British classrooms #2 and Diamond Jubilee

Hello!! Busy week.......basically because the sun was shining for so many days in a row, which means I was outside until 9 or 10 o'clock to enjoy it each day!!!  I even got to wear shorts!! Come on London, let's keep it up all summer!

afternoon in a beer garden to enjoy the sunny weather!!

So, in my last post I was talking about my first private school experience (4 days at the same school last week). Here were some of my observations/notes:

the school was in a former church.....look at the stained glass windows!!

1)  It was Preschool 2 (reception-4 &5 yr olds) and they were doing really advanced stuff! I did a phonics lesson with them on oi/oy, sh/ch, etc and they understood it! They also wrote sentences independently!

2) They wear little blazers and ties with their uniform-like little adults.......uniforms....what do we think about these?

aprons on hooks

3) The class size was a bit smaller than classes in England (22 compared with 30......every class in England state schools has 30 almost always).

4) They have specialist teachers for P.E., music, ballet, etc. (this is not the case in state schools)

5) They had the most amazing lunches I have seen.......and all the kids in this class wore aprons! (sidenote.....the school feeds the staff for free.......Brie cheese, baguette, custard with cake......needless to say that I may have gorged myself in my 4 days at the school)........oh and there were 4-5 adults to monitor/help 50 students at lunch (I think schools in Arizona usually have 2 adults for 100 students??)

6) We did Aborginal art as they finished a unit on Australia. Love it!

7) They had French Day (remember France is only 2 1/2 hours away, and it seems most of these students had been there).........there was an assembly where students shared facts, art, etc. A parent came in that speaks fluent French and read a fairytale in English/French........wow, what a beautiful language!

8) The ladies I worked with were absolutely lovely to me. They invited me to sit in on a before school planning meeting and we ate lunch together. I might have applied for a job, but half of the staff was leaving......this usually raises red flags to me.

9) Packing up was excruciating. As independent as they were, I had to pack their bags for them while another teacher read a book to them!! This process included: fishing out all of their book bags from a tub, sorting reading log books, sorting phonics homework folder, and things from their trays. Ummmmm, this took FOREVER and they do it like this everyday! 

10) I like the way they mount and trim the students' artwork for displays (see below)

this displayed wasn't finished, but the teacher let me take a picture anyway

up close

"Mini-beast" unit...these are pictures created in Paint by the students. 

In conclusion, this particular school did not seem to be out-of-this-world type of education (no field or smartboards either!?), which sortof dispels the private school myth for me (although this is only 1 school). It was an interesting experience and the children were wonderful. It was an enjoyable week.

{{ Diamond Jubilee }}

The Queen has been reigning for 60 years and the celebrations for that are this weekend.all weekend.

It's kindof a big deal here.

I don't think I will ever need to see a Union flag or red, white and blue bunting ever again.

Every school, every pub, every store, everything.covered in jubilee stuff.

store front window

clothes!?

makeup counters

pub

Has there been much talk of this Diamond Jubilee in the States.......or mainly just about the Olympics? Busy summer for England!

Thanks for reading,

Kelli