Day 15

This was the last day of Whitchurch High School’s February 2010 exchange to Macassar. Mr Jones-Williams had stayed on from the Tuesday, when the rest of the Whitchurch party had left in the evening to return home. The reason was due to flight availability and the iNET conference. I found it quite surreal waving good bye to the Whitchurch party along with the Macassar educators and learners on the Tuesday evening.

Comments such as “..are you sure you are coming back in two days?” and “We wish we could stay as well” from the Whitchurch teachers and students were understandable. The Macassar party teased me about now being a fully fledged member of their school. The reality was the evidence of the strong bonds which exist between the two schools. We  hope that some educators and learners from Macassar High might come and visit us in June. Our rugby team will be playing Macassar High as part of a three match South African tour on either Friday 22nd or Saturday 23rd July.

On the Thursday there was an opportunity to go around Macassar High and say goodbye to all the educators and learners and convince them that I had not run away from the airport on Tuesday evening. During the day there I met up with Trevor Sampson at the Restoring the Sound Centre to catch up on how successful his visit had been to the London College of Music . We also agreed when Trevor would next visit Whitchurch on Thursday 15th July giving a workshop to our music students and putting on a nine piece concert that evening with his touring band.

Final message
I congratulate all staff and students involved with the visit who were exceptional ambassadors for Whitchurch. Mr Eric Coombes  (Science), Miss Jeanine Arthur  (MFL), Mr Anthony Rees  (English) and the four sixth form students: Alice Burnet, Jac Holloway, Charlotte (Charlie) Pearce, Gareth Streeter.

As a group we also thank everyone who has supported us in whatever way for  allowing us the opportunity to visit Macassar High School and Cape Town. We hope our visit allows the Macassar - Whitchurch partnership to further develop and strengthen. We look forward to the visit of Trevor Sampson from, “Restoring the Sound” in July. Further details will be posted in due course about the “Concert” on Thursday July 15th in  the Dutch Barn starting at 7:00 pm.