Message from Junior School

There are many ways we learn and many ways we can support learning. This week the learning focus is on Making Links. When we are able to make links, we can flounder intelligently. There must be multiple times in our lives when we don’t know the answer, have the information on the tip of our tongue or just genuinely don’t understand. Almost automatically we start to make links, weave a web of understanding, join the dots and make connections. We make links to helps us flounder intelligently rather than flounder. 

Our focus on Making Links promotes the idea of floundering intelligently. We can’t possibly have all the answers, but what we can have is a system of processes which helps us to find the answers. For example, students at school often say, “I’ve done something like this before”, they are making a link to a previous learning or an experience. Students say, “I know how to do this, we do it at home”, this is quite common and allows the learning at home to flow through to school and vice versa. Students say, “This is like playing…”, when engaging in a similar game, they are bringing their prior knowledge to an experience. Teachers hear what children say and ask and link together the understanding children have, in order to grow each child. 

It is important to remind students that learning isn’t just occurring within the classroom or school. Everything we do is a learning experience and helps us to grow. When we make links between learning that has occurred in our lives and things we know, we start to see this more clearly and value learning as an exciting process which occurs all the time. 

Parent Teacher Interviews will be held in Week 9, we value this time as an opportunity to make links between home and school. Both parties, staff and parents can bring together what they know and are aware of and can build connections to foster growth. We look forward to sharing with you. 

Claire Dalziel 

Head of Junior School