Ninety-three days and boom! Gates open for the new academic year [2022/2023] here in Peculiar International school, Cambridge department… hold on a minute PIS-College After a long almost unending summer vacation, continuing students found their way back to the school.
Surprises
On arrival to school, they discover something! Their previously owned classrooms had been allegedly engulfed by the large, ever increasingly growing GES curriculum learners. Camping at the cafeteria, the vibrant students held conversations to catch up on the fun hustle each had had. On the other hand, the wild fled and hovered about to spot which differences had unfurled in the school.
Soon after, rumors spread about a new infrastructure. Eyes gleamed high and low, in search of what it may have been. Spotted adjacent the car park was a more befitting infrastructure, one that suited an actual Cambridge learner, at about half an hour past 8 o’clock, it was announced that students move towards this gem.
This space was the serene learning environment the student body had dreamt of. Right away, students entered the complex through the white gates to see a welcome message waiting for them. We have the new state of the art learning facility all to ourselves. Everyone was eager to explore the building to see what it had in store; more spacious airy classrooms with an upgrade from the already existent one and *drumrolls* A BIG POOL!!!! All shoulders on the wheel, one pushed the next cohesively to prepare the classrooms for themselves.
Soon after registration stalls were pitched. Students took turns to provide necessary information for the new academic year. Registration paved way for the necessary orientation on the new academic year. More news announced! The new academic year and for that matter the first term particularly, had been designed to be a challenging one. To kick-start, the first week had a series of challenges. As already seen, the first day was like a treasure hunt- in search for the new habitat.
The subsequent days had their share of activities. Tuesday was set for the termly Akwaaba Games, Wednesday down to Friday was scheduled for something more interesting.
Akwaaba Games
Traditionally, akwaaba games are held in the beginning of each term. “Akwaaba’’ is a Fante word meaning welcome. As implied by the name, the games are held to usher the student into their next phase of academic work. One role of these games is to ease the mental and emotional stress a child may have reported with.
Akwaaba games took a twist from the good old known soccer tournaments to a more critical one, board games. A new term revealed what it was about “edutainment”. On the list of board games, students had scrabble, “ludo”- a local game, chess and some other more involving games like charades. At the end of the games, what may have seemed as boring on paper was so intriguing that many wanted more of the games- that was the aim, to get people to want to do
Game Over
Game certainly was nowhere over. Quizzes had been set to span across the next three days. So as an educational spice, each class was tasked to select two (2) representatives to battle against the next class. The quest posed questions from three (3) categories: Sciences, Mathematics and General Knowledge. Participants were quickened to do their possible best, courtesy of the generous sponsorship from Indomie Ghana and Vitamilk.
After a fierce battle between the three sets of teams, three classes emerged winners. The Year 9, Year 11 and Lower 6 teams all came out victorious. An awards ceremony was held in honour of the winning teams.
What next
The ultimate challenge for the term was announced. THINK TANK Challenge. The challenge that is projected to span across the entire academic year with seasons and numerous case studies and tasks.
For the Think Tank Challenge, the student body is divided into groups of 24. Each group consisting of four (4) students; one upper or lower six (6) student and three others with a staff facilitator.
In each step, instructions will be given, teams will have to submit their findings, the team(s) with the least scores will be eliminated at the end of each academic term, until finally the winning team makes it to the scrumptious reward. Along side this charming task is all the academic work each student must pull through. Here lies the ultimate challenge, WHO WINS?
