Theme: Poland

Polish Primary Children Talk about School in Poland and England

The vast majority of Polish children are Catholic, and so RC schools in the County receive many of the New Arrivals from Poland.

Amanda Barns had a lively listening and speaking session with the KS2 pupils at St Peters RC Primary, about schools in England and Poland, the similarities and differences. Here are some of their comments:-

"We had to sit in pairs, not in groups like here. The tables were in rows. I like this better because you sit by your best friend and nobody stops you from working." (Ola aged 9)

"Holidays are different. We had a long one in the summer but not so many short ones in the year. There are no bank holidays." (Kasia aged 10)

"When I was little, my granddad took me to Kindergarten on skis, in the winter. I miss the snow. Every year in Poland, it snowed and we had fun in the playground building snowmen." (Klaudia aged 9)

"For lunch, we always had hot food, soup everyday. At my Polish school all the children had hot dinners, no sandwiches. There was a kiosk which sells drinks and sweets, paper, pens and school stuff. You have to buy all that in Poland yourself. My mum bought it in the supermarket but if I lost my pen then I could buy a new one at the kiosk. Most schools have kiosks. They don't just sell healthy food like here. You could buy lots of sweets and fizzy drinks." (Katya aged 10)

"When you are ill, you go to the First Aid Room and the school nurse looks after you. Lots of schools have nurses and they wear uniforms. She gives you medicine. We went home for dinner - it was a hot cooked dinner, not sandwiches." (Monika aged 8)

"In my old school you hang your coat inside the classroom. The pegs didnŐt have your names on like here." (Wojcieck aged 7)

"At my old school, there was a lot more homework everyday. At breaktime, you didn't have to go outside if you didn't want. There were specialist teachers for music and art. Not many schools have interactive white boards. The boards were very dark and green and the teachers used chalk. Most schools don't have an ICT suite or laptops for the pupils. There were some computers in the library. In some schools, your parents can choose what time of the day you went to school. Some children went in the morning from 8 to 1 and others went in the afternoon. The lessons are about 50 minutes long with a 5 minute break in between." (Michal aged 11)

"At the end of the year, the teacher gives certificates to the best children who work hard and a book to keep. That was a very important time and your parents are proud of you. I was a girl scout at my school. It was fun. But if you didn't work hard, then you got kept down a year and have to repeat the same work. Then your parents are not pleased." (Julia aged 8)

"In Poland, children don't wear uniform. They can wear jeans or anything they like. In the playground there are wooden things like castles to play on and slide down. The teacher takes us on lots of walks around the school." (Nikodem aged 7)

"The Minister for Education wants Polish children to start wearing uniform. My friends don't want this. They want to wear fashionable clothes. In Poland lessons are harder. The headteacher is called the Director. In some schools, teachers are called by their first name but always have to add miss." (Agata aged 10)