Four seasons in one day

Round 23: Autumn 2018

Staff: Principal Augustin Novak is 53, Tatiana Lachance is 35 and Joanna Gottlieb is 23.
Students: Adrienne Novak is 11, Tessa Novak and Rebecca Kirby are both 9, Susannah Carmody, Malcolm Novak, Nathan Collins and Dominic Lachance are all 8, Julia Gray and Hope Collins are both 7, Audrey Lachance and Jack and Charlie Benton are all 6, Sophie Gottlieb, Connor Novak and Camilla and Lila Sitko are all 5 and Elspeth Romilly and Josh Royce-Nihill are both 4.

I know, right? 18 students! I think this is my largest enrolment ever. If you follow me on Twitter or if you happened to see my tweet in the sidebar here, you might have seen that it's going to be even bigger next round! Can you imagine when they all get to high school? Crazy! So you can see why I needed a third teacher.

Augustin is totally pumped and ready for another school day!


Or maybe he's just ready to sit down. Augustin is teaching younger students that he normally does this year - his current class is a mix of Grade 1s and 2s, after years of teaching Grades 3-6 - and he's already worried they're going to run him ragged!

But no, Augustin's class is much better behaved than he was expecting and they're quite happy to just shut up and paint. He never even has to usher them away from the crayons, which are there for the pre-schoolers, when it's their turn in the art room.

The poor novice teacher, Joanna, has been lumped with the trickiest bunch this year - Grades 3-6. It's a struggle for her to even get them to sit in their seats.

Joanna's just going to have to be tough on these kids, which happens to be her forte!

Because seriously, aren't Adrienne and Tessa a little old for Cops and Robbers?

Finally, all the kids are sitting down with their heads in their books and Joanna sets about her next task - making sure they're actually understanding what they're reading.

Down in Tatiana's pre-school/kindergarten room, all is quiet. The Sitko twins are reading the same book, at exactly the same pace. Josh can't really read yet but is giving it a good hot go on his own anyway. If he just stares at the words for long enough, maybe it'll all make sense to him.

Elspeth can't read either but rather than trudge through alone, she's asked Tatiana for some help. That's what the teacher is there for, right?

Hmmm, Julia, I could have sworn you were supposed to be in class! It is not play time yet!

Ah, I see. Is skipping class okay when it's so you can toss a football around with your principal?

Now it's play time! Tatiana takes the opportunity to introduce herself to her new colleague, Joanna.

She won't lie: her first impressions of Joanna were not great.

Joanna just has a tendency to be abrasive though, especially with people she doesn't know well. It's probably something she'll have to work on now that she's out in the real world but once she and Tatiana get over the first little bump, they actually get along pretty well!

So Elspeth Romilly appears to have quite the little attitude for someone who's only been on the planet for four years. Connor doesn't know what he's getting himself in for.

She's pretty adorable though, which is probably how she gets away with it!

At lunch time, Adrienne and Rebecca are the only kids not on the playground. Chess is the only game Adrienne is interested in at school and she's roped Rebecca into an extremely long game.

Rebecca is more sporty than anything else but she takes her chess games very seriously!

She really doesn't like it when Adrienne cheats!

Oooh, secrets about the teacher! That's not nice. Wonder what they're gossiping about? A teacher in a gay relationship would probably be pretty big news at the school I teach at but it shouldn't be that interesting to Susannah and Hope. Susannah has two mothers, one of whom is Hope's aunt. So who knows? Whatever it is, Lila is trying to listen in.

Julia is just waiting for a break in this silly Cops and Robbers game so she can befriend Jack Benton.

Before she has a chance, Audrey moves in! Jack's a popular kid. If you want to hang out with him, get in line!

Maybe Julia can sneak in while Audrey is waiting for her turn on the monkey bars! Hey Malcolm and Josh, you're supposed to actually manoeuvre yourselves along the bars, so as to have this thing people call "fun". Hanging there motionless for hours on end (and it probably was hours) doesn't seem much like fun.

And where was Augustin in all of this? Well, he was up in the music room, practising his stand-up comedy routine. Which, uh, didn't seem very funny. Comedian is probably not going to be Augustin's next career move.

And we're outta here! Augustin used to stay at school late every evening, finishing up but now, he rushes everyone out at 3pm so he can lock up. He's only a couple of years away from retirement and he's really just running out the clock!

Notes:

• Title is from Four Seasons in One Day by Crowded House.
• I'm not sure if I'll put Joanna in the education career or not but I'll probably keep her at the school long term. This was Augustin's last round as principal. He's got the want to retire so I'm going to have him retire from SPS too. I'll have him pass the school onto Hanna, as she's showing no signs of wanting to slow down. If she rolls the want to retire...well, I don't know who my third teacher will be!
• I think Rebecca is a Knowledge Sim in the making. She rolls more skilling wants than any other kids at school. Similarly, I think Audrey and Jack are future Popularity Sims. Audrey wants to make friends with everyone and everyone wants to make friends with Jack!