A Day in Auckland

 Feburary 14, 2011

Senne's Summary: We visited Sheree's school in the morning, played with the kids and went out for dinner for Fran's Birthday.

This morning we got up early for a visit to the school that Sheree teaches at. The day started off with a big assembly outside on the basketball court. There were about 850 kids (Not only were there this many kids at this school, there were 7 more schools equally as big within a 2 km radius!) from ages 5 to about 13 and they were all sitting quietly in their lines! They did a few songs and then listened to some announcements (you know the regular… go straight home after school, don't hang around, make sure you have your school shoes, etc.)

After the assembly, Sheree took us around to visit some classrooms. This school was very interesting because they had a lot of "units". There was the mainstream (English speaking) unit, the bilingual unit (learning in Maori and English), the immersion unit (learning mostly in Maori), the Samoan unit and the Tongan unit. That is a total of 5 different programs all operating under the same roof.

We noticed that the classrooms were a lot like ours (some even had the same posters!), but there were some things we noticed that were different.

• All the classrooms had their own bathroom!
• There were no hallways. All classes had an outside entrance.
• The kids took their shoes off and left them in their cubbies. Shoes are for outside!
• The students were very respectful. We didn’t see any behaviour problems in the couple of hours we were there. Kids were working together in groups, helping each other and we didn’t see any of the regular bickering that usually goes on.
• We saw the library. Now we may be biased, but we think we have a better selection of books in our libraries at home… we can understand this because the price of books here is ridiculous!
• All students wore uniforms.

We visited a class in each of the units. The students were all very polite to the “Canadian visitors”! The Tongan teacher was extremely kind. She gave us a detailed explanation of the things that went on in her class, and then at the end presented me with a gift of a Tongan bag. I am going to be sending it home and keeping it in my classroom, so I can tell my kids all about that school 😀

One other thing that really got me thinking, was how they move students through the levels. All students start in the “entrance class”. When they have met the standards needed they move them into year 1. That means if you have met all the standards in 3 months, you just go up to year 1. Once they get to year 3 that stops. If you are way above everyone else then the teacher provides you with enrichment activities, and the whole class moves to level four together. The idea sounds great to me but I haven’t quite wrapped my head around how it logistically works. It must be working to some degree, because one teacher only had 2 kids about two years below grade level in her 5/6 class. Not that it matters, because apparently I’m not the boss of schools back home 🤷 but I still think it’s an interesting idea.

After visiting the school we headed out to do some errands and then back home. When Manaia (age 5) and Hawaiki (age 2) arrived back home from school, Manaia was intently trying to convince “Uncle” that he should take her to the pool. Since we were going out for dinner that evening Steve convinced her it would be just as much fun to go play with the hose in the yard.

It does look like fun doesn't it?!

Hence started what I would call the “Great Soaking”. Nothing’s more fun than soaking people with a hose, I guess!

Manaia also learned how to use our camera this afternoon. We have some lovely photos that she took included in this entry.

Photo courtesy of Miss Manaia!

Of course, after Manaia took pictures, Hawaiki had to do the same 😀 He was more interested in seeing himself on the screen than taking or being in actual pictures. As soon as you’d hold the camera up he’d be running over to see what the picture looked like (even though you hadn’t even had time to snap a photo yet!)

After playing we needed a rest… so Uncle Steve read Manaia approximately 936 stories (okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration… more like 7).

Later that evening we went out for dinner for Fran’s Birthday. The restaurant was a little slow and noisy because it was Valentine’s Day. (I don’t think they celebrate it like we do… I saw no evidence of it at school!) When we finally got settled and had our food, Hawaiki (remember he’s 2 years old) decided he would say grace. He stood up on his chair and was waiting for us all to quiet down. When we quieted down at the table, that wasn’t good enough for him. He was looking around the restaurant (with what was pretty close to a teacher look!) and waiting for everyone to stop for him. I love the brain of a two year old! Needless to say nobody else stopped and he sat down again, probably quite disgusted with these rude people who wouldn’t quiet down for him!

Fran had some assistance blowing out the candles

When we returned home, Steve was once again on book reading duty. Manaia wanted to be in charge of turning the pages so they had a whole system worked out that when he was done the page she would press his nose, he would say ding, and she would turn the page. Don’t ask me… I don’t get it… but they thought it was hilarious 😉

While Steve read to Manaia, I played ball with Hawaiki. He’s extremely coordinated for a two year old. He was using both hands to throw the ball, could kick it, and could even hit a ball back to me with a stick or book or something. Every time I prepared to throw him the ball I’d say “Ready?” and he’d say “Ae!” (sounds like Aye) which means “yes” in Maori. We said it about two bajillion times and after a while he seemed to think my name was “Ready” 🤣