Day 4

I was in Class 1 today which has children aged 4-5 in it.  I was surprised to see how much free play the children were given and how much choice they had.  There was very little difference between the class that I was in today and the equivalent in Sweden.  One difference I did see was that the children have more space, better facilities and more support, however I don't think this is the norm.  There are only 11 children in the group and I was told about schools having 30 + children in a similar class in the city.  The one on one support that the children receive is impressive.

I got the privilege of taking the children one by one outside and supporting them while they painted onto a see through plastic 'canvas'.  They had to paint what they saw and then we transferred the image to a piece of paper.  It was so interesting to watch how these young children worked, many of them happily singing away as they painted.  The children had no time limit and they were free to paint whichever part of the playground they preferred.  The interpretations the children had of different things was the highlight of my day.

More similarities and differences, compared to Sweden.....

• All of the wall space is utilised to showcase the children's work or to give helpful advice.  Look at the tricky word tree in Class 2:    

and the Ancient Egypt display in Class 3:

and some important messages that Class 3 would like to give to the world:

The classrooms I have seen in Sweden have very little wall space and I have only seen very small displays that showcase the pupils work.  When I am a class teacher, I will make sure that my pupils' work is given lots of space on the wall.  I know myself how much pride I felt as a child to see my hard earned work up on the wall for all to see!

• I have seen a real sense of community in the school.  All the teachers know all the pupils and all the pupils seem to know each other.  Each week the school has a new value  and this week it has been co-operation.  In the daily assemblies I have seen different teachers talking about this value with topics ranging from the Miners in Chile, the Commonwealth Games and solving the problem of eating with giant chopsticks!  Yes, the kids managed to work it out :).  The school has been practising for their Harvest Festival celebration on Monday and all the classes have been practising their songs.  Having a common goal to work towards brings the school together and helps to promote a positive environment.  I have not seen anything like this in my time in Sweden.  The children don't sing in assemblies and I have not seen a common value that changes each week.   

• A similarity is older children reading with the younger children.  This encourages the older children to be responsible and helps the younger children feel like a part of the school.  I happy to see this being used in both Countries.