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Child’s view: My world

In this video you'll hear from Alex, Bella, Christina and Freddie from Evendons Primary School, discuss their thoughts about school.
9.1
My name’s Alex. I’m Bella. I’m Christina. I’m Freddie Austin. I go to Evendons Primary School, and I’m in Year five.
21
In our school, I like the balcony so you can see the flowers, and the sky, and the clouds. And our play area is outside. In the classroom, I like the trays where you can keep your stuff in, just ‘cause otherwise I don’t like going back to my bag. I just like being in a tray as well, and then no one else has to look at your stuff either. The displays on the wall are really nice. A lot of the display on the wall is like, work we’ve done. So it’s good, because you can like remember, you go like, oh yeah, I did that work, and you can feel proud of it.
55.2
I mean, during a test, it’s very helpful, ‘cause if you’ve forgotten something, it will probably be up on the board. And it helps you a lot during lessons as well. So say if you were doing something about shapes, or the shapes would be up on the wall, there would be examples on the wall. And there would be also a topic wall to tell you about your topic. So if you were writing a story, there would be vocabulary of that topic up on the wall as well. Mentally, I like it when people are like relaxed. They’re not worked up at all. They’re ready to learn. And when the teacher is, you know, not generally had a bad day or something.
95.5
So it’s nice when everyone’s happy and things, and concentrated and focused.
104.2
I like PE, because I just get to move about, and I like moving. And it just like takes away some of my energy, and I get to have some fresh air as well. It’s good when the teachers take us outside and we do treasure hunts. So we answer one question, then we have to go and find the other number to get the next question. So it’s like you don’t have to be stuck in a classroom. You can go outside to learn new things. Well, the best thing what teachers do is like make the subjects really fun to do.
138.7
When we’re stuck, the teachers are like straight on to you to help you and it’s really quick they come to you, and it’s really good. I find it’s nice when they listen to you. So it means like if you’re struggling, they can help you to learn by maybe making it a bit easier or giving you some extra help. So Rob’s a granddad of one of the children at this school, and we have DT lessons and he comes in and helps us with DT when we’re making stuff. And he helps us with our engineering and he– the go-karts he makes are really fun to ride on.
174.3
At lunchtime, it’s really good. The area’s really big, so you got some space to go on your bikes, play football, go in the woods, build camps. It’s– yeah, the playground has a lot of area for you to go on. People do loads of different things. So some climbing trees, some play football, some do other sports, and some go on the scooters. I do gymnastics, because I like gymnastics, and my friends sometimes do it with me. And then other days, I play with some of the boys and climb in the tree.
210.3
Oh, I really like lunchtime and break time, ‘cause you get to play outside, and we get trusted like to have proper plates and proper knives and forks, because other schools probably have like plastic knives and forks and stuff like that. So when we come back in from lunch, my friends normally feel happy if like we’re all fine and– but some other people might be feeling upset. And when– if you had a problem at lunchtime, when you go back into the classroom, on Wednesdays, there’s a friendship group. So if you’ve had a problem, you can go and– into that friendship group with Lynne and talk about it.
251.2
It’s kind of different days, because sometimes you might be all relaxed, ready to get on with work, but sometimes you might be too relaxed and like you’re still acting like you still in the playground. And that’s the thing, you need to get your head out the playground and into the classroom.
271.8
I normally have breakfast, but I know some of my friends don’t. Like I know my friend doesn’t have breakfast, because she sometimes wakes up late in the morning, and she just bring in a bigger snack to make her feel like she doesn’t need to eat that much. I normally have Weetabix or porridge, because I think it’s like quite a lot to fill me up til lunch or snack time. Up until recently, I didn’t have breakfast much, and then I decided that it was– it was kind of like affecting my learning, because it meant I didn’t really have any food going through me. So I just felt like I wasn’t really– I didn’t have much energy.
312.7
So now I always make sure I fit in my breakfast.
318.3
Quite a lot of the time I– I come to school tired. It sometimes can affect me because it kind of can put me off my work, because my head isn’t like fresh and ready for the day. Some nights I could have about 11 hours sleep. Other nights, I may have like six. But I feel like when I am tired, I’m a lot more– I’m less focused, and I find I don’t generally listen as well. I think Monday’s a bit harder, because you just come back from the weekend going to sleep a bit later and waking up whenever you want. And then there’s this sudden change.
356
You get used to it, but there’s then this sudden change where you wake up early and you have to go to bed early– to bed earlier.

Children have to be physically and emotionally in the right place to learn, but that’s not to say they can’t have good and bad days, just like adults. We need to celebrate the fact that children know and understand a lot more than we sometimes give them credit for.

In this video Alex, Bella, Christina and Freddie from Evendons Primary School, share their thoughts about:

  • The atmosphere and environment in the classroom
  • Break and lunch
  • Teaching
  • Food
  • Sleep

Consider the following questions as you watch the video, is there anything that surprised you? Has listening to the children changed your view of children and of school?

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Supporting Successful Learning in Primary School

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