Lucky me spent three days at St. Mary's primary school. This is the school where Avril, Susan, Maria and Meinita work.(The girls we climbed Rangitoto with, remember?) And since Maria is teamleader, I got permission to stay and learn. I had such a lovely time! The children are at school from 9 - 15, even the 5-yearolds. Talking of 5 - They start school the DAY they turn five! Interesting for me as a teacher. I wanted to see and learn.
The classrooms are big. There are toys and books and tables for art"things" in every classroom. There is also a libary, and every corridor outside the classrooms is filled with bokses in bookshelves with easy-to-read-boklets. They are filed in an incredibly good system making it easy to spot what you need. And need you do, as the children read in groups every day with the teacher, for each other, and at home. What a system! I'm impressed! In the group reading they read the same boklet - together. And talk of it. Every group is for about 4-5 children. Changes every monday, according to progress. They also do writing EVERY DAY - with the teacher from a board, and afterwards individually. And there is good system of testing and help for those who need that. And they have math-activities every day. They have classes from 9-11.30, I think then it was half an hour break, and then an hour break aorund 13. But there is play and activity in the classroom in a low buss when the children have finished their assigned work. Every now and then the teacher puts in a little gym, song etc to activate the brain flow.
I'm putting together a paper - ask me later if you want to read it.
Karen
Oh, and did I say little barefooted kids? New Zealanders are the real vikings!
