curious minds for staff

Building the foundations of learning for life through Enquiry Based Learning

Curious Minds

1©Tara Bell and Darryl Bedford

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Skills for first activity.

Activity: What is the most important ingredient in a

learning experience?

Teacher FocusPupil Focus

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Knowledge versus

Skills5

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And how you manage it…….

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‘Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life

is about creating yourself.’

George Bernard Shaw

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“Education is a self-organising system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon.”

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We pride ourselves on creating a curriculum which grows the gifts in our learners and unearths talents previously unrecognised.

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Term Title Trigger/ inspiration Professional Links Finale/ Showcase

1 Identity London TourRoyal Academy of

Dance and Animator

Performance

2 People on The Move Aboriginal Art Handprint Theatre Christmas Performance

3 Myths and Legends BRIT SchoolPerformance The Brit School Performance at the

BRIT School

4 Freedom and Rights Museum of London PM:African Drumming Animation

5 City of Culture The Lion King Handprint Theatre Performance

6 Discoveries and Inventions

The War Horse & The Imperial War

Museum

Puppeteer and Theatre director: Thierry Lawson

Performance

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2 Year Project Cycle: 4 Vital Ingredients

Why Create and perform? “Perform and Create” require the highest

form of processing and synthesis of concepts.

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What we learned from the pupils in Year 1:

•Assumptions •Language FAST TRACK

• Passion

• Underestimation

• Inclusion

•Raising expectations

• Empowerment

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‘Normally in this assessment what I would get is ‘dog’, ‘cat’, ‘fish’ but this year I also got ‘ lion’, ‘warthog’, ‘gnu’ ‘antelope’. I thought, hold on a minute what’s this. Not only did pupils have a much wider vocabulary but they were using catagorisation which is a much higher level skill. The real life exposure to this language has led to much more complex conversations.’

Judy Lamprecht Speech and language Therapist St Georges Hospital

Language Fast Track

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"Young people united in a shared commitment and passion for creating art can overcome all difficulties of communication to create theatre of the highest quality."

Simon StephensAssistant Director of Theatre - Brit School

Passion

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Experiential learning helps our students build a better understanding of the world. 18

Participating in project work builds a sense of community and encourages inclusion.

Tamar Community Project

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"Oak Lodge enables its students to access information as directly as possible. The students express their opinions really clearly, they are engaged. And when OLS staff work with the students I was really impressed at how they stretch them and expect only the best."

Jonathan Huxley - Artist 20

'Innovation is the fuel that drives the global economy and it must be fostered in our nation's schools'.

'School of tomorrow’ www.mmiweb.org.uk

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Teachers say that there is now more…..

Experimental approaches

Active learning Shared observations

Risk taking Peer learning Motivation

Collaboration

Innovation Learning from professionals

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"I feel that because I’m part of the Enquiring Minds Team….I feel more confident in being able to apply the “Enquiring Minds” approach to my own teaching. If I wasn't part of Enquiring Minds I would never be able to do this. So Thank you for putting me in Enquiring Minds."

Karthik Vijayanandam (Maths Teacher) 23

"All were involved in the creative process. It proved a great source of inspiration for creative writing and thinking and was a fantastic way of extending the pupils' vocabulary. Students were extremely motivated and it improved their self-confidence. The acting motivated the students during literacy sessions to read more Greek stories. They then planned, created and wrote their own creative story. The pupils were empowered in their own learning."

Ben Turner, English Co-ordinator

Let's Create- Brit School collaboration

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Pupils demonstrate.......

Improvisation Peer Learning Drama and Music!

Free thinking

Historical and geographical understanding

Communication

Cultural awareness

Collaboration

Language applicationProblem solving

Role play

Resilience

Spontaneous thinking and learning

Contextual understanding

Teamwork

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The considerable breadth and balance of the curriculum adds significantly to pupils’ experience of school.” (OFSTED 2012) 26

Enjoyment = Involvement = Achievement

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Assessment for Learning

Personal Learning and Thinking Skills, we've all got them!

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PLTS ….a great idea but impractical

So we made them into……

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Working with others allows ideas to grow in unexpected and challenging ways.

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S is a very good teacher, he always asked for our ideas and asked how we felt. I liked answering his questions, they were hard, I didn’t always get them right.DL Year 7 Oak Lodge

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Working thematically provides a springboard for creative thinking and allows teachers to experience success in delivering content in new ways.

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Previously Present

Rigid Flexible and Personalised

Knowledge focused Skills focused

Narrow Broad

Limited choice Choice

Limited external tuition Regular professional tutoring

Age dependent Ability led, placing pupils according to potential

Offered limited OOCL opportunties Utilises local and national cultural and sports opportunities

Met pupils’ learning difficulties Meets pupils learning difficulties and abilities

Teacher led learning: Reflected teacher styles and skills Pupil led independent learning, reflects pupils learning styles and interests

Limited opportunity to apply skills and knowledge across different contexts.

Uses cross curricular learning to develop application of skills and knowledge

Developed language in isolation Uses real-life experiences to engage learning language

Developed a range of knowledge based subjects in which literacy and numeracy appear

Places pupil numeracy and literacy competency at it’s heart.

Was complicit in pupils’ passivity to learning Encourages pupils as independent enquirers/learners

Origins and Metamorphosis of the Curriculum

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Knowledge Skills

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If you are going ahead with 'Project Based Learning‘ or ‘Enquiry based Learning’

WARNING: Do not proceed into this curriculum without first agreeing on whole school value and understanding of:• Collaborative learning•Assessment for learning•Team teaching•Delivering to large groups•Pupil led enquiry•Professional Respect

Staff involved should show resilience, ingenuity, initiative, flexibility and a desire to learn. Give these staff planning time and support them to work together

• It will also help to start from a great trigger, involve pupils in planning and record the process

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Planning process....

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Establish these things In Place?

Professional respect

Topics

Curriculum areas(leaders?)

Professional link

Trigger

Showcase

Curriculum objectives/outcomes .....I can & I understand statements

pupil led learning

Communication

Storage

Documentation

Timetable©Tara Bell and Darryl Bedford

Keep in mind• Real life experience and application is most

effective, either as the topic or trigger or showcase.

• Ask pupils at first opportunity what they know about this topic/ what questions they already have/what they might be interested in knowing

• Allow pupils to explore their own interests and leads within the topic and at times ask them to think about their own success criteria for their work.

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Ideas to peruse• Guy Claxtons's 8 Magnificent Qualities for Learning from ' What's

the Point of School‘

• Questioning Skills, teacher and learner. blooms Taxonomy see diagram.

• Project based learning( International Primary Curriculum, Enquiring Minds from Future Lab, the Engaging Schools Program from the Innovation unit, The Power of Projects (Guy Claxton)

• The New Primary Curriculum

• TASC Wheel for Planning

• WALT & TIBS

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Architecture Award

Wandsworth Dragons Den

The highest national contextual value-added score between Key Stage 2 and GCSE. 

Achievements

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References:‘Building Learning Power: Helping Young People Become Better Learners’ by Guy Claxton

'The G & T Pocketbook', Barry Hymer

'A Fair Deal for Gifted Children' Carrie Winstanley

'How to change your mindset', Carol Dweck

‘5Minds for the Future’ Howard Gardner

National G&T Resources

‘What’s the Point of School’ Guy Claxton

‘Changing Paradigms’ Ken Robinson

‘The Whole in the Wall’ Sugata Mitra

‘Enquiring Minds’ Future Lab

www.ability-hub.com

www.projectict.com

Tara Bell: tbell@oaklodge.wandsworth.sch.ukDarryl Bedford: dbedford@oaklodge.wandsworth.sch.uk

48©Tara Bell and Darryl Bedford