FEATURE: VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
curiosities, fragrances and aromas, I don’t think they could quite believe it!
In the library they met the guardian who told them about the library’s travels and how it jumps from place to place driven by the imaginations of children. The guardian explained that a whole shelf of books had gone missing and asked the children to help by writing stories to replace those that had been lost. Each child was given a library card so they could return to the library with their stories. Before the library mysteriously disappeared, each child was also made a lifelong member which enabled us, as a school, to continue the immersive experience independently. The children’s response to the library, and the task they’d been given, was incredible. To see them engaged and keen to write was wonderful. It raised their aspirations and gave them a purpose and a love for learning. The extraordinary nature of the experience led to more children being inspired and seeing themselves as a writer and/or a reader. We also witnessed children using a wider vocabulary and more fluent, descriptive and complex sentence structures, a richer language that may be missing in their everyday life.
a school. The Royal Borough of Greenwich had also allocated funding for Punchdrunk Enrichment to work with primary schools, so it was a win, win!
How did the children respond to your first immersive learning project? Let me describe the project so you have a sense of what the children experienced. The Lost Lending Library is a whole school, immersive learning project in which a library was constructed and arrived at Haimo following a peripatetic librarian’s visit. It was located behind a false bookcase which had mysteriously replaced the door to the music room. Pupils were told about the bookcase in an ‘emergency assembly’ and were then led, in small groups, to investigate. As you can imagine there was a huge amount of speculation about the bookcase. When they discovered that it led into a fantastical library crammed with books of all sizes and colours, little artefacts and
How has immersive learning impacted your teaching staff?
Our experience with The Lost Lending Library reminded us of the value of creativity to inspire wonder and awe in our pupils and, although we fully deliver the National Curriculum, teachers now approach the curriculum statements differently.
Teachers now think how to introduce new topics with a creative uplift. Previously, children might watch a film about the topic, or research the topic in the school library, but now more immersive approaches are being used by teachers. They were inspired to make creative changes, for instance a Y5 teacher ‘found’ broken glass in his classroom and a cracked mirror, when he taught the poem, The Lady of Shalott, to pupils.
We’ve also continued to use the story of The Lost Lending Library, and other Punchdrunk Enrichment projects, to get as much from
these immersive experiences as possible. For instance, the library has sent us postcards from the locations it has visited and we have a map where the children can track its journey. We also arranged for one letter, written on a banana leaf, to be delivered to our Year 4 class who were learning about tropical environments. Overall it’s helped to increase everyone’s confidence in developing creative ways to teach the National Curriculum – it doesn’t need to be one or the other.
What surprised you about the outcomes of immersive learning?
I
think the first surprise is how immersive learning has become part of the culture of the school. We are lucky to have an artistic and committed teaching team who promote creativity at all levels. They work collaboratively and individually and readily bounce off each other with imaginative ideas and suggestions. As they professionally develop and share their own and others’ expertise in innovative enterprises, I can only imagine that they will inspire our children even further.
Our work with Punchdrunk Enrichment has given us all more confidence creatively. During challenging post-covid times when staff are coping with changes to the curriculum and new Ofsted criteria, I would have been hard pushed to encourage my staff to be ‘more creative’. Immersive learning has inspired an approach which reignites the love of learning and also fills the learning gaps.
Immersive projects supported us in promoting positive mental health by engaging the children in exciting topics to talk about and discuss, both inside and outside of the classroom. It encouraged them to lose their reticence and self-consciousness; they have now become very good at listening and supporting each other. They are also able to challenge us, and each other, in a constructive way and build on each other’s ideas.
What advice do you have for other school leaders wanting to try immersive learning? When I think back I was worried about the additional work and logistics of something like The Lost Lending Library. Colleagues at neighbouring schools had been positive and this helped me to weigh up the risks and feel confident going forward. So I would encourage anyone considering introducing immersive learning to talk to other school leaders who have already used it in their settings. But most of all, I would say, “Give it a go!” It’s also important for leaders to develop the professional expertise of their own teachers so they can create, and lead, immersive experiences. We have really valued the support of Punchdrunk Enrichment, but to be sustainable our own staff needed to be able to develop immersive learning approaches themselves. Staff are now becoming more expert and growing in confidence. Finally, ensure you, your senior team and teaching staff really consider how immersive learning supports your wider objectives for the school. One of our key focuses as a school was to improve reading and writing and we can definitely see the positive impact that immersive learning is having.
June 2023
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