School

Matthew and Grayson both will be starting school on Monday, October 15. Matthew will be going to Maungaraki Primary school and Grayson will be going to Maungaraki Kindergarten. The primary school is really small, only about 250 students in the whole school and it goes from grade 1-8 (for 5 years all the way to 13 years) and then they would go to highschool from there. We met with the Principal about 2 weeks ago and she walked us through the school and told us all about how they do things there. Dan and I were very impressed and got such a great feeling while sitting in the class Matthew will be in. He will be in the Grade 1/2 class, which is like a combined class for 5 and 6 year olds, then next year he will start Grade 2. All the children were very friendly and the teacher seemed so sweet. Grayson's school is right next door to Matthew's school. Kindergartens out here are just like preschools in America. Children can start attending at the age of 2 up until their 5th birthday. On their 5th birthdays children start going to the Primary school and will be in Grade 1. It's a little random, but that's how they do it out here. Grayson turns 5 on April 27, so that is when he will start Grade 1 at Maungaraki Primary. Just like Maungaraki Primary, we were very impressed with Maungaraki Kindergarten. All the teachers were so friendly and welcoming. We had to put Grayson on the wait list, but luckily he got a spot fast due to his age. The older children get priority on the wait list especially if they aren't attending another Kindergarten already. Grayson will be going Monday through Friday from 8:15-12:30 and Matthew's school goes from 8:55-3:00. Both schools have 4 terms a year. When the boys start it will be the fourth term, which is 9 weeks long and then they will have a 2 month summer Holiday and start the next Grade level in late January/early February 2013. Each term is 9-10 weeks and at the end of the term the school closes for a 2 week Holiday, except the 4th term when they go on their 2 month summer break before starting the next grade the following year.


This is the link to Grayson's Kindergarten if anyone wants to read about it more in depth :)
http://www.huttkindergarten.org.nz/Default.aspx?page=2885

And this is the link to Matthew's school... http://www.maungaraki.school.nz/ 

And Matthew's teacher does a blog and usually updates it throughout the week, so here is the link to the blog for the class Matthew will be in... http://maungarakischool6.blogspot.co.nz/

And of course, what's a post without pictures :).....................

Grayson's school (I know, you can't really see the school, but this is where it's at)

Matthew's school