Thought teachers/parents of sons may be interested in this . .

[KnittingisbetterthanTherapy]

I'm both a teacher and a mum of two boys so will definitely be watching!

Extraordinary School for Boys

Rollacoasta - good to hear the boys in your school love literacy. Sadly ds's school do Big Writing and it's really put him off. Bizarre as it's supposed to be about encouraging creative writing, but ds, who was previously very keen and always writing, hates it. (Thankfully he's still keen on reading - too keen, must dash upstairs and check he is actually asleep not reading under the covers!)

On the Woman's hour interview Gareth Malone said that his programme would be good for many girls, too, but that girls were generally observed to be doing okay or better with the current (all indoor, staid) style of teaching). Meanwhile, most boys were noticeably under-achieving, hence why he was trying this "radical" approach -- and he found 39 boys a huge group to work with, so he couldn't include the girls as well this time.

I don't think his approach looks particularly "radical" but if the school needs to target boys achievement and gave him a group of 39 children I can understand why no girls were involved. It might have been nice to see a mixed group because it benefits girls as much as boys

be interested to see this too but agree that it isn't a radical new thing just i suppose he's someone good to promote it.

i watched a programme on teachers tv about outdoor schools i think in norway. was fab tiny children climbing up mountains .

southeastastra have you seennatures kindergartens? The children spend the majority of their time outdoors

The problem with tv programmes like this is that Gareth Malone will have had weeks to plan the few hours he spends with these boys and he does not have a whole class. This gives totally unrealistic expectations of what could be achieved, the number of staff alone required to keep pupil teacher ratios correct would in many cases make it impossible and I bet he had a skivvy to fill in all the risk assessments! It's a lovely idea and deffinately there should be more risk taking but I just wish these programmes were more realistic

yes mrz have got a catalogue from them somewhere! agree bulby but if just some time could be put into the curriculum for this would reap benefits.

\link{http://www.teachers.tv/videos/outdoor-kindergarten-back-to-nature\its online here} outdoor nursery

bulby we work like that on a daily basis I don't think it's at all unrealistic

cat64, just to remind you that this is on tonight !

Just starting now - hope you're tuned in?!

Really, really disappointed in the programme hope future episodes are better

mrz - I agree. Programme was dissapointing.

Got me thinking though about my DCs speaking skills. My eldest one is excellent. But my youngest one is terrible.

I have mentioned my concerns about him not speaking much at home on several occasions and luckily school are not concerned. But I guess after this programme I will be putting more effort into making sure he speaks at home. ( He's only 6 )

We decided that we needed to raise the status of speaking in school about 5 years ago and have seen the benefits in children's writing ability.