Play-Based Learning

In the Pre-Prep at St John’s, a play-based approach to learning is used to provide an educational environment that reflects and supports the way children of this age learn. We aim to foster skills of independence, collaboration, problem-solving, creativity and communication, create high levels of engagement and improve learning attainment. This approach has been underpinned by the latest research on learning for young children which demonstrated that children learning through play show improved attainment, well-being and learning dispositions such as creativity. It offers a risk-free environment where children can explore ideas and deepen learning through application and collaboration. It gives children a range of experiences that build connections in the brain, helping them develop physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally. Importantly, this involves a balance between child-led discovery time, adult-initiated activities and adult-led activities.

Crucial to the development of highly engaged play-based learning is the environment the children learn in. Teachers plan this carefully, providing resources that are suited to the children’s level of development. For example, in T2 drawers can be found with batteries, bulbs and wires so that children can create circuits.

This year, our Kindergarten environments have been redesigned further to develop independence, imagination and challenge the level of the learning.

Using the ideas of Greg Bottril, KG classrooms now feature a variety of themed areas such as the ‘St John’s House’ role play and ‘Carpet Kingdom’.

Kindergarten Discovery Time is split over the two classrooms, the garden and the lobby (joining room). Our Discovery Time provision is split over all of these areas, is planned for according to the current interests and needs of the children.

The ‘St John’s House’ is where an imaginary family, the Johns, live. Throughout the year the family celebrate different cultural festivals, birthdays, have a new baby arrive, have a pet, need to visit the doctors etc and we adapt the role play area/St John’s House accordingly. It runs alongside our Understanding the World programme of teaching – looking at how different families celebrate different festivals, what babies need, how to look after pets, for example.

‘Carpet Kingdom’ is where the children gather for whole class activities such as Morning Meeting, story time and adult-led inputs.

There are different ways of supporting children within a play-based environment to sustain a high level of challenge. T2 have been experimenting with a version of Greg Bottril’s ‘play-plan’ approach. Having selected an area of interest, children decide on a key skill and then draw a plan to meet this. When their work is finished, they review and evaluate their progress towards meeting the skill and share their next steps.

“We went on a leaf hunt, exploring and noticing how many different shapes, patterns and shades of green we could find. We were excited by our discoveries!”

“We travelled across ‘Earth’ on Google Earth and through our class atlases; as well as reading ‘Let’s meet the Oceans’ to help us identify and label our own maps.”

Intrinsic Motivation

At St John’s, we prioritise the holistic development of our children, recognising the crucial link between emotional well-being, self-awareness, and academic success. Understanding the impact of traditional forms of motivation and reward on each child’s achievement is key to fostering a supportive learning environment. Through extensive research conducted over the past few years, both internally and externally, we have gained valuable insights into effective motivational strategies. Our findings, informed by feedback from the children, parents, and staff, highlight the importance of intrinsic motivation - the drive to succeed based on personal fulfilment rather than external rewards. By promoting autonomy-supportive teaching practices, we aim to cultivate a sense of ownership and passion for learning among our children.

This approach has been proven to enhance engagement, independence, creativity, self-esteem, and overall academic performance. Ultimately, we strive to empower our children to become lifelong learners who are motivated by their own intrinsic desires for growth and achievement.

Creativity

Questions about the role and purpose of education have abounded with the advent of ChatGPT and further advances in Artificial Intelligence. What is clear is that developing ‘Creativity’ as a skill is ever more important. Creativity, at St John’s, is the skills of imagination, curiosity, perseverance, rigour and collaboration. We aim to nurture individuals who are able to look at things from different angles, to take the initiative, to problem-solve, to work with a range of different learners and learning styles with appreciation of the varied skills each brings and to express themselves freely.

One way in which we nurture creativity at Byron House is through ‘Wow days’, which are cross-curricular days in which children immerse themselves in an imaginative and problem-solving approach to exploring their topic. ‘Wow’ days may use either ‘Mantle of the Expert’ or ‘Enterprise’ projects to put children in a leadership position, either through taking on the mantle of an expert in a problem-solving and imaginative venture, or to plan and lead a venture that raises money for a cause. This year, ‘Wow’ days have included engaging with the question, ‘What makes a country?’. Five ‘new’ islands were marked on the world map and each group chose which island they would have. They then had complete freedom to create whatever they needed in order to form a country. They even created national anthems on the Chromebooks! Another involved the children becoming inspired to make a habitat for the hybrid animals they had created. The children made sure to include the necessary food, space, water and shelter that their creature needed to survive.

“I loved our Wow Day! A letter came from the government explaining that five new islands had been discovered in different locations around the world. Our task was to get all the new islands recognised as countries. We thought about a name, flag, national anthem, currency, climate and terrain.”

Child-initiated Learning

Our research into ways of nurturing children’s intrinsic motivation has found that two of the keys to achieving self-motivated learning are autonomy and purpose. These are both natural features of the childinitiated learning style which is a core part of the curriculum at St John’s. The children have ownership of their learning and how they are learning it. In Forms 1 and 2, topics are chosen and directed by the children so they can immediately see the purpose, leading to higher levels of motivation, engagement and involvement. A topic chosen will evolve depending on where the children’s interests take them. Examples of this year’s topics are: RMS Titanic, Fashion and Design, Animals, the Olympics, Movies the Theatre and Countries Around the World.

In Form 3, work on Child Initiated Learning topics moves on to develop as small groups working together on topics of their choice and learning new research techniques.

Child-led learning is in Form 6 where, following some further lessons into study skills and research techniques, children spend time during their Leavers’ Programme working on projects of their choosing. Teachers are available to them in classrooms to help at given times and they choose the teacher best suited to help at different stages of their work. You will find more information about our Extended Research Projects provision for Form 6 on page 31.

“At the V&A we explored different exhibitions and saw a big fish statue. We also saw The Raphael Cartoons, which are huge paintings depicting religious scenes and, if you run alongside them, they seem to move.”

“For our child-led topic we have been researching what interests us about the Titanic. I discovered that there were only enough lifeboats for a third of the people on the boat.”