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Jahlenius

Jahlenius (ProTeacher blog)

I have downloaded about 200 photos (royalty free from stock exchange) had them printed cheaply and then laminated them. The photos are abstract, of people, places, transport, weather, landscapes, you name it I have it.

How to use them: Well that is the fun bit. I will sometimes leave piles in the middle of the floor and ask an open ended question or sentence starter. The brief to the participants is to find 4 or five photos that portray their thinking surrounding the question or sentence starter.

Get the idea? Next we may break into pairs and the participants will share why they picked their photos. I sometimes go further by asking participants to pick out one photo from the other person s choices and ask them some questions about it to take the thinking even deeper or further.

At times I put the photos on chairs and get the participants to choose the photo that best describes their day, their feelings etc.

This is only a small example of uses so far. I think it works so well because the pictures get those neurons firing and make connections through sight, memory, sound, taste, smell, touch.

Sometimes participants (especially adults) will cringe and tell me that they just won t be able to pick anything but I have yet to find anyone who has not managed it and ended up loving the experience. Seems a fairly fail safe activity for most.

If you are interested I can certainly post more ways that I use the photo s and I would be happy to try and find a way to make the photo gallery I have available to whoever wants it.

Love to hear your feedback and thoughts on my post.

* Helen McNulty
* The Guardian, Tuesday 23 June 2009

“Many schools never hear about flexi-schooling unless parents request it. Photograph: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

It’s a weekday in term-time, and my daughter, Niamh, aged five and a half, is at home, playing a French computer game. Afterwards, she reads her picture encyclopaedia, occasionally pausing to tell me something new or to ask a question.

Niamh is a registered school pupil, but she doesn’t attend on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday afternoons, or at all on Fridays. She is not truanting; she is flexi-schooling – education shared between home and school – which is a perfectly legal option for children of any age, if their headteacher agrees.

There are roughly 300 flexi-pupils in this country, mainly in primary schools, and numbers are slowly growing. But the idea is likely to become more widespread following the review of home education by Graham Badman, published earlier this month and accepted in full by ministers. Badman called for restrictions for full-time home educators, forcing families who opt out of schooling to register annually with their local authorities, submit learning plans and undergo regular inspections. But alongside this, he proposed that “local authorities should, in collaboration with schools and colleges, extend and make available the opportunities of flexi-schooling”.

I can see the idea catching on. I had been considering home schooling for Niamh. Her needs are no different from any other child’s, but I wanted her to be able to learn informally, have more freedom and spend time with her family. As a former teacher, I was confident about the idea, but I wasn’t convinced I had the time and energy to commit fully, and I knew that Niamh would need regular contact with children her age.

Some have different reasons for flexi-schooling. Children recovering from illness may need to get back into school routine gradually, or children who were fully home-educated may try flexi-schooling before going full-time. Ruth Owens, from Lancashire, home-educated her daughter Amelia between the ages of five and seven, but when family circumstances changed, Owens enrolled Amelia at school – part-time. Four months later, Amelia went full-time. Owens praises the school, whose staff went out of their way to help. “Although they’d never heard of flexi-schooling before, they were very accommodating.”

Many schools never hear about flexi-schooling unless parents request it, and are then often hesitant. In most cases, schools are doubtful simply because the arrangement is outside most teachers’ experience. Julie Denness, from Warwickshire, says her sons’ headteacher “first thought it was weird, and wasn’t keen. I explained how I’d make it work and how it would benefit the children.” Denness helps by giving teachers termly outlines of what she will cover with her two sons. “I get a copy of their plans, too, so we all know what the children are doing.”

Part-time schooling is easier to implement with fewer pupils. Aware of this, I approached a small village school, and spoke to the acting head. She was happy for Niamh to attend part-time for a few weeks, though initially less certain about extending the arrangement. Helped by Education Otherwise, the organisation for home-educating and flexi-schooling families, I provided enough information to convince her. Niamh’s now been flexi-schooling for six months.

Balanced curriculum

When the new permanent headteacher started, she was happy about inheriting a part-time pupil. “I’d heard of flexi-schooling before,” she says, “but never met anyone who actually did it.” She says that as long as Niamh has access to a “broad and balanced curriculum, which every child has a right to”, there is no problem. The head is pleased that flexi-schooling works for Niamh, and also tells me: “I like the fact that she sometimes wants to come in on ‘home’ days for special activities.” I appreciate Niamh being invited to take part in events like the teddy bears’ picnic, which she would otherwise miss. I feel that all the staff and children have gone out of their way to welcome my daughter.

When not at school, Niamh is registered as “educated offsite”. This is what makes flexi-schooling legal. Full-time school is not compulsory, only full-time education.

Niamh’s home-based learning is informal, but just as valuable as school. She enjoys reading, measuring Cuisenaire rods, working out how to count in threes and asking questions. We focus on things she’s really interested in, so lately she’s been learning to tell the time, something not yet covered in class.

Does flexi-schooling make life inconvenient for teachers? Kate Oliver, whose children were flexi-schooled during their primary years, doesn’t think so. Lessons were always recapped several times a week, so her children were able to catch up. Some teachers, though, might have to spend more time with flexi-pupils. Owens says that teachers sometimes needed to spend time with Amelia individually, but they were happy to do so. In the case of Denness’s younger son, the teacher is positively enthusiastic about flexi-schooling. “He’s very able and finds the work easy. He needs challenges at home which the EYFS [early years foundation stage] doesn’t offer.”

If a child is very energetic, or gets tired or bored easily, full-time school could lead to behaviour problems, so teachers might see a strong case for fewer hours at school. Oliver requested a flexi-arrangement for her son because “he was very active: I didn’t want him struggling to sit still in class every day, labelled as naughty”.

But will schools cope if dozens of families jump on a flexi-bandwagon? The new recommendations – and restrictions on home schooling – could prompt significant numbers of home educators to opt instead for partnership with a school. One way to deal with an increase in uptake would be for schools to stipulate that all flexi-pupils stick to the same part-time hours.

From my own perspective, the flexi-arrangement perfectly suits Niamh’s current needs. She gets one-to-one attention, the chance to find things out for herself, and freedom to let off steam whenever she needs to. All complemented by time at school, mixing with other children. In the future, she may want to go to school full-time: if so, I won’t stop her. For now, though, we have the best of both worlds.”

Interesting …. any comments, readers?
Cheers
JEAN

I’m often asked what resources should parents buy for their children. Here’s my answer:

1. Use your local library- save yourself money! If they don’t have what you want, ASK THEM TO STOCK it.

2. Although some children love filling in workbooks and worksheets, make sure you’re also encouraging lots of hands-on stuff. Buy the glue-gun, markers, string etc – and save all those paper scraps, bits of cloth, paper-towel-rolls and so on, for fabulous ‘making’ sessions.

3. Make the most of being out of a fixed classroom! So buy resources which give you a planning structure, which encourage ‘higher-level thinking” (i.e. analysing facts and ideas, not simply writing down or learning factual stuff). And use these to guide you in a more open-ended way, so that youn allow for your child’s own interests and enthusiasms.

4. As a director of ThinkShop: brilliant thinking skills resources (as well as a mum, an author, a teacher, a consultant on gifted..) obviously I’d recommend you check out the resources at ThinkShop (http://http://www.thinkshop.org). Lots of units, plans, thinking resources, software… and samples for you to download and try out on your children before you buy.

5. I’ve been thinking about an online forum for parents to swap resources. Do you think that’s a good idea?

Love to hear what you think!

Cheers

JEAN