We always like to celebrate the work of our learners. This display is work produced by the first cohort to join us earlier in the year. You can see the variety of interests and passions that they have and the quality of what they have produced.
Sonny gets to work
Community is key at BPD!
Ajay and Alfie put their backs into it
At the back of Big Picture Doncaster is a patch of land that has had various uses over the past couple of years. Our latest cohort of learners (advisory name “Assassins!”) have decided to get to grips with it and turn it into a garden space. They have visited Bentley Urban Farm next door for ideas and have plans for different areas of the space and how they might be used.
This is a mammoth task, but we don’t give up
The starting point
The old pond
One section of the garden will be for growing plants and vegetables, and another will be developed as a seating area. The team also found an old bath that had been sunken into the ground by some former Big Picture learners and have decided that rather then use this as a pond this time they would like to dig another one and make use of the bath for compost.
As you can see from the pictures clearing the space was a challenge in itself but one of our Habits of Work and Learning focuses on taking on challenges and the Assassins rose to it without a problem. The teamwork shown by the group was also a real indication of how they are working as a community.
It was very overgrown
No worries for our hardworking assassins!
Sonny’s Salt Jar story…
Today we have been making Salt Jars. Learners think of memories and choose a colour for that memory. In order to make the salt jar by colours. For my jar I chose purple because my nan really likes it, yellow because we go on holidays together and got for a walk in bright yellow sun, and green for when I used to take my dog for a walk with my step grandad. I made it by getting salt and chalk and rubbed the chalk into the salt on to a piece of paper. When the salt was the colour of the chalk with no white in it you put it in the jar. Then you do it again to add other colours in.
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
Our new cohort is largely made of of learners that have been out of school for a while. This advisory have chosen to call themselves ‘Crewmates’ and have already built a real community among their group and made some solid friendships. They are brilliantly supportive and have shown our Habits of Work and Learning in everything that they do. The sense of Community is strong and you can see here that they are taking every Opportunity and accepting the Challenges of research, planning and design seriously to help them move to final products of real quality.
Big Picture Doncaster Learning Domains are tools for problem solving and offer a framework for looking at the real-world knowledge and abilities necessary to being a successful, well-rounded person. They are not content-oriented curricula, nor are they completely distinct categories. Each domain focuses on an aspect of reasoning or community behaviour. learners’ learning and project work will often incorporate many overlapping elements of the Learning Domains.
Empirical Reasoning: “How do I prove it?”
This domain is about thinking like a scientist: to use empirical evidence and a logical process to make decisions and to evaluate hypotheses. It does not reflect specific science content material, but instead can incorporate ideas from physics to sociology to art theory.
Guiding Questions:
o How do I design this research project?
o How can I analyze the information; what does it tell me?
o How do I discuss errors?
o What idea do I want to test (essential question)?
o What has other research shown?
o What is my hypothesis?
o How can I test it?
o What information (data) do I need to collect?
o How will I collect the information?
o What will I use as a control in my research?
o How good is my information?
o What are the results of my research?
o What conclusions can I draw from my research?
o How will I present my results?
Quantitative Reasoning: “How do I measure, compare or represent it?”
This domain is about thinking like a mathematician: to understand numbers, to analyze uncertainty, to comprehend the properties of shapes, and to study how things change over time.
Guiding Questions:
o How can I use numbers to evaluate my hypothesis?
o What numerical information can I collect about this?
o Can I estimate this quantity?
o How can I represent this information as a formula or diagram?
o How can I interpret this formula or graph?
o How can I measure its shape or structure?
o What trends do I see? How does this change over time?
o What predictions can I make?
o Can I show a correlation?
Communication: “How do I take in and express ideas?”
This domain is around being a great communicator: to understand your audience, to write, to read, to speak and listen well, to use technology and artistic expression to communicate, and to be exposed to another language.
Guiding Questions:
o How can I write about it?
o What is the main idea I want to get across (thesis)?
o Who is my audience?
o What can I read about it?
o Who can I listen to about it?
o How can I speak about it?
o How can technology help me to express it?
o How can I express it creatively?
o How can I express it in another language?
Social Reasoning: “What are other people’s perspectives on this?”
This domain is about thinking like an historian or anthropologist: to see diverse perspectives, to understand social issues, to explore ethics, and to look at issues historically.
Guiding Questions:
o How do diverse communities view this?
o How does this issue affect different communities?
o Who cares about this? To whom is it important?
o What is the history and how has the issue changed over time?
o Who benefits and who is harmed through this issue?
o What social systems are in place around this?
o What are the ethical questions behind this?
o What do I think should be done about this?
o What can I do?
Personal Qualities: “What do I bring to this process?”
This domain is about learning to being your best self: to demonstrate respect, responsibility, organization, leadership, and to reflect on your abilities and strive for improvement.
Guiding Questions:
o How can I build skills for success?
o How can I demonstrate respect?
o How can I empathize more with others?
o How can I look out for my health and well-being?
o How can I communicate honestly about this?
o How can I be responsible for this?
o How can I persevere at this?
o How can I better organize my work?
o How can I better manage my time?
o How can I be more self-aware?
o How can I take on more of a leadership role?
o How can I work cooperatively with others?
o How can I enhance my community through this?
Students will be in an advisory, which is a small group designed purposefully to approach curriculum and education in a different way in order to support personal and social development. As students grow in self esteem learning through interests then their feeling of success around education will grow as they see learning as something that they can succeed in.
Our design principles underpin our curriculum and are that every experience should be designed so that it is rigorous, has relevance for students and the society that we are preparing them for, and that crucially it provides opportunity to develop the relationships that are at the heart of our work.
Our values are like our DNA or something that runs through us like writing through a stick of rock. They are who we are and link back to our concept of Haltung in that they colour all or our work and interaction and are what defines us and what we expect of everyone; students, staff, parents et al.
Our Habits of Work and Learning are how we demonstrate our values. They are what we do that reflects who we are. They are also ways of working and an attitude and approach to learning that form a basis for academic and learning success. Not only are our students taught these and their place in each piece of work highlighted and monitored, they are a central pillar of the work of our advisors.
Values
Courage
- To accept the challenges provided by our work
- To persevere through difficulties, setbacks and moments of failure
Compassion and Kindness
- To show care and love towards others
- To help and support others
- To contribute positively to our community
Respect
- To respect ourselves and others
- To embrace and celebrate difference and diversity
- To respect and care for our learning environment
Self Belief
- To have confidence that ‘we can’
- To find what we need within ourselves or through collaboration with others
Habits of Work and Learning
Challenge yourself
- I produce nothing but my best work
- When things are difficult, I work harder
- I’m committed to showing how well I can do
Take opportunities
- I arrive on time, ready to go and fully equipped
- I get fully involved in all classes and tasks
- I welcome feedback and use it to do better
Build community
- I work collaboratively and cooperatively with others
- I act and communicate with respect and kindness
- I take care of resources and my learning environment
Congratulations and welcome to your new realsmart-enabled website
The cloud website gives seamless integration to Google Apps, the realsmart learning portfolio and loads of other great apps from the web – we have added a selection of these to widget menu on the right, you will see these when you log in.
To read about the vision behind your new school website read more here
