Work and Money

“Ridgeway is a very good and successful school with significant strengths. Standards are high and teaching overall is good, with areas of excellence, and learning generally very good”, [Source the latest Ofsted report].

Very strong praise for any school and, if the pupils I encountered in the town centre recently are an indication of the standards expected, I would have to give them an A star.

Rushing to a job in Whitgift centre I was accosted by a young man doing a survey. He was 9 years old and he was part of a group of children - I later discovered, who were on a geography trip from Ridgeway Primary School.

“Cila is 10 years, she was charged with working with a group looking at pollution. 

“I’ve been asking pollution questions - about people’s cars … most of them answer my question but some are too busy and run away”, explains Celia

“I’ve learnt about crime and what they [people] think about crime”, says 10 year old Georgie.

According to a recently published review of primary education, the biggest review in four decades, teacher-pupil relationships in primary schools have been eroded by a focus on whole-class teaching and preparation for national tests.

Well, if my experience of Ridgeway is anything to go on, there are still some teachers using very creative teaching methods to motivate and teach their pupils.

Kathy Miller is the Geography teacher responsible for taking the Year 5 students on this little exercise. She says: “It’s part of their studies of their area, they’ve created questionnaires about areas that they think people in Croydon will be interested in ... they’ll then go back to school and use this as part of their maths lessons investigating different data”.

“It’s all to do with speaking and listening having the opportunity to speak to people they don’t know and also how to deal with people they don’t know.

Hear what the pupils at Ridgeway Primary School had to say about their lesson. Click onto link below.

Can you top that? What innovative tools does your school use to teach? Send us your comments, views or suggestions. Email [email protected]