In this blog we have written about some aspects of schooling in New Zealand, but as we are nearing the end of our stay in New Zealand, we thought it would be fun to organize our impressions about school life here and reflect on some of those differences. Here are some thoughts based on our experiences at Warkworth Primary School and Mahurangi College.
Academic tracking: Children are explicitly placed into groups based on academic ability at the college (secondary) level. There are “low banders”, “middle banders” and “high banders”. This is done in a subtler way in the primary (elementary) school. Children are grouped for reading, math (mathS here) and spelling based on their performance on assessment tests. At the primary level, these placements are more fluid as there is frequent assessment. The upside is that the children are working precisely at the level where they are performing. The downside (especially at the college level) is, most obviously, the labeling. It can have a motivating effect. Annick and Isaac moved up every month or so to a new reading level and this pleased them greatly!
Barefoot children: We still get tickled by this one. At the college level, children are required to be barefoot during physical education. However, at the primary level, most children go around school barefoot all day long.
Camps: New Zealand schools love leadership and team-building camps. Almost every year, a given class will go on some sort of two- to three-day overnight adventure experience together, reminiscent of summer camp in the USA.
Donations: Nearly all public schools ask for a family donation to the school at the beginning of the year. It is a set amount which is strongly requested, but never required. In lieu of being bombarded with dozens of products to buy throughout the school year like wrapping paper and pizza mixes, we paid once and that was it. The only other fundraiser for the school was the gala, a fair with loads of games, entertainment and food. This functioned as much as a community builder as a fundraiser. We were thrilled that we didn’t have to act as ravenous consumers just to feel we were supporting our school.
Expectations: Given that New Zealand performs very well worldwide on math and literacy tests (always somewhere in the top five in the world!), we were a little surprised that academic expectations were not particularly high. New Zealand seems very strong in preparing their children to be solidly literate citizens of society, but not so driven to create mentally energetic scholars. At the primary level, we found school to be comparable with our “home school” in the United States. College was less challenging for Xavier than Bala Cynwyd Middle School.
Free time: The school day is slightly shorter here (9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the primary students, 8:40 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. for the secondary students) and more breaks are built into the day. There is a morning tea time and a long lunch with plenty of time to eat, play and hang out with schoolmates. Consequently, the children seemed more focused and less tired.
Garbage in, garbage out: In an effort to reduce waste, children are not allowed to throw anything from their lunchboxes into the rubbish bins. If you pack a yogurt for lunch, you must also provide a way for your child to bring home the empty container. There is a lot less paper floating around Kiwi schools than American schools. For better or for worse, children spend more time copying things off the board into their own notebooks than filling out printed worksheets.
Hats: The primary school requires that children wear brimmed hats in Terms 1 and 4 (the summery terms). There is a high incidence of skin cancer in New Zealand and given how often the children are outside, they strictly enforce this policy.
Instruments: There is some musical instruction in the schools. At the primary level, in addition to doing a lot of singing, the children learn to play the recorder and the ukulele.
Jesus plays a part in Kiwi schools. In the primary school on Friday mornings, the children receive religious education based on Christian teachings. Easter and Christmas stories are shared in the classroom. The younger children even perform a nativity play in December. We found this a bit odd as most people we met in New Zealand are not at all religious.
Kiwiana: As expected, the New Zealand (national) curriculum centers on New Zealand. Our children learned a lot this year about Kiwi history, culture, geography, plants, animals and language. After ten months in New Zealand, we all know a whole lot more about kowhai trees, kiwi birds and the historical significance of Kerikeri.
Lice: Infestations of lice are a common occurrence in New Zealand and Australian schools. No one reacts very much to a case of nits as most children expect to get them at some point, much like catching the common cold. We learned early on that tea tree oil shampoo helps to keep them at bay and we have been lucky to have escaped so far.
Maori: There is no French instruction at Warkworth Primary or Mahurangi College, but our children have learned some Maori this year. It is a challenging language and difficult to pronounce. Most enjoyable is that the children can now chant the “Haka”, a Maori war dance.
New Zealand national anthem: Our children have learned to sing it in both English AND Maori.
Outdoors: Even at school, life in New Zealand revolves around the outdoors. Kiwi classrooms are connected by covered outdoor walkways opening out onto courtyards. Indoor hallways are almost non-existent. There is no cafeteria. Children eat outside on wooden tables. Every day, the children are able to see the sun (or the clouds) and have fresh air for at least 20% of the school day! This was a huge psychological perk for our children.
Puhoi bus: The school bus picks up ALL the schoolchildren (from five- to eighteen-years-old) at 8:15 in the morning in front of the General Store. It is a comfortable, coach-style bus. It takes about 15-20 minutes to travel to Warkworth where the college students are dropped off before the primary students get delivered. At the end of the day, the primary students board just after 3 o’clock and then ride over to pick up the college kids before starting the trip home. It is heartwarming to see how the older kids befriend and look out for the younger ones. All the children of all ages giggle, goof off and chat together on the bus.
Quaint atmosphere: Sometimes the word “quaint” is used in a patronizing way and that is not our intention here. One of the things we love most about the schools here is the cozy, comfortable, old-fashioned ambiance. It is laid back and not at all legalistic. It is true that there is a lack of glitzy, high-tech resources at the schools here. Students don’t give powerpoint presentations nor are they even expected to have access to a computer at home, but there is a lot of personalized care. Especially at the primary school, we felt our children were really embraced. When we needed something, we felt we could ask and it would be delivered in a timely manner without reams of paperwork and meetings.
Reading and writing are taught in a different way than at home in Cynwyd. There is less emphasis on phonemic reading and more time spent on sight words. Children are given lists of the most commonly used English words in reading and writing. Through various means, they are encouraged to learn these. Children are assessed and placed in reading groups with children of a similar level. The school has loads of small, simple books that are color coded to correspond with each reading level. Each child reads a given book at school with adult guidance, brings the book home to read with a parent for homework and then rereads the same book a third time at school the next day. Seeing the same, appropriate-level book three times helped the twins progress rapidly with reading. Like the reading program, the writing program is very structured and systematic. The teachers provide formulas to follow for certain kinds of writing and then guide the children through them. The methodology used here worked very well for our children.
Sports figure prominently in Kiwi society. Kiwi children are involved in all sorts of sporty activities including swimming, cricket, rugby, sailing and surfing. Even the primary school has a small pool and a huge field for playing sports. Quentin benefited the most this year from the sports programs. He participated in several swim competitions and won plenty of recognition. He also discovered that he can throw a mean cricket pitch!
Technology: Xavier was required to take a number of technology courses this year such as food tech (cooking), fabric tech (fashion design and sewing) and metal tech (welding). In case he didn’t already know, Xavier learned that he isn’t fond of gooey lemon bars, he does not have a gift for putting together fabulous outfits and one can get burned while using a soldering iron.
Uniforms: Even public school students wear uniforms in most New Zealand schools. Surprisingly, our kids loved them. There was no worry about what to wear each day and everyone looked the same, eliminating much of the “cool” factor amongst the kids. Once in awhile, the school would host “mufti” days when the kids could wear their own clothes. These were special days where most students would bring in a gold coin (a dollar) in exchange for the privilege of wearing street clothes and the money would go to a charitable cause. On school trips, the uniform is a real plus as it is much easier to identify your school’s students. At the end of the school day, however, it is sometimes hard to find your own children in a sea of similarly dressed kids.
Virtues and Vices: The Kiwi children we have met are generally very polite and imaginative. They are refreshingly not materialistic and very rarely spoiled. However, they do curse a lot! The primary school actually includes the teaching of virtues like courtesy and helpfulness in the curriculum.
Whanau is the Maori word for family. At Mahurangi College, all the students were assigned to a whanau group that they stayed with throughout their years at Mahu. There is a mix of kids in there from all class years. It is yet another way the school encourages children of different classes to interact with each other.
Xenophiles or xenophobes? New Zealand is just starting to really struggle with a more pluralistic society. Up until recently, there were New Zealanders of European descent (mostly British Isles, but some Dutch) and the Maori people. Closer to Auckland, there are far more immigrants than further north near Puhoi. There is some backlash toward Asians in particular. Mostly, New Zealanders do seem tolerant. At school, there were some Australian students, some British, a few Asian children and a group of children from the Pacific Islands like Samoa and Kiribati. Curiously, about ten percent of the children in Year 3 with Annick and Isaac were from Kiribati.
Year-Round School: Well, not quite, but more than our school district back home. The New Zealand school year begins in early February and ends in late December. It is divided into four terms with two weeks of holiday between each term except after Term 4 when there are six to seven weeks of summer holidays. We liked this pattern. The summer holidays were long enough to feel like a good, long, restful break, but it was awesome to have three two-week breaks elsewhere in the year.
Zenith moments: Warkworth Primary School is excellent at finding ways to recognize and reward the achievements of their students. The children are given certificates every time they progress into a new reading level, for example. There is a school assembly every two weeks to share school news and to give awards. The awards can be very simple. Annick won one for “outstanding effort in all academic areas”, Isaac for "settling quickly to tasks and taking responsibility", and Quentin for "being a most reliable sports shed monitor".
