Extracting the Excitement of Egypt
Newport is a larger than average primary school. The large majority of the pupils are of Asian British/Pakistani heritage. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is high. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average. Provision for the Early Years Foundation Stage caters for children aged three to five years old with 80 part-time Nursery places and three full-time Reception classes. A new children's centre, managed by the governing body, opened in January 2009 to provide early education opportunities to pre-nursery aged children and family support services. The children's centre was inspected as part of the whole school provision.
(Ofsted 2009)
Project objectives
From January to June 2010, Year 3 pupils worked with Isaac Ngugi and Jaimini Patel on a project based on the study of Egypt. With a large proportion English as additional language pupils, there was a need to raise literacy levels and adopt new, creative ways of teaching.
The main aims of the project from the schools perspective was to increase the language and literacy skills, and to develop the pupils’ independent learning and group working skills to encourage them to learn from one another. There was also a need to increase staff creativity and literacy development across the year group.
Using their professional experience as a drama practitioner and visual artist, Isaac and Jamini were able to deliver workshops to the pupils in a way that they could engage and understand Egyptian society and way of life. The workshops looked at Society (status/conflict), Religion, Rulers Storytelling, Jackals, Pyramids (showcase social status) creating and writing scrolls and boat making.
By incorporating curriculum areas such as Art & Design, Drama, English and History in the workshop sessions and carnival and cultural festival artforms, pupils were provided with opportunities to re-enact Egyptian scenes, make larger than life structures and test out new materials to support the production of their structures. Pupils were also encouraged to play games thus developing and using their language, problem solving and mathematical skills in a fun and creative way, which they were not used to.
Impact
The project was successful in many ways across the year group and the school as a whole. Year 3 teaching staff were more confident in adopting new and creative ways of teaching by learning from the practices and techniques presented by the practitioners. With this new found confidence, the year 3 teachers were able to share what they had learnt and encouraged colleagues to experiment and explore new teaching approaches with their classes and year groups.
Both at home and in school there was a notable improvement in the questioning and research skills of the pupils as the activities they took part in facilitated the need to engage in a more participatory way. Artwork was produced at a much higher standard than what was expected and provided tangible evidence of the level of achievement that had been obtained through the project. The school had a few situations where non-verbal children and EAL pupils displayed verbal skills, which had never been displayed before and which signified a huge achievement by the school through the project and the practitioners.
Newport School is currently on our 2010/11 Change School programme.
