Week 3 Professional

We are getting well settled in now; the kids are enjoying school and forskola (this reminds me of a mix between a daycare setting and a school nursery unit) and I have attended, and am enjoying my classes too. Linnaeus University is situated on a large campus and is comprised of several large buildings, it is much easier to get lost here than at Stranmillis where most of our classes take place in one building.

The class groups are similar in size to Stranmillis and I spend a similar amount of hours in class. The assignments, however, are very different both in amount and expectations. We are expected to hand in a paper every week but the guidelines are that two pages should be written and a lot is based on personal opinion rather than information from other authors. We were also informed that while there is a deadline it is not rigid; this is in contrast to essays at Stranmillis where late submission results in reduced grades. I think it is harder to get motivated when the deadline is flexible but enjoy voicing my own opinion as it is something I don’t think we get to do often enough in Stranmillis.

This week we discovered that until recently Swedish children did not receive school grades until around age 14. Now they get their first grades at around age 12. All grades are mainly based on the teachers opinion and not on test results. This is very different from home where children are regularly tested and the results often used by teachers; I am not sure what I think about this system as the benefit of no exam pressure is balanced by the reliance on an opinion which may be subjective and partly based on the relationship between teacher and pupil.

This week I also attended a parents meeting in the forskola that Sarah attends. While it was conducted in Swedish one of the leaders made every effort to translate the main points of the information and to include me in the conversation. It was relaxed and informal and the parents were provided with information on: the forskola curriculum; how the activities develop the child; and how this particular forskola implements the curriculum. They do have many of the resources seen in our nursery units but the kids play with more freedom; toys can be mixed, dens are built using sofa cushions, tables and blankets, and if the play is good the clock does not dictate a change of activity. Prior to attending Stranmillis I had never been told why it was important to do particular activities or how this was done I was just told it had happened. I also realised that we focus a lot on the well-being of new comer children but don’t really discuss the new-comer parents. Being in a country where I don’t understand the language I have appreciated the consideration shown by the teachers and have also relied on them for e.g. when translating notes. This experience will definitely help me to show empathy toward and to further consider how parents are coping with their childs attendance at a new school.

I have rambled on a little so I will leave it there for this week and tell you more about Swedish schools sometime soon.