Unusual chatter and vitality filled a handful of schools across the city as primary school students began attending summer day care yesterday.
Many schools in Shenzhen have reacted to a pilot plan for day care services among primary school students announced by the city’s education authority July 11 and officially kicked off the services’ first phase yesterday.
Xinsha Primary School in Futian District is one of the schools providing day care services this summer. Around 5 p.m. yesterday, dozens of students, accompanied by teachers, were seen waiting to be picked up by their parents at the school entrance in a relaxed mood, despite the rainy weather.
“The first day is great. We did homework, made handicrafts and played games,” a sixth-grade student named Hu Minglang said during an interview outside the school gate yesterday.
Hu’s mother observed that sending her kid to attend the school’s day care services made her feel more at ease in comparison to attending off-campus classes, adding that “[by doing so], my kid can spend the whole day in a more routine way and he also has a chance to meet new friends from different schools.”
Xinsha Primary School’s summer day care services are scheduled to be conducted in two phases, with the first from July 19 to 30 and the second from Aug. 9 to 20, excluding weekends.
Chen Zhihua, principal of Xinsha Primary School, said that each day care class has two teachers, one college student volunteer and several parent volunteers serving the students.
“We also reserve a space in the middle of the classroom so that students can have better interactions with teachers, especially when we are doing reading activities and other games,” said Sun Yuefeng, a teacher working for the school’s day care services. Books have also been well placed at desks inside the school’s libraries based on grade levels.
Zhuyuan Primary School in Futian District, another participating school for the summer day care services, will have 68 students attending the first phase of the services. They have been arranged in two classes, one named Tuanjie (Solidarity) Class and the other Fenjin (endeavor) Class.
It is said that teachers have designed special class badges for students. Each class has three teachers — a head teacher from the school, a college student volunteer and a teacher hired from cooperative educational institutions.
The 68 students come from 15 different schools in Futian. The school has by far received 89 pre-registrations for the services’ second phase, according to the school.