View from the classroom
Have other schools tried it? Wroxham School was our inspiration and we have shared our successes at Teach Meet events. Hopefully, other schools are trying things that suit their cohort of children and together we can all help continue to improving teaching and learning. If other schools think that a ‘Learning without Limits’ environment is that they feel they need then I strongly encourage them to try something similar. It’s not a quick-fix, or a method that has instructions and can be followed. The ‘Learning without Limits’ idea is designed to be tailored to each schools own community, which is why we are going to spend the next four years developing it. We hope other schools out there are trying to teach in classes without ability groups and maybe one day high schools might stop streaming children too.
“At the end of
the year, when we sat down to write our reports, for once, there wasn’t one ‘invisible child’ in our class....”
How have staff and pupils reacted to it? Staff have listened to some of success in Year Five and now they are beginning to consider what this same idea might look like in their own classrooms. A four year action plan is being generated to take the best of all our research in all areas so we can continue to improve our practice and do what’s right for our children. There have been pockets of the school that have chosen to research Choice and Challenge and Growth Mindset and we will share and review these findings together. The children have thoroughly enjoyed their experiences and most of them have indicated they would have liked to have had this environment earlier on their school life. They feel that if they hadn’t been labelled in ability groups so early on then they might have tried harder and achieved more Our new approach this year also caught the
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attention of Dame Alison Peacock herself. She decided to pay our school a visit in July; we were all very excited and she was thrilled to hear about our own learning journey. At the end of her visit she asked us all a thought provoking question, “So, do you think there will ever be a time when children come to you without labels? A time when children will just be children?” this question made us all smile and we replied. “We hope so, Alison, we hope so.”
What’s next? Now, we’re changed practitioners. There’s no way we could go back to teaching using ‘ability groups’. Most importantly, the children are changed too. They understand that what mind set they are in, is imperative to how much information they will absorb and they take ownership over this. They understand the importance of focus and resilience; they now know that everyone’s brain is designed to learn no matter whom you are. They might find things challenging, but in time, with more practise, possibilities will open up. We aim to keep reviewing our practice and adjust our teaching accordingly.
uwww.cherryorchard-pri.worcs.sch.uk September 2015
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