As waves of relief wash over the nation, signalling the end of the Key Stage 2 SATs, I've been reminiscing about my own school days.
When I was the age of today's Year 6, my biggest academic concern was trying to avoid the SRA card my classmate, Katy, had vomited on earlier in the year (which the teachers had wiped down and slid back into its box). I have no memory of sitting any tests at any point during my four years at middle school. I remember making topic books; taking part in non-competitive sports days; singing ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘We all live in a yellow submarine’ in school assemblies; queueing up for the nit nurse; playing British Bulldog on the playground, my pink trouser-suit flares flapping in the breeze...
Returning to 2017, the remaining weeks of this summer term present teachers with a window of opportunity to restore some balance to areas of the curriculum that have been neglected over past months. Compensating for the skewed emphasis required by the SATs, however, doesn’t have to mean reducing the time spent reading and writing.
To my mind, the weeks we have left are rich in golden opportunities to liberate our Year 6 children from the constraints, restrictions and judgements that might cage in their writing. They need encouragement to explore, play and experiment with the technical theory they’ve had to learn - and time and space to properly digest all of the SPaG* the curriculum has force-fed them.
In my final weeks of class teaching, I decided to try a little experiment. As the summer holidays approached, I wanted my Y2/3 class to become self-motivated writers. I didn’t think I was helping them to do this by constantly providing a stimulus for their writing. I wanted my pupils to begin their holidays inspired to write for and by themselves, having experienced the joy of writing independently. I wanted to remove some of the structures that I felt were preventing them from growing in independence.
I considered the lessons I’d learned from my own children, as I’d watched them adjusting from their structured school days to ‘go-with-the-flow’ days at home. It’s a sobering moment when the independent and creative little soul you’ve raised (who’s fresh out of Year 1 and has six glorious weeks of freedom stretched out in front of her) tells you "I’ve got nothing to do, Mummy. I’m bored.” I believe there is some conditioning involved in our school institutions. Children can get so used to being told what to do, when, and how, that once you remove that structure they don’t always know what to do with themselves.
Consequently, for the last few weeks of term I actively created opportunities for my Y2/3 pupils to put their learning into practice, whilst making their own decisions about the content and form of their writing. Some relished this new-found freedom, and needed no further prompting or encouragement to run with it. Others were less comfortable with the prospect to begin with. But, gradually - with the help of modelling, scaffolding, feedback from a trusted writing partner, group discussions etc - they grew into the idea. Each day, we spent time writing freely. As the weeks went by, we became a supportive community of writers, talking through our struggles and various aspects of the writing process, giving each other feedback when invited to, and celebrating our successes.
Looking back now, I have two regrets:
1. That I didn’t try this sooner,
2. That I didn’t keep a better record of that ‘little experiment’ (or any copies of our drafts and published writing).
*SPaG = Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, but now referred to as:
GPS = Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling
Recommended reading:
I bought this book during my teacher training days (1988-1992). I still find it helpful.
When I was the age of today's Year 6, my biggest academic concern was trying to avoid the SRA card my classmate, Katy, had vomited on earlier in the year (which the teachers had wiped down and slid back into its box). I have no memory of sitting any tests at any point during my four years at middle school. I remember making topic books; taking part in non-competitive sports days; singing ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘We all live in a yellow submarine’ in school assemblies; queueing up for the nit nurse; playing British Bulldog on the playground, my pink trouser-suit flares flapping in the breeze...
Returning to 2017, the remaining weeks of this summer term present teachers with a window of opportunity to restore some balance to areas of the curriculum that have been neglected over past months. Compensating for the skewed emphasis required by the SATs, however, doesn’t have to mean reducing the time spent reading and writing.
To my mind, the weeks we have left are rich in golden opportunities to liberate our Year 6 children from the constraints, restrictions and judgements that might cage in their writing. They need encouragement to explore, play and experiment with the technical theory they’ve had to learn - and time and space to properly digest all of the SPaG* the curriculum has force-fed them.
In my final weeks of class teaching, I decided to try a little experiment. As the summer holidays approached, I wanted my Y2/3 class to become self-motivated writers. I didn’t think I was helping them to do this by constantly providing a stimulus for their writing. I wanted my pupils to begin their holidays inspired to write for and by themselves, having experienced the joy of writing independently. I wanted to remove some of the structures that I felt were preventing them from growing in independence.
I considered the lessons I’d learned from my own children, as I’d watched them adjusting from their structured school days to ‘go-with-the-flow’ days at home. It’s a sobering moment when the independent and creative little soul you’ve raised (who’s fresh out of Year 1 and has six glorious weeks of freedom stretched out in front of her) tells you "I’ve got nothing to do, Mummy. I’m bored.” I believe there is some conditioning involved in our school institutions. Children can get so used to being told what to do, when, and how, that once you remove that structure they don’t always know what to do with themselves.
Consequently, for the last few weeks of term I actively created opportunities for my Y2/3 pupils to put their learning into practice, whilst making their own decisions about the content and form of their writing. Some relished this new-found freedom, and needed no further prompting or encouragement to run with it. Others were less comfortable with the prospect to begin with. But, gradually - with the help of modelling, scaffolding, feedback from a trusted writing partner, group discussions etc - they grew into the idea. Each day, we spent time writing freely. As the weeks went by, we became a supportive community of writers, talking through our struggles and various aspects of the writing process, giving each other feedback when invited to, and celebrating our successes.
Looking back now, I have two regrets:
1. That I didn’t try this sooner,
2. That I didn’t keep a better record of that ‘little experiment’ (or any copies of our drafts and published writing).
*SPaG = Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, but now referred to as:
GPS = Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling
Recommended reading:
I bought this book during my teacher training days (1988-1992). I still find it helpful.