Before lunch we had a whole school discussion, the first discussion was about the attainment gap. Jessica explained to everyone what the attainment gap is and asked everyone’s opinions on why they think there is this gap. Everyone had a chance to give their thoughts on this topic and Jessica noted these down for the teachers to have a look at to see if there is anything that can be done.

The second discussion was why our school is different to other schools – we had a great discussion on this one, here is some of our points:

• some schools aren’t as colourful as our one
• some schools have different playgrounds for different classes whereas we can play anywhere in our playground
• we all gather together in the morning to say good morning to everyone in different languages and share our news (local, national, international and personal) We also gather together at other parts of the day like after break and lunch and at the end of the day when we all say good afternoon to each other.
• we don’t have separate classes with different teachers for each primary – it is split primary 1-4 and 5-7. This gives us the chance to build friendships and have discussions with different people.
• we can walk into the other classroom to get a pencil or glue sticks for example as we do this quietly without disrupting the class whereas other schools you have to knock, interrupt that lesson and talk to the teacher
• we don’t have assigned seats – we can sit anywhere
• when it is someone’s birthday they get to wear the birthday hat all day and we sing Happy Birthday to them in 11 different languages! (English with sign language, French, German, Italian, Croatian, Gaelic, Spanish, Chinese, Welsh, Dutch and Lithuanian)
• the teachers here are in our community so we see them more and you feel you know them better
• teachers here don’t shout in our school whereas in other schools they do
• our teachers listen to what you have to say
• our teachers are friendly

We are the best school in the world!