Creative Teaching & Learning

New project set to cultivate nation of healthy eaters

A look at how a new initiative from the Royal Horticultural Society has helped Tangnere Primary School in Chichester enhance their cross-curricular learning.

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      string(323) "Castleward Primary School is an innovative new primary school set to be built in the heart of Derby’s city centre. Craig Taylor, associate director of Lungfish Architects, describes the challenges posed by the school’s limited site size and how they used the restrictions as a catalyst for creativity."
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      string(358) "... from the city centre and the growing demand for inward-looking developments, this is a luxury that many modern town planners can seldom afford.Thankfully, new developments are only inward-looking as a matter of geography – the innovation cultivated by urban regeneration schemes is giving rise to endless opportunities. Castleward ..."
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      string(5708) "The UK’s towns and cities are bursting at the seams. Indeed, more than a million people in rented homes are suffering overcrowding as city centres continue to swell in size. So naturally, the question of exactly where these people – especially families – will live, learn and grow is high on the agenda for councils across the nation.Urban regeneration has always been a key element in ‘levelling-up’ the economy and easing over-crowding, but now it has been cemented as a priority following the Covid-19 pandemic. The government is urgently seeking drivers of recovery, and major construction and infrastructure projects, both those in-progress and further down the line, have a significant role to play.Even before coronavirus, homes, jobs and leisure facilities were fast becoming the focus of all new regeneration schemes which transform underused, highly valued land in town and city centres. Now, they’re essential.One such scheme is the £100m housing-led regeneration of Castleward, an inner-city region of Derby. Castleward will soon welcome 1,000 new homes as Derby City Council works towards achieving its City Centre Masterplan 2030, with 4,000 jobs due to be created over the coming ten years.However, the addition of this many homes and people comes with myriad issues, with a key one being how to cater for the children of families new to the area.Naturally, those commissioning and designing schools tend to favour larger, open spaces with plenty of room – characteristics that come with suburban land. But given their distance from the city centre and the growing demand for inward-looking developments, this is a luxury that many modern town planners can seldom afford.Thankfully, new developments are only inward-looking as a matter of geography – the innovation cultivated by urban regeneration schemes is giving rise to endless opportunities. Castleward Primary School is a case-in-point.Build up, not outWe were challenged by Derby City Council to design and develop a new primary school that would meet the demand anticipated as a result of the Castleward housing regeneration. The first challenge was figuring out how to make a 315-place primary fit in the middle of an already built-up city.The site of the new school is only 5,200m sq, which according to government guidance, is half the space usually required. However, this is an issue common to all city centre developments and they have a common solution: build up, not out.We designed Castleward Primary School as a contemporary building, whilst being sympathetic to its existing context by utilising a consistent design language that’s typical of the area. The school’s accommodation is spread predominantly across two-storeys to ensure we could deliver the required number of classrooms to meet the client’s brief. The two main circulation cores, providing stair and lift access, are an architectural feature framing the main entrance and are a nod to the heritage of the site.What’s more, play areas have often been dictated by how far a school can stretch outwards. We abandoned this thinking and set about using all the area at our disposal – much of which is roof space.A rooftop play deck, garden terrace and even a slide running from the top of the first floor to the ground floor make the design of the school playful and unique, capturing the children’s imagination and harnessing their passion to explore the environment around them. By utilising higher ground, not only are we maximising the space available, we’re also enabling a 3D environment to explore.Of course, there’s no compromise on safety. Parapet walls will keep children safe and feeling comfortable, as well as teachers and parents.Our team of talented architects also used the existing features of the site to enhance the safety of the school. The site, which is currently used as a car park, has extensive perimeter hedgerows and fencing. The school has been positioned in a way that aims to maximise these features and remove the need for additional security measures.More than that, the main entrance is located to make sure that it’s visible and that there’s a secure line of sight as parents drop-off and pick-up their little ones. The building is also set back from the main road, allowing it to appear unobtrusive to the existing neighbourhood and to pupils who are entering the school.Every step has been taken to keep children safe – a priority for every primary school – and using the natural environment and line-of-sight techniques means that the security measures don’t feel forced.Light touchExternal solutions to solve shortages of space are important, but none more so than the creativity in design required internally. Every inch of floor space must be accounted for and have a role to play in supporting active learning.The focus of any primary school is often the main hall: a space for playing, exercising, singing, dancing, eating and socialising. 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Leadership

Building Space: How A City-Centre Primary School Is Setting A New Design Blueprint

3 Aug 2020

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      string(5662) "Earlier this year, with my colleagues at the universities of Winchester and Manchester, I published the results of a two-year research project, which we believe has profound implications for the curriculum at all levels within the education system. Although it addressed a particular problem, our inability to create, as a nation, enough high-powered engineers, the report  Learning to be an Engineer: implications for the education system,  found that  a new reframing of the curriculum in terms of set of problem-solving  habits of mind typically found in top engineers was more important to prioritise than the set of subjects typically associated with engineering, such as maths, physics and design and technology. One of the most effective ways of developing young engineers in schools is a playful experimentation with the use of authentic design processes, a kind of problem-based learning. For the teachers involved, it became obvious that, not only could they deepen their pupils’ knowledge, they could also teach in a way that was engaging, creative and likely to develop young engineers.  Rethinking pedagogyCentre for Real-World Learning’s Model of Engineering Habits of MindThe teachers taking part in our research realised that teaching engineering, like developing creativity, depends at least as much on experimentation and imagination as it does on subject knowledge. They drew on three ‘signature pedagogies’2 – the engineering design process, playful experimentation and authentic engagement with engineers. The signature pedagogies – teaching and learning methods – were selected as those most likely to help pupils think like engineers.Gomer Junior School in Hampshire, for example, introduced engineering sessions in every year group each Thursday  morning from 09.00-12.00. 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The systems thinking one is shown  below.The popular ‘Be Like Bill’ social media meme (above) was also adapted to explain the meaning of each engineering habit of mind, in this case problem-finding.Medway UTC’s strategies to cultivate awareness of EHoM had an important impact on those teachers in subjects such as art and English, who felt much more included in the overall engineering mission of the school.Some possible problems with problem-based learningThe teachers were, in essence, using a set of approaches associated with the approach known as problem-based learning (PBL). PBL is a hands-on method of teaching which focuses on messy, real-world problems and encourages students to explore these in depth and over time. Interestingly, PBL produces negative reactions from some researchers and, in the second part of this article, I explore some of these and offer some counter arguments.1. Constructivist teaching which allows pupils to explore problems in less structured ways is not as effective as direct instruction.An example of such a critique is a paper by Paul Kirschner, John Sweller and Richard Clark. The first part of the title of the article suggests their line of argument – Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching4 Kirschner and his colleagues draw on thinking about working memory and about the acquisition of expertise. They are right to remind us that novices and intermediate learners often need specific instruction to master core concepts and key skills, but they fail to ask a more fundamental question  about the learning outcomes which are desired by teachers. 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Leadership

Engineering a new curriculum

26 Sep 2017

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      string(336) "Ron Ritchhart, leader of PZ’s ‘Cultures of Thinking’ project, has been a powerful advocate for educational practices that bring out the best in people, and creating places where thinking is valued, visible and actively promoted. We sat down with him to discuss his research and thoughts on the current state of education."
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      string(5687) "Since 1994, Ron Ritchhart has been involved with Project Zero, aiming to understand how to develop, nurture and sustain thoughtful learning environments for both students and teachers. His books Making Thinking Visible and Creating Cultures of Thinking have not only put out a call for action for schools to become inspirational environments that bring out the best in all learners, but they have also offered concrete strategies and approaches to make that happen. His research has explored areas such as intellectual character, mindfulness, thinking dispositions, teaching for understanding, creativity in teaching and the development of communities of practice. From this, he has clarified a framework for leveraging the cultural forces that exist in classrooms and has developed a series of ‘Thinking Routines’ that help scaffold and support thinking and make the learning process visible as ideas are expressed, discussed and reflected upon. Can you give us a brief overview of the ‘Cultures of Thinking’ and tell us a bit about the project and the key concepts?Well, several years ago I became really interested in the idea of thinking dispositions. To cultivate those, one can’t rely on direct teaching. What we have to do is create a culture in which thinking is supported and where we enable students to develop deep understanding and also to develop those habits of mind. The framework that we use for understanding how culture exists comes from some early research that I did almost 20 years ago in which I looked at classrooms where teachers were really adept at getting students to think. I set out to try and understand how those teachers developed their students as thinkers and learners. And what I saw was that all of those teachers really leveraged the culture, and from that, we then identified what we call cultural forces. I’ve chosen that name quite deliberately because, just like the force of gravity, it is not something we choose. These forces already exist in classrooms, so they’re not something we choose to implement, but they are something we can choose to use to shape the culture. Those eight cultural forces are: the routines and structures that the group has in placehow time is allocatedthe opportunities that are being createdthe interactions that teachers have with students and that students have with one another, the modelling that teachers offer of who they are as thinkers and learners, the physical environment, the language that gets used, particularly language of thinkingthe expectations that we have for our students that really guide us So those eight forces really wind up being the centre of our work. There’s a lot there. We’ve spent a lot of time researching each of those in more depth to provide teachers with tools to help them move forward. Great. And who were your influences that got you interested in education and this line of research? Well, what took me to Project Zero was the opportunity to work with David Perkins. I had read his book Smart Schools, and was really captivated by the notion that we can think about schools in a different way and think about education in terms of developing students as thinkers and learners with a focus on deep understanding. He shaped a lot of the teaching that I was doing in my own mathematics classroom at the time, and then I got the opportunity to come to to Harvard and work with him and with other people at Project Zero, including, of course, Howard Gardner as well as David Perkins. And so they’ve been very influential, as well as the colleagues that I’ve had over the years. Joseph Onosko, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, is someone else who has influenced me. He too was looking deeply into thinking. His research has also looked at classroom teachers and how they understand the role of thinking and how that connects to their agenda of teaching. Those have been very major influences. One of the things you mentioned with the eight forces is that they are things that good teachers were already doing. Some people might say then that your research is a collation of good teaching practices and theories that are already out there and that these forces are simply a collection of research practices that have been out there for a long time. How would you respond to that perspective?  Well, I think what my research has added is the identification of these forces. Whenever research identifies something that exists, then what that research does is illuminate how those things work. That’s what my research has focused on. And so, take something like language. Of course it’s not surprising that teachers use language, but it’s how they use language and the effect of that language, as well as the role of what’s known as conditional and absolute language, and how that plays out in the classroom, along with the role of language of identity. So the forces certainly connect to other researchers and to my own research, but their purpose is to illuminate how these things work. And I think that this also represents a shift. One of the things that can sometimes be challenging in the world of education today is that we actually have gotten teachers accustomed to the idea that anything you hear about is something to implement. It’s a new program, it’s a new approach, it’s something to implement. And what the cultural forces offer is that they are something to examine or something to pay attention to. They involve paying attention to your own teaching"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Leveraging Culture with Ron Ritchhart

8 Jan 2019

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      string(5574) "Domestic violence leads to childhoold traumaThe Healing Together Facilitator Programme will help to create a legion of trauma aware practitioners who will have the skills and understanding to help children who are impacted by domestic abuse and violence. This is an ambitious world-wide training programme toupskill staff who work with children in primary or secondary schools, in othercommunity settings, in refuges, hostels or who provide pastoral or counsellingsupport. Dealing with childhood trauma and domestic violenceWe are the course creators and come with different perspectives from different backgrounds and that adds strength to our collaboration. Dr Asha Patel set up her multi award winning social enterprise in 2016 with the aim of creating mentally healthy environment in schools: ‘I come from a forensic mental health background, working with high-profile sex offenders among others. I realised I was working at the wrong end of the spectrum. It was too late for them. I came to understand that I could make more impact if I supported them when they were young.’Innovating Minds worked alongside ‘We:ARE’ in Birmingham which supports women who have been subjected to domestic violence. As the mothers started to rebuild their lives, they were concerned about the damage done to their children, so Innovating Minds developed a programme in Kings Norton in Birmingham. Children aged 10-14 attended, one evening a week for six weeks after school After the very first session there was a waiting list for 40 children so right from the beginning it was impossible to keep up with demand.Jane Evans is an expert on Childhood Trauma and Anxiety. She’s also the author of a number of books which help adults explore discuss difficult issues with children, including one on domestic abuse called How Are You Feeling Today Baby Bear? She has worked in refuges, with children’s services, the courts and trained to be a foster carer. All her work draws on her experiences but is also informed by research. She is a trainer and coach and much in demand as a public speaker.Jane was working with preschool children 26 years ago whenshe first learned about abusive relationships and realised that she had been inone for three years. ‘Trauma does not stop when they come out of an abusive relationship,so adults need to learn to walk in the child’s shoes. Often once the abusivepartner has left ,the single parent really struggles with the child’sbehaviour.’Levels of domestic violence in lockdownThe HealingTogether Facilitator Programme is especially timely now. The pandemic has not been kind tochildren who live in violent households. The United Nations has called domesticabuse the ‘shadow pandemic’ as it estimates incidents globally have increasedby at least 20 per cent. According to Commander Sue Williams of The Metropolitan Police there was a spike in arrests after 9 March, when people with coronavirus symptoms were asked to self-isolate. She says charges and cautions were up by 24% compared to the same period in 2019, with officers arresting an average of 100 people a day for domestic violence. Police believe the incidents of domestic violence are under-reported as some mothers know that if their partner is arrested, they will be left with no money coming into the home. Meanwhile, researchers at the Counting Dead Women Project told UK MPs that 14 women and two children were killed in the first three weeks of lockdown – the largest number of killings in a three-week period for 11 years and more than double the average rate.[1]The NSPCC has confirmed a shocking increase in calls to their service: ‘Contacts to our helpline about the impact of domestic abuse on children have increased by 32% since the start of the lockdown, to an average of one an hour.’Agenciesknow that these figures are just the tip of the iceberg and that many more willcome to light when women and children can get out of the house and tell theirstories to others. This has happened in other countries that lifted lockdownearlier.The biggest victims of domestic abuse are often the youngest people in familiesThe statistics areshocking but the reality is that each of these numbers represents one or morechildren trapped over thirteen weeks with no chance of escape.They have lived with daily uncertainties, threats and abuse. They willneed support from safe adults to give them insights into ways to feel calmerand safer in their own bodies.The danger is that they go back to school, struggle with their feelings and emotions and find that they cannot cope. Adults in children’s daily lives, at school and in the community, need to understand that certain behaviours can be manifested by children who are traumatised – they must NOT be simply seen as ‘really naughty’ or ‘unmanageable.’The children are responding to trauma and overwhelmed. Their bodies areon alert and they experience sensory overload where they react to sounds,smells, sounds, textures of food. Words, looks, silences and what seem to beminor incidents can set off feelings of danger.They are swamped by their feelings but there is a disconnect betweentheir mind and body so they are not always aware of what is going on.  One girl told us: ‘I love my mum, I don’t know why I do this to her’. When children are working through the course materials you will see real light bulb moment where they suddenly identify their reactions: ‘That’s what my body does too!’; ‘So that is what my brain is telling"
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Mental Health

Seeing Children's Experiences Of Domestic Violence Through A Trauma Informed Lens Helps Their Journey To Recovery

1 Jul 2020