News Blog
Posted on: 17/01/2017P4C Development for Staff & Students
In January 2017 we held our third course for the SAPERE Level 1 professional teaching qualification in Philosophy 4 Children for selected staff and students (our P4C Champions). This was a two day course attended by nine teachers (including the Chair of Governors) and twelve pupils (from KS3 & 4) and was a great success.
The day was led by Will Ord, a nationally known trainer and speaker, who specialises in Thinking Skills, Philosophy for Children (P4C), Religious Education and Citizenship Education. After the event Will gave us this fantastic feedback:
“Broadwater School has achieved the SAPERE Gold Award for its development of P4C, and it is so richly deserved. Congratulations to the staff and pupils who have worked so hard over nine years to make it such a success, one clearly recognised by their recent Ofsted report. Many educational approaches can be adopted by schools, but they often suffer from being a ‘temporary bolt-on’, not an embedded culture that can be experienced as much in the playground and corridors as in the classroom. At Broadwater, P4C is in the blood, affecting every organ of the school. It’s a very exciting and inspiring place to be!
In January 2017 they ran their third P4C “SAPERE Level 1” CPD course for teachers, but this course has a very significant & powerful difference. The two day course was attended by nine teachers (including the Chair of Governors) and twelve pupils (from KS3 & 4). All delegates were being trained in how to run philosophical enquiries – developing thinking & communication skills – with all the other students at Broadwater. The trainee students’ skills and attitudes were nothing short of exemplary, and they were a great credit to themselves and to the school. The “4Cs of Thinking” (Creative, Collaborative, Caring & Critical Thinking) were all strongly in evidence in how they contributed to every part of a very demanding course. Their focus, creativity, reasoning, and maturity were truly inspiring.
Political events in 2016 raised many questions about the quality of public thought & communication in some profoundly important elections. We are, as the media would have it at least, in a “post truth” world where reason, evidence, and trust seem to have been trumped by poor thinking, abysmal or absent values, & prejudice. If there’s an antidote to this corrosive dis-ease in our respective cultures, it surely lies in developing skilled & caring thinkers. The students at Broadwater embody the promise of that antidote, demonstrating that young people are more than capable of being very thoughtful in both head & heart. If the world seems to be getting darker by the day, spend some time with the P4C Ambassadors at Broadwater School; they bring sunshine to the daylight. It really was an enormous privilege to have shared time with them.”Share this event
Posted on: 1/08/2019
