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There were no tears, no tantrums and certainly no clinging on to parents. On the first day of the new term, St Christopher's School infants were bursting to run through the doors of their brand new BD2 million state-of-the-art building, located alongside St Christopher's Junior School in Saar.
The building took 14-months to construct and marked the start of a new chapter for the 560 pupils and 70 staff who moved from the Budaiya and the much-loved Awali sites.
Headmaster at St Christopher's Infants, Ian Fellows, said: "It was wonderful start. Everyone was smiling, calm and happy and it was so nice to see the older children looking after the little ones.
"The best thing this morning was all the brothers and sisters could come to school together, and neighbours and friends were able to gather and chat as they dropped the children off."
Julia Rushton, from Saar, who arrived at the school with her four-year-old son Digby, said: "He was very excited. The whole idea of going to a bigger school made him feel very grown up. It was a little bit daunting moving from such a small provincial school like Awali, but I was more worried than Digby was. He was very happy and thrilled to be at the new school."
Sophia Lord, five, from Saar, could hardly wait to explore her new school.
"She's been talking about the new school all week, she was so excited," explained her mother Vikki. "There were no tears at all and she was so pleased to see all her friends."
For the 171 of pupils who came from the Awali School site there was also a familiar sound to welcome them.
"We rang the old Awali bell, so if felt like we had brought a little piece of Awali with us. That was our piece of nostalgia," said Mr Fellows.
