A year ago Primary Seven teachers Sharon Smith and Lisa Smith Clarke would have been preparing their students for entry into high school.

The 11-year-old students -- as with their predecessors -- would have been expected to change within the year from pig-tail-pulling boys and shy, giggling girls into well-behaved, focused young people ready to take their place among teenage strangers.

But with the elimination of stressful secondary school transfer exam and the creation of a middle school curriculum, the Victor Scott Primary teachers said both they and the adolescents were under less pressure.

And they boasted that they were preparing the Primary Seven students for something far greater than passing exams and surviving the teen years. They stressed they were getting them ready for life.

Speaking during the second week of the middle school programme which has been introduced this year in all Primary Seven classes in public schools, Mrs.

Smith and Mrs. Smith Clarke said they had already noticed a change in students' attitude toward learning.

"I have not heard once, `this is boring','' said Mrs. Smith who has been teaching for the past 25 years, including 17 years at the Primary Seven level.

"Last year we would have been more subject focused and they would have been doing more writing. There would not have been as much time for discussion between teachers and students.

"Now we spend about five minutes talking (at the beginning of a lesson) and they are not so frightened to speak up.'' Primary students move to middle schools "For example,'' she recalled, "we are studying culture in social studies.

When I asked them what was the difference between traditions and culture, they said traditions make up a culture. They came to that conclusion themselves.'' "You're not getting up there and stating what you want them to learn,'' Mrs.

Smith Clarke interjected. "It's a lot more throwing back on them and letting them do the critical thinking, so that they can apply what they have learned.'' Both teachers are excited about being a part of the public school system which is undergoing major reform, including the formation of five middle schools next year for students between the ages of 11 and 14 years and two senior secondary schools for 14- to 18-year-olds.

Mrs. Smith said she decided to continue teaching Primary Seven students because they were her favourite group of students.

"They are beginning to see the world through independent eyes,'' she pointed out. "Sometimes it's exciting. They are beginning to be individual people.

This is where it begins. They're at the end of primary school. We consider them as children, but others sometimes have these big expectations of them.'' Mrs. Smith Clarke -- who set out to be a middle school teacher -- said she first taught Primary Three children when she returned to the Island.

But she soon realised that she preferred to teach older children.

However, both teachers admitted that educating adolescents can be challenging.

"They suddenly recognise the other sex as the other sex,'' Mrs. Smith said.

"This is the onset of the first period of growth. Some of them are as tall as us or taller.

"And boys are beginning to understand that they have female teachers and try to charm us into getting their own way.'' Noting that students at such age were "becoming sociable'', Mrs. Smith Clarke stressed that this was why the middle school programme was so important.

The middle school programme allowed students and teachers to build a link between the nurturing influences of the primary school and the complexities of learning in a high school, she said.

Therefore, the Primary Seven teachers practice what is commonly known in middle schools as the team approach, where one teacher gives a lesson on a specific topic and the other teacher integrates that topic into his or her lessons.

For example, students in Mrs. Smith's social studies and language arts classes are studying local author Llewllyn Emery's book "Nothing But a Pond Dog'' which describes what it was like to grow up in the Marsh Folly area some 40 years ago.

The students not only read and discussed the book for language arts, she explained, they also used it in social studies, and in Mrs. Smith Clarke's mathematics and science classes.

"In science we're talking about the pond, tadpoles, and basic needs creatures have,'' Mrs. Smith Clarke added. "They also have to write a journal on why they think the number of frogs in Bermuda are decreasing.'' Students -- most of whom are from the Marsh Folly area -- became so engrossed in the work that they did not realise they were learning and being tested, Mrs. Smith said.

In fact, one student, without being asked, walked the entire length of the Pembroke Marsh -- from Bishop Spencer Road to Canal Road -- after school and drew his impression of the area.

Students have also learned how to conduct interviews and surveys and to present data from such activities in graphic form.

"Skills are still being taught,'' Mrs. Smith Clarke explained. "For example, I still have to teach them the skill of graphing. But they collect the information by doing surveys and interviewing people in their neighbourhoods.'' Mrs. Smith noted that the old system did not allow students to be critical thinkers.

"It is the regurgitation of facts,'' she said. "But this way, they think.

"For example,'' she proudly added, "our students now know, through studying culture, that in Korea it is not manners to put change in someone's hand when in Bermuda this is the polite thing to do. They also know in Japan it is not manners to look an older person in the face, when it is considered rude to look away in Bermuda.'' "They have to learn how to wear different hats in the corporate world and we are preparing them for that,'' Mrs. Smith Clarke stressed. "I want them to think mathematically and like scientists, not just to be able to spit out formulas.

"They often ask why they have to learn different things, so I always try to make a connection.'' Referring back to "Nothing But a Pond Dog'', Mrs. Smith noted that the students, on their book project, had to read a passage and come up with a photograph depicting the pond area.

She noted that she also gave the students a passage from the book and left out important words which they had to fill in without the aid of a key.

"I read to them and then with them and then they read by themselves,'' she explained. "So that if we have students who read below the level, they have heard it (the story). This is where middle school really is going to help. If a child has reached 13 and has not learned to read properly, they will not be penalised for the disability, but helped.

"We are preparing them for life so that they can look at everything and make informed decisions based on what they know.'' The teachers pointed out that in addition to changing teaching methods and materials, students' performance will also be assessed differently under the new system.

Rather than judging a student's ability solely on written tests and placing emphasis on an end-of-term exam, the teachers will keep a portfolio of oral and written work by students.

"Pen and paper has not been thrown out completely,'' Mrs. Smith Clarke pointed out. "But a child can put his or her best work into a portfolio for me to assess. There are also oral assessments for those kids who cannot put pen to paper. They receive partial grades for oral presentations.'' The teachers also plan to send assessments to parents every nine weeks in addition to report cards which go out twice a year.

With the new method of assessment, Mrs. Smith said: "I find that students are not afraid to give answers. There are no put downs and they are cognisant of this.'' "You have to set that safe mood in the classroom so that students know whether they are right or wrong, they will try to answer,'' Mrs. Smith Clarke said, adding that in her maths lesson students were rewarded as long as they could explain the process used to come to a conclusion.

The teachers said they also believed in the middle school concept of peer tutoring, peer monitoring, and peer editing. But they stressed that they will always do the "final editing''.

And Mrs. Smith Clarke pointed out even though students worked in groups, they were each expected to complete the work.

In addition to studying the core subjects of language arts, social studies, mathematics, and science, students in the middle school one class are also learning Spanish for the first time.

They are greeted by their teachers in Spanish every morning and have to respond accordingly.

Class periods have also been doubled from 45 minutes to 90 minutes to give students and teachers more time for special activities or projects.

"We were afraid that a 90-minute class would drag,'' Mrs. Smith Clarke admitted. "But now we wonder where that time goes and how we ever did it in less.'' Hardly able to contain their excitement about the new middle school programme, the teachers said: "It's so natural, we don't ever want to go back to the old method of teaching.'' "I can't believe how much fun we are having,'' Mrs. Smith added. "Because it's new material I have to go home and read up for preparation. But I don't go home stressed out anymore.''