A typical day at Village School has much in common with other primary schools, and yet there are also some key differences.
Children are engaged in learning activities throughout the day, and interact with staff and other students as required.
But there’s a lot more variation in the individual activities, in the nature of the interactions, and the general rhythm of the school.
A casual observer of a typical day at Village School might see students moving around the classroom, engaged in a range of different activities, or moving around the school grounds, variously interacting with staff, students and animals.
Learning takes place in all these activities, not just in the classroom. Real life tasks have real life outcomes.
For instance, if you’ve tethered your pony too close to another the tethers will entangle and you’ll need to go back, untangle the ropes and move your pony to an emptier space.
Hopefully the next time you do that task you remember and modify your behaviour.
A typical day at Village
Here’s a breakdown of a typical day at Village School.
- 8:30 a.m. – Students and teachers begin arriving at school
- 8:45 a.m. – Higher year students complete farm duties or do quiet reading
- 9:00 a.m. – Home group meeting
- 9:15 a.m. – Learning
- 11:00 a.m. – Recess / break
- 11:30 a.m. – Learning
- 1:00 p.m. – Lunch – Students usually spend lunch playing with friends, building cubby houses or playing games.
- 2:00 p.m. – Learning
- 3:00 p.m. – Farm duties, followed by classroom jobs
- 3:30 p.m. – End of school: After learning is finished and chores are complete, students collect their bags and spill out into the school grounds to meet up with parents and play with friends.
After school some students head for the corral for extra pony riding lessons, others might go to a kids’ yoga session or music lesson in the hall.
The time after school is often just a social time for parents and kids. We find that parents tend to hang around more after school, because it’s such a small community and we don’t all live in the surrounding area, so lots of play dates are arranged at this time.
Special lessons
Apart from the standard in-classroom activities and typical days, there are sessions and days when students reorganise and rotate through various specialised activities.
Rotations
We take one day of the week to participate in learning activities that don’t fall into the regular learning activities and rhythms.
Each home group moves around six different activities with specialist teachers during the day, and we refer to this as our “rotations”.
On these days, students take a break from their ongoing projects and learning tasks to develop skills in other curriculum areas and subjects, including:
The content of rotations changes from time to time to suit the needs of our current learning programs.
This break in routine helps stimulate students’ ability to learn, and provides opportunities for exploration and self development.
Sports program
As part of our sports curriculum, students rotate through a number of sport activities one afternoon a week, participating in things like horse riding lessons, gymnastics, swimming and tennis.
Excursions and incursions
At various times, our students may also be heading off for an excursion, or participating in an incursion, to learn more about their world and their local community.
We may also call students out of class to join in on school-wide or ad hoc activities, including meetings, practice for school performance and school projects.
Please feel free to come and see the children at work at any time. To arrange a time for a visit or for any other information please contact us.
Here’s a great selection of our children in action at Village School:
Daily life at Village
To understand more about the daily life at Village School, please visit:
Learning For Life Our hands-on, open and active approach to learning at Village School creates the conditions for effective, personalised learning and shapes lifelong learners. Read more »
Gallery A picture is worth a thousand words. Discover everyday life at Village School through our amazing picture collections. Read more »