New school

Today Zara and Max had their first day of school in Stuttgart. It is the beginning of the new school year after the summer holiday here in Europe. Zara is in 7th class and Max in 5th. They both go to the same school - a high school near Hölderlin Place. Oddly, the German word for high school is gymnasium. So the name of their school is Hölderlin Gymnasium. It looks quite different from the British International School in Phuket in many ways. It is a city school so the land size is quite small - there are no outdoor fields or sporting facilities apart from a concrete multipurpose area for basketball and soccer. German schools don't have uniforms either so the kids can choose each day. School times are quite different too - the day starts at 7.50am and finishes at 1.10pm. Some days the kids will have after school activities making it a bit longer. The school is very close to our apartment, less than 10 minutes walk. The kids were quite nervous this morning but thankfully the day seemed to go mostly "ok". The language will be the toughest thing - Zara said her Maths teacher was talking about multiplying percentages today and she got lost in the German.