Lewes New School Blog

The radical approach to education at the New School is deeply stimulating and challenges our children to grow in more mature ways than most schools can imagine, but I’m sometimes asked if the New School experience doesn’t seem like a bubble detached from reality. How fluidly will our children make the transition to secondary school? Will they be prepared enough? Will they wilt within the structure of it? Will they be imbued with a strong enough sense of self to manage the challenges presented by such a serious change in environment?

The elementary school I attended was somewhat experimental, but my high school was shockingly radical, by 1970s American standards. Believing that testing and league tables have no real value, the school took a more student-led, holistic approach to learning with few exams, no grades and very small classes. We were set work and mile markers and evaluated on our progress. We were expected – and trusted – to work to the best of our abilities and take responsibility for ourselves and our decisions.

After high school, I went hardcore mainstream. On a whim, I’d applied to American University in DC, which had an excellent languages program and a prestigious School of International Service. Rather than being intimidated or overwhelmed by the intellectual demands and academic achievement levels that were suddenly expected of me, I felt driven, capable and grounded. I knew who I was and I revelled in finding out how far I could push myself. My grades were excellent and I remained at the top of my class.

I’ve turned out the way that I am (hold the laughter until later) thanks to the schools that I attended. Like the New School, they trusted the intellectual hunger of their students and knew that their unorthodox approach would provide us with, if not all of the requisite tools, certainly the ability and desire to learn and apply them. To succeed, not just survive, in an increasingly complex and demanding future, our children must be given a school experience that trusts, pushes, holds and questions them – and teaches them, above all, how to learn.

Jared Louche (Parent at Lewes New School)

NEW SCHOOL THINKING CONFERENCE Friday 16^th October

Last Friday, the Cambridge Primary Review was grabbing the headlines with claims that formal education should wait until the child is 6 and SATs should be stopped. Meanwhile, a small school in East Sussex, which already practices these recommendations, was hosting a conference on innovative practice in primary school education.

 

The inaugural New School Thinking conference was held at Lewes New School to bring lecturers & researchers together with parents, teachers and heads in primary schools so they could share their teaching experience and understanding and be a part of a growing community that believes a change in primary school education may only come from the grass roots. Indeed, the Government’s swift and dismissive response to the Cambridge Review only confirms the need for such a venture.

 

On the Friday a total of 45 delegates arrived at Lewes New School from across the country. Lizzie Overton, the school head, welcomed the delegates and introduced the conference chair, Professor Ivor Goodson of Brighton University. He started by commenting on the CPR and how key aspects of the review highlighted many of the existing practices already at work within many schools represented by delegates at the conference. He went on to discuss some of the different systems being played out in countries across Europe. He set the tone for the conference by stating that schools with more autonomy and flexible curriculums received a much higher PISA rating (Programme for International Student Assessment) than the test dominated, rigid and centrally controlled schools found in the UK and Ireland.  Professor Goodson went onto introduce the keynote speaker Professor Bill Lucas from the Real Life Learning Centre at the University of Winchester.

 

For almost an hour Professor Bill Lucas entertained and enlightened the delegates with his research, experience and theory on new kinds of learning and teaching, backed up by what the research says. His message was clear; teaching children how to learn was the key component to a successful learning environment. That it is not what we teach our children that is vital but the ways in which they can learn. And there is no single method. Indeed, he likened the numerous approaches to learning (lecture based, text based, enquiry based, technology enhanced, teaching organized around individuals versus co-operative groups, etc.) like the tools in a toolbox – each has its merits and that teachers would do their pupils a disservice if they stuck to just one approach.

 

Following on from that the delegates split into three themed workshops; teacher vs learner, group vs individual & freedom vs rigour. The details of the discussion in these groups will be posted on the newschoolthinking.com website shortly. Within each group, a presentation was made either illustrating an example of a particular approach to teaching or offering a viewpoint with which to kick-off a discussion.

 

Before lunch was taken, the conference reconvened to give every delegate a flavour of what had been discussed across the various groups.

 

In the afternoon, the conference was treated to an unforgettable workshop guided by Jeremy Stockwell, a leading consultant in the art of communication. Having worked with leading politicians and business leaders throughout the world, Jeremy was able to enlighten the conference with his skill and perception in a thoroughly entertaining and physically active series of activities. His work gave delegates insights into learning and communication which nearly all found to be challenging and inspiring.

 

The morning’s three workshops were re-visited, with each delegate being given the opportunity to describe what they were able to take away from the conference. The overwhelming feeling was that a real community had been formed by the day’s events. What had started out as a collection of disparate educationalists with commonly held values had become an actual group of people intent on keeping in touch for the purpose of supporting each other and sharing ideas and practices. If there is going to be a change in primary school education, the academics, teachers and parents at the conference know that they will be that change.