The title of the conversation was to design the school of your dreams. The first interesting thing to come out of this was that all of the ideas were very student centred and involved dedication, innovation and above all else a whole lot of hard work. There wasn't one mention of a return to the traditions of the 20th century, nor was there one mention of a need to improve discipline in our schools, in fact behaviour in the negative sense didn't even enter the conversation. Just to make that clear, the two ideas being put forward by the GOVErnment at the moment didn't even enter the thoughts of those who work and love education!!
In terms of building design, there were strong feelings towards modern open plan learning environments and a move away from individual classrooms. Furniture to be fit for learning and not because it agrees with the bursars purse. This would certainly give a greater freedom of movement and create a much more dynamic environment. If this is then tied into the calls for smaller class sizes at certain times but also much larger groupings at others, this type of building design would make this more possible. I reiterate at this stage that those calling for returns to "traditional" behaviours (and by traditional we really mean autocratic do as I say behaviour) would struggle to imagine how this is possible. Yet for those in education the only thoughts and emotions are excitement and how this would create greater opportunities for learning.
As is often the case, independence towards learning figured highly on the agenda but this time there was the start of some real exploration towards achieving this. A great variety of curriculum with less emphasis on working towards exams would be the model used giving teachers and learners great autonomy towards their education. There was a strong feeling that technology could play a big part to achieving this. iPads and tablets would allow for information to be accessed as and when needed rather than a prescriptive lesson in a computer room. Learning has to model the way we work and live and our young people are used to having access to email, google and social networks. The working hours would also be more flexible to fit it with the learning needs of the young people in the hope that this would encourage learning as a part of life and not just something which they have to do at school.
Other aspects of this school would be centred around outdoor learning, quality written feedback to aid progress, target grades and levels would be a thing of the past and the community would be much more involved in the school itself. One idea being that the learning resources and library would be the ones used by those who live in the area.
The exciting thing for me is that this practice is going on in our schools all around the country, however it is vital that the networks which came together to generate these ideas go from being web chatter into something which actually makes a difference. It needs to be the start of a movement across all schools and one which must not be drowned by political education policy which is being based on one man's thoughts. A man who only has his own time at school to base them on. The voices of many experts must be able to be heard in order for this dream school to become the norm, because lets be honest, we all know that given truly greater freedom, it should be very possible.
