Summer greetings to all our GOJO students and supporters! I hope you are suitably cooled and hydrated as you read this! We here at GOJO have been following every precaution possible to stay cool, safe and hydrated while maximizing our opportunities for outdoor and indoor fun and learning!

We are offering hydration sweets to our students every morning, having plenty of water breaks, and enjoying the luxury of our brand new air conditioning system, installed in the sky room!!!

On the morning of the 29th our resident doctor of the Arts, Professor Frith took us to get lost in the woods!!

The purpose of this excursion was to find patterns and inspiration in nature that we could turn into art! Mr Frith introduced us to the works of British artist, Richard Long, an ardent hiker and nature lover. He makes site specific pieces in the field using any natural resources that are at hand. There is a strong ecological aspect to his work, which seeks to create maximal beauty with minimal negative impact on the surrounding environment! With that in mind, students located natural artefacts such as leaves and twigs etc and structured them into art pieces. The results were magnificent!

In the afternoon we took a well earned rest and relaxed to a movie, the international animated production, Kubo and the Two Strings! What a fantastic movie it was! Set in medieval Japan, a moving meditation on the power and importance of storytelling! The movie was all the more relavant to students as it featured the creative prowess of one of our very own GOJO parents!!!

The next day, we had a big trip to the scenic Azumino Alps Park! In the morning, we relaxed in the paddling pool after feeding a teacher to the local shark!

After lunch we cooled down indoors. We had a look at the informative and interesting aquarium stuffed with all manner of scaled and bug eyed beasties! Once we had digested our lunch we had a crafting activity organized by the wonderful miss Chino! She helped the students craft colourful wooden calendars to help guide them through the year!

All in all it was a wonderful experience! Thanks to the students, teachers and everyone who has helped us create such a memorable and entertaining summer program! I can’t wait for next week!