We apply diverse knolwedge and skills to problems in our lives on a daily basis, so it is not much of a surprise that research on cross-curriuclar learning in schools has been found to have plentiful benefits to children.
At Forest, teachers are constantly thinking of ways to teach in a cross-curricular manner. The approach encourages children to see how thinking skills, like sorting and classifying, can enable them to approach a topic from a different angle. It also seems to help them see the transferability of such skills across their learning in a range of subjects.
Over the past few weeks, Year 3 and 4 have been using their maths skills on data handling to help them in computing. Year 3 have been inputting data into databases, sorting through fields to isolate data and representing data in varying graph types. Year 4 have been using a new piece of equipment: the Data Logger. They designed their own experiments and were able to anaylse the data appropriately, pulling their answers from graphs and tables.