It was the last week of a short, quiet half term. I'd been teaching in a slightly haphazard way, filling in gaps in the non-core curriculum and experimenting with mini-mantles while we fitted in may pole dancing, R.E. days, art exhibitions and the like.
And, of course, Ofsted called.
As soon as the children had gone home, my MoE colleague and I sat and agreed that, mantle-wise, we couldn't be less prepared for Ofsted if we tried. After a few minutes of mild panic and slight despair, we decided to:
a) choose a clear curriculum focus or two (Ofsted does love the non-core curriculum at the moment)
b) use some go-to conventions that had worked for our classes before
c) use a context/story that the children would already be familiar with
d) act as though we'd planned this all along
In the end, our short session worked well (once the inspector had left. The ten minutes she popped in left a lot to be desired) and will lead on to other things. I shall, therefore, share what we did and why we did it, in the hope that it may help someone else in their time of mantle need.
Context: Peter Rabbit is on the loose in our village. He's causing havoc in the gardens and allotments. It started with Mr McGregor's garden and is only getting worse. The villagers are furious.
Client: A local rabbit-catcher who just can't catch this rabbit.
Commission: To help the rabbit catcher find and catch Peter before deciding what to do with him.
Expert Team: Humane pest control
The steps and the reasons
1. I created a very large map of our village. It showed houses, gardens, the main roads, our school and field, a local woodland and some other fictional landmarks such as allotments and ponds. I included a key. We had this pinned up, covering the large screen as the children came in. The children were very interested and immediately started discussing the map.
We wanted something to hook the children in straight away, giving them something to recognise and to talk about. I really like using different forms of iconic representation* with small children: there is so much scope for creativity and intrigue.The map had a lot of detail on and was accessible to Y1 and Y2. It would serve as a way to remind them of previous learning (maps, symbols, keys) and to assess them on their knowledge of maps.
2. The children shared what they noticed.
We wanted to show HMI what the children knew about maps and that we were doing some initial assessment of their knowlege. Incidentally, several children thought a cow, a dog and a carrot were examples of geographical features.
3. I asked whether the children would like to know more about this map, and my colleague stepped into role. She displayed an image of Peter Rabbit and wondered aloud where on earth he could be: the village was proving too large for her to find him.
The revelation of Peter Rabbit deepened the children's engagement and moved the story on. By using a character and story they already knew about we were already setting them up as experts in a small way. However, we'd learnt previously that (no matter how interesting the story is) the children need to be involved in making their own story. For this reason, our mantle was not the story of Peter Rabbit that they already knew.
4. The children were invited to talk to the AIR. They immediately thought she was Mr McGregor, which she assured them she wasn't: McGregor was, in fact, the first person who had come to her asking for help. She was actually an expert rabbit catcher. Only, this time, she was stumped: where could Peter Rabbit be?
We had chosen not to have Mr McGregor as the client - the children would immediately see him as a 'baddie' so it would be hard to establish that element of grace that is so important. This moment was also the all-important 'are you in?' part of the afternoon. Sometimes, this takes longer than one session. However, for the purposes of HMI we wanted to establish the client and commission quite quickly. The children were, naturally, up for the challenge.
5. The children shared ideas about where Peter might be. Then they took copies of the map and marked on it possible locations for his hiding place. During this time, both teachers spent time with the children to discuss and challenge their ideas. The children generally agreed that the rabbit would be somewhere near food, water and shelter.
This gave the children all a chance to get talking and to feel helpful, and for us to establish further what they knew - about maps, keys, geographical features and rabbit diets/habitats. As with all classes, we have a few very loud and talkative children and many others who need paired time to share their ideas. This time in pairs also helped to bring those quieter children into the fiction/team more.
6. The children recorded their thoughts. They were given an A6 piece of paper and asked to draw where Peter was hiding and why, before placing it on the corresponding area of the large map.
Use of writing during non-core subjects: tick. Quite which non-core subject this was, I wasn't yet sure, but non-core it was.
7. We discussed where Peter Rabbit was most likely to be and what the team should do next. The general consensus was that he was probably on our school field (food, shelter and water all being present) and that we should catch him.
During the initial planning stages I'd said to our HT: 'Usually the first session or two of mantle doesn't have a particular outcome... does this matter?' She had assured me that no, it didn't - she wanted HMI to see what we do and why. For that reason, we had left this session fairly open with some general themes in mind. On the planning for the session I included some possible next steps: building a (humane) trap (DT), creating a map of an ideal habitat for Peter (science/geography), taking the children outside to look at the habitat of our school field (science/geography). If all went completely wrong, at least HMI would see our good intentions.
By the end of this session, HMI had left the room and the children were thoroughly invested in catching Peter and doing something about him. Our class generally loves D.T. and so we are planning to create some (humane) trap designs and introduce them to some new mechanisms and joins.
However, for now Ofsted has passed and it's half term.
Notes:
* forms/modes of represenentation (Jerome Bruner): Enactive, Iconic, Symbolic.
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