In the Autumn Term of 2024, I had the privilege and pleasure to work alongside Aime Shaw and her beautiful class at Green Top Primary School. The purpose of my visits were twofold: firstly, to highlight the outstanding work Aime does in terms of delivering learning expeditions with her pupils and secondly, to build my understanding of the level of work and expectations we have for our children in Key Stage One. The expedition was entitled ‘Rags to Riches’ and had the guiding question: ‘What lies within the castle walls?’ Pupils engaged with Case Studies involving Science, History, Design and Technology with English skills woven into the fabric of learning across the expedition.
Pupils ‘working hard’ at Green Top as part of their Learning Expedition, ‘Rags to Riches.’
From the very start of the expedition it was clear that integrity to our expeditionary learning model was very strong and purposeful. I witnessed pupils reflecting on their experience of Immersion (or ‘Hook Week’ as it is commonly known at Green Top); pupils engaging with an expert and then reviewing and reflecting on the experience; I saw and heard pupils considering the connections between Case Studies and thinking like historians, scientists and designers; I saw and heard reading, writing, spelling, punctuation and grammar being smoothly and authentically embedded into our cross subject learning model; and most of all I saw and felt pupils ‘working hard’, ‘getting smart’ and ‘being kind.’
Amie is a skilful practitioner and she carefully crafts appropriate learning activities to both support and challenge learners. But above all, she has created a strong learning culture in her class and because of this her pupils flourish both as learners and as human beings. There is no doubt that when we get expeditions right the connectivity between powerful learning and a positive culture has a remarkable effect.
The list below is just some of the strengths I observed in sessions:
- Numerous highly effective examples of teacher modelling to scaffold, support and challenge pupils
- Recall strategies habitually used to return to, and embed, learning
- Rich and frequent examples of the integration of literacy and writing opportunities that fuse ‘English’ work with learning expedition case studies. Clear and strong examples of cross disciplinary learning leading to increased understanding and quality of work
- Diverse use of anchor charts to capture learning and to use as learning resources
- Excellent use of an expert and the debriefing of this experience to build and embed learning
- Relentless and explicit focus on character traits and HoWLs and their connection to learning and progress
- Strong evidence of protocols and effective questioning strategies used to enhance discussion and checking for understanding
As a result of the above pupils made tremendous progress. Check out an example of some beautiful writing below:
Pupils culminated the expedition by completing a beautiful notebook that showcased their learning. Above all, they were able to recall key learning from the expedition using connections across subjects to deepen their understanding.
In conclusion, I have to say that I loved my time spent at Green Top (I always do!) Class 8 are beautiful kids and they are realising that there is ‘more in them than they know’ because of the culture of Crew that pervades the school and the expert teaching of Aime.
I miss them already but can’t wait to return soon to see how far they have continued to develop when I visit next.
I can’t wait.
Andy Sprakes,
Chief Academic Officer, XP Trust.
January 2025.