5/12/2008 7:35:00 AM
Daily Telegraph 12 May
Pupils are being taught in lessons lasting just eight minutes following claims children find it hard to concentrate for long periods. One school in the north-east is believed to be among the first in the country to place pupils in short lessons. Classes at Monkseaton Community High in Tyne and Wear are interspersed with frequent word games or sport. The technique is based on research which has found that memory develops most effectively with short bursts of learning repeated at regular intervals. The move comes as schools are urged to tear up traditional timetables in favour of new methods, such as short sessions of mental arithmetic or spelling, and topic-based teaching lasting up to a week. Reforms to the school day may be made by some schools as part of a new curriculum for 11 to 14-year-olds being introduced from September this year. Paul Kelley, Monkseaton's head teacher, said the methods would be extended to all GCSE classes from this autumn after a successful pilot programme helped boost pupils' results by half a grade in some subjects. "It may seem bizarre to teach an eight-minute lesson, break for 10 minutes to dribble a basketball and then repeat the process, but it works," he said. DT
General | Curriculum / Quality Assurance
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