A Case of Chalk ........ and Cheese

In order to choose a high school for next year this week saw us attending two open days at two different schools.  I shall call the one school the pink school and the other one the orange school.  These were my experiences:

 

Upon arrival:

Pink – easily visible and nicely decorated arrival area where we were met and greeted by school pupils after which one of the pupils walked with each individual couple guiding us to a row of tables where smiling staff waited to register our details on laptops.

Orange – drawn by the noise of three little girls playing music on a keyboard we found a row of tables containing laptops behind the three musicians.  I eventually found out from one of the other parents that we were supposed to register ourselves on the laptop and after waiting my turn was informed by a severely panicked and flapping staff member to “tab” after each piece of information before she darted off in another direction.  Squinting at the screen I eventually managed to register our attendance.  I did feel a little sorry for them because it had been raining and they had to squish everything in under cover.

 

Post registration:

Pink – the smiling staff member who had registered us guided us towards a marquee on the field containing numerous large round tables with chairs around them as well as some smaller “standing” tables under the tent and out in the open.  Some of the tables contained small glasses of sherry and myriad apron-clad school pupils wandered through the crowd with large trays offering incredibly good cocktail-type snacks and sherry to us.  The staff was easily recognisable in their blazers that either stated “personeel” or “beheerligaam” and calmly directed the pupils to where the snacks should be best distributed.

Orange – after wandering around a little in the crowd we discovered a couple of tables under gazebos where one could get tea and coffee in paper cups (“jammer tannie, ons het nie Rooibos nie) and a choice of chocolate biscuits or koeksisters.  The school pupils manning the tables had funky blue wigs on and chatted to their friends.

 

And then:

Pink – once again we were guided by smiling folk, from the marquee down a quaint garden path, past various tables containing decadent sweet finger snacks, to the hall where we were all given a school-branded bottle of water before entering and finding our places.

Orange – we gazed at an array of tables dedicated to the different subject offerings, each table full to bursting with information and examples then we walked around feeling lost until an adult in a blazer asked us what we were looking for and pointed us towards a hall where we found the children all engaged in line-dancing.  Once the children had finished dancing they filed out of that hall carrying bright red backpacks and entered another hall where some adults were already seated. We joined them.

 

The “sell”:

Pink – the formal part of the evening began with an official opening by the head prefects and after that we were entertained by a 200-strong choir who were a little nervous at first but did very well considering their choir master was not with them.  There were three main speeches (some a little tedious .......... and long).  Our children arrived amid huge excitement, carrying bright green backpacks and after quietening down to a soft buzz sat in rows while the grade 11 pupils put on a play for us.  We were then blown off our feet with a VERY  LOUD rendition of some war cry or another and after that we welcomed the official closing and took our snoring bottoms home.

Orange – We didn’t have to wait long for the evening to begin with an official opening by the head prefects.  The two main speeches were accompanied by PowerPoint slides and boasted some of the schools favourite heroes (ex-pupils, I think).  Our children stood up and once again entertained us with their line-dance while other school pupils filed in and lined up against the walls.  All the children in the hall yelled out some long shouty-thing that would have been a war cry if it was a little shorter.  We stood while the pupils lining the walls (who turned out to be choir members) sang the school anthem, followed by the official closing, and then us fighting our way out of the crowded entrance to our cars.

 

From my perspective:

Pink – the focus of the school is on academics.  They have a phenomenal matric pass rate that no other school equals.  Their sports and culture are both very strong and children are rewarded for participating, even as spectators, which is a lovely gesture for those who aren’t sporty.  At the heart of the school’s culture lies the nurture of children.  They view children as still being children when they arrive in grade 8 and still be children when they leave in grade 12 and, based on that, teach the kidlets coping mechanisms: how to cope with peer pressure, bullying, drugs etc.  They even teach the children how to study and pick up difficulties as soon as possible offering spare lessons, during school time, to try and iron out the problems.  My impression of the school pupils was that they are outstanding. They have exceptional manners, they have huge spirit and loyalty to their school and they’re friendly and helpful.  The tone of the school is more formal and serious than the other school.

Orange – the focus of the school is on sport although their academics and culture are also very strong.  There was some contradiction in the headmaster saying that there was something for everyone and all children were recognised where in contrast he paraded up his heroes like banners.  I personally felt awed, and a little inferior, by the stories of those bright, shining young stars and wondered how that made the kidlets who are Joe Average feel.  The one comment that made me cringe was when the headmaster said that sometimes they paint war paint on a child and belittle him a little in order to bring him back down to earth.  That’s just not on.  My impression of the school pupils is that they are fiercely loyal to their school; they are enthusiastic and raring to go.  There are an awful lot of them.  They are also generally bigger than me and I often got bumped out of the way.  The tone of the school is more casual and yet more frenetic than the other school – it almost has a perpetual carnival atmosphere.

 

What Jerry said: 

Pink – she loved every second of the 4½ hours she spent at the school.  The guard of honour (made up of pupils) upon arrival made her feel very important and she was overwhelmed by the fact that the children cheered the prospective newbies (just for being there) before whipping them off to get registered, and give them their t-shirts and backpacks.  She couldn’t stop talking about the dissected rat (“who looked just like a human, only smaller”), the view of the tarantula fang under a microscope, the dissected sheep’s kidney, the life-sized plastic skeleton, the science experiment to make “elephant toothpaste”, the red hot, sizzling gummy bear burnt over the Bunsen burner (“I don’t think I’ll ever eat those again”), the canteen (“their prices are very reasonable” – with a sage nod), the different subjects on offer and all the various classrooms they had been shown, the cooking school (“where the girls have to wear buns and the boys are not allowed to have beards”), the fact that they were all allowed to shoot an air gun at a target (“and I hit the target, Mom”), the fact that they use tablets instead of text books (“you know how heavy my bag is, Mom) and the fact that she made so many friends and found the pupils to be very open and friendly.

Orange – she was rather disappointed (after her superstar status the previous day) to find only two pupils waiting at the gate who simply pointed her towards the row of tables containing laptops.  A woman waved with a dismissing hand that they were to register themselves, without looking up from what she was doing.  I was told about the “very lekker boerewors rolls” and the fact that she got into trouble for helping herself to a backpack only to have somebody else come and hand her one a minute later.  They couldn’t tell her much about the cooking school except that the equipment was very clean and new and that there was a restaurant.  She was very disappointed that they only walked around the music school because it was locked.  She felt that the experiments shown were “lame” (favourite teenage term) compared to the other school’s and they only had grass and leaves under the microscope.  She got to poke a kidney with her finger.  She threw darts and did line dancing and “Mom, I’ll miss my friends but I really don’t want to come here.”

 

The conclusion: 

Mom and Dad’s impressions are confirmed and validated.  I thought I might need to indulge in a little persuasion but no, she has her mind made up.  Phew! That was easier than anticipated.