In was in Elphinstone Primary School this morning and managed to watch all four classes – nursery (3-4 year olds); P1/2 (5-6 year olds); P3-5 (7-9 year olds); and P6/7 (10 -11 year olds) – in that order.
Elphinstone only has 70+ children in the whole school but it enabled me to move up through the entire school in one morning from nursery to P7 in a way I couldn’t manage in a larger school.
What struck me was the importance of teachers knowing what pupils are going to be asked to do as they move up the school and also for teacher to know what the children have done before. Now I know this sounds so obvious but it is an incredibly difficult thing to achieve and is probably one of the main challenges facing a school and a headteacher. It was fascinating to be able to seee skills such as reading starting in the nursery, e.g “Point to the capital letter at the beginning of the sentence”, to seeing children in P1 starting to build confidently upon the foundation they had built in the year before.
It’s the transition from one teacher to another which inevitably creates a regression in learning until the teacher gets to know the children – so much of that regression can be overcome where the teachers “really” know what came before and what the children will be doing after they leave their responsibity. Back to the idea of collective responsibility.
It just needs one teacher to feel they don’t need to take account of such factors for the whole effectiveness of a school to be compromised.
And I’m not even mentioning the transition here between one sector and another!
I hadn’t really thought about a P1 class moving to a different P2 teacher as transition! I think the example you have chosen to highlight to illustrate the importance of transition, whether it is from one teacher to another or from one sector to another is very effective. It is far too easy to think about transition as being cross sectoral. In my own school, at Liberton High, I know, based on feedback from parents and pupils this session that we did not manage our S2 to S3 transition as effectively as we ought to have done. This will be addressed for next session!
thanks, Donald
Donald
I hope this demonstrates the power of observation as a learning tool. Without this kind of experience I don’t think I would have been able to draw such a conclusion.
Cheers
Don
To be sure, as a consequence of transitions, teachers must get to know the students in their classes (and students get to know their teachers). As important as it is to reflect on this social aspect education, it is also important not to overlook teachers’ knowledge about what students have already been taught and what they will need to know in the future.
This seems to me to reflect the importance of curriculum. In a small school such as Elphinstone Primary School, teachers are likely to have a fairly clear understanding of what has been and what will be taught. The curriculum is transparent across the classes.
In larger schools and especially in large school systems (such as are common in the US), the absence of a consistent curriculum works to the detriment of both teachers’ teaching and students’ learning. This was the essential message of Don Hirsch’s call for “cultural literacy” (though I fear the title and listing of content overtook this point when the book was marketed and discussed). Education needs thoughtfully structured, coherent, and transparent curricula.
Alternatively, learners need coherent and consistent personal learning logs with up-to-date and accurate records of their performances of understanding so that they may build upon prior learning and experience in areas that interest, motivate and excite them – bottom up rather than top-down – with the guidance of mentors/coaches/teachers ensuring they develop the HOW of learning.
And those teachers .. require time to consult with others so as to ensure that the strengths and difficulties of each student are recognised and accommodated at every transition stage.
Then thoughtful structure, coherence and transparency can be individualised (insofar as this is possible or desirable), with the child rather than the curriculum at the centre.