Life Down Under

A Brief Explanation of New Zealand School

For the sake of my North American readers, I'll give a brief explanation of the way they do school here in New Zealand ~ it is way different than America.

The school year starts in February (late summer here). I guess you could say it's "year-round" school; the school year consists of 4 terms, with a 2 week break in between each term, and a 6 week break over summer (i.e. Christmas).

The confusing part is when kids start school. Rather than having one intake per year as we do in the States (i.e. all 5 yr. olds starting kindergarten in Aug/Sep), most children here start school on the day they turn 5! Hence the reason Taylor started school immediately after finishing pre-school. Now the really confusing part is that depending on when a child's birthday falls during the year, he/she will either attend anywhere from 1-3 terms of "kindergarten" (called "year 0" here), or, they'll skip year 0 and go straight into year 1. Yes, very strange. (Now the really, really confusing part is that often at a school, they will begin a new class every term. So where they get teachers from and what those teachers are doing in the other terms of school when they don't have a class to teach, and what schools do with a classroom sitting empty for half the year waiting for a new class to begin.....it all still remains a mystery to me.) Anyways, fortunately Taylor has a birthday at the right time of year so she will get almost 3 full terms of year 0 before moving onto year 1 next year, which puts her at a big advantage.

So there you have it; a completely different way of doing things when it comes to school. But all that aside, Taylor has continued to do very well and is settling in just fine. This past Friday her teacher had an open house for parents to come just before lunch to see what their children have been learning, and then join them for lunch. It was so fun to go and visit Taylor during the day at school. And her teacher is planning on making it a regular thing; I'm looking forward to the opportunity to have consistent insight into Taylor's education and the world she's in for so many hours of the day now. I love her teacher's "open door" policy in which she welcomes parents into the classroom at any time. She's great at what she does (for many reasons), and I'm so thankful that Taylor got such a wonderful teacher for her first year at school!