At Mattocks Primary School in Angus, learners are buzzing about, working together in groups and trying to decide how best to go about creating a colourful mask. After some initial excitement, the groups settle down and begin to concentrate on their work. This could be any scene at any school but for one important difference: today, it’s the parents who are learning.
When feedback to the school showed that parents wanted to know more about current education initiatives and how their children were learning, headteacher Fiona Brownlee was happy to oblige. One of the successful strategies employed by the school is co-operative learning, which sees children learn in a very structured way through collaboration and teamwork. Fiona and her staff at Mattocks hit on a novel idea to illustrate to parents how the technique works.
The children are the experts
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'The children themselves are the experts in co-operative learning because they’re the ones who are working that way every day,' Fiona explains. 'It was a natural step then for the children to lead the event, and because it’s an active way of learning it made sense that the parents would come in and be active. That’s what happened.'
Parents were invited to the school to take part in co-operative learning, and the school was delighted to see an excellent turnout. Pupils welcomed the parents and asked them to find the members of their group, using jigsaw pieces, and then sit at a table. One of the P6 pupils recalls some sense of bewilderment at that point, but with pupils’ help parents did settle down! 'After not knowing which group they were at they found a table to sit at,' he says. 'They all had to make a team flag or poster name for themselves.'
Building confidence
In a short presentation, pupils set parents the challenge of working together to create a mask. Leading the parents through each stage, they explained the academic and social goals of the project, the latter being encouraging others and everyone participating. 'I think it’s good from the perspective that children are leading the event, so they’re playing a different role,' commented one parent. 'It’s a more intimidating role! They’re dealing with parents and instructing adults what to do. It’s good to see that. It helps give them confidence.'
The pupils also enjoyed their new-found power. 'It was quite fun,' says Isaac. 'Everyone enjoyed it because usually mums and dads boss about the kids, but in this kids finally got a chance to have their time, to have their power over the adults and tell them what to do.'
The mysteries of school explained
Another parent felt that the event was very effective in helping her to understand what goes on in her son’s school. Prior to the open night, she had never heard of co-operative learning, and when her son came home from school and used this kind of terminology, it was a mystery. She feels that understanding his experiences is helping her to relate to him better.
Such was the event’s success that most parents expressed an interest in finding out more, and pupils suggested that next time, they could teach them German!
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