Stories

In the valley, the schools have been back for four weeks now. We often reshuffle the classes at the start of the new school year, as the children learn at different speeds and sometimes miss parts of school during the year for a number of reasons. The new school year gives a good opportunity to try classes in different combinations, to make sure every child has the best ‘fit’ of level, teacher and classmates that they can. It can therefore take a while for everyone to get settled in! One teacher recently commented on that journey, ‘At the beginning, it was a little hard. The children have been in school before, but they have never been in one class together, so that was new for them. But now, everything is very good.’ The children were very excited to be back. In the first weeks, we talked a bit about their summer breaks, and what they had enjoyed. Lots talked about the summer bible camp – ‘Being here in school with you!’ – as their favourite part, and others talked about the school trips at the end of last year. They loved swimming. A few children had been to the sea with their families during the summer too or had visited relatives, and some had been to weddings. All of them were really happy to be back at school. When he was asked, Ahmad* from Grade 10 said, ‘The worst part about summer was that it was boring. The best part was coming back to school.’ The impact on the rest of the camp is remarkable, too. One mother told us, ‘In the summer, the children were crazy because there was nothing to do. I am very happy that they are back at school!’