Categories
50s to 90s

Sunshine School 1980 – 1990

I recently found out that it’s the British School of Kuwait’s 40 year anniversary. What not everyone knows is the little fun fact the school used to be called Sunshine School when it first opened in the late 70s up until 1990. I was in Sunshine School from 1980 to 1990 and I was part of the last class to graduate from it before the Iraqi invasion, after that, things got a bit messy and I ended up bouncing a lot from school to school and country to country until I finally graduated high school.

Because of the 40th anniversary, the school is publishing a small book and asked me if I had any photos to contribute since I’ve previously shared photos on the blog. I did of course and so had my sister mail me all the Sunshine School photos we had stored in our family home in Lebanon so I could scan them.

What’s cool is I posted some of my karate club photos taken in the early 80s and one of my followers recognized the karate instructor and sent me a link to his Facebook account. Turns out up until recently, he was still teaching karate in Kuwait.

There are 58 pictures and you can check them out after the link below. If you want the hi-res scan they’re also available to download on Flickr.

If you recognize yourself in any of the photos let me know!




Categories
50s to 90s People

Sunshine School 1980-84

Back in the 80s the British School of Kuwait used to be called Sunshine School. It started off as a nursery before eventually turning into a middle school. My class I believe was the second class to graduate from the school (Junior 4), but it was also the last class since the 1990 invasion happened and the school ended up closing down. Once the war was over it reopened again as BSK.

This past weekend while in Lebanon I found a bunch of photos, two of which I’m sharing here. The first one on top I believe was taken at Sunshine School when it was still a nursery, based on my age in that picture I’d say around 1980-1981.

The photo above was taken at their second campus. In total, Sunshine School had three campuses, the third one is still around but I think the first two were demolished ages ago.

If you’re in any of the photos by some weird chance let me know. I have another photo I scanned this weekend in which I found three current friends of mine in not knowing they were in my class back then.

Here are the photos above in full res [Picture 1] [Picture 2]




Categories
50s to 90s

Pictures from Sunshine School – Early 80s

sunshine

I was rummaging through some boxes and found some photos of when I was in Sunshine School back in the early 80s. For those of you who don’t know, the British School of Kuwait (BSK) used to be called Sunshine School before the 1990 invasion. Sunshine School originally started off as a nursery and then moved to the campus showing in the pictures below (except for the one with the Kids R Us bag). After that they moved to another campus (the picture with the Kids R Us bag) and then the invasion happened. After the invasion they moved to their current location and renamed themselves to BSK. My class was the last class to graduate from Sunshine School (Junior 4). They didn’t have a high school back then, Junior 4 was their highest grade. Anyway check out the photos below:




Categories
50s to 90s Kuwait

Sunshine School

class photo

My sister emailed me my old class photo taken in the early 80’s while I was in Sunshine School here in Kuwait (its now called BSK). Its a pretty cool retro looking picture with lots of nice colors, check out the larger version [Here]




Categories
Interviews Promoted

Welcome to the New Sunshine Kindergarten

The Sunshine School first opened its doors in 1978 and has been a pioneer in early childhood education since then. For many of us, it’s where our early memories of school life began and it is where I spent my nursery and kindergarten days in the early 80s. You can check out some old photos I had previously scanned and shared by clicking here.

The Sunshine School has now evolved into The Sunshine Kindergarten (TSK), continuing its long-standing tradition of pioneering early childhood education. Today, TSK remains true to its roots in leading the way with a holistic curriculum that makes learning feel like an adventure for every child who walks through its doors.

Recently, the school went through an incredible transformation of its campus. In partnership with talented architects and educational experts from Edge Hill University in the UK they have worked to create an extraordinary child-centred learning environment. The result? An incredible nurturing environment that sparks curiosity, encourages exploration and makes social interactions feel as natural as playtime.

Some of the cool innovative areas in the redevelopment include:

  • Active play spaces, including a climbing wall
  • A beautiful and cosy library curated to ignite a love of reading
  • A specialist music room where future musicians can get creative
  • Quiet spaces like a sensory pod for times of relaxation and sensory exploration
  • Free-flowing indoor and outdoor areas, perfect for playing and gardening

On top of all this, TSK is putting a big focus on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), making sure children develop a lifelong love for learning and innovation. Following their time at TSK, students move on to their partner school, The British School of Kuwait, where they’ll continue their education and benefit from special partnerships such as their unique curriculum collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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A post shared by The Sunshine Kindergarten (TSK) (@tsk.edu.kw)

Registration is now open for the new school year, starting in September 2024, for children from 19 months to 4 years. You can apply through their website tsk.edu.kw or reach out via WhatsApp at +965 9300 0504. Also, check them out on Instagram at @tsk.edu.kw




Categories
50s to 90s

Celebrating the British School of Kuwait

For those of you who didn’t know this, the first school I went to was called Sunshine School back in the 80s. It only went up to primary and my class was the last one to graduate from it back in 1990, just a couple of months before the Iraqi invasion in August. I still have a lot of photos from back when I was in Sunshine School and over the years I’ve been scanning them then sharing them on the blog.

In 1993, Sunshine School reopened as the British School of Kuwait and a couple of years ago (early 2019) I got approached by them asking me if I had more photos I could scan and share. They were working on an anniversary book and the school themselves didn’t have any pictures from the 80s and so were getting in touch with old students to see if they had any. That gave me a good reason to have all my school photos mailed to me by my sister in Lebanon which is why I ended up scanning so many and uploading them online back in 2019.

It took a while but the anniversary book finally got published and I got my copy a few weeks ago. The book was designed and printed in the UK and is really beautifully done. I’ve got a large spread in the book (pictured above) and although the section on BSK pre-invasion isn’t that large, it was great seeing the other photos they had of the school including the staff photo pictured below. I recognize so many of my teachers in it, I kinda wish I knew where they all are now or what they did after they left Kuwait.

Even though I got my copy of the book a while back I didn’t want to post about it until the book went on sale and it just did a few days ago. If you were a Sunshine School student or BSK student, they have a limited number of copies for sale. They’re priced at KD30 each and contain nearly 200 pages of photos, writeups and information on the school. They deliver internationally as well. The book is really well designed and it’s a hardcover so will look great on your bookshelf. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy then click here.




Categories
50s to 90s Interesting Kuwait

New English School, circa 1969

When I found these photos yesterday I was completely taken aback, other than the fact I had no idea that NES first opened in 1969 (I thought they opened much later), I didn’t know they first started off in a villa and a really beautiful one.

I love how this is most likely common knowledge to every NES student ever, yet I just found out about all this even though it’s been basically been my job for the past 18 years to find out about things like this. I guess I was too obsessed with digging up stuff on my school (Sunshine School) that I didn’t really even consider looking at other schools in Kuwait.

In any case, I found these photos partially on the NES Facebook account and partially on their website. I’m really impressed with the fact they still had these photos and had actually taken the time to scan and upload them. I really really love all these photos and mostly because how they totally don’t look like Kuwait.

The first classes of NES opened in a villa in Shamiyah, actually starting at Secondary level and very soon after extending backwards to Kindergarten. It was soon apparent that this educational venture was outgrowing the original premises, so a purpose built campus was opened in 1974, and to date, improvements and extensions continue to maintain an environment that allows students to thrive. source

There are more photos on their Facebook page and website, but you can check out my favorites in my post above a lot more inside this post below.




Categories
50s to 90s Videos

Al-Jamil School, Class of 1978

My cousin used to go to Al-Jamil but I had no idea it was that old. I actually just googled it and found out it originally opened back in 1960! This is from Wikipedia:

Al-Jamil Private School, Salmya was created in 1960 by a partnership including its first principal, Khawla Rizk, a Lebanese woman who was residing in Kuwait at the time. Al-Jamil started out as a private school in a hangar belonging to the Caterpillar, Inc. dealership in Surra, now a suburb of Kuwait City. In the late 70’s the school had nearly 1200 students in 1st through 12th grade. It produced some of the top students at the national level. In 1980 three of the top 10 national secondary school certificate list came from Al Jamil. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991, the Surra school campus became deserted and was later relocated to Maydan Hawalli. The old campus still remains deserted a reminder and a standing testimony to the damage caused by the tyrant of Iraq.

Does anyone have any footage from Sunshine School between 1980-1990? If you do, let me know I’ll help you digitize it.




Categories
50s to 90s Kuwait Videos

American School of Kuwait – Summer of 1988 video

Video from the last day of school at ASK back in 1988. I didn’t know they had the bubble back then. Very cool video, wish I had a Sunshine School 1988 video.. [YouTube]




Categories
50s to 90s Interesting Kuwait Videos

Kuwait: Class Of 1990

Anyone know when this documentary on Al Jazeera will be showing or if they’ve already shown it. The subject seems very interesting since its about reuniting class mates years after the 1990 Iraqi invasion. In 1990 I graduated from Sunshine School which ceased to exist right after the Iraqi invasion (later it became BSK). I never ended up seeing anyone ever again but with the help of the Sunshine School Facebook group I was able to get in touch with some of them again. [YouTube]

Update: Taken from the Al Jazeera website

On August 2, 1990, the Iraqi army invaded the emirate of Kuwait, which Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, had declared Iraq’s 19th province.

The occupation of Kuwait may have only lasted seven months, yet the memory of it remains strong, not least in the minds of the children of that conflict.

At the end of the school year of 1990, students in an international school in Kuwait said their final farewells as they headed off for the summer holidays. Many of them would never meet again.

Al Jazeera’s Nashwa Nasreldin was one of those whose family was forced to relocate following the invasion.

Twenty years on, she returns to Kuwait, the country of her birth, along with a group of her classmates as they organise a reunion to find out what happened to their friends – and their school – during the war that separated them.

Kuwait: The class of 1990 can be seen from Monday, August 2, 2010 at the following times GMT: Monday: 1900; Tuesday: 0600; Wednesday: 0300; Thursday: 1400; Friday: 0600; Saturday: 1900; Sunday: 0300.




Categories
Interesting Mags & Books

Aesop’s Fables

One of my favorite books ever, Aesop’s Fables, is now available as a PDF download. I was given this book as a gift for my first communion by the owner of my middle school then (Sunshine School) when I was a lot younger and I still have it at home. You can download the PDF file from here. You can also find other popular books here.