**There's a lot of text here and just a couple of photos, so skip it if you're not interested.
We've gotten lots of questions about school here so here are a few observations:
- School day started at 9 AM vs. 7:50 AM at home. It seemed very late to us, even after months. With our noisy street, we were all up early so there was time in the mornings to actually do more than dress, eat and run out the door.
- Report cards were sent home only twice a year, at the halfway point and at the end of the year. They were completed, however, weeks before they were actually sent home. This meant that very little academic work happened after their completion - fairly large chunks of time!
- There are no teacher work days built into the school calendar except one per term during the three school school holidays between terms. Frequently the kids would come home from school and announce that they had spent the afternoon, or the day, playing games or watching movies, since their teacher "had to go to a planning meeting." Interesting...
- Scripture classes are taught once a week for 30 minutes on Wednesdays. There are several different options offered: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish or Uniting. We opted for the kids to participate (you can opt out for a reading period) and so they went, moaning and groaning every Wednesday. It's a puzzling thing that this country, which is generally not overly religious, has Scripture taught in the public schools. It was an interesting experience, but the messages coming home were not our thing so next year they'll do Ethics (Mia) or reading.
- There is much less adult supervision during lunch and recess. The kids are sent outside where they eat and play with their grade at the same time as the entire school (600+ kids) under the eye of a few adults. The kids loved, loved, loved this part of Australian school. No need for strict no talking/whispering policies, no micromanaged lines through the hallways, etc. We all wish we could take these practices back home with us! They could truly choose how to spend their free time. Not surprisingly, Sam often opted not to eat much at all since he'd rather play.
- The flip side of less supervision is that parents are not always informed of what's going on. One Sunday Sam informed me that he'd been kicked in the head so hard that his nose bled at recess the previous Friday. No mention from the teacher, office, nurse (there isn't one), etc. A bit disturbing.
- Laid back school administration means that there was no concern for taking your kids out of school, even for long periods of time. Several kids the kids knew left for an entire term (quarter) on vacations. No worries mate.
- Academics? Not exactly rigorous and very little differentiation offered. The curriculum includes things like Spelling and Handwriting which seems a bit of a throwback. The kids all have textbooks, which are purchased, and work from them primarily. Sam definitely takes after his father as his lowest "grades" were regularly handwriting and art. Classes all had Smart Boards and computers but no AC. Each school seem to have a good bit of autonomy so it sounds like other public schools may have used slightly different approaches.
Last day of school photos -
Sam gets ready to clown around at the Christmas Performance
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