I am currently on a study tour with the School’s Network and am visiting 5 primary schools in the Chinese capital Beijing. Today we visited a school with 1500 children, 670 of whom board in the school. Fendou Primary is a state maintained primary school which was founded 72 years ago. I was so impressed by the facilities that were available to the children. When we arrived we were able to watch the raising of the Chinese flag and then the children had breaktime which involved them being in organised groups with their teachers where they all took part in skipping or basketball or other fun games – no child was left out and they all had super agility and hand eye coordination – something to consider for our breaktimes maybe? The teachers aren’t like us, they only teach 1 subject but to all years. School starts at 8 and finished at 3. However every child picks an activity they wish
do as a club everyday. This will be their ‘special skill’ for example swimming. For at least 1 hour after school they must practise, not as a fun club but this is how they differentiate the children’s learning. We observed 4 lessons, Chinese handwriting, music (Peking opera, art and English language. The childre were in classes of about 42 children. In each lesson the children sat on desks of 2 and at no point did they talk to anyone else. The teacher would give them information and the children chanted back as a group, they were also asked what seemed to be
closed questions and the children answered as a group with 1 word answers. The really interesting thing was that there was no differentiation at all going on. The teacher taught to the curriculum expectations, if the child fell behind or
struggled they would have to stay after school to catch up. If they fell too far behind they would be moved to another school where the expectations were a little lower. So as you can imagine the students at this school were the ‘cream
of the crop’ and they were super gifted! We got to see a couple of ten year old perform music and wow……Just before we left we met the head teacher. We asked about behaviour and he gave us a funny look as to say that would never be an issue. He hadn’t needed to speak to a child for 10 years about poor behaviour – really like the children at Blackfield and Fawley!
We are now entering our third year of a values led integrated curriculum and the impact of this change can be palpably felt in the impact on raised standards of attainment across the school. We can see more consistent progress across the school as each year group and phase has unpicked their taught curriculum and really begun to question the purpose of each unit of work.
Over this past year I have been particularly impressed by the children’s understanding of our learning values and this has been greatly helped by the introduction of learning walls on which children can see practical examples of the values within their current ILU.
IN the best examples the children have been instrumental in adding to the walls as they understand each statement
I believe that children should be encouraged to develop their own lines of enquiry, to search for answers and to have access to a range of materials to help them do this. That’s why, at Blackfield, I am looking forward to the opening of our two school discovery centres on Wednesday 16th March. Whilst they are still going to be full of wonderful books for all children to read they will also have items that will help all of our young learners to develp enquiring minds. Microscopes, laptops, magnifying glasses and artefacts are just a sample of what will be inside. The Fawley discovery centre will be relaunched later in the year. Please comment, add photographs and tell me what you think.
Whilst visiting a school in Wales I noticed that they had 3 recycling bins in their corridors so that children, staff, parents and visitors could recycle their rubbish. I’d like to know how that could work in Blackfield Primary and Fawley Infant schools? Would the Eco warriors or corridor patrol take this idea on? Thoughts please …….
Heathfield Primary School in Bolton has been blogging for just over a year now. In that time they have seen reluctant writers, particularly boys find a real audience and purpose for thier writing; which has encouraged them to write even more and to an even higher standard.
We have worked hard to develop the curriculum in both schools so that it is inspiring and gives the children an audience and purpose for their writing. I am sure that parents have seen an improvement in the quality of writing that children are producing as they attend the ILU outcome events. We are keen to take these improvements even further to raise standards in writing and hope that by using new technologies we can encourage all our children to blog for an international audience and to show the world their skills in writing.
Below is a link to the BBC on 14.2.11 which broadcast details of Heathfield’s wonderful blogging achievements
Miss O Sullivan and I are very interested in the possibility of using mobile technologies with our young learners to further enhance their learning. On Thursday we visited Abottswood Junior School who are trialling the use of IPod touches in their reading sessions to support their learning. Having spoken to children about their learning I know that they are keen to use these new technologies to help them have easy, anytime access to the Internet. We would be interested to hear from parents and children about their thoughts.
I am very pleased to welcome children, parents, staff and visitors from across the globe to our new blogsites. Over the coming weeks and months the classes in both Blackfield and Fawley Schools will be updating the world with information about their current learning, their latest ILUS ( integrated learning units) and other wonderful events that take place across the federation. We would really like you to comment on their posts as it really does help the children see themselves as authors. It is a fantastic opportunity to gain further insights into our wonderful schools and we look forward to reading your comments.
Our school website has been updated today with links to the class blogs that children and staff are writing. What a fantastic way to inspire children to write and receive feedback – very purposeful. www.blackfield.hants.sch.uk I also think it is a great way for parents to find out what is happening in the classroom.
We are frustrated that we cannot upload videos onto our wordpress.com blogs and i am going to find out how we can change this, if anyone reading this knows the answer then please help!
Want to know what’s on in school? Check out our website. If you have a smartphone simply use a QR reader to read the code below and see where it takes you.
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