State Schools= US Public School
Independent Schools = US Private School
Nursery School/Play Group= Ages 3-4
Primary Education= Age 4 or 5 to Age 11 or 13
The primary stage covers three age ranges: nursery (under 5), infant (5 to 7 or 8) (Key Stage 1) and junior (up to 11 or 12) (Key Stage 2)
Secondary Education= Age 11 or 13 to Age 16
Age 14 or 16 students take the GCSE’s The General Certificate of Secondary Education, require a lot of course work, most students take specific subject tests, between 7 and 10
“The major goals of primary education are achieving basic literacy and numeracy amongst all pupils, as well as establishing foundations in science, mathematics and other subjects. Children in England and Northern Ireland are assessed at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.” (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/219167/v01-2012ukes.pdf)
Floreat Wandsworth :
Every child flourishing —> Curiosity, Character Virtues, Core Skills and Cultural Knowledge
- A discussion of something you learned that has already helped you make progress towards one of your learning objectives.
Below is some information I found on the Oriel Academy website. I selected a few quotes that stood out to me, especially because it discusses educational inclusion and services they offer in regards to behavioral challenges. One of my goals was to see how technology is used to helps support all learners. It’s clear that they have targeted interventions for the core educational components, and I can tell that the “Nurture Group” is providing students with great supports, but I am curious to see how technology plays into this. I can see, after looking at the curriculum, that he topics for the units in the technology courses cover a lot of variety. They have students starting early with basic technology skills, leading them up to research and coding skills. It seems like it exposes them to technology in a variety of ways and applications. This fact alone, is very different from what is happening in Barre, VT.
Oriel Academy:
“We are an inclusive school where the wellbeing of every child matters to us. The school has a good reputation for being very effective at dealing with inclusion issues and supporting vulnerable families.”
“We believe that early identification and intervention are paramount in supporting a child's special educational needs and to this end we set individual targets and strategies to identify and address their difficulties.”
“We run targeted interventions to support children in a range of areas, including literacy, numeracy and speech and language. All our teaching assistants are trained to run a range of interventions.”
“The school has a Nurture Group which provides intensive support for children with social, emotional and behaviour difficulties which enables them to develop the necessary skills and attitudes to learn effectively and take full part in school life.”
2. A reflection on what you learned, how it compares to your own practice, and/or what it makes you think about when it comes to making a positive change in your own practice or in our schools.
I think the biggest thing that I learned, is that technology education seems very different at Oriel Academy. Students are being challenged with higher level thinking and problem solving activities, that are helping them to practice real life skills and develop problem solving skills that can apply to other areas of their academics. There seems to be a consensus that learning technology skills is very important and that it needs to be meaningful. I would be curious to see what this looks like and to figure out how it could be adapted to fit into the curriculum at our school.
3. Create 2-3 questions that you could use to start a more advanced discussion of this topic with an educator in the UK.
- What does the content look like? (Taken from Tamara)
- Do all students really participate in it? What accommodations are made?
GOAL:
- Compare and contrast how technology is used in the UK and Barre, Vermont, to help all learners, especially surrounding the areas of reading and writing.
Oak Hill Academy:
“Our Internet Safety Rules are displayed around the school, regular theme weeks and assemblies are held to support the promotion of E-Safety.”
- A discussion of something you learned that has already helped you make progress towards one of your learning objectives.
Oddly enough, I learned something about technology in the UK from one of my 3rd graders the other day. We were having lunch and he was saying how he really wants his own computer. A few moments later he got on the subject of “Raspberry Pie,” and how he really wanted “raspberry pie.” I began to think, “wow, this is weird, he’s never had a raspberry pie.” I finally asked him what in the heck he was talking about and he clarified, “Raspberry Pi.” It’s a small credit card sized computing device. It was created in the UK to help combat the increasing cost of computers, along with the decreasing scores in A-level scores. A monitor and keyboard can be plugged in and students can use it to learn coding and programming. The foundation has found a way to provide inexpensive, high quality technological resources to schools, to put in the hands of students.
2. A reflection on what you learned, how it compares to your own practice, and/or what it makes you think about when it comes to making a positive change in your own practice or in our schools.
First, I was really blown away by this concept and product, not to mention the fact that my 3rd grade student knew all about it. This does not compare to anything I am doing in my own practice. The whole concept of coding and programming is so outside my wheel house and anything that we are doing in our school. I think one of the things that it makes me realize is how important it is to expose students to real life opportunities. They need to be experiencing technology outside of Word Processing. What I loved about this, was the excitement it sparked with the student I was talking to and it also really made me begin to think about looking into this other realm of technology education and how it would fit into our school curriculum.
3. Create 2-3 questions that you could use to start a more advanced discussion of this topic with an educator in the UK.
What training do classroom teachers have in regards to computer and informational technology?
What devices do students use in the classroom?
GOAL:
- Gather information about new technological practices and/or tools, that are being used in classrooms in the UK, to advance students’ learnings.
- Discover new applications for technology in the elementary classroom.
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