From the Chalkface

by Steve Hoggins

I had a breakthrough with one of my pupils this week, all initiated by a great learning support mentor who has also helped with our Young Philosophers group (a termly meet up of children from across Lewisham who are good at philosophy, and who don’t normally get these opportunities. The aim of the group is to inspire children, raise attainment, and also for us to keep in contact with children who would benefit from extra support).

Our class had a new arrival last term, an extremely quiet pupil who wasn’t making friends and refused to speak in philosophy. The quiet pupil was assigned a learning mentor after the first few weeks and a couple of weeks after the learning mentor approached me to say that this pupil had been talking about philosophy in their one-to-one lessons.

Posted by on 17th March 2015 at 12:00am


Category: Education, P4C

Tags: P4C, Young Philosophers, Steve Hoggins

TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM: Do as I do.

By Andy Day

INSET day yesterday. Hello teachers, I’m one of those people that come to your school on the first day back from holidays and interrupt your preparation for the coming term with power points of wisdom on how to teach.

I like to start by finding out something about what the teachers want, and what their beliefs about education are. Yesterday, one of the ideas that was mentioned – and generally agreed with – was ‘risk-taking’; the staff wanted their pupils to be willing to experiment and explore, and not to fear making mistakes, particularly in Maths. I agree with this aim, but… it’s ironic to hear it coming from teachers.

Posted by on 6th January 2015 at 12:00am


Category: Education

Tags: Education, Maths, Critical Thinking, philosophy, philosophy in schools, philosophy for children, Andy Day

Working with Concepts

Philosophy is not part of the curriculum so why on earth should anyone spend time doing philosophy with their class?

Posted by on 26th November 2014 at 12:00am


Category: Education, P4C, Philosophy

Tags: P4C, philosophy for children, Philosophy in the classroom, Conceptual Learning

Stoic Week Philosophy Session Plan

Here’s a lesson plan for Years 6 and up (and able Y5s) on Stoic-related themes for Stoic Week. Draw from it what you want. Taken from Peter Worley‘s forthcoming book, 40 lessons to get children thinking [September 2015].

Posted by on 25th November 2014 at 12:00am


Category: Education, P4C, Philosophy

Tags: philosophy for children, philosophy in schools, Stoicism, Lesson Plans

Improving Writing Through Dialogue

by Peter Worley

One of the most common questions put to me when I do training on facilitating dialogues with teachers, especially when I’m doing training with secondary school teachers, is: ‘All this dialogue stuff is great but how can we transfer all this on to the page?’ or, words to that effect. I think the answer lies in the question itself: is to transfer the fruits of dialoguing onto the page. But how?

To read the entire article and found out how go here: Innovate My School

Posted by on 5th October 2014 at 12:00am


Category: Education

Tags: philosophy for children, philosophy in schools, literacy, dialogue, Peter Worley