Tuesday 10 November 2009

QCDA

Very exciting as I have just been accepted on the QCDA_Becta Curriculum Development school networks project 2009; am meeting my consultant next week to discuss ways in which to support teaching and learning with technology..the group is hoping to put together regionally, sharing ideas and expertise so as to put together some kind of publication.
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Sunday 8 November 2009

Creativity and KLP!

Creativity in the Learning Platform
Eureka is a small Primary School in the south of the county; 5 learning
zones; 135 children. Early adopters of KLP, now entering our second year
and loving every minute of it. It is becoming a driving force for our
creative curriculum and is constantly engaging and enhancing both
learning and teaching.
Motivation
‘Through…the Keyhole! is the theme that KS2 has chosen for the Autumn
term. After much success in our first year, we have continued to develop
our interest spaces to be cross curricular so as to provide the children with
a variety of activities to enjoy, engage with and to enhance their learning.
Impact and outcomes
During the first year alone, the impact in terms of engagement,
enthusiasm, and quality of written work has been excellent; children seeing
their learning as a ‘published’ item. Almost all of my learning team last
year (30 year 5 and 6), regularly logged on (at school, lunchtime, home,
library, family – 24/7) to access the themed pages to take part in the
various activities that I provided for them. Their skills, knowledge and
understanding in the areas included, continues to be enhanced by KLP.
It has encouraged independence, motivated their individuality and
empowered them to be more creative with an almost ‘real’ purpose for
their learning.
Learning Benefits (child focused)
• Reading across the whole space – visual clues for support
• Writing – wikis in which to collaborate, support, edit
• Quizzes – for challenge and to encourage research
• Historical links - to aid research, to inform, safe, direct
• Music – enjoyment, movement and song
• Video – to provide stimulus that engages more senses,
allowing a ‘real life’ experience
Hints and Tips
Be creative – movement with video/animations; colourful; organized;
interactive; safe web-links already researched; use pupil power to buddy
up to tutor peers and staff alike;
Next steps
Spring term theme is…’Revvin’ it up!’ – history of transport theme.
Hurdles
Leadership engaged from day 1; staff meetings; 1:1 support.
Time to get all my ideas down!
Once you are hooked…there’s no stopping you!
Objective: to be able to use KLP to support the teaching and learning of our theme
‘Through…the Keyhole!

Curriculum links: literacy, art, history, sustainability, outdoor learning, RE, music, PE, geography…

Transition Interest space!



Year 6 – 7 Transition Space




An idea born from sparks of inspiration between a Derbyshire Primary and Secondary School…

Settings

The William Allitt School is a Specialist College for the Performing Arts and Science for 11 – 16 year olds based in Newhall, Swadlincote; a specialist Performing Arts and Science School.
Quote from Mr Crossley (head teacher) – ‘This area of our developing Learning Platform has been extremely valuable, enabling Year 6 students to get a picture of life here. It has been recognised by the local authority as innovative and effective in its use. I am looking forward to its continued development as a valuable resource for transition from our feeder primary schools to life at The William Allitt School.



Eureka Primary School a mixed Primary School for 4-11 year olds based in Midway, Swadlincote; an ECO school.

Quote from Mrs Hambleton (head teacher) – ‘As members of the teaching profession we are always looking for new and inspirational ways of engaging the young people of tomorrow. Engaging them before they even enter their next learning environment must surely be for the best. Transition has always been an issue for schools, and as we believe in doing everything possible to aid that process, KLP will make that change much easier!’


Why?

The idea was initiated from one of our early adopter cluster meetings, with discussions on how and why we would want to use the learning platform within the cluster… for inter-school communication; cross-phase support; encouraging the continued engagement with KLP at secondary; to ease settling in…

One of the main reasons that Primary and Secondary communicate is to deal with transition of year 6 into year 7 and we felt – if possible – this would be a great place to start.

Initially, it was felt that we possibly needed a whole new site for this; however, after some deliberation we felt that a simple Interest Space dedicated to this may be sufficient…it proved to be so!




Video of year 7 Battle of Hastings...
Exciting footage, engaging the users immediately!
Slide show of participating schools
The William Allitt and Eureka agreed to be ‘guinea pigs’ and trial such a space! Great fun it has been too!

Glyn Jackson – chief technician at William Allitt – offered to create the initial Interest Space and liaise with their Year 7 team in order to populate the site with some useful information.

During the cluster meeting ideas for what the site should contain and offer was discussed, one of which was ‘Where’s Basil?’



One of the main worries about secondary school that any year 6 pupil has is getting lost…hence the need for ‘Where’s Basil?’ Not just a map! To engage the children it needed to be interactive; it offers a map of the school, with ‘hot spots’ linked to various photographs of rooms at the school, using clues to guide the children to them with a view to locating Basil! When Basil is located, an on screen CONGRATULATIONS! Message from Basil himself appears. Basil is the ICT mascot. Most Primary schools have mascots, so it would be something that the children could relate to. It was thought that he would be an ideal character to engage the future year 7’s as they enter secondary school life. One of Eureka’s year 6 in particular loved it and it became a race between her and Mrs Johnson as to who would locate Boris first!!

Quotes from children:
It’s great to be able to talk to a child who is already there!’
‘I feel more confident about going already!’
‘Basil is so cute! ‘Where’s Basil’ is great fun!’
‘It’s nice to have children that are there answering my questions.’
‘I want to be a year 7 buddy next year!’


Also on the Interest Space, the year 6 children from the primary feeder schools have the opportunity to ask questions, share worries and excitements with the year 7 buddies from William Allitt, to support them in transition.

Mr Jackson basically put out a note to all year 7 forms asking for volunteers to help with the transition project, the first response resulted in over 50 interested parties coming forward (this was far too many to handle!). Great to see such enthusiasm however!

A lunchtime meeting, wheedled out the not so committed, and a promise of involvement in other projects helped him to whittle down the team to around 20.

As well as answering the year 6 questions, in discussions, the year 7’s have also used a wiki library to document their memories of their first year at secondary school.

Another real plus for this is that eventually, as the site develops over time…the year 7 buddies will be known to the new year 6’s…and discussing the ‘scary event’ with someone they know will hopefully help this experience to become as smooth as possible.


Next Steps

o Year 6 having access to the site until Christmas (as year 7’s)
o Clear out old discussions and memories so that the new year 6’s will see the space afresh
o Blogs created for year 7 to document their memories of the year – this will replace the wiki that was set up initially.
o Creating additional content following feedback from current year 6 eg. Providing a typical timetable, equipment lists, uniform, Home learning expectations, examples of learning that year 7 may bring, topics to be covered…
o Engage the year 6 and year 7 teachers as early as September


Hurdles

Not all primary schools currently have access – due to:
Ø some not having had KLP provisioned yet
Ø some not having had training yet
Ø some having poor internet access
Ø SATs – some year 6 teachers unable to commit time until afterwards
Ø Not being able to acquire information from year 7 staff and secondary school SMT.
Ø Not being able to get year 7 staff involved.
Ø The need to ensure that the other 2 secondary schools can provide a similar service to aid transition to the students that will be going to their schools – this has been impossible this first year.


Hints and Tips

§ Create a staffroom discussion so that year 6 and 7 staff can discuss in private any requirements or problems.
§ Start small and build/add content on a regular basis.
§ Keep it fresh and interactive.
§ Staff interacting and responding to requests so that you provide the information that the children want
§ Share with children regularly initially so that they get accustomed to it and interact with them yourselves

Expected outcomes

It is hoped that the site engages the Partner Primary schools long before they arrive, so as to remove apprehensions about moving up, to create stronger links between the schools, to allow the pupils to make friends with older students. If they feel more secure about entering secondary school, then surely they will settle quicker, engage with their learning from the word go and therefore achieve more…it may do something to alleviate the summer holiday ‘slump’!

Restyling the model

Infant to Junior
Early Years to KS1
Secondary to VI form/college…

I am sure that the model we have instigated will be very easily restyled to fit into these and any other transition needs as you see fit. I am sure that the principle and the benefits will be pretty much the same. Whatever we, as teachers can do to support the movement of our pupils from one learning zone/site to another will surely do nothing more than build on and assist with their learning, engage them and allow them to become even more ready to go out and face the ever increasing technological age we are all becoming accustomed to.













KLP - the journey so far!


KLP
‘ENJOYING – ENGAGING –ENHANCING’
EUREKA!

How KLP is making a difference at Eureka…


Jacqui – lead teacher - “At Eureka we are constantly engaging with new initiatives or developments as they arise and are willing to ‘give anything a go!’ Having thought ‘out of the box’ and developed a creative curriculum since September 2007, when we were asked if we wished to be early adopters in Derbyshire with KLP we jumped at the chance! What an excellent decision it was too…”

Initially…early adopter training (without our site having been provisioned)…end of summer term 2008…

Head teacher – “As members of the teaching profession we are always looking for new and inspirational ways of engaging the young people of tomorrow. What better a way to do that, than via a tool which is resourceful and creative, an excellent way for our youngsters to become independent, life long learners; a space that can be personalized to the individual too. The learning platform is all those things with the added bonus that you don’t have to be a ‘tec nerd’ to use it!!!

Ecologists (Year 5 and 6 children), were the first children in the school to share the excitement of KLP (and the madness of their teacher) early in the autumn term of 2008. Their motivation to learn ‘how to’ amazed me as they went from strength to strength in developing their skills and wanted to explore every avenue in using the platform. ‘When can we…?’ ‘Can we just…?’ became quite the norm.

After this initial success, staff were introduced to KLP in October 2008, by myself (the lead teacher) and Sue Mould (DCC KLP consultant) at a staff meeting. Three Ecologists were invited along to the meeting to share with the staff the ease in which they accessed KLP; to share their enthusiasm and the skills they were so quickly mastering. This proved to be quite a challenge as some staff were a little sceptical –a big change was coming – and they were a little fearful initially. I quickly realised that small steps, regular visits to KLP, regular snippets of support and practise were needed to hook in the staff. The children played a big part…and continue to do so!
Michelle – teaching assistant: “It aids communication between staff. You are able to share good ideas and resources, engaging the children. It creates a thirst for the children to learn more.”

Governors were also shown around KLP at the first Governors meeting of the year, to see first hand how in the initial stages impact, was already being made with teachers and learners. They quickly saw the benefits that it would have.
Karen - Governor: “From a governors perspective the enthusiasm and success of the whole platform filters through to our meetings and I think the whole governing body is becoming more enthusiastic too. From the feedback we have had, it is having a big impact on the teaching and learning.”

By this time, Ecologists had mastered discussions, uploading images, uploading documents (school or home learning), being taught by myself from ‘teaching tools’ that I had uploaded into the VLE (they were amazed that I had created things at home and now they could see it at school) and collaborated with writing using a wiki. The initial wiki has now turned into a 12 chapter narrative where ‘level 5ness’ in writing spans throughout the text! Treasure Trove Trepidation was born! We now hope to put it into a presentation package with illustrations to make it into an e-book for all to share! This was our initial ‘quick win’ and later, Ecologists got the opportunity to share this with many visitors…Mr Richards from DCC and Jessica Dillon from the RM company!

KLP ‘fever’ was beginning to spread and other children wanted access, so myself and Ecologists ‘buddied’ up with Explorers (our Year 4 and 5 learning team) to share the space with them…they soon loved it. We made sure they had their details correct, discussed e-safety with them and off they went with their buddies!

I also got the opportunity to support Mini-beasts - the year 1 and 2 children, and their teacher - to develop their enjoyment and engagement with KLP so that their learning too, could be enhanced. We created a few discussions together, uploaded some photos and put on some news. This was just enough! After giving them their usernames, and previously altered passwords to make their lives easier, Miss Edwards and the team were off. The excitement after a child had logged on at home…unbelievable!
Time Traveller’s (year 3 and 4 children) didn’t need us; as soon as their NQT had left the staff meeting – she was off! One or two…’how do I ?’s’ later, and so were her learning team – they too were discussing away to their hearts content, creating and contributing to wikis and all manner of things connected to their ‘To Infinity…and Beyond!’ topic.


Kalley – Time Travellers teacher said: “KLP has stimulated and engaged the learning of all children in my learning team (regardless of ability). It has provided them with a purpose in accessing ICT for a range of activities to develop skills. The package also enhances teaching of a variety of subjects, through interactive discussions and wikis to provide children with ownership of their learning. KLP offers a safe environment through which the children can explore websites too. This has also supported professional development in creating resources, motivating children and organising sessions.”


Wizards…now that was another matter! Sue and I spent time together creating a model KS1 Interest space to try and engage both the staff and the children. They had been learning all about Red Riding Hood that term, and so we thought ‘Traditional Tales’ might be the hook. We created a page… found and uploaded some wonderfully engaging images from the story; found 2 versions that were completely different and so created hyperlinks to them; created a set of wikis in which the children could write about the main characters; uploaded a link to a fun game involving words from the story; put on links to other traditional tales; a space for pictures…published! Phew! Sue and I were quite impressed with ourselves and I awaited my next staff meeting to share with the team…they loved it! Yipee!

A hook! All round! At last! At the Staff meeting I used the Traditional Tales page as a model for all staff, we then had a workshop meeting where I expected them to create a new interest space of their own, in line with our creative curriculum and the topic area they were using for learning and teaching that term…every member of staff left 1 ½ hours later having published what was becoming an enticing space to engage, enhance and allow children to thoroughly enjoy learning about their topic. Had I won? That remained to be seen!
Ecologists meanwhile had progressed in leaps and bounds…blogging, discussing, helping Goldie (the school mascot) with his spelling, uploading images, wiki-ing (is there such a verb?), accessing their ‘work due’ for home learning and uploading it into their document library, buddying with KS1 on a regular basis to engage and support them, earning their V-me parts and generally running away with everything they had learnt. They were and still are so engaged. What next….

They were desperate to create their own interest spaces…so they did. After 2 teaching and learning sessions with me demoing my own creation – my Gary Numan space (that’s enough comments thank you) – that became their home learning challenge….Who can create the best interest space?…they are still developing them. I need to give them a dead line now so that I can choose the ‘champion spaces!’


Transition…

At a following cluster meeting, myself and one of the secondary schools that we feed to, wondered if a transition space would be worthwhile. Speaking as a year 6 teacher, I know that anything to make that giant step from ‘little’ to ‘big’ school would be so helpful. Therefore, we decided to give it a go…we had no idea at that stage if it would work…but this new development is about taking risks, thinking out of the box, being adventurous…isn’t it?! Next step, create the transition page (kindly done by the chief technician at William Allitt (an equally enthusiastic chap), give access to another school (Eureka) – easy – urls and permissions set; other school create a link to the url and ‘bob’s your uncle!’ as it were. Year 6 were given access, year 7 buddy volunteers from school council were given access and they have been blogging and discussing together ever since. A ‘where’s Basil’ blog was also set up for the children to help them find their way around the secondary school. Basil (a cuddly rat – a la Faulty Towers), gives clues to the children as to which room he is hiding in. Children read the clues, search around the hyperlinks on a plan of the school site and then further delve into the room. If they find him, they get a praise…they love it! One rather reluctant child in my learning team has really found this a hook for her – brilliant! A relationship cross-phase, in a safe environment with children they don’t know has been created, their confidence building, their fear of secondary school subsiding. What we now hope is…once the current year 6’s, are year 7, that they too become buddies!


Glyn – technician at William Allitt said: “The Learning Platform gives us the opportunity to reach out to our Partner Primary Schools and engage our future students long before they set foot in the school.”

It was at this point that news spread…Our lead ICT consultant in Derbyshire came to school to see KLP in action. We showed him everything we had done…from the beginnings in Wizards and how peer tutoring was going on, to some learning teams engaging with wikis independently in their learning teams, to my children ‘showing off’ if you like, their engagement and total involvement with the whole platform. At the time we were also developing our new Splash Landings Page together for our new creative curriculum topic. I am pleased to say that he was thoroughly impressed with everything we are doing, the school and the knowledge, skills and understanding of the children across all age groups – all accessing KLP at their level.

After winning a competition by RM to say what KLP had done for us…another visit ensued. This prompted this case study, launched recently… http://www.rm.com/Primary/CaseStudies/Article.asp?cref=MCASE1462949

Currently…very pleasingly, developments are happening all the time…I have been asked by DCC to support in the development of KLP in schools in the south of the county…I have had an initial meeting with a small group of Eureka’s parents with a view to them becoming parent champions and populating the parent interest space with things that they want to see there…


Quotes from 2 parents at my initial meeting – “ Even though I’ve been on nights…it seems interesting!” – “ A wow factor for parents!”

…staff are now thinking of the creative curriculum topics for the next academic year and are beginning to develop pages or resources to follow our E.E.E. vision (enjoy-engage-enhance)…from now and in the autumn, I shall be developing the VLE use with all teaching staff…and so on…and so on. I don’t think the journey will ever end, it will evolve as we, as teachers and learners evolve. But one thing I do know is…it’s a very exciting journey!