School philosophy days win award
A BRIDGEND primary schoool has become the first in Wales to receive the SAPERE Silver School Award, from a charity working to promote philosophy in schools.
St Robert’s Catholic Primary in Aberkenfig won the award in recognition of its commitment to the Philosophy for Children system, known as the P4C approach.
Teachers at the school say P4C boosts children’s reasoning and higher order thinking skills and helps them develop a high level of dialogue with older children using the language of reason such as counter-argument, making distinctions and giving examples.
Other benefits are increased self esteem, increased motivation and improvement in pupils’ communication skills.
It also provokes more thoughtful and reflective responses from the children during other learning situations, teachers said.
The school carries out termly P4C days, focussing on concepts such as friendship, heroes and villains, as well as using the approach within subjects such as RE and the arts.
On these days pupils take part in an inquiry related to the theme, explored at age appropriate level.
Activities have included Foundation Phase children deciding whether the monster is allowed to come to school and organising Disney characters on a Hero to Zero scale, with children giving reasons and agreeing and disagreeing with each other.
Junior children have used videos and songs to devise their own philosophical questions such as can you be friends with everyone and do you have to be able to speak the same language to be friends with someone?
The day ends with classes coming together and sharing what they have discovered and questioned.
SAPERE, founded in 1992, is the internationally recognised educational charity that promotes Philosophy for Children, known as P4C.
SAPERE aims to train teachers in philosophy for children which encourages them to think critically, creatively, collaboratively and caringly.
Around Britain 5,000 teachers a year are trained in P4C by SAPERE.
Children at St Roberts said the system has helped them learn as well as being fun.
One pupil,Keira, said: “It’s great to talk and explore about different concepts such animal rights and punishment” while classmate Alfie added “P4C is a way to collaborate and a way to hear other people’s opinions. It helps us to understand that people have a different opinion to us but this is okay.”
Head teacher Carmen Beveridge and deputy head Barbara Murphy, who is P4C Leader, said they were proud of the school’s achievement.
“This award has acknowledge the hard work of the staff and pupils in embedding this approach throughout the whole school,” said Mrs Beveridge.