Dancing Queen

Emily's end-of-year celebration was on Thursday, and as usual at her school, we were at a bit of a distance from the action, so this picture is a bit blurred and fuzzy.

Anyway, we endured the whole affair, which was mostly ghastly (except for Emily, of course). As you can see, she was beautifully dressed (because we did have time in the end to find her some nice clothes) and (most importantly of all) was smiling during the whole thing and not looking a) worried, b) off into the distance, c) at her feet.

Another best bit was the reenactment of Lord Elgin nicking things from the Acropolis. This involved children dressed as gods and titans first of all posing in a tableau vivant of a frieze from the Parthenon. They were then picked up bodily and carried off across the playground by their classmates, who were playing British robbers under the command of Lord Elgin (portrayed something like a dandified villain from a Victorian melodrama, complete with floppy hat, cloak and cane). The whole thing ended with a stirring call for the return of the marbles to Greece. (And I made sure that my applause was long and loud at this point, in case anyone thought I was on the side of the British Museum and the beastly Elgin).

The worst bits were, well, just about everything else, really. Awful singing (bellowing, really), horrid amplified music and dodgy gender stereotyping (girls make cakes! boys use power tools!). Special mention, though, must go to whoever thought it would be a good idea to round off the evening with a 20-minute Ministry of Education PowerPoint lecture on the importance of nutrition. Zzzzzzzz...