Teachers TV: Independent Learners: A Classroom Approach - Primary

This programme looks at the experience of a school where teachers allow the pupils to influence what they learn. Although staff at Kippax Greenfield Primary School, near Leeds, operate within the framework of the national curriculum, they deliver it in an unusual way. Pupils are encouraged to shape the way they learn about 'light and dark' by a process of discovery and enquiry, prompted by their own 'brain-shower'. Year 1 teacher and deputy head Kirsty Beresford talks frankly about how such independent learning has transformed the way she teaches and plans lessons. She describes herself as a facilitator rather than a teacher and reveals that her entire planning for a topic over a half term can be achieved in one 'brain shower' session. She also talks about independent learning sometimes requires teachers to supervise 30 different lessons rather than teach one lesson to 30 pupils.