First day at school

Back in December 2009 Karina and I went on a pre-visit to look for suitable schools and to find a good place to live, during our two year assigment in Bangelore. We went to see 3 different schools. One, The International School of Bangalore (TISB), was in our opinion a bit strict and seemed quite far away from the Danish way of going to school. A second one, Inventure, was following the Indian shool year and hence was not an ideal match for our yearly wheel. Also, it promoted a bit more Indian style, which could have been a very interesting learning for Naja and Laura, if they had been a bit older. But as they are both just starting school, we were practically adviced that they were too young to really get to much of of that. Ultimately, we ended up choosing a school called Indus International School. The most compelling factor to this school was their approach to the parent and student involvement in learning/teaching. That made us comfortable that we could participate in the integration to a very new and challenging world for Naja and Laura.

Another reason for choosing Indus was the magnificent campus.

Campus
As can be seen in the picture, the school architects have for sure had some inspiration from other famous buildings on the globe. The students are placed in blocks, like Primary, Secondary and Boarding each having their own separate building. There are many ourdoor activities like horse back riding, swimmming and all sports imagenable. For breakfast and lunch, all students gather at the large central dining hall. There is even an amphibie theater on campus.



Naja and Laura packed up for their first day!
It is the primary block to the right, where both Naja and Laura will be going for the next couple of years.



Grade 1 - Naja
Naja is starting in Grade 1 (1C). Compared to the Danish school system that is probably between "0. klasse" or "1. klasse". She has been very lucky to get into a class where there is another Danish girl Cathrine, whith whom she can play and ask for help. Obviously it is a MAJOR challenge for her that she doesn't speak the English language yet. She had some lessons back home in Denmark and now attends extended English classes to accellerate her skills. There are 26 pupils in her class. There is one main teacher, Ms Diviya and one secondary teacher as well as a class aid, that takes care of all practical needs. Besides the English and Math, there are a number of activities during the week. Indian traditional dance, athletics, swimming are some of the examples that Naja seem to fancy the most.



Prep 1 - Laura
Laura is starting in Prep 1 (Prep 1A). Her class is having pupils with the age of 3-5 years and Prep 2 will have pupils the age of 4-6. Laura is quite young for her class and hence she needs some adjusting to settle in. Some of her fellow students already knows the alphabet as an example, something Laura would probably only start learning in a years time, had she still been in "boernehaven" at home in Denmark. Besides the more academic related activities the class very much resembles the danish "boernehave". There is a lot of playing activities, drawing, dancing, singing. Also, there is monkeynastics, swimming and other outdoor activities. In the afternoon there is even room for a small nap;-)