New Zealand Schools E-Book: The School Day

Figure 1.--Here we see the boys on their lunch break. Few New Zealand schhhols have a cafeteria. The students either bring a lunch or buy items from a snack bar. Usually they eat outdoors. Normally there is a period where they have to sit around and eat. And then a period where they can play games.

Here you can find a little about a day of school is like in New Zealand. We will provide a look at the school day from coming to school in the morning to going home in the afternoon. Many schools have a morning assembly, but usually not every day. Our look at the school day will include a look at the students both in the classroom and at the many other activities which occur during the school day. Class periods vary. Many secondary schools have 7 periods of about 45 minutes. We also cover the informal interactions at breaks and free time. The schedule of course varies from school to school. Normally the school day begins about 8:40 am and runs to about 3:30 pm. The lunch break is normally an hour or a little less.

Annual Schedule

The annual school schedule in New Zealand is set nationally and not by the individual school. These dates regulate the school terms and holidays for all state and state integrated primary, intermediate, composite and secondary schools. There are some differences between elementary and secondary schools. The school year is divided into 4 terms. Term 1: Begins at the end of January until mid April. Term 2: Begins Late-April until beginning of July. Term 3: Begins Mid-July until late-September Term 4: Begins Mid-October until mid-December. Because the weeks vary each year, the precise days vary slight from year to year. Schools in the 1990s had to provide 394 half-days of instruction for elementary schools and 380 half days for secondary schools. Here we will post a representative annual schedules detailing the hoidays and events in each term..

Daily Schedules

School hours are generally from 8:45 am to 3:20 pm. Many schools have special short days to provide time for afternoon activities. Lincoln High School, for example, ends school on Wednesday at 2:30 pm to permit time for sporting activities. Many schools also provide longer lunch hours for sports and cultural activities which are unable to operate after school because of the school busses. Here you can view representative schedules at different academic levels.

Daily Activity Views

Here you can see images of activities at New Zealand schools throughout the school day. Here we will mix all kinds of different schools to provide an inkling as to what as happening at a wide variety of schools throughout the day. We will organize on a time line and try to cover most of the major activitiies. We will begin with coming to school in the morning. Bicycles are very common in New Zealand and many other means of transportation are used. Of course thaere are boarding schools with the children already at school.. Many schools open the libraroies early and operate them for a while after classes. There are morning assesmblies, although not always on a daily basis. Classes fill up the morning activiries. The younger children have their classes broken up by a morning break. Quite a number of secondary school also have a morning interval. Lunch is followed by a rest period at many private preparatory schools. Older children often have a little free time which many use for sport. Afternoon classes follow lunch. At private schools on some days there is often a major sports program, following the British system. While most children attend day schools, there are some boarding schools which have afternoon programs, free time, and prep for the children before bed time.

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