I'm very taken by the Ministry of Stories idea...
Imagine a multi-disciplinary, topic-based curriculum in which children
learn in an immersive environment that is
tailored to a specific theme,
eg;
Year 1 learn about Robots in their Robots Topic. They come in on the first day after the
Half Term to a classroom that is full of robots of all shapes and sizes. They play with them, photograph them,
draw them. During the course of
the Topic, they learn about electricity, including how to wire circuits that
make robots move and make their eyes glow. They learn how to build robots from Lego, K’Nex and from
junk boxes. They create animations
of their robot’s adventures using Stop-Frame Animation. The films that they make are shared
with the world via Youtube. The
children watch their own and their friends animated adventures at home. They write stories about their robots
and dramatise them. They learn
robot dances. They learn how to
programme robots, how to calculate like robots and they collaborate together to
create huge robots that live in the classroom with them for the duration of the
topic.
Year 2 have a Pirates Topic
for the Half Term. When children
come into the classroom on the first day the classroom is dressed with Jolly
Rogers and treasure chests. Every
child is given an eye-patch and immediately makes a skull and crossbones
T-Shirt that they wear as their uniform every day of the Topic. They have Pirate names. They count their gold in Numeracy,
recount their pirate adventures in Literacy, read about other pirates in their
reading time and explore maps in their hunt for treasure. They go to the seaside to smell the
sea, to look at boats and ships and to plot their adventures on the High Seas.
The next time I'm in London I plan to take a trip to the Ministry of Stories.
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