When do we decide children need to learn something to prove they can do it?
Not at primary. I agree on that one. That’s one of the main reasons I prefer Scotland. A curriculum that allows freedom. But I keep the freedom to my teaching, rather than pass it on to the children. You know what happens when you give children the opportunity to choose what they learn? They ask to learn about dinosaurs. Every time. I spread my experiences across the year, I can’t cover every eventuality. I can’t cover every time period. But I can ensure they get a breadth of education.
In term 1 it’s all about us. We focus on emotional health, relationships, communication. We redecorate our classroom and learn how to play nicely. Lots of play. The redecoration process allows for writing a letter and researching online and measuring things, which incidentally covers lots of basic number concepts which we whip through at lightening speed to see what we can do whilst I’ve already worked out the dimensions and amounts we actually need. I start with a simple skills test. I make it formal, we analyse the results in a positive way, identifying gaps in knowledge that we ALL have. Decide on challenges for those who have fewer gaps showing that learning doesn’t stop just because you’ve achieved something already. Emotion HWB covered right there. Data skills are covered in 3 lessons. Children have a goal. Children with lots of gaps group together with an SLA for specific support during focused target time. PE is games that promote team building and help me find good Dynamics and to see what skills kids already have. We write an autobiography in literacy and talk about ourselves and our likes and dislikes in French and Spanish, which opens up all sorts of vocabulary. We learn about the human body at an age appropriate level and I like to get a trip in here too.
Term 2 is Christmas. The focus is RME, how people think differently. This is where 1.2 comes in; learning French and Spanish most days and learning about Christmas in other cultures. Lots of art comes in too. Math is restricted to basic skills lessons that plug in gaps and misconceptions in learning that came up in term 1’s work, as well as a unit on money that’s heavily role play based (Xmas shopping etc). Literacy is the first story: a fictional character story focusing on story structure and going over basic language exploration techniques. This, incidentally, exposes the children who are least creative and helps me decide who will need to work with me in future to come up with story ideas so that they don’t lose out on showing me their ability to write just because they aren’t creative. PE is dance- ceilidh’s are famo up here at Xmas.
Term 3 is Jan to Feb. This is food time and Scottish time. There’s burns day. This brings poetry, government and debate, geography and learning where Scotland is in relation to other countries. Scottish food and Scottish language dominate. Music is a whistle stop tour of instruments, vocabulary and making sounds (which incidentally includes some science) Maths is continued skill based gaps with Scottish themes throughout. We learn about the sea, animals and bones.
Term 4 is feb to beginning of April, geography will come in here. The focus is time. We learn to tell the time at an age appropriate level in maths and see time pass using places and geographical features and events as they come up as part of the history timeline. Instead of focusing on a historical period, I focus on historical learning. no matter what year group I teach, i do a theme along the lines of travelling through time. We hit notable periods and children get a whistle stop tour of the past. In upper years, we finish with writing a report on something we are interested in. In lower years, we finish by creating some sort of creative piece depicting something they remember learning. We learn coordinates and orienteering. It’s a big reading push month as children really see the benefit of reading to find information.
term 5 is april to may is comicon. This is my new age shit. We learn about comic books (which supports speech marks understanding) we learn about facial expression (pshe) we create a comic, sometimes on a computer (if upper school). We learn about patterns and coding in math, algebra if age appropriate. Problem solving and computer science. We write a newspaper piece and create comic book world’s out of whatever paper/card/plastic/cardboard I can get hold of. We learn about sound and colour and the eye if age appropriate. We learn about advertising in upper years and movement in younger years. We learn about angles as we build 3D comic worlds and write instructions for a builder for the upper kids. We learn about space at an age appropriate level.
Term 6 is may to June and runs straight after term 5. This is summer term and is all about the end. It’s story time. We enter the realm of fantasy, myths and legends. We write a play and a story. We dress up. We have sports day and health day and end of year celebrations. We do problem solving in math. And shape and symmetry. Little kids build castles. Big kids build castles. We design castle interiors and learn to sew, some of us finally learn to tie our shoes.
So you see, the year maps itself out in a whistle stop tour fashion. And when I’m thinking about specific expectations for achievements? I simply Google something along the lines of ‘expectations of a ten year old’ in whatever the skill was I was looking at.
Music, art and drama, and reading/spelling skills are utilised throughout. i teach all subjects by showing good examples of what I expect them to learn; identifying children who are far from the good example, giving them close teacher support. Providing challenges and deeper thinker skill opportunities for children who identify as matching my good examples. This is a daily assessment. But the Scottish system massively reduces on the documentation requirements so the proof is in the pudding when the kids do a test or something at the end of the year (I always do a test to support my assessments at the end of the year) and they can answer questions even when they aren’t sure they’re right.
Current affairs are taught throughout and I’ll hold news days if something crops up. I’ll discuss issues in circle times and at break times.
Weather is interspersed throughout the year. As we experience weather, we talk about it and older kids learn more about the how and the why whilst younger kids learn to describe it.
Days of the week, months of the year and how the year is broken up, is done across the year. Every day in younger classes we discuss what day of the week it is, what day of the month it is, where the months came from etc etc. This includes ordinal numbers so takes a chunk out of the math learning. Older kids learn about other cultures and what they do across the year. Easy way to fit it all in is to use an interactive calendar online showing cultural celebrations around the world.
Music appreciation is done across the year. I always play music. Age appropriate of course but my YouTube is on every morning and children discuss it with me at morning meeting (register/lunch/settling down time)
Whatever I’m teaching, there’s a book or workbook or twinkle activity hovering for choosing time and children can choose to learn more about it if they want. information leaflets, books and websites are available too. Children are given time to explore their own interests. Particularly older children who may want to take some ownership of their learning.
I can’t teach to a test at primary. Primary should be about showing children what they could learn. Encouraging interests and passion.
This works for me. And in Scotland, I’m free to do what I like most of the time.
Having this overview really helps me focus on the children. I go into it with a benchmarks mat to make sure they key learning is covered (and which bits not to worry about because they will be properly focused on in another year because of age or school plans) it works wonders because many experiences are covered. Yes we could go into more depth and sometimes I do spend a bit more time on the Romans era during ‘time term’, for example. Because the school want that to be covered in my year group or stage.
Appropriate math topics to be assessed are mapped termly as I go. I start at the beginning of the year with a simple test that identifies the gaps. The following math topics will be covered as part of my topics: money, time, algebra, symmetry, shape, coordinates and turns and mapping skills. For these topics I have my groupings and focuses already sorted from the results of the test and they will be taught as part of topic lessons For the rest of the topics I split up across the year, with groups based upon the test answers. By the time I get to the last term, skill ‘sit down and learn’ maths lessons are rare. Once the children have had a fresh experience of the gaps they had, I move on. Nowhere does the curriculum say they have to achieve the best outcome of the experience. Just that they experience it. So learning is seen as opportunity, rather than forced.
Yes I probably could spend time going into depth with children to improve their learning on particular concepts. And I do try, but I won’t get round everyone for every topic. Some will be left to the next teacher. There’s only one of me and that one of me has to give a lot more parenting attention to children during the day.
My time spent closing the attainment gap is better spent reducing the depth of learning for half the class but offering a breadth of experiences that they will remember and learn from. It allows for inclusion, reduces the need for teacher based input and generally supports the change in job role from ‘teacher’ to learning facilitator.
Yes some children may not learn certain skills because they didn’t cause a scene or copied the person next to them. But they will learn it later. Math and lit skills can be taught to adults and can be accessed through other learning platforms such as training courses for jobs. Much better in this upcoming economy where businesses increasingly want a qualification in their specific accredited programs; despite your math or lit A level, that is probably about the same academic level. You know what you can’t undo later on? Bad manners. Bad people skills. Low resilience. No community spirit. No interests. No ability to read and communicate through visual, written, and creative mediums. That’s really what I should be teaching.
I just can’t believe I’ve spent so long thinking about the potential for a 6 year old to understand mathematical concepts. Frustrating myself with knowing the potential can never be accessed in this current education system. THINKING about why it is necessary for me to ensure a 6 year old can do it? Why is it so bad that they learn it later when they see a purpose to it? Why is it so important that children leave school with these skills refined? Adults are increasingly engaging with the education system. Retraining and learning new skills as an adult should be a normal thing to do. Why do we expect children to learn it all? Yes it’s the best time. But what if it’s a better time to learn how to communicate better? How to express ourselves better? Educate ourselves better? Skills can be mapped alongside this as they arise of course. But the learning is about creating a person, not a factory farmed adult.
Teachers should be taught process of learning skills and expectations and paths of skills. In all subjects. Leave the resourcing and lesson planning. That will come with practice. They should be taught how children learn different ways. They should be taught how to manage behaviour and harness interests. They should be taught how to build relationships with multiple children. How to navigate the career structure in different areas. How to improve parent engagement and how they should improve their own communication skills.
I’m nobody really, but i have all these ideas…
FaerieFalls 