The School Drama … how it ended up

Okay … so I believe I left off where I was swearing to the heavens that I would never, under any circumstances, send my child to that mind-numbing, brain-stifling place that someone wanted to call a “school”. That’s a good place to pick back up …

We kept up with the British schools pretty closely after we went back to the States and started getting ready for the move. We made sure to send them copies of all the documents they needed as we got a hold of them, we immediately gave them our address and Van’s phone number as soon as we had those, and we just knew that even though they couldn’t tell us at that moment whether or not there would be a place for the kids at either of the schools, we felt sure that we had gotten our applications in early enough and at least one of them would have a spot for us.

When Van came here in May to get all his documents and medical evaluations, he visited both of the schools and then I got his report … neither of them had open spots for this Fall. It looked like our only hope at that point for Connor to go to school this year was to go back and get him applied at that blasted American school.

I almost pulled the move right then and there (ha! Okay … so that’s a little dramatic … but this IS my drama, isn’t it?)

There were two nightmares I had about this whole thing. One was there being some “I” that wasn’t dotted properly that would either keep Pooka from being able to get on the plane in Houston or off the plane in Bahrain … and two was this school!

I immediately got online and sent emails to both of the British schools, telling them what date we would be arriving here and when could we set up an interview time for them to meet with the kids (this is a common occurrence at schools here). I never heard back from one of them (later, once we had gotten here, I called and they told me there was no purpose in having a meeting like that since there was no way possible there would be a place for them this year), the other one wanted to see the kids right away and we went in the first day we were here. They told us that they would contact us in a week or two.

In the meantime, I went to the mall to pick up the application to the American school. I wasn’t ready to put money down for the application fee quite yet, but I had the paper in my hand if we needed it.

Sure enough, two weeks later, the British School of Bahrain called to tell me that we had good news! Both of the kids had positive interviews and were both accepted into BSB. HOWEVER … at the moment, we were on the waiting list and there were no available spots for this Fall. I asked how far down the list we were and she said that she couldn’t really give out that information, but she could tell me that there were people on that list who had applied back in January for this same term. Lovely.

At that point, we already had the kids in a summer camp program at a British pre-school and they had openings for Kayleigh’s age, so we got her in there for the Fall … Budaiya Pre-School. I was okay with that, knowing that she would be starting with the proper curriculum and when a spot opened at BSB she would fit right in with no problem.

But, I was forced at that point to apply for Connor at my nightmare school. Of course, we knew we were in there. They had a huge new school building they needed to fill up and a lot of really high paid teachers that would be wanting a paycheck, so getting in to this school wouldn’t be an issue. They didn’t have people beating down their doors to get in.

So, we resigned ourselves to it. We got the school uniform … we arranged bussing for him since the school is roughly 20 minutes away (and maybe longer when school actually starts) and it begins at 8:00 am, which is the same time Kayleigh’s school begins on this end of the island, roughly 6 minutes from our house … and 11 days ago he went in for his interview with that school. At the interview I learned that the school isn’t finished being built yet, but was assured that classes would start as scheduled. It’s actually a wonder that they know the school isn’t finished, since no one at the school office knows how to GET to the school site. When we first applied, we asked how to get there, because we wanted to take a look and see where it was and what progress was being made. No one could tell us. What’s funny about that, too, is they have a big map on the wall showing the area but ONLY the area of the school and housing community … not where any of it is on the island or in relation to anything else. It isn’t even oriented properly … I think they have North pointing kind of down and to the right. They must also take pride in their “temporary map reading” as well.

You can imagine, Connor was accepted. We went down and got our photo badge for the parents, and filled out a medical history form and got the invoice (yeah, that would be that crazy amount I told you about yesterday … plus a BD50 book deposit … roughly $130). Van took the invoice to his office first thing last week and we began the wait for the check to be cut and then for school to start this Tuesday.

Van left to go supervise a bit run on a rig this past Thursday morning, and wasn't sure how long he'd be gone (he's still there, as a matter of fact). The check hadn’t been cut yet, but everything was worked out with a friend of ours who is also waiting on a check for that same school to pick it up from accounting for us and get it to me.

Thursday morning at about 11:00 I get an email that says the following:

“Dear Mr & Mrs Brackin

A space has become available in year 1 and it is therefore with great pleasure that we would like to offer Connor a place in Year 1 starting on the 2th September 2008 at 07h45.

Should you wish to accept the place, please respond by return email or call the admissions office.”

... from BSB.

I got in touch with Andy (our friend who would be helping get the school check to us) who happened to be in the office that day and who happened to be there with the guy who handles such things as school checks ... keep in mind, Thursday is their Saturday) and he sent me an email later to say that everything had been cancelled with that school and that it would be fine for me to submit the new BSB invoice on Monday. I went and got the BSB school packet today with all the things I need to finish filling out and I then took the invoice to Andy’s house so he can submit that tomorrow to the company. I exchanged the other school uniform for the BSB one and I found out what I need to do to cancel the bus service. We made the trial runs ... BSB is about 15 minutes from here and his class starts at 7:45 am ... then it is less than 10 minute from there to Kayleigh’s school which starts at 8:00. Perfect!

We are ready for the British School of Bahrain! And you will all be so excited when you receive Christmas cards from Connor this year using real, honest to goodness, PERMANENT spelling.

As a footnote ... there still wasn’t a spot for Kayleigh at BSB for this term, but we only paid Budaiya for one term at a time and with Connor being a student there now, she has just been moved up on the list. She will probably make it there for the 2nd term. However it works out ... and it DOES work out, there’s obviously no doubt about that ... we’re happy with her at Budaiya for now and if a spot doesn’t open up even until next year, she’s in a good place for now.