Boys Flying High in Early Literacy at Camp Hill Infants State School
In contrast with concerns elsewhere that many boys in the earliest of school experiences lose their way with literacy, those at one school in Queensland, Australia, have consistently performed well. In comparison with Statewide average scores on tests (The Year 2 Diagnostic Net), designed to identify those children with need for additional attention in their early reading, writing or numeracy, boys of Camp Hill State Infants School have been outstanding. In this presentation, educators from the school and a critical friend speak to the phenomenon of gender-different achievement in early phase education, and to their beliefs about what is happening in their school.
Researching Caped Crusaders: The Boys Flying High Project in Early Literacy at Camp Hill
Boys at Camp Hill Infants State School have not yet learned to fail. Their superior performances in reading, writing and numeracy on The Year 2 Diagnostic Net in relation to State averages for Year 2 children generally, and for other boys particularly, are indicative of a sturdy resistance to factors seemingly inflicting their peers across the State and nationally. Newspapers, TV and radio, sensitive to public interest in the phenomenon, have interviewed the school's children, teachers, principal and university associates, all of whom speak positively about this result and the learning environment in which the boys have done so well. In this presentation, the principal, a critical friend and his critical colleague consider recent research of the management practices used at the school, pedagogical adaptations made to better suit boys, how Camp Hill SIS's boys appear to become engaged in the education process, and how school and home sustain boys' interest in learning.
Historias de mi barrio: contemporary art in a community at high risk of social exclusion
Abstract Historias de mi barrio is a piece of pedagogic research aimed at highlighting the way art can articulate the relationship between the educational context and a neighbourhood at high risk of social exclusion. The starting point for this study was to ask whether this type of research, centred around the arts, was suitable in complex contexts and whether it might eventually lead to pedagogic improvement. The results gathered, and indeed the work carried out by the artists and university lecturers involved, together with pupils 6–12 years old and their instructors in a state school, provide evidence of a positive answer – and notably of the necessity of knowing about the socio-economic reality of the student cohort when planning learning projects and of the importance of the arts as a crucial element in education.