Case Study: The Royal Mews at St Michael's (Camden)
EYFS Lead Rowena Bernstein was determined to make the most of the LGfL digital collection 'The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace'. So she integrated it into all six areas of the early years curriculum.
The Challenge
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How can you make the most of a topic that fascinates pupils – princes, princesses and the tale of Cinderella – using it to enhance teaching & learning?
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How can you incorporate a major LGfL digital collection into your teaching and make sure it saves colleagues time at the same time as providing engaging lesson material?
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How do you bring to life the world of horses, Bentleys and golden carriages?
What did you do?
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A half-term project was born: Early Years leader Rowena Bernstein integrated the Royal Mews resource into schemes of work for all six EYFS curriculum areas.
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The curriculum materials embedded within the resource were used to offer a range of new ideas. Lesson plans were used as they were, and adapted where necessary.
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A selection of the many high-resolution images were explored on the interactive whiteboard with “rub and reveal” to disclose the photo. The quality and clarity of the images allowed them to be use as the basis for shape, space and measurement, including discussions about repeating patterns and symmetry investigations, e.g. how to create an arch tall enough for a ‘Royal Bee bot Bentley’!
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During Cinderella storytelling sessions, videos and relevant photos from the resource bank were used to enhance pupils’ understanding.
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The classes studied recurring patterns on the wheels of Royal Coaches; this developed into an activity where they designed new wheels.
What was the impact on learning?
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Interest and engagement in the subject provided many opportunities to develop confidence and vocabulary in speaking and listening, and there was a great deal of naturally-occurring imaginative role-play and storytelling, often on the basis of a single photograph.
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This generated focussed discussions and detailed observations, and generally supported speaking and listening opportunities.
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Thinking about colours used and other details helped build and enrich vocabulary.
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Pupils loved getting hands-on building Royal cars, coaches and stables, and were keen to share new knowledge and stories at home.
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Use of HD images generated focussed discussions and detailed observations, and generally supported speaking and listening opportunities.
Staff were also enthused by the depth and breadth of the resource, and now understand more than ever how the LGfL content portfolio can help teachers plan exciting and pedagogically-sound series of lessons. The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace is now an integral part of long-term EYFS planning at St Michael’s.
