Accelerated Learning in our schools

All schools in the borough of Knowsley are steadily moving towards creating a real change in the way pupils learn. Consultants Peter Greenhalgh and Iain Dow are amongst the experts who are leading the borough forward, working in conjunction with many schools, Primary, Secondary and Special sectors alike, helping staff to incorporate a more ‘brain-friendly’ approach to their lessons.

The vision for the future is an exciting one, and many changes are taking place in classrooms all across Knowsley. Staff at Bowring Comprehensive have introduced a series of ‘lessons about learning’ across the school, and staff in the Primary

So, how are pupils and staff responding to these changes? At Knowsley Hey the pupils in years 7, 8 and 9 have been following the Headstart course; a series of lessons covering topics such as how our brains work, different learning styles, motivation, memory – how it works, how to improve it and lots more.

What the Headteacher says about Accelerated Learning

Mary Belchem, Headteacher at Knowsley Hey School said, “Knowsley Hey is committed to helping students learn in as many ways as possible. If pupils are properly motivated and taught appropriately we believe that everyone can reach a level of achievement which they may think is beyond them. We want them to realise that there are lifelong learning skills which are based on an understanding of how we learn. For a long time teaching has been primarily about how we teach, what we teach and the way we ought to teach. We are now looking at the learning experiences we provide for children and the ways in which they ‘learn’. We need to provide different experiences for children so that we appeal to all the different types of learners there may be. Some children like to read about things some children like to write about them, some people like to talk about them, and some like to listen to understand an issue.“

”Although children may have a preference for a way in which they learn, as long as they are given information to work with and as long as we ask them to think about what they are learning then children will become involved.”

What the pupils say about Accelerated Learning

“One day in our Head Start lesson our teacher taught us how to make a brain! We used newspaper, water and a pipe cleaner. First we scrunched the newspaper up into a ball then dipped it in the water until it was soaking wet. Then we made it into the shape of a brain. We wrapped the pipe cleaner around it and left a little tail on the end for the brain stem. The bit in the middle was the corpus callosum. After we had made the pet brain our teacher taught us all about the different parts of the brain. We called it pet brain because there are Primitive, Emotional and Thinking parts to it. We learned that the parts are called the Neo-cortex, the Limbic system and the Reptillian brain. We learned a lot. In particular we learned that our brains need water to function properly. We had to take it home and look after it and keep it hydrated!” - Kate Annesley

“Enrichment sounded funny at the beginning of term because none of us knew what it was. We soon found out as we began to learn about how we learned and our learning styles. We answered questions about how we learn and found that we learn something by seeing it, hearing it and doing it. The best learning takes place when we do all three! We looked at cards with patterns on the front and writing on the back. I already knew that I was a visual learner and when I picked my favourite pattern, it confirmed my style of learning. Today in Enrichment we were making board games about our learning. In mine you could only win when you joined together both sides of the brain. You lost spaces when you went Reptillian!” – Daryl Wafer

“When we started Enrichment, none of Year 7 actually knew what it was, but as the months passed we learned more about learning more! We learned all about the different parts of the brain and what they do. To help us understand we built our own brain with newspaper and a pipe cleaner and Sir made a joke that at least in the future we would have an excuse for ‘forgetting our brains!’ We were taught that we could be Visual, Auditory or Kinaesthetic learners. Before that I didn’t know how I took in information, I found out I was a visual learner. A lot of people were Kinaesthetic learners, very few were Auditory learners. We made ‘mind-maps’ to teach other people so we wouldn’t forget.” – Hannah Sweeney