Rockstar Brings Us On A Tour Of His School

The Year Ones in Rockstar’s school conduct a tour for their parents all by themselves as part of their learning journey to illustrate their confidence and independence, finding their way about their new school. Recently, it was Rockstar’s turn to show us around…

Raring to go – That’s him showing us into his classroom.

Then hauling his bag out after unpacking standard issue lunch bag, water bottle, library book bag… There’s a no hat no play policy too, probably really effective making them remember to bring their sunhats!

Stowing it into his locker…

And showing where they stow the school readers (reading “homework” books changed about 3 times a week, not to be confused with library books) each day…

Rockstar waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs, to show us around… Periodically we’re passed by lotsa “Upper Class Men” (a.k.a older kids) busily on their way, who don’t give us a second glance…

JD’s human friends (yes I know this is a weird sentence – we call ’em that because walking the dog we occasionally meet these ex-teachers from Aussie IS who are in serious need of a dog fix and will play fetch with JD for more than an hour while I sit and vegetate) have told me you have a bit more idea what the school is really like when you listen to the background noise as you wander about… I recall the decibel level in some of my mum’s community schools (high school some more, not primary) was deafening. My mum’s been retired a decade, I think her hearing still ain’t that great 😀

Anyway what we hear, passing kids along the stairs and such in Rockstar’s new school, is the busy stomping of half-grown feet as they troop up and down stairs on their way to where they have to be. A couple “Hi’s!” to each other but no rowdiness…

“Does it count if we find the door, or do we have to find the actual person?”

We uh, settled for the doors/rooms, cos we figured Rockstar was supposed to show us where he should be at PE and what-not, didn’t think kids were supposed to go hunting down staff members everywhere…

The anti-sharksfin sign caught my eye, it’s done by a Year 4 child, I think I read on the board…

Guess where we’re going (btw I think the Putonghua department must’ve been quite meticulous labeling things in Chinese)…

Yes the library! Rockstar probably spent the most time here, we were the last to leave…

It’s a pretty big library, and the kids are explaining to their parents which labelled books they are allowed to take out, Rockstar discovered a Mr Men stash (not the original series mind you, the additional stories including limited edition ones for charity, written by Adam Hargreaves, son of Roger Hargreaves the original Mr Men and Little Miss creator…)

“The people who write the ABCs are called authors and the people who draw the pictures are illustrators. Even I couldn’t even answer that question, <Classmate> told me that….”

(“Even I.” My son already thinks he knows everything!)

And it overlooks the Hong Kong University’s Stanley Ho Sports Complex (which yes our kids get to enjoy, including the swimming pool – yay)…

This blur is my son dancing around (quietly!) in the computer lab. He has mentioned coming to play the online Math and English games several times, and shows us which pc he usually sits at… I was little worried because my MacBook Air uses a touch pad but he says the mouse is fine…

Rockstar’s classmate slips into the seat next to his and deftly hits Ctrl+Alt+Delete, unlocking the screen. Something else Rockstar definitely didn’t pick up from using my MacBook… We exchange grins as her dad calls up her user ID and password stored on his iPhone. (And then I recall reading that the PE department is on Twitter!! Boy, things have changed since we went to school…)

Rockstar hearts “secret garden” hopscotch…

And then back to class, where the kids show their parents their school work, writing, orientation diagrams with cut and paste pictures… The decibel level is…. significantly contributed to by excited parents 😀

And a final favorite water color.

The end.