We have had a hectic week due to Alice’s school production. Sunday was the last rehearsal which they ran from 6-9pm (couldn’t see the point of that, just added a late night to their hectic week), followed by 4 actual shows. The production was written by a professional actor from Canada, partner of the schools art teacher. It was called Lil Bo and was about a girl who had been washed overboard in a storm, adopted by a hermit and at the age of 13 finds out the truth about her past and goes in search of her parents. She is accompanied by her best friend – a talking sheep! It was amusing and they did a good job of catering for humour across the age range. Not as good as the previous production 2 years ago though. Alice played the head of the government, a group of 3 who were in pursuit of Lil Bo and took off The Men in Black, dark suits, dark glasses and hopeless. I was very proud of her!!
Alice is in the front.
Alice in suit, mid stage.
At least she only had her hair in a bun heavily lacquered. Katherine had hers severely backcombed and sprayed, to stick out 6 inches from her head all round (she played an island native). It took Robyn ages and a huge amount of hair conditioner each evening to get it out and as a result Kath got to bed even later than Alice. We left Alice to sleep in a bit each morning and Eric took her to school which meant leaving at 8.30 rather than 7.45. By Thursday it was almost impossible to wake her so I let her sleep in on Friday and took her to school at 11am. I think almost all the other parents did the same thing. 2 trips into Matamata every evening was a bit of a pain but she enjoyed the experience so it was worth it.
On top of this Harriette was in a debating session at Dio, a school in Hamilton. One of her schools teachers heads the debating forum and Harriette was dragged into a showcase debate for the first session. I think the idea was, they would debate badly having had no experience before and only 3 days notice, against an older team from Dio who had been debating for 3 years. As it was, Hugo put on a very dramatic performance for Matamata College, swung all the boys and the vote was very close! The moot was ‘Women in history were braver than men’ Harriette, Hugo and Bridget on the negative or opposing team. I felt so sorry for them. The debate took place in an auditorium style lecture theatre and Harriette was terrified when she saw it. She performed admirably though and I was very proud of her. I was talking to some teachers from other schools afterwards and they were amazed that she had never debated before.
While I’m blowing the girls trumpets Harriette has had a good week generally. She was called out of class the other day to see a teacher who asked her if she wanted to join a Yr 13 class to study Shakespeare next term. (Yr 13 are 17 yr olds, Harriette’s 12!!!). Apparently Harriette had been complaining to her English teacher that they weren’t doing any Shakespeare. They must have had conversations in the staff room and Michelle Liddle said she had a class she thought Harriette would fit in to (Michelle is the teacher who leads the debating). She will have 4 sessions a week for 4 weeks next term. They have never done this before at College and need to think through whether to include her in the assessment process so she gets NCEA credits etc. She is looking forwarded to it and the school are confident she will keep up so I am really looking forward to seeing how she goes. If it doesn’t work out then so be it. This same teacher, Sue, also asked Harriette if she wanted to enter a national ‘Future Problem Solving’ scenario writing competition. A Yr 13 student from her school won the NZ finals this year and should be heading off to the States to compete internationally but I think has not been able raise the funds. This is the same competition that a team from Alice’s school have won the team problem solving bit of and are also off to the States for. Matamata obviously produces great problem solvers!!
Monday evening I have a meeting in Hamilton with school nurses, Tuesday Hamilton again for Harriette’s debating, Wednesday we watched the show and Thursday we just had the ferrying of Alice in and out for the productrion. Last night it was such a pleasure not to go anywhere, we just stayed in, read and played cards – peace!!!
Mom and Daddy return from Auz on Sunday, which is Mother’s Day here. We are going to drive up to Paerora, get the fire lit and cook supper for when they get home. It was Daddy’s birthday while they were away and I did not get his pressie to him before they left so will give him that tomorrow. Today we just have Saturday netball and some shopping. The netball season started last week. The first Saturday they play 6 or 7 short matches to work out the gradings. Either Harriette’s team did badly, or Alice’s did well (neither of which I would agree with) but for some reason they are playing each other today. Great for us as we only have to be on the side lines for one game. Poor Alice is in a ‘not very good’ team and I think she is probably the best player. Not much of a challenge for her. As it is her first year at a new school I don’t know most of the other girls in her team. Harriette has a nice bunch of girls in her team and a very ‘cool’ coach, a senior College student. For the first year I think neither H and A are playing in the same team as Sarah or Katherine. This is probably why the temperatures have taken a dive, we now have to spend Saturdays on the sidelines!!!!!
R+R came for a coffee yesterday afternoon. They flew to Auz this morning for their holiday now the cows have dried off (stopped milking prior to calving). Jill, Robyn’s sister, lives there with her family and they are going to stay with them, and have a few days on the Gold Coast (lots of theme parks, a bit like Disneyland I think). Jill will be celebrating her big 40. I thought they were going for a week but H and E tell me it is only for a week.
Must get up and brave the cold now. Brrrrrr!
No comments:
Post a Comment