Today we had to visit the local kindergarten, Hocus Pocus, just behind the University. It is a kindergarten dedicated to outdoor play time, we had the honour of observing one of the trips to the local forest area with around 15-20 children.

There wasn’t a theme to the day or an objective, so the children were allowed to play in the boundaries the teachers set for around three hours. The teachers provided many activities for the children to play with, such as; snow castles and story time.

Here I’ll explain what I thought was the same and different about the day regarding the UK play time.

Same

• Number learning
• Same amount of teachers there as there would be in the UK

Differences

• The children taken out of sight of other teachers by fellow teachers
• The tree houses the children were climbing in would have to be fully expected
• The teachers made the lunch, which was a sandwich, while the parents of the children would make lunch in Britain

The day overall was an eye opener regarding the difference of Norwegian and British education, the level of trust the teachers have from parents and the school was something that would never happen in Britain, it was refreshing to see.