Penryn College: Using the Discovery Framework in Tutor Time

Posted: 01 August 2018

Rep, Sam Hardie, shares her school’s approach to helping students understand, contextualise and personalise the Discovery Framework terminology. Through the provision of template tutor time plans, she arms teachers with resources to explain the Discoveries and their importance, whilst recognising their relevance to the IDEALS, school code, and Christian beliefs.

Author and position: Sam Hardie, English Teacher and Round Square Rep

School: Penryn College is a co-educational school situated by the White River in the province of Mpumalanga in South Africa. The school serves over 1200 day and boarding students from both the local area and neighbouring countries.

Introduction

I was new to the position of Round Square Rep when I attended the Round Square International Conference in Germany, which launched the Discovery Framework to the Round Square community. I was struck by the opportunity this offered to permeate Round Square through the school and gain buy-in from the school community to ensure everyone feels like a member. The common vocabulary had the potential to influence all areas of school life and help demonstrate that Round Square is not just about going on conferences and exchanges, but it’s what we are doing at school every, single day.

Planning

I began by reading the launch resources and sharing them with colleagues, inviting them to use the resources in their syllabuses. A number of staff were particularly intrigued and could see the opportunity to embed character education into their own lessons. In the English department, for example, we saw how the language could be used to unravel character and plot in given texts, and our Head of Pastoral Care & Discipline saw an opportunity to use the language to create a common ground for our pastoral care approach.

Activity

Together with the Head of Pastoral Care, I looked at the 12 Discoveries and picked out the 6 that I thought would be easiest to build a tutor time plan around. Together, we created discussion sheets which tutors use to prompt debate in their pastoral tutor time around a single Discovery.

Within the weekly slots of tutor time (3 sessions of 15 minutes each) we already have a dedicated pastoral care session. This presented an ideal time in the schedule to engage in these discussions. Given the short time available, we recommend to teachers that they focus on one Discovery across three weeks.

The discussion sheets encourage the students to consider the meaning of the Discovery (an example definition is provided to the teacher) and then discuss why this Discovery is so important. Students are then asked to consider how they exhibit this Discovery in their personal lives, and how it manifests in school experiences and our Honour Code. Finally, they consider how the Discovery links to each of the IDEALS to broaden their awareness of the definition’s application to different areas of our Round Square work. The discussion sheet concludes with supportive Bible verses demonstrating the importance of this Discovery within our Christian belief system.

The discussion sheets are intended to be flexible; teachers are able to prompt their own discussions and respond to the interests of the students in their group.

Challenges

• Getting the conversation started – In the beginning, the discussions with students were stilted, but this improved as the students got used to the words and the discussion approach. They began to come out of their shells and were soon able to talk engagingly about the relevance of the Discoveries to their personal life, school life, South Africa and the wider world. By examining the Discoveries in this way, they were able to understand that the Discoveries are real, usable skills and turn what may appear as abstract ideas into concrete learnings.
• Getting staff onboard – It has also been a challenge to engage the entirety of the staff body. I am hoping to overcome this by engaging more staff in Round Square junior conferences to inspire their commitment and build a wider network of informed and engaged advocates in the school.

Impact

The Discovery Framework discussions have had a positive impact where it has been used. The students have begun to understand that school isn’t a separate thing to life. They understand that the work we are doing in the classroom and outside of it helps them become better equipped people for the future.

The future

As well as producing the next six Discovery discussion sheets, I am looking at ways to improve the visibility of the Framework. Staff will be encouraged to display the Framework in their classrooms and consider ways that they can use it in their own subject areas.

Advice

• Start small – As there are so many ways that you can use the Discovery Framework, it can be a bit overwhelming. Pick one area that you want to tackle to get it off the ground.
• Encourage advocates – Find other staff members who are excited by it and give them the freedom to come up with their own ideas. Share resources, for example, lesson plans produced by Round Square. Seek senior management support.
• Keep up communication  – Find little windows of opportunity to keep the Discovery Framework in the minds of staff as that’s when ideas spark. I have put up posters of the Framework and the Spirits in the section of the staff room where teachers make their tea and coffee and I’ll email any lesson plans Round Square creates to the relevant subject department.