Ever since corona, we’ve had the morning meetings in the gym. This has been decidedly sub-optimal. The acoustics there are horrendous, and many kids have had to start the réunion du matin in a state of exalted, but abruptly interrupted horseplay.
But now we’re back in the kindergarten, in the sweet, calm atmosphere many parents remember fondly as their first introduction to the school.
The EFD prides itself on not being hung-up on compulsion, but the morning assemblies are not just fluff and sing-alongs. Attendance brings the kids up to speed on what’s going on at school, and gives everybody some sense of direction. For parents, getting kids out of the door in the morning can demand the logistics of invading a medium-sized country, but efforts to come in time for the réunion du matin really might be worth it.
Today, we could finally hold a morning assembly with both the kindergarten and the school kids at the same time.
Age integration is an important pillar of L’école franco-danoise. Smaller children get approachable role models, larger kids get experience in helping smaller ones and the chance to demonstrate competence and responsibility.
Mathematician, tree climber and friend of EFD Adam dropped by to hold a maths lecture about traffic. In French.
Not everyone who attended was mathy or francophone. But even some kids outside of the presumed target demographic could give a decent outline afterwards.
Just paying attention even while not understanding everything is a skill, too.
A couple of years of kids’ play, scotch tape and blu-tack ages a wall pretty fast. We touched up one of the classrooms with some green.
No-budget redecoration: we found some paint, threw out some stuff and used a lot of elbow grease.
We have also created a brand new room for the kids, the “HUM lab”. This was a room with a vague purpose that over time had metamorphosised into a kind of teachers’ office. That was super weird, as teachers were hardly ever seen there.
An extra room gives the students more options where to study, and with whom. The window facing one of the classrooms makes it possible for children to close the door while teachers can still keep an eye on them. The HUM lab has a slightly more “grown up” vibe than the rest of the school, including a map of Europe where DDR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia still appear to be doing just fine. A lesson in geography and history at the same time.
High budget redecoration. We found the paint, but actually paid for the plant.
This room might also be useful for teaching smaller groups and practicing reading out loud.
A school is like a home, in the sense that stuff adds up and a lot of things that may have had a purpose previously just end up taking a lot of space and getting in the way.
The difference between “halfway there” and “abominable mess” can be hard to recognize with the naked eye.
Some parents and staff have let themselves loose at the school premises these days. One central goal has been to make all relevant books more readily accessible.
And those nets don’t put themselves up.
We are still some adjustments shy of a five star hotel standard. If you have tools, competence or just way too much free time on your hands, get in touch!
Some of the students at school speak German at home, and one of these sparked an interest in studying the language. There is now a small core progressing very fast, and a larger circle with a more casual interest. In the first group, the tutor is actually younger than her protégées.
Taking the “Rotkäppchen”-story apart to see how many words they know, and how many they can guess.
I have checked what the local germanophiles retain after handing in their work for correcting by asking annoying, random questions throughout the day. Some remember every word they have read, some remember almost nothing. This appears to be almost entirely age dependent.
Exciting and impressive as this academic pursuit is, acquiring a new skill often starts off with gathering low-hanging fruit. Kids, and often adults too, get a rush of satisfaction from appearing to learn so much to begin with, so fast! Inevitably, you will reach a plateau where you just don’t progress very much. Traversing beyond that level we all need a complicated toolkit of good work habits, fixed deadlines, motivations, potential rewards for success and so on. We soon need to find some ways for the German group to be able to measure their progress.
But so far, this has been fun and inspiring to watch.
A quick guide to the daily schedule at school. Because your kids think this is natural and aren’t going to tell you anything.
A newly parent-donated stool during “Reading hour”.
There will be more in-depth information and discussion about the different points in the schedule later.
09:00 – 09:15 Morning assembly: As you all know, we start our days with a réunion du matin at 9 o’clock. A child chairs the meeting, they learn to get -and keep – the attention of a large group. We start with chanting together “en, to, tre, god morgen un, deux, trois bonjour”. We give short and important messages about what’s going on this particular day, and round it off with a song.
0915 – 1100: Work hours: After the assembly, the kids amble (mostly) peacefully to the classrooms. They pick up their books and get to work. The calm and determination is quite a magical sight. This is not something I would have thought possible, judging from my experience in other (entirely fine and adequate) schools. The teachers then ambulate, helping the ones who are stuck and paying attention to the ones who are off track. The children choose what subjects to work on, and assign themselves a quota for how much they need to do before they can ask to go to recess. Most kids reach their goals some time around or after 09:45. They ask the teacher to look over their work, and may then go, and come back at 10:15. Some kids are so engrossed in what they’re doing, they choose to forego free time and continue through the second work hour, 10:15 – 11:00.
Look, not every child is super diligent all the time. They’re children, and they have different personalities. But most set themselves goals that are reasonable while not being too easy. They do talk (in voices at library level) to their friends but don’t fool around endlessly, despite not being strictly supervised. When they have mistakes, they don’t get to leave until they’ve corrected their work.
We don’t point out every single spelling mistake, though. Getting significant volume and speed in writing and reading is more valuable than getting everything right at age six. (Insert snide and disrespectful comment here about French and Danish spelling conventions.)
11:30 Lunch
12:00 Outdoors. The kids can go back in after 12:30.
12:30 (voluntary starting point) – 13:15 Reading hour. The students read books or comics. Again, not a common sight at other schools. Just a bunch of kids shutting up and reading. As the HUM guy here I have some issues about certain students reading below their level and have some plans, but come on. Most kids today never get peace and quiet to read on a daily basis.
13:15 – 15:00 Project hours. Starts with a roll call, and a short update about various projects. Sometimes (especially Wednesdays) there are presentations. The rest of the time is spent working on one’s project.
13:15 – 15:00 on Fridays: Conseil. This is the kids’ own agora, or town hall meeting. They get to evaluate the week and air various issues. This is also where we update our tickets.
Classes and lectures:Capsules, subject-specific classes (including music on Thursdays), are held at various points during work hours and project hours. These are voluntary, as the group’s diversity in age and kinds of competence is so high. Some children might go through phases where they are only interested in one or two subjects, but for the most part this seems to regulate itself over time. Their projects are normally structured in a way that incorporates many different subject areas. Having to write coherently and correctly when presenting a scientific project,e.g, and using historical or cultural references.
Everything you wanted to know about rabbits but were afraid to ask.
Today, we had our weekly project presentation. Today’s topics were rabbits, dogs, Italy, an analysis of a failed clay project, and paper airplanes.
Some of the educational benefits are obvious: It’s almost impossible to describe something to others without learning at least something about the subject itself. The students learn to limit their topics, to find sources, to pace their progress and to lead their projects to completion.
But another advantage of the presentation time is how the students get experience with fielding questions and feedback. Their peers offer interesting questions, but also occasionally quite unfair critcism. This is received and responded to with admirable stoicism, surely an essential skill to learn.
All groups can fall into slumps where they may exhibit a loss of imagination, a tendency to copy each other, to take short cuts, and a diminished sense of purpose. But remembering to define the goals and setting a schedule can work some serious magic.
