In case you wondered... Day 1 (Sunday) was a travel day and we did a walking tour in a fast way of the sights of London. Left Saturday night for 10pm... red eye flight and didn't sleep a wink. Landed 10am, went through customs etc... and took the Underground to the hotel area (one week Travel pass is £ 30.
The hotel is a nice hotel, but it's not a 4 star. Small rooms, but decent enough! It's clean! English breakfast is included
So onto day 2. Full breakfast to start the day, and then onto the first school - Millfield Children's Centre. What is unique about this place is the fact that it is a child care connected to a school. The elementary school and child care are connected and as you go through the various locked doors, you suddenly find yourself going from one location to the next!
Going from downtown into Hackney on the bus was an interesting sight. You could see the change in the conditions - Hackney being a poorer district was reflected in the building condition. Many more townhouse rows and a few apartments. The buildings were in poorer shape and signage was deteriorating.
We started our tour with the assistant head teacher - but was currently the director of the child care. She is a teacher and was doing this in a temporary situation. What is different about our system and theirs is that the Principal has more discretion about the school resources and how to use them. This includes the hiring and physical plant space. There are some advantages of this and I can also see where this would be an added burden I wouldn't want.
What I noticed was the connection between the school and their partners. The child care is operated by the school. There is a lot of connection and cross over from them. Midwives are the main practitioners for birthing and there is a good connection between them, and the schools. The midwives get parents to fill out forms at the start; one of them is connection with the child care centre. This way from the start, the school has an idea of who's coming to them in the next few years.
The government has initiated free 15 hrs/week of child care for all children starting at age 2. There are a lot of social assistance programs that allow for parents to access more care if needed.
What impresses me the most is that once children are registered with the child care, home visits are done by the teacher to each registrant. Imagine your child's JK or preschool teacher coming to visit! The goal is to get to know the family and the child. How important is that to get as much information as possible so that we can support the kids from the very start!
There is great connection between a staff member, who is titled the Family Support Worker, and the school and public health services such as the psychologist, groups and resources, SLP, PT, OT.... everyone works together to help ensure the child has a good start. For children who are really struggling, they have a REAL program which stands for Raising Early Achievement and Literacy. The teacher goes to the house over an entire year (12 months) for 30 minutes every 3 weeks. The goal is to help identify literacy and numeracy that is in the house and help build capacity for the parents. The focus is on progress, and not necessarily results/benchmarks.
The school and child care, while completely fenced in, has a very nice setup of space for children to learn and play outdoors. Granted, the weather isn't the same as ours but it makes you think of how much more could be done for playgrounds back home.
The community is changing in Hackney. The area, formerly was known as "murder mile" is changing demographics - there is now the largest Bengali community in London. More Somali families are moving in as well. Trying to connect these families together so they have supports is very important.
Classes in the school are mostly 30 kids large. This is grades 1-6. Bulletin boards in the classrooms highlight the work being done. Pretty similar to back home, but fairly detailed and focused.
Then of course, we were able to do some sight seeting this afternoon. Went back and took our time in the areas where we glanced at before. Had a bit of fun with a Sir John A MacDonald figuring (for photos to be taken on behalf of S.J.A.M school for their travel wall.
