Views & Opinion Let’s get talking


Comment by Alicia Blanco-Bayo, Early Years teacher at Kirkham Grammar School As educators we know how much


children enjoy stories, hence the tradition of Story Time in all Early Years settings and even as far as top infants’ classes as a way to bring children together at the end of the day or to initiate a specific activity with a main focus. But what is Story Time really for?


What is it that we would like to embrace through stories? Since I consider that in the Early Years world you need that extra spark to go beyond what’s on the pages of a book, perhaps I can attempt to find an accurate response to these questions. Have you ever looked at a painting or a photograph and found yourself


wondering about the colours, the images, perhaps even the reasons that brought the artist to do it the way it was done? That’s how an adult’s eye and more developed thinking ability enables the brain to analyse the pictures found in a children’s story too. It happens by imagining and drawing conclusions based on what the eye sees in a picture accompanied by words. Let’s look at what a young child might see in the pictures and words


that create a story that is read during Story Time, and how the content of the story can be brought to life through pretend play. There are many traditional stories that are often chosen as a focal point from which other types of learning can develop, such as ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’, ‘The three little pigs’ and many others. I chose a story called ‘Rhinos don’t eat pancakes” by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie which aims to enhance the use of language and work on the foundations of creating a story. A little girl imagines that a purple rhino comes to live with her because she feels lonely. She creates a story around this character and describes his actions in such a way that the young reader can believe it too. Taking this story as an example, we could offer the children who were present when the story was being told some small toys which could be animals, plastic food and some building blocks. This is where the role of the teacher is essential as an observer who might have to offer support with new and exciting vocabulary, depending on where each child decides the story is going to go.


Talking time How we encourage different children to use their imaginations to create stories through play is certainly the key here. So, let’s break it into steps; we have read a story, and now we have the language and ideas of what a rhino can do in a pretend world. The next step is to offer each child a selection of small toys and figures so they can bring their own story to life using what happened to the rhino as an example. The fact that a rhino has actually been eating pancakes tells the child that through pretend play an animal can eat anything at all. At this point the child begins to create his own story and (as Welsch (2008) suggests), it is in the child’s pretend world that he takes control of his own imaginary actions and responses. Observing at this stage and intervening to enhance the use of language


as the skill that should also be developing as part of the ability to create stories, is the task of the adult; whether this is the teacher in the classroom or the parent at home. The social interaction between children and adults offers the child


opportunities to further his imagination. The creative journey begins, the adventure that is intended to support children through the development of the language and thinking skills that will be necessary when the child starts reading and writing. I would promote the use of stories to initiate pretend play scenarios and


through the imaginary world created by the child, expand on the use of language to create a new story which will have the child involved in the play as the author.


16 www.education-today.co.uk


Programming Pioneers: A small school with


big ambitions Comment by Dave Whillier, computing subject leader, Camelsdale Primary School


Despite being the oldest


primary school in West Sussex with just 221 pupils, Camelsdale Primary School prides itself on being technologically advanced. Having already implemented a great deal of technology in the classroom, the transformation of ICT into a more cutting edge computing curriculum was a welcome change to the school, looking to ensure their classrooms reflect the changes being seen in the wider world. Computing is one of our main priorities in the school development


plan, and each of our classes have access to a network of computers and Learnpads, and Reception also makes use of bee-bots which can be programmed to move about the room. When I started at the school, I was known as the ‘ICT Chap’ as I started


my career in IT sales, so when the new curriculum arrived, it was my job to bring it to life in the classroom. None of our staff were particularly confident about the new


computing curriculum, but we’ve all embraced the subject and have been learning a great deal about computers and programming alongside the children. The teachers are realising that computing is a really interesting topic to teach, not only because of its relevance to the modern world, but also how it can link across various subjects. Pupils have started to make these connections, including the co-ordinates used in maths and geography, or the algorithms that link to their work with electronics in science. We adopted ‘Switched on Computing’ from Rising Stars as a scheme


of work for the curriculum, but we’ve found that one of the most effective ways of getting the children interested in computing is by allowing them to experiment by themselves. In year 6 we have placed two FUZE systems with robotic arms marked with signs saying “please touch” and these have proved incredibly popular. The pupils use them to explore computing through Scratch and Minecraft, and are learning to move the robotic arm. They work together when their codes go wrong, and it is teaching them to problem-solve on a daily basis. We also run a computing enrichment programme with students from


across the Rother Valley locality of schools who have shown proficiency in computing and previously in ICT. This began with some unplugged activities, where one pupil would act as the programmer and give instructions to another acting as a sprite. I then showed them the Raspberry Pi in its barest form, and gave them a keyboard, monitor and leads, showing them how to construct it. Using the FUZE, we then experimented with both Scratch and BASIC, where pupils began to make connections between the codes in both languages and how they translated into actions. We’d like to expand our computing work within the community by sharing our experiences across the locality, helping other schools who may be less confident with computing or loaning our FUZE units to schools who can’t afford them. Moving forward, we’re planning to start an extra-curricular computing


and robotics club to further our school’s goal of scientific and technological understanding. Our transition to computing has not been without its challenges, but having developed our computational thinking, both pupils and teachers alike are thoroughly enjoying the subject, learning and discovering more connections every day.


You can follow Dave Whillier on Twitter: @ICTchap July 2015


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