As some of you know, I was granted a Training Period in a college of London for one week. I chose the Hackney Community College because some of my colleagues had already been there and because it is a similar college to the one I am working in right now. To avoid a lengthy text, I'll be mentioning the MOST INTERESTING THINGS I saw and learnt throughout this week and that I consider interesting for you. You can compare them to our Spanish educational system.
1. The maximum number of students per class is 20. They usually have a small number of students, mainly in foreign language classes. (Do you know how many students in a class are there in Spain?)
2. Students and teachers have one week off every six weeks of class. Apart from these weeks and the holiday banks, they enjoy summer , Christmas and Easter holidays. They have 32 weeks of class and 20 weeks of holidays. (Do they have more holidays than Spanish students/teachers)?
3. Vocational Training (FP) is similar to the Spanish system. They have 3 levels (LEVEL 1, LEVEL 2 and LEVEL3 which consists of 2 years). Level 1 is for students who did not finish secondary education or do not have the necessary qualifications to get into university. Once they finish Level 3, they can access university (it would be something similar to ciclos medios and ciclos superiores).
4. Teachers can have other jobs. For example, the P.E teacher also works in a gym, or the psychologist of the school works in a hospital once a week... So some of them work part-time. The reason for this according to them is.... "If I had to work here full time, I would get crazy" :)
5. In ALL classes, teachers have support teachers, that is, assistants who help students with their difficulties or help the teacher with other tasks. (Do we have this in Spain?)
6. Students do not have a fix time for lunch. They have lunch when there is a break between classes (usually at 11:30 or 12:00). They eat something in the cafeteria and then go back to their classes.
7. There are 51 policies and procedures devised by the school itself. Although the attendance policy is one of them, attendance is not compulsory to pass the modules. For teachers it is not a requirement. It is curious, though, that I was not allowed to get into the school one morning because I was chewing gum!
8. The main problems for teachers here are: the students' use of mobile phones in class (really??? I can't believe it!) and lack of attendance.
9. Teachers have 23 hours a week of class and get paid 2.000 pounds a month. They also use a lof of new technologies in class. They have digital boards and make their classes very visual. They also make their students participate in an active way in their classes. Most of them do not use textbooks. (Is it that way in Spain?)
10. I talked about our educational system in Spain to a group of students and teachers and I would like to share with you the questions they made:
- How is it possible that you've got classes with more than 30 students?
- Why don't you have teacher assistants if you have so many students per class?
- What do you do with students who have special needs and learning difficulties if you don't have assistants?
- Aren't teachers in public schools better qualified and prepared than teachers in private schools after passing hard state exams?
- Considering public schools are free for everybody, why are private schools the first choice for parents?
- Why do you need two hours for lunch? (talking about primary and secondary schools)
I could be writing for days about all this but I think these 10 ideas are a pretty good summary of the most curious things I've learnt. Feel free to add more ideas, comment and ask questions.
And of course... THANK YOU for reading this post! There is no point in living such a good experience if I cannot share my feelings with you!
