Starting School is Child’s Play… ; EDUCATION NOTEBOOK

By GRAHAM GRANT

AS they fill a paddling pool with plastic watering-cans, it is clear these youngsters are happy messing around with their friends.

But for the teachers who organise these lively sessions, this fun activity is far from child’s play.

In fact, it is part of a radical scheme where primary one pupils and nursery children are ‘taught’ together in the same class.

It means a mix of five-year-olds and pre- school pupils in one lesson but rather than sitting at their desks, writing in jotters and listening to the teacher, they play with paint, mirrors and even remote-control cars.

Though it is far from traditional, staff behind the scheme say the playful mixed approach helps to ease the transition between nursery and primary school for youngsters who struggle with the basic academic work of primary one.

At the same time, bright younger children keen to start learning are given the chance to get an early taste of the studies that lie ahead.

The lessons being tried out at Dunrossness Primary School in Sumburgh, Shetland are not exclusively play-based, so children still learn skills such as basic literacy and numeracy. Teachers insist they do not lose out educationally from the time spent on play.

The mixed lessons are part of attempts to improve education for all of the school’s 139 children, from nursery to primary seven.

Ministers have backed such techniques because they fear too many children are switched off by formal learning and would benefit from a greater emphasis on play.

Much of the play is geared to learning, so the remote- control cars might be used to teach children about road safety and paint to help them learn about colours.

Schemes encouraging children to learn through play have led to some concern that children are being molly- coddled when they should be getting to grips with formal education.

But headteacher Alex Thorp, who introduced the mixed classes at Dunrossness after seeing the idea going well in England, believes new techniques are needed as education and society’s attitudes to children are rapidly changing.

She said: ‘I think children expect a lot more and they are given a lot more independence in today’s society this is all about helping them to be individuals.’ Despite initial scepticism from parents, particularly about the impact on primary one children, the project has been a big success and Mrs Thorp has welcomed an ‘endless stream’ of visitors from other schools and local authorities keen to see the idea in action.

MRS Thorp said: ‘What’s very different, especially for the P1s, is that you rarely see whole classes sitting down. Far more children are doing activities in different areas, everybody is doing something all the time.’ The mixed sessions mean a very able pre- school child can try P1 work, while less able older children can do tasks suited to their abilities without standing out.

Mrs Thorp said: ‘It’s far more concentrated on what children need, rather than trying to get them to fit to our plan. It means they are that much more motivated and switched on.

‘The teachers feel they have been given the go-ahead to be more creative; it’s putting the excitement back into teaching.’ She stressed the mixed classes were ‘evolving all the time’. In PE classes, for example, staff found that while a joint warm-up worked well, it was better to split the group afterwards, since primary ones were ready for more advanced skills.

The transition from nursery to primary one is being helped by physical changes to the classroom.

Mrs Thorp said: ‘The children were coming into a setting that looked very much like their nursery, rather than being faced with lots of tables and the play stuff set on one side.’ Mrs Thorp said that the attention to individual needs and the blurring of differences between nursery and primary one had had a remarkable impact. She added: ‘This was the first year we didn’t have any tears at the beginning of P1.’ The school’s 13 primary one pupils mix with 13 pre- school children each morning, before doing the same with nine threeyearolds in the afternoon.

Learning takes place in an area split by a wide doorway. The door is usually open, but can be closed if a noisy activity would disturb quieter learning elsewhere.

There are two fully- qualified teachers and a fulltime nursery nurse, sometimes joined by a part-time classroom assistant and a student nursery nurse.

The school’s playground i s divided into two zones one for children from nursery to P2, and another for those from P3 to P7.

This encourages primary ones to look up to older children as role models, rather than spending all their time with younger children.

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