Dear young musicians,

    Thank you for agreeing to take part in our Music Day. The whole idea of the day is for music students around the area to meet other players and receive expert teaching from our guests, six professional players. In the evening,you will perform the pieces you have worked on during the day at a concert which your friends and family can attend

    After you have registered（注册) at the reception,go to the main hall. First,there will be a short performance by our professional musicians who are joining us for the day. After this you will go into your classes to practice on your own instruments for the evening concert. There will also be a chance to experiment with a different institiment from the one you normally play,and see if you enjoy playing something more unusual — we have several instruments to choose from!

    The first part of the day will finish at 5 pm,when parents can collect students. For those remaining in the hall until the evening concert at 7 pm,there will be DVDs for you to watch,although you should also bring something to do while you are waiting. A change ot clothes is required for the evening — black trousers or a skirt and white top — so unless you are going home at 5 pm,you will need to have this with you at the start of the day.

    If for whatever reason you cannot attend the evening concert, you must tell us as soon as possible, as we need to know numbers in order to prepare the stage. We look forward to seeing you at the Young People's Music Day.

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 optional 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.

    We have most friends at the age of 26 after having spent the first quarter of our lives building up our friendship circle, a new research has claimed.

    The research into friendship shows that our social circle peaks at 26 years and 7 months, at which we typically have five close friends.  Women are most popular at 25 years and 10 months, with men hitting the highest friendship point a little later at 27 years and 3 months.

    The research, by Forever Friends, shows that about a third of adults meet their closest friends when at school, with about a fifth saying they meet them at work.

    Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter now also play a major role in building new friendship. The research points out that 25 to 34-year-olds make 22 friends via Facebook, compared to 18 to 24-year-olds who make 12, and 35 to 44-year-olds who make just 4.

    Forever Friends' relationship coach Sam Owen says, “It is no coincidence that over a third of us meet our best friends at school.  It is a key time in our lives when friendship is growing through sharing notes, giving gifts, seeing each other regularly and laughing a lot.  As adults we can often forget how powerful these small things are and how the little things can make a difference. ”

    Later in life we find ourselves losing friends. Over half of us lose friendship through moving, while 36% say that over time they grow apart from close pals. Having children also causes 19% to drift away from childhood friends.  

    With growing pressures being put on friendship these days, it's important to make time for our friendship.

    American schools do not have separate classes for boys and girls. If boys want to cook or to sew, they can learn these things in classes that are no longer just for girls. If girls want to repair cars, they can now learn this in school. Most students like to have boys and girls on the same baseball team.

    Many boys and girls dress alike in school. They wear blue jeans and sport shirts. Some have long hair and some have short hair. Sometimes a boy has longer hair than a girl.

    Even the language is different. Students learn to say fire fighter instead of fireman, police officer instead of policeman, and letter carrier instead of mailman. A person does not need to be a man to fight a fire or to deliver the mail.

    Most people think that these changes are great. They give all people an equal chance to be happy and to do what they want to do with their lives. Fathers like to tell their sons that they can grow up to be president. Today, mothers can tell the same things to their daughters.

    Teenagers who spend hours in front of the television may have a poorer diet as young adults.

    A study, which included nearly 1, 400 high school students, found those who watched TV for five hours or more per day had less healthy diets than peers (同龄人) five years later. Why does this happen? Should the parents take any measures?

    On the one hand, people who spend a lot of time in front of the TV, especially teenagers, may snack more, and that may affect their long-term diet quality.

    On the other hand, TV ads for fast food, sweets and snacks tempt teenagers to eat more of those foods. And TV time might also replace exercise time for some kids.

    Lead researcher Dr. Daheia J. Barr-Anderson, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Reuters Health a clear correlation between TV time during high school and diet quality in young adulthood. While the heaviest TV viewers were eating the most junk food, those who'd watched less than two hours per day had the highest intake (吸收) of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and high-calcium food. In her opinion, parents should limit and monitor TV viewing.

    As far as I am concerned, children should watch no more than two hours of television per day. And parents should set a good example by eating right, being physically active and curbing their own TV time.

    Buddy or Friendship Benches (长椅)are needed because playgrounds can be lonely places sometimes. When a school places the bench, they teach a little lesson to the kids on how it is to be used. Then when a child sits on the bench, it sends out a message to others that basically says, " Hey, I'm alone right now and would welcome the company (陪伴) of others." Kids in the playground see this and from their training, they see there is a fellow student in need. They are encouraged to come over and sit on the bench and make a new friend.

    Benches like this have been around for a while now in many schools. But in Ireland, they are trying to do something different with them. This school in Cork in the south of Ireland is the 247th to get benches from a social organization called "Buddy Bench Ireland" that doesn't just provide schools with benches, but also runs special projects with trained child psychiatrists (精神病专家).They use the bench as an opportunity to start conversations about mental health. They talk about the importance of knowing and understanding your feelings and those of others.

    Judith Ashton, a co-founder of Buddy Bench Ireland said, "The children need to understand what the bench is about, what it represents —friendship, understanding, listening to each other and the most important thing is that it's important to express feelings."

    But do children really use the bench? It's a matter of great public concern. Sinead Mcgilloway from Maynooth University carried out a study and said, " We found that 40% of the children told us that they had actually used the benches at the time of the study. And over 90% said that they would talk to a child if that child was sitting on the bench. So, there's nothing to worry about.

    Children's mental health and safety at school is increasingly a concern in many countries. In Ireland, they're hoping these benches will not only tackle problems like school violence and school bullying (校园暴力和校园欺凌), but also give students the confidence to open up about their feelings.