I think that these papers outline all the important issues that students everywhere outline as being their concerns and the things they want most - they talk about a need for common rooms and relaxation areas, for a decrease in homework but projects (similar to coursework) instead, and the need for a better timetable with free periods and the subjects the individual students enjoy.
But furthermore, both papers raise more mature ideas that generally students won’t suggest but are good and would almost certainly be beneficial, for example, the longer school hours and the compulsory before and after-school clubs. These ideas would almost certainly help the students to gain important skills they will need after school and will be a fun place for the students.
The ideal school
Zoe D.
14 years
Gravesend Grammar School for Girls
England, United Kingdom
Our ideal school would have a flexible timetable, where students could choose their subjects/theme from year 8. By theme/skill, we mean a timetable that is similar to that of the Baccalaureate, where you continue with all your subjects but major in a certain area. We feel that this would be the way forward for schools because it would be most beneficial for the students as they could work towards their desired careers, right from the beginning of their school life.
Also, the students would work harder as they would be doing things that they like and enjoy. We still think that you should continue with most of your subjects until year 10 but that you should be given the opportunity to drop some unnecessary subjects at year 8. For example, if you do two languages in year 7, then you should be given the opportunity to drop one in year 8. If you do not wish to do so, then you can drop another subject of your choice, as long as it is not one of the following subjects: maths, English, science, religious education, information technology, physical education, music, art and at least one language.
We also think that you should choose two of the following subjects: history, geography, Latin and classical civilisation. This means that, at the end of your first year, you will be able to drop two subjects of your choice.
We think that the school day should start at 8:30am and finish at 4:30pm, but we think that the school should open for students at 7:00am and close at 6:00pm, giving the students a chance to join clubs and use the schools facilities. To get students to use this extra time, we think that it should be made compulsory for students to join at least one club and attend at least two before/after school homework sessions a week. This is because changes to the timetable will mean that students get free periods, which can be used for study or homework, but as there will often be no teachers present at this time, the after-school sessions can be used for the teachers to help the students with their homework difficulties, and so on.
Looking at the social side of things, at the present time, many schools still follow the traditional individual form rooms, which are used as teaching classrooms. We would like to build upon this idea and introduce a new and improved system, where the school would be organised into mixed house groups, where one house would consist of a certain number of people from each year, ranging from years 7 to 11. As a majority of schools separate the year groups, thinking that it is more beneficial for students to socialise with people their own age, we disagree. We feel that by introducing our house system, students will benefit more from mixing with students of a wide variety of ages, which opens up many opportunities, such as dealing with homework problems with someone with more experience or simply adding to your responsibilities, to make you feel more mature at a younger age.
We believe that vertical grouping would be largely more beneficial than the current horizontal grouping. It would also improve the levels of competitiveness on things such as sports days. Also, the older students will often be able to help the younger students with educational and social problems that the younger student’s peers may not be able to properly understand.
In our designs, as well as a social area within each house, we suggested that there should be a kitchen and dining area and a study area, which would be open from 7:00am to 6:00pm and could be accessed by anyone within that house group. This modification would prevent large crowds in the canteens, as students would have their own kitchen and dining area, which would encourage healthier eating, as students could bring in their own food, which is influenced by their parents from home. This would also help the students to teach themselves skills they will most certainly need in later life, for example co-operation and being able to cook.
With regards to the issue of homework, we thought that a radical change may be necessary for modern schools. Instead of the usual three or four, 30-minute pieces set each night, we believe that having two or three projects per year may be more beneficial for the students. These projects would include a wide variety of subjects and would take a few weeks to produce; they would be similar to a piece of GCSE coursework but would be longer and cover more areas of the curriculum. There will be built in study/tutor sessions in the timetable, and these may be used for students to do their homework under the supervision of a teacher who can help them achieve the highest possible marks. The students would have plenty of time at school to do their homework, what with the different opening and closing times and compulsory after-school sessions. This means that they could make full use of the school’s facilities.
Overall, we believe that big changes should be made to the school systems. Schools should change their opening and closing times, the number of subjects each student must take, the way they organise their students and the amount of homework each students is set. We believe that these changes would prove to make a much more efficient and beneficial school system, which produces more intelligent and capable students.
In an ideal world, how would schools be designed?
Student Aspiration Team
12-16 years
Penryn College
England, United Kingdom
In an ideal world, schools would have the following features:
• all years should be allowed double lessons;
• a longer lunch break;
• start school at 9:30 and finish at 3:30 or year groups start at different times every day;
• every year group should have prefects;
• every year should have a head girl and boy;
• breakfast canteen;
• a decent swimming pool;
• professional sports coaches come in and teach every month;
• less homework;
• shatterproof doors and windows;
• more modular exams (exams broken down);
• larger exam rooms;
• working heaters;
• larger corridors;
• larger hall;
• escalators;
• automatic doors;
• bigger canteen;
• open plan rooms; and,
• larger classrooms.
How would the ideal school be run and organised?
Beth P.
14 years
Gravesend Grammar School for Girls
England, United Kingdom
Our ideal school would have a theme/skills-based curriculum. We feel that a skill-based curriculum would be more suitable where we could link subjects to skills, which could benefit us when following our desired career later on in life. (If we were given the opportunity to select the skills that we would study, we felt that we could select the skills that would best suit us for our career). For example, some people feel that certain topics within mathematics are not required for a large number of jobs, for example, algebra, and therefore feel it is a waste of time to study it.
By introducing the skills, this would mean that students would be forced to start preparing for their future at an earlier age. At the time, this may increase the amount of pressure that they are under but we feel that, in the long-term, it would benefit them more and give them more opportunities and experience. This would give them a better idea of what life skills they possess and which sort of career is most suitable for them.
We would change the whole day timetable to suit our choice of skill-based subjects and our homework timetable would be different to how it is today. In year 7, instead of getting bits of pointless homework that don’t help with what you are studying, we would like to only have two or three long pieces of homework a year, which link in with cross-curricular. We feel that students will learn more and be willing to learn more if they have interesting pieces of work to do, rather than lots of pieces that they aren’t really interested in.
As we get older and get into years 10 and 11, we would have more work to do and the projects would correspond to the skill-based subjects we are learning about. We feel that the homework changes would be beneficial to all students and pupils would prefer it.
The timetable would be set according to the subjects that students take. We feel the school should be open to students from 7am to 6pm. This is because homework clubs and sporting activities could be run then and many pupils would choose to take part. During the day, we would still have one-hour lessons, and five of them, but students can choose whether they want to come before school starts at 8:30am and leave at normal school time, 3:30pm. We feel that many students will choose to leave school early and come for registration at 8:30am and not before, so we thought we want to make it compulsory so that, at least once a week, they have to stay before or after school and join in with a club.
We feel that houses are a more suitable way to sort students into groups than forms. This is because the houses could be vertical groupings, so all years could be mixed together. This enables new students to make friends with all year groups and not just the people who are in their own year or even form. Also, older students could help with work that the younger students don’t understand and that could be helpful to them when teachers are not around to help them.
Overall, we feel that we should change the normal timetable to a skills-based timetable because it would be more beneficial to students in later life and students wouldn’t have to learn subjects that won’t apply to them when they get older. We feel that students work better when they are working in lessons they want to learn in, rather than spending three years learning subjects that won’t be useful to them. Also, we feel that students should have two of three big pieces of homework to do a year, instead of pointless pieces that don’t fit in with the topic they are learning about. We feel that the vertical house system would be a more effective way of grouping the students and it would be more beneficial to them.
The personalising learning debate
Kingsbrook College
England, United Kingdom
We would like to submit our video and PowerPoint presentation on the following gateways:
1. School Design and Organisation
2. New Technologies
3. Curriculum
The link to this is:
http://www.kingsbrook.northants.sch.uk/plcssat/plcssat.htm
In an ideal world, how would schools be designed and organised?
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Anika
12 years
Leanyer Primary School
Darwin, Australia |
In a world of my own, I think about all the different things that may happen there. Lives different, landscapes different, behaviours different and schools different. I ponder over thoughts on what I might be able to do to make my school relate to the one I like to think about.
My ideal school would be happy. Students enjoying the company of teachers, learning useful things that will let them have a successful career. They will learn by hands-on lessons, not writing pages of notes from a blackboard. Frequent excursions give them an A++ on projects that involve them helping their community.
Of course, my ideal school is not all serious. The school would have great sporting facilities to help keep the students fit and there would be some fun in the daily activities (you must know how much we love to play sport!). There would be a swimming pool, a cricket pitch, a large grassed oval with football posts and soccer goals, a basketball court and hoops, an air-conditioned gymnasium and a great sport teacher to go with it!
There would be large classrooms and art and music rooms. Music lessons so that children have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. Computer labs and stage/ drama rooms so that we can have some fun with drama and performing. Daily routines would not be the same each day and recess and lunch periods would last for an hour to give us plenty of time to eat and catch up with some gossip. School would not start too early and not end too late in the afternoon. Class numbers would not be too big, so that students can have the help they may need.
The perfect classroom
Cam and Sam
Year 9
Nudgee College
Australia
Ideas on how the perfect school should be organised and look.
Click here for Cam and Sam's website
