Greg Bottrill (Early Years specialist): Finding joy

EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Greg Bottrill: a specialist in early years education, consultant, author, and strong advocate for play in teaching. Greg begins by talking about how he had always wanted to be a teacher and, initially, was more drawn to working in key stage 2. However, after working in early years, he quickly realised that this was where he belonged. For just over a year, Greg has travelled around schools offering consultancy services and training and development sessions promoting the importance of play as a part of our education system and children being at the centre of their own learning. Alongside working with schools and teachers, Greg is also an author of ‘School and the magic of children’ and ‘Can I go and play now?’ which explores the imaginative world children live in and how to bring joy and adventure into learning. Greg discusses his passion for bringing excitement and wonder into learning, and how he believes that every child has magic within them which can be shared with us all.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Play is essential.Adult co-play with children can incredibly valuable for learning. Co-play involves playing alongside the children, valuing what they are doing, and modelling different ways of play: showing rather than telling. There are moments of direct teaching within co-play but, where these feature, they are done in a really joyful way. The three Ms.These key areas - mark making, mathematics and making conversation – are three important skills every school wants their children to develop. They can be woven into anything we do with children and are an important foundation on which all learning can be built. Children don’t see ability.Children simply ‘see’ each other rather than considering their peers in terms of ability. Some children will, naturally, be more confident than others and these children can be incredibly beneficial with teaching and supporting other less confident children.Traditional teaching generally has the teacher in control, mostly at the front, and the children grouped, usually by ability, and listening. This means that the children who are on the tables designated as the ‘most able’ will rarely get to work with those who are put on the ‘less able’ tables. This, unfortunately, can channel and ‘cap’ children’s ability. In mixed-ability groups, though, children will listen to each other and will support each other. Children’s seventh sense.Children have a special seventh sense to see the imaginative potential in everything. A cardboard box, for example, is usually seen by adults as just a cardboard box. Children, though, will see the infinite possibilities of that box which could be anything: a tower, a ship or a magical portal.Something as ordinary (to an adult) as a puddle, can, to a child, be something extraordinary in terms of the sensory experiences it can offer and the wonder and imagination that can follow. BEST MOMENTS “I wanted to be key stage two teacher originally. And I ended up in early years. And it's just a really beautiful place to work. We played very, very hard. We kind of created like a pedagogy that came from the soul. I'm a great believer in teaching from the soul, teaching what you believe in rather than a scheme.” “That's what it's about. It's almost trying to show schools that there is this magic world. And it's the magic world of childhood. When you go adventuring in it, then just amazing things can happen.” “My belief is that your childhood is your identity. So play is not anything frivolous. It's not something you do after work. It's not what you do at playtime. It is you. It's in your DNA.” “There are many, many, many wonderful teachers doing amazing things with children working within a system; and it's the system that's at fault.” “I think if you ask any teacher they would say to you 'the education system needs to change'. And it does. What we need to do is embrace childhood because you only have it once. And you have this magic about you. And unfortunately, it goes.” “I'm a real believer in the soul: the soul of teaching. It is about 'soulifying' children. That is what we should be doing. And, unfortunately, we have a system that 'tells' children. What it doesn't do is 'show' them. If we show children the world, learning pops out.” “The world is full of learning. Chock full. But what happens is we have curriculums that say you've got to know a fronted adverbial by the time you're seven. That, to me, is a claustrophobic curriculum. Yes children need to have skills, but they also need to have - one word - joy.” “One of the things that I'm really passionate about is playing with language. In this country, the adult world is obsessed with trying to prove itself, so it came up with the idea of the phonics screening test in year 1. And it's got nothing to do with children. Nothing. It's got everything to do with profit and someone selling a scheme and proving that somehow the adult world has done something with children.” “The Achilles heel of play is that the adult world wants to have understanding of what it sees. Play is the unknown. You have no idea what's going to happen when children play. None. You can't plan play. But the adult world wants to have a plan. It wants to be able to walk in and know what's happening. But you can't.” “With play, there is no curriculum. You don't need one. You can take learning anywhere.” “One thing that humans need is choice. Often, our education systems don't give children choice, the choice is made for them. We don't like it as adults... but our educational policy makers think it's ok for children. There's just a question mark there.” “When you go back to your childhood, most of the time, an adult is not present in those real golden moments of your childhood. Most of the time you're with other children and, strangely enough, most of the time, you're outside. We have this thing where the classroom, the four walls, is 'the learning', but it's not. It's everywhere.” “The beauty of play, because it's so open ended, any child from any culture can come into a room and play. It's a universal language.”   VALUABLE RESOURCES Can I go and play now: http://www.canigoandplaynow.com/ Greg Bottrill's books: http://www.bookseducation.co.uk/bbooks-greg-bottrill-c-59.html Greg Bottrill's Twitter: https://twitter.com/canigoandplay Greg Bottrill's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/canigoandplaynow Greg Bottrill's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/can_i_go_and_play_now/ The Teachers' Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/Claire_Riley_TP The Teachers' Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theteacherspodcast/ The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/ Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk 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 HOST 'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.  Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide. In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance. Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion. In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hit that charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks. 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.