Catwalk chaos at Madley School
What is the effect of children being involved in the planning of a curriculum and taking ownership over their learning? Are children more motivated by topics they have chosen for themselves? Will it lead them to take more risks and help them become more reflective? These were the questions posed by Change School, Madley School when they undertook their 2010 project Catwalk Chaos.
Madley School has been developing a curriculum that the children lead with their questions and curiosity. They wanted to understand what would help children to be more reflective in their work and if their input in curriculum planning would lead to them spending more time reflecting on the skills and knowledge they had gained. Would they become more capable of linking the skills they had gained to other areas of the curriculum or apply them independently to other tasks? This enquiry question helped the school to build on the planning system the school already used, which actively involved the children.
Project description
Catwalk Chaos ran over an eight week period during the summer term of 2010 and involved the children taking an in-depth look at the fashion industry. The children in the year six class were involved in choosing the theme, a practice in wide use across the school, where children are involved in the theme planning process each year. For the project, the year six classroom was transformed into a fashion studio and with the support of a creative practitioner the children began to design and make two clothing collections: one, beachwear and the other, party.
Madley School wanted to engage a fashion professional who would inspire the children to come up with original designs while developing their knowledge and understanding of the fashion industry and its many aspects. To start the recruitment process, the pupils shared what they already knew about the fashion industry and then generated questions that helped them focus on areas of learning relevant to them. They put together their own tender and went in search of a practitioner, and subsequently shortlisted applicants and interviewed three of them. The creative professional they chose had experience of the fashion industry, including designing, making, spinning and dying fabric.
Activity for Catwalk Chaos branched into many areas of the curriculum, especially in art, design, mathematics and English. The children wrote and edited their own fashion magazine using new media skills, visited the Courtyard Theatre and went backstage to see costume design in action, worked alongside Nicki Rosser, an experienced make up artist. They were visited by 'RE Jigged', an eco friendly textile organisation who 'recut, re-jig and re-make' old clothes into something new and visited a professional photographer to learn about photo shoots and graphic design. A member of the Royal National College for the Blind, visited the school and helped the children understand how blind people knew what to wear and how to coordinate colours. With their new skills, the children designed and created two fashion collections based on their two chosen themes.
They celebrated their achievements in a giant marquee in the school grounds with a fantastic catwalk fashion show.
The use of reflective journals
The class teacher and all children kept reflective learning journals that were used at least three times each week as the project developed. The pupils’ reflective journals provided a detailed record of the learning taking place throughout the school and was found to be useful for helping children to remember their learning. For the teacher it was a detailed record of the children’s successes and achievements and was evidence for the learning taking place for individual children across the curriculum.
One teacher commented; “I wanted to develop my children's ability to be reflective learners and build on the reflective journals that children are completing in the lower end of the school. I wanted to find out if our reflective journals could provide a detailed record of the learning that was taking place and if the children could develop the confidence to be self critical and identify and document the value in risk taking.”
Creative development across the school
Creative Development is addressed across the school and is reflected in their approach to recruitment and staff development. This includes staff performance reviews, staff meetings and a defined curriculum policy for creative development. Creativity is integral to the school development plan.
There is a school parliament, in which pupils and staff work together and children are involved with Governor’s meetings and have been advocates for the school in training sessions with partner schools.
Outcomes
Throughout, the process was rich with questions that would help teacher and children to think 'what' and 'how' they were learning.
The project was designed to support the development of reflective learners, and encourage the development of problem solving through challenging learning experiences and risk taking. The teachers involved reported the children developed reflective books around the project’s theme, in which they developed their use of questioning. They found the children were more comfortable taking risks with their learning, as they noted children talking about how their mistakes helped them to develop and in turn increase the quality of their work.
