Curious Minds

As a school for boys with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, it was hoped that the Change School programme could support implementation of a new secondary curriculum at Hope School. The Creative Partnerships ethos was felt to be in line with Hope's priority of equipping its young people with appropriate skills to take forward into adult life and develop lifelong learning. The focus of this particular project was the development of Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS).  

To begin with, staff came together to explore Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS), identifying existing school activities that were addressing and building these skills. Pupils were introduced to PLTS during a school forum meeting and were asked to think of ways in which they would like to develop these in their learning. 

Pupils came up with two clear strands:

• designing and building a go-kart
• developing Room 5, in which assemblies are held and where the school council meets

Andy Potter from NatSka (National Association for School & Youth Group Karting UK) worked with young people to assemble a go-kart. The process of building the vehicle and understanding the context and rules of go-kart racing both helped to develop PLTS.

For Room 5, Sophie Bower supported young people in the task of creating a moveable wall that could transfer to Hope’s new school building (Hope is in Liverpool’s Wave 2 Building Schools for the Future programme).She facilitated effective communication between school forums and staff meetings, setting up a blog for discussion and debate, including a voting system for specific aspects of the design. There was discussion about the function of the wall and how interactive and multi-functional it could be. The pupils wanted to incorporate graffiti, linking it to the functionality of the room. Zapp Graffiti incorporated into the design words chosen from a list created by students and voted for on the blog:  'life', 'hope', 'risk' and 'celebration'. Room 5 has been transformed by pupils into a creative interactive space that stimulates debate and reflection

• Pupils with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties quickly indicate when activities are not impacting on their learning through highly disruptive behaviour. The School Coordinator for Creative Partnerships reported that during the project pupils were engaged and eagerly participated in all sessions. 
• Pupils developed communication skills, demonstrated by the way they offered,  listened to and reflected on ideas
• Pupils decided how they would like to learn and worked independently and in teams
• Attendance and behaviour improved for pupils working on this project
• The school has become more focused on developing Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills  as a result of this project and this is evident throughout all areas of the curriculum

• Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills  (PLTS) are now embedded into the curriculum at Hope School. By developing an understanding of PLTS, staff and pupils have been able to take risks, co-learn and reflect on their own learning
• The school blog was an effective way of gathering views from pupils and staff, enabling objectivity and anonymity and will continue to be used.
• The school will build on learning from this project to develop the curriculum further and fully implement PLTS.  This is incorporated into the School Development Plan for the next two years