.png)
After graduating from ITEPS in September (2017) I moved to Kuwait to teach year 2 at a British school.
My first impression of Kuwait was positive and since this is my first time in the Middle East, I was eager to experience the culture and practices of my new home. The for me greatest change was being expected to dress highly modestly. As the majority of the citizens of Kuwait are Muslims, women are to cover up when in public. Even though that means no swimming at the beach or changing to take out the garbage it is part of the experience and helps increase my intercultural competence.
My teaching days are Sunday to Thursday as the weekend in Kuwait is on Friday and Saturday. At school, we start off each day with the national anthem and prayer. Afterwards we take our classes inside and teach all subjects that are part of the National British Curriculum. In addition to that have the students Arabic language and Islamic Studies almost each day which means all teachers have free periods regularly 😊. The student body at my school consists of children from Kuwait and Egypt whilst the staff body is highly international. My school, as well as several other schools in the Middle East are owned by private persons who are in charge of all decisions made. In my opinion, this is a challenge we are facing as the owners do not have a background in education and the decisions made are not always conducive to teaching and learning. However, that seems to be common practice in this part of the world.
Nevertheless, I am looking forward to seeing my class each morning. They are a group of 33 sweet, active, loveable, sometimes strenuous, and fun little ones and I honestly could not think of a job that would be more fun than teaching them!
Kind regards from Kuwait 😊