Today has been my first day at the placement. I didn’t really know what to expect, as I have never worked in schools before. I have been several times in nurseries, to carry out observations, and volunteered at summer camps, but never in primary school’s formal settings.

I arrived around 8:20 am, and all teacher assistants were in the kitchen room having a tea. At 8:30 they started to set up the class, by putting chairs around the tables and placing books a bit everywhere. The books are offered as a stimulus to engage parents in reading with their children when they drop them at school. I found this a very interesting idea, as for those parents who can actually take 10 minutes to seat down with their children, it’s a way to forget about the upcoming day. I think it is a tactic not only to strengthen the parent-child bond, but also to make the transition from home to school slightly smoother. Rather than being dropped and waved goodbye, there are those extra 10 minutes of real relationship. Nevertheless, routine looms over almost everything and at the “specific hand clapping” the reading experience was interrupted abruptly.

The teacher does the register while all the pupils are sitting on the carpet, and immediately after they do some phonics. The teacher makes use of some computer games. There is a racing car and different phonics appear in street signs; all the children promptly and diligently sound out what they see, accompanied by the gesture. I have never experienced the teaching of phonics before and I find myself amazed and frustrated at the same time, as they all seem to me to be a little army troupe, unaware of what they are actually doing.

This week is assessment week; therefore, children are tested by the teacher in small groups. The ones who need to be assessed are called by name during the morning, and in the meantime the rest are simply “getting busy”. I’ve spent a couple of hours supervising outside, and engaged in some of the children’s play activities, which were all self-initiated. I haven’t found the absence of organised outdoor activities particularly unusual, but I did for the absence of them indoors. I am a great encourager of self-initiation in children’s activities, but I do believe that there is need of some activities to be set up and offered to the children. This does not mean forcing them into doing them, but simply offer something which can be used by them as a means to develop new skills or ameliorate and support existing ones. I think that my concern about the absence of organised activities is a consequence of the use of technology that I have seen here today. The only “activities” offered were using the whiteboard and the laptops (4/5 laptops where available in a corner desk). I do believe in the potential of technology and the many benefits that come with it, but I am slightly loath on its uncontrollable usage. Children were literally fighting over the laptops, as too many of them wanted to play with them. Nevertheless, it is assessment week and it might be affecting the normal routine. I am curious to see how next week will go.