We started our Winter holiday last Friday, and what a well-deserved break this will be for our pupils and staff alike. We spoke to Mrs Amy Ballantyne recently to share her teaching philosophy with us and to talk to her about how they have tackled online learning in the Foundation Phase at the Junior School.

Amy joined us at the beginning of the second term as the new Grade 1 teacher and the HOD of the Foundation Phase at Kingswood College. In the Junior School we believe that it is our role to help our pupils develop skills they will need for the future.

Her hopes are that the Foundation Phase will be able to incorporate more technology into the classroom and that our pupils be taught how to become responsible, and ethical digital citizens whilst having lots of fun learning along the way.

Amy also strongly believes in the power of cooperative learning, where pupils can learn together in small groups while learning from one another.

We asked her what she hopes to bring to Kingswood College as an educator and she had the following to say: “I really hope that I can have a positive effect and influence at Kingswood with the children and staff. I hope to bring some positive and exciting changes to the Junior Primary department. I would love to investigate and introduce new forms of technology into the classrooms. School should be enriching, stimulating, fun and we should be able to cater for many different individuals’ needs at school. I feel that we should all be learning new things every day and staying up to date with the latest teaching methods is vital”.