School School 05

From

Victoria, Australia

Functions

Government Primary School and Primary School

School 05 is a government, Prep - 9, co-ed school with a population of 800 students located in an outer metropolitan region in Victoria. In the prep - Year 7 years there were twenty-eight classroom teachers during the period of fieldwork (Spring 2010.) The school is very ethnically diverse, with nearly 50% of parents speaking languages other than English at home. Parents' occupations are mixed, with a significant number being blue collar workers or performing home duties.

The school has an interesting playground sharing arrangement with two other local schools. Play and lunchtimes are staggered to accommodate the arrangement.

The school has many of the usual playground rules, including no climbing of trees or playing with sticks. The school has also banned mobile phones and asks children not to bring valuable toys to school. Students in Years 8 & 9 are not allowed to be in groups larger than 3 people, and the fieldworks saw a teacher on playground duty requesting students in this bracket to split into smaller groups.

Fieldworkers were gratified to note a relaxed attitude by staff towards most younger children's play, including some 'extremo' activities.