Reggio Inspired Teaching

Saturday 2nd March

Aim and purpose:  to gain an insight into Reggio Inspired teaching.

A group of Clearview teachers went to the Reggio course hosted by Rolleston Primary.  This provided us with an insight into Reggio Inspired teaching.  This approach was developed in Reggio Emilia, a town in Italy.

This is what we have "taken away" from attending....

What is Reggio Inspired Teaching....?
Reggio Inspired teaching is essentially an Inquiry based learning model where children's curiosities and questions form the central part of learning.  Teachers are encouraged to listen to children's natural conversations and build learning opportunities around these.  As a result, children feel they have ownership of their learning and therefore are more engaged.  In Italy this is used in pre-schools.  However, the principles of listening to and valuing children's ideas applies to all levels.

At Rolleston Primary we listened to three teachers share how they use a Reggio Inspired approach in their classrooms.  Two of these teacher taught Y1/2 and one taught Y6.  These teachers shared units of work and talked us through their experiences so far.   We were inspired by the range of purposeful activities and engagement of the children.  It was clear that meaningful and quality learning was happening.  The teachers spoke about the importance of listening to and recording children's conversations, asking and answering purposeful questions, and giving children a variety of ways to record their understanding (e.g. drawing, materials, videos).

This term in the Junior Yellow Team we are exploring this approach with our inquiry unit.  The children's questions will form the direction of our inquiry.  We know the importance of adapting this approach to suit our school and children.  We are excited to see how we can use this inline with our own Inquiry Model and Clearview Values.

We are attending another course in May - we will keep you posted on our journey!

Junior Yellow Team