School opens doors to a new way of learning

By Ben Fitzgerald

School principal Jane Leo has a particular vision for Tadpole Farm CE Primary Academy, which is growing from strength to strength since opening its doors in September 2016.

Under Mrs Leo’s guidance the whole school has embraced the ethos of enquiry-led learning.

She explained: “It’s about giving the children an environment that they can grow into and allowing them to poke the edges of it.

“They are encouraged to develop their own problem solving skills and use their initiative to explore their capabilities.”

This differs from the traditional model of teaching where learning is clearly divided into subject areas, with children being set tasks by the teacher according to the subject.

“Underlying basics skills have to be secure, for example maths, writing, reading, or enquiry based learning doesn’t work.”

Mrs Leo explained that the approach will set them up for later life, developing essential teamwork and communication skills: “You can’t get those skills by sitting around a table and being told what to do. What we need in this world are people who say ‘how can we make this better?’”

She gave an example of how this works in practice, with year 1 children being challenged to work out how to extract a toy penguin from a block of ice.

“What we were looking for is how the children work with each other to solve the problem. The penguin task was a vehicle for them to work on questioning and communication skills. In this case, one of the youngsters suggested that we could use boiling water to melt the ice. But when the teacher poured the hot water, some in the group noticed that it froze when it hit the ground. This developed a whole new child-led discussion.”

Newly appointed Assistant Principal John Spencer has been taken on to oversee the development of Key Stage 2 as the school prepares to take on more children in years 4 and 5.

“At the moment we have 160 children in Reception, Year 1 and 2 and we are looking to open to applications for our new year groups 4 and 5,” he explained.

The bright and airy school building features plenty of natural light and spacious corridors that double as break out classroom areas.

“We encourage all children to get outdoors if they want to explore their learning in this way and every year group has access points to the outside areas. We are a forest school with two wild areas where children can develop their skills.”

He said that in time Tadpole Farm will have six year groups and be run as a two-form entry school.

As a newly established school, Tadpole Farm is equipped with the latest classroom technology. It also offers nutritious school meals prepared on site and breakfast and after school clubs.

Places are available for year 4 and 5 children starting in September and there are a few remaining places in year 2.

For further enquiries contact the school on 01793 729740, email [email protected] or visit the school’s new website at www.tadpolefarmcepa.co.uk

? The symbolic start of work to build Great Western Academy secondary school - in Tadpole Farm - was due to begin with a ground breaking ceremony on January 26 attended by North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson and New College principal Graham Taylor.