Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, recently spent a Friday morning visiting North Crescent School in Wickford, during which he was taken on a tour of the school’s ‘eco centre’, which is based within the school grounds. The ‘eco centre’ is designed as a performance venue, and also as a gateway to the school nature reserve, which is located at the rear of the school.
Mark spent the best part of the morning at North Crescent, and had discussions with the Headteacher, Mrs Lisa Wright, along with some of the School Governors, about the school, as well as their recent drive to improve standards. Mark was then taken on a tour of some of the classrooms where he had a chance to witness the children experiencing a variety of lessons.
Interestingly, North Crescent School use a teaching method whereby each of the children are given three plastic coloured cups, which they keep on their desk. The cups are green, orange and red. If the children are enjoying the lesson and understand what they are being taught, they keep the green cup prominent; if they are having some slight difficulty with any aspect of the lesson they are encouraged to put the orange cup on top, and if they are losing track or simply don’t understand something they use the red cup to show their concern, so the teacher is able to act accordingly. Mark has visited quite a number of schools across his constituency in his 11 years as an MP, but this was the first time he had ever seen this innovative teaching practise in action.
Commenting on his visit to the school, Mark said:
“I was very pleased to spend the morning visiting North Crescent School. Since Wickford became part of my constituency in 2010, I have set about trying to visit every school in the constituency, and having spent a very pleasant morning at North Crescent, I now only have a handful of schools to go.
I was impressed by what I saw at North Crescent, and Mrs Wright and her staff are clearly working hard to try and provide the children with a good quality of education. I look forward to remaining in touch with her, as well as the staff and pupils at North Crescent in the future.”
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Mark spent the best part of the morning at North Crescent, and had discussions with the Headteacher, Mrs Lisa Wright, along with some of the School Governors, about the school, as well as their recent drive to improve standards. Mark was then taken on a tour of some of the classrooms where he had a chance to witness the children experiencing a variety of lessons.
Interestingly, North Crescent School use a teaching method whereby each of the children are given three plastic coloured cups, which they keep on their desk. The cups are green, orange and red. If the children are enjoying the lesson and understand what they are being taught, they keep the green cup prominent; if they are having some slight difficulty with any aspect of the lesson they are encouraged to put the orange cup on top, and if they are losing track or simply don’t understand something they use the red cup to show their concern, so the teacher is able to act accordingly. Mark has visited quite a number of schools across his constituency in his 11 years as an MP, but this was the first time he had ever seen this innovative teaching practise in action.
Commenting on his visit to the school, Mark said:
“I was very pleased to spend the morning visiting North Crescent School. Since Wickford became part of my constituency in 2010, I have set about trying to visit every school in the constituency, and having spent a very pleasant morning at North Crescent, I now only have a handful of schools to go.
I was impressed by what I saw at North Crescent, and Mrs Wright and her staff are clearly working hard to try and provide the children with a good quality of education. I look forward to remaining in touch with her, as well as the staff and pupils at North Crescent in the future.”