When in Rome...

This term the children in my class have been enjoying most areas of the curriculum taught through our topic (Ancient Romans). It's been great to see their motivation through active learning and the links they are making naturally. Their ideas and conversations have been illuminating. ACE in action!

Last week we were asked to provide some of our jotters for ongoing audit - specifically our writing and topic jotters. As a lot of our learning has been active, the children have not done a great deal of formal writing about their work, though more will naturally emerge as we gain more background knowledge to use. When I said I had no "topic jotter" to hand in, I was met with surprise by my line manager. In their "writing" jotter the children have imagined themselves to be Roman soldiers at Housesteads fort, researching and giving themselves appropriate Roman names and then written home to their families about life in Northern Britain. Lots have included Latin words they have picked up, and all have at least some pertinent detail and some conventional features of a letter.

But in my classroom and elsewhere you would easily find evidence of all four capacities:

• Roman Villas in the process of being made, in groups (SL, EC)
  
• wooden catapults in the process of being designed and made individually (thanks to the excellent PGDE student I've had) (SL, EC, CI)
  
• a Wikispace all have now contributed to, some from home, and ongoing (SL EC, CI, RC)
  
• pictures on our school website of our informative visit to the Roman camp at Trimontium and the museum in Melrose (thanks to the vastly knowledgeable curator) (SL, RC, CI)
  
• labelled legionaries made by the children, and beautifully (thanks to my CA) displayed on the wall (SL, EC)
  
• cartoon strips the children made of the Romulus and Remus story (SL)
• Roman sums in their "maths" jotters (SL)
  
• photos that one pupil brought back from her half term holiday looking at Roman sites that we all so enjoyed seeing on the whiteboard and hearing about from that well-informed pupil (EC, CI)
  
• children who have already been to the NMS Early People Gallery with their parents and can tell you about some links between Romans and Celts (SL, CI)
  
• lists of talents from round the necks of the slaves at the slave market that we held (SL, CI, RC)
  
• fabulous gladiuses (should that be gladii?) and scabbards that a few have finished designing and making (SL, CI )
  
• some Roman artwork produced by the children under their own steam (SL, CI, EC)
  
• some books brought in by the children with post-its at interesting pages, showing they have actually read what's in there. (SL, CI, EC)
  

In a couple of weeks time, we'll have had a Roman baths afternoon, where we'll use olive oil on our hands and do the whole room to room business, and a Roman feast for which we'll have taken turns to grind some stuff in a pestle and mortar; we'll have learned more Latin and made more connections with our language. We'll carry out fair testing of our catapults; we'll make coins; dress up; find out more about Roman beliefs; do more Roman Maths; and later, visit the NMS Early People gallery and experience the artefacts there. We will do lots of writing on the way but it probably won't be in a project jotter, though I may offer children this as an additional option if they want.

And it's not just about keeping them occupied. If you talked to the children you'd be in no doubt that this has been an exciting and memorable topic for them and that their learning from it has extended well beyond the People in the Past Learning Outcomes of 5-14. You can already identify challenge and enjoyment, depth, breadth, progression, personalisation and choice, coherence and relevance and we are only half way through.

And yet, my jotters were handed back with a raised eyebrow.

In my generous moments, I can sympathise because my line manager is in a difficult situation - she can probably not now tick the "satisfactory" box for the topic jotters from P4. But in my professional moments I worry about future assessments of my work as a teacher. I am confident that these children have experienced wonderful opportunities in all areas of ACE, their learning, achievement and attainment have progressed in lots of areas and they are in the process of becoming aware of how they are doing it, but they have not written about all of it in a project jotter, so no tick for P4 and me :-(

Hmm. Back to the reality of the 21st Century with a bump.