Sunday 28 April 2013

Judgement Day

I had an interesting conversation during our staff professional day on Friday.  We were discussing our beliefs about Literacy and what concepts we believe our children need to develop while they are at our school.
We got on to the subject of judgements.  It came from a comment about how our children need to develop an awareness of the fact that others will perceive your work differently depending on their own experiences and that it does mean your piece of work is necessary bad, it just doesn't suit that person and you are potentially still great.  I think as a mother of up and coming musicians I find this concept easy to understand.  I understand my son is a brilliant guitar player, I also know I do not like the style of music he plays.  I know my daughter is an amazing singer, I also know that she has a voice suited to a particular genre of music.
As we were discussing this we all came to the same conclusion that if this is something so easy to comprehend as adults then why are we sitting back and making a cold hard judgement about pieces of writing, artwork, drama...  when we could in fact be pre-disposed to our opinion based on our own tastes, interests and experiences.
I think it is worth considering and quite possibly highlights the importance of moderation both within schools and externally.  Particular teachers will have certain tastes that may prevent them from accurately evaluating a piece of work.

It is these conversations that I have with our staff that continue to challenge our collective thinking and therefore push us to ensure our children have the best education they can whilst at our school.

Reflective Koru's, skillfully drawn by Ruby one of our talented Year 7's

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