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Special activities
Pupils had physical education twice a week at The Gunningschool and once a week at the Kantlijn. It is nowadays compulsory in the Netherlands that a separate teacher teaches physical education. At the Kantlijn, special teachers also taught handicrafts and English, and a special music teacher taught for several weeks, as part of a music project. This school also participated in a photography project of a local youth theatre. All Amsterdam primary schools participate in Museumles (museum lessons). The municipality organises weekly visits to the city’s diverse museums, where a guide shows pupils around. The Gunningschool only participated once every two years and clustered 7 and 8 years. The years always went by bus, accompanied by volunteer parents and teachers to keep the groups in check.
As the Kantlijn was located closer to the city centre, we often walked to the museum without extra supervision. Furthermore, both schools participated in the yearly Kunstschooldag (Art school day), when concert halls, theatres and museums have a special programme for children.
The end of primary school is celebrated in most Dutch schools by play or musical.[9] The Gunningschool brought a musical called Chewing gum gangsters. Thomas started practice in March, but cancelled the musical in May because the pupils continuously misbehaved during rehearsals. Instead, the boys and the girls practised a dance they performed for their classmates and the other teachers. The girls chose Buttons, a song by the then popular The Pussycat Dolls. They had about six practice sessions without Thomas’ supervision, which they considered a privilege. Practice was a constant struggle over who was allowed to speak and who was allowed to show the moves, particularly between Consolacion, leader of the popular girls, and Aliye, the most experienced dancer. The girls copied all the sensual and sexually provocative moves, from opening and crossing legs to running hands over their breasts. Nonetheless, the dancing was shy, awkward and unfinished.
The Kantlijn (i.e. Luck with much input from the pupils) invented their own play, entitled School of the future. A face on a monitor had replaced the traditional teacher, and the pupils were sucked into this, ending up in a computer game. They had to play levels in order to escape. The play featured many dances and winked at the idea of the Brede School. Preparations for the Kantlijn’s final play started in June and took up most of the school hours until the end of year. This meant rehearsals that lasted all with pupils receiving very little education (in the strict sense).