Parents’ Group Plans Experimental School

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31062, 18 May 1966, Page 2

Parents’ Group Plans Experimental School

A small group of Christchurch parents, dissatisfied with present teaching methods in primary schools, plans to open an experimental school in the Hillsborough-Heathcote area.

The parents consider that children at primary schools are not given enough individual attention by teachers. They object to the prize system, corporal punishment, which still occurs, and because children of varying abilities cannot always be encouraged to proceed at the pace which suits them.

Two of the mothers behind the scheme, Mrs Catherine Ascott and Mrs Joan Smith, said yesterday they had been thinking seriously about such a school for the last two years. Both women have children attending a play centre and feel that it is now time that a more advanced school, incorporating some of the playcentre methods such as parent participation, was started. The idea for a such a school arose when the women watched their children’s development and the ways in which they coped with new experiences. “Children take a delight in learning new things. They enjoy the realisation that they have found out about something they did not know before,” said Mrs Smith. Her experiences with her four-year-old daughter, Andrea, have demonstrated that children learn by exploration, projects and discovery. Both women want their children to continue to look on education as a joyful and exciting experience. “Put a child behind a desk and subject him to a timetable, which lays down that he must learn this and that at stipulated times and does not fully take into account his own interests, and you largely take away the joy of learning,” said Mrs Smith. Parent Participation Mrs Ascott feels that a school j which encourages active parent participation is better for the children. The process by which the child became independent of its parents was more gradual and allowed the child to retain a sense of security, she said. This made for better adjustment to later pressures. Mrs Ascott said they would like the school run along similar lines to the Matauranga School, which was opened in

Wellington two years ago by a former teacher and mother, Mrs Marie Bell.

Writing recently in an “Education” magazine symposium on pupil-teacher relations, Mrs Bell said: “To all, school is very different from pre-school experience. The school entrant is vitally concerned with his standing with the teacher and the other pupils. “At five he is in the stage of early childhood, at times capable of the stability and sophistication which will be tris characteristics later; at others relapsing to the baby stage, frightened, helpless, aggressive, destructive. “He usually seeks the company of other children, but needs almost constant adult support if he is to adjust successfully to a new group.

“There is no escape back to mother when the going is hard, no escape from the group. Children must go all day and they must stay. If the group is large, the teacher is remote. Often Harassed

“She is usually busy, often harassed and strained, often inaccessible, especially in the playground. Mother is far away. If the child complains at home he is usually told he must learn to be ‘big’,” Mrs Bell wrote.

Maturangi has a roll of 30 children. The play centre method of mother-helpers is used and father help is encouraged. Mrs Bell has found that the brother-sister, or family, grouping encourages faster learning. The older children pass their knowledge to the younger and help them in other ways. The core of the programme is the three Rs. Children proceed at their own pace, and both fast and slow learners receive special attention. Lesson periods are geared to the

children, and cut short if their attention wanes. Then a new activity is introduced. There is little repetition except with core subjects. Primer children spend five hours at school four days a week. There are no regular lunch hours.

“A child may need to have his lunch before adults have thought about morning tea,” said Mrs Bell.

One day a week is set aside for group outings to aid speech and concept development, and to provide subjects for art and writing. The more socially demanding activities are first on the day’s programme, and more individual work comes later.

The curriculus emphasises individual expression and creativity within the social framework of home and school. It is secular, coeducational, and without corporal punishment. “Although individuality is emphasised, anti-social acts are rare. It is as if school has been turned into a happy family, with the teacher accepted as guardian,” said Mrs Bell. No Fears Mrs Bell has no fears that her pupils will not adjust to others in later life. “Surely children who have good relations with others, who have an inner serenity achieved by channelling emotions creatively, and who have a lively curiosity, and who are well grounded in the skills and the arts, will be able to live happy lives as adolescents,” she said. Mrs Ascott and Mrs Smith hope they can start their school in the New Year. They have asked the Education Department about required standards and are writing to Mrs Bell for further information. “Our main problems are finance and a teacher,” said Mrs Ascott. “No-one in the group is a qualified teacher. We are hoping that a former teacher with children might be interested in joining us.” There are about six children in the area whose parents want them to attend such a school. Mrs Ascott said about another 20 would be necessary to start the scheme.

Mrs Ascott lives at 18 Avoca Valley (telephone 63-405).