|
Of course there are all kinds of activities going on in the prepschool classroom. Many of the schools are quite traditional with the teachers seated at their desk giving a lesson to the children facing him or her lestening and taking notes, but there is much less of this than there used to be. Increasingly younger teachers are introducing all kinds of innovations to classroom work. Of course this varies with the subject matter. Science in particular permitted all kinds of interesting demonstrations which can easily interest the children. The art class is a favorite of many children permitting all kinds of hands own activities. The computer is also making a difference in some classes, although this was still relaively limited in the 1980s. And during the summer term there were a variety of activities that can be conducted outdoors.
One of the great advantages of private schools are small class sizes affording the teachers the ability to provide individual attention to their students. This varied from school to school, but all the schools had relatively small class sizes. We did not see anu classes with more than 25 children and classes were often smaller, commonly from 15-20 children. Scholarship classes were much smaller. These are class sizes that few teachers in the state system have the opportunity to experience. These small class sizes are especially critical for the younger children lear to read. Children experiencing problems are thus easilly identified and appropriate actions taken. Of course the class size also affected the activities that could be persued. Small classes provide teachers the flexibility to experiment with varied learning activities.
Of course there are all kinds of activities going on in the prepschool classroom. Our visits encountered a great variety of classroom activities. This of course varied from form to form. We have compiled a typical morning of classroom activities that we encountered from our many school visits. Of course the activities are much more diverse then presented here, but this is a good picture of what one might find at a British prep school. The overal impression is that something very important is going on--serious learning.
Many of the schools are quite traditional with the teachers seated at their desk giving a lesson to the children facing him or her lestening and taking notes. Some schools had the older style classroom furniture that was heavy and difficult to move about. In some cases there were desks made for two to share. Given the weight and size, this meant that there was little flexibikity in how theclass was set up. But we notice many schools with lighter more modern class furniture which did allow for a fegree of flexibikity. Increasingly younger teachers are introducing all kinds of innovations to classroom work. We noted the children ebgaged in a rang of projects as well as lessons done from work books. Of course this varies with the subject matter. And there was more flexibility innthe classrooms with younger children. The older children were more likely to have formal classroom arrangements and lessons.
The prep school program varied from school to school, but there was a considerablr degree of similarity. This was imposed on the schools by their primary purpose, to prepare the children for their public schools. Thus the curriculum was more or less designed to conform to the guidelines established by the senior schools. While many subjects are covered, there is a strong emphasis on literacy and numeracy. Thus many class room activities are focused on these two primary goals. Some subjects lent themselves to activities more than others. Science in particular permitted all kinds of interesting demonstrations which can easily interest the children. This of course varied with the skill and showmanship of the teacher. Teachers can also keep a variety of animals in the science room which interest the children. Science was not a universal favorite with the children. We are not entirely sure why that was. We suspect the math and precession involved did not appeal to some of the children. The art class is a favorite of many children permitting all kinds of hands on activities. Art teachers commonly prepared a program to expose the children to a wide range of medium.
The computer is also making a difference in some classes, although this was still relaively limited in the 1980s. All but the younger teachers were not quite sure what to make of the computer. Many schools were just beginning to install computer rooms and introduce the computer into the classroom.
And during the summer term there were a variety of activities that can be conducted outdoors.
