Indooroopilly State School:
Indooroopilly State School is a Prep - year 6 school with almost 1,200 students. It has grown at a rate of 36% over the past two years and is busting at the seems. The school campus is of a series of buildings and athletic venues that is surround by streets on two side of the building and State park lands on the the other two side of the building and can not expand out. Construction will start shortly on two buildings to raise them up two stories so their solution is to build up, not out.
It is an affluent community with many international students of varying languages and cultures. Many families are here from other countries because of employment and various business relations. There are kids who only speak English at school. I witnessed this language barrier in a Prep (Kindergarten) class where two boys who are not fluent in English, were speaking Chinese to one another during class and both boys were lost with directions because they were either not hearing them because of side conversations or not understanding them (probably a combination of the two). Their classroom teacher said "the rule is they may only speak English at school" and they know the rule, but were obviously not following it. She said the reason for the rule is to help them develop their English speaking skills. Totally makes sense.
I visited for 1 and 1/2 days and observed the following classes:
Indooroopilly State School is a Prep - year 6 school with almost 1,200 students. It has grown at a rate of 36% over the past two years and is busting at the seems. The school campus is of a series of buildings and athletic venues that is surround by streets on two side of the building and State park lands on the the other two side of the building and can not expand out. Construction will start shortly on two buildings to raise them up two stories so their solution is to build up, not out.
It is an affluent community with many international students of varying languages and cultures. Many families are here from other countries because of employment and various business relations. There are kids who only speak English at school. I witnessed this language barrier in a Prep (Kindergarten) class where two boys who are not fluent in English, were speaking Chinese to one another during class and both boys were lost with directions because they were either not hearing them because of side conversations or not understanding them (probably a combination of the two). Their classroom teacher said "the rule is they may only speak English at school" and they know the rule, but were obviously not following it. She said the reason for the rule is to help them develop their English speaking skills. Totally makes sense.
I visited for 1 and 1/2 days and observed the following classes:
- PE classes with Prep students
- Swimming classes with a combined Prep/Year 1 class and a Year 1 class
- Classrooms - three of them. (Year 2, Year 2 and Year 6 with Ms. Robinson's class)
- I had school lunch from the Tuck Shop (snack bar)
- I had time to speak in length with one of the PE teachers and short conversations during class transition times with one other PE teacher.
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