Professional Development- Week 4

Week 4 – 16^th- 23^rd February.

The kindergarten welcome sign.

I have been here for 4 weeks today, and time has flown by, and I feel I have now totally settled into life here in Denmark.  This week I had an opportunity to visit a kindergarten in our local area for a social welfare project we are doing in one of our modules.  I was excited by this idea, as it would be our first opportunity to get out to a school and see how different it was to home.  I already knew some basic facts about names of schools, and what age children start at, but I was looking forward to having the opportunity to get out and actually get to see the school setting.

One of the classroom areas.

In Denmark, children don’t begin school until they are six, and therefore the children that we were going to meet in the kindergarten would be aged from 3-6, many of whom would be old enough to be in P2 at home! I had wondered why this was, and knew that I would be able to ask these sorts of questions at the kindergarten! The first major difference I noticed upon arriving was that we weren’t really asked any questions about who we were, we walked up to the door, knocked and asked if we could come in and observe as we were from Northern Ireland studying here for four months on our teacher education course.  They welcomed us in and allowed us to wander through the kindergarten playing with and attempt to talk to the kids! I was shocked as at home, we would have had to fill out all sorts of police check forms before being allowed in!  This relaxed feel continued throughout our couple of hours there, with the teachers willing to tell us all about the school and the different activities the children do!  We learnt that although they stay here until they are ready for school aged six, they do not have any formal lessons, and the day is not overly structured.  The different rooms look like big classrooms but the children are allowed to move around the different rooms in the building and are only taught to write if they themselves show willing.  The emphasis is on play, and developing motor skills and they have a big soft play area which allows the children to experiment with travelling and climbing in different ways.  I found this a really interesting concept, as it was so different to what we are used to, but the teachers couldn’t believe it when we said we had started school at 4, and they almost seemed to feel sorry for us!  The children are taught basic skills which will help them as the transfer into school such as sitting at a table for their food and listening and interacting with others around them! 

Soft play and climbing equipment

Their whole approach to their schooling is different to ours, and it was really interesting to have this opportunity to visit the kindergarten, especially as I hope to focus in FS/KS1 so the age group was similar to where I hope to teach.  There were difficulties with communication between us and the kids, but luckily our basic Danish skills of introducing ourselves paid off, and there was a little girl who could speak both English and Danish who acted as our interpreter for the morning!

This experience has already challenged my professional opinions, and I look forward to getting out on placement in April in a primary school to further my knowledge and understanding of their school systems, and the differences and similarities between here and home.

Finally got to visit the little mermaid!

Danish food event in uni.