School Opening Soon

Another week to go before the boys were to school. Since last weekend, Anita had been busy getting their stuff ready. That meant many trips to the shops, dragging them grumpy boys. As for Idlan, most of his stuffs were from last year, needing some cleaning. Irfan on the other hand would be entering a new school. Plenty of things we needed to get for him.

The new iPadGrumpy boys waiting for their Uber ride ...Irfan also needed a new iPad for school, and we bought that last week as well.

We were getting them to go to bed early from this week, trying to get them to rise early. We had failed so far! Another week to go before the morning dramas continue ...

Mixed Feelings

Idlan joined SSU - Sekolah Sri Utama - back in 2008 in kindergarten. He spent 3 years in pre-school before starting primary school, finishing off with his UPSR last year. He left a couple of weeks after the exam to join the school he is at now.

Irfan also joined as a 4-year-old back in 2010 and will be leaving in September. It looked like we would be completing our 9 year association with the school soon and I was there today to pay for Irfan’s term fees, which would eventually be the last for him. With that fee paid, it meant that this may be the last bit of business I would be doing with the school except for collecting the school bond when Irfan leaves later.

Over the years, it was clear that the school was heading for a decline. They were actually lucky as there were a number of schools nearby that had completely closed over the years. SSU was still surviving, but I fear for their future. The quality of the teachers had deteriorated. They had a number of headmasters recently, with one only just recently resigned. Most of the teachers were local - the last headmaster was Caucasian. With a PhD. I didn’t think that he was a perfect fit from day one.

One of my main gripe was the fact that the school do not have a Parents-Teachers Association. Dissemination of informations had been weak over the years, much to my frustration. And there were no avenue for us to voice our concerns. I did write a letter to the then headmaster when Idlan left, and he did reply back. From the tone of his email, I could sense that he was just as frustrated with the arrangement at the school.

The school Idlan - and later Irfan - would be moving to was way different to Sri Utama. They put a lot of emphasis on parents’ participation, their activities were great and Idlan had definitely moved on from. He was miserable in the last couple of years at Sri Utama. We told the teachers about that but unfortunately they weren’t at all interested.

I still have a soft spot for Sri Utama. It was convenient when we were living in Gombak before. Time has changed and the school had certainly been left behind .... We were still in contact with some of the teachers from yesteryears. They still remembered the two boys, and how they had grown over the years .... I still had the photo of Idlan’s first day at Sri Utama in 2008 framed on the wall at the house in Gombak.

Let's Get the Jab Done

Idlan was due for his jab and as usual, he would throw a drama if Anita came along. This was a job for Daddy!

So, off we went to the hospital next door. It took me almost 15 minutes in the Doctor’s surgery to finally get the injection in. He was crying right after that and it took another 15 minutes for him to calm down.

Then obviously he asked for some Lego as I promised him the day before ...

He seemed to have recovered ...At least we managed to get the injections out of the way. So far, he had been OK. No fever or body ache. It would be Irfan’s turn next year ....

A Long Morning

The day finally arrived when Irfan had to sit for the interview for the new school. That started off with some essays and aptitude test. After a short break, it was an interview with one of the teachers. Irfan said that it was easy .... Well, we shall see.

He is not due to change school until next September by the way. For the interview, he had to wake up early and follow us along to the school with Idlan on tow. We stayed at the office with Irfan after Idlan started his class, waiting for his name to be called. He looked rather nervous then. In fact, he slept in our room the night before.

While waiting for Irfan to be calledThe school sure had a long history ...Quick breakfast while Irfan was insideWhile he was doing his essay, we went for breakfast wondering what he was going through. It was all done by 11, when I had to make my move back to Subang. He looked quite confident after and enjoyed the rest of the day off at home.

When asked what the exam was about, he said that he was upset that he didn’t know trigonometry. He had not learned it yet in school. Otherwise, the interview was straightforward and he could do the essays. He was looking forward to change school, so hopefully things would fall in place ....

Morning at Seri Kembangan

I decided to start my rounds late as I didn't have clinic that morning. It was part of the plan to drive Idlan to school - and later plus Irfan - at least once a week.

After dropping him off, we went for a spot of breakfast before driving to Subang - Anita had a physio session scheduled that morning. Traffic was rather heavy on the way back but I still managed to be in the ward before 9. Hopefully the traffic would be similar in the future, because otherwise it might impact my ward schedule.

At the moment, I would continue to plan around my work as I felt better seeing off Idlan to school. Helpfully it would help him in the long run ...