Borgue Primary School
Borgue Primary School is a small village school a few miles from Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway, with a round 30 pupils in two classes, P1/P2/P3 and P4/P5/P6/P7. The school has an Eco School green flag and has won an Enterprise Education gold award.
Barry Litherland, headteacher, discusses the whole-school programme
Problem solving at Borgue Primary School is not focused on strategies. Rather, pupils undertake investigations, perhaps based on the environment, during which they will naturally encounter different problem solving strategies. As and when the strategies emerge, teachers and pupils will discuss them and make them more explicit.
Barry thinks that there are great opportunities for exploring maths in a relevant context - he mentions a ‘mathematician’s town trail’ in Kirkudbright, which pupils produced a couple of years ago. Pupils develop skills in a context that means something to them, and this provides a solid framework for future knowledge and understanding.
Teachers at Borgue Primary have a range of resources that they have developed themselves. These are clearly linked to aspects of the 5-14 curriculum in terms of the agenda that might emerge. Barry also uses a number of ICT resources - for example, Floor Turtles with P1/P2/P3 pupils and Imagine Logo with P4/P5/P6/P7 pupils, which helps them to explore angles, bearings, shapes and coordinates.
| Barry Litherland describes an investigative approach to problem solving | |
|---|---|
| Description | Barry Litherland discusses the school's use of investigations in problem solving allied to learning in a real context. |
| Duration | 2 minutes 28 seconds |
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| Transcript | Barry Litherland describes an investigative approach to problem solving |