Lab school reflection

I went with look fors, but felt more than saw what inspired me.  The school itself was quite cluttered and in disrepair compared to our beautiful new environment.  But our three grade six hosts showed us around a school that felt calm, safe and that they were proud to call their school.  Why?  What was the difference?  When the art, music or gym teachers came to their classes they would only take half of the group.  Leaving the other half in the classroom with the teacher with approx. 10 children.  I saw some behaviours but they didn't escalate.  Why, I presumed that with the lower numbers and the calmness of the class situations were dealt with easily and without much fuss.  I wanted that calm feeling!  I lost sleep over this, trying to figure out how in our large kindergarten classes could this calmness be achieved.  I am in the process of trying an idea out.  I spoke with our prep coverage teacher and with my teaching partner and asked if it was possible to split our class in half?  For the past two weeks when the children go to gym, music and drama we have been splitting up.  So far so good, I never have time in our large classroom with 12 to 14 children.  Just the logistics of more space and less bodies feels calmer.  I am able to observe and document more because of have less fires to put out.  I feel more engaged less like a referee :).