Ameera and The Student of the Month

I know I should have posted this earlier, but somehow I just forgot about it. Not that it's not important. I just keep forgetting to take a picture about it.

Every last Friday of the month, Ameera's school will have a small assembly where students from one class will perform a mini show. This also the time where the teachers will give out a certificate for each class' selected Student of the Month.

Ever since Junior Infants, I can say that Ameera has been quite the darling of her teachers. Maybe because there aren't that many students in the school so, all the teachers know Ameera. Maybe, being one of few Malay girls, she's easily recognisable to all the teachers or maybe she's just so friendly. I can't say for sure.

Even though we were a bit late to register her for the school, as soon as she started, everyone knew her. More amazingly, after only a few weeks in school, she received her first Student of the Month award!

That wasn't the end of it though. Because of her enthusiasm for school, for that year alone, she was awarded three Student of the Month certificates.

The following year, in Senior Infants, with a huge turnover of teachers at the school along with the lost of Ameera's favourite teacher, she began to lose interest in school. I was a bit upset with the school's management but was still hoping for the best. It's really hard in Ireland because you want to get the best school for your kids but you can't really choose the school you want for them. Even if you had the money, it's still difficult.

As for me, I chose to get a balance of academic and religion for my daughter. With this in mind, we didn't have much choice but to go with the North Dublin Muslim National School. The school is far from being perfect but at least, she gets a good solid grounding.

So, to bring it back to my initial story, Ameera is now in First Class at the school. She missed almost a month of school at the start of the first term as we were back in Malaysia for holidays. Fortunately, with her teacher's help, she's managed to catch-up with the school's syllabus. Continuing on the trend in the previous year, the school has a new Principal.

The new Principal re-introduced the Student of the Month award (which went missing in Ameera's Senior Infants year) and introduced a few other awards too. I have to say, credit to the new Principal as the school has progressed much better than ever.

After two terms of the school year unfortunately, Ameera still hadn't received any sort of award during assembly. I know she is very talkative in class so, it could probably be the main reason. Her teacher this year is very strict. She was a bit upset but she knows that she has to do better next time. Or, at least, be less talkative when the teacher is talking!

On the last Friday of April (which was about two weeks ago now), when I picked her up at the bus stop, she walked towards the car as usual but, she just couldn't stop smiling. When she got to the car, she just blurted it out

Mummy, guess what?!

I got to be Student of the Month today, in assembly!!!

You can just imagine how excited and happy she was. She just couldn't stop telling me all the things she did that month and why she thought she deserved the award.

Mummy's so proud of you baby. I know you're the best and will always feel that way. Love you so much!

I know it's just a certificate, but being Ameera, it does mean a lot to her and made her day. No. It made her whole school year. Oh, and she loves the school so much. Apart from the period we went home she never missed school anymore. She's on a roll now so, here she goes again, she's even received a certificate for Perfect Attendance for the second term.