What we are doing in the classroom this year:

The clearest, and to my mind, most helpful information I can give you to explain this is to tell you a little about what we do here. It is all very well to talk about principles, but the following paragraphs will, I hope, tell you a bit of how they are in reality. They are examples. This is our ‘good practice’.

We have here all kinds of resources. Often the simplest things provide the most varied and open ends. We have a piano, and a lot of percussion instruments, including drums, glockenspiels, and tambourines. Sometimes we play together, sometimes we play on our own. Sometimes we write songs, or just tunes, sometimes we dance, our own moves, or we copy one another, and I think we will try tap dancing. We do exercises, and sometimes a bit of gym on the carpet, forward rolls and the like, or yoga. We’ve a stereo, and we have a microphone and recording equipment. Sometimes we record ordinary sounds, sometimes we record conversations. We write stories, and we tell stories. There is room for everyone to join in if they want to. We do a lot of making up and inventing. These stories are about polar bears, welding, fires, machines, the sea. It is drama and improvisation. We have a shadow screen for puppetry performances. We write our own shows, with buses for the lead characters. We have the tools and equipment to make our own puppets: rod and finger puppets to date, and I would like to have a go with marionettes. We have an area for woodwork, repairing and building. It is one way of learning how things work and fit together. We build vehicles which you can sit on. We learn about joints and cutting accurately. We learn about design, and how to modify objects. We build water chutes and other systems of pipes to roll balls down. This is one way of learning about gravity and motion. We make ball puzzle games in cardboard boxes. I’m going to make jigsaw puzzles too. We make pulleys, and tie knots, a way of learning about load bearing devices, and also, weights and measures. We keep track of our changing heights against the wall. We use rulers to mark out lengths and widths of various materials. We follow recipes. This is one way of learning about methods and sequences, and also, chemical reactions, and then again, nutrition. We experiment with cooking, too. And we eat together what we have made. We like eating. This is one way of approaching science. We use magnifying glasses, to examine leaves, spiders, and jugs of water. This is one way of learning about lenses, and refraction. We use cameras, and binoculars. I would like to get a microscope, and there is talk of a telescope, too. We have a model of an eyeball which you can take apart. We have other anatomical models, and I think what we need next is a full-size skeleton. We look things up on the computer, or in books. We wanted to know about genes and DNA the other week. We have plenty of books, and a good range. There are encyclopedias, dictionaries, books about biology, chemistry, physics, books about history, inventions, other countries, atlases, timetable, leaflets. And then, there are novels, picture books, poetry and rhymes. We are always acquiring more, and we are making and writing our own, too. We tell jokes. They’re not always funny. We make ones up. They’re not much funnier. What else? We have large and sturdy wooden blocks for building towns, tracks, pillars, bridges and towers. We have buckets of Lego. Building on different scales, model-making, is a way of learning about architecture. It is also a way of learning about patterns and symmetry. We have mathematical tools, rods, which are used to the same ends. We do a lot of counting. We handle real money when we play shops, and we write receipts. We sort vegetables and learn about quantity and groups of certain numbers. This list is extensive but not exhaustive. The more I think about it, the more I have to write about. We use clay, and we are going to a pottery workshop recently, where we get to use the wheels. We draw a lot, on our own and also together, on big paper on the floor. We draw the pictures that come out of our heads, and we draw from observation. We mix colours, and think about patterns and textures. We use chalks and charcoal, paints and ink, and a great many pencils. We hang these drawings and give them titles. I think we are proud of them. We have good, big easels, and room enough to leave work as it is and come back to it. We have a backyard, but not a big one, big enough for sweeping and tidying, watching the birds and growing herbs. So, when we want to get out, we go to the basketball court down the road, or to the park nearby, for jumping ropes and kicking footballs, and practicing throwing and catching. We will have some good games of rounders, I think, in the next few months. We run races and set out obstacle courses, and we play tug of war. Sometimes we go on the swings and climbing frames. Actually, we have an indoor climbing frame of our own. It is like a den up in the air and, at the moment, we’re making a rope ladder to get up there. We build a lot of dens, out of blankets and clothes horses, and we put cushions in them. They are good for reading in, and imagining, and a good way to be with others. But they’re also handy places for getting a bit of privacy.

Why I think we do a lot of talking:

I think that if you want to get on with people, you need to know how to communicate with them. Genuine, open, down to earth communication, at whatever age, takes practice, and practice takes time. In that way, in a natural, everyday context, we give as much time here to learning how to speak and how to listen, as we do to reading and writing. All of it is language, and all of it is important. I think it is a useful tool to have at your disposal, and it can be wielded in various ways.

I think that talking to people and properly hearing what they tell you means, on the one hand, trying to look at the world from other people’s point of view. On the other hand, it means knowing where your own edges are, and maintaining your own integrity. I think it is a balance between being aware of yourself and aware of other people. I think that when you take your place in the wider world, you will have to negotiate and adapt in every exchange you have with other people. I think that if you are confident and clear in yourself before you get there, you will be well-equipped to deal with this: able to exercise flexibility towards others, and also, towards yourself.

I think that school is a child’s first point of contact with the wider world, the world beyond their family, and that it is at this point which the child finds her feet and, from here, grows outward. So, it is crucial that children are provided not only with a reliable, firm foundation in their environment, an environment which nurtures rather than threatens, but that they are encouraged, in all possible ways, to begin to look for another firm foundation within themselves, from which they can build upon as they mature.

I think that the one and only real advantage we adults have over children is having had more experience of being in the world, more experience of being with other people. And this is where we, as adults, owe it to children to be competent, gentle, well-grounded companions.

Maryanne, co teacher (4 -7 year old group)

February 2009