Dutch School in Woking top of Netherlands education tree
On the BBC News this morning there was an article about a Dutch school in Woking, Surrey, set up mainly for the Dutch children of Shell workers. It caters for children aged 4 to 12 and has achieved the highest results in the annual CITO exams of all Dutch schools in the Netherlands and overseas.
In the video shot in the school the interactive whiteboard use by the children was excellent showing them collaboratively using the board to explain - I think it was percentages. They were having a good time. The teacher was sitting in with the class. It was their tool at that moment - not his !
CITO examinations are for pupils aged 12 before the move to secondary schools.
The students in Woking achieved an average score of 549.3 out of a maximum 550, and the national average in the Netherlands this year was 535.1.
Everyone in the school, students, teacher Tom Navis are very proud of this achievement.
The school was founded by Shell for Dutch employees of the oil company but is now attended by children whose parents work for the Dutch Embassy and multinational companies.
The school follows both the international primary curriculum and the Dutch curriculum, in addition to English being taught in the school.
The significance of the article for me is that the teachers were extolling the virtues of what I would call an 'integrated day' ! Back in the 1970s in the early years of my teaching this is the way I taught and I thought it was superb ( and so did the children and the parents). It occurs to me that many of the people in the top positions in our education system today might well have taught in this way or even been taught using this type of scheme.
The wheel turns yet again ...
Labels: education
posted by Doug @ 06:32
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Can you expand a bit on your concept of an 'integrated day'?
It sounds appealing already however...
THis was a method of teaching much favoured in the early 70s and into the 80s where, usually at the beginning of the week, individual children 'negotiated' what they needed to learn next and a plan was laid out for them to achieve during the week. The aim was for the children to learn appropriately getting help and support where needed from teachers, peers, visitors, parent etc. They were responsible for their own time allocationa and their own ordering ( with help, of course) . It bred a very independent child learner and was very exciting.
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