Independent Learning Days – What are they for?

Although in some ways these days could be justified by the fact that children are so enthusiastic about them or that they provide some variety in the year, there is more to them than that. The idea behind the day is that pupils plan and prepare their own work, on subjects of their own interest for one day each term. The degree of flexibility and independence does vary as they get older. We hope that on these days, children will be able to work on something in which they are interested even if it doesn't fit with National Curriculum plans.

We are taking a long term view and understand that for many children they will gradually build their ‘self planning’ skills over the years. Depending upon age, written plans are negotiated and submitted to class teachers who retain these to assure that there is some variety over the year. For many children these are skills that they will learn gradually and we accept that they won’t necessarily find it easy or productive in the first instance. In order to facilitate these days we move support staff around to ensure that even though the children will work independently of the teacher, there is still adult support available when needed.

The children are required to plan their day in advance and to bring in resources that they may need. This is done a week ahead so there should be no 'I need this for tomorrow!' surprises. There is a requirement that the children acquire new learning. These days are not for play nor are they to re-do an enjoyable activity they have done before.

The essential element of these days, which is perhaps less visible is that they free the class teacher to hold 1:1 learning interviews with every child in the class. During the day, each child spends about ten minutes talking about their learning, their targets and their welfare in school. Every member of staff has a proforma set of questions to ask children if they have any worries at school, how their learning is progressing and what they need to do next to move forward. These discussions are held away from the body of the class so they can be confidential.

We are evaluating and learning about these days as we do more but so far our own view is that they are a significant benefit. The striking aspect of children’s evaluations is that they seem to value the discussion as much as the opportunity to follow their own interests and to work independently.

These days are our own creation and there is no national replication, as far as we know, we are the only school which operates such a system. Parent views are very welcome.