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Children’s Parliament have been delivering Doing our Best  in Bramble Brae, Manor Park, Riverbank and Tullos primary schools in Aberdeen. We are just completing work with the final 2 of our 11 full classes who have taken part, so around 275 children this school year and last. Doing our Best addresses the attainment gap by building on learner self-perception and rights-based classroom relationships. It is built around creative whole-class and small group tasks. The work is now profiled on the National Improvement Hub.

To celebrate, we are organising a Doing Our Best event on the 17th of May 2018, in the Beach Ballroom. Children who have completed the programme from Bramble Brae, Manor Park, Riverbank and Tullos Primary Schools will lead guests through key elements and share their views on being a learner. The session will leave participants with an understanding of this innovative, inclusive approach which they can further consider when it comes to their own approaches to raising attainment.
With special guests Angela Scott, Chief Executive Aberdeen City, and Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland.

Here are the Riverbank Doing our Best Investigators ready for action! ‘I am excited to go to the Beach Ballroom and show the adults what to do.’

The Imagineers went to Langstane Housing Association to work with adults with jobs in housing so that they can know how children can be healthy, happy and safe in their homes and communities.

We used play dough to make defenders of children’s rights.

‘My one had telekinesis so they can read minds and know if someone is not being good to children or their community’

We built houses together and put them on a street. We thought about our home life and the things that we like about where we live. We also told the adults about things that aren’t so good and how we would change them.

‘The adults were really nice. One said my idea was good. I felt proud and thought, ‘Yeah – I thought of that’ ”

 

 

Learning is a valuable treasure and there are different learning tools we can use to improve our learning. We had a treasure box filled with scrolls full of learning tools which we opened one by one and we had to decide if they were tools we used in our learning or whether they were ones we could consider using. We then had to plot our learning treasures on a map and think about which one we would like to use more.

I notice when people miss out bits in the story cos it sounds weird.

Soyesha on noticing the small details.

I make a plan when I’m the murderer in Murder Mystery on Roblox.

Liam on making a plan.

I do that. I grazed my ankle trying to do a tailwhip but I kept going.

Sheldon on keeping going.

I use my imagination for a game on Roblox to design new outfits. Someone shows me how to tie my shoe laces then I can do it too.

Nicole on using her imagination and watching and learning.

My mum lost her purse and I found it.

Chelsea on noticing things.

I want to get better at listening and understanding others.

Ben on which treasure he would like to use more.

We continued in our learning quest by searching for learning treasures. We then plotted them on our treasure maps. We had to decide if they were like us as a learner or not like us as a learner and plot them along the map.

I always plan my lego before I make anything, I have lots of techniques. I want to get better at managing distractions because i can talk a lot.

Dean

I noticed in Iron Man how they changed his suit between Iron Man 1 and 2. I don’t give up. I had to do 40 sit ups and 40 squats and 40 push ups and I didn’t give up.

Jada

 

Charley on using your imagination: Say you’re doing maths and you have to times 10 cookies by 64 then when you do that you can pretend you’re taking the cookies out the packet and it’s fun when you’re bored!

 

We have been making posters to give us a voice in our school and share messages that are important to us.

We think:

‘People should treat each other fairly’

‘Please don’t litter everywhere. The beaches are full of rubbish and animals are eating it and dying’

‘Don’t leave machines on in the house overnight.’

‘No robbers. Earn money and don’t take it from other people. You feel worried when you live somewhere with robbers.’

‘Children need fresh air and for teachers at school to take them somewhere safe and quiet if we need it.’

‘Care for children by feeding them and buying them things they need, but you need to treat them respectfully and help them too.’

At Manor Park School we have been making maps of our community. We drew our school, houses, roads, shops and other places that we go. We thought about what we like about where we live and what we don’t like as much.

‘I drew Mr Sings. Its a shop with good things. Mr Sing’s photo is in the window and there are signs with prices to say how much things are. I drew crisps and fruit that are 1p.’

‘My friend upstairs has a bunny that I can go and see. But my other neighbours are noisy, they jump around and smoke.’

‘Everywhere I look in my area there is just construction – rock piles and mud being moved around.’

We imagined things we would like there to be and do near our houses and school.

‘It would be good to have an outdoor swimming pool where you can go and get a tan.’

‘I imagined everyone would get their own piano so if they have never played before they can learn.’

‘I’d like to go to a museum of old dinosaur bones or children’s toys.’

 

‘Everyone has their own way of learning. We have looked at four different ways to learn and tried to pick the one most like us.’

I’m like Rebecca who is reflective. When I’m drawing I can just rub it out and do it again.

Majka K

When I wanted to learn how make green my dad told me to google it. This is like Ruby who is resourceful.

Charley

I was playing Minecraft and I didn’t dig the blue pressure plate because it blows you up but I digged around it and got the treasure.

Sheldon

I did that (reflection) today by using long division in fractions.

Adam

 

 

‘Did you know that learning is actually one of your rights? We explored this idea with our learn-o-meters looking at what helps us learn and what gets in the way of our learning.’

When I’m angry I play with my dog and it calms me down then I can work.

Jada

Ronaldo helps me learn how to be a better footballer.

Daniel

If someone has a phone then I want to check my social media. Getting notifications on my phone distracts me.

Emily and Emma