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Early Years and PRIMARY Opportunities at Laude Lady Elizabeth School | BayRadio
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Oct 29, 2024
Ahead of their Open Day, Lady Elizabeth School's Head of Primary, Tracey Skinner, spoke to Moody about their huge range of learning and play activities, top class facilities and life in general around the junior school.
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good morning this is Bay radio
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International on Thursday where I find
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myself back at the Lady Elizabeth School
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on the costablanca and this time talking
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slightly younger years and going
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straight to the top head of primary is
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Tracy Skinner good morning hello good
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morning I think it's our first time
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isn't it I seem to've met most people
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here but not yourself yet I think it is
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it's really nice for you to come and
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visit us well it's a pleasure I mean I
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have heard of you and the good work you
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do so head of primary you in a good
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position to give us an overview of you
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know what makes the primary and early
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years education stand out if we're
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comparing it to if you can compare it to
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any other options in the area um Lady
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Elizabeth primary as you can see it's
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vibrant it's a great environment
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children are super happy they're
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skipping around the place um and it's a
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fabulous place to learn not only does it
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have a very strong curriculum it's it's
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rooted in the English national
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curriculum so that immersion of English
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is there all of the time um but that's
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the great backbone to learning and then
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it's supplemented with all the skills
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knowledge understanding that comes from
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the IPC curriculum so children are
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really engaged it's is a we're able to
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make connections between lessons and
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when children as we know may able to
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make connections between topics subjects
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context knowledge understanding they can
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uh make sense of the world around them
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and are you in a good position where
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sometimes the younger the students the
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easier they absorb things more of a
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sponge especially when it comes to
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languages maybe they're learning to
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speak English here well we're in an
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absolutely brilliant position here at
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Lees because of course our younger
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children they learn through play and the
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best way to develop language is by
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playing with others by engaging in
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conversations so our younger children do
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they talk and chat away and the
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environment just enables them to do that
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as they go up through the school we're
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in as I say a great position where we've
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got Intensive English classes where
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children get that total immersion in
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lessons but they also get some really
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focused um lessons that improve their
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vocabulary their Les their language
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structures their tenses so that they're
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able to participate and really engage in
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the learning at the appropriate level
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now I I know the expression I've heard
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people use it to they amazing learning
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through a good struggle which sounds
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like you're putting them through it but
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how's that um integrated into to what
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you do on a daily basis well it's
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fabulous um when I first arrived I was
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thinking my goodness good strugg what
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does that mean so I tried to put it into
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a context for me so I understood it and
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um and I think the best way to to
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describe it is well first of all let's
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just find out the starting points for
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children where are we starting and where
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do we want to get them to and how can
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they recognize their points of learning
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along the way so for example you are
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beginning a subject you're beginning
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some a topic A A New Concept and it's a
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bit like riding a bike when you first
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get onto the the bike you need a little
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bit of structure you need a little bit
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of support so you may have stabilizers
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um it's it's a bit tricky but you manage
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and then just as the stabilizers come
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off it's not as easy as it was and I
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call this this is the best way for me to
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describe that's a good struggle you're
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almost there you're a bit wobbly but you
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know what you're doing it it's not easy
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you're not coasting it's you're not
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taking it for granted you're learning
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something new and this is what we want
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the children to be able to do at Lady
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Elizabeth we want them to recognize when
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learning is new when it's a good
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struggle when they're having to work at
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something so so they come away from a
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lesson going that's brilliant I know
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that now now um let's talk facilities
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because this always comes up when we're
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talking Lees when people arrive at the
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site obviously you have the primary and
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the secondary on pretty much on the same
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site here and it's the football field
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but what as far as the primary and early
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Years Learning facilities are employed
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what kind of resources you got for that
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age group age range oh my goodness it's
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so appropriate for our children they
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love being in the school out of the
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school in all of the different
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facilities so if we start from our early
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years we have got our classrooms which
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are set up for planning in the moment in
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our year one year two we've got some
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very closely attached classrooms which
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means that we can share learning we can
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team teach we can have those small group
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Phonics that really do Dev develop
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children's understanding um and skills
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in the area for our um children going
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all the way up through the school they
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swim oh my goodness it's such a a
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crucial um skill that children can swim
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from the age of pre- Nursery to um and
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they get a lesson each week all the way
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up through till to year six with our
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qualified uh PE and swim teachers we've
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got great out outdoor PE courts um I
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want to call them Fields but they're
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great grass areas where children can
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play learn and be together ICT rooms
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music rooms drama rooms we've got a a
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counselor here in just purely dedicated
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to primary she has her own area for
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children who wish to go and visit her
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we've got um our support for learning
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they've also got their own Wing as it
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were uh where children can go for just
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some a little bit of extra attention um
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to support them in in their in their
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subjects and then also if you wish to
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learn uh guitar or singing or music
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there's also facilities for that sorry
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I'll just add a flashback to my swimming
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pool at school it was outdoors in middle
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of England you could use it probably
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once a year or they made you go in
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anyway even if they had to break the ice
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first mine too I had to walk two miles
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down the road to get to it though we had
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to walk through the playground past
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classrooms and towel around you but um
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you learn from that sort of thing now
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let's talk about personalized learning
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because you how how do you cope I mean
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there's a fair amount of students here
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even at that early age and can you
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dedicate enough time to you know to
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personalized issues with individual
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students it's it's a really good
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question and it's a question that
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parents ask me often and it's a
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combination there's just not one key
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answer to this it's a combination of
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different things that we work upon first
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of all it's about understanding
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children's starting points and it's also
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about the relationship that you have
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with children it's about understanding
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how they learn and it's about
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understanding um the best ways to get
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you know that that great struggle that
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good struggle it's also about having
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very clear learning intentions we call
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them wagas we are getting better at and
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so for some classes you know we are
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getting better at and it might be a you
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know a drawing activity an art lesson
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but for some phonics English we break
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learning down into smaller groups
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Spanish um our e classrooms they're all
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broken down so that learning is very
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very much targeted at these starting
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points and going right back to the
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beginning when children recognize
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themselves as Learners they can also be
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part of that journey and so children may
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start by learning the basics of phonics
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but very very soon they're then reading
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small books I was sent um you know a bit
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of prep from your excellent marketing
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team here with some initials I I didn't
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know anything about support programs
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such as the eal El senn you've mentioned
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counseling already but also speech
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therapy so how do these sort of cater to
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such a diverse group how do you how do
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you put those into place schools love
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their initials and their abbreviations
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for things and la la is really it's
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about again you know children coming in
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different starting points of language if
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if you're a beginner language learner of
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Spanish you don't want to jump straight
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into a native speaking class you want to
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learn the basics first you want to be
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able to be able to say hello and goodbye
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and and have that basic conversation La
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is taking language for a non-native
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speaker and building up the Stepping
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Stones we may have a year group of say
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three classes but our Spanish we may
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have five or even six different groups
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some will be la which means that they
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are a a new learner to the language or
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developing learner of the language and
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then we'll have the native eal as I said
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we we're really fortunate that we're
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able to have that immersive English
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course for our children so that they can
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make rapid progress and speech um
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therapy is just a fabulous addition to
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our Primary School it just means that
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for our support for learning team we've
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got lots of tools in order to support
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our children and also our families now
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for young students um in the age range
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we're talking about well I guess a lot
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of us picture you know them learning the
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basics 1 plus one equals whatever but
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there's also the emotional side the
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emotional well-being side at that what
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can be a difficult age how does the
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school Foster you know that sort of
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caring side of
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things and this is about those
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relationships it's about having those
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amazing teachers that recognize the
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talents skills of every single child in
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in front of them but it's not just that
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there's we've also got a very strong psh
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program personal Social and Health
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education program which we run through
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and it's a progressive um approach that
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goes all the way from our early years up
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to year six which tackles some of those
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more challenging issues to do with their
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own
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well-being um we've got our school
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counselor she is amazing Mrs Talman and
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uh we also look to find more Innovative
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approaches as well we found out I I
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found some research the other day on
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average a primary school child will
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spend up to six hours behind a screen
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per day a day surprise yet they will
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spend only 5 hours a week playing
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outside now we all know that we get our
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best release of stress and energy when
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we're outside as adults we'll choose to
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exercise we'll go for walks we'll go for
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runs we'll go to the beach we'll go and
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look at a Vista somewhere children are
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the same but sometimes they're not given
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those opport OPP unities but not only
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just to be outside but also to play and
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to play with other children of the same
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language different languages different
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year groups and so we've um introduced
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this year our opal program outdoor play
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and learning which is really intended to
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support children in their
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relationships um with their emotional
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resilience and uh it's it's absolutely
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fantastic and as an extension of that
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there are the the plus clubs as as well
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and quite a number of them um so how did
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these sort of come into play this is
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like it would be sort of after school
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clubs that sort of thing that's exactly
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it yeah at the end of the day children
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can choose to opt in it might be karate
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it might be arts and crafts it might be
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um water polo but children have got a
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variety and and what Lady Elizabeth is
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really good out here is putting the
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balance in front of children giving them
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opportunities to either try something
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new or to develop something that they're
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good at Circus skills is incredible you
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see children who are walking on balls
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who when they first walked into the club
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you know a few weeks ago dropped a ball
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as soon as they they started to try and
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juggle it's trying to find ways to
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engage children that they've never had
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an opportunity to do before and
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presumably there would be plenty of
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contact with parents especially in the
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primary years how much do parents come
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into to play and how much can can they
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get involved um with the school and how
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much do you encourage them to get
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involved I suppose we really want
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parents to be our partners because once
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um the children the teachers the parents
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are all on the same page then you know
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that's that's when the magic happens so
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we try in in a variety of different ways
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from the very basic which is you've got
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a great phone app it's called dojo and
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you see there every day uh either a
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photograph of your child's learning a um
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reminder of of when learning takes place
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you know it's swimming today or um come
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and see our parents information meetings
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we've got opportunities for parents to
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come in and be Learners you know what
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does it what does it feel like to be in
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a math class and uh you know have to
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prove and reason uh some of those
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calculation strategies um of course
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we've got our usual parent consultations
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and and and reports but the most
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meaningful time is when parents'
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children and uh teachers talk and and
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share learning and uh next steps and
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then of course where the secondary
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school is preparing students for maybe
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higher education going to work or
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certainly leaving school in general
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you're preparing yours for the
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transition to to secondary um so
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there'll be a difference there um H what
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what do you do what what sort of
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initiatives and programs are in place to
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to ensure of that smooth transition
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whether they're staying here or or
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moving on it's a really good question
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and again another one that's asked a lot
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and what I would say is transition
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happens every single year for
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children and it's it's um knowledge is
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power the more you share that Journey
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with children the more you share what
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stays the same what's going to be
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different the easier it is for anybody
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to manage with change so from Foundation
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2 to year one there are things that stay
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the same there are things that are
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different all the way up through the
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school but when we're talking
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specifically about year six cuz I know
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that's often a sticking point for some
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parents what we do try and do is um
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we'll start round about now and uh
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children will come over to secondary
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school and they'll come with their own
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teacher and they'll come for a visit so
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they start to get orientated around the
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environment they have some really
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exciting lessons in secondary so they'll
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go into the science labs which are new
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and they'll have chemistry and all of a
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sudden things are being blown up around
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them and you know you've got gas coming
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out in all different colors from from um
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you know the the buns and burners and
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you know they just think it's magical
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it's a little teaser of what's to come a
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little teaser of what's to come um we've
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got tours moms and dads it's so so
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important that you also attend those
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because it's not just your children that
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are having the transition it's the
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parents as well and knowing again what
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stays the same and what's different
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having opportunities to come regular and
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often um see the new facilities find out
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what's different chat to the teachers
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and come along to some of those talks
15:00
because they're really valuable
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