My attention was diverted as I was driving to school on Thursday morning when I heard the news that about 700 new laws were coming into force in Texas that day.  I had always been led to believe that unlike Hong Kong, where I had been working for the previous seven years, Texas was a fairly unregulated society.  So, could it be possible - 700 new laws in just a single day!!!

Fortunately, many of the new laws were simply changes to the driving rules, which I have started studying to prepare for my Texas driving license test.  These changes were generally good news for me as they simplified the road code in various ways, such as by removing the differential daytime and night speed limits that applied on many roads.

Some of the new regulations seemed less directly applicable to my own personal situation, such as the new law that allows pigs to be shot from helicopters and the new law that permits ‘noodling’ – which I was disappointed to learn is nothing to do with noodles, but is the practice of people using their bare hands to catch catfish.  (Mental note to myself: when going to fancy dress parties in Texas, avoid dressing as a pig or a catfish if the costumes are even slightly realistic).  Sexting (sending sexually explicit pictures or messages from one cellphone to another) is now illegal in Texas, and – happily – school parking lots have been exempted from the new general law that allows employees who legally own guns and ammunition to store them in locked private vehicles parked in company parking lots during business hours.

Without wishing to seem overly parochial in my scope, I have been much more excited by some of the great things happening within the boundaries of my new school to worry too much about all these new regulations.  One of the visible signs of positive change at Awty is the rapid pace of construction of the new classroom block near the main school gate.  When the Middle and Upper School students returned for the new term on 18th August, the classroom block was still nothing more than a large concrete slab and some grand plans.  Now, just a fortnight later, the scale of the building is already becoming apparent (as shown in the photos above and below).  During my seven years in Hong Kong, I found most of the builders to be breathtakingly fast, but I can’t recall a school building project in Hong Kong ever making as much progress in a fortnight as our new building has done.

I had my first board meeting since becoming Head at Awty on Wednesday afternoon.  If all our board meetings are like the one last Wednesday, I think we can look forward to a sustained period of constructive and positive change at Awty.  Unlike my previous school, Awty’s board members come to the School to hold their meetings on the campus, which is a great way to facilitate familiarity and engagement between board members and the School.  For example, last Wednesday, the board agreed to my suggestion to invite the three Division Heads and the Director of Admissions to the first part of the meeting to meet members and give a short presentation on progress in their respective areas of responsibility.  We all felt that this contact was a very welcome initiative, and I expect we will repeat the exercise from time to time.  Overall, I felt that the board meeting was conducted in an extremely efficient and affable manner with a perfect balance between formality and exploratory, creative discussion.  For me as a recently arrived new Head, the positive, affirming tone of the entire meeting was extremely encouraging.

Last Friday afternoon, I encountered something quite unlike anything I have experienced in any of my previous schools.  Under the seemingly innocuous title of “Back to School Social”, this event in the PAAC (gymnasium) attracted hundreds of (mainly younger) children and their parents, drawn by the opportunity to meet people and mingle (in the case of the parents) or the ice cream and inflatable jumping castles (for the children).  It was a thoroughly happy time for everyone present – even the maintenance staff who had the unenviable job of deflating the huge castles at the end.  The two and a half hours simply flashed by for me, and I went home very happy and energized – and not sorry at all that I had spent my time talking to some fascinating people rather than jumping around on inflatable castles.