Learning Walk

[Gezabel]

I wonder if anyone has done a 'Learning Walk'? I have read several articles on this subject and they vary considerably. We have an Area  EY advisor who is due to visit us for the purpose offing taken  on one of these walks. Any input would be gratefully received but especially if you have done one and received feedback (good, bad or indifferent!)

 

[Jules]

Hi Gezabel,

It's been a while since I've been involved in a learning walk! 

I remembered we had couple of things about them - 

Rebecca Swindells shares her experience of an Ofsted inspection in early 2020 in this article and she mentions the learning walk concept. 

And way back in 2019 the education team here at the FSF and Tapestry recorded a podcast about learning walks. 

These might be helpful! 

[Gezabel]

Thank you so much for this Jules. I did my learning walk yesterday. I was pretty chuffed when i was told that it was 'fantastic' !

[finleysmaid]

10 minutes ago, Gezabel said:

Thank you so much for this Jules. I did my learning walk yesterday. I was pretty chuffed when i was told that it was 'fantastic' !

so what would your top tips be Gezebel?

[Gezabel]

21 hours ago, finleysmaid said:

so what would your top tips be Gezebel?

MM! Good question. I think my tips would be to stay calm, be 'hot' on COELs, the three Is, Cutural capital and above all else know your children inside out!

I did a fairly quick 'layout' walk but we are in a community building and it didn't take long. I then chatted about the structure of our day , what happens at arrival, snack, lunch, hometime.

The real 'meaty stuff' was explaining what we do and why we do it. We have a small exploration station and she loved the way i described why we have it, what the children learn from it. It was pretty much the same in other areas construction, home corner, book area etc. 

Interestingly she was VERY keen for me to describe/explain why we have the displays we have on the walls. I recently changed the way we display the children's individual and group art things. I had read an article about how an outsider only sees the end product and that product on display tells them nothing about how the product was arrived at. We have a paramedic on display the children made. It is accompanied by their verbatim quotes and also by photographs of them in action creating it.

The paramedic has long, pink curly hair - totally the children's collaborative choices. The photographs show how they made it curly etc

We also have a big display called workers in progress - this has no text at all just photographs of busy children in action - mostly small/larger groups although a few individual ones too - that was received very well. It's a real talking point for the children, between themselves and with an adult. They are literally reflecting on their learning:-) 

I was asked about the learning intention for a couple of activities and though there were a few children doing the same activity the learning intention was not the same for all of them - that was a plus point.

I included how we ensure British values are embedded in every day practice. Explained about our new (and still in progress!) outdoor learning area.

Think that's about it and hope it helps. If i think of anything else i will pop back!

 

[finleysmaid]

Thanks Gezebel thats really useful feedback.My displays are definitely not a strong point at the moment....feel i may have lost the impetus over lockdown !! Loving the workers in progress idea...may nick that !!

thanks again. x fm

[Jules]

I'm so glad it went well Gezebel!  And thank you for the top tips as well - really useful. 😊