School Time is Coming!

Yeay... school time is coming!

Today, we just attended PSTIC, Parent-Student-Teacher Initial Conference, at the new school that we enrolled to for our first son, Rei (3 years 8 months old). We're so excited about it, because we've been waiting for a year to finally be able to enrol him to this school. He is the same excited as we are.

This is the kind of school that I could only dream of I could ever go to. If only this kind of school existed as I was a kid. I fell in love with it since the first time I attended its open house about one and a half years ago. It's so different than other schools. It's not about the facility per se, I've seen better than this. It's about the curriculum, and how they view child's development in very detail. They apply the so called "Active Learning" curriculum. I know that the jargon is common nowadays in other comparable schools. But I can say that they implement "true" active learning, because it's really student centred, where the learning is based on students' initiatives with teachers as their assistance. So, every child can have their own pace of learning, just like Montessori approach. The important thing is, they know how to apply all those concepts for real, and not just in theory.

For early childhood education, they emphasize on social emotional development, rather than cognitive and academic skills. They believe that once children are mature socially and emotionally, the cognitive and academic skills will come along. Besides, in real life, it is those social and emotional skills that will actually play the biggest role in someone's success in the future. I love that the curriculum sees a child as a whole, and it addresses every aspect of child development. The class is a multi-age class, so the children can also learn how to socialize with older or younger kids, how to nurture others, to help others, to be a leader, to be a follower, to take turns, and even to teach others.

It feels like I just found a treasure as I came across this school. This is the kind of school that I've been looking for.

So, today we met with the teachers of the class that Rei is registered to by the school. They name the class rooms after colour names. So, there are purple room, peach room, gold room, and so on. Rei's got the Gold room class (I hope the name also implies a good sign for him), which is led by Miss Dwi and Miss Mita. Basically, what we did was introduce each other, so the teachers know the parents and especially the student, and know what to expect from the child on day one, and vice versa.

Here are the points that we discussed:

1. The school applies Active Learning which is driven by students initiative, consisted of four 'spokes': Adult/Child Interaction, Learning Environment, Daily Routine, and Assessment.
2. There is no rank system in class (yeay!). They never compare one child with the others. They only compare the child's current development with his/her own previous progresses. They believe that the act of comparing students by rank system will do more harm than good, as it could give pressure instead of motivate the children. Because every child is unique, they should be given their own learning pace experience. Totally agree with it.
3. There is daily report written by teachers to show parents the activities that the child is going through, and what new progresses the child made on that day. The report will be the clue for parents to discuss with their children about how the school goes on that day.
4. There are 58 key learning experiences from 10 categories. The teachers will make progress reports of each child based on those key experiences to identify how each child is progressing. The reports will be given in each term. I imagine it will be very complex, so we will need help from teachers to read it for sure.
5. When creating reports, teachers will only focus on the child's progresses instead of child's weaknesses or inabilities. That way, parents will see their children more positively and be motivated to support more. They will never pressure the kids to learn something beyond their time.
6. Always avoid giving bad labels to student. That's why whenever there's a problem, teachers will discuss with parents personally, without involving the kid. Try not to be overheard by the kid.
7. Daily routine will be done each day, which consists of activities such as circle time, plan-do-review, outside play, inside class play, snack time, small group time, and large group time. There is even bodily session after snack time in which children will be taught to clean their own bodies and to change clothes by their own. They separate the girls and the boys during this session.
8. Field trips will be done 4 times in a year, or 1 in each term. There is class field trip, which is only for that particular class, and school field trip, where all classes of the same grade will join together.
9. Rei's Gold room class consists of 15 students, in which 6 of them are older kids who are advancing from their previous grade. It's a multi-age class, so basically the kids will also learn from each other.
10. School will give meals to students during snack time. Students are not allowed to bring their own food from home, unless if they have some food allergies that require them to eat only certain food. The school meals will vary each day, from fruit to cake to carbohydrate, and milk. Since Rei is a severe picky eater, I really hope this will encourage him to explore new foods.
11. Birthday celebration is allowed in class, but sharing goodie bags is prohibited. They worry that goodie bags will trigger jealousy maybe among students in other classes. They want to emphasize the celebration as a positive activity in class.
12. Accident may happen. Teachers will try their best to make the students safe, but can't guarantee there won't be any accident at all, whether it's single accident or among kids. They will give written reports in case such thing occurs, or call the parents immediately if necessary.
13. If student is sick, it is advised that they stay at home to prevent other students to get infected (in case it's infectious). In case the student happens to be at school, teachers will bring him/her to school clinic until the school hour ends.
14. During pick-up time, student will stay in the class until they are being picked up. Parents should inform the teachers about the person who will pick up the student in case it's not his/her own parents. Teachers will only hand over the child to someone they know or have been informed to.
15. There will be activities and seminars held for the parents and caretakers throughout August to October. The detail will be sent by email.

I really hope Rei will enjoy his journey in his new school. And I'm sure he will. As Ayah Edy says, we should send our kids to schools that are "Children friendly, and children brains friendly". School should be fun, and not pressurize kids. Children will develop better in such environment. I really think this school is pretty much it. As the school motto also says "Learning is a journey, not a race." I'm also glad to see that the teachers seem to be well trained, and really understand about early child development phases, as well as how to handle and approach the children. 

One interesting thing during the meeting, one of the teachers says that Rei seems to be an observant type of child, as he likes to observe things and his surrounding first before he decides to do something, and that actually is a sign of an intelligent kid. Hope it's true :)

Good luck Rei. Our best wishes for you always!