End of the School Year

I'm officially on summer holidays as of this afternoon, so the blog can stop being neglected for a little bit as I catch up on the last few months. 


The boys have kept me busy again this year with their sports.  Jalen has played social basketball this year at the YMCA with some mates as well this year, so all three played basketball.  Harri also joined Jay's team once his club basketball season was over and it was fun watching them play together.


After club basketball was over both Kobe and Harri joined school teams to play in the School Basketball Championships which ran over two different weekends.  Kobe's team did really well and were runners up in the grand final.  I think there were tears for two days after at different times as he kept saying 'I can't believe how close we were!'.

 He was excited to win a medal for being the runners up.

Harri's team played really well together.  A lot of the boys went through primary school together and have played basketball together for a long time which showed on the court.   Although they played so well, they also played against some really tough teams and came fourth overall. 

Kobe isn't really naturally sporty like Harri is, but he loves sport and will give anything a go.  He was excited to go in his first triathlon this year and was in a team with his friends Kobe and Heath.  My Kobe did the swimming leg and had a great time. 

 Kobe begged me to let him play futsal after the basketball season was over.  Luckily there was a spot for him on a team with a couple of friends from school.  About half way through the season he had a go at being goalie and was actually really good at it.  I think it was more stressful for me than for him, as there's so much pressure on you when you are goalie.


Sometimes he can be such a day dreamer, but when he's switched on and fired up he does really well.  They made it into the grand final and luckily he was switched on during that game! They were so excited to win the grand final and Kobe was so proud of himself for saving lots of goals. 

I'm proud of all my boys for different things, but I'm especially proud of Harri who has worked so hard at school this year.  In primary school he just cruised along and did what he needed to do, but in high school he's really been determined to do the best that he can.  I know it's because he's had so many awesome teachers who he's loved.  It's been great for him to have so many great male teachers who are great role models to him. 


Earlier in the year he received an Academic Excellence Award and last week he was presented with another one at the school's end of year presentation assembly. 


We will miss Mr Deane who is moving away.  He was one of his favourite teachers over the past two years.  When we took a similar photo last year, Harri was shorter than him!

I've had a really busy year working full time all year.  I absolutely love my job as an EAL teacher (English as an Additional Language) and feel so lucky to be in my dream job.  It's a job I had never imagined I would do, and didn't even know existed until about five years ago, but I feel like it's what I want to do forever. 


The students I teach are mostly from refugee backgrounds and they're amazing, beautiful children who have incredible stories about life in their home countries.  They're so resilient, happy, hard working, clever and grateful and I think many other children could learn a lot from them.


I've now been teaching at the same school for two and a half years (the longest I've even been at the same school) and am so happy to know that I'll be back there next year.  It's a very multicultural school (not usually the case in Tasmania) and around one third of the school come from a non-English speaking background.  I have loved learning about different cultures, religions and traditions and it makes me realise how sheltered and lucky we are in Tasmania.

Harri and Kobe are so happy to be on school holidays.  They've had a great year but we are all tired and ready for sleep ins and no routines. This was  on their last day of school - Kobe has finished grade 4 and Harri has finished grade 8.

I often get home from work late, but the boys are so good at home on their own. I love it when I walk in and all three of them are hanging out together.   Jay has been working a lot this year to save up money for a car, so it's not often that I walk in and see all three of them together.


We are really going to miss Jay so much next year when he moves away for uni.  I hate thinking about it too much.  It's so bittersweet as I'm so happy that he's ready to go and study what he loves, but I'm also going to miss having him around all the time.  We've become so close in the last 7 years as we've had to stick together to get through everything.  I'm just happy that he'll be in the same state.  We will just have to make the most of the next 6 weeks of summer holidays.