All children to succeed with a learning Environment

Hey,

This talk was spoken by Fiona Barr who is a part of WHISPA. Whispa looks at the children that are considered to have a problem when they are just different and learn differently to others, and how different environments can help the children learn. They also look at what the perfect environment for all children could be as sitting in a classroom all day isn't the best thing.

Creating this environment, you first have to understand complex people. Right now, you are probably thinking, 'what the hell does that mean?' You have to understand the pupils' health and have acceptance of it. You have to have engagement in what they (the child) likes and they interests. The child needs security, they need to feel safe. They also need meaning and achievement for what they have done. The child also needs a physical environment whether that be indoors or outdoors.

One of the main issues of teaching is that we are quick to judgment about what a pupil is doing. We do not look at the complex. An example is that maybe a child is playing with some pencils and you think they are not paying attention, so you remove them, but really paying with the pencil is when they are best engaged.

Behaviour is communication

When assessing a child you need to look at many things that are: Health, Hunger, Thirst, Emotions, Stress, Anxiety and Sensory processing needs. Change the environment to help not the person, meaning don't try and change the pupil. 'Our bodies are our homes', don't try to normalise the child but accept they are different and embrace who they are. 

Example:

All that was wrong with this person is that the adults didn't recognise that they were object dependent. The teacher tried to remove the objects to change a normal environment but that wouldn't help this child engage and learn.

Look at me, I am a person.

Communicate with me,

Accept and Respect me.

Children learn by experience so let them play so they can repeat the action. We need to focus on what we need, not what others THINK we need.

Dr. David Whitebread (Senior Lecturer in Psychology in Education - 2012) said:

"Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species, alongside language, culture and technology. Without play none of these achievements would be possible."

We need to teach the children how to be independent so they can develop on their own. They need loving support which can be done by creating an engaging environment. This doesn't have to mean a desk, it could be the natural world. Nowadays we don't spend much time in the natural world which is ridiculous as there is so much to learn from it. 10% nowadays is spent in the natural world but probably like 20 years ago, it was 40%. Now there is something very wrong with that.

To know love and who you are, you will succeed.

www.whiispa.com

Any comments or questions please use the contact box,

Thanks for reading

Amy x

Secret Storyteller

Hey,

This post is about the power of ‘Secret storyteller’ which is a programme at Greenways Primary Academy Milton Primary School where each week, a parent comes in and reads a story to the kids but obviously the kids don’t know who, This talk was done by Melissa Mifllin who started it and has a vision of where it will go.

Before I talk about the programme itself I am going to share a quote that was used in this talk, which was from The Guardian, an article in 2010, Pie Corbett Said:

“Children who are told stories are the ones who first form abstract concepts across the curriculum – in other words, being read to makes you brainy …

The best writers in the class are always those who are avid readers and those who are read to …

It may be parents have lost faith in this idea (reading to their children), but education is a way out of poverty.”

Parents are not reading at home to their kids as in the past maybe due to technology or being busy, and this programme is a way of getting parents into the school and they found through this project more and more parents were coming in, even dad’s which helped with the age gap of the reading ability between genders. Through this project, they found that children were going home and asking their parents to come in and be a secret storyteller and that even one parent took the afternoon off work to come in and read a story to the kids. “My child is always asking me if I can be the Secret storyteller.”

Melissa spoke about how she found it important to have both the children’s and parent voice as well as the teachers’ so a board was created where thoughts and pictures of the story and event were placed there. This meant parents and visitors of the school could come in and see what happens in the storytelling time. It’s also went into the newsletter that led to the community getting involved. For example they had a priest come in and started telling Bible stories. This project involves everyone: Parents, children, teachers, community and church. It even links into their home life. For Example when a parent came in and read ‘Tiger came for tea’ and there was a section where the book spoke about what the tiger had the drink and the children started to talk about how their dad’s drunk that at home.

The impact of this has been great. There has been an increase of 24% between the age gap due to this programme and I have already spoken about how it has effected the community, but I feel that after hearing Melissa’s talk that it has brought the community together more.

The next step is to introduce it to higher levels where they would have a class book and a parent would come in and read a chapter from that book. Another step that they are thinking of to do next is to look at doing different cultures.

In this talk a quote from Sir David Carter was handed out which I think is inspiring so I felt like sharing it:

“Schools should look for guidance from teachers in other institutions that have been in special measures. I think there is as much, possibly even more, to learn from teachers who have gone from special measures to good as there is form the ones that have gone from good to outstanding. Also, outstanding schools can learn from schools that have been in special measures. Yet at the moment the badges in our system don’t reflect that. The system that we live in, makes an assumption that only good or outstanding schools are helpful schools.”

This quote walking about that not only good and outstanding schools can be helpful makes me think of in a classroom and how you have so many different kids and some of them may have a problem and could be considered special. They may feel that they are not good enough and due to being different their work isn’t outstanding but that doesn’t mean it can’t be helpful for both them and others. Reading this quote and how it talks about learning from other teachers it makes me think that this is what the Educations Show is all about, but also what schools are about as it is not just a place for the children to learn but also the adults. There is something to think about.

Learningvillage.org.uk

Any comments or questions please use the contact box,

Thanks for reading

Amy x

Why Bother?

Hey,

The talk ‘Why Bother?’ was led by Antony Mead who spoke about his Agency ‘Fresh start Education’ as well as about himself and how he became involved in education, plus what he does.

 

He used to be a foster carer and found it terrible that children were being placed with them for a few months and were not getting into education and being taught that they are not good enough to learn. This started his idea for the Agency, which is an agency that is about getting foster kids into education but also those who are struggling in education e.g. behaviour, whether that be getting the child into a school or whether getting one of the teachers of the agency to have one on one sessions.

The agency goes to where the said child is where they will conduct an assessment of the child to find out what they want for the future as well as their personal learning; so their interest and how they learn. This will help the agency find a match, meaning a teacher that is involved in some way with the agency who is best for the said child. This allows a mutual respect between the child and teacher which is important and will create a better environment for the child to learn in which in turn would improve the child’s learning as they would feel comfortable and therefore be able to get engaged more.

This agency offers: Apprenticeships, training, and work. Now for some facts about the agency which I found interesting: 97% of the children have success in engagement; 56% of the children are put back in school and on timetable with the other pupils. This agency also NEVER turns a student in need of their services away.

www.freshstartineducation.co.uk

Thanks for reading,

More will be coming shortly.

Amy x

RE for Life

Hey,

So I have attended 'The Education Show' in Birmingham on the 17^th and 18^th of March. Therefore, I am going to write about the seminars that I have attended, so after this post, there will be many to come. I will try to post 1 a day until I had finished.

The first seminar I went to was about R.E and how we can incorporate R.E into the 7 areas of learning through the topics we teach, but also how to make R.E fun and engaging for the children.

The Speaker 'Gill Vaisey' spoke about how R.E should be ...

Lively

Living

Luminous

Interesting

Interactive

Intelligent

Fun

Fantastic

Fabulous

Educational

Experiential

Exciting

She spoke about how she felt that R.E should be another area of learning of the 7 areas of learning.

The 7 areas of learning are ...

1. Personal, Social & Emotional development

2. Communication & Language

3. Understanding the World

4. Literacy

5. Mathematics

6. Physical Development

7. Expressive Arts & Design

Some people think that R.E fits best into the ‘Personal, Social & Emotional development’ area but really it fits best with the ‘Understanding the world’ area as R.E can focus on not only belief but also people and communities. This could be about the natural world and what people believe. It could also be about where beliefs and culture fit best in a community.

Why?

R.E is taught throughout your whole school life. Explore living in religion as we are a multi-faceted society. We need to understand that religion isn’t always the way it is portrayed in the media as one persons' actions doesn't represent everyone with the same religion.

We need to teach not just stories from the past but also what goes on today. It is important that we teach about the history of religion and the belief in religion but also what is happening today in regard to religion in society in the present.

R.E lessons need to be:

Case Studies: Nursey - The Baby Bird's

This is a Muslim story about the protection of the natural world and how we need to look after it.

You can learn from the Morals of the story which are; Actions have consequences; Respect nature, meaning animals, plants and more that are a part of the natural world; Treat others as you wish to be treated and I am sure there are more.

Another thing you learn about from this story is the beliefs, for example; Allah is the creator so you should care for the world and look after it.

There are many more categories you can learn from this book and they are: Social, Spiritual, General, Religious, Cultural, Traditional, Personal and finally Emotional (which is shown by how you feel when the baby is trapped and away from its family).

When teaching R.E you need to remember that culture is NOT the same as religion but it can link in to it.


Some of the children's' responses were:

"Muhammed is kind to have saved the baby bird"

"It's the be careful story"

www.booksatpress.co.uk

Any questions or comments use the contact box

Thanks for reading

Amy x

Society & Influence

Hey,

Late again sorry, The Sunday just pass I went to church in the morning at my old church before heading back to Plymouth. The speaker was Andrew who spoke about society and influence.

 

When looking at society and it's influence, go back to when you were in high school and think about who was popular? What influence did they have? But is popularity important? No, Jesus doesn't care about being popular. He cares about everyone. Jesus sees us through his loving eyes and therefore he cares about different values and his care rests upon us. He chose us before the foundation of the world.

Matthew 9:9-11

"As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, may tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

In the time this verse was written tax collectors were considered to be sinners as they went against their own people to collect money for those who wish. Jesus went to have dinner with Matthew who was a tax collector who was considered a sinner. This led to the question of influence; who was influencing whom? Jesus was influencing Matthew and not the other way around which lead to Matthew inviting Jesus to dinner to influence others. But there was also the influence of going to person B when you have a problem with person A. Anyone done that? In this case, the people had a problem with Jesus and went to his disciple trying to influence them to betrayal by saying 'look why is your teacher hanging with sinners.

Hearing this reminded me of a song by Casting Crowns 'Jesus, friend of Sinners'

Matthew 9:12-13

"On hearing this, Jesus said, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill.' But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

What does healthy mean? Who are the healthy one? Those who know the truth?

John 9:39-41

"Jesus said 'For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see the those who see will become blind. 'Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, 'What? Are we blind too?' Jesus said, 'If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."

We are blinded because we are in denial of the truth. You have to be prepared to listen as Jesus came and basically said 'I am a doctor, I am here for anyone who knows you are ill, knows you are a sinner.

In this service, I came across many songs that I haven't heard in a while so I thought I would share them now;

Unchanging - Chris Tomlin

I will offer up of life - Matt Redman

The lord's my Shepherd - Stuart Townend

In prayer, Andrew spoke about how we are calling us into Jesus and drawing near to him. To tell the truth and live a life of honesty and humility as well as honesty in those who lead us whether that be world leaders in both home Country and away, Family, Business, Schools or Church. 

Please use the contact box to comment or ask questions,

Thanks for reading,

Amy x

New Rainbows

Hey,

Sorry, it’s been a while but was having trouble figuring out what to write about, well until I remembered that I have just started helping out at a new Rainbows down here in Plymouth.

So as I have said, A few weeks ago I started helping out at Rainbows, I know I’m late again. I used to be a Young Leader at Rainbows back home in Kenilworth and still go back and help out when I am back home. Since I started university I haven’t helped out due to the change of location and not joining a Rainbows unit in Plymouth, but not anymore.

It is amazing how in the same countries you can have so many different cultures and how different guiding can be when you have only traveled about 4 hours via train away. I have only been to 2 sessions in Plymouth so I can’t really compare it to the Rainbows in Kenilworth as I was there for 3 years.

However, there are some things that are obviously different. For example, how they open and end the session: In Kenilworth the meeting is started by getting in a circle and signing the song ‘I can sing a rainbow’ and then end in a different song to say good night; whereas in Plymouth the start the same way by everyone getting into a circle but the sing a different song ‘Good evening friend Rainbow’ and then they end with the same song to say good night.

The promise is also done differently in the rainbows in Plymouth to back home. As Brownies starts right after Rainbows finished they have both Brownies and Rainbows there similarly to Kenilworth but Plymouth does the promise for both kids promising for Rainbows and Brownies. They also use the toadstool which I haven’t seen being used since I was a Brownie which was like 13 years ago.

Kenilworth Rainbows also seem to plan the whole term whereas Plymouth Rainbows have a plan but it’s up to the children what they want to do, But hey love them both. Just means I have another set of name to learn but oh well should be fun.

Any questions please don’t be afraid to ask, just use the contact box

Thanks for reading,

Amy x