forumsanding's Blog

it was almost christmas and children in the infant school in London  were encouraged to do something. activities ranged from helping the people through charity, performing something in the school, and other activities. our problem with the children is with their songs they sang everyday after they got back from school.  they seemed to be trained to sing songs which were related to the celebration of christmas, which we did not really agree to. the problem was that the children had been trained to be good Muslims which meant that they had to follow the Muslim way. Here in London, we were stuck with the problem of our children being imposed a different way doing things for their religion. we were not radical in this case, but we thought that in a city like London which was very well-known for its tolerance, children should not be involved in the activities related to their faiths without their parents’ consent. if it was done, we thought it was an ‘imposition’ to our right to choose the religious activities. (unfinished)

i took the children to school today,  leaving at home at 7.15 in the morning which was still dark outside and cold. we prayed before we left, then we walked along limesdale gardens to stag lane and crossed the street. we went to one of the bus stops, either taking 114 or 251 or 302 which headed for mill hill broadway station. then, we waited for 221 for about 30 minutes which was very long. the children were bored with expecting the bus, talking to each other and sometimes playing with something. it was 14 degree celcius. at around 8.15 we got a very crowded bus, full of children going to school and of them speaking, giggling, laughing and chatting in English. sometimes, some of them took their mobile in the double-deck bus talking to someone at the other end.

after sending the children home, my wife and i often talked about the change in the children’s behaviour in which they now became a bit hard-headed and liked answering back. we wondered that at the school they were not taught how to respect their parents. besides, it was almost christmas and every school prepared everything for it. we were asked to buy meals for christmas, but i felt a bit strange that we had to celebrate it, as we are not catholic.

this morning, we had no plan to go anywhere, but just to check if we could visit the old man, a lecturer who joined the PAR in Collindale. we called him and he said that it was ok for us to pay a visit to him. then, we changed our clothes and started walking to IIC where we would meet the man and other indonesians living there. i had a camera with me.

i have been in the uk for more than 2 months and began realising that some things have developed or changed, i would say. we have sent the children to school. our second daughter and the only son have attended the dollis infant school for more than a week, and found the school fun. our daughter was placed at yellow class and our son was in reception class called brown class. only, they could not really communicate in english as they did not speak english at all when they arrived at uk, and even before they came to the uk, they did not learn english much. everybody i met in the uk whom i spoke about the child usually said that children learnt the language fast, which i was not sure about the truth, or it might take more time for both my children to learn english. yet, dollis had told us that a language teacher which would help my children learn it had been provided, namely mrs william, an old lady who when meeting me said that she knew some languages, but she was not sure about indonesian language. she also mentioned that on wednesdays,  the children would work with her in increasing more english vocabulary. apart from that, we had been thinking about their uniforms which consisted of around five outfits and cost more than 10 poundsterling, an amount which we considered very significant as it affected our expenses much.

our old daughter was supposed to start the school on tuesday this week and we had already asked her to go around watling avenue to find the proper uniform for her. we went to a shop in which we met two indians, one is old enough who helped us find the appropriate uniforms and the other is relatively younger, who assisted us in counting the total amount of the price of the uniforms which consisted of a cardigan or pullover with yellow V, a white blouse (which i thought it was white shirt) and grey trousers.  we did not buy skirts as we tried to get her familiarised with trousers to cover her body, being the teaching of our religion. it is interesting that in dollis junior school children were tolerated in matters of their uniform. while there were regulations regarding particular dresses, there were also permissions up to a point in practising the religious teaching, such as wearing “head scarves for religious purposes”, as they called it, which should be in plain colours only. interestingly, the uniforms for autumn and spring terms were a bit different from those worn in summer term, showing how the weather affected the dresses, a thing i never found in my country. besides, there was the P.E. kit for sports which included white shorts and socks, House T shirt, trainers for outside play, trainers and tracksuits for colder months.

so starting from next week, there will be three little kids going to school from where we live in 47 limesdale gardens to the dollis infant and junior schools. it will be either my wife or me who will take them to the school as it is pretty far from our rent house. we usually take number 251 to arnos grove or 114 and 302 to mill hill broadway station. after that, we normally take the only 221 to turnpike lane station and stop and either salcombe gardens or  copthall sports centre. when we arrived at salcombe gardens, we usually take the children to cross the street with the help of a lolipop man, i was not sure if that is what they called it in the  UK. i once saw this kind of man in nottingham when i was pursuing my postgraduate studies there.

my supervisor had been very kind in supporting us so that i was able to manage my time between studying  or working which include writing and reading a huge number of books and providing  my family with activities which were fun. he has invited us twice to dinners, which means lunch in the uk. we were first asked to go to the so-called ‘relatively cheap’ restaurant near soas that served asian food. secondly, he invited us to have dinner in his apartment in which we met four interesting people at the occasion, an  indonesian-british couple, he himself and his room mate, i guess.  the couple who were an indonesian husband and a british wife talked about their lives in Medan and Aceh as both used to be NGO workers. at the time we met, the husband was working for BBC London and the wife was in a language-related institution.

during the meeting, the children were very happy as my supervisor and his room mate, who was a brazilian provided many toys for them and played with them.

today, i went to Barnet borough, a term i do not really know the translation in my mother language.  on the way, i was a bit lost as i did not really know where i should get off. i should have got off at burnswick road which was near north london business park rather than pop out at spenser road. then, i asked somebody who told me that i should get off earlier. so i got off soon and asked anybody i met to locate the NLBP. i finally arrived at building 4 which dealt with problems of education in the borough. i met one of the staffs who suggested that i did not have to visit them as long as i had registered my children in the office. but, then, she called the school which was considered to have places for children and then asked me to go to the school, which was Dollis Junior School to discover whether there were places available. the staff also told me whether all children would be accepted or not, i should let them know. i took 382 to the school, of which route i found to be a bit confusing since that was the first time i went there. by asking the driver of the bus, and one of the passengers which helped me to show where the school was located and i went there soon. on foot,  it take me around 20 minutes or so to reach the school which consists of two different buildings, one for junior level and the other for infant school. i went to the junior building and asked about the possibility of enrolling my children to the school.  i was then given application form i had to fill in and when i asked whether it was possible to hand it in the following day, the staff said it was ok. then, the staff told me that only one child, who is my oldest daughter, could be accepted in the school as the other two children were not 8 years old yet. i was told to come over to the other building which was the building for infant and i walked along the road to go to the building. i was welcomed by one of the staffs in tbe building who told me to fill in the forms and as soon as i finished it, the staff also asked me to bring the boy, who is my youngest child to the school at 1.30  the following day.  thank God, while the other two children were still having no place available, one boy would be in the school soon. i look forward to the day when i bring my boy to the school. one thing i found out today that in the UK, it would be better for you to meet person when your business is urgent rather than call them by telephone as they will do anything they can to help you.

Today, I came to the same class and met the same persons, but a different topic and atmosphere. Our topic was about what should be included in the introduction of an essay for master degree at least. This was probably what most of the students in the classroom expected to hear and study as today was the last meeting before the reading week which is commonly called ‘silent week’ in Indonesia. My daily activities took place just as usual starting from waking up in the morning, doing morning prayer, taking a free metro newspaper, getting a northern line underground, sitting and reading while listening to the voice,”This station is Golders Green. This train terminates at Kennington via Charing Cross”, “Mind the gap”,”This train is about to depart”, “Please mind the doors”, until finally getting ready when I listened the voice said,”The next station is Goodge Street”. I got off the tube and ran a little to the lift going up, to get out of the station by touching off my Oyster to the card validator.

One thing i found later on about children’s school in the UK is not as easy as i thought about it first when i was in my country. it is not easy to enrol children to school

This is the place which probably most people in the world dream about. I do not know why people want to be here, even one of my colleagues ever mentioned that an Indonesian song mentioned, “London, London I want to be there”. What is so enticing about this area. Meanwhile, I travel everyday by tube or underground and I usually pick up a newspaper to read while we are heading for central London to where I am attending my MPhil programme.  What I noticed is something very interesting, namely the lives of people in this town. Most of people here do not like smiling when facing other people in the street, something which I think is difficult to find in my country. People prefer to keep silent and are not very fond of children.  This is especially true when children are considered to be the source of noise.  When we are renting a house, the landlord usually is not interested in offering the house or rooms if we have children.

I have been in London for more than a month.  My purpose is to pursue MPhil/PhD programme at SOAS for the next three years or so. I have been attending two courses, namely Post colonial theory and technique of comparative literature.  The way how we study in SOAS is quite different from the one I have in my country Indonesia. In Master level, for instance, we are required to read at least some 90 pages of chapters from three different books which are then supposed to summarise and give comments on what we have read.  Thi is only for one meeting. Imagine that we have around 10 meetings per three months which the people call ‘terms’.

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