1594 Italian schooling (Puglia)

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right section but anyway I remember a while back there being some questions about schools in Puglia so thought i'd share our experience if it will help anyone. Bearing in mind that our daughter is bilingual as my husband is Italian and has always spoken to her in italian.
She is aged 5 1/2 and started school two weeks ago here in Ostuni in the Prima class, which is the equivalent of reception. She started after the other children as there are 3 junior schools here in Ostuni, and we needed a chance to find which one was the best as they'd all been closed in the holidays.

School starts at 8am and finishes at 1pm, with a short break around 10am for a snack which she brings from home and eats in the classroom. the school week runs from monday to saturday (no more quick weekend visits home!). Her year is split into 3 classes of 18-20 kids in each. Her uniform consists of an apron which they wear on top of their normal clothes, at her school it's white for girls, blue for boys. She studies Italian, English, Religion, Maths and Laboratorio, (which seems to consist of basic science, learning about colours, near & far, right & left etc.) on different days during the week although we haven't quite sussed out what is when as they don't give you a timetable so the kids end up taking all their books each day. Although we do know that gymnastics is on a saturday.
She has found it quite hard to understand some of the technical words that are used but her teachers have been patient and explain when she doesn't understand. She is also exhausted each day as the lessons seem quite intense and they do not have playtime at all during school, so spend 5 hours in one classroom, and then have homework to do at home.
The lack of play is really my main concern as there is no real chance for socialising. She can run around when we get home but as we live in the country there are no other children around for her to play with, and she really misses the playtime she had at her school in the UK. Having previously discussed it with my husband it seems this is the same system of schooling as he went through twenty odd years ago and he admits it is intense.
We'll just have to keep an eye on her over the next few weeks and see how it goes as obviously we need her to be happy here too.
Does anyone else have experience of schools over here?
i'll let you know how she gets on.

Vicky

Category

General chat about Italy

how sad not to have playtime.my little girl has just started school in the u.kand enjoys the social aspect most.what do the children do with all the free time in the afternoon?as time passes you may find that they meet up andplay together a lot after school.

I agree with red tulip - I think once she's started making friends, they will want to spend the afternoons together playing, either at your house or at some other family's.

I grew up in a similar school environment (around 30 years ago) and one parent often collected the bunch of us for an afternoon together doing homework & playing before taking us back home by dinnertime. Was great fun!

Are there parent initiatives/groups where you can meet & get to know other parents? This would be helpful for you and your little one. :)

Good luck!

Stephanie

We live in le Marche and the school seems to be exactly the same here. Though the parents seem to make a real effort at getting together.

I forgot to add, my daughter (7) doesn't speak Italian and started in secondo. She should have started in the third class but we all thought learn that given she had to learn the language, relearn to read and write better the second and catch up later. After a month she is coming home, having spoken very little Italian, telling me she is understanding everything said to her , playing with her friends. (3 visits to her friends home in 2 weeks). When I hear her speaking she is speaking perfectly with the sound said as they should be but just a little slower than her friends (thinking pauses). Its fantastic how well she has adapted. Even the mountains of homework she gets everyday she enjoys.

My son (3) still won't speak in Italian when either I or his father are about. I know he does though because when he thinks I'm not listening he speaks to Italians in Italian. The other day when I woke him from his nap he woke up saying 'Mama Cosa?' Awwww how sweet. The routine is the same for both the children.

again the same schooling for our ten year old now.... he attended the local village school for the first year and a half and became confident with his italian/dialect.... luckily having an italian mother helped with the homework...

apart from lack of playtime or outdoor activities the schooling is good in italy for younger children and even though he still misses his old school in england he enjoys things here.... though after a while once his italian was up to it he began to find it boring....his comment..."the time goes too slow at school" ... if there is a problem and i hesitate to mention problems ... its that they do an awful lot of repetitive work and for those children that grasp the times table or conversions of decimal measurements early on it does become quite boring... however that aside the teachers are good...the schools have a good atmsosphere and it was one of the reasons for moving here....

like many uk buyers that move here we chose a rural property and our communes school was fine to start with.... we have now moved him to a city school... in Teramo... why... becuse the problems start when you arrive at the media/high school choices... towns people here still have a bit of a go at ruralites... they can tell easily if you are not from the town from your accent/dialect... and this is one of the problems that you face when you choose the country in abruzzo... the village children speak in a dailect and it carries on at local village schools... so true italian is sort of mixed in... but sometimes not a lot... it can lead on to problems at the next stage.. so we made the choice to move him now... get his italian un-dialected.. so to speak and when he moves to the media he will not have that problem of intergration... just seems its harder as you get older to fit in to a new school... its just a consideration... most of the children in our village will go to the local media and finish at that stage... never attempting or being able to afford higher education... if you are planning for the long term its worth thinking early.... if you live in the remote rural backwaters... and you can apply to have your child/children in any school you want here...

the other thing of a slightly heavier note is the weight of their rucksacks...if planning the move start training them in back strenghthening exercises... from five years on

John, we have done the same thing. We didn't send Rachel and Jack to the local school but the school in the nearest town. The bags are heavy and only seem to get heavier. Are they training the children for weight lifting later in life?

Thanks for the reassurances, I'm probaby being a panicky parent, but it was just with her already doing reception class in the uk last year, the system here came as a bit of a shock for her (and me!). Have got round the 10 ton rucksack issue though, found one with wheels! One thing, does anyone know what's with the old fashioned writing? she's having to learn 4 different ways of writing each letter of the alphabet, why? Have asked her teacher but the reply was that's just how it's done in Italy, silly question I suppose..

Yes Rachel's having to relearn her alphabet and do the Italian Writing thing. She really likes it (Horry Potteresk I think she thinks). Don't worry your daughter has one advantage over mine in that she's speaks Italian. My poor daughter is having to learn Italian, learn to read and write in Italian, make friends and keep up with the rest of the class. She's coping brilliantly, really seems to be enjoying the experience, missing her friends in England a bit though. She's top of her class in English though......

Just thought I`d add my daughters` experiences. My 2 girls started school here a year ago - aged 10 & 11 at the time. My oldest daughter started with prima media & had quite a difficult time. We ended up changing her school in the November as we didn`t think they were being very sympathetic to her. The kids were great though and she has remained friends with some of them. The second school has been excellent though and she did very well throughout the year. My other girl is much more of an extrovert and didn`t really have any great problems - she has now started in prima media at the same school. They do find school very tiring, especially only having Sunday off - where do Italian kids get their energy from? They seem to go to bed so late and then have a busy day on Sunday too! I must add that the girls have been going to a teacher in the afternoons 3 times per week to help them with their langauge and homework. Very soon the language ceased to be a problem but they do still need help with their homework (there`s mountains of it!). They don`t find the afternoons too tiring as their teacher is young, a lovely person and has 2 very young children herself so they play with the kids too and really enjoy it. I have got my yougest daughter a rucksack on wheels as I was worried about her back - let`s start a trend here. I think it`s really bad for their backs to lug such a weight around. My oldest daughter has come to an arrangment with a friend and they share responsibility for taking books (half each). On the subject of the countryside, I think it can be a mistake to live in the sticks. We live approx 3 k from the town but, round here, they have a bit of a `fear` of the countryside. In fact we are just about to move nearer the town as we do so much taxi-ing around that it`ll be much more convenient. We`re going to be less than 1k - still considered `country` here though!