This blog centres on my
experiences on 'Primary Placement', the first requirement of my PGCE where
trainees had to spend 2 weeks in a primary school environment.
----------
Undertaking a 2-week
placement in School H before commencing the PGCE course enabled me to
understand issues surrounding the transition from primary to secondary school.
This linked to a host of other issues about teaching and learning in primary
schools, and I look forward to using this experience to become a
better history teacher.
School H served a large
council estate outside a small city in the North of England. Many of the pupils
were LAC, or qualified for free school meals. There was little parental support
for learning outside of school, but School H has recently set up a network of
opportunities to get parents more involved in their children's school life
(parents' assemblies, a unit for developing parental skills, and a small
community centre on the site of the school). The school was 'satisfactory' in
its last Ofsted inspection and the staff are all completely committed to
improvement, and seem to have an excellent timeline for improvement which was
prominently displayed in all staff offices.
History was well-taught
and included every week in the timetable, which is different to the primary
school I had worked in before starting my training. There, history was included
in the IPC, which was a topic-based curriculum for humanities. History was
marginalised and the children did not develop any awareness of historical
skills and only very limited basic knowledge of the kings and queens of
England. However, at School H, Year 5 and 6 were studying the Victorians with a
heavy focus on the lives of ordinary people. This made use of visual sources
such as photographs, as well as statistics and some short written sources. The
children developed an understanding of Victorian life and were also taught how
to compare by constrasting their own lives to that of a Victorian child. This
was highly effective in teaching both content and comparative skills, and I
found this very impressive. However, the contrast between this approach and
that of the primary school I used to work in has shown me that those I will
teach at secondary school are likely to start with a huge variation in their
historical knowledge and attainment thus far. This is something I will need to
be aware of throughout my planning, especially for Year 7.
School H had an
excellent transition framework in place. Specialists from local secondary
schools were brought in (especially, but not exclusively, to Year 6) to foster
links with these schools and make sure the children would already know some of
the staff at the secondary schools they were likely to attend). The school also
ran an extensive programme of 'supported open evenings' where some staff from
School H would attend open evenings with their pupils, to ensure a comfortable
transition. However, transition is not just about short-term links and
experiences in Year 6. By looking at two specific areas (teaching styles
and behaviour management), I have formed a better understanding of the
differences between primary and secondary teaching and learning, and the
general environment of primary school.
Teaching styles at
School H were usually interactive and fast-paced, to ensure the children kept
focus and to support those children who found reading and writing difficult
(50-60% of the class). Activites rarely lasted more than 10 minutes, and there
was extensive use of interactive whiteboards, laptops and heavily-resourced
activities like roleplay and card sorting, to ensure that learning was
accessible to all. As a history trainee, the low levels of literacy alarmed me,
as history depends quite heavily on reading and writing. However, it was
encouraging to see the inventive ways that teachers at School H used strategies
that did not depend on these skills to help pupils to achieve. Roleplay in
particular seemed to have a real impact on the children, ensuring that they
retained information. It also helped to develop their presentation skills and
confidence. This could be another way for me to assess learning throughout my
own teaching, and would ease the transition between the academic styles of
primary and secondary school.
Behaviour management
overshadowed my observations on teaching and learning at School H, because the
children were usually very disruptive. This stemmed from the fact that most of
them had turbulent home lives which were marked with deprivation, which set
patterns of poor behaviour before they joined Reception. Despite the best
efforts of the EYFS team, often behavioural issues were carried up the school
as a result of older siblings or the attitudes of parents and carers. The
school operated a hierarchical system - 1) name on board, 2) time-out, 3) sent
out of class to the 'Emotional Learning' centre, where trained assistants could
reflect with the children on how they had reacted and why. Low-level disruption
was almost impossible to combat, as so many of the children joined in that
sometimes the board held the names of almost everyone in the class. I learned a
lot about flexibility and the need to understand individual pupils when setting
behaviour guidelines. Sometimes, the class teacher would ignore low-level
disruption like fiddling with equipment, in order to target other aspects such
as speaking out of turn. Regular 'circle time' had been introduced to allow for
a weekly discussion on behavioural targets and rules. Behaviour seemed to
almost assume equal curriculum time as a normal subject, as the children needed
a lot of help with emotional development as a result of their background. This
was a recent school policy, marked by the setting up of the 'emotional
learning' classroom. It would be interesting to see the changes in behaviour in
a year or so, after the policy has really kicked in. This emphasis on behaviour
helped me understand the importance of PHSE and the role of the form tutor in
continuing this development in secondary school.
School H was a real
shock to me. The poor behaviour, very low attainment and deprived backgrounds
of the children were something I had never encountered. My experience there
made me realise the importance of getting to know your pupils, differentiation
and the impact of emotional learning on experiences within the curriculum. I
hope that the school continues to improve under its new headteacher.
No comments:
Post a Comment