Observation at Stonefields: MLE

Stonefield's had a centralised learning/teaching area with different spaces to accommodate the children s learning. We witnessed a literacy tumble where 3 teachers were teaching workshops, teach aides working with children on specific tasks and the rest were working on a literacy activity. Some were working in groups and some were working individually. Resources were out in the open and were accessible to everybody and the children had a device or working at a computer. Children looked engaged and on task and the learning looked exciting and engaging. The children had the ability to personalise their literacy time e.g. at the beginning of the day the children were told what was happening for that day and they could opt into what they wanted to do, with the exception of if the teacher wanted to work with a group for that day. Then children began the day. Instead of stopping everyone's learning the teacher hit a xylophone and the children knew that it was their time to go to reading. Some kids were working on a book cover on the computer, some were working on a KWL chart about an animal, some were in a workshop learning about language features through song, some were learning about descriptive writing through a PS3 game and some others were working on other projects. In the junior school the centralised learning area was in a room with glass doors so that you could see out and the children had the ability to walk to different areas to suit their needs.