A really interesting day. Most of it was spent with the Latvian Minister for Education. She was in the country for a short visit to explore the work of Creative Partnerships. We visited Chalfont’s Community College and Ashmead School in Aylesbury. Ashmead is a special place it is in the middle of an area social deprivation and provides an island of mystery and imagination for the pupils who go there.
Learning is literally an adventure as children arrive in school to find a car overturned on the field. Later they discover metal objects all over the school: hanging from the ceiling is a drum from a washing machine, for instance. Over the next few days clues are found pieces of paper fall out of the register which when studied can be made into a map. Children begin to discuss and explore these phenomena. They contact the police to report the incident of the car – and the police attend. Gradually the children discover that all this is the work of the Iron Man and they then find and work from the book. I say work but, of course, that is not how the children perceive it. It’s just school and it’s always like this. This term they are discovering junk and rubbish all over the place every morning. They are making dens with it. But I cannot say more because they don’t yet know what is going to happen next.
This is a wonderful example of learning through first hand experience and discovery. These are real investigations for the children and, although carefully managed by teachers, the children can take the story in the direction they want to. Often the story is supplemented by role play and visits by adults in character. So Tinkerbelle and a couple of 'lost boys' (ex pupis) visited last year when they were exploring the story of Peter Pan.
There was also the time when all the children were 'evacuated' while exploring the 2nd World War. But thats another story made real by the teachers at Ashmead School.
