In the Senior Syndicate, we teach maths across seven cross-grouped classes from 9.00am - 10.00am each day. We decided at the start of the year not to make any changes to our Maths programme in 2015 because we knew there would be lots of new learning involved in working in collaborative spaces for the first time.
From 10.00am to 3.00pm, the children are taking responsibility for managing their learning by selecting which literacy or integration learning task to complete, when, where and with who. They are responsible for prioritising their time on a daily basis so they can complete learning tasks before required deadlines. For some children this process is significantly guided by the teacher, for most children, they are now independently taking responsibility for managing their learning.
At times throughout the day children are involved in:
- Small group learning with a teacher e.g. Guided reading group sessions, guided writing group sessions, maths problem-solving group sessions, spelling group sessions.
- Optional workshops with a teacher e.g. Learning how to organise ideas into paragraphs, learning how to write an argument, multiplication strategy workshop.
- Individual conferences with a teacher e.g. Touching base in relation to a research task, providing feedback on a piece of writing, getting started with a maths problem-solving challenge.
- Learning co-operatively in peers or small groups e.g. Completing a group research task and communicating learning, attending book club meetings.
- Learning independently e.g. Crafting writing, silent reading, reading follow-up tasks, completing assessments, practising spelling words, practising basic facts.
- Whole class learning e.g. Writing motivation and modelling, maths rich task introduction.
- Syndicate learning/activities e.g. Sports Rotations, Syndicate Singing, Go For Gold Programme (Term Two only.)
- School events e.g. School assemblies, cross country.
We wanted to gather some student voice about the changes that we were making so we asked the children to complete a survey using Google Forms. The questions were aligned to our vision for learning and teaching. Some of the questions we asked were:
- How do you feel about coming to school? Why?
- How are decisions made in GRi11/Pot of Gold?
- What decisions do you make about your learning?
- What decisions would you like to be able to make?
- What does striving for excellence mean to you? How do you strive for excellence at school?
- In what ways do you learn with others? How does this impact on your learning?
- What are your learning strengths? What areas do you need to improve in? How do you know?
- What new digital skills have you learnt this year?
It was exciting reading the children's comments. Below is a selection of comments:
- "I feel happy because I have learnt new things and we worked together to build this learning space. I really love coming to GRi11."
- "I feel excited to come to school because I like learning/working in GRi11 because it is fun and you can do what work you want."
- "We make our own decisions. We build on others ideas and usually find the right choice in the end."
- "I think it's great because we always get a say in whatever we do and it's not just the teachers making all the decisions. We all get to vote and majority wins."
- "I learn with others all the time because every time I'm stuck or need help I know that someone will be able to help me."
- "In Pot of Gold I get to choose how I make my learning better."
- "I think that working together makes my work better because there are more ideas coming in."
- "In GRi11 we are always learning interdependently and it impacts on our learning because humans only have one brain and two brains can come up with more ideas."
- "The matrix helps me with my learning because I know what stage I am on for my learning."
- "I feel like it (the matrix) pushes me to go to the next step."
- "I really like learning in GRi11 because we have freedom in what we do and when we do it and I like that."
- "In Pot of Gold the kids and teachers make decisions together."
- "I like coming to school because we do fun and amazing things every day."
