Teachers' exchange visit to Holland

St Sebastian Primary School A Qormi is in the second year of a Comenius Project, "Making Friends in Europe", with schools from Sweden, England, The Netherlands and Germany.

Some weeks ago, Ms D. Pace, assistant head, and Ms J. Theuma went to Harderwijk in The Netherlands for a teachers' exchange visit.

During their three-day visit at Willem Alexander School, informal discussions about the Dutch educational system, its advantages and disadvantages, took place with the school director, Rick Matser, and many of the teachers.

In Holland teachers have to attend four years of college; full-time teachers work a 40-hour week. Wednesday afternoon is always off and they have time to meet and discuss issues with their colleagues, plan lessons together, have formal meetings and correct pupils' work.

This is of great advantage to the teachers. Unfortunately, in Malta, primary school teachers do not have the opportunity to plan and discuss topics together since they are always in charge of their own class.

Some teachers can opt to work on reduced hours when they have just become mothers or when they feel too old to handle a group of children five days a week. This proves to be very beneficial for the teacher, who does not have to resign or apply for maternity leave but keeps in touch with the classroom situation on a part-time basis.

The maximum number of children in each class is 30. However, most of the classes have less than that.

In Harderwijk there are eight basic (primary) schools. Parents usually choose the school nearest to their home, since during the midday break most of the pupils are taken home to have lunch.

Those who stay at school during the break have to pay a fee and are taken care of by some adults. During the mid-morning break, all children go to the yard and some parents from the neighbourhood volunteer to keep an eye on the children.

Only one teacher is on duty in the yard, while the other teachers are having a coffee break in the staff room. This is of great advantage to the teachers since they can have a break and talk with their colleagues.

Throughout the scholastic year, the school director visits different classes to evaluate and assess the teachers' performance, gives suggestions when needed, and then writes a report.

However, when there is a particular problem in a class (teacher's performance, classroom management, disruptive behaviour), the school director visits that class more than once.

Parents' days take place in October, March and June to allow teachers and parents to assess the child's progress at regular intervals throughout the year.

Some pupils have language difficulties since they are of Arab origin. The remedial teacher takes each pupil individually for 20 minutes each week. These one-to-one sessions are effective as an improvement is shown in class.

Ms Pace and Ms Theuma had the chance to visit some classes and they also had the opportunity to give some lessons in two of the Qormi school's partner classes.

Pupils at Willem Alexander have lessons in mathematics, Dutch, World Orientation, Reading, Crafts, Poetry, Cursive Writing, and gymnastics. Besides, they can dedicate ample time to the Comenius project, since it is being given absolute priority. The reading session is only done on computer by following a roster while another lesson is going on in class. They start learning English at an older age and one of the Dutch teachers commented that this is a drawback for the pupils.

Ms Pace and Ms Theuma interviewed Christopher Hancock, an 11-year-old boy, whose father is English, about his involvement in the Comenius project. Christopher is glad that his school is participating in the project since he thinks that it is helping him to improve his English.

He would like to visit one of the partner countries himself since he is interested in learning about other cultures and different lifestyles. However, Christopher admits that some parents will not be so willing to send their young children on their own.

However, he should not have any difficulty to travel on his own as he is used to it, since he visits his English grandparents quite often.

At Willem Alexander School, every class dedicates ample time to the Comenius project. Mr Matser commented that every experience that the pupils get from the project is very useful for their holistic development.

Christopher commented that every pupil is eager to participate and all of them involve themselves wholeheartedly in the project. The pupils have penfriends from partner schools and they send letters, e-mails and text messages to each other.

This is done both at school and at home. They also send pictures, sweets, photos and creative work that is done in class.

This visit to Harderwijk was a very positive experience for Ms Pace and Ms Theuma. Although the visit was quite short, they learnt a lot about one of the partner schools in their project, their educational system, and their approach towards the project.

Now that they are back in Malta, they can share their experiences with the rest of the staff at St Sebastian Primary A Qormi and they will surely encourage other teachers to visit partner schools in the Comenius Project when the opportunity arises.