TEXT 3. PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND AND WALES

The school day usually runs from nine a.m. to four p.m. with a break for lunch from noon to one thirty p.m., and with ten or fifteen minutes' breaks in the mid-morning and in the mid-afternoon. For children in an infants' school¹ or in the infants' classes of a junior² and infants' school, the school day may be somewhat shorter.

Members of a class usually do all their work with the same class teacher. In junior school or classes, however, teachers with special ability to teach special subjects, for example music, sometimes teach their subject to other classes while keeping general responsibility for their own class; the children may thus receive lessons from two or more teachers during the week. Such arrangements are rarely made for English or arithmetic.

Numbers in class vary widely: in rural areas they may be as small as 20 or even less, in urban areas every effort is made to restrict numbers to 40, which is considered the tolerable maximum.

So far as possible children of the same age are assigned³ to the same class, but where numbers in an age group are big enough to make up two or more classes, it is often found in junior schools (but rarely in an infants' school) that children are classified according to their ability in English and arithmetic. Even where such a division is made, group work, within the class, is generally practised.

The work of the infants' school or the infants' classes of a primary school is largely informal. Children are encouraged to read, to write in their own words, to understand and make use of numbers and to develop their creative instincts using all manner materials⁴. Subject teaching is rare, but direct instruction⁵ is given to children when they are ready for it. So far as possible the work done is based upon the interests of the children.

Questions

1) How long does the school day run in the infants' school?

2) Does the school day run shorter in the infants' school or in the junior school?

3) Do pupils do their work with the same teacher or with several teachers as usual? What about English and arithmetic?

4) May pupils receive lessons from two and more teachers in junior school?

5) What teachers teach their subject to other classes while keeping general responsibility for their own class?

6) Is the numbers of pupils larger in rural or urban areas?

Notes

1. infants' school - начальная школа, в которой дети обучаются с 5 до 7 лет

2. junior school - начальная школа, в которой дети обучаются с 7 до 11 лет

3. assigned (to) - назначаются (в)

4. manner materials - поведение; способы самовыражения

5. instruction - руководство