'It's such fun to break school rules'

Tap dancing, anyone? Wednesday afternoons are now a highlight at a Plymouth school. As pupils learn new activities, teachers plan lessons or go shopping. Sarah Cassidy reports on a classroom revolution

It's 12.45 on Wednesday afternoon at Langley Junior School in Plymouth, and there's a buzz of anticipation in the air. More than 250 eight- to 11-year-olds are preparing excitedly for two hours of activities that will probably never make it on to the primary curriculum. African drumming, gardening and tap dancing are among the 14 courses on offer this term. But the biggest thrill is basketball coaching with 6ft-5in tall Myron, a forward with the Plymouth Raiders.

The ground-breaking scheme has seen Langley Junior become the first school in the country to use new freedoms – known as the Power to Innovate – which, from the beginning of this year, allow them to bypass education legislation and change the school day as part of a project to reduce teachers' workload.

Instead of normal lessons, 10-year-old Francesca Barnes now takes tap dancing every Wednesday afternoon. To the slow chant of "heel-toe, heel-toe" the girls tap away to the infectious beat of Kylie Minogue's greatest hits. "I used to learn [tap dancing] about two years ago, but stopped going," Francesca says. "This is fun – definitely more fun than doing normal work. I've learnt tap before, but lots of other people have never been to dancing lessons. This gives them a chance to try it."

Tom Moore, 9, is learning French at Sir John Hunt school, a local secondary. "We've learnt the numbers, colours and animals. And it's only our third week," says Tom, breathless with excitement after winning a French word-game. "I just wanted to learn something different. It's fun."

While their pupils learn new skills under the watchful eyes of tutors who are not teachers at Langley, their usual teachers are getting down to two hours of uninterrupted work. And the school's classroom assistants are also taking on new challenges – a dinner lady is teaching pupils how to cook sausage rolls, the school caretaker is making mosaics and the school secretary leads the tap dancing classes.

However, the teaching unions are sceptical about the Government's new enthusiasm for "bottom-up innovation", urging schools to be cautious about devising new freedoms that could, unwittingly, make life more difficult for their teachers and other local schools. John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, questions whether ministers are really ready to relax their hold on schools. "I think the Government is absolutely right to try to loosen the apron strings," he says. "I welcome their encouragement of innovation, but it has got to be accompanied by an uncharacteristic resolution to let go of some of the policy levers."

John Bangs, the head of education at the National Union of Teachers, says innovations involving the school curriculum would be welcome as long as they don't put any group of pupils at a disadvantage. But he warns schools to be cautious before leaping on the "innovation" bandwagon. "Schools have to be very, very careful," he says. "With any innovation there may be unintended consequences that could mean extra work for teachers."

Under Langley's scheme, the school day starts five minutes earlier and the lunch break has been shortened by 20 minutes. That allows all national curriculum lessons to be taught in four-and-a-half days and frees up two hours on Wednesday afternoons for other activities.

Power to Innovate was introduced in the Education Act 2002 to give schools wanting to test ground-breaking ideas exemption from laws that would prevent them. The exemptions last for a maximum of three years. If they are successful, the Education Secretary has the power to scrap laws altogether if they are found to be hampering schools' efforts to raise standards. Langleywas allowed to ignore rules and extend its school day more quickly than normally allowed.

Other ideas being considered at the Innovation Unit at the Department for Education and Skills include splitting a large secondary school into two smaller schools, and lengthening the school day by 30 minutes to create time for an "enrichment session" for pupils and allowing teachers time for meetings and marking.

Other schools that are considering forming school federations are looking at whether to use the powers to merge their governing bodies. "We want to avoid the micro-management of education from the centre," says Mike Gibbons, the unit's director. "Schools are highly regulated – they have to be to ensure that children are looked after properly – but there is now a possibility that some of that legislation could be lifted. We are going to see some brilliant ideas coming up from the grassroots."

Controversially, one school has inquired about opting out of teachers' national pay and conditions legislation to allow it to set its own salaries. That is anathema to the teaching unions. They fear that paying some teachers more could create recruitment problems for other schools. "If one school pays more it will find it easier to recruit new staff, with quite serious consequences for the school down the road," Mr Dunford says.

The unions also believe that schools have no appetite for setting their staff's salaries and that head teachers have neither the time nor the inclination to take on the burden of pay negotiations. Fewer schools than expected will take advantage of the new powers, they think. However, Mr Gibbons hasreceived about 20 serious inquiries from schools. Four of these are at an advanced stage and could soon be given approval, he says. "There have been 803 downloads of guidance from our website. So there might be staffrooms around the country cooking up really exciting ideas as we speak."

However, there have been many more enquiries from schools asking for freedoms that they already enjoy, although they seem unaware of this, Mr Gibbons adds. This confusion among headteachers has led to the Education Secretary publishing a list of freedoms that schools already have, which is being sent to all secondary schools next month. Part of the Innovation Unit's work will be encouraging schools to share their ideas.

Back at Langley Junior School, teachers, pupils and other staff are enjoying their new freedoms. This term there are 14 activities being run by the local art college; by Music Zone, a local charity; by Plymouth's Theatre Royal; and by three local secondary schools, Eggbuckland, Plymouth High and Sir John Hunt. The University of Plymouth has offered to run sessions on robotics and geology next term.

While all their pupils are learning new skills between 1pm and 3pm, their teachers hold meetings, plan lessons and do the marking they used to do after school. The scheme has transformed teachers' working week, says Sharon James, the school's literacy co-ordinator.

Her job involves regular meetings with other teachers to discuss teaching strategies. "Before I would have to snatch a meeting at lunchtime or in the 15-minute break," she says. "It's very exciting. It means I can catch up with meetings with other people. Because everyone is always teaching in a primary school, it's very hard to find time to meet and discuss things."

Ruth Ingram, a teaching assistant, can now go home on Wednesday afternoons. "It's great," she says. "My whole week has changed. I start earlier but finish at lunchtime on Wednesdays. I can go into town and do a bit of shopping."

Things have also improved for Penny Hagan, who teaches a class of seven- and eight-year-olds (year 3). Now she spends two hours every Wednesday on lesson planning. "It means I can do the planning I'd otherwise have to do in the evenings when I would be tired so it would take longer. There is a great temptation among teachers to fill all your free time with schoolwork, but I'm trying to resist it."

The scheme is part of a long-term strategy to tackle teachers' workload at the school. Langley was invited to join the Government's £4m Pathfinder project, a one-year pilot programme that aims to cut teacher workload and boost morale. The scheme allowed them to go ahead with the Wednesday afternoons as part of the pilot, says Debbie Fuller, the headteacher. "Everybody has been extremely receptive to the idea – partly because it's on a Wednesday when people's energy levels might be running low. It gives everyone time to reflect." The main thing was wanting to enrich children's lives outside the national curriculum, she says. "We wanted to plant seeds in children's minds about the future. We wanted to give children options that they would not normally have in or out of school."

At Langley Junior, it's 4.30pm and Mrs Hagan is the last teacher to leave. "I would normally have been here for another couple of hours. It's wonderful. We found ourselves saying in the staffroom yesterday – thank goodness it's nearly Wednesday."

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/innovation-unit/

s.cassidy@independent.co.uk