Tag Archives: UAE schools

When the school calendar is governed by the moon

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UAE school calendar governed by moon
What a start to the school year it was today! A day earlier than expected thanks to the vagaries of the UAE school calendar – and much to the kids’ dismay (hehe). I’ll explain.  On Thursday last week, everyone in Dubai knew there was a holiday coming up – Hijri New Year (Islamic New Year). The exact day of the holiday was subject to the sighting of the moon, however. And for several weeks it was thought that the first day of the working week (Sunday in the Middle East) would be called as the holiday.  On Thursday evening, office workers left in high spirits, fairly sure there was a three-day weekend ahead. The mood was tainted slightly by the office-wide email stating that we were all to keep an eye on our email over the weekend. The bosses still had to confirm whether Sunday was a holiday and, if not, it would be business as usual with normal office hours. But to be honest we all thought the holiday was in the bag (somewhat difficult to plan though, just in case). Anyway, you’ve guessed what’s coming… the Moon Sighting Committee spotted a crescent moon on Friday night. Saturday was called as the holiday. And Sunday was to be back to work as usual. The hoped-for day off work wasn’t going to happen. Sigh! But the real surprise was yet to come. Schools were due back on Monday 2nd, until the KHDA, the authority in charge of all Dubai schools, tweeted:
And so at 9am on Saturday, our school (and also other Dubai schools but not all) announced that the first day of term would be – surprise, surprise – the next day, and not the date originally on the calendar. You can imagine the furore that ensued!   Responses from baffled parents ranged from “But we’re not ready”, “We had plans”, “We’re not even back in Dubai yet” to “Well, they’ve been off long enough”, “D is excited – he’s had enough of me”, “G is just desperate to see his mates” to “Gotta love the UAE school calendar”. As for my own children, they didn’t even believe me. Son1 stared at me as though I’d just told him we were having boiled brain for dinner. Then he blinked, once, twice, like a badger caught in the sunlight and said, “You’re joking right?” “Nope,” I replied, deadpan. “Look …” I showed him the email, my nose twitching in an attempt not to laugh. A slow realisation dawned on Son1’s face, and I might have let out a sound that was half-snort, half-chortle. I felt a little bit sorry for them – but, honestly, not that much! Two months off was plenty for my noisy – and, by the end of the holiday, totally bored – duelling duo. Happy back to school kiddos! #SeeYa
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The school holiday whammy

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That’s it: in my next life, I’m coming back as an expat child.

They get soooo many holidays. I mean, it is actually a bit ridiculous. My boys went back to school after two long months of summer holiday at the very end of August. They were in school for two weeks. TWO WEEKS. Then the government called Eid, and turned it into a week-long holiday.

For those who don’t live here, the UAE has a tendency to call holidays just when long-suffering mums really don’t want them. Case in point: the Expo win. Fireworks would have sufficed, but no. School (but not work) was cancelled as part of the celebrations. Helpful? Not.

Then there was the time it looked like it might rain, and the schools were closed. The day became known as Spit-mageddon:

Look at all this rain! Good job the kids were safe at home

Look at all this rain! Good job the kids were safe at home

This last week of holiday has felt like an extension of summer. Did those two weeks of school even happen? Or were they just a murky dream? A hallucinatory period of time and space in which to get things done. I might be being rather ungrateful for this holiday, but really we could have done without it – it’s still too hot to do anything outdoors; our new, half-built compound doesn’t have a pool; my oldest is spending too long on his computer; and I’m at that stage with my chatterbox youngest where I can see his mouth moving but can’t really hear what he’s saying and can do nothing but nod at whatever his moving lips are trying to assault me with.

I’m so ready for them to get back to school properly.

But … guess what? My youngest is back in school for two weeks, then there’s another week off for half-term.

Facepalm.

Why dress-up days should be outlawed

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First, let me just say that Son2 loves to dress up, and finds it a big thrill to go to school in anything other than his navy-blue shorts and pinstriped, button-up shirt. In his closet, you’ll find plenty of costumes depicting numerous genres, from spiderboy to alien, vampire and terrorist. Yes, you read that correctly: he came downstairs this weekend looking like this:

Erm, DH: What was Santa thinking?

Erm, DH: What was Santa thinking?

But every time the school announces a special theme day, I have to admit my heart sinks a little bit. I can’t sew; if you handed me a piece of fabric I’d have no idea what to do with it; and the prop that would accessorise an outfit perfectly is never just lying around the house. It’s usually buried at the bottom of a cupboard, lost, broken or still in the shop.

And I’ve come to realise that this is a universal problem: there’s my good friend in London who had to come up with “a simple homemade fez” – with a tassel. (“We want the tassels to swirl when the children dance,” the teacher said.) Then there’s the kind commenters on my blog who’ve dressed their child up as a triangle and seriously considered crocheting a pilot’s hat after trawling the mall and finding nothing.

Oh yes, we mums do try when faced with these challenges – because you just know that there will be crafty mothers who got straight onto Pinterest. Not to mention that on, say, Book Character Day, school will be invaded by a mini fictional force made up of Harry Potter, Dr. Seuss, Angelina Ballerina and other favourite storybook characters. The look on your child’s face if their outfit is a laughing stock is enough to make any otherwise sane mum start cutting up the curtains.

I’ve even heard of dads having to get in on the act too, in some cases taking over as costume-deviser extraordinaire, and sewing! Another friend tells me her DH is the go-to person for dress-up days; for an Easter Bonnet parade, he constructed a spring hat with a giant carrot protruding from the top, which we were all still talking about the next year – a pilot by profession, creative genius in his spare time.

In the Circles household, given enough notice, I’m able to dispatch DH to a costume shop in New York on one of his trips here (yes, we cheat, big time!); and he came up trumps last term, with a ghoulish-grey Area 51 costume and mask for the day aliens landed on the playing field at Son2’s school.

The news that today would be African Explorer Day came a week ago, just as the reality of getting back to the grind was hitting, and saw me arguing vehemently with Son2 at 7 this morning over why he couldn’t take that stonking big nerf gun pictured above into class (huntsman, explorer, it was all the same to him).

As we got out of the car, Son2 – donned in hurriedly assembled safari-type garb and wearing binoculars round his neck – got cold feet. No-one was in costume! Mum must have got it wrong! (I hadn’t, it was only for his year). I did wonder for a moment – until, at the gate, we saw a stressed-looking mum with a teary, uniform-clad child, being asked by a teacher if they had anything at home resembling the mishmash my son was wearing. As she headed off (upset boy in tow) to figure it out, I ’m sure she must have wished dress-up days could be outlawed too.