Kiddie Tour Guides

Arriving at State School No. 2 I am a little flustered, wanting to get there on time, dragging the kids, pushing the pram, trying to find the entrance, fighting my way through the construction, Kevin07 has certainly managed to get some new buildings built.

My disappointment is high when the assistant principal introduces me to Sally and Jane, dressed in their lovely blue Class of 2010 jumpers, excited and nervous to be showing three adults around their school. "So, where do you want to go?" they say. I would like to utter "home" but we are here now so lets get on with it.

The school rooms are massive, they each have a little library that joins the next class room. This little room is also being used for reading times, I presume it is a parent volunteer listening to children read while the teacher is with the main class. There are a lot of computers. The Prep and 1 rooms are old portable class rooms. I don't know if the new construction is going to include new rooms and these are going as Sally and Jane are not sure, they wont be here to see the finished product anyway.

There is a little play area for Preps only, small, but still a place for them to call their own.

Half way through the tour and I am chatting to the other mothers as we pretty much take over our own tour and direct it where we want to go. Discussion starts to centre around how old your child should be before they begin school. We are sending Miss A a year "late", while mother B is sending her child "early" this will make her child 15 months younger than mine, but let's discuss this issue at another time.

As we wander about, the PA system calls us all to the TLC. Mmmm the what? where? We follow the crowd and enter the Thinking and Learning Centre, otherwise known as the Library. Looks pretty much like the other libraries I have seen. The Principal makes a wonderful appearance, how nice of him. He tells us about all the great things at the school, and there are many, this is a well known school, has had great results and a reputation that reaches far and wide. A parent asks his thoughts on play based learning for Prep level students, he makes it clear there will be none of that sort of stuff at this school, there will be strategies, for each child with the objective very clear - high levels of literacy. While this is sweet music to the ears of some, I wonder why these individual strategies are required if play based learning isn't even an option. We all want the one outcome - a literate child, what if his current strategy is not working for a student? His brochure mentions "Learning is a dynamic and interactive experience" but obviously not one that can incorporate play based learning, even for those as young as four.

The assistant principal starts talking to our group, one of the mums is saying that she will most likely enrol her twins at the school. Oh, well you can add them to the list, but you're not in the correct 'zone' she is told. The mum is surprised, she has walked here, she lives much closer than to the other State school being mentioned. Sorry, too bad, says the assistant P, but you can always try us and see how you go. I mention this because other Principals have mentioned that Victorian State Primary schools do not have zones, they pretty much have to accept everyone who wants to go there, subject to visas and residency. The assistant also discusses that they try and stick to the governments recommendation that Prep classes do not go above 22, but sometimes they go higher, again, other schools state that the recommendation is 21. At the moment I am not sure who is right about class sizes and zoning, but I am sure I can find out.