Some reflections
Considering I was so looking forward to a lie in this morning now that we are back home, I awoke early with my head full of thoughts of our trip and inspiration for the future of Matthew Moss.
Although we saw a range of schools, some of which maybe did not live up to our expectations, there were also schools that really struck a chord with what we are trying to achieve at Matthew Moss. Utterslev school (the Canal School), was most inspirational for me personally and I am really keen to make some further links with Alice the vice-principal and her wonderful team. There was a real understanding of learning at the school and the needs of their learners in the 21st century. I heard no talk of meaningless targets, obsession with grades or teaching to the test. There was just genuine engagement with the learners as individuals and the equality between learners and adults was real.
The battle for learning at Matthew Moss will continue and there is now a genuine feeling that we really have to take it to the next level, especially now that we have a critical mass of people who ‘get it’. It’s interesting that when we were feeding back our ideas on the final day at Ørestad gymnasium, there were some really common themes that keep recurring. There is consensus that we must re-structure our teams so that genuine learning relationships can begin to emerge more authentically and this can be achieved through ‘teams on deck’, learners seeing far fewer teachers.
Ged made a really interesting point about how there are many contradictions in the UK education system and at MMHS that need to be resolved. For example, on a very basic level, can we really expect there to be equality in the learning relationships if we expect the students to call us sir or miss? Genuine learning relationships stem from the eradication of the lines separating kids and teachers. So on Monday morning, I plan to dress down (I’m not sure the school is ready to see me in shorts quite yet but we can all take those first steps). Will the world implode if learners call me Graham?! It’s my name after all!
This is going to be one hell of a tough job as there are so many constraints and threats from outside but we can mitigate against this by opening a more fruitful dialogue between school, parents and other partners. We must try and spread our influence more successfully into local primary schools and build a culture of learning from a much earlier age!
Everyone can play their part as things will only move forward if lots of our staff ‘get it’ and begin to change the ways they interact with learners and change the ways learning takes place in classrooms. At Ørestad gymnasium, we saw how its amazing architecture was designed specifically to make teachers and learners engage in learning differently. We can do this at school but on a smaller scale if necessary! Something as simple as taking desks out of classrooms, or by stopping arranging desks in rows or using other spaces differently around school can make a huge difference. We can also be hugely ambitious and make some bigger changes like taking walls down and re-designing spaces. It’s great that Karen was with us so she will get what we mean when we are asking her to get the cheque book out!
We must also keep our eye on our exam results so we can continue to go about our ambitious plans without interference from outside. And perhaps most importantly of all, we must never get complacent or have ‘self-fatness’! (can’t remember the word in Danish!)
Thank you to everyone for your company, good humour and the fun we’ve had over the last week.
Utterslev school
What an amazing and inspiring day! I suspected that after the disappointments of The Finnish schools, we may find what we were looking for in Copenhagen and we were not disappointed.
Utterlev school or the Canal school as it’s affectionately called was like a wonderland. We were lucky to be at the school on one of their project weeks which happen over four weeks every year. The theme for this week was ‘another world’. We saw all kinds of inspiring learning taking place with engaged learners who were clearly loving what they were doing, as were the teachers!
What I saw was a complete respect shown to learners and the same returned to teachers. One teacher described himself as a facilitator of learning and Mike pointed out that he was neither…he was a person, an equal to everyone else in the school. This is true at every level, from what clothes everyone wears to how they talk to each other. From the assembly completely run by the students at the beginning of the day to the interesting projects going on around school, there was joy to be found in this place!
Some students were crafting butter knives out of wood which they were going to use to eat with at the end of the day, some were making face masks out of organic materials. The younger students were given more directed tasks whereby they had to follow quite specific instructions by the teacher to make their final products. The older students were much less directed and I was slightly overcome (ok, yes i had a tear in my eye!) by the exposition given by a 14 year old student Rebecca who by her own admission was a bit of a history geek about her project on the Korean War. Not only was her English impeccable, but her understanding of the topic and her ability to eloquently discuss the learning processes were awe-inspiring!
We drifted in and out of classrooms where the learning really made sense and fitted into a much bigger pedagogical picture. From the moment the students start here in Kindergarten to when they leave aged 16, the school seeks to develop the whole individual and trust, respect and humanity are happy by-products!
Later in the day we drifted back to where the students from earlier on in the day had been carving their butter knives. By now the fire pit had been lit, bread had been baked and the sausages were on the grill. Their teacher was sometimes directly supervising, other times he was occupied with helping the children. And occasionally he was relaxing in the sun! “I believe in relationships and learning through relationships” said the vice-principal and she meant every word of it.
Koulumestari elementary school
An interesting visit today to Koulumestari school, a primary school in the suburb of Espoo. The school felt like it had a heart from the moment we walked in and the genuinely warm greeting at the door by Tina our host.
The school’s mission is to bring creativity and innovation to the school and other schools within their sphere of influence through technology education and the Innokas initiative.
The school itself is divided into teams and staff sign up depending on their interests and skills. The teams are ‘evaluation and curriculum, school events and staff well being, student well being’ and ‘technology education’.
The school felt like a genuine learning community with equal status between learners and teaching staff. There was also a skill based curriculum which struck a chord with what we are trying to achieve at MMHS and the ELLI dispositions.
The school environment felt genuinely conducive to learning with a light and airy feel and plenty of different types of space to meet the differing needs of the range of learners, a quarter of whom have special needs. There were all sorts of spaces that could be curtained off for learning in small groups or individually. But most classrooms looked very traditional.
There was talk of personalised learning and catering for different learning styles (nothing particularly new here but flipped classrooms interesting especially when videos made by the children themselves. Talk of audio, visual, kinaesthetic. Do these learning styles still stand up to scrutiny?
Mobile phones in learning – children planned together how they would use mobile phones inside and outside the classroom . School have a set of Lumia phones but some children prefer to use their own. They use them for a variety of things in their learning such as dictation, note making and podcasts. Refreshing that they are embracing mobile technology. New ways of using mobiles for learning are in theory uploaded to the school VLE/blog.
The school seemed to be genuinely on its own learning journey and the staff were also open minded and receptive.
Some interesting things from Day 1
Education is completely free in Finland at all levels and so are school lunches for everyone!
There is only one national test in Finland at age 18. All other assessment is done internally and a child’s effort is taken into account when the final grading takes place.
Teachers are very well respected with apparently 1000 applicants for each teacher training place!
Each school designs its own curriculum based on the aims of the National Curriculum.
There is no setting in any classes.
There has been no school inspection regime since the 1980s. Instead teachers are supported and encouraged to learn from each other’s practice.
Looking forward to seeing how it looks on the ground in our first school tomorrow!
What is group C looking for in Finland
1. Learning relationships
2. Intrinsic motivation/focused learning
3. Students pursuing own interests/a flexible curriculum
4. Happy students
5. Spaces designed for learners’ needs
Learning in Northern Europe 
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