Visits from Austria

This week, both St Peter’s 2-8 and St Peter’s 8-13 are hosting a group of students from Linz University, Austria who are studying primary education.

Michelle is working at 2-8 and has found the experience fantastic so far! She has seen a substantial difference between teaching at Austrian primary schools and teaching at 2-8, particularly through methods of learning. Whilst children at 2-8 have been sharing their love for the forest school, Michelle has been used to Austrian primary pupils sitting and writing at desks from a very young age. She has been surprised to see that there is much more pupil-led learning and more time to learn through play and has especially enjoyed the well decorated classrooms.

Celina and Lena have been placed in the younger years at 8-13 and had similar thoughts on the beautiful campus and classrooms. They have noticed that pupils have more autonomy and teachers are more open towards their thoughts and opinions. This has meant that they have been impressed with the handling of safeguarding and teaching pupils to use better and kinder language when talking to others. Both students have also enjoyed the ‘amazing’ lunches whilst at St Peter’s.

These students will be with us until the 29^th September, and come to St Peter’s as part of their primary school teacher training. This placement allows them to see how UK schools function differently to those in Austria, which will allow them to implement some of these methods into their own teaching in future.