Newsletter 19 October 2017

Teachers are very used to quite noisy environments for though we generally keep an atmosphere of calm in the Pre-Prep, excited children can make a real racket. Add drums to this, as we did on Monday, and you can imagine that the serenity of the learning environment was well and truly shattered. To good effect though. The children from Year Two have been learning about India this term and Indian Music was something that they wanted to know about. Mrs Hansen therefore arranged for Ram Prakash from Massive Attack to come and work with the children. They were told a little about the use of drums in Indian music and culture and then they were encouraged to listen carefully and follow the drum patterns. This demanded good listening and concentration and I have to say Year 2 were very good. They were able to repeat and sustain some quite challenging rhythm patterns. All the children in the Pre-Prep were able to benefit from this visit and drumming has been heard a good deal since so it obviously made an impression. Following the experience, Year 2 made their own Dohl Drums using Maths, DT and creative skills. They have also been working on some great creative writing based upon a book called ‘The Drum’, retold by Rob Cleveland. A great week of learning has been had which is fully embedded in the children’s interests. Don’t you just love the Creative Curriculum!

 

Newsletter 13 October 2017

As you know, I am a strong advocate of the Creative Curriculum and believe that children learn best when they are immersed in a subject and enjoy what they are doing through active learning. The examples of our Year One Class at Corfe Castle yesterday is a prime example of the way in which we teach the National Curriculum. It’s not often that you will find me in agreement with Amanda Spielman, The Chief Inspector of Schools, but earlier this week she fully endorsed all that we do here. She criticised many schools of “teaching to the test, rather than teaching the full curriculum which leaves a child with a hollowed out and flimsy understanding.” She advocates a broad, creative curriculum for all children and says that “the best schools are doing that.” We most certainly are! She continues, “A good curriculum should lead to good results.” This too, is true for the Pre-Prep as most of our EYFS pupils Exceed Expectations and our exam results in Key Stage One are above the National average for the majority. We do not teach to the test. As I always say, ‘You can’t keep weighing the pig in the hope that it puts on weight. You have to feed the pig a rich and varied diet. That way you get a fat and happy pig!’ Our emphasis is upon the child rather than the curriculum. By doing that we ensure that each child is able to reach their full potential. Thank you Ms Spielman!

Newsletter 6 October 2017

We have had a lovely week in Pre-Prep. The weather has been kind and lots of great learning has been happening. Following on from our Curriculum evening on Singapore Maths, I thought that you might be interested to see these photos of it ‘in action’ so to speak. As I mentioned, the method relies heavily upon the use of a variety of concrete materials which the children can manipulate as well as on visual representations of these items. The children go from the use of these into the use of abstract representation – cardinal numbers and symbols. It all sounds pretty ordinary stuff really and it should be. However, very often these manipulatives are removed too early and with no representation of the number or the ability to move the numbers around – for example when learning about place value in tens and ones, and then hundreds and thousands – many children become unstuck and this confusion can last for a long time. Some lucky few, with a strong number sense, will not need manipulatives for long but the majority of children could do with them for far beyond the EYFS or even the Pre-prep. This is a doubly important method for all children who are visual or kinaesthetic learners. So if you find yourself itching to do some maths with your children at home get out the manipulatives! They work!