Welsh Language

Hello bloggers

In this blog I will taking a look at the welsh language and determining its value in the current primary education system.

Wales has many things to be proud of, it’s famous for a lot of things; Coal mining, welsh cakes, Tom Jones, Dylan Thomas, sheep, but what Wales should be most proud of is the welsh language, it derives from Gaelic, is over 1400 years old, and sounds beautiful, it has also stood the test of time, sort of.

Stats wales shows that the percentage of people that speak welsh in all but 3 local authorities has significantly decreased since between 2001 and 2011 and that number is still in decline. Although it is declining it is still mandatory in primary schools and is taught across Wales.

The Donaldson review states that ‘the Welsh culture is wholly dependent on transmitting the language to our young people’ which means that if we want to language to carry on it must be taught at a young age, Donaldson also outlines that he would like to see an increase in amount of people that both speak and use the welsh language, whilst I too would like to see it, I think it is an unachievable goal realistically speaking.

The welsh languages popularity is clearly on the decline and to see a noticeable change in that would require a radical change in not on the curriculum, but the whole schooling system, and I don’t believe this change is needed in the foundation phase. Wales is fantastic to learn about and the topic of Wales provides many opportunities for cross curricular learning, you can learn about the geography and history of wales, the poems and the music, the mining and the machinery, all of these are great examples of combing subjects and basing that around a single subject, I also believe that the language itself should be taught to a certain degree to try and spark an interest in the language, but then the child will be given an opportunity to further pursue the language when they get to secondary school where they are given more freedom.

Whitehouse, S and Jones, M (2017) agree with my point that it is important to have some understanding of welsh culture and the language it’s a great thing to be proud of, but we should not waste time trying to save a language that is arguably beyond saving, time is precious in primary education and that time could be spent teaching children literacy, although it could be argued that a child learning both welsh and English may even enhance their learning of English as they begin to understand things like mutations and dialects in language.

In conclusion I myself am proud of my heritage, especially being from the Rhondda Valleys, but when it comes to the language I can’t say I have much hope for it, although I suppose you must consider the fact that roughly 16% of the Rhondda Valleys actually speak the language so I may be biased.

References

Donaldson, G (2015) Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf (Accessed 16th April 2018)

StatsWales (2011) Welsh speakers by local authority and broader age groups 2001 and 2011 census Available at: https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Welsh-Language/WelshSpeakers-by-LA-BroaderAge-2001And2011Census (Accessed 16th April 2018)

Whitehouse, S. and Jones, M. (2017) ‘Primary humanities: a perspective from Wales’ Education 3-13 45(3) pp.332-342

Science and Technology

Hello Bloggers!

In today’s blog I will be looking at science and technology activities and how they can be made engaging and relevant in primary education.

Science and technology is either a hit or miss with some students, they either love it or they hate it, I believe this is due to science either being very fun or very boring, its either exciting experiments or mind numbing textbook work.

Whilst it’s obviously preferred for all children to be engaged in science and technology lessons, you can’t have wild experiments every lesson due to the strain it would make on resources, although I believe these lessons need to be more consistent. I recently have been on placement and it took me back to when I was in primary school because science lessons were either an hour-long experiment where all the equipment was out and children were in lab coats or they would be sitting down with books describing materials and things like that.

Consistency is important because If a child comes into a lesson with high hopes for an exciting lesson and they then find out it’s book work, then their enthusiasm is immediately gone and they’re not going to be in the mindset for the rest of the lesson, I believe there needs to be a balance, all lessons should incorporate book work, and something for children to get their hands on, stimulate all the senses.

Donaldson (2015) states that science and technology go hand in hand and he later describes it as a way to capitalise on children’s curiosity and turn it into learning which I thought was very interesting, using a child’s natural behaviour to better their learning, I’ve spoken briefly about how children need to be stimulated and challenged constantly, why not allow them to create their own activities, I believe that science and technology lessons can be a brilliant way to incorporate student led learning, for example you could give the class or different groups a problem or something they need to measure and allow them to figure out how to conduct that experiment, the teacher could be more a facilitator and just oversee their learning; innervation and exploration are key in learning and give the pupil a sense of joy and accomplishment when it comes to running experiments.

There is only one foreseeable flaw I see with pupil lead learning in this context, with so much going on and with them being left to determine how to overcome a task, a child may become over stimulated and then lose focus on the task which can lead to behavioural issues and set the tone for the rest of the class, this is why I think whilst I believe children should be given a certain degree of freedom, it needs to be clear what the aim of the lesson is beforehand and any consequence for pupils that disrupt the lesson.

Relating back to the aim of this blog, the lessons also need to be relevant to children, children need to see that things they learn in the classroom have real life applications, when I was on placement there was one lessons that really impressed me where the teacher was teaching the children about friction and forces, and he had beforehand told them to bring in toy cars, he then weighed down their own toy cars from home to show how friction and drag work, he also brought in light plastic army men with parachutes and threw them into the air to demonstrate up thrust, and I think it’s that mix of the science and real life applications that make science more relevant to the children, that’s something they can take home and talk to their parents about and means that parents can converse with them too.

Overall, I believe that to make science and technology lessons more engaging and relevant, lessons need to have a consistent level of excitement, be partly student led, and students should be made clear of the fact that the things they learn have real life applications, thank you for reading.

References

  Donaldson, G (2015) Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales

Physical Education

Hello bloggers!

In this blog I will be exploring how physical education can be used to promote well-being in primary education.

First of I think it is important that we determine what we mean by ‘well-being’, well-being can be defined as a state of being comfortable, healthy or happy, in this blog I will be discussing well-being in the physical and emotional way.

When we talk about well-being and physical education we automatically think of the physical side and how physical education promotes children to look after their bodies and keep fit, but physical education can also have a massive impact on the brain and mental well-being.

We don’t tend to think of children having mental health issues but this is becoming an ever-growing problem in our society, it is known that routine kills creativity and bores the brain, therefore whilst going to the same old gym to practise physical education may keep the body fit, the mind will suffer, doing the same thing over and over bores children and this leads to children being

Being outside along with practising physical education releases serotonin and dopamine which make children feel good mentally and actually want to partake in activates, a change in scenery is essential in stimulating the brain and therefore reinforcing engagement. highlights the importance of outdoor activities and says that being outside with fellow students aids development of social and interpersonal skills, although why being outside feels good doesn’t need an explanation, it just does and that’s what important, although this leads me to my next point which is that learning outdoors is a fantastic way to take advantage of learning cross curricularly.

Cross curricular learning is the process of combining two or more subjects together in the same lesson to break the routine of traditional lessons whilst getting children exciting and engaged, it can also trick children into thinking that they are not learning when in fact they are learning in a far more effective manor, cross curricular learning doesn’t tend to have strict learning outcomes, you reflect on what you have learned at the end. Donaldson sees these changes and cross curricular learning is being implemented far more as a result.

The Donaldson report states that the curriculum should enable children to apply in unfamiliar contexts what they have learned (Donaldson 2005) and learning cross curricularly outside is a perfect way of doing that, children could be jogging along a path whilst keeping an eye out for certain plans or species, children could be doing warm up stretches whilst seeing if they can listen out for certain things in nature, or children could count how many times they see a certain type of tree whilst exploring a forest.

Whilst I have talked about the mental benefits we also cannot forget about the physical benefits, childhood obesity is becoming a global epidemic, the UK government published that in 2015 one in five children in reception is overweight or obese (22.6% of boys and 21.2% of girls) and that one in three children in year 6 is overweight or obese (34.9% boys and 31.5% girls) It can be difficult for some children to keep fit because some children live in busy areas which means there isn’t a place they can go on their own to exercise, so schools and the facilities provided by schools are crucial in making sure children keep fit and healthy.

Whilst we have discussed the benefits of physical education and generally being outside, it is important to relate back to the main question of this blog, how can well-being be promoted through physical education? well I believe that taking children out of the traditional classroom setting and placing them in an environment where they are being stimulated and what they view as a lesson is being challenged, and then explain to them the benefits and why it is important to keep fit and healthy and planning lessons that the children will not forget and make them excited to partake in the future; make sure the child is comfortable both physically and mentally.

References

Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Future: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. [Online] Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf (Accessed 16th April 2018)

GOV.UK (2015) Childhood obesity: applying All Our Health Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childhood-obesity-applying-all-our-health/childhood-obesity-applying-all-our-health

Expressive Arts

Hello bloggers!

In this blog I will be talking about something that I am very passionate about and that is music and the expressive arts, more specifically, how it relates to the four purposes of the curriculum that are outlined in Donaldson Review.

Music has been a passion of mine for about 12 years, I’ve always wanted to tutor music and since I have undertaken my studies I have realised what an excellent opportunity it is to experiment with cross curricular learning, I will now give examples of how the expressive arts relate to the four purposes of the curriculum

All our children and young people will be:

Ambitious, capable learners

Ambition is something that al musicians and dancers must have, you must want to better yourself and be the best, and this will only be achieved through practise and self-discipline, these two skills will be vital in bettering yourself in any subject, any subject requires time and attention

Being capable not only means being able to do something it means understanding why you’re doing something, whilst the expressive arts are something that comes from the heart, there still needs to be an aim, and a direction.

Anyone with an interest in the expressive arts is capable, and can be ambitious.

Enterprising creative contributors

Creativity is the bedrock of all the expressive arts, creativity fuels all musicians, dancers and artists. Enterprising can mean teamwork, how a group of people work together to achieve an objective, this usually refers to business but can quite easily relate to music, group performances really enhance team work as everyone relies on each other, the melody relies on the bass to keep it time, whilst the bass relies on the melody for ques. You need to exercise a lot of trust in your peers when performing as a group.

Ethical, informed citizens

Being ethical, and informed on global issues is something that can be easily understood through art, all cultures demonstrate art in some way and it’s all expressive, the romans created fashionable pots while Zulu warriors would paint their shields, you can obtain a great understanding of a cultures virtues if you examine their art, this also provides an opportunity for school trips which will further enhance a child’s learning.

Healthy, confident individuals

Pride, confidence and responsibility breeds competence and power (Webb, Liggy 2013), confidence is something that will be used all your life, everyone has some degree of confidence, and it’s how much confidence we have that determines how far we go in certain situations and can make us miss opportunities, I know that if a lecturer asks a question I am reluctant to answer, then I get anxious because what if I’m right and someone steals my praise, but what if I’m wrong and I am mocked. How much a child participates is directly linked to how confident they are in themselves, and all of the arts are a fantastic way to build confidence, you can perform in front of friends in music, dance in front of friends in drama and show friends you’re masterpieces in art, although they are the obvious answers, what people don’t realise that in all of the expressive arts you can always improve, and this means you can always and I mean always be criticised, it’s this constructive criticism that leads children to see that you don’t have to be wrong to want to do better, and that being told where you’re going wrong is the key to learning.

Here is an interesting video that outlines why the arts are important in schools

References

Donaldson, G (2015) Successful Future: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf (Accessed 16th April 2018)

Webb, Liggy (2013) How to Be Happy: How developing Your Confidence, Resilience, Appreciation and Communication Can Lead to a Happier, Healthier you. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated [Online] Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cardiffmet/reader.action?docID=977921&query=# (Accessed 16^th April 2018)