Tabeetha School, Jaffa

Farewell Graduates! It all started back in 2010. Things could only get better, when as the grade three teacher I had to say goodbye to last year’s graduands (the class of 2018). They had, at that time, a major gender imbalance and had far too many unruly boys. Their reputation was so notorious; it had been rumoured that they had even brought the disciplinarian Ms Ersoff to tears! Tears I shed not but I was very glad to receive the current graduating class. They were studious, competitive (lots of family rivalry) and by comparison much better behaved. Forever etched in my memory, and saved as video footage on my computer for posterity, is the class of 2019 singing the Scottish folk song Loch Lomond as tiny primary students. At times, I play it to reminisce and at others I use it to blackmail them. Joking aside though, it is apt that I amwriting this goodbye message. Having been their grade three teacher, history teacher and form tutor (three times), I feel that I have intimate knowledge of this group of wonderful young people. Their good reputation continued into grade four but unfortunately was lost once they made it into grade five, by no fault of their own. Abandoned in the middle of the year by their teacher this temporarily disturbed their studies and as a result their behaviour. It was decided that in order to help them find their way again a talented, intelligent and handsome teacher be chosen to gently steer them into the secondary school. Unfortunately, Mr. John was unavailable, for whatever reason, so they ended up with me again. Once they got into secondary, Boris Kazto, Katya and Karim had already left and Diana, Jennifer, Chantal and Joanna were soon to follow. The transient nature of the school community is one of the saddest parts of working at Tabeetha. However, equally, one of the nicest parts of the job is welcoming and helping integrate all the newcomers. Danny, Fiona, Angel and Austen would soon step in to fill the void, not to mention the many others who joined more recently, each having added colour, life and their own uniqueness to the class. There has been a fair share of loss, grief and pain as many of the grade 12 students have grappled with all kinds of turbulence in their lives at home and school. I hope the school and I provided enough pastoral care, understanding and compassion to help them through the hard times. There has also been plenty of celebration, happiness and success. My hope is that the good times and less of the bad will continue well into the future. I wish them all the best and I will sorely miss them all.

Darren Glick

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