Leaders Of Learning
We have 1 pupil representative from each class who form the Leaders of Learning Team at New Chapter. They are elected democratically by members of their class. The Leaders of Learning support the Senior Leadership Team with improving the school’s teaching and learning. The team meet each half term to discuss a question that has arisen from the school’s development plan.
The questions are always focused on how to improve an area of learning within the school. E.g. ‘How can we improve percentages for children reading at home?’ The Leaders of Learning team take the question back to their class learning forum where it is discussed. Ideas are then fed back at a second meeting with the team. The ideas are evaluated and then presented to the SLT/curriculum team by the team leaders. Any outcomes or changes for improvement are then feedback to staff and children. An outline of this cycle is shown below.
Leaders Of Learning - 2017/18
| Year 1 | Kobey, Lillie-Jayde |
|---|---|
| Year 2 | Tiffany, Presley |
| Year 3 | Frankie, Millie |
| Year 4 | Samuel, Tyrone |
| Year 5 | Harrison, Gracias |
| Year 6 | Leah, Sarah |
Learning Forums
At New Chapter we have class learning forums once a week. Class Learning Forums are a strategy to build pupil voice and improve learning on an ongoing basis. The forum is a class discussion where the learning for the week is reviewed and reflected. Children’s comments are scribed on a document along with any commitments the class makes to improve their learning for the future. These are saved and reviewed the following week. Questions asked include:
Is it harder to work on your own or work in a group?
What enables/helps us to learn effectively?
What have we done well and what are our successes?
What has got in the way of our learning this week? Why? – What will we do about it next week?
How can we improve ______ in our classroom?
What can we (as adults) do to help you learn better next week?
Each half term, 1 learning forum will be dedicated to the Leaders of Learning question.
Leaders Of Learning Meet The Mayor
In November a number of our Leaders of Learning met with the Mayor of Milton Keynes. We really enjoyed meeting the Mayor and discussing the similarities and differences in our job roles. Sam said, “I felt nervous about meeting the Mayor as he is very important but when I started talking to him, I relaxed as he is an easy person to talk to.” Gracias also commented, “It was very exciting meeting the Mayor!” He told us we can get involved in politics by finding out about our local community council.
We realised that our job as Leaders of Learning is very similar to that of the Mayor’s role.
- We were both voted in democratically and had to give a speech to explain to those who voted what we stood for.
- We also both strive to make things better for others (even those who didn’t vote for us) and we listen to our community.
- We also value the importance of everyone’s right to speak and give their opinion but also the importance of tolerance and being part of a team.
The Leaders of Learning also had an opportunity to ask some questions:
Q: What did you need to do to become a mayor? “I got voted in by the community. Then the councillors voted me in as Mayor. It is important to remember that once you are voted in, you are representing everyone in the community and not just the people that voted for you.”
Q: What is the meaning of the badge on your chain? “The badge was created for Milton Keynes. The words are in Latin and mean ‘knowledge, design and under-standing.’ The mayor and councillors of Milton Keynes have to follow that motto.”
Q: What is it like being the Mayor? “Every day is different and I get to meet a variety of people. I have attended over 600 events in one year so it is very busy.”
News
In the Autumn term, the Leaders of Learning focused on ‘How can we improve our reading at home?’ which was an action from our School Development Plan. This was discussed in Learning Forums. The following suggestions were raised:
1. If the whole class reads 4 times each week (100%) – the class is awarded 4 marbles;
2. Individual reading competition each half term for children who read at least 4 times every week;
3. Literacy Leader to create a reading at home booklet to support parents;
4. Video children across the school saying why it is important to read at home – and then put it on e schools;
5. Leaders of learning to create tips to help teachers encourage their class, when they are struggling to get their class reading at home. This will be made by the Leaders of Learning and displayed in the staffroom. Ideas discussed: children to create a reading timetable at home, reading challenges, regular readers on display, sticker/merit rewards, super reader names in the classroom, following the protocol, reading pairs to remind each other to read at home, sticker chart in classrooms, lunchtime detentions for children that don’t read;
6. Making sure there is a reading challenge in each classroom;
7. Whole school reading challenge – where each class is up against each other;
8. Making sure that the Reading Room keeps updated with new and exciting books.
Since then, the Leaders of Learning have been working with the Curriculum Team and teachers to improve the percentage of children reading at home by putting into action the suggestions above. So far the data is showing this term an increase in reading at home across the school, although there is still lots of room for improvement. We will be reviewing the reading at home percentages again at the end of the Spring Term to measure the impact.
From speaking to children across the school, we can already see the impact this has had on the children:
