St Margaret's RC Primary, Cowie

The class teacher was asked to choose one of the four mysteries contexts and she opted to investigate the Mary Celeste. She then attended two days of staff development where she met with other teachers to share ideas, resources and plan collaboratively for the topic.

The whole class then discussed how they were going to take the investigation forward and agreed on their ‘big’ questions - Why? How? Who? Where? When? What?

Together they identified possible resources for use and expertise with the local community.

Pupils then explored their big questions to ensure planning was built upon prior knowledge: what we think we know; what we do know; what we don’t know; what we need to know; and what we want to know. 

The main stages in the process were:

• the class set up investigative agencies and delegated tasks to groups
• visits from key ‘investigators’, for example Royal Bank of Scotland Fraud Investigation, Fire Service, were arranged to show how they applied investigative and research skills in their work
• class groups discussed the big questions, applying newly acquired knowledge and understanding
• groups began to develop theories and investigative lines
• children carried out collaborative and individual research to build up the characters in the story
• children constructed a group debate
• groups developed workshops and presentations for a wider audience that exhibited learning
• children evaluated and gave feedback on the quality of work produced and their processes as group learners throughout the task.