Comments from two days in Camden schools (not finished)

Samih has spent the past two days at Gospel Oak Primary School in Camden. He visited all the classes in the school - nursery, reception, years 1-6. He says that it is a great school. He noticed that the curriculum in some ways seems easier than in Palestine. In Palestine, children are asked to learn about a lot more things (quantity of teaching). But here a simple idea or piece of knowledge can have a lot of different aspects (quality of teaching). Some of the subjects he saw in London are not taught (or not taught in the same way) in Palestine. Music, for example, is part of the curriculum in the UK but it is extra-curriculum in Palestine - Children can do dabkeh or music after school if they want to.

This led to an energetic discussion about some of the different things people had seen in Camden schools.

Nibal pointed out that music, philosophy, design and technology (DT) and dancing are all extra-curricular in Palestine but part of the curriculum here.

"In Palestine, we do the same things as teachers here", says Rudaina - "But we are on our own with 40 students. Here, teachers have more help and enough resources for all the students. Students do a lot of research as part of their education here. In Palestine, children take educational  materials to schools with them - if they need wood or cardboard etc, it has to be taken to school with them. Here in the UK, it is provided."

Moein says that lessons are longer here - some of them can be double lessons and they go on for an hour and a half.

"I've noticed that they often don't have text-books," said Ghadeer. "They have worksheets which they fill and put in their folder. If they don't finish their worksheet or their homework, they can come back to it."

UK students have light bags - In Palestine, children take heavy bags to school full of books.

Here, the student is in the middle of the education process. He or she can contribute, ask questions, do things during the class, work in a group (there is a lot of group work). Students have the chance to move around the school and the classroom. 

In Palestine, students have to stay in their class and the teachers move around it.

In both countries, there are students who behave and students who don't. Students are students. ("Though I saw a big difference between Knighton and London", said Ghadeer).  In Palestine we have social workers in schools to help. 

Here, teachers work very hard, they have a plan for every lesson. It is computerised - everything about the lesson and the children's behaviour goes on the computer every class.

Nibal describes something she saw when a teacher was revising material with students. She gave out questionnaires - 'What do you know?'  Students had to mark things they were not confident about so they decided themselves the things they needed to revise. They had an image about their understanding of the material.  Then she gave them a challenge (a game). People who answered this could do the next challenge. At the end of the class, Nibal could see that even the weak students had improved their understanding.

In Palestine, the whole class has to learn from one subject book, and there isn't the same concentration on differentiation that there is in the UK.

The students in the UK nurseries don't have a fixed curriculum - everyone chooses what they want to do.

In UK primary schools, they concentrate on literacy and mathematics - In Palestine some students struggle with reading all the way through school.

A discussion about relative levels in UK and Palestine (not decided).