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Case Study: Why Clermiston Primary School Asked All 460 Pupils, Have You Ever Been to a Museum?
Case Study: Why Clermiston Primary School Asked All 460 Pupils, Have You Ever Been to a Museum?
Date of posting
Date of posting
16/08/19
16/08/19
Article 31 of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child states:
Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.
This case study is about an Edinburgh school organising cultural visits for pupils. The visits aimed to reduce poverty of experience and boost vocabulary. The benefits of cultural learning for literacy, numeracy and social and emotional skills were identified in the Cultural Learning Alliance’s 2017 Inspire Nation Report (to read, click on the link to the right)
Reducing the vocabulary gap
Gordon McIntyre is Head Teacher at Clermiston Primary School. A story about a barbecue inspired one part of Clermiston’s approach to reducing the attainment gap. Gordon explains: “I was struck by something that Professor Sue Ellis at Strathclyde University said about the vocabulary gap. She described children in a class reading and/or writing about a scenario involving a barbecue. Some children found it very difficult and she discovered afterwards that a large number of them had never actually been to a barbecue. We discussed that reducing the vocabulary gap with regards to poverty is more than literacy programmes but needs to be linked to real life experiences and discussion.”
What is the attainment gap?
The attainment gap describes the difference in literacy and numeracy levels between pupils living in poverty and pupils not affected by poverty. So for example at preschool level, children from higher- income households significantly outperform those from low-income households. By age 5, there is gap of 13 months in vocabulary.
Read more: click on the link to the right
How a school can challenge poverty of experience:
The leadership team at Clermiston Primary wanted to see if there were links between attainment levels and children’s experiences. They designed a survey of experiences that are common to most or almost all children. They asked questions including:
Have you ever splashed in puddles?
Have you ever been on a boat?
Have you ever been to a castle?
Have you ever built a den?
Have you ever been to an art gallery?
The full survey is published at the end of this post. The team made some conscious choices about the survey. Gordon explains:
“We put no weighting on an experience e.g. a trip to the beach is a trip to the beach whether it was near or far. We then surveyed our full school of 460 pupils, from Primary 1 to Primary 7 classes and collated the information alongside information about the pupils maths reading, writing and attendance. The higher the score, the larger the experience gaps.”
A school working as a ‘cultural lever’
The results were used to organise visits for children with high poverty of experience scores, but low literacy and numeracy scores. Currently all Scottish schools receive an extra premium of £1600 per pupil, per year for pupils who are classified as living in poverty. This is known as Pupil Equity Funding. This money is given directly to schools. Clermiston used some of this money to fund the visits. But mainly the money was used to finance high quality staff to plan, implement and analyse this project. The children could experience visiting places close to home they had not had the opportunity to visit before. The same places that people from around the world travel to Edinburgh to see.
Designing cultural visits to enhance experiences and extend vocabulary
The programme of real-world experiences for groups of pupils supported by school staff included:
Travelling on public transport and finding the right bus stop for the National Museum of Scotland. Navigating the museum, (asking directions, using leaflets, reading signs) and drawing the animal exhibits.
Travelling to the Royal Mile by public transport for the Free Fringe Festival, spotting famous Edinburgh landmarks on the way, spending pocket money, having a picnic and being in a bustling, crowded place.
Going to the beach at Portobello -which is in a different part of the city to the school - building sandcastles, playing beach games and eating ice cream.
All these activities were identified as opportunities for children to enhance their experience and their vocabulary. The pupils are regularly invited to feedback to the Head Teacher about their experience and are always given time to talk through with each other and with supporting teachers.
Assessment and impact:
There are a number of tools which Clermiston use to assess the impact of this part of their Pupil Equity Funding work. The main ones are:
Pre and post analysis of pupil literacy scores.
Pupil’s own testimony using the Leuven Scale.
To see these click on the link to the right
Because this is the first year of the programme, results are still being collated, however it is important not to overlook one basic result - children who had no direct experience of a number of common life events now have this. The approach resonates with research highlighted in Jeniffer DeWitt’s 2018 Potential of Extended Cultural Residencies for Young Children article which included analysis of the impact of MPSM pilots:
“Research and theorisation around early years learning also highlights the importance of a range of rich, first-hand experiences for learning and development, as well as the opportunity to reflect on such experiences.”
To read: click on the link to the right
We wish Clermiston every success with the project.
Poverty of experience survey (below) reproduced with the kind permission of Clermiston Primary School
Have you ever been to a…
Have you ever..
When you’re at home do you like to…
Is there anything you would really like to do that you have never done before?
Further Reading about cultural visits supporting language and communication skills and personal social and emotional development
Cultural Learning Alliance: What is Cultural Capital?
To read, click to on the link to the right
How to use Museums and Galleries to improve pupil’s literacy
To read, click to on the link to the right
Transforming Practice at the Science Museum - Science Capital explored
To read, click to on the link to the right
Jemma from Heritage Insider, shares her personal insight:
“Coming from a working-class household, both of my parents had full-time jobs. As I was growing up there was never time for museum trips, art galleries or forest walks. My parents were not exposed to any of these institutes or luxuries themselves growing up, my Mother came from an extremely deprived family and my father came to England from Palestine aged 19. My parents did not purposely keep us away from museums, galleries etc, they were just never exposed to this world growing up either.
Once I became a young adult, I felt very alienated from museums, nature, arts and heritage, they felt like words and places I didn’t understand and part of a class I didn’t belong too.
It wasn’t until I became a mother that I gained more confidence to engage and started to discover more about what was on my doorstep and look further afield. I now know the value of what museums, nature, arts and heritage can bring to the life of a child. Playing catch up in my 30s has been very hard, every day is a school day and my eyes have been opened to a wonderful world of endless opportunities. A world so inspiring that I decided to take a career change and fully immerse myself into the sector.
I often wish I’d been exposed to it all much younger, especially now working in the heritage sector. It has shown me how important it is to help all children experience this some times hidden world! As an adult I am now discovering the wonder that is our history, the amazing and fragile ecosystem that surrounds us in nature, the personal wellbeing that is gained from the arts and the opportunities that can come from helping a child find and loose themselves in this creative world.”
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