School in Focus - celebrating success in schools

Grange Primary School

Many schools are exploring the challenges and benefits of learning in a 'real-world' context, but few, if any, can claim to have done as much as Grange Primary to ensure that each child's curriculum is reinforced through practical experiences.

The school, under the leadership of a head who is almost evangelical in his passion for a 'creative, contextual curriculum', has established its own town — 'Grangeton' — offering a scaled-down but fully-functioning model of a real society, complete with political structure and working economy.

And it relies on pupils being self-confident and enterprising enough to harness the skills and knowledge they develop in the classroom — resulting in what headteacher Richard Gerver describes as 'independent learners aware of how key learning can support their future life choices.'

The town is headed by a mayor and elected council, which meets in the library to debate and decide on school policy, including disciplinary matters. There is a newspaper which is printed once a term, a cinema, a healthy-eating tuck shop with two 'franchises' on the school site, a television studio, radio station, museum and a language café.

Each of these enterprises is run by, and for, the pupils. Older children can apply for management positions, and are then responsible for passing on their expertise to those in lower years.

A core group of key staff — including non-teaching staff — take the lead on each area, backed by full training in the relevant industry. But Grangeton, as Richard points out, is very much 'the pupils' town'.

'It's about placing learner skills and behaviour in context in order to create willing learners. Grangeton is where they get to try out the skills they are learning in context, to see how they will be useful when they go into the real world,' says Richard, explaining the principles behind Grangeton.

In other words, as he puts it, 'why should vocational study start at 14? Why not from the age of three?'

That was the question he posed when he first arrived at the school three years ago, to find pupils unmotivated and staff demoralised.

'It was a vicious cycle. Results were low and we were top of the LEA's list of schools causing concern. If we had been inspected that year, we would have gone into special measures.'

Fortunately, there was no Ofsted that year and Richard was able to put his scheme – based on his arts/drama background and a firm belief in personalised, practical learning — into action.

'We had nothing to lose, I think that's why we are able to embark on a journey that other schools might have seen as very risky.'

Richard and a small team of teachers brainstormed to come up with the town enterprises, based on the premise that 'if I was nine, what would get me saying 'Wow'?'

'We decided nothing was impossible, so we weren't going to allow adult common sense to get in the way. We thought like children and I guess we still do — and that naivety is special. There was no guidebook for us — no right and wrong — so we just had to rely on our initiative. But because we based everything on our detailed knowledge of the children, it worked.'

Despite its seemingly vague beginnings, the project came to be closely modelled on the government's future vision of Excellence and Enjoyment in schools, which in turn helped to 'validate and audit' what Grange Primary was doing.

Richard says: 'The messages within Excellence and Enjoyment are about the personalisation of learning and finding powerful forms of assessment – and asking, are we as teachers delivering a curriculum that matters to our kids? Well, I believe we are achieving that here at Grange Primary.' The school assesses children's needs largely through skills-based assessment and then refers to the Primary National Strategy frameworks to draw out key learning objectives that support those needs.

The school has the results to prove it. Key Stage test scores have dramatically improved — from around 50% at Level 4 and above in all subjects three years ago, to the latest performance of 100% in science, 92% literacy, and 87% maths. 'The impact at KS2 has been extraordinary,' adds Richard. 'Attitudes as identified by Ofsted are exceptional and our Key Stage test results have risen to see us come from considerably below national averages to 10 to 15 per cent above them across the board in the space of three years since first starting our development programme.'

There has also been a marked change in pupil attitudes and behaviour — as noted in the most recent Ofsted report in May 2004. 'Pupils love coming to school and talk enthusiastically about the many exciting experiences on offer, tackling these with eagerness, excitement and confidence,' said the inspectors.

Richard says: 'We are talking about a remarkable turnaround – it's not because we've dramatically changed our staff, it's because the children believe in why they are here and understand why it's important for them to learn.

'At no stage are we giving them the message that we're teaching them to pass an exam. They are learning because they can see how it moves their community of Grangeton onwards – exams are a way of assessing their progress to that end. It's giving the children a completely different perspective of why they are here.'

And while staff are being asked to learn new skills way beyond their training and what they'd usually be expected to do as teachers, they are thoroughly enjoying the experience.

For instance, one member of staff was sent on a film-making course so she could run the media centre. Another has been on training with the museum service to learn about the legal ramifications of running a museum.

Teaching assistants, parents and other members of the community have also been involved in running different parts of the project. 'This goes hand in hand with workforce reform, because it frees our teachers up for non-contact time,' says Richard.

'There are still key members of staff who run the enterprises. They lead and the other members of staff contribute through the way they're running the curriculum. And when it's their class's turn to have half a term on an enterprise, they plan and deliver the curriculum for their class.'

Every activity that takes place within Grangeton is carefully planned to take account of the national curriculum and the school's own personalised learning programme.

The project has been running for two years, and curriculum time (every Friday afternoon) was allocated from September 2004. The next step, planned for 2005, is a complete scheme of work giving every year group half a term in each enterprise.