Learning Nutrition – Main Course: Part 1
Having dithered for several days, tried various elements of learning nutrition with several groups, in no particular order, I have finally decided to try 3 nutrients on 3 different classes.
Year 7 – Control, Shift of responsibility
From the very beginning of their time at Culverhay, our Year 7 pupils have learned to respect the fact that all pupils are at different stages of their learning journeys (and at different stages in the various cogs e.g. the physically developed pupil may be less socially developed and vice versa). With this in mind, pupils have been encouraged to adapt tasks to suit their own learning needs and set appropriate levels of challenge which they think will maximise their learning. This had a major impact with one particular pupil who was identified by his primary school as being a pupil ‘to keep an eye on’ and ‘expect the unexpected’. What I didn’t expect was the fact that he intentionally makes every task more challenging for himself so that he can make more progress in a lesson, and he also suggests changes in challenge (increase and decrease) for other pupils in the class. I suspect if I taught him 5 years ago, I would have had to keep an eye on him and he would have struggled to learn in not just PE but in many other lessons.
The idea of purposefully giving them the opportunity to choose the direction they take in a lesson, building up to pupil led learning / creating own learning plans is really exciting. Imagine a KS3 pupil who can go to any lesson in school and have the skills and confidence to create their own learning plan. Through my experience as a coach and leader, I know that if people have ownership of their own action plans (as opposed to being told what to do) they are far more motivated to complete it to a high standard. Working towards exams / coursework deadlines at KS4 will be a doddle for both pupil and teacher!
Year 8 – Success and failure
I really love the idea of ensuring early success in a lesson. Such a simple idea, but a so powerful. If I were a pupil, I would love to get that early taste of success in a lesson (be it in response to a physical, social, personal, creative or cognitive challenge). It would set a tone for the lesson and increase the probability of making good progress for the remainder.
My Year 8 group are set 2/2. I thought they would benefit from having that early success. More importantly, many of them have been labelled as ‘non sporty’ boys in the past (not by me, my staff or our pupils) and during more traditional PE lessons (not ours!), they have experienced high levels of failure as a result of tasks being too difficult for their current level of physical development. I thought it was important for those pupils to redefine failure and carefully guide them on a journey which allows them to experience controlled doses of failure and learn how to use the experience as an opportunity to develop. Hopefully, I can achieve this by using this nutrient.
Year 9 – Coach and support others
The main motivator behind this decision was the high levels of social skills already being demonstrated by members within the group. The pupils have really responded well to developing their social skills in the earlier part of this academic year, when it was the main focus of all of our lessons. There is now an underlying theme in all lessons on how pupils are expected / challenged to work with and support others in the group to accelerate their own and others learning. I rarely have to state my expectations, more identify and celebrate when things happen to reinforce the behaviours.
With this strong foundation, I am hoping that the pupils will be able to access the top level social skills with the support of this nutrient. It is my hope that in KS4, every pupil in this year group will be assigned a mentor position with a younger pupil. Being familiar with the various cogs and levels, the mentors will be able to accelerate the learning of the younger pupils, not just in PE, but across the school. This will increase the shared learning journey from pupil and teacher, to pupil, teacher and mentor.
There may be an opportunity in the transition to Academy, that the tutor programme changes from year groups to vertical groups (mixed year groups), providing a perfect structure for my ‘cog mentors’ to work with their pupils. Watch this space…
It has been a real advantage implementing accelerating abilities in such a small school. With only 5 core PE classes covering the whole of KS3, we have managed to target every child in the Key stage. I am hopeful that the impact of this in years to come will have a profound effect on the success of the pupils at KS4 and KS5.
Time will tell.
Simon Scarborough is Head of PE at Culverhay School in Bath. He is working alongside Create Development on the ongoing Learning Nutrition Project, reporting back on its impact on learning. His blog and the original version of this article can be found here.