This week has seen a faculty meeting, a Maths department meeting, a school-wide staff meeting and a Professional Growth in-service training day. I have finished my lesson preparation for the period up to half term, and loaded all the information into Schoology, the school’s Learning Management System.

Today saw the arrival of the first pupils – 63 newcomers to the school, who arrive one day before the remaining 400+ pupils.

Here you see me ready to set off, ready to meet parents of new pupils and answer their questions about Algebra teaching.

Lessons start on Monday, so yesterday, as an antidote to the hectic preparations for the start of term, Lesley and I visited the Kiambethu tea farm, about one hour from the school.

The original farm was founded in 1910 by British expats. At the height of its existence they were farming 60 acres of tea (that’s a lot of tea).

Now the farm is run by the grand-daughter of the original pioneer, with most of the land having been sold, and only growing 2 acres of tea, plus raising some cattle and other livestock.

Here we see one of her faithful tea pluckers at work. The tea is picked by hand and has to be delivered to the local tea factory the same day. Twenty-four hours later it’s ready to drink.

Her income is supplemented by offering visits to the tea farm, including a delicious lunch served in the gardens. Rather idyllic.

As you can see, we had a happy time. Let’s hope the smiles are still there after I start teaching next week….