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(325) "... and could even make up some of the ground they have lostIt would also, of course, provide a lower density  of human beings, more easily socially distanced,  in a safer environment.Those middle-class children with the kitand connectivity are also most likely to have parents in white collar jobs ..."
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      string(5630) "The government is being very coy now about whether schools should return at all after the holidays and what will  likely be a full national lockdown,  or at least the imposition of Tier Fours across most of the country. This, just  one week after threatening schools and their local authorities with legal action if they  dared to stay closed after Coronorvirus took hold of their populations. This is how it is with this government; they ring out  rigid, unthinking mantras like ‘the schools must stay open’ and ‘we cant cancel Christmas’ only to recant when the situation demands more flexibility.Their defence is ‘ events dear boy, events’.  But when it comes to schools the government has consistently flouted one of its foremost principles to ‘follow the science’, as  study after study has been  showing that schools and children are major vectors of the disease.The lockdowns that don’t shut the schools tend to fail and it is because schools – particularly secondary schools but primary  also seem to have a role – are close knit, enclosed, communities  that bring people together in very large numbers. Look at disastrous secondary attendance rates in secondary schools  in tier 3 schools. This vector has started knocking out primary school teachers who have teenage children.In terms of ‘he science’ schools have always been more dangerous than non-essential retail and pubs. But, the social consequences, it is argued,  are  too great for disadvantaged children stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide.It certainly  is  truethat online learning tended to work  bestwith those middle class children with kit and connectivity and engaged parentssupervising them. Yet It would seem that  the government’s attempts to ‘level-up’ the playingfield by providing  laptops to those thatneed them has fallen, say heads,  woefullyshort,  and the programme seems  now to have been cut considerably.Even if they got the kit, the connectivity isn’t necessarily there, nor might be the motivation to the same extent as their middle class peers. Therefore, the argument goes,  schools have to stay open and spread the disease …and also, by the way, we have to stick to exams, even heavily compromised ones, because ’we must have  exams’.So fixated is the government on their dogma that they have asked  schools  to become  mass-testing centres, using untrained volunteers to administer and process  complex tests which would still miss  50 per cent of highly infectious cases. There must be a better, more creative way of  recognising that schools are major vectors if the virus and that not schooling the under-privileged is too high a social price to pay.So here is our Modest Proposal! Why don’t schools, when they do return,  send home  to study those children who have the kit, connectivity and support at home and keep the ones that don’t at school!  Or, use Pupil Premium pupils as the group that stays in schools, with some exceptions either way.In this way the children that most needdirect contact with teachers and a formal support structure the most – the lessadvantaged children ( read working-class) – would get privileged access toteacher resources and could even make up some of the ground they have lostIt would also, of course, provide a lower density  of human beings, more easily socially distanced,  in a safer environment.Those middle-class children with the kitand connectivity are also most likely to have parents in white collar jobs andable to more easily supervise children at home…although after 14 is closesupervision really required? Children could form study bubbles with one or twoclose friends at home – perhaps congregated around the child with the bestfacilities. There could even be a little social engineering here – with less well-off children studying at home or in street hubs alongside their better-off peers.  It would need careful negotiation but if mixed-ability teaching can work in school, why not at homeAnother benefit of this Modest Proposal is that teachers could discern  from the residual groups at school, those most able to  benefit from access to upgraded kit and connectivity,  and so target scarce resources  at these children.‘Oh, but wont the poor children stuck at school feel stigmatised?’ Maybe, but any child with a special social or learning need’ is  treated differently and is aware of this , from free school meals onwards. It is simply a way of realistically recognising the social and digital divide that exists, and doing something about it. 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Blogs

A Modest Proposal For Schools After Christmas

23 Dec 2020

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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. 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Leadership

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

8 Jul 2015

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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(316) "... 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 ..."
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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. The majority of the four primary teachers in this project had been blogging for more than a year and had taken different routes into blogging. The story of Harvey, below, provides one account of how a teacher became involved in blogging and what he saw as the potential benefits for his Year 6 class in this new approach to writing.Starting up a blogFor Harvey, it was the London CLC’s conferences and professional development opportunities for ICT leaders, alongside the contacts he made with other schools involved in blogging work, that suggested to him that blogging could have real potential for improving children’s writing. He also followed other blogs, particularly that of Ferry Lane Primary School, whose Year 6 teacher had posted some very helpful videos and guidance about blogging. 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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Creative Teaching & Learning

Using class blogs to motivate reluctant writers

20 Jun 2017