It’s a small world

[pne]

Today was the first parents’ meeting for the pre-school where Amy will go after the summer holidays.

Stella and I were there a few minutes early, and when I looked into the classroom, I was surprised at who was there—and he was just as surprised to see me! It was Torsten Lietz (whom some of my readers may know :D), with whom I had worked together for about a year in another office of my company’s parent company.

His ex-wife will be moving here soon and so their two children will attend the same school as Amy—and their daughter Vivien will be in Amy’s pre-school class! (And their son will be in 2nd grade… I wonder whether she’ll be in the same class as Taya, who will also be coming into the 2nd grade after the holidays!)

Anyway, it was an interesting and informative evening. The teacher spoke about a typical school day, about the first day of school in particular, and about administrivia: there were lots of notices and also some forms to fill out. (One of them being the voluntary membership in the Schulverein, an association of parents who support things such as new playground equipment or outings with money raised from membership dues and donations. Their yearly fee is €12.50, which is extremely affordable, in my opinion, and a worthy cause, so we joined.)

Comments

[jpallan]

My elder daughter's school uses the "school funds pay for all school activities" and raise money as a general fact, rather than specifically. My younger daughter's school charges nominal fees for school trips (at least in part because it's a state school and gets some subsidy).

I prefer my elder daughter's school for many reasons, but that's another one.