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Research
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Below are a selection of research articles that link into the topics discussed elsewhere on this website including Parental Engagement, Leadership and Management & Conitnuing Professional Development... |
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Transition from Foundation Stage to Key 1 |
Redbridge Local Authority Project |
Introduction to article |
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Inquisitive, enquiring, confident, hesitant, creative,
articulate......... you add your own words to describe the young Reception child. Whichever words you choose I am sure you will acknowledge that each child has their own personality and throughout that first year in school their individuality can both challenge and reward the adults sharing their day. Gradually their individual learning styles begin to emerge and the skilled practitioner encourages their progress by creating a learning agenda and environment that appropriately meets their individual needs... |
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The Bedtime Story Experience |
Introduction to article |
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Some years ago, observations from practitioners working with our very youngest children highlighted two key concerns. It appeared that on entry to Nursery at age 3 years, children’s communication skills seemed to be getting poorer whilst negative behavioural issues were increasing...
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Working Together : Achieving Together |
The school’s role as the leader of the learning community |
Introduction to article |
Focus on CPD : One School’s Story
Mount Pleasant Primary School is 116 years old and has fourth generation children amongst its 425 pupils. Situated in the heart of the Black Country, originally famous for coal, chain and glass, life was hard for the likes of Ozzie Biddell who as an ex-pupil still joins us on Friday afternoons as part of the Local History Group. At 89, Ozzie has much to share with today’s pupils and enjoys doing so. Gwen is 35 years old and is mentally disabled. She and seven other such friends join Year 6 on Tuesday afternoons and work together to produce a community news sheet. Joshua is 6months old and comes with his Mummy each Thursday to a family share session in our Children’s Centre. During the week up to 90 children between the ages of 6months and 3years come to the Centre with a family member to join in the fun as part of the Parent’s in Partnership Programme. Our school opens at 7.45a.m. for Breakfast Club and closes most evenings at 9p.m. after community use. We work hard to draw together the interest and support of the home, the school and the community to embrace the whole child and move his/her interests and development forward. All groups are actively engaged as part of a learning community. Our teaching team believes that we should be providing a curriculum and environment that motivates, inspires and challenges the child. We also strongly believe that when using assessment we should make it pertinent to a child’s needs. In order to do this we have worked hard to establish a professional openness that encourages reflection, debate and challenge and has led us to be involved with an interesting variety of CPD opportunities. You may be interested in how we have created and managed these opportunities and in order to give some coherence to our experience I have drawn our work together into 4 areas.
- Sharing and disseminating good practice.
- Individual professional development.
- Collaboration.
- School based innovation.
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Best Practice Research Scholarship document |
Introduction to document |
| The pattern of early education experience differs around Europe and sees Pre-School or Kindergarten for the 3-6 year olds being the experience for many children. In this country however, the experience has been different. The 1988 Education Reform Act introduced a National Curriculum with an agenda of testing at 7, 11, 14, and 16. The resulting outcomes in Primary Schools created a culture of more structured teaching and learning which produced a downward pressure for an increasingly earlier focussed learning experience. The pressure on children became unacceptable and the government responded with the introduction of a Foundation Stage for Nursery and Reception children. (3-5 years.) This play based curriculum, with a significant emphasis on Outdoor Play, has seen a return to a more child centred, practical based learning agenda. This piece of action research set out to explore the resulting tensions at the interface between Reception (FS) and Year1 (NC) and consider how in one area, parental involvement might ease the tensions...
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"Theyre Aye Now Sand in Theur" Jake 4.11 Years |
Transition and The Importance of the Learning Environment |
Introduction to document |
| This paper explores the importance of the school’s role as the leader of the learning community. It makes brief reference to a National Context where the educational experience has narrowed to focus on the raising of standards in Basic Skills, and created an agenda of Testing and Targets resulting in unacceptable levels of pressure and disaffected learners.
In response we have created a community that joins together family and school in order to embrace the child and establish positive attitudes to life long learning. Jake made a terrible discovery when he visited Year 1. He was a very young, boisterous 4 year old child with poor pre-school experiences and from a disadvantaged home environment. He needed space and opportunity to learn through physical and creative activities. Sand was his favourite and “no sand” and all it stood for in his new class would mean an inappropriate environment. This paper will show how one school, located in a poor to lower middle class community, has worked to manage this challenging experience whilst retaining the child’s needs as a focus and will show how, in the process, Action Research has become an important tool for examining the school, its problems and ways to surmount these problems. Embracing the child involves a quality Home and School Partnership, including the use of technology. Research projects have explored the importance of the Indoor and Outdoor Learning Environments providing curriculum opportunities that empower a child to discover how to learn. Technology has become an important factor in this process. All children should have an educational experience that offers a balance between challenge and support and each has the right to find “the sand” they need...
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Gail's Previous Conferences
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January 2008:
NQT Conference:
Working with Parents / Carers & Agencies. |
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February 2008:
Transition: The Impact on a Child's Learning & Mental Wellbeing. |
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| more information >> |
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