| Small Schools - Curriculum |
Good Practice in Small Schools
ICT- A real tool for learning
St Katharine’s Knockholt CE Primary is a small school in the west of the County with about 120 children on roll. The school has been recognised as a Centre for Excellence for ICT within the Cluster on the basis of its high standards in ICT. In the last OFSTED inspection ( June 2004), teaching of ICT was identified as very good - right from the Foundation stage through to Y6. Children were judged to have “highly developed ICT skills” and there were particular strengths in teaching IT across the curriculum. This was after the previous OFSTED report had identified ICT as a major area for development!
Recently the school was asked to host SLICT training for headteachers. (Strategic leadership of ICT)
The school has come a long way in quite a short time. When the Headteacher, Sarah-Jane Tormey, arrived, she inherited a system of 15 wireless laptops with no curriculum software or reliable e mail system. A year, and much hard work and fundraising later, the school had the system it wanted. There are now 34 machines available to pupils including 25 wireless laptops and 9 PCs. There are also 4 “Smartboards”.
The school has invested in a wide range of peripherals too, with digital cameras, a “Digital Blue” movie camera, a full range of control equipment and “Logit” for data handling.
The school has also built up a comprehensive range of software that fully supports the curriculum. Evidence of high quality children’s work using software such as “Kar2ouche” and “Clicker 5” is on display all around the school. The school’s website acts as an online display for classwork too.
www.knockholt.kent.sc.uk
There are many lovely examples of recent work published there, together with archive material from previous years. There are examples of work covering most curriculum areas including maths, science, music, french and history as well as photographs of art work.
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| Masks in Y5/6 | Benedict’s pastel picture in the style of |
In literacy, Y3.4 used “Kar2ouche” to create their own version of St George and the Dragon.
In history, Y5/6 created “Powerpoint” presentations to present their research about Tudor Exploration
In maths, Y2 used “Dazzle” to create symmetrical pictures
In music, Y1 and 2 recorded “Sounds of the City” compositions to download from the computer.
The school follows the QCA scheme of work for ICT and tries to teach the integrated tasks as part of the class topic. Foundation subject leaders are encouraged to take responsibility for the use of ICT within their subject. The interactive whiteboards have increased opportunities for class teachers to use ICT on a daily basis.
As the children are becoming more expert, the staff have found that the QCA units do not really provide enough challenge and they will be reviewing the ICT curriculum in the near future.
Not surprisingly, St Katharine’s will be looking to achieve the NAACE mark in 2006.
Good Practice in Small Schools- Cross Curricular Planning
Colliers Green CEP School
Colliers Green School is situated between Sissinghurst and Goudhurst down a long country lane in the middle of the Kent countryside. Colliers Green itself could not really be called a village and only appears on very detailed maps of the area. The school was built in 1908 and the original building was comprised of a school room and a house for the teacher. Today, the accommodation has been extended with four new mobile classrooms, a hall, library, office and stores and Colliers Green CEP is a thriving school with 111 children on roll.
Children are grouped in mixed age classes as follows:
Foundation and some Y1
Y1 and 2
Y3 and 4
Y5 and 6.
In a recent OFSTED inspection the school’s approach to cross curricular work was praised:
“The curriculum is being developed well to make learning increasingly interesting and relevant to the pupils….”
“Effective links between subjects make learning coherent, relevant and often fun.”
The cross-curricular planning has developed and evolved gradually. It works well because the Headteacher actively encourages her staff to be creative, but clear learning intentions underpin all the planning and these ensure the children make progress. The teachers themselves feel empowered to plan units of work where a main theme drives half a term’s work and are flexible enough to include week – long whole school units of work in some terms.
Yearly Curriculum Cycle
The curriculum is planned on a two year rolling programme and foundation subjects are based on QCA units, but teachers have become confident about adapting or replacing units and creative cross curricular links are encouraged. Teachers are able to plan using the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for guidance. ICT, particularly the use of interactive whiteboards and digital cameras, underpins work in all areas of the curriculum.
Teachers then create a mind map around a theme to illustrate the half term and reference is made to the national curriculum programmes of study to ensure coverage is maintained. Copies of the Programme of Study for each subject are marked with highlighter to show when they are covered.
From this “map” outline planning for each week is produced. This ensures there is balance in the curriculum during each week
Example of Planning
Planning Example (.doc)
Writing Stars!
Teachers at Northbourne CE Primary are having real success in developing children’s writing. Responding to a school profile where boys outnumber girls and where many boys seemed uninspired to write, teachers adopted a cross curricular approach to writing that initially linked ICT, art, and literacy.
They began with a project to re-tell a story the story of “A Christmas Carol” through the use of digital photographs and text. The project began by children picking out the key points of the story. They worked in groups. In their groups they had to allocate the roles of director, cameraman and actors. They had to plan 16 photos to create a modern re-telling of the story of Scrooge. Much discussion ensued as to how they could practically capture an image that would tell the story. After careful planning, they took the photos, editing and cropping them as they went. They then added a short description and piece of dialogue to each photograph. Each short description was then developed into a paragraph. By the end of the project each group had 16 paragraphs of writing.
Teacher Sebastian Rees saw a real difference in the children’s engagement with writing and the quality of writing produced.
The work was developed further with a “Media week” when a local film company came to the school and undertook all kinds of film based work with the children. One activity was the video box. Children used the video box to record a book/ CD or video review and worked in teams to film, direct and present the sequences.
Since then, specialist weeks have become a regular feature of the calendar and teachers now plan topics that integrate geographical, historical and artistic aspects of work. Writing for each topic is done on paper and then presented in book form with separate areas for each subject.
Award winning website
Wickhambreaux CE Primary has a vibrant, award winning school website at http://www.wickhambreaux-school.ik.org/ that is regularly updated. As well as the usual features of school websites such as the home page, staff list and policy documents, there are pages of news, a school calendar, a photo gallery, a look at local villages, a list of school clubs and a guest book for comments and messages. This is an extract from the “About us” page:
"The idea of producing this website was conceived on February 4th 2001, and the official launch took place at the school about two months later on March 30th. Most of the work in putting it all together was done by Peter Hayes (parent) and John Joice (parent governor).
Our aim has been to create a colourful and informative site which encapsulates the special qualities that a small village school like ours can offer, and which conveys the happy and secure family atmosphere that the children are able to enjoy.
Above all, the website is intended for the benefit of the children. It offers them the opportunity to be personally involved in a project which heightens their awareness of modern technology, and which at the same time gives them a real sense of pride in their school. The photographs of the children's school activities and their written contributions are what make the website come to life.
Like many websites, ours is also a source of useful information. Parents can find out the latest news of forthcoming activities and events on the Diary page, and can read reports and see photographs of their children's achievements in the Gallery section. The warm-hearted comments from grandparents and other friends and relatives in the Guestbook, also demonstrate that the website is a focus of interest and enjoyment for the wider school family.
Finally, the website presents a face not only to the school community, but also to the outside world. How do you begin to describe to a stranger the feeling of what it means to be part of your family? Plain words or mere facts and figures could not do it justice, but maybe looking through a family photo album would be about as close as it gets. This in a sense is what we have tried to achieve in creating this website. So please enjoy turning the pages of our school family album, or better still, come and pay our school a visit in Wickhambreaux, where you will be assured of a warm welcome.”