In honour of back to school time back home, I thought I’d write about some of our experiences of going to a public primary school in Newcastle (primary school is from Kindergarten to Year/Grade 6). Here we are winding down towards our first school break at the end of this week. Two weeks off!!!
One similarity to our school in Vancouver is its student population: 550ish. It is one of the larger primary schools in Newcastle. It doesn’t feel that big, though, because the buildings are spread out around varying outdoor spaces. There is a library and a computer room, and each classroom uses a SmartBoard for lessons. No real gymnasium, though! They do have a carpeted hall but generally they do sports outside. They have 3 bands, 2 choirs, and numerous school sports teams. There is a lot of grassy field space on the school grounds, which is well-used throughout the day (I hear it all when I’m at home as we live next door!). Too bad we cannot access it after school hours; it is totally fenced in and the gate is locked, so as to prevent vandalism. They have chickens and a garden, too!
A few other observations:
Uniforms—they’re great for getting dressed in the morning and to identify kids on a field trip. However, they do cost a bit of money, especially when items get lost and you have to buy new ones! They are required to wear a school hat to go outside (if they don’t have one, they only can stay in the covered areas), and they also are supposed to wear only black or white shoes (Tobias got in trouble for his shoes once). So far we’ve spent about $140 on uniform wear, including second hand items (which are reasonably priced). We’ll need to buy a few more things as the kids grow, too. The other issue that cropped up was trying to find my boys outside when there are 550 some-odd kids wearing the exact same thing! That was when they wore different shoes, so that made it easier.
School times—they’re pretty much the same. The slight differences are recess and lunch: recess is at 11AM but lunch is not until 1PM! I guess the later times do give the kids more time in the morning when they’re at their best to do their work. My kids haven’t complained about the change anyhow.
School fees—and I thought we paid a lot back home! It appears that every term there are fees, which cover things like supplies, books, web resources (for spelling, math, etc) and some field trips. In July we paid $40 for the boys as well as $70 more for other fees from the previous terms for items they were still using or doing (meaning the whole cost was higher). I’m curious how much fees for the last term will be. There may be extra costs on top of those fees, too, depending upon other excursions. For example, Lukas is going to be taking swimming lessons during school time in the next term (good thing!) but it costs each student $45.
Canteen—now here’s a great thing! Every day for lunch and recess the canteen is open from which students can order food/drinks. You can pre-order each morning or buy at the window. They have quite the menu to choose from: healthy snacks, salads, pizza, chicken chippies (chicken fingers), sandwiches, popsicles, etc. It is quite the production though, as it depends upon parent volunteers. I’ve spent one day volunteering so far, and it really does take most of the morning to organize the orders. (Those poor kids, I didn’t know what half of the things were, where they were located, how much they cost, and a couple of the students I couldn’t understand!).
Assemblies: twice a week, there are short assemblies. The first one, on Monday mornings, is for the whole school, where a rundown of all that is happening that week occurs, and special acknowledgements are given out. The other assemblies are age specific and in those, little performances happen and awards are presented. All students get several awards throughout the year; they are acknowledged for things such as improvements in academics and for positive social skills. Both boys received an award for settling into school so well; Lukas received another for “consistent concentration during reading groups” and Tobias for “working well in Focus on Reading groups”.
Sport—If it is Friday, that means sport! Kids get to learn about and practice a new sport for about an hour or so in the afternoon or in the morning of every Friday, depending upon their age. The boys have played volleyball, soccer, Frisbee, cricket amongst some other games and sport. This is in addition to regular PE times.
There always is something going on at school: in the past weeks, there has been a disco, a Sports Carnival for the K-2’s, talent show (Tobias was in an act called, “Australia’s Got No Talent), spelling bee and Tobias joined the Drumming Club. I would say there is something fun for everyone. Tobias says he loves school here and looks forward to it every day!
And to keep up your Aussie slang:
“Party pie”: little meat pie. They sell them everywhere!
“COLA”: covered learning area at school—very important in this sunny climate!
“arvo”: afternoon
Bubblers, haitches and paddlepops 