Socially Distanced Tents Go Up at London Primary

Previously we reported how a London-based architect had proposed using marquee tents to support social distancing in schools. The first trial went up this week.

Above: Pop-up tent concept trialled at Manorfield Primary School, London© Curl la Tourelle Head

British architecture firm Curl la Tourelle Head has trialled its first pop-up school proposal at Manorfield Primary School in Tower Hamlets, London to optimise social distancing among pupils and staff.

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      string(5643) "increasingly being required to learn things for which they are not ready, and this leads toshallow learning for the test, rather than in depth understanding which could form a sound basisfor future learning. ■ The amount of time spent on creative teaching, investigation, play, practical work etc. has reducedconsiderably, and lessons more often have a standard format. This results from pressure toprepare pupils for tests and to cover the curriculum; teachers’ perceptions of what Ofsted want tosee (both in lessons, and in terms of written evidence in pupils’ books); and teachers’ excessivework levels. Both primary and secondary pupils said that they learned more effectively in activeand creative lessons, because they were memorable. ■ The use of Key Stage 2 test scores to determine target grades at GCSE is deeply problematic,both because, in secondary teachers’ experience, the test results do not give a realistic picture ofchildren’s levels of knowledge and understanding; and because they are based on test scores inEnglish and maths, which do not represent potential in subjects such as foreign languages, art ormusic. ■ Accountability measures have a substantial impact on teachers. In all types of school, theirworkload is excessive and many suffer considerable stress as a result of the accountability Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.strategies used in their schools. Some teachers are under unreasonable pressure to meettargets related to pupil attainment. The impact of accountability measures on teachers isnot the main focus of this research, but is included because it inevitably impacts on pupils. ■ The current emphasis in inspections on pupils’ books and written feedback to pupils isadding considerably to teachers’ workloads and stress, and is not providing proportionatebenefits for pupils. ■ Some teachers reported that the combination of pressure to improve test/exam outcomes,and their own increased workload and stress, had reduced the quality of their relationshipswith their pupils. ■ Children and young people are suffering from increasingly high levels of school-relatedanxiety and stress, disaffection and mental health problems. This is caused by increasedpressure from tests/exams; greater awareness at younger ages of their own ‘failure’; andthe increased rigour and academic demands of the curriculum. The increase in diagnosisof ADHD has been shown to be linked to the increase in high stakes testing. Thus itappears that some children are being diagnosed and medicated because the schoolenvironment has become less suitable for them, allowing less movement and practicalwork, and requiring them to sit still for long periods. ■ Increasingly, children and young people see the main purpose of schooling as gainingqualifications, because this is what schools focus on. This trend has been widely deplored,including by universities and employers, who have argued that the current exam systemdoes not prepare children for life beyond school. They have highlighted a range of otherdesirable outcomes of schooling, such as independent, creative and divergent thinking;ability to collaborate; and so on. ■ While accountability measures have a negative impact on all pupils, many of themdisproportionately affect disadvantaged and SEND pupils. One reason for this is thatmany of them struggle to reach age-related expectations, and therefore often spend moretime being taught maths and English (and consequently miss out on some other subjects).Some special school teachers argued that their pupils need to develop life skills ratherthan focus on literacy and numeracy. ■ A second reason for the disproportionate impact on disadvantaged pupils is that Ofstedgrades are strongly related to the proportion of disadvantaged pupils in a school (schoolswith high proportions of disadvantaged children are more likely to have poor Ofstedgrades). This research has shown that schools with low Ofsted grades are more likely touse strategies such as scrutiny of teachers’ work, which increases pressure on teachers,and which is often passed on to pupils. ■ Current accountability measures also militate against inclusion. 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Leadership

Exam Factories? The Impact Of Accountability Measures On Children And Young People

8 Jul 2015

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Leadership

SLT 6.3 Report Update

13 Nov 2014

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      string(3255) "Above:  proposed pop-up classrooms including hand washing facilities (© Darc Studio) London-based architecture studio, Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture (CLTH) has released a new concept to help mitigate restricted circulation routes within schools and maintain the necessary social distancing among pupils and staff when schools reopen. This follows the latest announcement from the UK government on its plans to allow primary schools in England to reopen to select year groups from June.Based on initial research and analysis carried out by the team at CLTH, the concept aims to address the challenges which many schools in the UK and beyond will face when they reopen. This temporary provision will help liberate existing internal school space taking the pupil load off circulation areas, but also enhance air-flow contributing to individuals’ well-being. Above: Curl la Tourelle Head’s proposed pop-up classrooms in a residential street setting (© Darc Studio) The idea sees a series of pop-up, tent-like structures, each of which is arranged to follow the two-metre social distancing rules with the adaptability to host different classroom setups. The architects propose reusing resources such as marquees and portable bathroom facilities from outdoor festivals that would otherwise be dormant during the current pandemic.Where appropriate, renewable energy sources can also be provided on site in the form of PV arrays and solar evacuated tubes for hot water heating. Clockwise movements within and outside the structures will be encouraged, in a similar approach to Buddhist stupas to avoid crossing over between individuals. Above: Social distancing within classroom (© Darc Studio) Simple and adaptable, the concept can be applied to different outdoor settings; from football pitches to pedestrianised areas and neighbouring parks. It also suggests opening up and using public spaces in unconventional ways that might not be thought of previously; for example, maximising the use of closed residential streets and encouraging safe community integration as lockdown eases. Above: Curl la Tourelle Head’s proposed pop-up classrooms in a school field setting (© Curl la Tourelle Head) Wayne Head, Director, CLTH, said, “In contemplating with our children on how schools might return to normal after the lockdown, my partner Marianne Christiansen inspired me to consider outdoor learning, something that schools in Denmark have already adopted for their classes using tent-like structures.“Our education design team, led by my colleague Simon Bumstead, then carried out a series of studies and came up with the idea of transferring a proportion of teaching provision into temporary structures, using large-scale tents typically seen at festivals.“This is by no means our answer to what classrooms should look like in the future. We wanted to use this as a catalyst for further discussions, to rethink how schools can be designed and used beyond COVID-19.” Above: Different classroom setups that allow social distancing among pupils and staff (© Curl la Tourelle Head) A longer version of this story will be appearing on the Learning Spaces arena of TeachingTimes"
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Learning Spaces

Tents Could Be Used to Support Return To School After Lockdown

14 May 2020

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      string(5708) "With the new primary accountability system counting reading and writing as two separate subjects, the need for engaging all pupils in developing and improving their writing skills is greater than ever before. But what to do when students are unenthusiastic about writing?Many teachers are launching class blogs as a way of giving more reluctant writers the space to share their work with parents and peers, and an incentive to improve. They can also be used to stretch talented and enthusiastic writers, as well as develop the school’s online profile and presence. ‘Work blogs’ allow teachers to establish learning dialogues with the pupils, and also give then another way to document their learning, other than in paper books.The extent to which pupils are involved in organising the blog and posting their contributions differs. Sometimes pupils write their blog posts only in school time, sometimes they blog and post from home – which raises issues about access to computers and the internet. The extent of teachers’ contributions and the control they choose to exercise over blog content also differ.At the moment, very little is known about whether there are differences between pupils’ digital writing and their regular school writing on paper. There is some evidence to suggest that blogging sparks pupils’ interest and enthusiasm for writing but little attention has been paid to its effects on the quality of writing in general.It was in light of this that CfBT Education Trust’s London Connected Learning Centre (London CLC) undertook a piece of research to investigate the differences in pupils’ writing on blogs compared to their other writing.The project also aimed to explore the potential for using blogging to develop pupils’ writing skills, and to identify good practice in blogging. 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Harvey set up a WordPress blog for his own Year 6 class, with the help of London CLC staff, in January 2012, and chose ‘Primary Blogger’ as the platform for the blog in September 2012.He says: ‘I felt the blog would be a good way of showing what we’d been doing in literacy. Writing was no longer in the SATs – teacher assessment was now the only way  of assessing. This freed up the teaching of writing. Our literacy coordinator suggested that we should use class reading texts as the basis for all of our writing work and I chose some texts (The London Eye Mystery, Trash, Holes, The Man Who Walked Between The Towers) which seemed to have potential for generating interesting writing.’Harvey did not use an ICT suite, but had six computers in his classroom. For blogging, he instituted a system where the class was divided into five groups, each of which had a blogging session once a week during guided reading sessions. At the beginning of most weeks, he put up a blog post for the class to respond to, often – but not always – linked to their class reading. He also sought out short films on particular themes for the class to view and respond to. In their blogging sessions, the groups had to post their responses to these ‘invitations’.In the course of the project, these short films included animations (The Lonely Robot, Galileo Galilei), and short films about social and environmental issues (a trailer for An Inconvenient Truth, a film about children who live on dumpsites in Manila related to the reading of Trash). Children were also invited to create their own radio adverts and record them for the blog. They frequently posted their own suggestions for blog posts. In addition, they kept up with the blogs of their QuadBlogging partner schools.Improving writingEven though their blogging time was relatively restricted, Harvey noticed some differences between the writing that children did in their literacy books and what they did on the blog. One student, Krzysztof, who had English as an additional language, was ‘very careful’ when writing in his book. His sentences were ‘truncated’ – he would keep it really simple, preferring to get it exactly right. But now he writes on the blog, ‘his writing is … much freer and it’s much better writing.’Harvey was very clear that one key role of the blog was as a way to improve writing. ‘Writing is the main thing for me,’ he says. ‘It’s my focus in the school to improve writing through blogging. Children in my class were way below expected levels when they started in September. Writing on the blog being part of everyday learning will have a real impact and will improve attainment.’Interestingly, among the schools and classes that took part in this study, only Harvey’s class had permanent computers in the classroom. This enabled him to incorporate blogging into his guided reading sessions or other class-based activities. Harvey saw this as a real advantage,"
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        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
    ["tags"]=>
    array(3) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(16) "digital literacy"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [1]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(3) "ICT"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [2]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(8) "Literacy"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Creative Teaching & Learning

Using class blogs to motivate reluctant writers

20 Jun 2017