Since my last post so much has happened!

We are now hoping in March to open our second compound with brand new buildings in the old Arabic architectural style. They were made with bricks made in Azraq by local youth, both Syrian and Jordanian thus providing employment and the acquisition of new skills. Old ways of ventilation were also employed to minimize the need for heating and cooling.

Apart from the the Arabic style buildings with a total of 4 classrooms we also have another 2 rooms in a separate building making 6 new rooms in all.

We have received funds for installation of solar power and hope this will be available soon.

Our school has expanded, we now have 270 children enrolled and even with some absences too many children for the small compound of the Azraq Women's charity where we are located. Currently we are thinking about moving the entire school to Complex B which means moving some of our portables.

Some excellent new staff have joined our team. Our new Principal has a masters degree in Education Administration and she has a lot of experience. Similarly our Program Administrator has a degree in Special Education, both are working out exceptionally well.

The first three levels all have a designated classroom teacher but we now have specialized teachers for level four which includes our older students. To that effect we hired an Arabic, a Math, and an English teacher all with degrees in their relevant areas. We already had an IT teacher. In this way we can better help our kids in the higher grades with core subjects. We may be able to add a Science teacher as well, though at present our math teacher is also teaching science. Regretfully the Government has not allowed us to keep our two Syrian teachers but we have managed to give them different jobs.

We also received a very generous donation to set up a Montessori preschool, teachers are currently being trained.

As always the children enjoyed a music week and this year a poetry writing week was added. This year's excursion with our school bus was to the local oasis, an oasis now very sadly greatly diminished in size and no longer a stop-over for migrating birds.

A part of Thursday has been designated for fun activities, the kids make their own popcorn and engage in sports and games.

Each day in our kitchen "sandwiches" are made for the children, in the Middle East this consists of flatbread rolls with tasty vegetable mixtures.

With so much growth we are happy to report that we are now registered with the government as a Remedial Institution. Officially only Jordanian schools are allowed to use the word "school". We are now able to have a school bank account and we have hired an accountant. As well we retain a lawyer with special expertise in refugee related issues.

And finally, thanks to our excellent staff, we are able to report that our children are indeed "catching up and keeping up" with their Jordanian peers, we even found they are doing better than their Jordanian peers in the school next door in most core subjects....a great credit to our teaching staff and of course our kids!!

We are about to open Complex B!

We Are Expanding!

The need for extra education and enrichment

Our Keep-Up Catch-Up school.....a brief history

Martine Stilwell