Inspiring the Inspirers Event - Pownall Hall School - Tuesday 15th November 2016

by Karen Burns

On Tuesday we had our inaugural Inspiring the Inspirers event. Our intention was to provide CPD for teachers (the inspirers) to enable them to transcend the ‘barrier’ of satisfactory, beyond the ‘oh-so-close-but-not-quite-there’ category of good and fly into the realm of outstanding!  We wanted to provide a hands on day, to experience the “lessons” from the perspective of a child in the classroom.

So, what did we do and how did it go?

The delegates arrived on a cold Winter morning to a roaring fire in the beautiful entrance of Pownall Hall School in Wilmslow followed by some lovely hot porridge and smoked salmon scones to set things up for the day.

We went up to one of the classrooms and David Winfield gave a welcome and introduction to the day.
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He spoke about the need to keep things fresh, and that the aim of the day was to give colleagues lots of practical 'takeaway' ideas that they could use immediately in their classrooms, that they would enjoy delivering and the children would enjoy learning from.

Greeted by a stunning, warming fire at Pownall Hall School

Lesson 1: Delivered by hi-impact Consultants: “Tiny Tap”

​Tiny Tap is a 'freemium' iPad app aimed at teachers and pupils. It allows the creation of interactive games that can be used to deliver lesson content in novel and stimulating ways. When used by pupils, the 'mantle of the expert' transfers to them; this is extremely powerful when creating curriculum content for younger pupils and they also learn high-value tech and creative skills through the vehicle of the curriculum.

What was immediately obvious was that the tools could be used to create very diverse learning opportunities and there is also an enormous bank of resources that has been shared by educators from around the world.

Tiny Tap is a brilliant way to turn the curriculum into interactive gams

The app works on iPads and created content can easily be shared

Alan Crist of hi-impact putting the 'inspirers' through their paces!

Lesson 2: Delivered by hi-impact Consultants: “now>press>play”

Next we went to the Sports Hall where there was a surprise in store: there were a group of pupils ready to participate in the lesson too so that the delegates could see how children interact with now>press>play and see how much they enjoy using it.

​now>press>play is an immersive educational resource that engages primary school children in the curriculum through emotion, imagination and movement.

Our Inspirers and Pownall Hall School children are immersed in dramatic learning!

In a now>press>play experience every child is given a pair of wireless headphones. Immersed in sound, they become the main character in a story, meeting people, discovering places and solving problems on an educational adventure they’ll never forget.

Our story (and there are over 50) was based around the Transatlantic Slave Trade, told from the perspective of  a young African girl who was sold to be a slave in America, and her subsequent struggle to escape and find her brother.  It lasted about 25 minutes and during the experience we are guided around the room to improvise the story and enact what was happening. The headmaster even joined in and the children found it funny when he was lying on the floor with them as they “sailed to America”.

Afterwards the delegates spoke with the children and asked them if they enjoyed it - answered with a resounding "Yes!" The children really felt part of the story and were able to recall many elements of it very clearly. Afterwards we went back to the classroom and discussed the many uses of now>press>play and how it could be adapted in the classroom, and linked to other curriculum areas to enhance it even more. Our Inspirers also saw huge potential in particular with using the now>press>play technology (and this type of dramatic learning more generally) to engage and motivate learners who do not find traditional classroom learning easy to access.  

Lesson 3: Delivered by David Winfield, CEO & Founder of the Independent Schools Portal: Using Padlet to improve the questioning, research and collaboration skills of children

This lesson showed that Padlet, a web-based 'freemium' resource can be used by pupils to collect enormous amounts of information which can then be used in a variety of ways. It also demonstrated how bit.ly can be used to simplify web addresses to make them accessible to younger children.

The food (including this lunch!) was stunning. Provided courtesy of Holroyd Howe

Click on the blue links to download the lesson plan and group instruction sheets.

Lesson 4: School Outdoor Learning: Learning Outside the Classroom

Andy Carley and Mike Hargreaves from the wonderful School Outdoor Learning took us outside for the remainder of the afternoon for a double period lesson. We were blessed with a lovely Autumn afternoon of sunshine, albeit a bit chilly!

Andy and Mike took some time to introduce what they do and how they help schools to enhance their outdoor learning capabilities and showed us lots of great ideas for lessons outside without the need to spend much, or any money to do so!

The Inspirational Mike Hargreaves about to launch on another exciting outdoor adventure with his group!

A2 whiteboards - essential outdoor learning kit!

Andy Carley gives one of scores of fantastic ideas to link the curriculum to the outdoors

Portal founder, David Winfield, loving the outdoor learning at his 'spiritual home' - the beautiful Pownall Hall School

Just a few of the wonderful ideas that they shared:

Mirror walks: Take a mirror square and with a friend hold it facing up to the sky just above your nose and say what you see, look at all the different things in the trees and the sky, looking at the world from a different perspective.

Close your eyes and with a partner walk around taking in the natural world using different senses than just sight, listen to the sounds, feel the environment around you and  write down and discuss what you find.

Exploring the natural environment without using your eyes opens up a whole world of curriculum possibilities!

Legacy Leavers & time capsules: talking about things you can do outside for future years to find and explore.

After this it was time to wrap up, over 90 minutes of exciting outdoor lessons had flown by! We sat down again and talked about ways in which we can easily and simply introduce ideas into lessons and get the children outside and into a new way of thinking and exploring.
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Andy & Mike also shared their Lesson Plans and Activities resource book with the delegates to take further ideas back to their schools. For more information on this lesson, please contact Andy or Mike at www.schooloutdoorlearning.com

A return back to the classroom to warm up and for a quick wrap up and thanks from David and the day was complete, with a goody bag from Holroyd Howe for the journey home. The Inspirers left with lots of new ideas to use in their classrooms and share with their colleagues!

We’d like to say a huge thanks to Pownall Hall School for the use of their facilities and letting their pupils get involved with one of the lessons, Holroyd Howe for a fantastic range of food throughout the day, hi-impact consultants for their engaging lessons in the morning and School Outdoor Learning for a truly inspiring afternoon outdoors.

We will be running further Inspiring the Inspirers events throughout 2017 - further details will appear on the Portal, in the Newsletter and on the Portal Twitter feed.