Primary School Teachers - help

Whats a "learning house"?

I havent been to have a look at the local school yet, but there was a big double page spread about it (p-12 only opened this year) in the local paper, and they refer to the classrooms as 'learning houses' and only have 4 of them for prep-7 - 450 students at present.

From the photos, I looks like a huge room with 4+ classes running in there at the one time. Does that sound normal to you? How do kids learn in that sort of an environement, particular if they are advanced or delayed?

Im really not sure Im comfprtable with it and might have to look at a different school for DS now, but Im open to opinions.

dont know for sure but it sounds like it could be a class group of integrated ages where they learn at their own pace with no real set of curriculum or formal pre-planned semester planning? the teachers would facilitate the childrens learning based on what the child is interested in at the time, what they can do already and give them experiences to foster further development. sounds a bit like the 'montessuri' based curriculum i have heard about. apparantly it is becomming more and more popular. but like i said, i havent heard it called 'learning house' before. maybe someone else can be of more help. :-) dont pull your son out until you speak to the school about it. if it is relatively new for the school they will probably do info nights and sessions to bring everyone up to date with the new approach.

Hollo - thanks - DS is only 3 so looking at it for 2011, just wanted to make sure I can get as much info as I can

what type of schooling is it?
i know montessori and stiener have intergrated ages