Ilam School

Office, staff room and work rooms.

This photo shows just part of the school. There are more buildings, playgrounds, blacktop areas and grass areas off to the left.

The first school I visited was Ilam School. As you can see, it’s a beautiful school on a large piece of property. That means the children have lots of room to play at recess time.

The principal, Mrs. Atkinson, and the teachers were very kind to host me for two weeks. As a "Visiting Teacher" I had the opportunity to sit in on several different classes to see what is happening in New Zealand schools. You'll be interested to hear that there are more similarities than differences. The 9-year-olds in New Zealand learn reading, writing, and math, just as the American students do. They even have a unit on electricity, just like our Cottage Lane 4^th graders. Inside, the classrooms are colorful and cheerful, as they are at Cottage Lane. There are teacher-made bulletin boards and student work hanging up on every wall, making the rooms interesting and inviting.

Colorful, interesting bulletin boards at Ilam School.

Wouldn't it be fun to be able to say "Hello!" in many different languages?

There are several differences you'll find interesting. There are only about 400 children in the school. Cottage Lane has about 550 students. The Ilam students range in age from five to twelve. At Cottage Lane, since it's just 4th grade and 5th grade, most of the children are 9 years old when they arrive, and 10 or 11 by the end of 5th grade. Although Ilam's classrooms are about the same size as ours, there are about 30 children in each class, so it feels more crowded than we’re used to at Cottage Lane. On the other hand, they have more space to play outside.

I spent most of my time with Mrs. Scott's Year 5 class. Those children are nine-year-olds. They were very nice. I gave them red, white and blue pencils that had writing on them: “Hi from Cottage Lane School, USA.” They said they really liked them. They LOVED the Tootsie Rolls I gave them. They had never had this candy before because it’s not sold in New Zealand.

Fitness track for a healthy lifestyle.

This is a picture of one part of the school's Fitness Track. Every morning, the class takes a quick break to run through the activities. They run, balance, climb, swing, and flip to complete the course. Then they run back to the classroom and get back to work. Most of them really like doing the course. The kids are very good about getting right back on task when they return to the classroom.

Geometric shapes on the move!

You’ll be envious to hear about their breaks. In addition to the fitness break, at 10:30 the entire school has a morning break for about 25 minutes. The children play outside, and eat a snack if they brought one from home. At 12:30, everyone has lunch and recess for ONE HOUR! The kids play soccer or cricket on the field, or they can do the Fitness Track, play on the playground, or play on the blacktop area. The school day is 9:00 to 3:00.

You’ve probably also noticed that the students wear uniforms to school. Each school has a different uniform, so it’s easy to tell what school a child attends when he’s walking home from school.

Swimming lessons

You’ll also be interested to hear that each class gets swimming lessons for two weeks out of the year. Since the school doesn’t have its own pool, the children are bussed to the community pool each day for an hour.

There are many children at this school who come from a different country. About 40% of the Ilam students come from families who have immigrated to New Zealand. Their families moved here to have a better life. They came from Japan, China, Korea, Russia, Somalia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, England, Ireland, Australia, and many of the Pacific Islands. The teachers teach all the children to have pride in their culture and to respect others’ cultures. It’s a real global community.

Cottage Lane is also becoming more of a global community as people from other countries move into our area. What should teachers and students do to make sure that children are learning to respect each others’ differences? Why is it important? I'm very interested in hearing what YOU think, so click the "Comments" button below and tell us your opinion.