A new life and a new beginning for 39 very lucky people

Thirty nine new staff began Orientation on July 26 for two action-packed days. The program began with a welcome and introduction to Woodstock School from Dr David Laurenson. New staff were then led through a maze of general information and filling in of forms. New staff children were not left out, with their own tour of the school, games and crafts and exploration of their amazing new backyards.

Day 2 was just as informative with topics covered including Religious Life, Transition Challenges, Health sessions and An Introduction to India and its Culture. On both evenings, new staff wre hosted to dinners by more experienced staff acting as Buddies. They discovered an amazing way to shop, and are enthusiastically arranging their Indian attire for Indian Independence Day on August 15. Visits to the Bazaar's material shops lined full of chiffons, cottons and silks made decisions very difficult, not to mention taking these to a tailor to create their new masterpieces. This is definitely fun shopping.

This new group of staff is a positive and enthusiastic group of professionals from a diverse representation of countries. From the USA, Sweden, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India, staff bring to Woodstock their talents and enrich our community. They cover all ages from student teachers working here gaining skills, to those in their first teaching positions, to several staff with over 30 years teaching experience. The new staff children, too, have already forged a strong bond as they discuss how similar, yet how different their lives were in their own countries.

Fascinating Facts on our new staff

• Three families in the new intake of staff have adopted children from overseas countries. There is a Swedish family which has adopted from India, an American family with adopted daughters from China, and an Australian family who have adopted from Colombia, South America.
• Two of the new female staff were professional actresses earlier in their careers.
• We also have a new Science Teacher in Senior School who has a Bachelor of Science in Zoology.

Look out for much more in the forthcoming edition of Brown and Gold.

New Staff

Abhrajit Bhattacharjee, Abraham & Bethany Okie, Adam Wunker, Annamarie Craig, Ben & Emerald Windsor, Dag (& Ulsa) Schoier, David Raju, David & Gail Wood, Denzil D'Monte, Emily Schriver, Howard & Jill Wilkins, Ian & Neva Whiteman, Jesse Versluys, Kimberley Ferguson, Lauren Terry, Mike & Mary Ellen Pesavento, Mohd Yusuf, Noel Leon, Paul Gerberding, Prarthana Dickson, Renee Bowling, Ritu Vanhille, Robert Kinkley, S Suryanarayan, Sabrina Kutcher, Sunita Chakravarty, Sushil Emmanuel, Udit Bansal, Upasini Ashit, William & Merideth Garcia, Yaman Shankardas.