Three terms, the holiday weeks, and an honest list of what the school does not have enough of this year.
Term dates for the year are on the card that went home with every child and on the board at the gate.
First term runs from the second week of January to the last week of March, with a week off in the middle of February. Second term from the middle of April to the end of June. Third term from the middle of August to the first week of November. Examination weeks are the last two of each term for grades four to six, and grades one to three have no examinations at all.
The uniform. Shirt, trousers or pinafore, black shoes, white socks, and a sports shirt for Tuesdays. There is no tie in this school and no badge, because a badge on ninety four shirts costs more than it is worth. The pinafores are made by a tailor on Magu Dhekunu and the shirts come in on the Monday boat from Male, and the association keeps a shelf of outgrown uniform in good condition that anybody may take from without asking anybody.
The two things we are short of. First, books in Dhivehi for children of nine to twelve. The reading corner has nine hundred books and about two hundred in Dhivehi, nearly all of them for younger children. If anybody knows where to get them, tell the principal at the gate.
Second, shoes. Not uniform shoes, which families manage, but closed shoes for the garden and for football in the wet season. The yard floods at the eastern end and children playing in sandals get cuts from the coral in the sand. If your child has outgrown a pair, leave them on the association shelf rather than keeping them.
One reminder about the preschool room. Children come with a water bottle, a hat and a change of clothes, and all three go home wet. That is the room working properly and not a sign that anybody has been careless.
Finally, the school is open to any family who wants to look round, any morning, without arranging anything. There is no open day here and there is no need for one.
