A really exciting (and challenging) first week for all of us!

A great feeling that most things have gone according to plan; however, there is an old Irish saying, “what can go wrong will go wrong” and sometimes it can be true!

First of all, thank you for all your positive comments and the messages of support and encouragement, you are a very special group of parents. We were really touched by the overwhelming enthusiasm for the new school, we knew it is an impressive site, but we could only hope you would agree: and you did!

Some things we were really pleased about:

-A traffic system that really works and a huge car park for parents and drivers. (Quite a relief after asking you to park in the fields in Haraniya and drive through villages!) We think we can improve the parking system by creating a non-parking drop zone.

-The steady way students came in: quickly and smoothly. Although half of them are still lost (!) they really like the new school and the huge spaces.

-The really positive way our staff got out there and helped, talking to and guiding students, keeping an eye on them and supporting parents by answering all sorts of small, but important questions.

Some things that could have been better

-Air-conditioning. The contractors were testing and turning on day-by-day according to the schedule of students entering the school. Perhaps understandably not everything was perfect although today everything is working.

-Water going off when it shouldn’t. The contractors responded quickly and have now sorted everything, but no water in one of the schools for a while was a pain.

-Sports facilities not all accessible yet. The big tents outside the British school opposite Admin is the playground / climbing area for youngsters. Half is rubberized and the other half will be sand. Currently the foundations to hold the shades are being completed. We’ll see how it goes but at least half should be usable next week. Similarly, real grass, artificial grass and acrylic areas will also be opened. Lots of space.

-Shaded areas. As the weather gets cooler it’s not an issue, however, these big playgrounds were supposed to have lots of mature trees which, for various reasons, didn’t happen. We’re in discussion and planning with suppliers, but we’ll probably get in more big umbrellas for now until permanent solutions can be finished.

Some things you were concerned about:

-Dust blowing off the desert. Obviously not something that we can control but we have been on site since June and honestly, we haven’t had a day when we were really bothered or overwhelmed. There is some excavation on the hill above us but nearly finished and as we are in the desert the site is obviously dusty but it isn’t intense or dangerous. If you are still worried, talk to New Giza, they have done lots of studies and research.

-Workers on the site. There are still some workers on site in the Sports Hall and Performing Arts building which are still under construction. We should receive these buildings in a few months. These areas are fenced and have their own external access, however, we’ll talk to New Giza about a closed fence. There have been air-conditioning technicians and data people working in areas where there were no children (e.g. before Elementary and Primaries came in) and they have been allowed in with our permission. Now, and next week, no external workers are allowed.

Does this mean that the school is not finished or not safe? Not at all, but setting up many of these things is a last minute job and other things go wrong in new buildings and have to be fixed.

-Bathrooms not as clean as they should be. We agree: the bathrooms are clean and hygienic but they don’t look it because the amount of building materials and paint that has been spilt on the ceramics is proving to be a major challenge to remove. We’ll keep working on it steadily.

-Will the school keep us up-to-date and well informed in the future? Yes, we will! The last year has been a difficult and generally awful time for us and we never willingly wanted to hold back information from parents. Those times are over and now it’s a new beginning!

 

Soumaya Amr, Colin Rogers & Karim Rogers.