(This aspect of the curriculum in school is being introduced during the spring and summer of 2008. All members of staff are undertaking complete level 1 Saprere course consisting of both theoretical and practical sessions.)
You child may come home and say they were doing philosophy today, what does this mean? This aspect of our curriculum developed from our wish to enhance the opportunities for children to think. Integral to this is a process for expressing their views, respecting the views of others and allowing the possibility of modifying their views in light of those expressed by others. We deliver these sessions on a Friday morning in the time that we have traditionally devoted to circle time. The sessions take place on an occasional basis sharing the morning slots with circle time. Circle time itself still has a very valuable place and is particularly useful when discussing problems that may arise in class.
In a typical session the class teacher will provide a stimulus of some sort; this may be an object, photographs or a statement / news article. The group of children decide between themsleves on a suitable question to consider and after that the group as a whole discuss the issues and points of view that may be relevant. The best questions are those for which there may be no absolute answer - these will often spark the greatest thought.
The programme has so far been very exciting and has produced a great deal of high quality thought and discussion. The children tell us that they enjoy it and look forfward to future sessions.
A greater depth of information is available from the Sapere website at http://sapere.org.uk/ .