Our latest Saturday morning family art workshop at Hurst Hill Primary School focused on artwork by Pablo Picasso and was without doubt a great success. The prolific artist and his unique style inspired a collection of fantastic portraits produced by the children and their families. We look forward to the exhibition opening later this week, we’re sure Pablo would be proud!
We are all familiar with the iPad, but more recently it’s increasing presence in the classroom has opened doors for Teachers and Learners to utilise it’s incredible potential to inspire learning. The rise of iPad collections in educational environments allows for a ‘hands on’ approach and less reliance on the need for the, “eye’s forward looking at the projector” mentality. Education is changing.
Embracing and immersing themselves in the device empowers the learner to control and lead their learning, initiating questions and intrigue that they can find answers to with the tap and swipe of a finger. What’s more, the process feels very natural and fun. These Personal Learning Studios can become a research hub, art canvas, music studio, science lab, video editing suite, library, video communication tool and much, much more. The App Store offers a wealth of affordable, and often free, resources that can be used to initiate and engage all ages and abilities.
With learning spaces in School at somewhat of a premium why not free up the ICT Suite? You know, that dark, artificially lit lifeless room full of computers gasping for air that more often than not take half the lesson to switch on. Instead, appreciate the value of an ‘anywhere anytime’ learning tool with the battery life to match. Take your projects and learning out in to the school grounds, after all the iPad will accompany you anywhere and encourage creative responses, the likes you never thought learners were capable of. The era in which schools separate technology from everyday teaching and learning will inevitably be a thing of the past.
In summary, the iPads features, it’s camera, apps and ease of use make it a device that every school should strongly consider investing in. You could argue that like Computers in the classroom 10 years ago, which were oversold and underused the same could happen with iPad purchasing. It’s this fact that highlights the importance of teachers who understand how to use an iPad to help children learn and to develop a mindset devoted to giving the learner time to create and reflect.
During this half term break I’ve reflecting on our work around engaging families and how we use a variety of approaches to help families play an active role in learning and teaching and support the life of the school community.
It’s a long time since I attended primary school (the 1960’s) but I can still remember the experience with clarity and there was not one single occasion where my (or any other child’s parents) parents played an active part in supporting teaching and learning. Parents could attend school fetes, sports days and collect poorly or injured kids, but other than that, they never participated in school life.
The primary schools we work with now all agree that children work best and learn most effectively when teachers and parents work together supporting the child on their learning journey so we have been helping create and deliver a variety of projects to help attract parents, grandparents and carers into school. If an adult is time pressured or hasn’t got very positive memories of their time in school, getting them to participate is a challenge. We have found a mixed approach offering everything from classroom learning, outdoor learning, creative projects and learning coaching roles works really well.
The FLIP (Family Learning in Partnership) developed at Shireland Hall provides training for parents (at T/A Level) and focuses on curriculum areas that need additional impetus. The parents are viewed as colleagues rather than unpaid help and this level of respect is very much appreciated by parents. The results have been fantastic and in addition to helping the kids learn, parents and teachers collaborate on planning and delivery of content and some parents and used the opportunity as an entry into a career in education.
At Hurst Hill Primary we have been using Saturday morning family art workshops to help create a neutral territory where parents teachers and children can have great fun whilst creating fabulous artwork that they curate and install in the schools art gallery. It has been really successful in terms of relationship development and instilling a sense of shared ownership and pride in the school community. It has also helped many parents feel more confident about approaching and sharing with teachers and the school leadership team ideas, suggestions and concerns.
At Kingsland primary we regularly invite parents and carers into school to actively take part in the delivery of classroom learning activities. The parents participate fully and help deliver curriculum content with outstanding results. Again we have seen a dramatic improvement in the children’s level of engagement and achievement and parents and skilled and equipped with insight and enriched knowledge they need to support home learning.
Relationship management with parents can be difficult and for me the key is communication by whatever means necessary and trying to focus on the positive potential of the parent, just as we do with children. Not every parent wants to, or is able to participate in the life of their child’s school, but most do, particularly if they understand how they can get involved through clear communication in a language they understand and can relate to. The letters home, texts, emails and increasingly, the use of facebook and twitter all help the school remain accessible and seeing parents, grandparents and carers as a valued, rich resource is a great way of enriching the curriculum and increasing the chances of every child reaching their fullest potential.
As part of our Be The Best You Can Be! project Hurst Hill had a very special visitor last week…
Danielle Brown is a multi-gold winning Paralympian who came in to share her inspirational story of how she became the athlete she is today. She brought in her gold medals along with her compound bow that she shot her way to gold with and the children then got to ask Danielle questions about her life and challenges.
We wish Danielle all the best in the future, you can follow her on Twitter to see how she’s getting on!
Year 5 children from Kingsland Primary School explored the idea of space and used chalk to draw Alien portraits and spacecraft before sending their very own Space Tweet, inside of a helium filled balloon, high in to the sky and beyond!
The Reception class at Kingsland Primary School concluded last weeks Family Art Workshops by designing and building a Rocket with their Parents! The children became artists, engineers and designers and created a large, living willow sculpture of a rocket that will remain in Reception’s play area for years to come!
We really enjoyed our week at the school and look forward to the Alien Picnic in July
The latest Family Art Workshop saw Year 4 invite parents in to School to help create fantastic sculptures for the Alien Picnic. Each class drew Alien portraits and later designed and built miniature cardboard models that informed a large class sculpture that will be on display in July.
Year 2 children at Kingsland Primary enjoyed a day of drawing, painting and imagining the possibilities of what Space holds as the Family Art Workshops continued this week. The children each designed a spaceship to help them navigate the Universe before being given the task of creating a panel to be used on a Picnic blanket at this Summer’s Alien Picnic. We’re certain it will look great and thank you to all of the family members that joined us today.
Our latest Saturday morning family art workshop was once again really well attended and we looked at the work of the Dutch artist Pied Mondrian. His well known unique style evolved through his career and his use of geometric patterns with primary colours is recognised all over the world. The collection produced by our children and their families is absolutely stunning and will soon be added to our Art Gallery and our preview event for the collection will soon be announced. THis slideshow shows the workshop and the wonderful artwork in progress.
Children from Year 1 at Kingsland Primary School have been taking part in a Family Art Workshop inspired by Space to create Solar Sculptures for an Alien Picnic in July. We were joined by Parents for the day as each class created models, drawings and paper mache planets. The workshop is part of a week long residency as we work with each class throughout the school to create artwork for the celebration event in the Summer.
