Back to school

It's that time of year which parents, children and teachers either dread or can't wait for. Here in Cyprus we have to return to school without that first autumnal nip. Very kindly Elizabeth said that she'd been having too much fun at home to go back to school but I think 10 weeks is enough for anyone. Not that I've been relishing a return to the 6am starts and spending 3 hours a day driving on both the school and husband runs, but a more disciplined routine will be good.

The school day here starts at 7.55 so we leave the house at 7.15 as we're roughly half an hour away. Because of the heat in the middle of the day and of high summer (July and August) school finishes between 1.15 and 1.45. Consequently there isn't a full half term holiday during the third term as the academic year ends by the close of June (hence the 10 week holiday). However schools here do offer after school clubs, both for fun activities and for getting homework done, until 5pm.

Elizabeth is a student at the Red Dragon Private School. There are a number of English language schools in Cyprus which follow the UK national curriculum with the addition of Greek, which is compulsory. The school is very international in flavour with children with parents from Russia, Holland, Israel, South and North America as well as the UK and Cyprus itself.

So why Red Dragon? There were several possible schools in Limassol which I discovered by searching the Internet. I scrutinised their websites, made a few phone calls and also used the ex-pat forums to canvass opinion. This was very interesting with some quite strong, often polarised, opinions and loyalties revealing themselves. Once Foley's had eliminated itself by not having a vacancy the two front runners were Heritage and Red Dragon. I visited both in early February.

Funnily enough, the Red Dragon school occupies the buildings vacated by Heritage when it built itself fancy new premises in the hills near Palodia. Physically the contrast between the shabby Red Dragon and Heritage's palace couldn't have been more marked. It was difficult not to be slightly seduced by the latter but I kept coming back to a very strong feeling that there was something inherently right about the ethos and the experience being offered by Red Dragon. Also perhaps that the Heritage had once had that itself but was beginning, in its new location, increasing numbers and class sizes, to lose the common touch amidst a well oiled machine.

Elizabeth started her new school just before the Easter break and only three days after we landed in Cyprus. It was certainly a shock to the system with three pieces of homework given a day and ten words to learn for a spelling test on Fridays. Elizabeth had only begun school in England in January, being "spring born", and was only just being introduced to basic phonics, so she had a lot of catching up to do. But she worked really hard and had a very satisfying school report and I was assured by her excellent class teacher that she had caught up, ready to start Year 1 today.