Bryn Llewellyn (Founder of Tagtiv8): The benefits of active learning in schools

In this episode, Claire talks over the internet with Bryn Llewellyn, founder of Tagtiv8, a company which specialises in creating resources to enable pupils to learn through physical activity. Bryn talks with Claire about his background in education: from growing up in South Shields close to the coast and developing an interest in environmental issues, to gaining a degree and working in an urban studies centre in Newcastle, to then becoming a teacher and deputy headteacher in Bradford. Bryn discusses how his work in school led him, eventually, to develop his company Tagtiv8 after he found that what he was being asked to do as a teacher was conflicting with his core values. Bryn talks about how Tagtiv8 aims to promote the benefits of physical and active learning and how this way of teaching can be useful for developing and enhancing pupils' learning across the curriculum. KEY TAKEAWAYS Take learning beyond the classroom.Along with a number of studies, evidence from research shows that physical activity has proven benefits within teaching including increasing pupils’ engagement with their learning and enabling them to absorb and retain more of what is taught. Learning which takes place away from the classroom, and involves movement and exercise, is not only fun and exciting for children but also contributes to developing levels of fitness. Bring active learning into other lessons in addition to Physical Education.With statistics reported to show that 4 out of 5 children in westernised countries are not getting enough physical activity, increasing periods of physical activity in schools can only be beneficial. Active learning, implemented in addition to the usual PE lessons, can be incredibly useful in enhancing learning in a wide range of subjects such as maths, history and science along with other areas. Giving children some ownership of activities can boost their engagement.With any active learning games or physical activities teachers bring into their lessons, allowing children to develop and adapt them or design their own variants can bring out creative discussions and problem solving skills which in turn promote engagement and interest. Physical learning alongside social distancing.Although current guidance seems to indicate that social distancing in primary schools is less of a concern than previously thought, some schools might wish to maintain some of these measures. Where this is the case, physically active lessons can be adapted to account for this. There are a number of non-contact activities teachers could use and Tagtiv8 have a pack of suggested activities such as orienteering-style games and tree-tag.Teachers can also combine the daily mile with other subjects by incorporating things such as times tables or key vocabulary. Dance and yoga are also good physical activities which can be done in a socially distanced way in schools. BEST MOMENTS “When I was a teacher and a deputy headteacher, I loved it, but I was aware of the fact that a lot of the things I was being asked to do were against my core values.” “With the education system in the way it was at that particular time, I thought 'it's not going to change', so let's think of a way of changing it; not necessarily from within, but maybe chipping away from the outside.” “I think, sometimes, when you take the learning out of the classroom, beyond the classroom walls, learning takes place in a different way completely.” “My big concern is that many schools will look toward the daily mile. But if you force the children to do a daily distance... it's happened with the daily mile in terms of it becomes the once-in-a-while mile or the-occasional-mile. If I had to run every day, at certain time, come rain or shine, I'd get well hacked off with that.” “I think that the young lady that's doing everything so well at the moment is Greta Thunberg. I think you've got more and more children looking towards her. In primary too, not just older children, but primary as well. And the amount of times I go into schools and you see displays on the wall to do with oceans and plastic and things like that, I think there's a naturalness in a lot of children that we need to start thinking and doing more for the environment.” “I think teachers need to realise that it's okay to make mistakes. You'll try something and it doesn't work so then, so what? It didn't work. At least you've tried.” “If you have chances for the children to give you feedback on 'what is it like to learn' and then, sometimes, in terms of 'can you see your own teaching through the eyes of the learner that you're trying to teach', then that gives you a genuine chance to reflect.” “If teachers and school leaders were allowed to get on with the job, if they were trusted in the way that the Finnish government ministers trust their teachers, and other countries trust their teachers, and don't use education as a political pawn, we'd have a far better workforce and we'd have far happier children.” “It would be gorgeous to think if certain people within the powers-that-be could just sit back and reflect and think, 'is everything we've done the past 10 to 12 years the right thing?'” VALUABLE RESOURCES Tagtiv8 website: https://tagtiv8.com/TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tARSCzHLF5gJuliet Robertson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Juliet-Robertson/e/B009RU4MJO/Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.ukThe Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/ ABOUT THE HOSTClaire Riley Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide. Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff. Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend. The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.