"My Mum is always telling me I'm not thick."

My greatest enjoyment in teaching My World at KS2 has been observing the changes in the children. One young lad at the start of the programme was unable to sit still, and often left the class feeling unwell. He asked inappropriate questions, never had eye contact, sat away from the group, was often disruptive, either verbally by shouting out, or by banging his desk or moving his chair.  

Then last week I was asked to join their music class. To my utter amazement this same boy was in charge of the computer and running through the music programme, which was being viewed on the whiteboard. He was fully engaged with the teacher, and sitting still! I sat with him and listened to his music. It was amazing he had created a great tune.

He then told me he how he loved music; as he spoke he kept eye contact and was totally present. He said he was dyslexic and I told him so was my sister and it has never stopped her enjoying a great life. I asked if he liked planes and had he heard of Virgin?  "Yes", he replied. I then told him the owner of Virgin was dyslexic. "Wow" he said "My Mum is always telling me I'm not thick." His eyes began to shine and as I left he continued his work unsupervised.

The VisionWorks for Schools programmes are designed to help schools celebrate pupils' own uniqueness, and this example shows how it works for him.  
                                                                        Nicky Pilgrim, VisionWorks trainer 

Teaching Emotional Intelligence - is it worth it?     

Anyone listening to Analysis on Radio 4 on March 13 would be forgiven for thinking that teaching Emotional Intelligence in the classroom is an aberration.

Fran Abrams, a self-confessed "sceptic", appeared to be on a mission to burst the "New Age" bubble and discredit it for a load of waffle, as she interviewed a number of people from all walks of educational life.  "I have problems with it," she told us.

She interviewed Professor Katherine Weare, the instigator of SEAL in schools; Richard Layard, Professor Roger Weisberg  - CASTLE - and Dr Neil Humphrey of Manchester University, among others, in an effort to find "hard evidence" that teaching Emotional Intelligence works.

And Abrams was fair. It's true; much more research needs to be done to find out exactly how effective these lessons are. But listeners were left in no doubt that they are effective. Roger Weisberg, when hearing the suggestion that EI lessons are similar to a "Tesco training school", disagreed. He said that the beauty of these lessons is that they "teach kids how to think; not what to do."

The overall feeling of the programme was that SEAL has made a good beginning but is too large and unstructured to make a national impact. More rigour is needed. Richard Layard is adamant that "we need more of these lessons but better ones."

So what we really need, I was left thinking, is a clear, structured programme that teaches students to be resilient, self-confident, empowered and empathic. Ideally the programme will consist of lessons that build on each other to create a comprehensive whole.  

Which is what VisionWorks is designed to provide . . .