Samantha Willers - Arthur St School

Hi, I’m Samantha and for the last eight or so weeks I have been spending my Fridays at Arthur Street school for a Gateway placement. I have been looking into primary school teaching through Gateway. I have spent my time in Room Four, the New Entrants class and I have been sort of like a student teacher in the class.

I have been working with the kids as they get used to the school environment and develop their skills. We have done PE skills, reading, maths and craft activities within the class. It is really interesting to see how the teacher gains the attention of the children and actually gets them to do the work. As they are young new entrants they really have to actually be interested to do the work.

Over Term One the children also attended swimming lessons at Moana Pool. So one of the jobs for that day was walking the kids from school to the pool. It gave me a really good idea about what it was like taking the kids out of the school environment and on trips. It also helped me connect with the kids and get to know them on the walks.