New Zealand Education Compulsory Education Compulsory education starts at age 5 and ends at age 16. Class Size The number of students in a class is 30 students. Classrooms Students from Years 5-8 stay in the same classroom for most subjects and move to other classrooms only for specific subjects. In Year 9, students take some courses With their homeroom class and some _ classes with students from different classes. Starting from Year 10, students no longer stay in the same classroom most of the time. They go to different classes according to their own choices and abilities. Term Dates A school year starts in January and ends in December. There are four terms in a year. Each term is about 10 weeks. Class Schedule School starts at around 8:30 and ends at 15:15. There are only five periods a day and a period is about an hour long. In the morning, around 10:30, there will be a 20-minute break when students usually have some snacks during this time. There is a lunch period at around 12:40 for about an hour. Teachers Teachers have to teach students of different year level at the same time. Most teachers teach students from at least three to four different year levels. Besides, quite a number of teachers teach more than one subject. This is because the fact that many courses are optional. When you are in your 10th school year, you may.
choose and take some optional courses with your homeroom class stay with your classmates in the same classroom for all the subjects have both required and optional classes with the same classmates choose different classes according to your own choices and abilities