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HOW WE DID IT


A creative curriculum
The abolition of SATs in Wales has enabled Barry Island primary school to implement an innovative and creative approach to the curriculum – and win a hatful of awards in the process. Deputy head and Year 6 teacher Ty Golding explains how.

Without the burden of SATs, we don’t have to force the children to sit an unrealistic, non-contextualised test paper at the end of each year. We’re freer to facilitate their learning and broaden their horizons.

Children learn best if they’re excited and engaged, so we start each topic with a ‘wow’ – a visitor, trip, activity or artefact. We don’t rigidly plan what we’re going to teach, but instead let the children explore and discuss what they know and what they want to know. That way we get genuinely original ideas that aren’t adult-led.

Mondays and Tuesdays are language and maths days, and on Wednesday and Thursday it’s total foundation subject immersion. For the first half of the term the focus is on ‘knowledge and understanding’ – that’s geography, history and RE. In the second half it’s the creative subjects – music, art and DT. Science and IT run right though, and all the learning is cross-curricular.

There’s always a tangible project at the end. For example, with the theme of ‘citizenship’ last half term, my Year 6 class set up a parliament, with political parties, policies and debates influenced by their learning about the ancient Greeks and Romans. Much of their work was outstanding, and they’ve gained useful life skills from it.

Each pupil has personalised learning targets for the core subjects, which they set at a mini-appraisal with the teacher. For the foundation subjects they reflect on their skills using a traffic light system – green when they can do something, amber when they need a bit of help and red if they haven’t got a clue. We have ‘learning ladders’ rather than levels, and two-way ‘dialogue’ rather than formal marking.

Last year (the term before our Estyn inspection!) we introduced a ‘carousel’ approach to learning. The class is divided into four groups who do different activities in rotation, one group working with me, one on the computers, and the others perhaps engaged in a creative activity or research task. The carousel allows me to engage with a smaller number of pupils with far greater quality.

At first the children who weren’t with me were itching to talk to me all the time. Now they’re more capable of finding their own solutions. They help one another or make notes to discuss with me later – valuable skills for later life.

Because the carousel approach offers different opportunities and ways of working, there’s more chance of pupils having a ‘lightbulb’ moment of inspiration or understanding, and they don’t get bored or disruptive. Once a term parents come in to do the carousel too, so they understand how we work and engage with their children’s learning.

With no SATs, we now have Assessment for Learning rather than assessment of teaching. It’s embedded into everything we do, through continual monitoring, observation and discussion. Our staff aren’t afraid to change things, take risks and try new ideas. And it works – at last year’s inspection we got outstanding results across the board.

Further endorsement of our work has come from the many awards we’ve received, including National Eco School 2009, the Becta ICT Quality Award and the Gold Geography Quality Mark. We also have Fair Trade School status and the Investors in People award, and our head [NUT member Janet Hayward] is the current Leading Wales award holder.

Much of this success has come about through our work with the wider community. For example, we’ve developed a piece of wasteland opposite the school into a garden, where once a week the local pensioners’ group comes to work on the allotments with the children and their families. This summer 180 children from six local schools gathered in the garden’s story corner to share stories as part of the Welsh Storytelling Festival.

Our vice-chair of governors is director of Sustrans, which is building the Connect2 foot and cycle bridge in Cardiff. The children have been fully involved, interviewing people, conducting surveys, examining data and looking at the environmental impact. Learning’s not just about classroom projects, but also about the real world. Almost every day one or other of our classes is doing something off-site.

The impact of all this on standards has been dramatic. Standards have shot up, pupil numbers have increased by about 20 per cent in a year and we now have a waiting list for the first time.

Can schools track and evaluate their achievements without SATs? Undoubtedly. Can schools raise standards without SATs? Yes, yes, yes! Do creativity, enjoyment and trust blossom when teachers are handed back their reins? We are living proof!

For the latest on the NUT's campaign to have SATs in England abolished, including our two short films on how teachers and pupils have benefited from this move in Wales, visit www.teachers.org.uk.