Something was missing, and we couldn’t work out what it was.
At our trust, Academies for Character and Excellence (ACE), we have written and designed our own curriculum. Rather than being based around projects, topics or discrete subjects, the curriculum is based on pupil experiences and is underpinned by three core values: academic excellence, character and metacognition.
Since introducing this curriculum, our outcomes have been very good. Ofsted and local authorities were raving about it and had asked us for a copy. We were visited by the curriculum and assessment review committee and spoke at conferences about curriculum reform.
But, as a trust leadership team, all of us felt there was something more we could do.
Ownership of learning
So, what was the missing link? We formed a project group to find out. In this group, we talked, listened, drew, planned, trialled, pondered and discussed. We kept our own records of meetings, wrote down our thoughts and reflections and bullet-pointed ideas to share. We read and highlighted passages of interest.
Then, as a group, we shared what we had learned, using our notebooks to relive our own independent learning journeys.
It was at one of these meetings that a headteacher reflected on the progress the group had made and pointed out how nice it was to be able to look back through notebooks and see how our thinking had grown and developed.
“We should get the children to work like this,” he said.
That throwaway comment turned out to be the missing link we had been looking for.
We realised that the overall curriculum experience in our schools needed to be guided not just by the content of teaching, but by the process of learning. We had to give more ownership of learning back to the pupils. They had to learn how to become independent learners - able to collaborate in the same way we had done; able to reflect and evaluate; and, ultimately, able to recognise their own infinite potential.
What is reflective journalling?
The idea was that, in place of exercise books, each pupil would have their own reflective journal: a large, unlined notebook. These are not draft books, project books or scrapbooks. The aim is for pupils to use them to track their learning across a variety of experiences, and to record that learning in any way they like. This might be through charts and diagrams, conventional paragraphs, bullet points or illustrations - the options are endless and dependent on the learning context.
We pitched the approach as a trial in the first instance. We had a series of meetings with headteachers and key staff, in which we decided on the principles that would underpin our vision for reflective journalling.
We were convinced that using the journals regularly would help pupils to make progress, and we weren’t wrong.
Five schools conducted the first trial and used reflective journalling across a term. Our evaluation of this trial was informed by discussions with pupils and staff, scrutiny of completed work, as well as parents’ views.
The anecdotal evidence was clear: the journals were supporting pupils’ learning.
How to introduce journals
So, where are we now? Reflective journalling is firmly embedded across all ACE schools, though we never insisted that schools had to adopt the approach.
Our results continue to get better, character development is obvious and our learners are able to think reflectively as part of the curriculum experience. Our pupils love using their journals and this adds to the level of engagement in lessons.
Meanwhile, our staff are learning from the children and virtually all use reflective journals themselves as an aid to planning. Our missing link is no longer missing.
For other schools that might want to trial a reflective journal approach, where should they begin? Our advice would be to first consider how well your curriculum promotes reflective thinking and allows pupils to record their learning in unconventional ways. For this approach to work, it has to be valued by the staff who have the responsibility of developing pupils’ use of it.
That leads to another important point: pupils shouldn’t be expected to begin journalling without guidance. Teachers must discuss what should go into the journals and stress to pupils that they are not merely “scrapbooks”. Explain to them that no two journals should look the same; the idea is to promote independence and help them to take ownership of their learning.
Nick Hind is trust excellence director and deputy CEO at Academies for Character and Excellence
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