Walton-le-Dale Community Primary school
Developing creative thinking across the curriculum
The aim of this project was to develop,
through peer mentoring, opportunities
that enabled children to think creatively
in all learning situations. The project was
carried out by a group of 6 teachers in
years 4, 5 and 6.
The project objectives:
 Focus on a particular thinking
strategy – de Bono’s six thinking
hats – and develop ways of
incorporating this strategy into
existing planning.
 Target a group of children and
monitor the impact on learning.
 Use peer coaching as a means to support professional development and to focus on
the quality of children’s learning.
It was envisaged that the project be used to gain some understanding of the underachievement
of girls within the school, to see if the use of thinking skills would provide a learning
environment where risk taking was acceptable and impact on the variety, depth and
sophistication of pupil responses across the curriculum. Further the team of teachers
undertaking the project were, and are, relatively inexperienced, 4 out of the 6 with less than 3
years teaching experience, so the project would be used to support professional development
and team building.
The project took place over the course of the autumn
and spring terms, with the autumn term spent
becoming familiar with thinking hats and finding
ways to use this strategy within planning. As the
project developed, time was spent setting up a Peer
Mentoring strategy within the team, so that the first
round of mentoring could take place before
Christmas. In the spring term the second round of
peer mentoring was undertaken and the project
evaluated.
We believe that peer mentoring is
about…
 Partnership – 2 heads are better
than one.
 Support – working along side
another teacher.
 Sharing ideas
 Evaluating practice
 Feedback
 Development
Evaluation and monitoring
This was done through:
 Individual class teacher’s evaluation of the strategy within their own classroom
practise.
 Peer pairs evaluation of children’s learning.
 Phase 2 summative evaluations of peer mentoring and thinking Hat strategy.
 Team leader summative evaluation of impact of the project on the whole team.
Impact
Many teachers reported the ease at which children accessed the thinking strategy and found
the coloured hats a useful way to categorise different types of thinking. The strategy has been
used successfully in Literacy lessons. In particular Year 4, where children where asked to
evaluate their work using the Black and Yellow hat thinking, children focused on the good
aspects of their work and then areas that needed improving. In observing the lesson it was
clear that the children had a vehicle with which to organise their comments, thus avoiding ‘it
was good’ responses. The black and yellow hats were also used successfully to evaluate other
areas of work, for example in PE where children performed and discuss sequences of
movements.
Year 6 tended to use the Green hat as a tool for
generating ideas and this developed work in both
DT and Art. The teacher wanted to encourage
children to think more widely about possibilities
for their work. In DT the children took a
fairground ride and generated lots of possibilities
for how it could be changed. Initially the ideas
where slow in coming, because the children
wanted to rush on and make their own ride, but
persistence paid off and at the end of the lesson
the children were genuinely pleased and
surprised by the number of ideas they had
created. The principle of considering a range of possibilities has been transferred into art
lessons, so that children are beginning to develop the ability to think more widely about their
work.
In discussing the impact of the strategy with teachers many felt that using Thinking Hats
enabled children to take more risks. It is too early yet to measure the impact the project has
had on girl’s lack of self confidence. However what the project has highlighted and focused
attention on, is the need to develop children as independent learners and give them the
confidence to generate ideas and ask questions. The team felt that the work carried out was
beginning to tackle the reluctance of children to go further with their work and that very early
steps are being made into tackling the attitude that ‘once work is done it is done’
This project has had significant impact on the professional development of individual
teachers, laying the foundations of a team, who
are willing to take risks to develop good practise.
We agree to create a climate where
The most valuable part of this was the decision
we…
taken by the team about the type of professional
 Trust each other
atmosphere that would be created in-order for
 Are willing to share ideas
Peer Mentoring to take place. Subsequently the
use of peer mentoring has opened a dialogue
 Seek to be non-judgemental
between individual teachers within the team,
 Do not put on a show
which is impacting the level of discussion during
 Maintain confidentiality
and outside of team meetings - there is a greater
desire to share practise and reflect on children’s
learning. Teachers have walked into each others
classrooms to talk about what has happened in a lesson and begun discussing ideas in the
staff room at lunchtime or the end of the day.
Within the scope of the project peer mentoring had a specific focus. In evaluating the process
many felt that having another pair of non- threatening eyes in the classroom, gave them
useful feedback. Focused observation on specific children help provide a detailed insight into
how specific children behaved in the classroom, for example one girl who in a group task
took on the role of secretary and waited to be told by others in her group what to do and one
group who completely dismissed the suggestions of one particular boy, even though the ideas
were valid and sensible. These observations often confirmed or extended the classroom
teachers suspicions. The debrief session then provided an opportunity to develop strategies
for supporting these and other children’s learning. All teachers felt that peer mentoring was
worthwhile and would in future decide on their own focus. This is in essence the root of peer
mentoring and perhaps it’s slightly directed use was unwise, but it was felt that employing
this strategy would provide a model to build on. The school will in future allow staff the
option of requesting peer mentoring as an alternative to attending a course.
One methods used to track children’s progress was a questionnaire which was targeted at a
specific group of children. On reflection aspects of the questionnaire were problematic. As a
team we could not be sure how honest the responses were from some of the children – girls in
particular. Concern was voiced that some girls they gave the answers that they thought was
expected of them or were afraid to give an honest answer and so proved a point that school
has highlighted relating to girls. In future in might be better to discuss learning with the
children in small groups and/or give out questionnaires to the whole class
Where next?
One member of the team, a year 5 teacher, was asked to attend the Philosophy for Children
Day and returned to school so transformed by the experience that both year 5 classes started
immediately to try the strategy out within their own classroom. A phase 2 meeting quickly
followed with the enthusiasm generated by both teachers infecting others within the team. All
teachers are in agreement that there is a need to develop children’s independent learning and
set a question – How do we create a community of enquiry?
Over recent weeks teachers have tried out ideas within their own classroom and shared their
practise. The team have generated a series of questions, which over the course of the next six
months we hope to answer.
A
In what areas of the curriculum would this work?
In a weeks timetable how often should there be lessons like this?
B
How would you measure success/ children’s achievement?
How would you record/ assess children’s progress?
How do we measure impact?
C
Does this style appeal to all children?
Year 5 have completely reorganised their classroom, in order that children can talk to each
other. They have also created a questionnaire, asking the children for their opinions about the
new changes in the learning environment and want to see if children’s attitudes change by the
end of the year. Year 4 allowed children to generate question at the start of a history topic and
are now questioning what to do with this - QCA says one thing, but the children are
enthusiastic about something else! Suddenly the pace at which questions are being asked and
difficulties faced has increased, however these are questions that are being asked by teachers
as they reflect on their own practise and seek to develop children’s learning. There is a sense
of ownership over the events that are happening. It is challenging but exciting.
In conclusion was the project worthwhile? Most definitely! It has been a launch pad into
developing and extending both children and teachers thinking about their learning. It has
facilitated the development amongst staff of risk taking and the hope is that this atmosphere
is increasing transferred to the children within phase 2.