Swiss School: with Ben and Noah

Benjamin: Noah and I go to the Altwis school which is just down the road. The teachers are pretty easy going. They don’t mind if you talk at your desk. And there are headphones you can put on if you don’t want to be disturbed. My class has 23 children and two teachers. There are kindergarten (5 year olds), year 1, 2 and 3 in my class. It’s a really little school with 46 kids and two classrooms.

Walking to school after some snow (now melted!)

Arriving at school just in time for the bell! 8am is an early start!

I have to take off my shoes each day and wear slippers when I’m in the classroom. They have a bomb shelter in the basement. They do lots of sports, outside and in their gymnasium.

Each day we share morning tea, we buy morning tea from the local hofladen (farm shop). We take turns chopping up the fruit, veggies and cheese. On my first day I was surprised to see 5 year olds using sharp knives to chop up fruit all by themselves. We go home for lunch and three days a week I have afternoon school.

Every Wednesday morning we go into the forest by our house. We go play some games for a while, use spades to dig and real saws to chop wood for the fire. We will go even when it’s snowing and raining.

It was a good first week at school.

Noah: school here is very different to Elim. The class doesn’t always do the same subjects together. We have a lot of freedom to choose what we want to do, sometimes we work in small groups and do different subjects.

Today I did woodwork with saws and hammers and dangerous equipment.

I have to learn French as well as German. I got the top marks in our English test! And my German is getting better. I read a lot of German books and my friends speak to me in German. The school kids are very friendly and some speak a bit of English. The kids are a lot like my friends in New Zealand.

My teachers are very funny and relaxed with the students. And they don’t get angry.

Everyone plays football and is very good at it. I enjoy that it is a small school as it’s not too crowded. Everyone is nice and friendly and I enjoy their company.

Practicing football skills at school to keep up with the local kids!