poniedziałek, 15 lipca 2019

JOB SHADOWING in CHARLTON-ON-OTMOOR C of E PRIMARY SCHOOL

We arrived at the school in the morning and were greeted by the Head teacher, Val, who gave us a guided tour of the school. As well as helping us to get our bearings, this was very informative about the organisation of English schools and Charlton-on-Otmoor in particular.


The school is a small village school in a very rural location. It is on the edge of the village and is surrounded by fields. The school is a Church of England school and it has a relationship with the Church in the village, although it is not controlled by the Church. The school holds some events at the church and joins in with significant village and church events, the most notable being May Day. Apparently, the school leads the celebration for this important day in the village and many people come specially to see the parade, church service and dancing.
The school is under the jurisdiction of the local County Council and receives its funding from the Council, although most of it originates with the Central Government. Many schools in England are run in this way but a significant number have been converted to Academy Schools and are now funded directly from Central Government.
The school has just 84 pupils at present but it has a capacity of 105. It admits a maximum of 15 children each year. Children start in the Foundation Stage class during the year that they are 5 although there is also an optional nursery class that children can attend for 15 free hours per week, from the age of 3.
When the children leave the Foundation stage they begin year 1. There are three classes and each contains two year groups together. They are Year 1 and 2 (these two year groups are known as Key Stage 1), year 3 and 4, year 5 and 6 (the 4 year groups in these two classes are known as Key Stage 2). Most English primary schools are comprised of these three stages.


During the week we observed children working in all four classrooms. The youngest class has its own outdoor play area and the children’s day was spent in a mixture of structured and unstructured play activities as well as some formal type language and number lessons. We were impressed by the facilities and resources that were available in this class as well as the number of support staff working with the teacher. As well as teaching they seemed to spend a lot of time assessing and recording on iPads how the children as they played.
When we were in the other classes they were much more formal in the way they worked. The classrooms were smaller than the foundation stage but still a reasonable size. In all the classes the pupils tables were arranged in groups, which is different to the arrangement of rows at home. The children work on these group tables which are generally ability-based groups. Depending on the work they work in silence or they are encouraged to discuss their ideas quietly.
When we were in the year 1 and 2 class we saw the pupils using iPads. Each child had their own allocated iPad which they could keep in their drawer and use whenever needed. They are not allowed to take them home. They use these for a lot of different purposes including some of their writing. At other times we saw them writing in books. On one visit they were finding out about Polish cuisine and writing an information page with added pictures from websites. Later we saw them drawing some pictures of dishes that they had found.






In year 3 and 4 class we saw the children preparing for a school open day when parents will visit. They were making an exhibition of work they had done about the ancient Egyptians.







When we visited the year 5 and 6 class, they were hard at work preparing for and end of school year Play, a comedy about William Shakespeare. The play has taken a lot of work so far and includes singing, dancing and acting.
The children were interested to know about us and about Poland and we were pleased to be asked to present an assembly about our country. We showed a powerpoint presentation with pictures and words and we dressed some children in traditional costume. We taught a small number to dance the Krakowiak and some others to dance the Polonaise.






At break times we chatted to staff about the work that they do, and they helped us to understand some reasons about why they do things the way they do. We also met one of the school Governors and the new Head teacher who will be taking up his post in September. Also, at break time we explore the outside facilities. There is a hard playground as well as a large field. There are sports changing rooms, an outdoor classroom which looked like a bandstand and a pond which was fenced off but used by children for science work. There were also games tables and climbing frames. The school has a garden club which happens during school time and children learn to plant and grow things as well as to look after their environment.






When we were not in school, we were able to visit Oxford. It is a beautiful city and well known for its historic, university colleges. We were able to visit the inside of Christchurch College which has featured in TV and films, including Harry Potter. We also Visited Bletchley Park which was home to the wartime codebreakers and is now a museum explaining their work. It was interesting for us because Polish codebreakers, who were the first to break the enigma code, also worked there and are remembered in a special memorial.

SCHOOL WEBSITE 







We experienced English food and culture. We tried English tea and scones 



           



fish and chips 


and full English Breakfast



niedziela, 14 lipca 2019

VISITING GLORY FARM PRIMARY SCHOOL - our partner in KA229 project


We visited Glory Farm school during our job-shadowing visit to the U.K. We were interested to see around the school and particularly pleased to see some of the work from ‘Drop of Water’. 



The board in the hall tells the children about each project meeting and more information is added after each visit. In one of the classrooms we saw our project mascot, Droppy, who was showing off some more work from the project.


When we visited the oldest children, in year six, were working hard on a play for their end of term performance. It was based on the famous book, Treasure Island. I’m sure there is a water connection there!





We liked the painted bench in the playground. It was not only an attractive place to sit and rest, but it was also an encouragement to think about nature, including water.


We brought some letters from our pupils 



It was also nice to meet some of the teachers and pupils who we had met on the project meetings and to hear how much they were enjoying the project work and how much the school was benefitting from its participation.