GREAT SCHOOLS: Quarry Mount Primary School!

I have been thinking about 'every school a great school', Michael Gove's comments which suggest that schools are somehow dumbing down learning and remembering my last visit to Quarry Mount Primary School...

I have been to Quarry Mount Primary School many times over the years and I love the place...
Before I left Leeds my colleague Jackie Twaites, headteacher at Quarry Mount Primary School, had invited me to their 'Image, Music, Text' Art Show 2010 and it was simply brilliant. The art work was fantastic and the journey the children in Year 5 and 6 had been on to produce such extraordinary work was amazing... their understanding, knowledge and experience developed through this creative project was unbelievable! Jordan in Year 6 showed me round the school and talked passionately about the art works, their inspiration and the people who had helped the children with the project. It has to be seen to be believed but Andrew Howdle, their teacher, has certainly released an incredible magic with these wonderful young people.Walking around the school with Jordan I saw a wonderful piece of writing about William Blake...

"William Blake believed education was out of balance. Too much faith was put in reason. For Blake, the balance included Reason, Emotion, Love and Motion. He called these four balances the Zoas. In one of his early pictures, Blake showed education as an Old Man. The Golden Boy of Reason just sits and copies what he is told. The Silver Girl of Motion, however, raises her hand towards the sky. She points to the wider vision beyond Reason. She questions. Education obsessed Blake for the whole of his life. He disliked what he called Newton’s “single sight”. He believed in double sight, in seeing life from opposite points of view and making dialogue. For Blake, there was no Good and Evil, God and Devil. Both were necessary for thinking. The Devil, for Blake, was challenge and emotion; God was agreement and reason. Blake anticipated the two sides of the brain: right/creativity and law breaking; left/organisation and law making. Blake believed that energy had to be controlled (chaining the Bad Angel) and obedience had to be broken (freeing the God Angel). Blake’s ideas were in front of his time."

I then received this email from Jordan and his teacher Andrew Howdle:

"Dear Chris, thank you for attending the Art Exhibition today. It was really good of you to give up your time for us. Here is the Blake text from our display. Kindest wishes to you. We will sort out the picture "The Sphinx" for you. It sort of fits...it is all about speaking and spreading messages, exactly what you do. It is about making new sphinx magic! Best wishes, Jordan and Andrew Howdle."

Those of you who know me well know that I love art and while I was at Quarry Mount Primary School Andrew and his class gave me the picture at the top of this post. They had produced it as a Year 6 class and it's called 'The Sphinx'. As you can see it is fantastic and now has pride of place back at home. Of course, Andrew doesn't just do art with his Year 6 students he does Shakespeare, Dickens and the classics. If Michael Gove wants to see magic in a real inner city primary school he should visit Year 6 at Quarry Mount Primary School in Leeds.
Chris