This project took place at Cardinal Newman Catholic school (2010-2011), and was aimed at exploring creative ways of expanding pupils understanding of Newman Learning Skills (the schools name for the QCDA’s Personal Learning & Thinking Skills). The project had some very specific sub aims and I worked as one of two creative practitioners over the course of the school year. The school had previously worked on both SEAL and BLP with selected year groups/lessons, and wanted to adopt a school-wide approach that would provide a common language & understanding. For anyone not familiar with Personal Learning & Thinking Skills, there are six of them, sometimes referred to as qualities or competencies:
Team Worker
Independent Enquirer
Creative Thinker
Reflective Learner
Self-Manager
Effective Participant
The project involved working with a range of collaborators within the school but there were two parts of the project that were most enjoyable for me, and that in my view made a significant difference to the outcome of the project, and the learning of all the partners involved.
‘If I hadn’t done this I wouldn’t be giving NLS a thought – at the start it was just another initiative. This work with the practitioners has helped to identify them more to me and I’ve seen NLS (Newman Learning Skills) that I didn’t know and how they all can interlink.’
Teacher
The first involved working with individual teachers to understand their current approaches to introducing NLS, how they were working, and to discuss with them new/alternative ways of exploring these. We then co-delivered to selected classes and sought feedback from the pupils, subsequently unpicking the whole thing. We examined through individual and joint reflection what worked well and what didn’t, why, and what we would try differently next time. In this way we created a genuine partnership; giving constructive feedback, taking risks in the classroom, supporting each other, innovating on an individual level, and involving pupils in evaluating how successful these strategies were in the classroom. The net result for one teacher was a bundle of new ideas (many of which were her own) that she is now comfortable using in her practice, and is pro-actively sharing with her colleagues. This leadership within her department is a substantial legacy for the school, and has also provided her with further opportunity for professional & personal development. And in addition to this, pupils are clearly benefitting from these targeted strategies/interventions. This was an extremely rewarding aspect of the project.
‘Some of my lower ability class saw skills they didn’t have. They enjoyed it. The more they did they more they enjoyed.’
‘..seemed to enjoy lesson where they had to take responsibility for their own learning – you always get the one or two who are disaffected but even they came round.’
Teachers
‘They (teachers) take loads of risks by telling you to go into groups of your choice. Say if you don’t cooperate we will still do this but it will just run over into your time!’
Pupil
The second aspect of the project that was most rewarding to me was the collaboration with a small pupil group, made up of young people selected from years 7-10. Working with this group, we discussed the whole project, putting their potential role into context.
‘I know more than before – at the start when we got our planner for the first time our tutor went over the NLS and I didn’t understand. Now I think about what NLS would apply to what I want to do. Sometimes you use them without realizing.’
Pupils in this group understood the difference they could make to their own learning and the fact they could influence the opportunities that would be afforded to other pupils. They were engaged in practical activities, which we deconstructed collectively, with reference to the PLTS’s (Newman Learning Skills). We also reviewed short video clips of other classroom based learning activities from around the school (gathered as part of the VLE resource we had developed for the school as another part of this project). Pupils considered and discussed the different learning opportunities provided for them by teachers, and how effectively pupils engaged with them. They discussed those that worked well and those that didn’t, giving specific feedback constructively. They were aware that their input would be fed back to teaching staff and was intended to help teachers provide opportunities to suit the needs of pupils at different levels and different stages of learning.
In addition, they willingly participated in an after school meeting for the leadership team, in which they fielded questions from a group of over 20 teachers & SLT.
We have done a lot of it (reflecting on learning) because of the videos of previous lessons; we look at what we have done and why we have done it. Just lessons in general I do it now automatically; and for NLS that would come under Self Manager and Reflective Learner because it is the choices you make.’
‘If you see what the teachers were doing at the start and what they do now it has been a big improvement. It was usually just pen and paper but now it is getting out of your seat and being creative.’
‘I told my parents about how this group (NLS Student Ambassadors) meeting every Tuesday and how it is helping everyone and you can tell – you can see the class getting more stuck in.’
Pupils
Much of what I learnt on this project reinforced previous & concurrent learning on other Creative Partnership projects involving the use of Personal Learning and Thinking Skills. On more than one occasion during this project, I was astonished by the level of interest & engagement with the topic, of some of the pupils. Specific learning for me includes:
- the learning process is of great interest and benefit to learners – both pupils and teachers.
- providing a common language that enables learners to recognize, take responsibility for, and articulate the learning process can have a big impact on engagement, for both teachers and pupils.
- teachers who are engaged in their learning seem to be far more successful at engaging their students
The success of projects such as this one give me the confidence to keep at it! Following on from this final year of the Creative Partnership Change Programme, I returned along with another Practitioner and former Creative Agent, to support the process of embedding these learning skills in the wider school.
Eva Bennett
Artist & Creative Practitioner
