new learning environment!
Fast forward to February 2021 and they're kicking off their second school year at QPS! Definitely an unexpected turn of events, given we arrived to New Zealand back in early March 2019, intending to only visit for three weeks!
We returned from our six-week NZ Summer road trip on a Tuesday afternoon. The following morning, Wednesday 3rd February, the girls were back at school. They were enthusiastic about returning to school, excited to meet their new teachers and reconnect with friends. No whinging; just excitement and a healthy dose of nerves!
First day pics:
Paige 2021 Stats
Year 6 (closest equivalent to US 5th grade)
Room 22
Teacher: Mrs. Ferguson (who incidentally was the very first QPS staff member we met when touring the school in May 2019 and was the staff lead for international families like ours)
Term 1 after school activities: Street dance classes, Guitar lessons and Girls Cricket program
Sadie 2021 Stats
Year 4 (closest equivalent to US 3rd grade)
Room 14
Teacher: Ms. Hart
Term 1 after school activities: Tap dance classes, Rock climbing lessons and Art class (theme: Ocean)
Busy Bohagirls
The girls have impressively adjusted back into the school routine without a hitch. They've enjoyed reconnecting with established friends that they hadn't seen over the Summer, and are already establishing new friendships in their new classrooms. Our weekday afternoons are chockablock with activities, some continued from last year (Street & Tap dance classes) and others new for this year (rock climbing, art, guitar and cricket). It makes for a fair amount of driving around in the afternoons, which is a new dynamic for us (coming from our NYC life of being able to walk to all our after school activities), but it's all good. Important to get the girls exposed to new things/interests and continue to challenge them.
First Day of School Posters
Ever since the girls were little I've made a poster to commemorate the start of a new school year; to capture their school stats (grade, school, teacher, etc) and a few other random tidbits about their likes at that point in time (fave activities, fave foods). I've compiled them all into one photo album that you can see here. So fun to see them growing through the years and how their answers to the same questions evolve year-on-year!
Shout-Out to P&S
I want to applaud Paige & Sadie for all the courage, resilience, adaptability and spirit they've shown in their schooling experience the past ~20 months. Kids the world over have been through alot in that same time period.
For P&S it meant first adjusting to a school life that was different every day, in a different setting, in a different country, while we were on the move in our travels. It meant adjusting to having their parents as teachers (woah!). It meant adjusting to learning largely from behind a screen, using online curriculum. It meant adjusting to a 1:1 learning environment with us and losing the social aspect of peers as part of that educational experience.
It then meant enrolling in a totally new school, with a new rhythm, new routines, new layout, new teachers, new students and new approaches to learning. Thankfully all in their language, though! It meant diving into that new school in New Zealand without knowing if it was for three months or three years (and we still don't know!) and regardless, making the most of the experience. It then meant starting a second school year in NZ, with new teachers and a blend of some familiar faces and new ones, with promising new friendships on the horizon.
In every instance they've risen to the challenges and enjoyed their accomplishments. Here's to a great 2021 NZ school year!
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