The school system

(Finally I can post this blog - it was ready three weeks ago but the blog had tech issues that only now are solved...)

The kids’ time in school is wrapping up now – it is the end of the first term, and a two-week break has started. Birk has been attending Year 8, which is the final year of primary school, and Linus has been in Year 11 of High School. It has been very interesting to see the differences in the school system – both with Denmark and the Netherlands. There are, of course, the school uniforms, and teachers are to be addressed by their last name. Phones are banned during the whole school time, including breaks. Linus could still have it in his bag, but Birk had to hand it in at the office in the morning, and his school even has a cell phone jammer.

Intermediate school

In New Zealand they have a ‘unique concept for educating the emerging adolescent’, namely the Intermediate School. This school only has two years, 7 and 8, and is meant as a transition from primary to secondary school. Students are still in a homeroom but they do get ‘a specialist programme’ with specialist teachers (Birk had French and Art). There are some other unique features that we don’t see in the Danish classroom, for example the Assembly. There are three versions of this – a regular Admin Assembly where they update everyone, a Cultural Assembly where they sing the school song, and a Formal Assembly, where they sing the national anthem, the first part of which is in Māori. He also learned about Māori culture, and in this term much focus has been on the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. This is part of Integrated Studies, for which he also made a tiramisu as homework, since together with three friends he was putting up a short theatre piece about Italian food!

The school also has more emphasis on sports than his school back home in Denmark. Physical health and wellbeing is a core subject apart from English and mathematics. Birk had sport twice in the six-day schedule, and he enjoyed it very much because it’s more varied and fun. One game he played a lot is ‘Capture the Flag’ and he also tried (a form of) cricket. On top of that, he also has House Sport and Team Sport, where you either play in a team of only people from your house (Birk was in Tiri) or mixed with many from other classes that you normally don’t have sports with.

It is also interesting to see how behaviour is rewarded and corrected. In class, students (usually in teams) can earn points when they do something well, for example a math quiz, and then they get a lollypop or something similar. The correction of behaviour seems to be done more collectively, at least in the examples we heard from Birk. One example was about those brain snacks, which were extra breaks during the day where the kids could get some extra activity (I had it wrong in my earlier blog post, it’s not the official break that is called ‘morning tea’). Those were cancelled again because there were some kids who did not know how to behave in these breaks. Another example was that all the boys in his year were called in for a special assembly because some boys had been peeking over the walls of the toilet stalls, so all boys got a speech about the school values (respect and integrity).

High School

For Linus, the change has been bigger than for Birk. Where in Denmark he is still at ‘folkeskolen’ or primary school (which runs from age 6-16), here he joined Year 11 of High School at a much bigger school than his small school at home (with only 20 students in total in his year). This meant that he could pick his courses, which he thought was a brilliant idea, but also that he was the one to shift from classroom to classroom. He only has 20 minutes of homeroom at the start of each day, where kids from his house (which was Mana) from different years are gathered. And that’s actually a bit of a downside, especially when you are only here for a few months, because you don’t have your group of existing friends around you. Linus did enjoy that classes only took 1 hour because it was easier to concentrate and made the day go faster. This also meant he had every one of his six courses almost every day – so he had four times of sport in one week.

The classes were a bit different than expected, for example we were surprised by the use of the computer in both Physical Education (PE) and Food Technology. In PE, apart from running, swimming, playing tennis, touch rugby and a Maori sport called Ki o Rahi, they spent quite a bit of time on writing about ‘movement strategies’, especially towards the end of term. In Food Technology Linus was sad to discover there was actually very little cooking going on (only in 1 out of 4 classes a week). Instead, they talked a lot about bacteria and ways to get hurt in the kitchen... Chemistry was quite fun until the homework started – he is not used to that since in Denmark he is still able to finish all the work within the school day itself. And let’s not talk about Technology Product Design and the cardboard model he had to make… Overall, he is looking forward to going back to his friends in Denmark, though he will be missing the facilities that the school has, not in the least the cafeteria 😊 (there are no options for him to buy anything at school at home, which is very small and in the countryside).

While the summer slowly faded into autumn, both Linus and Birk went to school in shorts the whole time. At some point we did buy some black shoes for Linus that managed to be both cool and within the school uniform guidelines. Birk opted to keep going in his Birkenstock sandals because if he were to wear shoes under his shorts, it would mean he would have to wear long school socks which literally come to his knees (‘Long socks must be worn pulled up’!). They are both happy to leave the uniforms behind!

Camp: No phone and lots of fun (and sun)

Early March, Birk went on a five day camp at Waipu Cove, about two hours north of here. Phones and smartwatches etc. were to be left at home, so they spent five whole days without any devices. All kids survived :)

Preparing (for Norway?)

The preparation of the camp actually took quite a lot of time. Where normally at home you have most of the things lying around somewhere, here we had to borrow them or figure out where to buy it. It was also impressive to see how long the packing list was. Another (Dutch) parent who had a kid temporarily attending this school said: ‘You’d think they go to Norway!’ They needed a sleeping bag, roll, pillow, an extra blanket, raincoat, woolen jersey or fleece, two hoodies, warm clothes for the evening and the nights, long warm socks, two thermal leggings and two thermal tops (very important) and a warm hat. And swimming gear, two towels, sandals/jandals, old shoes for caving and a bowl and plate. All of this should be clearly named and should fit in a ‘cricket-sized bag’, which we didn’t have. But we managed to fit most of it in his suitcase, with a sleeping bag and mattrass attached on top.

Buddies

The bus left on Monday morning in the rain, but happily that was pretty much the only rain they got, so they had fine weather for the many outdoor activities they had. The kids were also well prepared, having put up the tents at school the previous week. They were put in different teams, which nicely mixed all the kids together. Birk slept in a tent with 6 kids in total from the same classroom, with his friend Arian as his buddy (when going to the bathroom at night, they would need to wake up their buddy and go together!). For the day activities, Birk had Alina and Henry as activity group buddies, and those small groups were then mixed with different classrooms. They got a leaflet where this was all noted down, which also said: ‘What to do if you lose your buddy: Find the teacher in charge or an adult immediately’. It also contained a list of ‘expectations’ such as ‘Never go onto the beach unless it is supervised AND permission has been given by a teacher’.

Glowworms and canned spaghetti on toast

Every day they did several outdoor activities. Birk learned about rips and other beach/swimming safety (quite relevant here in New Zealand because there are a lot of dangerous beaches), went orienteering (which somehow meant making a sand sculpture), did all kinds of survivor exercises, and kayaked on waves. He also helped building a bivvy (or bivouac shelter), for which his knowledge of knots gained at scouting really paid off – their bivvy was the best one! He also went surfing, which he found very easy. On his very first try, he already managed to stand up and ride all the way to the beach! The highlight was the caving expedition, where they saw glow worms (you should ask Birk about them) and experienced complete quiet in the dark. The food was also good, he got ‘ham-on-the-bone’, butter chicken, and one of the breakfast options was canned spaghetti on toast (which he liked!).

And did he end up using all the stuff they brought along? Of course not, it wasn't that cold, actually. Birk told us he was talking with one of the other kids who pulled a second towel out of their bag and said: ‘Eh, why do we have two towels??’ Birk wasn’t even aware he had two with him :D.

(And finally, the blog works again - this was the post that was supposed to accompany the pictures :))

Bay of Islands

In the middle of March, we went on our first real weekend trip. Until then, we have been busy with getting settled in, shopping for this and that (we’ve definitely seen our share of shopping centres), and with Birk going on a five-day camp (more about that in another post).

Day trips

We have also done some day trips, for example to Auckland city centre (great views from the Sky Tower) and to Long Bay Regional Park north of here. We were also invited to my host’s farm, in the countryside on the other side of the Auckland, where they keep Icelandic horses. The kids and I also did some windsurfing on Lake Pupuke – which actually is a volcanic crater (Auckland is built on 50 volcanoes, and the most recent one erupted 600 years ago, it’s the pointy island that we face from Narrow Neck beach, and I definitely want to climb it). We were also invited for a ‘real’ Indian dinner by my new friend Mohini (we met at the conference in January), which we all thought was very delicious and a lot of fun!

Zig-zag in the dark

On a Friday afternoon, when the kids came out of school, we threw our bags in the car and joined the queue on Lake Road, trying to get out of the peninsula. The highway to the north was closed at some point, so we had to divert via Waipu Cove, which was perfect to have a nice dinner. Our trip did include some more bendy roads early on, and that only increased the further we got from Auckland. Especially the final hour of the trip was a complete zig-zag and, by then, it was pitch-black – there did not seem to be many people living in that area. It was also a bit difficult to find the Airbnb since we had to rely on a description which said things like ‘on the right hand side you will see a green house’ and ‘the house is on the hill’. But we managed, and were rewarded the next morning with the most amazing view over the bay below. Those pohutukawa trees! They are magnificent.

Orca’s and the Hole in the Rock

On that Saturday, we drove to Russell, which is close to the Waitangi treaty grounds (Birk can tell you all about that now, he had it in school!), to take a boat tour through the Bay of Islands. We were on a big boat with about 150 other people, cruising through the bay, looking for dolphins and on our way to this Hole in the Rock. We were quite lucky because we saw three orca’s and they came very close to the boat, so we got a very good view! Then we continued onto the Hole in the Rock, when the captain asked ‘So, do you think we fit in that hole? Yes, we do. Do you think we’ll go through it?’ And then he actually went for it, and that was pretty cool too!

Waipu Cove again

The next morning was another brilliant morning with fantastic views, and this time I went down to the beach for a swim, and discovered some fantastic rock pools that I could sit in. The water unfortunately wasn’t warm (at all) but it was really peaceful, especially compared to the quite wild waves of the sea itself. Then we slowly made our way back to Auckland, again via the bendy roads and Waipu Cove. Birk was quite local in that area after having spent his camp there, so he recommended we stopped at Langs beach because there were some great waves to play in. So we did and that was fun!

Things we don’t struggle with in Denmark

So, the school got off to a good start. Soon, Linus knew where all the classrooms were and Birk got invited to come home to a new friend. And school definitely brought along some different, new experiences, for example that all teachers are addressed by Ms / Mr and their last name and the use of Google Classroom.

A Kiwi sports injury

The first thing that Linus was training for with Physical Education was an aquathon, which meant he would have to swim 500 meters in the open sea and then run 2.5 km on the beach. So he was swimming and running around four days a week in school to prepare for the aquathon. And how do you run in New Zealand? Barefoot, if you like. You see quite a few Kiwi’s walking around barefoot, and Linus enjoyed running barefoot on the grass. Until they had to run down to the beach, and the asphalt was so hot that his feet actually burned, and he got blisters!! And he wasn’t the only one who got blisters… So, the next day, all parents got an e-mail that we should make sure the kids have proper shoes with them. Linus did have those with him, but he thought they were only for indoor use... So he was limping to school a few days – he did try to take the school bus the next morning but it was full, so it just passed him and he had to walk anyway (for about half an hour)… It also meant that for a few days, he was now allowed to wear socks in his sandals – but only because he got a special permission slip! But he managed to do the aquathon in about 25 minutes – the toughest part was the swimming, he said, which was obviously quite cold…

Mufti-day

Then Linus also had a mufti-day ‘if you bring a gold coin’. A mufti day means that everyone is allowed to have their own clothes on (it turns out that the term mufti is not Maori as I originally thought but actually colonial). But we weren’t really sure what the part about the gold coin meant, and it was only announced the day before. It wasn’t specified anywhere and Linus also didn’t know. In the end, we guessed that he had to bring one of the gold-coloured New Zealand dollar coins, and that was right – it was for charity. Quite a good way to bring some money in, because most kids want to be in their own clothes for a day, so they’ll bring a coin!

Comme ci, comme ça

Birk was also settling well into school, being VERY good at math (the level at the moment is extremely easy compared to Denmark) and getting French for the first time in his life. He got quite a bit of French homework the first time around, to learn some of the things the others had learned the year before, and I, of course, very much enjoyed helping him with this! Ça va? Oui, très bien / comme ci, comme ça. They also got a list of French desserts (crème brûlée) , which I guess was more interesting to learn than basics like the numbers and the months. But when we were at the French crêperie again, Birk did manage to order his next crêpe in French (after I told him how :D).

A ’cricket-sized bag’

Birk also was preparing for camp – the lucky kid got to join the five day camp that happens in the first semester of Year 8. So I went to a parent information meeting where they told us a bit more about what the kids needed and what activities they would do. There was an impressive gear list for packing and then they said that everything should fit in a ‘cricket-sized bag’, which of course did not really tell me anything...

Aloe vera

Another Kiwi problem we encountered was when Søren washed Birk’s shirt and there was a stain that wouldn’t come out. It turned out that some kid had been throwing aloe vera at him – it grows in the courtyard. So Søren had to look up how to get that stain out. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, so he now has to wash and iron Birk’s shirt pretty much every day since he only has two left, and needs a fresh one every day with all the sweating they do.

Working and commuting

And now it’s already more than two months ago that I arrived in New Zealand – time flies! We’ve been mainly busy with all the practical aspects of settling in, getting the boys ready for school and camp (Birk), going to a garage way too many times with our car (Søren already vows to never buy a Japanese car again), and, of course, also work (yeah you’d almost forget about that…).

Bike – ferry – walk

My new commute is rather fun (mostly) and good exercise at the same time. It’s about 3km by bike to the ferry, then a 10 minute ferry ride, and then a 25 minute walk uphill to the university, through the central business district of Auckland and a very nice park. On the way back from the ferry I take the long way by bike because that’s much flatter (and much more picturesque too!). The Devonport area used to be a few islands that are now joined together by draining land, so it indicates a bit how hilly it is here. Happily, my bike has 7 gears, so I am able to manage most of the hills.

Ferry cancellations

The ferries are a bit less reliable, however. I had seen in the local Facebook group that ferries are sometimes cancelled when a cruiseship arrives, and that also happened the day before I wanted to be early in the office because I had my first webinar about my book at 8am (so Europe could be there for it too). So I planned to take the 6.30 ferry, and checked the transportation app the night before. But then when I was cycling towards Devonport I could already see a cruiseship arriving and thought ‘oh no’… and indeed, they had cancelled the 6.30 ferry that day. So I could go back home again and use the home office for my webinar – happily Søren had a cable for me so I didn’t have to rely on the somewhat shaky Wi-Fi that we have. It’s been interesting to follow what’s happening with the ferries – they have shortage of personnel, which is why they are not running more often in peak times. And I figured out now too how to get notifications of cancellations in the app – the other day I got one that said that two ferries around 16.00 were cancelled because of ‘too many passengers’. Right, not sure how cancelling a ferry helps for that though…

Working from home

Søren is very much enjoying his home office, saving a lot of time not having to commute regularly. He has a busy day – getting up, making lunch boxes, getting the kids up and ready for school, working a full work day, doing laundry and iron school uniform shirts (they use one per day especially in the past weeks when it’s been quite warm), and make dinner. As he jokes – he’s the stay-at-home dad (who is also keeping up his job in Denmark). His colleagues are happy he is taking the calls in their evening and most of the night, though, of course, they do miss him for the regular dealing with incidents that occur during the day. But it also means that he gets more quiet time to actually get some work done, so that’s nice too.

I have also been planning some weekend trips – we are leaving on our first trip later today to the Bay of Islands!

First school days

That first day of school, Søren and I were, of course, extremely curious to hear how it went for the kids, and happily they both got back, sweaty and all from walking back in the heat, with positive stories to tell. Linus had already met another boy who is a year ahead of him and he can join his group of friends during the lunch break etc. And Birk met a Swedish boy at school – he lives in Malmö – who is also only there for a temporary stay.

Timetables

One of the things that rather puzzles us is the timetables in the school (photo’s are now added to the Starting School photo series). The one that Linus got we can still understand – it runs for 10 days, and day 1 and day 5 are always a Monday, and day 5 and day 10 always a Friday. So, Linus’ first school day was Day 5 of the schedule, since it was a Friday. But Birk’s timetable is all over the place. It has 6 days, and it shifts when there is a free day. So, that first Friday in school he started with Day 1, then had Day 2 on the Monday, but Day 3 only on Wednesday because Tuesday the 6^th of February was a national holiday (Waitangi Day). So you can imagine we are completely losing track of what day he is on, so we are very happy that Birk’s teacher regularly sends out e-mails to remind us which day the next week is starting on, and when to pack his sport gear!

WFT, MAT, ENG, TPD, PED, TME, CHE

Linus was very happy that he could choose the courses he wanted to take, apart from the mandatory courses English and Math and a Science (where he could choose between Physics and Chemistry and chose the latter). In that first interview at the school, he was asked for his preferences, to which he said ‘doing something active, maybe practical, with your hands’. So he also got Physical Education (PE) and Technology Product Design. And when the dean said, let’s see what else do we have on offer… Food tech? And Linus said: I love cooking! So there we go. There is one more acronym I haven’t yet mentioned, namely WFT (and not WTF!), which we are actually not sure of what it means, but it’s a 20 minutes thing (homeroom) at the start of every school day, where they gather with about 20 students in different years from their House (Linus is in the Mana House, which means Divine Essence) and do… nothing (as Linus said today when I asked what they actually do in those 20 minutes).

The NZ rhythm

One thing I immediately spotted was that lunch was only scheduled at 13.00. That’s 1.5 hour later than they have lunch in Danish schools! But this is happily not an issue for the kids. The school day starts a bit later than in Denmark, at 8.40, and they are done a bit later too – around 15.00. And then they have ‘morning tea’ which is a smaller snack during the morning – in Birk’s timetable this is called ‘brain snack’ where they often also go outside or do a little activity. They both have been trying out some of the school lunches, since the offerings are a bit different than in Denmark. Linus had a ‘hashbrown’ today and Birk has tried a pie with minced meat and a dish with some chicken with rice. One of the snacks you can order in Birk’s school is pineapple!

So, they are off to a good start in school. And plenty more stories to come in the next weeks!

A new normal life

And it’s three weeks later... We have now gotten used to our new normal life with the kids going to school every day and Søren working from home (he jokes he is a stay-at-home dad). I have now had my book published and am done with conferences, so I can actually go to the office at the university. We also picked up our car, but had to go to the garage the next week because the fixing of the rear view camera (which was our condition before buying the car) only lasted a few days. So far, we haven’t been anywhere touristic, really, other than two shopping centres to get all kinds of stuff we needed and the ‘village’ of Takapuna. It’s up the road from us, has a lot of nice restaurants (which includes a delicious crêperie) and a beach right next door to the city centre. The weather has been fantastic (though quite warm for the kids to walk back from school in) and I was starting to think that 26 degrees and sun was how it always is here, until I got an e-mail from a new colleague here saying ‘Have you been enjoying the fantastic weather we’ve been having?’ Oh, this is not normal then?

Starting in school

On Thursday the 1^st of February, Linus had his introduction to the school from 9-11. That didn’t go all too well since he did not get his school login or his timetable, as we had been told he would. Maybe it was because he ended up joining the introduction session for international students – easy mistake to make since he is not from New Zealand. But he also is not an international student because he got a domestic student visa… So Søren walked for the third time back and forth to the school that day to help out, they found someone at Student Services to help with the login and the timetable, and met with a ‘dean’ (of which there are a lot in the school, so it does not mean the same as a dean in a university) who would bring him to his first class the next day in school (he didn’t get a tour either). Because when we later looked at the timetable, all his classes were all over the school – something that’s new for him because in Denmark students are in the same classroom in ‘folkeskolen’, which lasts until they are 16, and only change to a different classroom for cooking or science and technology.

Introductions

That same day we went to Birk’s school at 11.00 to meet with his teacher, Miss Kahn (yes, that is how the students should address the teacher here), who is from South Africa and has taught in Dubai and Malaysia. She is also new to the class so that was quite nice for Birk, because it meant that the first few days at school were used to get to know each other. His first homework was to make a powerpoint presentation about himself, so we had fun finding all kinds of pictures that showed all his family, his pets, his hobbies, and the recent pictures of 15 cm of snow on our garden furniture (they don’t really get snow here, and some of his classmates have never really seen snow). We also got to see his classroom – see pictures – and Birk is sitting at the ‘bilingual’ table, first one to the right, at the window, with, among others, a German girl who moved to New Zealand when she was five years old.

And then the next day, Friday 2 Feb, it was the first full school day – so off they were. Don’t they look handsome (if maybe not very happy :D)?

Settling in

More than a week ago, Søren and the kids arrived at 5am in the morning. The flights went pretty well, even the final stretch of 16 hours from Doha – they even managed to sleep a bit! After a nap of a few hours in a proper bed (for the kids at least), we already had to get out and about, because Linus had the enrolment interview at Takapuna Grammar School, the school that has said ‘no’ several times but has now accepted him anyway. We are very happy with this because it’s a fantastic school – check out the virtual tour on their website – and it’s close by and we don’t have to pay 6.000 NZD for three months. All is well that ends well…

Two hours wait and nothing to show for it

The next day it was Birk’s school we had to go to, to pick up the school uniform for physical education. It was the first day the shop was open, and only from 8-10. With jetlag it was hard enough to be there around 9.30, and we were not the only ones… Since we were new to all of it, we decided to stick it out – all two hours of wait time (happily she didn’t close the shop at 10.00 though, telling us to come back another day!). It was not very well organized, there was only one person to help each family, and every child needed to fit the clothes to decide on sizes. That’s why it took so long. And when it was our turn, it took even longer because none of our six (!) cards worked to pay for the uniform! In the end, we left with nothing, and had to order online instead. But at least we knew the sizes, and the queue was a great way to meet some other parents and get some good info on NZ schools (‘don’t expect anything from this Intermediate School, they basically don’t do anything for two years’) and swimming in the water (when beaches are open and how to deal with sandflies).

More uniform shopping

Last week Friday we went down to the Devonport city centre, which is closest to us, to shop for the rest of Birk’s uniform. That went really fast – we even got Birkenstock sandals for both kids (one of the sandal options that is allowed in their schools, the alternative is a standard black shoe). We even managed to pay, though Søren’s cards were all rejected and my Dankort worked for the first purchase but not for the second (really strange). And guess who we met when Birk was trying out his uniform? Another Dane :D. She had lived there for 16 years, married to a Kiwi, and had a daughter at Takapuna and one at Belmont. And we heard that Belmont (Birk’s school) has a Danish music teacher, and another Danish boy attends Takapuna. I have also been contacted by a Dutch family who will be in the area for 6 weeks and their daughter will be in the class next to Birk.

Swimming pool anyone?

Then this Tuesday we had an appointment for Linus’ school uniform, so that was very easy and fast (and our cards did work!). We had a look around the school and Linus was very happy to see the swimming pool – he chose physical education as one of his six courses and they tend to dive in frequently, also to cool down after having done other sports. So he is looking forward to doing that 4 times a week! Both schools are next to each other and have some really nice sports facilities (beach volleyball and cricket!). So that was everything arranged for the schools!

Getting around

We soon realized that the NZ society is geared towards cars. The nearest two supermarkets are each a 30 minutes walk, in the opposite direction. So, we’ve done a lot of walking, have figured out the bus and the ferry to Auckland (for Auckland Day, an extra free day last Monday), and how to order groceries (free delivery if over 100NZD!). We were already planning on buying a car, and on the way back from Birk’s school, we passed a second-hand car dealer, had a look, and it all sounded very good and easy (they will buy it back from us when we leave). So we went back on Saturday, tried two cars, and bought one. That was nice! It’s now being serviced, and we’ll probably pick it up tomorrow. We’ll just not use it very much, other than for weekend trips, because to get anywhere we need to use Lake Road, which is ‘one of Auckland’s worst roads’ with more than 39.000 vehicle movements a day, and the only way in and out of this peninsula. The road is frequently blocked up because of some road works, and we’ve been faster walking to the school than we would have been taking a car (or a bus, for that matter).

Slowly we are settling in and getting ready for normal life to start!