By Tim Munday | Project Leader
The school year here is built around the seasons, and the key national holidays. Summer is very long and hot, and so schools in Kazakhstan only run from 1st September to the end of May. New Year is a natural break (and a very big festival!) which splits the academic year into two halves, whilst the Kazakh New Year at the equinox in late March splits the second half into its two quarters.
All that means that there is no half-term break here like some countries have, and so we're currently in the long quarter through the cold of winter from early January until mid-March. But when that's done, the warmth of Spring will already be in the air, and only a couple of months will remain before the long summer break arrives once more.
For now, Mary and her friends in 4th class are doing a great job of studying together. Mary has had some struggles in the last few months with her teacher's style and the draining drudgery of winter here, but she's still doing well and appreciating her opportunity to study at Salem, as well as making a new friend with a recent arrival to their class. 'I love studying at this school,' she says. And you can see that she means it.
Thanks to all our sponsors for making this a possiblity for Mary, your generosity is really appreciated by her and her family.
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