Learning Spaces

Timber does it in a hurry

A new-build housing estate brought rising roll numbers and an urgent need for more classroom space at a village primary school near Chippenham.

Staff at Sutton Benger CE Aided Primary School knew they needed a more permanent solution than that offered by mobile classrooms, but were also constrained by the design of the school building which left them with nowhere obvious to extend.

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      string(357) "... that is disconnecting acontact, we have invented … the switch!Ask the class how long it would take todraw the circuits they have made, then, witha timer at the ready, draw a simple diagramto illustrate the connections. Finally, discussthe merits of such a simplified drawing.25May/June 2005 Teaching & LearningScienceElectricityHow is ..."
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      string(5460) "out’ we wouldn’trealise until about nine minutes later, which ishow long it would take that last ‘parcel oflight’ to reach us on Earth some 93 millionmiles away.CircuitryA nice way to open this topic is with someopen experimentation. Give each child orgroups of two a bulb, a battery and a coupleof wires (or circuit blocks) and ask them tomake the bulb light up. It is amazing howmany different circuits will be concocted inthe process!Throw in a couple more bulbs and lengthsof wire and see if they can light all of the bulbs.Probably they will succeed by joining the bulbsin a simple series circuit, which will work butwill result in the lights being dimmer. To makethem shine equally brightly you need tointroduce the idea of a parallel circuit – eitherthrough hints, diagrams or demonstration. Askthe class to discover what the advantages of thissystem are, compared to the series. Other goodquestions to pose are:❖ What happens if a bulb blows or a wireis removed?❖ Which system would be more useful forwiring the lights of a house?Introduce the idea that by intentionallybreaking the system, that is disconnecting acontact, we have invented … the switch!Ask the class how long it would take todraw the circuits they have made, then, witha timer at the ready, draw a simple diagramto illustrate the connections. Finally, discussthe merits of such a simplified drawing.25May/June 2005 Teaching & LearningScienceElectricityHow is electricityconducted? Whatmaterials can beused? Set up a simplesystem with a bulbagain, then test a range ofmaterials (wood, plastic,glass, string, metal – many ofwhich can be found in a pencilcase) by using them to connect thecircuit. Begin by making a prediction as towhich ones will light the bulb and whichwill resist the electricity and break thecircuit. A plastic sharpener will not make theconnection but its blade should; a fabricpencil case won’t, but its zip – if not plasticcoated – could; a wooden pencil won’t, but tryits graphite centre.Finally, putting this new knowledgetogether in the form of a game is a fun way toconsolidate the knowledge gained andcombine it with a little maths and art. Usingcardboard boxes, wires, bulbs or buzzers andbatteries design an electrical game ofprobability; the contestant has to guess whichbutton will light up which light, or buzzwhich buzzer. It’s a game of chance: thecreator starts by selecting the circuit, then the‘punter’ takes a guess. Or draw up mathsquestions on the box and design the circuit tolight up the correct answers. The variationsand possibilities are endless.Changing soundsBegin with a quiz. From behind a screen(or with pupils wearing blindfolds), createa series of noises which pairs or groupsshould try to identify: bells, guitar, tin can,bottle, wooden box – anything that makesa sound. Can the sounds be grouped(sounds metallic, wooden, glass, air)? Howdo these sounds reach us? Introduce theidea of vibrations producing sounds by‘playing’ with drum skins and rice, orpinging wooden/metal/plastic rulers on theedge of the desk. A fascinating experimentis to take a tuning fork, tap it, then insertinto a shallow tray of water and watch theripples. Replace the water with a metalplate scattered with sand or salt and repeatthe process – watch the sand move intopatterns. Set up a sound lab with all of theabove experiments, divide the class intogroups and have them rotate through,following instructions on cards laid outthen bringing back their findings to theplenary. Or, assign groups to onedemonstration then get them to show andexplain to other visiting groups fromwithin school.Other problems relating to sound include:❖ How do sounds reach us?❖ What medium to the travel across?❖ Can we hear sounds underwater, and dothey sound different?❖ Can we hear sounds through solids?❖ How do they sound?Put your ear on the desk and listen tothe class. Make a string telephone with tincans or yoghurt pots. How effective is it? Toemphasise how sound travels, tryinvestigating how to suppress it.Try out different methods and ratetheir effectiveness. It might be useful touse a simple explanation of how the earhears by picking up vibrations on theeardrum and transforming them into anelectrical signal which links to the brain.Using a simple bell or buzzer inside acardboard box, assess the efficiency of variousinsulating materials. Which muffles thesound best? Start by predicting which onewill – bubblewrap, tissue, cotton wool,polystyrene, old clothes, etc, andhypothesising why. Try newspaper in variousguises, e.g. scrunched up tightly,concertinaed, loose sheets.ConclusionsAll in all, there is an almost unlimitedsupply of inspiring science activities thatcan be used to help pupils develop andunderstanding of physics – and, with 2005being the year of Einstein, this subjectshould be ‘top of the list’.This article has tried to offer as manyideas and as much inspiration covering agood deal of the Year 6 curriculum as it ispossible, and my thanks go to Justus Hattamfor providing both the information andenthusiasm which will hopefully spill outfrom these pages. Like all good scienceteachers, he creates ‘young Einsteins’ byencouraging them to keep asking questions –no matter how silly they may at first seem –and feeds their very natural appetite forknowledge with resources, open-endedprojects and the confidence to experiment.Happy Einstein Year – have fun!"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Science In Action

1 Nov 2006

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      string(5611) "Everyobservation is different but the principle remains thesame.Change of paceA second teacher’s experience of observation – we’ll callher Lyndsey – presents an interesting contrast to Harry’s.Before teaching Lyndsey worked for an internationalcompany well known for its game products; she arrivedat the school with an infectious attitude and lots ofcreative thinking. Strangely, she was rather nervous aboutbeing observed, but was happy enough to participate. Shehad been working well with the students in the precedingweeks and I thought that the process would be purely anaffirmation of her abilities. This was not so. One of theimperatives about any observation is not to pre-judge, asthe results are often surprising.Lyndsey’s non-verbal behaviour was very good; thestudents clearly knew where they stood and who was incharge. However, the pace of her teaching was frenetic, asshe was never standing still and never sitting down for amoment. This is even more important when put into thecontext of teaching for a term of 13 weeks.There was no way she would have been able to keepup that pace over the days, weeks and months ahead, sochanges would have to be made. Through the earpiece Idirected her to sit down at her desk for just five minutesand ask some students to come to her so she could checkon their progress. Keeping in her seat was proving to bedifficult and at one point she said she just had to get upand walk around.The point about this drill is to practise what I would termthe maitre d’: the skill of helping a single student with theirwork while keeping an eye on the class as a whole, pullingthe many strings needed to keep the individuals in theclass on task. This is a key skill which good classroommanagers have in abundance. As they use it, their studentsalmost subconsciously begin to learn how to behave whilethe teacher sits in one position. It also gets the teacheroff their feet for a while. Continually whizzing around theclassroom leaves little room for periods of quiet andindividual work to occur without physical interruptions.The pace of Lyndsey’s teaching had to be slowed downto a sensible one so that everyone could learn effectively.The camera and phone enabled me to deal with thisissue in ‘real time’. Guiding her about every 30 seconds forfive minutes, I could point out to her where she should belooking while helping students at her desk. Non-verbalbehaviours are Lyndsey’s strong point, so showing thestudents the necessary ‘faces’ proved to be easy for her.The right startOur third example comes from the observation of ateacher I will call Deepesh. Despite having previousexperience he came into the school with preconceivedideas about how he should teach. The class was a toughone: Year 9, waiting to be taught by someone interestingand who was interested in them as people.The lesson started badly with Deepesh not able to getthe attention or the silence he needed to start teachingeffectively. He had either decided, or someone had toldhim, that if you stand their long enough with your armsfolded then eventually the pupils will be quiet. Bad move.To take this stance in the early days of taking a new groupis like demanding quiet without explaining why. Far betterin the early days to have a combination of strategies goingon to see what works with individual groups.I had to intervene quickly and direct him to get a startertask in front of the pupils, and to quickly go around theroom issuing the same instructions to small areas of theroom, that they had just three minutes to finish the task.As I knew he was knowledgeable about the electronicwhiteboard I told him to use the ‘countdown timer’ toillustrate the three minutes he had mentioned, and toremind them every 30 seconds of the time left on theboard as he kept on going around the room getting orkeeping them on task. The other important thing I toldhim to say was how well and efficiently they werecompleting the task.Slowly but surely most of the students completed thetask. 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Leadership

Someone to watch over me

4 Nov 2007

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      string(5550) "Puppetry – using different forms of theatre with children and young people with learning disabilitiesWhile large parts of the UK think that theatre started around the timeof Shakespeare, people in Coventry know it has a much older history. Theten Coventry Mystery plays cover Biblical stories from Creationto Doomsday, featuring favourites such as Adam and Eve, Jesus in theTemple and Noah’s Flood.They were first performed in 1392 and one of the most dramatic – theSlaughter of the Innocents -lives on in the Coventry Carol, a sad  lullaby sung by mothers of the doomedbabies, which is often performed by Kings College Cambridge or Westminster Cathedralas part of nativity celebrations. Moving forward tothe twentieth centuryPost-war Coventry became synonymous with theatre that was exciting and different.When theatre censorship was abolished in 1968 Coventry Cathedral was thesetting for the first portrayal of Jesus Christ by an actor since the 17thcentury when Puritans banned theatre in 1642.The Belgrade Theatre was the first civic theatre to be built afterthe Second WorldWar in Britain and was namedfor  the present day capital of Serbiathat provided the timber. It kickstarted the careers of some household namesincluding Ian McKellan, Michael Kitchen and Clive Owen. In the 60s it was amajor venue bringing lesser known European playwrights to a wider audience. The Belgrade pioneered Theatre in Education in 1965 as a way to usetheatre and drama to create learning opportunities for young people.Actor-teachers from the Belgrade’s permanent TiE Company tour local schoolswhere they would perform short pieces of theatre and lead workshops thatallowed students to explore issues and ideas in active and creative ways. Itwas part of a movement of taking theatre out to people and involving thecommunity.Since the millennium it has been known for large scale outdoor eventsmerging circus skills, story telling, promenade theatre and collaborations withinternational companies such as the Polish troupe Teatr Biuro Podrozy. 2012 saw one of the most ambitious projects with the six metre highpuppet of Lady Godiva travelling from Coventry to London to celebrate theOlympics. Unlike her naked predecessor, she was dressed in a gown designed byZandra Rhodes. Godiva Awakes brought together engineering, theatre and more than atouch of carnival thanks to its creators Coventry carnival company Imagineer Productionsand special-effects company Artem. It was the perfect STEAM project beforeSTEAM was a thing schools thought about.How much of this rich theatrical tradition will be reflected in theforthcoming City of Culture (CoC) is currently under review but one area hasmade it through, and the man behind it is Richard Hayhow whose company Open Theatre is to play a part inseveral projects.LearningDisability Theatre In 1997 Hayhow founded The Shysters, a theatre company purely for youngpeople and adults with learning disabilities. While there were specialistcompanies for Deaf performers and artists with physical disabilities such asGraeae Theatre Company, DV8 and Candoco, companies working with young people withlearning disabilities had not yet developed a pedagogy that was different from mainstreamways of creating theatre.Unlike the stuff of Hollywood, work with The Shysters was not anovernight success. ‘In fact, in the early days it was crap,’ says Hayhow. ‘Whatwe got were really bad impersonations of EastEnders.’Rather than encouraging them to improve their accents and delivery oflines, he decided to go off at a tangent. He brought in full face masks, told the performers to stop talking andstood back to watch what happened. Once speech and facial expression were ruled out, they were tuning in tocommunication skills they did not know they had – gesture, movement, mime,dance and over several months they began to collaborate with artists,choreographers, musicians, designers. One of the discoveries was that this newway of working led to non-verbal devising methods which encourage the blurringof character and actor. According to Hayhow, performers with learning disabilities areparticularly able to perform in a way that rings true for audiences, owing toan ability to successfully merge actor and role. Training is essential toenable actors to access this authenticity within performance.They progressed from being a local Coventry initiative to being a troupe of professional actors with learning disabilities. Shards directed by  Kathy Joyce  and Fallen Angels directed by Richard were two productions that toured with Arts Council funding and attracted good reviews, ‘Surreal, beautiful, mesmerising… on the borderlines of theatre, dance and mime… visually stunning.’The pedagogyIn her thesis DEFININGMOMENTS: Leadership and Learning Disability Theatres 2017 Susan Caudle setsout to analyse the character and qualities of the best learning disabilitiestheatre:‘Their premise is that good theatre requires authenticity and thatprofessional actors with learning disabilities have a particular capacity forachieving this feature within performances. They characterise an actor with alearning disability as having a particular kind of authenticity, which comesfrom a lack of self-consciousness on the performers’ part; a lack of overttechnique; a sense of being truly in the moment.’ (Palmer and Hayhow, 2008:44). When the Arts Council funding ended, Richard started to focus more closelyon the pedagogy. 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Special Needs

Disability Theatre Comes Of Age In Coventry's City Of Culture 2021

8 Dec 2020

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      string(2450) "apprenticeships. Universities are also embracing technology and there is significant growth in online degrees. Learning online will be a big part of the experience for many students in bricks and mortar universities; that will have a big cultural impact down the line for education.Shonogh:     The shifts will only be permanent if we can demonstrate that they have been successful. If we can demonstrate that our kids have not lost as much learning as many commentators insist they have then we have a chance of convincing government that there is a different way of doing things. The difficulty we face is that we still measure everything in a narrow and systemically biased way, using exams which are biased towards certain types of learners. It’s going to be hard to demonstrate how successful these have been when the measure of success is so narrow. During lockdown we had student who concentrated her learning in the morning and then went kayaking in the afternoon. That worked for her as a learner but that is not going to be measurable when it comes to her GCSEs. What I do know is that I won’t be able to live with myself if we leave these new approaches at the roadside and go back to what we’ve always done. Blended learning has unlocked the potential for some children and enabled them to be successful. I can’t ignore what has worked for them. What message would you give school leaders as they settle into a challenging new school year?Jim:   First, look after yourself and your ownmental health so that you are in the right place to look after everyone else’s.Have the confidence to lead. Don’t wait to be led by the system because thesystem is really struggling to cope right now. Shonogh:     Slow down and take your timeto think before you act. Don’t just jump on the latest guidance and thenrealise that you are miles away from where you believed you should be as a school.Know where you want to go and judge every decision against that. Be rigorousand don’t be in a hurry to act on everything that we are told to do. Lord Jim Knight is Chief Education and External Officer at TesGlobal, an international education businesssupporting schools in their work to improve children’s lives through education.He is a Member of the House of Lords and was schools minister in the lastLabour government. Shonogh Pilgrim is Principal of Ansford Academy inSomerset."
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        array(0) {
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      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(8) "Lockdown"
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}

Leadership

Don’t Leave Lockdown Changes At The Roadside!

9 Oct 2020

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