Teaching and Learning the ISP way by Mr Richard Fuller

As coordinator of teaching and learning for the secondary school I have been doing a lot of work with staff and students looking at teaching and learning the ISP way and I have been asked to break this down into a series of articles to share with parents over the course of the next few newsletters.

We have been doing a lot of work in school recently about teaching and learning.  Students have received a number of assemblies about how to improve and we are repeatedly talking to students about ‘getting better’ versus ´the struggle´.  Please find in this link what we shared whith the students in a recent assembly.

ISP have a very clear philosophy when it comes to teaching and learning which I would encourage you to read in your own time from their website.  In the school newsletter I will be summarising key points over the next few issues and let parents know what stage we have reached with the children in school.

The first step of this learning journey is for children to understand that in order to improve and get better we need to accept that hard work or a struggle may be required.  This isn´t just true of school but in all aspects of life from getting a place on a sports team or playing a musical instrument through to finishing a section of a computer game or learning a language.  It is a very simple message that we get better through hard work and this we are calling the good struggle.

Learning is a brain change thing and importantly a brain change that sticks.  We make these changes to our brains by having quality repeated experiences. After these quality repeated experiences what we have changed in our brain stays with us and is in our memory for the foreseeable future.

So please talk with your children about what they have struggled to achieve this month and whether it has been a good struggle and worthwhile and next month I will move onto our next new idea which is entitled: ´the four stages of classroom learning´.

Mr Richard Fuller