Open plan classrooms/teaching areas

[Totallyfloaty35]

Saw a nice school,a few things put me off.Hardly any of the childrens work was on the walls,mainly in Reception/yr1. A bit more was up in year 2-3.But it was mainly stuff by the teacher.
Second problem (imo) was all the teaching areas were open plan,no dooors to classrooms,3 classes v close together.I stood in the middle area and got a headache.How do the children cope? Icould clearly hear every class and it was not even loud.What happens if one class is having a lively lesson,pop quiz or something.
Does anyone have a child at a school like this? Would it bother you?
Would French from Reception,amazing outdoor areas and free violin lessons for all yr3s outweigh any minus points for you?

The infant building at my Dcs school is like this, reception are separated by a linking corridor but yr1 and yr2 classrooms (so 4) are arranged around a central library; My children enjoy being in an open-plan environment but I guess it's all they know, certainly the atmosphere when you walk around is focussed and purposeful despite the lack of walls so to speak!!

And my DH says that only good,confident teachers teach in open-plan classrooms - if you think about this logically, I suppose he's right.

I'm afraid your DH is only correct if the teacher has a choice. I know a few weak teachers who work in open plan schools

this sounds bizarre. I would be put off by the idea for all the reasons you suggested. I would ask the school though whether this was a deliberate choice - it might be some new age education type of thing - you never know. I would not like it for my children though. Each class and each year group is unique and for children at that age their classroom becomes their own room - a larger room may intimidate children.

My first teaching position was in a new build open plan school with all classes opening onto a central hall with no problems. Oddly enough it was impossible to hear other classes in your room.
My present school was converted to semi open plan in the 80s by removing doors and part of the wall onto the corridor and to be honest I can hear every word the next door teacher says (she does talk loudly!)

I was taught in open-plan classrooms back in the 1970s. Can't honestly remember how it worked, but it never seemed to be a problem!

I've never heard of open plan like this.

a small point about the displays though, assuming you saw the school recently, they may not have done very much displayable stuff yet as it's only October?

French from reception would be a worry to me.

My primary school had a rebuild and was open plan- it was pretty awful tbh, far too noisy and confusing. I hated the new building.
The only nice room was a classroom on a mezzanine over the library... but I don't imagine people using the library liked it much!

Eh simbacat?

maybe French from yrR is worrying because it seems a bit 'pushy'? I don't know.

anyway Floaty, I guess the key is what does your child feel about it. if they would thrive in the hubbub it'd be good wouldn't it? or if they are shy and quiet it's a definite no.

This sounds like my dd's school. I've never had a problem with it, although I have known other parents who are put off by it.

My feeling is that the children get used to the whole school as well as their own classroom.

My children have told me that they can hear other teachers sometimes, I don't think it disturbs them, in fact it helps them get to know the other teachers in the school.[hgrin]

Open plan with class "bays" and shared areas aren't actually that bad to work in. I work in a few schools with that kind of setup and yes, while you can hear what's going on in the next class down - it actually works fairly well.

What is utter utter stressful hell is what I had in my last full-time post. The school, like many around here was built in about the 60s/70s when the LEA went for the open plan craze with a vengeance - and subsequently un-open planned when sanity kicked in at a later date. I still maintain to this day that they did that by getting blind drunk and sitting with the school floor plan and a ruler - the walls are in completely stupidly random places (and are magnetic... walls being magnetic just scares me).

Anyway - as part of that legacy you were left with three classrooms that you have to walk through to get to other parts of the school... one became the library, one was in the infants and one was where muggins got landed with. No walls for displays - because there weren't any chuffing walls and if you bluetack stuff to the windows that is laminated - a sunny day can melt the laminate TO the windows as a previous occupant had discovered! Not to mention two other classrooms and the dining hall opening out into my teaching area, and the delights of the boys toilets as well - so you spent your entire teaching day with kids trooping through the area, the toilet handdriers going off and kids interrupting you to tell you the boys toilets were flooded could you please sort it out (they never advertised the job as "keeper of the boys bogs!").

Then AFTER all that - you had the cleaners who were the most allergic to actually cleaning bunch you'd ever meet (school was permanently under a layer of about 3 inches of dust anywhere above eye level) who'd stand in my "classroom" for about an hour each night and discuss Ethel's hemarroids or the like. I ended up sitting with an iPod in my ears most nights in order to actually GET some marking done!

Oh and everything left on your desk was viewed as fair game for colleagues "just borrowing a pen/stapler/gluesticks"... grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Oh and half the school queued through the room for lunch... and if they'd had fish for lunch the place stank, added with me being the proud owner of the fartiest class in school (seriously some of the boys could blow a hole in the ozone layer when they let one rip) - nightmare room!

Thanks for all the replies, the school has an outstanding ofsted.Though we are very lucky that we have 4schools that are outstanding within a mile of our home.
I think my DD would probably like a quieter enviroment, she likes people to be quiet when she is concentrating.
I am very fond of another school i just saw, however none of her friends are in the catchment (or attend church) so they may not get in.
This is a whole new problem, do i send my baby to a school where she knows no one else?

I'm a speech therapist and I'd baulk at the idea of French in reception. I don't think they should start until 7 because you need to ensure that their "first" language is complete before beginning a second.

Also, the open plan would be a huge no-no.

Just my opinion.

What about bilingual families? The children don't have any problems. The same applies to very young children with English as an Additional Language they pick up English while speaking the home language without creating speech difficulties. Seems an odd thing for a SaLT to suggest.

Why odd?

Bilingual families have a native speaker.

I doubt these kids are being taught by a native speaker. That makes a HUGE difference. You're talking about the difference between learning a language and acquiring one.

Different mechanism.

And I never said it would lead to speech problems. I just thinks it's putting some kids at a disadvantage - those with poorer language skills (for English) will find it confusing.

I went to see a local school - outstanding oftead etc - but it was a definte no for us as I couldn't even hear the head talking to a small group of us standing just a few metres away. I found it hard to hear and to focus, and thought that the dc would have similar problems.

So now they're in a school with separate classrooms!

I would be surprised about there not being any displays - both DS and DD (in year 2 and reception) are onto their second lot of display work this term (and there are several displays at once).

I would find open plan annoying and discounted a school I was looking at partly because of that.

quietplease Wed 20-Oct-10 20:53:19 Why odd?
because all the current wisdom suggest that the earlier children are taught a second or third language the greater the future advantage.

Many non English speaking children are supported in learning English by non native speakers in schools and pre schools although admittedly there is also exposure to native speakers.

I'm sure the teachers do "zone out" and stop hearing the background noise but it's crap for the kids.

I used to work with deaf or partially deaf children and the open plan classrooms caused them loads of problems. Schools that were built in the 1980's were particular offenders and I've noticed a lot of them being adapted now to have separate classrooms because of the recognised problem with acoustics.

The French teachers are all native speakers,the school also has French clubs.

Mrz, I maintain that (in my professional view as a specialist in child langauge development), being taught foreign languages too early is detrimental unless it's done consistently (systematically) and with a native speaker.

I'm sure that many bright children gain from it but what about the others?

My own DD is 5;03 and she's still learning English. She makes grammatical mistakes (like irregular past tense) in her speech - entirely normal for her age. Until her first language is grounded, there's no way I'd attempt to teach her French. I did a French degree before I did SLT (thought I wanted to be a French teacher - I didn't....), but my French is nowhere near adequate to allow her to acquire the two at the same time.

IMO, "French" being taught at nurseries and in reception classes is for showing off purposes. Sadly, it does impress some people.

(Totallyfloaty - that's different, at least they ARE native - the places I know that offer foreign languages don't offer a native speaker)

quietplease as you said on another thread you are not a teacher so obviously aren't familiar with how French or another MFL would be taught in reception. We are talking about saying Bonjour Madame XXXX and learning some songs and simple labelling words not conversational French.