Prepare the warpaint!

[fireheart]

So I went and visited my prac school ahead of next year. It is going to be GREAT!

My contact is awesome, took me on a tour and showed me around the school. They've divided the school into "units" and mix the special needs classes and the mainstream classes in a unit. My unit and another unit are both predominantly mainstream though. The units all have cute little names as they're close to the sea: Sea Urchin, Sea Lion etc.

I also met my placement teacher (lovely lady) and SOME of my class ahead of next year. Yes folks...I'll be working with KINDERGARTENERS! (Reception/Preps etc.)
Previously the rule was that as soon as your kidlet turned 5, they could start school the following term meaning that you had anywhere from 3-6 terms of Reception/Kindergarten/Prep before you went onto Grade 1.

Now they've changed it so that if your kid turns 5 before a certain date, they start in Term 1, if your kid turns 5 after that date, then they start the following year.

So I'll have some 4-year-olds and some 6-year-olds in the class and some kids who have done 2 terms and some kids who have already done 1 term of Reception/Prep. Very diverse class

[Akasa]

Congratulations! I can tell you're excited.

[fireheart]

Congratulations! I can tell you're excited.

Hehe I am. For more than one reason too!

-The school has a disability unit on site. Normally the disability unit is located on a separate building of the school, but these guys have spread out their classes across the school so the kids have a chance to socially integrate with their more able classmates.

-The kids are actually allowed to climb trees, build cubbyhouses and whatnot with sticks, rocks and mud. They've actually found that behavioural issues have gone DOWN as a result.

-They also have a sensory garden, which has a sandpit, rocks, water etc.

They've also labelled all their units after sea animals...I'm a Sea Lion

My mentor teacher was also the Arts teacher at that school. Next year she'll be going back to taking a classroom full-time.

[fireheart]

And the news just keeps on getting better.

I received a letter from the school ahead of their "induction" day which had a "welcome to <school> thing and explained all the new teachers. The best part? ALL of the student teachers were listed. Turns out that there's actually 6 of us, not 4 of us, but it was a thrill to see my name on the list like I was part of the community.

On top of that, I also discovered my NIT allocation (Non-Instructional Time, commonly used to prepare lessons, mark work or just have a BREAK for five seconds ) was fairly broad. One was a guarantee (their second language is Spanish) while they also have specialist PE, Cooking and Arts classes. I have a feeling that my time in the NIT blocks will be divided between lesson prep, marking and spending time with the special needs teachers doing 1:1 work with students.

[Mytical]

Sounds amazing. Conga rats! *does the conga rat dance*

[Kal]

One quick point, you're not actually supposed to declare war on the kids so warpaint may not be necessary.
And, of course, congratulations. Sounds like it's a good school that's well-organised and good atmosphere; you'll have a great time there.