"Mirror, mirror, on the wall..." For Y2 at Slough's Priory Primary School the ensuing question is: "How are you feeling today?" Their mirror challenges reflection, using expressive images of human happiness, excitement, worry, even fear.
Concern for the everyday well-being of its people infuses this school's leadership. Pupil behaviour and staff commitment weave powerful threads: being happy, helpful and purposeful. Throughout my visit children and staff smiled, well-attuned no doubt to visitors, responding to questions with interest and relevance.
Jacqueline Laver was on the staff when her predecessor left. Two years of acting headship saw her secure the post permanently. Despite glowing Ofsted approval she and many colleagues felt the emphasis on core subjects denied the children entitlement to a more wholesome curriculum experience, not least the exercise of their own initiative and imagination.
Very determined to redress the balance, and ably supported by colleague Sue, already developing Arts activities, she established with remarkable staff assent a curriculum involving half-termly study of individual works of art, appropriately embedding wide National Curriculum coverage.
For example, Munch's The Scream offers work on Jewish persecution, war, Judaism and citizenship, all through work exploiting the riches of arts activities. Study of the painting also brought imaginative focus on children’s apprehensions about secondary transfer.
Another example saw whole-school study themes introduced each spring term going beyond works of art, for example China or Burnham Beeches. National Curriculum reach is particularly strong in this work. China brought insights into writing, calendar, lanterns, ceramics, the Great Wall along with the children's own warrior stories.
Through Creative Partnerships, the Government programme linking schools and arts professionals, Priory became one of the first 30 National Schools of Creativity. All work is carefully planned for individual year groups. Leadership is never complacent and essential evaluation and review encourage change and evolution in teachers' practices.
The most telling word the head and deputy uttered - "organic" - revealed their commitment to further development, whilst explaining why Ofsted recognised the school's traditional qualities alongside outstanding outcomes in the arts and children's personal development.
When I asked about the potential for more flexible, personalised learning both colleagues quickly saw the spring term project offering mixed-age and ability working. They responded eagerly to provocative questions, and some that probed hints of weakness, but they discussed such things openly, and their sheer conviction more than explained the quality of what two pupils for the next hour showed me.
The quality of display in the school is phenomenal. It reflects the tireless talent of staff releasing and exploiting the power of children's own thinking and decisions. Children are very much involved in school life and respond well to their sense of partnership in the enterprise. They help set standards of behaviour for the whole school. They help plan work, though clearly the teachers have prepared well beforehand and know when and how they may need to steer what happens. Teachers employ principles central to what actually makes learning effective. Indeed they are now moving on from what children need to know and understand to how they best learn it.
Observation by a visitor raises questions inevitably. There is an excellent Garden Club, but do other children recognise the lettuce growing in it? How is the eternally durable master-apprentice concept invoked? And within so dynamic an enterprise as Priory today, traditional teaching of core subjects and ICT seems misplaced. All change needs care, but this team could open up methods and new ways of doing that help shape the future of primary education nationally.
The rigour and vigour of Priory power draws richly and magnetically from the engine-room. Children and families served by Priory School have something special on their doorstep.
