The Dore to Learning Philosophy

We are passionate in our desire to help our children to become real learners, who not only have the key skills of literacy, numeracy, ICT and science, but have a true thirst for learning.  We recognise that in a fast changing world, our learners will need the skill of discernment – there is so much information available to us at the touch of a button; they will also need to be able to work independently and with others; and to have developed a resourcefulness that will see them through periods of challenge or change.

With this in mind, we have produced a curriculum that will promote the development of these capacities. We believe in the approach to learning to learn espoused by Guy Claxton – Building Learning Power. Through the ethos of the school and the curriculum pupils are encouraged to develop learning capacities which will help them to become confident, capable, creative life-long learners.

• Resilience – absorption, managing distractions, noticing, perseverance.
• Resourcefulness – questioning, making links, imagining, reasoning, capitalising.
• Reflectiveness – planning, revising, distilling, meta-learning.
• Reciprocity – interdependence, collaboration, empathy and listening, imitation

Throughout all aspects of school life we believe that we should encourage the children to become increasingly responsible for their own learning. We encourage them, and orchestrate opportunities for them to develop the learning capacities that we all need to thrive as learners. The activities needed to develop these capacities cannot be bought in any scheme or publication; rather they are developed alongside the skills and knowledge which form the content of the curriculum. The development of the capacities accompanies the more traditional lesson objectives, so that each lesson has “dual objectives”.

Thematic Curriculum

We were keen to develop a curriculum which, whilst ensuring that we met our statutory obligations, inspired and stimulated our learners. We believe that thematic units should involve individual integrated subjects, linked in ways that make sense to our learners and with themes that are truly exciting for them.  

We wanted learners to be enthused at the beginning of a unit – really motivated to learn more.  We therefore have “Inspiration Days” - time taken off timetable to be involved in something special and different, in order for learners to become excited by the coming unit.

The thematic units include Science, ICT, D&T, History, Geography, Art, Music, PSHE, and Literacy text level work. RE may also be linked to the theme when appropriate. Literacy word and sentence level objectives, Numeracy and PE are taught discreetly, although dance units may be linked to the theme.

Responses from pupils and parents have been extremely favourable – surveys are almost unanimous in their support.  Comment from a parent, “My child is much more enthusiastic this year. He has thoroughly enjoyed all the topics. This is what teaching and learning should be about at this age”.

Key Skills

There is much talk at present of key skills. Certainly there are skills that our learners need to develop. Most people would include in this list the skills associated with numeracy and communication – speaking, listening, reading, writing and use of ICT. We would also wish to include skills associated with scientific enquiry and indeed general enquiry or “research skills”. However, we believe at Dore to learning that the learning skills we have previously mentioned  - eg: collaboration, empathy, management of distractions, perseverance, questioning, making links and of discernment are extremely important too. The national curriculum specifies the key skills and knowledge and understanding which learners are expected to develop. The Dore to Learning curriculum covers the national curriculum pos and therefore key skills will be developed. Schools, however, will need to choose their units carefully in order to ensure complete coverage. There is advice on the website concerning this.

Global Education

Our thematic curriculum lends itself to the examination of global issues – those of sustainability and interdependence – for example the study of the biomes in year 4 which looks at the threats to biomes and the effects of climatic changes, global warming etc. The year 6 unit “Travelling” examines the reasons for and consequences of migration during the 20th century and in the present day. The curriculum also lends itself to the examination of methods of government eg: year 6 “Rulers and Governments”.

Enquiry Based Learning

We firmly believe in the enquiry approach to learning in which the learners and the teacher enquiry together. The Mantle of the Expert approach changes classroom dynamics and creates learning opportunities not just for the acquisition of skills and factual knowledge, but in social interaction, imagination, problem solving and in sharing of power within the community.  The effect of this approach has been to enable learners to develop their independence, reasoning, empathy and collaboration.  The Mantle of the Expert works extreme well with our thematic curriculum and with BLP and SEAL values. It also fits in very well with the ECM agenda.

ICT

The use of ICT across the curriculum is intrinsic and goes beyond motivation. It enhances and extends learning, empowering learners to use ICT skills creatively in real contexts for example in producing PowerPoints and animations related to thematic curricular work.  Learners can video conference with museums to learn from experts and hot seat with famous people “in role”. Learners also may produce their own radio programmes, podcasts, and DVDs.  Learners can use ICT to communicate with their peers and teachers, obtain information and extend their learning at home. 

Responding to the needs of our community

We are aware that along with equipping our learners with important skills – including those of collaboration, independence, discernment and resilience, we also need to address specific aspects which relate to the context of the school. Therefore, we are keen to make our learners aware of and able to relate to others in our region, nationally and indeed, internationally.  There are opportunities for this in relation to the thematic curriculum – links can be made with the community through festivals and celebrations in school, visits and visitors. Many of these opportunities are suggested in Mantle of the Expert section of the units.

Conclusion

We believe that the dore to learning curriculum is thorough and inspirational and will help teachers to orchestrate children’s learning in an exciting way.