prefix = st1 /New Zealand Education    Compulsory Education Compulsory education starts at age 5 and ends at age 16. The day children turn 5, they are expected to start school. They can leave school as soon as they reach 16.    Class Size The maximum number of students in a class is 30 students.    Classrooms Students from year 0--8 stay in the same classroom for most subjects and move to other classrooms only for specific subjects. Even when they move from one classroom to another, they mostly stay together as a class. In year 9, students take some courses with their homeroom class and some optional classes with students from different classes. Starting from year 10, students no longer stay in the same classroom most of the time nor do they move around with their classes. They go to different classes based on their own choice 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--30 minute interval when students and staff have morning tea. Students usually have some snacks during this time, and staff gathers in the staff room to drink coffee and eat some snacks. There is a lunch period at around 12:40 for about an hour.    Teachers In New Zealand, 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. In addition, quite a number of teachers teach more than one subject. This is mainly due to the fact that many courses are optional. When you are in your 10thschool year, you may   _  .
stay with your classmates in the same classroom for all the subjects choose and take some optional courses with your homeroom class have both required and optional classes with the same classmates choose different classes based on your own choice and abilities