Teaching practice at Holy Family Primary School

Dia Daoibh

Another two weeks have passed.

Since my last blog I've been in teaching practice at the Holy Family Primary School in Belfast.

A school were all the pupils wear a cute uniform: grey pants for the boys, grey skirts for the girls and red jumpers.

I'm doing my teaching practice in P3 (Primary 3), which is more or less the same as the second year of primary in Belgium (it's not completely the same, the system is different).

It is hard to compare the school systems, I feel that they do so many things different here. There are some things that are better, but also some things that I feel we do a lot better.

I think that we are more productive, that at the end of a school day we have reached more goals then they do here. Sometimes, at the end of a day, I've got the feeling that they haven't done much (although they have been bussy the whole day).

I feel that they miss a lot of opportunities to be more productive. For example, we learn that little games in between lessons are very effective for the concentration of children, especially for the younger ones. We are motivated to do them a lot during the day; even when it is just for 5 minutes, it will help the children to concentrate better on the next task. In the two weeks I've been at the Holy Family, I've never seen one of those little breaks, instead I feel that it takes longer to complete a certain task.

They don't give grades, not until P4. They do get little test and tasks; the tasks are just corrected, the test are graded. But when they get their report (twice a year), it is not with grades; it is with written commentary. So this gives the children less pressure during the first years of primary school.

Another big difference, they never let a child do one year of primary twice, unless there is a psychological reason for it. Which of course, has it's pro's and con's. But I think it is a good change when you see that children in Belgium are often hold back for no good reason.

Another possibly very nice thing in the UK educating system: a lot of classes have an assistant. An extra teacher who helps out with the kids that struggle more, they can give an extra instruction to a small group when needed, they can do some correcting while the class teacher goes on with the next lesson...

Not all classes have them, it depends on the number of children in your class, the number of 'weak' children, ...
My class, for example, doesn't have one. So my teacher was of course very happy to see me coming ;-)

There are many other things that are different between the two countries, but it is all very hard to explain. 

But now you already know some differences between the two systems.

So far I haven't given any lessons yet, for now I am more of a class assistant. So I go around and help the children who are struggling with the assignment, I correct some books, play some little games with them.

Normally next week I will go and help in P7; they will do their conformation in a week or two and all helping hands are welcome. But after that, when I go back to P3, I will do some teaching as well; and I must say, I am really looking forward to it! :-D

On wednesday P3 went on a field trip; the theme of 'The world around us' was planets, and so to conclude the theme we went to the planetarium. It was a very nice and learn full day! Even for me ;-)

To finish off, I've got some pictures of my class room for you ;-)

This year, the school is 100 years old.
In the theme of the schools century, all the classes did some research to how the schools were 100 years ago.
P3 compared toys now and then.

P3 made Peg dolls

Religion corner

Class library

Literacy Wall

'The World Around Us' theme wall

The front of the class, with the smart board.

That was it in a nut shell :-)

I could go on for another thousand words to try to explain to you the difference between our schools and my teaching practice school. But as I said before, it is really hard,  and I would probably bore some of you with it.

But don't hesitate to ask some more details about it when you want to know more. Then I'll try to explain it as good as possible :-D

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