Small Schools’ Support Group - Learning
to Learn Conference – 19th October 2005
This successful conference, funded by the county’s
small primary schools (<120 0n roll), was
attended by 70+ delegates from both small and
large primary schools.
The day involved workshops / demonstrations
by representatives from Buzan Centres UK Limited
and the SI Group. The aims and objectives were
:-
- To demonstrate easy to use Accelerated
Learning principles and techniques in action
- To create a powerful, positive learning
experience for pupils and staff
- To significantly raise awareness of how
easy it can be to absorb and retain knowledge
- To stimulate the further adoption of Accelerated
Learning principles in the classroom
The morning session involved 61 Y4, Y5, Y6
children kindly ‘loaned’ by Miserden
and Slimbridge Primary Schools. The presenter
delivered a Buzan Brain Friendly learning experience
on the theme of ‘The life of Marco Polo.’
Several of the core principles of Accelerated
Learning were demonstrated :-
- Mind mapping
- Story techniques
- Peg systems
- The 8 intelligences
- Multi-sensory learning
Both children and delegates found the two one
hour sessions enjoyable, interactive and stimulating.
It was amazing to discover how much information
had been absorbed by both adults and children
as the focus moved away from Marco Polo in the
second session to counting to 10 in Japanese,
listing the planets in order of distance from
the sun and naming the last 10 British Prime
Ministers in chronological order. Above all
the experience was FUN!
The afternoon session involved delegates moving
between two workshops:-
Creating Magical Results outlines tools and
techniques required to enable people to ‘do
things differently’. It focused on the
three areas involved in leadership :-
- Vision
- Belief
- Strategy
Creating Magical Results explores the science
behind why we do what we do and the way we do
it, and how emotional intelligence plays a major
part in rewiring our brains, in order to be
able to do things differently to meet the changing
needs of today’s world.
Creating a Learn to Learn School sets out to
:-
- give school leaders a clear understanding
of brain friendly learning and strategies
for embedding it throughout a school.
- give school leaders the ability to contextualise
decisions, statements and actions alongside
the overall vision of the school.
As with the morning session both these workshops
were entertaining, stimulating and above all
practical.
Buzan Centres UK Limited offer several programmes
suitable for individual schools, groups of schools
and larger conferences. More information can
be found on :-www.buzan.org
The Small Schools’ Support Group would
like to thank David Haworth, Area Education
Officer, for his part in organising the conference.
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