The Power of Active Learning

The Power of Active Learning


Jeremy Turner
Jeremy Turner
The Power of Active Learning
It was inspiring to walk around the school on Tuesday morning and see so much active learning going on in classrooms across the school. When students actively get involved in their own learning through practical tasks it really strengthens so many aspects of their learning and progress and boosts engagement. 

  • In AQA lessons with Mrs Isles, Year 8 students were actively involved in making predictions and discussing as a class the average cost of a wedding, before moving on to consider important facts about how to plan and manage real life financial budgets. Engagement was high and behaviour and attitudes to learning superb.
  • In Outdoor Education Beau and Levi were actually making a fire in the firepit and learning about the principles of combustion, alongside Mr Smith and Mrs Ayres
  • On the field in the sunshine, Year 9 students were actively taking part in a rugby game; putting their learnt skills into action under the careful supervision of Mr O’Kelly
  • Under the watchful eye and support of Mr James, Mr Mitman and Mr Harris, Year 9 students were doing some brilliant work on the trampette and mats in the Gymnasium and in the Body Mind Soul Gym they were rowing, running and even boxing!
  • It was finally a real treat to observe our stunning Year 13 A Level Dancers whose performance was being critiqued by the A Level Dance students against the clear examination criteria and markscheme. It was a great example of active learning in a performance context and peer assessment being combined to drive up progress to the very highest level.
All in all it was a superb snapshot of some great learning across our school community and a chance to see how active learning was strongly developing collaborative skills, encouraging risk-taking, demanding high student preparation, increasing engagement, improving critical thinking and even sparking creative thinking across a real range of lessons at BMS.
 
Besides viewing the photos that show the great learning taking place do click on the media clips to see the active learning first hand.

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