I last posted 24/9 to say he was happy and that was great. Now I really can rave about them!

He's been at school for 6 weeks and is already able to read simple, short stories. He hasn't had a reading book sent home yet, but he has learnt his phonics so thoroughly, that he can segment and blend really well already. They learn 4 letters and 4 HF words each week. While we're supportive at home (I'm a teacher, so no excuses!), he hasn't shown any interest in reading for himself until he started school, so I've never pushed it as I didn't want to put him off. He's always loved books though. His aural awareness of beginning and ending sounds was quite good, but he had no knowledge of what everything looked like on the page. I have some early reading books at home, and he was able to get through them with minimal help last week. He can also write all the letters he's learnt (though not with perfect formation a lot of the time LOL). I was sooo chuffed because he's such a lively boys' boy, with a really short concentration span, that I wondered how he'd do at school. They must be doing a great job IMO!

I have something positive to say thank goodness as I was getting a little worried the way things were going for my ds who has just started Reception - has has special needs also.

Well he has calmed down an awful lot and fingers crossed I hope this just isn't a novelty that will wear off. The structured routine at the school seems to be helping him to cope with his hyperactivity/impulsiveness and OMG after nearly 2 year's at Preschool and no little drawings hardly at all I have had more in the past few weeks at school than I had in the whole 2 year's at Preschool.

He is talking about adding/taking away, very interested in reading and writing and although I have always encouraged him with everything the school seems to have really motivated him and I am so proud of him.

Hopefully he will go from strength to strength now. So at the moment a BIG thumbs up from me.

I think my dds school is great.  they have golden time on a friday where they get to do something fun.  If you do something naughty in the week then you loose 5 minutes of golden time on a friday, but can make it back up if you're well behaved after.  Think this is a good idea to get kids to be good.  They also get given raffle tickets throughout the week for various reasons such as doing well in the weekly spelling and mental maths tests,trying hard in lessons and also for being helpful etc.  There is a little prize given on a friday for who evers name is drawn.  So obviously the harder you try the more tickets you get and more chance of winning.

They also have a school council that children from year 2 onwards get voted onto. My dd is very proud to have been voted in as the girl councellor from her class, and has her photo up in the corridor with all the other councellors for the year.  Kids get to put suggestions in a box that get read at the weekly council meetings and get discussed and voted on.

All the classes take turns having class assemblies on a friday where the particular class talks in front of the rest of the school about what they have been learning about etc.parents can go and watch which is nice.

They also have loads of after school and at lunch time activities, from reception year onwards like cooking, yoga, table tennis, languages, sports. 

My ds who will be 5yr on the 23rd started school in September.  Prior to this he was in nursery (& prior to that kindergarten in Germany).

He loved Kindergarten in Germany, but it was German speaking & he learnt German but didn't speak English other than a few words.  At 3 & a half he started nursery back in the UK & he went from being outgoing to being clingy.  Every time I took him to nursery I had to take him to the room & peel him off my leg.  His speech improved & I asked nursery LOADS of times whether his speech was delayed (they had a speech therapist go on so he could have been helped there prior to school) they told me it was fine & even put this on the record of transfer.  As for the clinginess the manager told me "If you don't get it sorted out before school he'll get bullied by the other kids & called a mummy's boy"

I spoke to his teacher prior to him starting school about his speech & his clinginess & she suggested that they would let him settle in first & then they would look into it all & gave me examples of what they could do with both.

Well, he has never once clung to me he tells me he LOVES school & is disappointed when it's the weekend.  They have referred him externally to a speech therapist but have said that given his background it's not surprising that he is behind.  While waiting for the speech therapist appt they will make sure that they will help him with sentence formation (they reckon he only does 2-3 word sentences but it is often more - today I counted 9 words). 

They are a big school, with big classes (30 children in a class & they have 4 reception classes) but I feel that they treat every child as an individual & my ds is happy & that tells me LOADS.

Sorry it was long winded!!!!!

i cant rave enough about my kids school.

ds1 is 6 and in yr2. When he was in reception he missed half the school yr due to being in hospital with his eczema and allergies. They put him on a ILP in yr1 to help him settle in but this year he is following the mainstream learning but to help him out one of the teachers has started a reading recovery program. so he has an hr a day with a teacher which is 1 to 1 time and its not just reading but writing and different learning activites. He thinks its fantastic and im noticing a big difference in his learning already.

Also at the school they have a school council made up out of pupils which other pupils vote on, they are joined with a school in africa and get the children involed it charity work for that school. They have a wildlife area with bug huts, compost piles etc. in yr 3 the children start to have swimming lessons once a week as part of p.e. once a month they have birthday assembly for the children with birthdays of that month, which the parents can go and watch. They have wake up shake up in the monings, its 15 miins before shcool starts and they have all the kids dancing about to music getting them warmed up for the day ahead.

some of the teachers there are the same ones that were there when i attended. they have all been great dealing with ds1's health probs.

ds2 started reception in september and he has been doing fantastic, he is already on his 4th reading book and knows all his words he has to learn before he comes home with them. i have been really suprised at how well he is picking everything up.

my lo was 4 at the end of august and has been at school for 3 weeks now.  she always comes out smiling and she loves telling me all the names that her teacher calls things - froggy feet for PE is bear feet.  the bookcase is in the shape of a pig and is called a piggy pouch.  playtime with the hoops, balls etc is called huff and puff time!

Good teachers ought to fit in this category.

DS (5) has a dairy intolerance and his little classmate has coeliac disease and cant have wheat products. Yesterday, the classroom assistant took the two of them to another room to make fruit kebab sticks while their friends were making shortbread. He brought home two long sticks of fruit. Today when I dropped him to school, the same assistant was there and she gave me a little bag of cakes that she had made at home dairy free just for DS. She had worried that he might have been upset missing out on cake. That surely is beyond what is normally expected and he was so pleased.

The school have also taken him on for school dinners and do a special dish just for him if the main meal has cheese on for instance. The dinner ladies know him by name and really look after him. If the menu is fruit and ice cream, he gets a sorbet made specially for him. I would be impressed enough in a small school, but there are over 600 pupils and every one is treated as an individual.

Lucy xx

ha ha  , i am so glad it's going well for you .

doesn't seem like 2 minutes since you said you were going.

it sounds so different over there to here and you sound like you have ajusted well.

too many questions can only be a good thing , i think that unless you ask you will never know , will you.

do you still have family in england ? has anyone visited you yet ?

Hi Tamryn

Definitely, we havent regretted our decision at all.  Been here a year now!  |Time has flown.

OUr winter season, just ended has been as good as the British summer, we are in Spring now. The blossom trees are out along with the daffodils and blubells.  Seems so strange.

Our son is happy here and he loves the social side.  He talks about his UK school and about all the things they werent allowed to do (and he was happy there at the time).  He has totally gone away from being interested int he academic stuff but is still learning without realising it.

If people are prepared to accept that life here is not the same as the UK, its a great place to live.  We dont seem to be under pressure about anything any more.  We dont earn the same money, but we still have the same amount of disposable income so we are not financially worse off.

(Its still taking me time to accept the new style of education though, I am getting better but I still ask too many questions.  Parents here dont seem to care about what their kids are learning at school, which I find hard to deal with)

Heidih

Hi Tamryn

Definitely, we havent regretted our decision at all.  Been here a year now!  |Time has flown.

OUr winter season, just ended has been as good as the British summer, we are in Spring now. The blossom trees are out along with the daffodils and blubells.  Seems so strange.

Our son is happy here and he loves the social side.  He talks about his UK school and about all the things they werent allowed to do (and he was happy there at the time).  He has totally gone away from being interested int he academic stuff but is still learning without realising it.

If people are prepared to accept that life here is not the same as the UK, its a great place to live.  We dont seem to be under pressure about anything any more.  We dont earn the same money, but we still have the same amount of disposable income so we are not financially worse off.

(Its still taking me time to accept the new style of education though, I am getting better but I still ask too many questions.  Parents here dont seem to care about what their kids are learning at school, which I find hard to deal with)

Heidih

so really not many people have written on this thread is that the state of our education system , there are hundreds of people on bounty and only a few positive things .

i think you did the right thing moving to NZ , sounds like there is a massave enphasis on the out door life and not so much on the academic which at 7 / 8 it isn' that important is it !

my dd is 7 and in primary three her clas ha atickets to the stars scheme going and they earn stars through out the week doing various things like helping keep the playground litter free and at the end of the week if they have so many stars (100 I think ) they get to have a prty or go rollerskating in the playground, my dd loves it and its good for the school too as they have just got thier 3rd eco flag.

They also have playclubs on after school one day a week for an hour, a choir, a drama club and all provided at no extra cot BRILLIANT.

Hi at my dd's school they have lots to do at playtime there are shelters, parks, canopys with benches under so they can sit under when sunny, even when inside in the hallways there are lots of things going on and even in the classrooms they never look dull. They do different themes as well like they did a wedding and it took up half the day but the kids love it, it takes pressure off them to do things different, they have also done a flight and pretended to be on an aeroplane, bless. My dd came home going on about someone being blinded with a knife in eye i was horrified it was only a video they had watched and it was loiu braille who invented the braille and she as been going on about letters made out of dots ever since. There is always something going on. Sharon x

Our kids are allowed to climb trees too!

The headteacher said he wasnt allowed to when he was a kid, so he changed that rule!

They are also allowed to cycle to school, use bikes, roller skates, skateboards etc in the school grounds, and ramps have been provided.  they also use a massive field to use their stuff on - and get as dirty as they want without being told off by the teachers

they have so much fun........

and then little ol me goes on about the academic stuff....... they just dont have time....!!!!

heidih

My younger dd school let the children climb trees in the play ground which she loves to role play monkeys.

my older dd school allow them to read books in the library during play times which she enjoys to do.

Also my younger dd school are so friendly and kind

and all the children are happy.

xx

My younger dd school let the children climb trees in the play ground which she loves to role play monkeys.

my older dd school allow them to read books in the library during play times which she enjoys to do.

Also my youngwer dd school are so friendly and king and all the children are happy.

xx

My son has just started school. He goes in smiling and comes out smiling. That's good enough for me!!!

My school has introduced my son (7) to playing basketball, rugby, tball (baseball) skipping, football, there is also netball and swimming. Drama, singing, Artwork - specialist teacher, guitar and keyboard.  All of which he would never had tried outside school.

learnt about the countries around NZ, different cultures, traditions, lifestyles

water cycle, weather etc

teamwork, supporting each other, helping councelling each other, looking out for each other

responsibility - belongings, timescales (school start times, homework), deadlines, self management.

own surroundings, country, environment, communities working together

Lets hear about all the positives of school, outside the maths,reading and english programme!

heidih

it would be good to see what various schools around the country do that is positive for children and what fun they have

heidih