Teaching

The BBC report on a school which has taken quite a radical approach to teaching and learning....

A long time coming:

"For several years the government has set numeracy and literacy targets.

Pupils in England, according to international figures, are getting better at the "core skills" promoted within the curriculum. They are improving at reading, writing and maths.

Now attention is being focused too on the need to bring creativity into the classroom to inspire children and fire their interest in learning.

But what does this mean? More artwork, playing games or music, perhaps? More in-depth analysis of the world? More visits to museums and galleries?

What does a school deemed to be creative do differently?"

.... a good question? But surely we know some of the answers already.... it's about freedom, play, opportunity, exploration, experimentation, making mistakes..... it would seem that Michael Faraday Primary School has done quite a bit of work in this area already.

thanks to Pete for the link.

Just come back from a two day conference organised by the National Primary Trust, hosted by the National College of School Leadership, in Nottingham. Conference delegates consisted of mainly headteachers and curriculum leaders.

People talk of 'networking' these days, using phrases like "we must network" rather than have a chat or talk, strange. Maybe I'm out of touch! Had some interesting discussions about a future distributed school project that Ultralab are looking to develop and run. The Distributed School is looking to bring education and learning back into the heart of the rural community. A link to a website to follow soon....

Photos to come...

Ever been to one of those courses, where the course leader asks you to "brainstorm your ideas"....and then later, some smart alec pipes up and says, "actually the correct term is thought-showering."

This comes from the polically correct way of describing the process of bringing out ideas, but to me - thought showering is what i ACTUALLY do.

As my ex-pupils will tell you, some of my greatest and weirdest ideas originate from the shower. I've been known to spend between 40-60 minutes in the shower, as ideas just come flowing out.

Sadly, by the time I've put my feet back on dry land, reality hits and these ideas somehow disappear into the abyss. Pity, cos only occasionally do these ideas stay around long enough and come into fruitition.

I lost a whole raft of great ideas this evening - doh! What I need is something that i can jot, draw or record my ideas whilst in the shower - I've yet to find anything that can cope with such demanding and thought-provoking environments!

Can anyone help!?

I went out for a curry this evening with a mate (and his family) from school where I used to teach.

I discover that his eldest son, aged 6, is a great reader...so great in fact that he is on 'Black' - those who know the school, will know that you don't get onto Black level until you reach the junior school, a couple of years yet for this ace.

At the beginning of the evening, my mate's son, reads 'Lamb Rogan Josh' - pretty good for a Year 1. Later, I ask him to read the name of my curry (Chicken Balti), he says....
"Chicken B-al-tie"
to which i reply, "almost....it's Chicken B-ol-tie"
Brimming with confidence he replies, "No! it's definitely 'Chicken B--al-tie', you've got a Scottish accent."

Well....actually, I haven't got a Scottish accent - but it was at this point I realised why he's such a good reader. If he has the confidence to challenge someone elses opinion, someone older and more experienced, he has the ability to challenge his own reading. Confidence is key in learning, if we haven't the confidence to challenge and enquire, we just become passive learners, and only as good as those around us. See also Confidence is key from my old blog.

I was stunned by his remark and just ate the rest of my curry :-)