Armathwaite School

Communities for Learning

Communities for Learning (CfL) works to strengthen and extend relationships between schools, students, and their surrounding community through a range of interventions, including whole-family learning, communal gardening, mentoring, and workplace-based training.

CfL in Armathwaite, Cumbria

The school set about devising a ‘learning curriculum’ for the whole school that would develop learners’ cognitive, personal and interpersonal skills. The learning curriculum has two parts: a teacher-directed curriculum and child-initiated independent learning, where children plan, do and review with each other and their teacher. For example, teachers help year 2 and 3 children to regularly review their own and peers’ progress in areas such as resilience, teamwork and problem solving.

Armathwaite’s approach builds on the idea that everyone has expertise: staff, children, parents and the wider community, which cultivates a strong sense of belonging and involvement in the children’s development as a whole. The school co-designs the curriculum with children, following their interests wherever possible; parents are also immersed in their children’s learning journey. Through a rolling programme of parents’ evenings, they help their children set targets for literacy, numeracy and learning skills. The school’s virtual learning environment allows children to practise and share their independent learning skills with their peers and parents. One child’s question on the community forum, ‘What makes a good leader?’, prompted responses from community members as wide ranging as a physiotherapist to the Chief Inspector of Police.

Outstanding outcomes

The focus on skills and independent learning has had a marked impact on learners’ personal development. Teachers describe how children have become confident communicators, independent and motivated learners, and good team workers. Importantly, they are also more able to articulate their learning, as Jenny Dixon explains: "They have the words to describe their progress, which helps them understand where they are going and how to stay or get back on track." A by-product of Armathwaite’s learning curriculum is that attainment, which used to be in line with the national average, is now significantly higher for all learners. A recent Oftsed inspection assessed the school as ‘outstanding’ across the board.

Laura (student), said of the project, “All our little brains light up and we make one big, humongous brain together.”

Parents have also been profoundly affected by the project. The mother of Jim, a participating student, had this to say about the project: “Jim has always relished child initiated independent learning and is very self motivated as a result. However, he tended to dominate and when working with others he prefers to lead and direct, often selecting younger children to work with who will fit in with his plans! After identifying this you were able to focus and develop Jim’s team working skills, making him aware of the importance of other people’s ideas and sharing tasks at all stages of the 'plan, do, review' process. Above all you taught him to listen to others from adults to the youngest members of the school. This has had many positive benefits, not least in developing different methods of learning, resulting in him leaving Armathwaite with a high level of achievement. Most important he is a much easier person to socialise with, as he can deal with and respond to ideas and criticism from his peers.”