Paper Aeroplanes

Back to School

The 'perfect' teacher

It's the morning of the second day at school, and the excitement of meeting old friends is over.  The holidays are over.  It's back to work.

Arthur (our 8yr old) is awake early and we start talking about school:

'So what did you do yesterday?'

'We wrote about our holidays.  We always write about our holidays.  It's so boring.'

There's still a while to go before school, so we have a chat about it.  I can see the teachers will want to find out a bit about the children they will be working with, and that the most recent bit, their holidays, is probably a good place to start.  I put this to Arthur.  He agrees:

'But why do we have to write about it?'

On this, I think, he has a good point.  Writing is obviously a key skill children will learn in school, but it's not the most natural way your average 5, 6, 7, 8 yr old will express themselves.  If the teacher's objective is to find out more about a child, then I'm pretty sure most essays about 'what I did in the holiday' will tell you very little.  Except possibly how good at writing a child is.

It reminded me of Arthur's first meeting with his new teacher last term, where they were all warned, ''If you give me grief, then I'll give you grief, if you give me joy, then I won't give you grief...you'll get to like me."  The teacher very much setting out relationship boundaries.

Arthur goes on to tell me more about his first day.  At assembly they set 'ground rules, and reviewed the '10 Golden Rules'.  He got a star, for remembering one.  He remembered (and I was proud of him) that you've 'got to respect your teacher and the other children'.  The rules he remembered all were important.

I understand why so many teachers start with 'the rules', but how is reviewing the rules appreciating the wider objectives of education (developing confidence, ability for deep learning, reflection...) or indeed, the most immediate challenge to develop good relationships with the new children and their parents?  I know what my response to what appears to be a lecture on 'ground rules' would be.  As a parent with a mixed experience of school it does re-enforce all my poorer experiences and, I find myself quickly falling into the cynical trap of seeing school as a problem, something to be endured, and have to resist putting this across to Arthur

This is all my perspective, as a parent.  I'm also aware Arthur may say a very different thing about school tomorrow.  Also that the teacher may be overcoming  insecurities about their children and their relationship with children and parents, and things will get better as the year continues.  The school Arthur goes to is a good school.  He is very happy there, and throughout the last four years there have been many creative projects and topics which have engaged Arthur, in which he has expressed himself, reflected and learned.  I am sure soon we will think as highly of Arthur's new teacher as we (parents and children) do of his previous teachers.  The sort of open-ended projects, where children bring things (or people) into school, use of film, artwork, photographs to document and to provoke conversations - anything, that might be seen firstly as fun, and can develop a richer understanding of the children, their parents, their lives, will help the teacher find out more and to initiate more positive relationships.

It is interesting to see which teachers Arthur likes and respects, and why.  Without a doubt, those teachers that are seen as 'fun' are the 'best'.  'Fun' to Arthur, turns out to be enjoying learning with the children - the teacher who plays Ukele, is prepared to laugh at themselves, plays with the children, dances to Abba, who gets into the swimming pool with the children, is prepared to admit they don't know it all, wants to learn with the children, taking risks with them.

The teacher's role is not the same as a best friend, and I'm not suggesting all teachers should learn the Ukele (although would be fun), but that the best way to secure an effective learning environment, the starting point for any teaching, must be to develop good relationships with children and parents.

Useful links:

Overcoming 10 common barriers to parenting

Back to the wrong school

The PIP Award

So shines a good deed in a cruel word

A misquote from Shakespeare (thanks Bridget), these are the words of Willy Wonka at the pivotal  moment of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the Gene Wilder version (1971), I was watching with my children the other day.  Grandad has just castigated Willy as an 'inhuman monster!' and Charlie and his Grandad are leaving the factory with nothing.  At this point Charlie Bucket turns around and gives Willy his last sweet.

A couple of days before my father died, we were visiting him.  None of us knew what to do or say, as we saw him conscious but weak in his hospital bed.  Jago, then aged 2, knew exactly what to do, stepping forward and giving his grandad his new (and treasured) toy car.  Perhaps a child's kindness should not be so surprising - On Thursday night I watched the second of Michael Mosley's 'The Brain: A Secret History'.  He shows footage of a key experiment in the 1950s, where an orphan monkey is given the choice of 'mothers'.  One is made of wire mesh with a milk bottle attached.  The other is wrapped in a cuddly towel.  While the monkey would feed from the mesh 'mummy', nearly all of his time was spent with the cuddly one, and the monkey clearly became attached to it.  At the time it was used as proof that love was in some way innate. Later experiments also showed that feelings like love and fear can also be induced or reduced through life experience.

I have been shamed by my children.  In December we passed a beggar with no arms.  Arthur (aged 7) was shocked we were walking past - 'We must give him some money!'  But last Friday, 2:00 in Small Heath, I didn't need my children to experience guilt.  I was stuck in traffic and I caught the eye of an old lady with a stick in one hand and a polystyrene cup in the other.  She began hobbling over to my car.  The lights changed, and I was slightly relieved to move off.  Minutes later I saw another old lady begging on the streets.  I could have stopped, but I didn't.

I understand that my actions may have little actual influence on events around me, but from a selfish point of view, there is something to be gained by showing small kindnesses, and something lost by walking on the other side.  I can wallow in my powerlessness to change the world, my inability to make the world a fairer place.  Or I can 'revel' in those feelings of guilt and failure, be frustrated, but know that I am responding to them.  My last year's resolution was to be nice to people.  This year I think I'll try and do more kind things too.

If it weren't for your gum boots

We're in New Zealand (try this link for gum boot song)!  Flight great and straight onto Waitomo caves youth hostel - big contrast with LA.  LA was great, but you've got to hold on tight to kids in the Metro (or anywhere else).  In Waitomo Arthur and Jago have made good friends with Pig 1 and Pig 2 (now Buttercup and Smiley) and straight into the new pool.  I suppose we should be worried about freak pig mauling incident, but somehow it seems easier, safer and more relaxed.

We visited the caves (second time we've visited caves this year).  Glow worms were amazing - children created a game 'glowworms and flies' chasing each other arround - amazing what they pick up, and what they do with it. The year before last we visited a 'coffin ship' in Ireland - Arthur and Jago spent the rest of the (long) journey playing an Irish famine/ desperate journey to America re-enactment.

Arthur's first blog

Hello everyone. I hope you are having a brilliant time at school because we're having a brilliant time on holiday.

We started our holiday in London, at British Airways airport and we went to the bag drop, walked through the security scan before we could get into the plane. On the plane there were the seats and the crew and first class and standard class and all the usual things, but in the seats there were identical remote control televisions.

When we got to LA (Los Angeles) we were very tired because in English time it was 11:00 at night but in LA time it was 4:00 in the afternoon, but we soon cheered up when we got to Roosevelt Hotel. The next day we managed to catch a glimpse of the Hollywood sign and went on our long journey to a place called Griffith Observatory, which is basically a space museum and had a lot of fun there.

We woke up at 4:00 a.m. because of English time. I watched some telly and got ready for swimming. At first the pool was really cold, but it got better and I swam two lengths.

We then went on the bus to Santa Monica. It was quite hot so it was quite frustrating as the bus went slow.

In Santa Monica we went on the pier and we went on cool rides. The first was a solar powered ferris wheel, which means it was powered up by the sun. The next was the Sea Dragon, which was very, very scarey. You had to hold onto your tummies otherwise it felt like they would fall out.

Our first US burger chips and milkshake

We've made it to LA! We did have the only little children and 2 hours on ground before take off at Heathrow was tough. The air hostesses looked after us well, although a bit low on food for 12 hour flight.
Anyway, now comfy in upgraded kingsized beds watching TV and Arthur dancing off jetlag at 4 in morning. Planning walk in park to burn off monster burger and milkshake.

Arthur - 'I really like the palm trees, the swimming pool and the bright lights!' The olympic size swimming pool has Hockney 'squiggley lines'.

Jago says, 'It looks like a big city because it is a big city!' 'I like the swimming pool because it glows and is all squiggley.

Freya mostly likes squeezing into small gaps and shouting, 'I'm stuck!'

Nikki wants to go shopping, but we won't let her.

Holiday homework

On last day of holiday in Ilfracombe Arthur decided he wanted to map out the next one, incorporating Brazilian rainforest, New York, Sidney, Antartica and New Zealand.

We are planning an Xmas visit to my sister in New Zealand this year, following a holiday of a lifetime three years ago when we first went out there. Our school threatened us with loosing Arthur's school place if we take Arthur out of school for any time in the next five years, which makes a trip to NZ very tricky.

Odd, when research clearly identifies 80% of learning happens outside the classroom, and that schools want to involve parents more in learning, that such a fantastic opportunity is not just ignored, but actively discouraged.

In the last year the schoolwork that have most excited Arthur (and us parents) was 'The Great Fire of London' and 'Brazilian rainforest'. We visited London, went down Pudding Lane, climbed monument, walked around Thames, visited 'The Museum of London', had a great day out that contextualised 'The Great Fire' for Arthur and Jago (3 years old). Shame not to have picked a Birmingham based topic, and admittedly, not everyone gets the chance to visit London, nevermind the Brazilian rainforest, but at least we got to find out about the topic with Arthur.

Schools should actively involve and encourage parents to take part in learning, and support parents and children bringing their learning back to the classroom. To only value learning in the classroom reinforces an insular view of school disconnected with our reality and unimportant to our lives.