'A small school with great expectations'

Today we had a chance to visit Forest Gate City Learning Center and the Godwin Primary School. This wasn't my first visit, I had visited both places the last time I was in London (Summer 2003). The Learning Center is what in the United States is called a Computer Center. The only thing is that this is a two story section of the school with state of the art technology, including two areas with computer stations for students' activities and teachers' professional development workshops, three-dimensional modeling equipment, and more.

The elementary school amazed me two years ago, and it still does. It is a school where students go first. Art is at the core of the school and students prepare musical and theatrical representations each end of term throughout the school year. So when you go in, you'll see the walls covered with students work, responding to the thematic unit of the term. Things don't need to be perfect.

The population in Godwin is extremely diverse, with about 28 different native languages (let alone nationalities), keeping the idea of respecting and empowering students as well as their native tongue at the top of the school's priorities. Students are not discouraged when talking in their native language, in fact they can work together to complete class projects or tutor other kids in the class using their native language. Parents also come in to serve as mentors and they can help the kids that speak their native language using it as the means of communication. Posters and signs include words in other languages, as to remind the students of the inclusive environment they are learning in.

This is amazing for me. As a Puerto Rican in the United States I've been 'encouraged' to speak English only, even at the University level, which I thought was bizarre. When my kids were little, one of their teachers told us not to talk Spanish at home and to encourage them to only talk in English. The teacher thought they would be able to become more proficient in English in this way, forgetting or not knowing (or not wanting to accept) that language and culture go hand in hand, that to respect a person is to respect their personal characteristics, that knowing how to talk a second language does not impede the learning of other languages.

Four basic principles guide Godwin Primary School; four principles we should always follow. They call them the four C's and are: cooperation, care, consideration, and courtesy. These are presented in each class through different representations in the bulleting boards. They are also acted upon throughout the school and you can see it when students interact with teachers, other students, and mentors.

Godwin calls itself 'A small school with great expectations' and indeed it is!

Pictures coming soon!