Current Updates

 Where are we now?

Well, we're actually still in Penang, but that should not come as a surprise as this is always where we aiming to be.

I'm speaking (not literally) figuratively (in both cases)... 

So this is an update on all things school, travel and general life stuff.

So work... yeah, best to get it out of the way first. 

Here is a stock image of 'work' - but in Lego!

On the plus side, it's going pretty well actually. Nicola is now working for the school and is contributing lots of ideas that they seem amazed by and she is equally amazed that they are amazed! The great thing is that the job is flexible enough to manage Thomas's school days, but also to allow for a wider involvement in the life of the school. As a family we have all three got involved with boarding duties. This is one of the most interesting differences in this school compared to my experience of the UK. Yes, I did get to know my students and yes I helped out with trips and DofE expeditions, but this has been a much more consistent and bigger part of our time here and has been a really positive experience that has very quickly integrated, not only me, but the whole family as part of the school.

Work has also become interesting as I am now taking increasing control of the planning and structuring of the department and curriculum. We have just put in place a significant intervention in cooperation with the pastoral team and the sixth form team. This kind of cooperation across and within departments and pastoral is, hopefully, a sign of things to come. The speed and energy of the project has been fantastic. Given time this could become embedded as part of the practice of the school and could be a real flagship policy. I of course stole it shamelessly from my last place and rebranded it, but there we are (don't worry, I fully credited all those whose idea it actually was - thank you Fiona for all of the help).

The relationships within the department are shaping up well and I have interviewed and appointed an assistant curriculum lead to help next year too, so that is looking very positive.

Thomas's schooling has been a bit of a mixed bag. The main school element is good, his lessons are going well and he is enjoying his time, but Covid has cast a shadow in a couple of ways. Firstly he was having fencing instruction from a visiting coach! Brilliant! This was one of five separate ECAs that he could access every afternoon after school. However, apparently one person coming onto a school site is a Covid risk, so that had to stop. The fencing coach can hire a venue and get people from a whole range of places to train in a public place, thus creating a network of contacts that is exponentially larger and more widespread than one person visiting a single venue where all the contacts are easily traceable, but you know... Malaysia huh!

We are going to hit up the Cameron Highlands (yes, that's genuinely a place in Malaysia) where they grown tea and strawberries... do I sense the hand of British colonialism? Not sure about the Easter break as Malaysia has yet to make any decision about the opening of the borders so no idea whether anyone can get in to visit or if we can leave to go anywhere. Mind, there is still more than enough to occupy us here, so we're not going to get bored.

Things have settled a bit, I still miss home and more importantly, the people there, but that's just a fact of existence out here. Life goes on pretty 'normally' I guess. We have routines and day-to-day things to do. Despite the fact that you could imagine we are on a massive long holiday, we still need to do the washing and the dishes, go shopping etc. We just do it in a warmer climate with more monkeys and lizards!

Monkeys just hanging around on somebody's roof!

I'm looking forward to coming home in the summer and we have booked accommodation and stays with both sets of parents. I am planning lots of walks in Northumberland and time on the beaches, so hopefully the weather will be okay. I'm not sure how we will adjust to the temperature or the prices; the first being much lower and the second much higher in the UK, but I suspect it will all feel fairly normal within a few days. This is a surprisingly short 15 school weeks and only about 17 weeks of real time away. The second part of our initial foray into the world of internationalism has been passing rather more quickly than the first. This is probably no surprise. As you can tell we have started to find routines and begun to settle in to the regular rhythms of life here. So there won't be too many of these from Malaysia before I'm sending one of these from the shores of the UK again (but fear not, there will be some)!

Until next time, take care all and best wishes.

John, Nic and Thomas.