OK OK OK.....before anyone says anything, we came we saw, and we never conquered-fair play Milan-enjoy it.....it's only on loan......

Now that that's out of the way, back to the blogging!

Remember that the pics can be enlarged by clicking on them!

Now, on trying to stand up this morning my little feet wept openly!!!Tramping across a strange city isn't good for the old man's paws!

Visited my third school today, smaller than the others, about 180 children-in an absolutely gorgeous setting on the side of a hill in Prague-in apparently quite an affluent area. The tram ride, followed by Metro, followed by bus, showed the interntional nature of numbers---everyone was doing Sudoku!

The bus journey took me right to the door of Skola Charlotty Masarykove, with a little brook flowing outside-I wonder how long it would take for our Health and Safety folk to fill that in! The caretaker was busy painting the railings, and I was greeted by Lenka Jaklova. We had a long discussion, and I started to get an even clearer picture of the many routes there are for progression in the Czech system. I visited a number of classes throughout the morning-and was always struck-as I had been in the other schools, by how every door was locked behind the teachers-nothing was left to chance!! The children received English lessons throughout the school-and were keen to show off their skills. In the gym there was a badge of the school-complete with horseshoes-with regard to the large horse racing track in the area-Katie eat your heart out, there were lots of horses! However, I'm not sure how much good luck there was floating around, as the horseshoes were upside down!

Now at this stage I got a little homesick......when I looked closely at the English books for the teachig of our language, I got a little reminder of the fluffy thing that was lying at home, counting the sleeps until I return! Now Sophie has cousins across the world-Sipowicz, an New York detective who is partial to doughnuts, Ruffles, the Chief Inspector and legendary Old English (the womble equivalent of Great Uncle Bulgaria), however, she had failed to mention Pluto-the comic book star of the English language in Prague.....from the pictures I hope you can see that Pluto displayed all the typical Old English characteristics!!!

I then got to visit the Kindergarden-pre school is compulsory for all children the year before they start school-although interestingly, remembering that they start school at 6 years old, many parents here seek to postpone school entry for another year!!! Mind you, when I say the Kindergarden, I think I may have wanted to stay as well-apologies to Sally, Noelle and Pearl, but when you see these pictures you may be green with envy. I do not think I've ever seen anything like this for pre-school education, and in NI I'm probably never likely to!!!! This is what it means to value children......if anyone in politics is listening.........Now, not every facility is like this, but it really did take my breath away! The children attend for the full day, and after the lunch time play, you can see the beds laid out for an afternoon's kip. With the size of the portions I have been getting for lunch(Yep, you guessed it, pork and dumplings for lunch today-and more sourkraut!)-I can understand why they need a little shut eye! In the afternoon I got to sit in on an English lesson, conversation skills playing a large part, with different role plays etc taking place. There seems to be a simple philosophy in general Czech education......communicate, then read, then write........compared to our doing all three at once! When you are here, with time to think and compare our own system, we really are overly obsessed with the marking and grading of children-rather than letting them be children......children are allowed the time to explore and develop a sense of wonderment, discovery and enthusiasm.......by P3, we have some children who have already turned off from their education........food for thought me thinks!

Then I made my way back.....bus, tram, metro.......and gathered myself for an evening full of possibilities.....euro cup number 6 was sadly not to be, but, onwards and upwards..........