Increasing Boys Access To Writing Through The Outdoor Environment

Increasing Boys Access To Writing
Through The Outdoor Environment
Tanya McDonald and Melanie Scull
Hazelbury Infant School, Enfield
PROJECT FOCUS
Learning Relationships
and Interactions in the
Classroom
Students as Researchers
Project aims
This project aimed to explore the following question: by identifying where boys prefer to learn
outside, can we enhance these areas so that the boys can independently score higher in
writing assessments?
Dimensions of the study
A total of 150 children from five Reception classes took part in the project. The teachers
tracked the different areas that children accessed whilst in the outdoor learning environment.
They then enhanced the areas by providing more writing opportunity provisions. The teachers
then focused on ten boys whose characteristics matched the characteristics of the year group.
The boys collected specific data about where they liked to learn outside and took part in mini
interviews with their teacher about what it is they do in the areas that they preferred learning in.
Summary of findings
By making the boys collect the information for the research and show us where they liked to
learn through play we were able to enhance and extend the mark making opportunities for
them as individuals. As these children were a representation of the entire cohort we can
surmise that we were able to extend and enhance the opportunities available for all of the
children. More mark making activities were independently carried out by children in all six
areas of learning.
This research has shown that in the future if we want to improve the Early Years Foundation
Stage Profile scores in a particular area, we need to find out where the children are actually
playing so that we can enhance the provision in that area, having the greatest impact on the
results.
5 R FOCUS
RESPONSIBILITY
READINESS
RESOURSEFULNESS
RESILIENCE
REFLECTIVENESS
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
Year Two Case Study
CONTEXT
The School
THE PROJECT
Developing this rationale
Hazelbury Infant School is a five form infant and nursery school. All five
reception classes were involved in the project. The school is situated in
Edmonton, North London, a diverse community with significant levels of
deprivation and the proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals
and who have learning difficulties and/or disabilities are each more than
double the national average.
Children at Hazelbury Infant School often come to school with little or no
previous learning experience and many are EAL (71%) or SEN (38%)
which can make accessing the curriculum more difficult. It is essential for
both teachers and learners at Hazelbury to have tools for learning that
improve motivation to learn and are accessible regardless of ability,
background or educational need.
The proportions of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and who
speak English as an Additional Language (EAL) are higher than in the
great majority of schools. There are 51 different minority ethnic groups
represented in the school, of which Turkish speakers form the largest.
The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile is the statutory recording of
assessment at the end of the Reception year. 80% of this assessment
should record what the children can do independently, because of our
children’s lack of pre-school and learning experience they find it difficult
to access the curriculum and therefore score low marks on the
assessment criteria.
Hazelbury Infant School was involved in Learning to Learn Phase 4 and
the impact of Jane Skipper and Tanya McDonald’s TASC Wheel
Programme Initiative can still be seen across the school. Hazelbury
Infant School values the influence of educational research on practise
and encourages members of staff to develop their practise through
conducting action research in their classrooms.
Personnel involved in the project
Tanya McDonald is a Reception teacher with three years experience;
she is currently responsible for outdoor learning. Melanie Scull is an
Assistant Head Teacher with fourteen years experience; she is currently
responsibility for Early Years.
There are five reception classes supporting this project, the individual
data collection is coming from one reception class which has 30
children, 22 of whom have English as an Additional Language (EAL) and
7 are on the Special Educational Needs (SEN) register.
If we can identify what the children enjoy doing, especially the boys then
we will be able to develop the provision in that area so that they are
independent working at a higher level.
Research Question
By identifying where boys prefer to learn outside, can we enhance these
areas so that the boys can independently score higher in writing
assessments?
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
Boy 1: Autumn born child, Afro Caribbean in ethnicity, English as his
first language. Reluctant to take part in mark making activities.
Boy 2: Spring born child, Eastern European in ethnicity, English as his
second language. very quite in nature, lacking understanding in
English. Parent concerned
Boy 3: Summer born child, Afro Caribbean in ethnicity, English as his
first language. Bubbly, energetic and independent, clever but unable to
focus to reach his potential.
Boy 4: Summer born child, Somali in ethnicity, English as his second
language. Bubbly, energetic and independent, clever but unable to
focus to reach his potential. Lacking boundaries at home which
impacted at school.
Boy 5: Summer born child, Siberian in ethnicity. English as his first
language. Clever with the potential to achieve well, needs to be
pushed to fulfil potential.
Boy 6: Summer born child, Turkish in ethnicity, English as his second
language. Energetic, loud child, limited spoken English, lacking in
understanding. Lacking boundaries at home which impacted at school.
Boy 7: Spring born child, Somali in ethnicity, English as his second
language. Lacking boundaries at home which impacted at school. One
of several sibling who were supporting his development.
Boy 8: Spring born child, Turkish in ethnicity, English as his second
language. lack of spoken English and understanding, developmental
problems with motor skills and control. Lack of boundaries.
Boy 9: Autumn born child, Bengali in ethnicity, English as his second
language. life threatening medical issues which effected the amounts
and types of attention his parent gave him. Some spoken English and
understanding, had the potential to do well.
Boy 10: Summer born child, Turkish in ethnicity, English as his second
language. Server medical needs, deaf in both ears. Very little spoken
English, limited spoken Turkish. Worked with 1:1 support.
Information on each of the boys chosen for the research project
Year Two Case Study
RESEARCH PROCESS
Teachers’ choices
The entire reception year was chosen to take part in the action research.
To investigate the impact on individuals 10 specific boys were chosen to
demonstrate where boys preferred to learn. These boys would reflect the
characteristics of age, ethnicity, language spoken and attitudes towards
learning that make up the entire year group. Therefore if the changes
had an impact on them it would also have an impact on boys from the
other classes.
Evidence Collected
Initially to start the research we decided to investigate the distribution of
children in the outdoor area. This would allow us a general over view of
where the children like to learn to start from.
The second step would be to give the boys identified for the project a
camera so that they could record where their favourite places to learn
were. These boys would be interviewed about their photographs to gain
further information about why they chose these specific area and what it
was that they enjoyed about them.
An audit of writing opportunities in these areas would then take place
and all reception staff would be asked to develop the writing
opportunities in one or more of these areas. After a month the evidence
would be collected again so that a comparison can be made and any
trends identified.
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Distribution of Reception children outside.
Date / Time
Area / Time
Gender
5 min
10 min
15 min
Quite Area
Physical
Home corner
KUW
20 min
Year Two Case Study
25min
30 min
In March we audited the distribution of the children in the first thirty
minutes that they were allowed access to the outdoor area. We audited
boys and girls separately to investigate if there were any major
differences between the areas which the children access and the
amount of time they spent there. The audit took place at five minute
intervals to highlight any movement between activities. See below for
blank and an example of a completed audit.
Creative
Sandpit
Gardening & Digging
Under shelter Sand pit
Under shelter Construction
Small Houses
Bikes
Climbing Frame
Music Area
Reading Area
Writing Area
Messy Play
PSRN Area
Mark making boards
Creative Cascade
Not engaging
Other (see notes)
Total number of children
Completed audit (example)
Blank audit sheet
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
Year Two Case Study
Boys Distribution Total - 6th March 2009
\number of children
80
70
5mins
60
10mins
50
15mins
40
20mins
30
25mins
20
30mins
10
0
Number of children
Girls Distribution Total - 6th March 2009
35
5mins
30
10mins
25
15mins
20
20mins
15
25mins
10
30mins
5
0
Results of March Audit
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
The audit showed that the boys and girls favoured different areas of the
outdoor provision, with the boys preferring construction, physical, bikes
and climbing frame areas significantly more than the girls. Also we found
that there was fluctuation and movement in the areas which the children
were working in, showing that the children were flitting from area to area
and not focusing for longer periods of time.
The most significant finding from the audit was that it highlighted a vast
number of children who were not engaging at all with any areas of the
outdoor provision they were just running around on occasions stopping
other children from focusing on the area they had chosen.
The children, both boys and girls, who were not engaging was a
significant worry so we decided to pause the research to address this
issue before we moved on.
Year Two Case Study
support outside was changed so that one member of staff went around
encouraging the children who were still not engaging to choose from a
fan version of the visual timetable. Support and advice was offered from
a specialised teacher from Enfield and we utilised a INSET day to visit
another setting’s outdoor provision and work with the specialist teacher
to improve the breath and quality of provision which we had available.
Lunchtimes were also changed to a different area so that the children
understood that the outdoor space was a learning area at all times.
Climbing Frame
Writing Area
Example of photographic prompts for the interview
Although we knew that we needed to address the issue of the children
not engaging first we did carry on and interview the chosen children so
that we had a baseline to work from. We were able to work with nine of
the children chosen because the tenth child had problems understanding
and became distressed so we released him from the project.
Visual Timetable
After discussion with the year group team we devised visual timetable
for outdoors so that the children could choose an area of learning before
they left the classroom, we also gave the children tours of the outdoor
area highlighting the extra activities that were new that day. Staffing
Ten boys from reception were then asked to take pictures of three
different areas that they like to play in whilst in the outdoor area. They
were then individually interviewed by an adult and the same two
questions were asked.

Question 1: Why do you like to play in that area?

Question 2: What do you do in that area?
The picture profiles and comments from the first four of the ten boys
given in answer to the two questions are given below.
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
Boy 1
Year Two Case Study
Boy 2
Picture1: small house/picture 2: physical under shelter/ Picture 3: bikes
When shown the pictures, boy 1 said:
Picture1: climbing frame/ picture 2: small house/ Picture 3: bike
When shown the pictures boy 2 said:
I like to play football with my friends, I kick the ball.
I play with my friend on the climbing frame, I like the blue wall.
I like to ride the bikes.
I play with my friends in the house, running games.
I play monsters with my friends.
I want to play on the bikes because I want to.
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
Boy 3
Year Two Case Study
Boy 4
Picture1: bike/ Picture 2: writing area/ Picture 3: climbing frame
When shown the pictures boy 3 said:
Picture 1: bikes
/ Picture 2: climbing frame / Picture 3: small house
When shown the pictures, boy 4 said:
I like to play on the slide.
I like to ride around on the bikes.
I play with the letters because I need to learn my sounds, I say
the letter names.
I like climbing and coming down the slide.
I like the scooter and the big scooter, I ride them.
I like climbing up the house.
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
As you can see the boys tended towards the more physical aspects of
the outdoor provision, so these were the area where we tried to enhance
Year Two Case Study
to include other areas of the curriculum. For example by adding driving
licences to the bikes to the children had to practice their writing before
being allowed to ride on the bikes.
Photographs & Choices March 2009
10
9
8
Number time chosen
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
e
M
us
ic
Ar
ea
Re
ad
in
g
Ar
ea
W
r it
in
g
Ar
ea
M
es
sy
Pl
ay
PS
M
R
ar
N
k
Ar
M
ea
ak
in
g
Bo
Cr
ar
ea
ds
t iv
e
Ca
sc
ad
e
ke
s
Fr
am
Bi
bi
ng
Cl
im
KU
W
Cr
ea
t iv
e
G
Sa
ar
nd
de
ni
pi
ng
t
Un
&
de
Di
rs
gg
he
Un
in
lt e
g
de
rS
rs
an
he
d
lt e
Pit
rC
on
st
uc
tio
Sm
n
al
lH
ou
se
s
ca
l
or
ne
r
C
Ho
m
e
Ar
ea
0
Ph
ys
i
The other boys comments are summarised below:
Boy
Photographs Comments
chosen
5
Creative play
I paint pictures, I like to make pictures.
Messy play
I build something and walk over it. I like to
Construction
build stuff.
I like to find the treasure in the sand, I play
with the sand.
6
Small house Riding faster, racing my friends.
Climbing frame I like climbing up it because it’s high.
Bikes
I like to sleep, I like parking my car and
going inside the house.
(Turkish translator)
7
Climbing frame I read some books, I like it.
Reading area
I like to go down the slide.
Construction
I want to build a rocket.
8
Climbing frame I play with my friend.
Small house
I go down the slide.
Bikes
I eat lunch in the house.
9
Bikes
I like riding on bikes.
Physical under I play football.
shelter
I climb up.
Climbing frame
10
When given the camera to take pictures, boy 10 did not really
understand the task. He just stood looking and did not want
to take the camera and started getting distressed
Q
ui
te
Hazelbury Infant School
Areas
Summary of pupil interviews in March 2009
In July we audited the distribution of children again to investigate the
impact of the project (see graph overleaf.) The audit showed that the
boys still favoured some areas more than the girls, e.g. knowledge and
understanding, sand pit, construction, bikes and create cascade area,
but that now they were also accessing a wider range of areas outside.
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
Year Two Case Study
Boys Total Distribution - 17th July 2009
25
Number of children
20
5mins
10mins
15
15mins
10
20mins
25mins
5
30mins
0
Number of Children
Girls total distribution - 17th July 2009
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
5mins
10mins
15mins
20mins
25mins
30mins
Results of July Audit
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
The most significant change was that all of the children were now
engaged with learning outside showing that the interventions we had put
in place had been effective. We could confidently now enhance what the
children were learning about and through in the outdoor area with
worrying about whether they were learning.
Year Two Case Study
Boy 5
Sand Pit
Gardening & Digging
Example of photographic prompts for the interview (July)
During the week that the distribution checks took place we also carried
out the interviews with photographs with the same children. See below
for example responses. In the second set of interviews after writing
opportunities were developed in the outdoor area. The ten boys were
interviewed again by the same adult and the same questions were
asked.

Question 1: Why do you like to play in this area?

Question 2: What do you do in that area?
Picture 1 climbing frame/Picture 2 digging area/ Picture 3 sandpit
When shown the pictures, boy 5 said:
I like to play on the blue wall.
I look for mini beasts and put them in pots.
I make sand castles and dig deeper.
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
Boy 6
Year Two Case Study
Boy 7
Picture 1 water butt area/ Picture 2 bikes/ Picture 3 small house
Picture 1 writing area/ Picture 2 creative area/ Picture 3 bikes
When shown the pictures, boy 6 said:
When shown the pictures, boy 7 said:
I play with water and put it on the floor.
I like writing the cars.
I like to drive bikes.
I paint cars and bikes.
I cook cake in the house.
I go on bikes, I go faster.
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
Boy 8
Year Two Case Study
Boy 9
Picture 1 small house/ Picture 2 climbing frame/ Picture 3 bikes
When shown the pictures, boy 8 said:
I play games in the house.
Picture1 climbing frame/ Picture 2 bikes/ Picture 3 creative area
When shown the pictures, boy 9 said:
I play on the slide, I go down.
I like climbing on the climbing frame, it’s so big, I go down and
say wee.
I like driving bikes.
I like bikes because bikes go so fast.
I like to paint Spiderman.
Hazelbury Infant School
Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
The other interview outputs are summarised in the table below.
4
10
Although the boys are still choosing the more physical areas of the
provision these have been improved where possible to include
opportunities to write, count, practise their phonics skills or develop their
speaking through role play. The member of staff who can be seen
supervising the climbing frame is asking the children to give her a word
with a specific sound in it before the come down the slide; the children
waiting for the bikes have to fill in drive license forms. All of the children
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
e
M
us
ic
Ar
ea
Re
ad
in
g
Ar
ea
W
r it
in
g
Ar
ea
M
es
sy
Pl
ay
PS
M
R
ar
N
k
Ar
M
ea
ak
in
g
Bo
Cr
ar
ea
ds
t iv
e
Ca
sc
ad
e
ke
s
Fr
am
Bi
bi
ng
Cl
im
KU
W
Cr
ea
t iv
e
G
S
ar
an
de
d
ni
p
ng
it
Un
&
de
Di
rs
gg
he
Un
in
lt e
g
de
rS
rs
an
he
d
lt e
Pit
rC
on
st
uc
tio
Sm
n
al
lH
ou
se
s
Ho
m
e
C
ca
l
or
ne
r
0
Ar
ea
3
I just ride on them with two legs.
I like playing football and basketball
because I try to put it in the goal.
I like to slide on the slide.
Role play
I play in the kitchen and cook with my
Bikes
friends.
Small house
I go faster on the bikes.
I play with food.
Climbing frame I like climbing up on the climbing frame.
Creative play
I like painting pictures and making Ben 10
Bike
watches.
I like going on the bike everyday, I share it
and give it to a friend
Climbing frame I climb a lot and slide, that’s why I can do
Bikes
slide tackles.
Small house
I go on bikes because it makes me go
faster, I can run so fast, so I’m stronger.
I play x and circles with my friends.
Was not included after finding the process of the first round of
interviews distressing
Photographs & Choices July 2009
Ph
ys
i
2
Comments
Number of times chosen
1
Photographs
chosen
Bikes
Climbing
Physical
who were photographed had chosen the activities independently and
were access the curriculum at their individual level.
Q
ui
te
Boy
Year Two Case Study
Areas
Summary of pupil interviews in July 2009
CONCLUSIONS
The role of L2L
Taking part in the Learning to Learn project has emphasised the need
for children and teachers to seek an understanding of where the children
want to learn in order to maximise learning potential in our school. In a
school like Hazelbury with a diverse and challenging population of
students it is essential that children are empowered to take control of
their own learning and to understand this process. This links in with two
of the 5 Rs.
 Resilience, children learning to develop positive feelings
about learning, teachers, peers and resources
and
Hazelbury Infant School

Learning to Learn in School Phase 4
Readiness, children are developing self-belief and self
esteem.
They are assessing and managing their own motivation towards a task.
Using photographs and interviews has focused the teams thinking on
where the children actually want to learn not where we think they want to
learn.
Summary
By making the boys collect the information for the research it is clear that
we were able to enhance and extend the opportunities for them as
individuals, as these children were a representation of the entire cohort
we can surmise that we were able to extend and enhance the
opportunities available for all of the children. More mark making
activities were independently carried out by children in all six areas of
learning.
This research has shown that in the future if we want to improve the
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile scores in a particular area, we
need to find out where the children are actually playing so that we can
enhance the provision in that area, having the greatest impact on the
results.
Year Two Case Study