Back to School

I woke up early this morning, showered and got dressed, ate some breakfast and set off down the street to catch the bus to school.  Today was my first day to work in the P4 classroom at Whitehouse Primary School.  I have anxiously been waiting for an opportunity to volunteer in a school in Belfast in order to experience another aspect of the culture and to help further community outreach of Whitehouse Presbyterian church.

Schools in Northern Ireland are quite different than public schools in the United States.  The majority of schools in Belfast fall into one of three categories:  controlled (mostly Protestant), maintained (Catholic) or integrated.  Controlled schools were originally church schools and are now managed by the school's board of governors.  They are meant to be open to all faiths, including those of no faith, but are mostly attended by Protestants.  Today, Protestant churches maintain a link with schools through church representation on the school's board of governors.  Maintained schools are managed by the Catholic church and, according to my faithful friend Wikipedia, educate approximately half of the children in Northern Ireland.  Integrated schools are open to those of all faiths, but are not significantly attended because of the low proportion of integrated schools to segregated in the Northern Ireland school system.  It is rather disappointing that there are not more integrated schools in Northern Ireland.   A large majority of families live in segregated neighborhoods, send their children to segregated schools, and therefore kids grow up interacting with only Catholics or only Protestants until they finish Secondary school.  It's not that kids are learning to discriminate against Catholics or Protestants at their respective schools, they are not given the opportunity to interact with one another.  Out of this lack of interaction, there becomes a fear of the unknown.  Therefore, I think that integrated schools can play a pertinent role in reconciliation efforts.

Another bit of useful information about the schooling system in Northern Ireland is the school years.  Children start attending Primary school at age 4-5 and are in Primary 1 (P1).   Primary school goes from P1 to P7 (age 10-11) from which kids move on to Secondary school.  During their P7 year, students take transfer exams, and the results determine which Secondary or grammar school they will attend.  For the first three years in Secondary school (Year 8-10), students study a wide range of subjects which include geography, English, mathematics, science, physical education, music and modern languages.  During Year 11 and 12 students select which subjects to continue to study for General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations.  Based on their GCSE scores, students may choose to be finished with required school or to continue with two years of Advanced Level subjects (called Lower and Upper Sixth). 

Whitehouse Primary School after the fire

Whitehouse Primary School is a controlled school represented by the Church of Ireland.  Like Whitehouse Presbyterian, it was the victim of a fire but has been able to bounce back tremendously and stronger as a result.  The school was burned down in July 2009, and was rebuilt and reopened in September 2011 with a new slogan, "Whitehouse Primary School - Learning to Live."  The new facility is spectacular, designed very efficently for use of space and energy (using natural lighting and automated thermostats and lights).  The walls are creatively covered with displays of student work, and there is such a fun buzz in the building - you would never guess that it has only been in use for five months.

The new Whitehouse Primary School

I was welcomed into Mrs. McClurgh and Ms. Burn's P4 classroom at 9:00 this morning with a class full of smiling faces.   Immediately, two girls in the class volunteered to give me a tour of the school.  Next, I assisted kids on the computer in making covers for 'Target Books.'  I didn't get a full explanation of what the Target Books were, but to my understanding the books are to help the kids keep track of their reading targets.  Each student was asked to put two or three pictures of things they were interested in on their cover.   I enjoyed getting to help them with this because it gave me a chance to start learning the students' names and interests.  At half ten (10:30) the kids went out to the playground for a break (not called recess here).  During the kids' playground break, the teachers go to the staff lounge for tea, coffee, scones and pancakes.  I enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and a fruit scone.  After break, we returned to the classroom, and I assisted some of the kids in making a poster for their reading.  The class is reading "The Twits" by Roald Dahl and are making character posters.  I worked with three of the students to draw bubble letters reading "Mr. Twit" to put on the top of his poster.  We then thought of words to write around Mr. Twit describing his personality and looks.  They used words like hairy, disgusting, horrid, stinky, etc.  This activity brought me to the end of my time at the school this morning.  I left the school at noon, very happy to have had the opportunity to interact with the kids and teachers.  I can't wait to go back and expand on the relationships and classroom interactions I started today.