Alderman Pounder Infant and Nursery School

"Learning is the ability to reach conclusions about things we have not seen before."

Alderman Pounder Infant and Nursery School is located in Nottingham, U.K., not far from Sherwood Forest. While that may sound idyllic, many of the students come from single-parent homes, 20% are on Financial Assistance (welfare), and there is a drug problem in the area. Approximately 214 students seven years old and under attend Pounder, 120 of whom are five years or under in age.

After reading The Goal and attending a talk given by its author, Eli Goldratt, Pounder Head Teacher Linda Trapnell decided not only to implement TOC in the management of the school, but also to teach TOC to the school's young students. Working under the philosophy that "children need to learn how to learn," Ms. Trapnell felt TOC would be a good fit.

They began teaching the Thinking Processes (TP) three years ago to children who were then five years old. They wanted the children to look around a problem - not at the obvious - and to be creative with their solutions.

The children have been quite receptive to TOC, willing to talk about and challenge anything, and uninhibited about saying what's on their minds.

A couple of years ago, there was a "problem" student at Pounder who was constantly breaking things. The student and his teacher worked through the conflict cloud, and determined the student's problem was boredom and frustration. The solution was the creation of organized activities for the students during the lunch break. Not only did this particular student's destructive behavior cease, but now only two or so students per week are sent in from the lunch/play break for misbehavior, rather than the previous 20 per week.

Other area schools have adopted these organized lunch/play time activities, and Pounder's Mid-Day Senior Supervisor won an "Outstanding Public Service Award" for the activities she coordinated.

The children are also encouraged to use the TOC Thinking Processes (TP) to examine historical and literary situations. During the daily assembly when religion and religious stories are discussed, the children write clouds to go with the stories. One addressed whether or not Mary and Joseph should have gone to the Inn without reservations. (Remember, the children are seven and under!)

While reading Oliver Twist, a cloud was written on whether or not Oliver should be a pick-pocket. The students raised the assumptions for both Oliver and Fagan, and came up with alternative ways Oliver could make money.

The TP are also used when covering serious issues as drug education, addressing such scenarios as what to do if you find drugs in the park.

At Pounder, there was a six year old girl who absolutely refused to participate in Phys Ed. Her teacher asked her to write a cloud about this situation. The girl did and her core problem was identified. She and the teacher were able to make a couple of adjustments, and the girl then began participating in Phys Ed. In fact, she was so proud of herself she hung her cloud in the classroom to show the other children she had worked out her problem.

TOC is also used to explain procedure to the children.

Transition Trees (TrT) are built to illustrate a variety of tasks the children must do and to give them the independence to do so on their own. TrTs have been created for the children who use asthma inhalers, to show how to turn on and use their computers, for baking class, and for achieving ambitious targets. One child did a TrT on "I want to be Superman!"

A success Ms. Trapnell attributes to teaching TOC is that 90% of the students attending Alderman Pounder Infant and Nursery School are above the national average for basic skills.

This success story was presented by Linda Trapnell, Head Teacher at Alderman Pounder Infant and Nursery School at the Jonah^SM Upgrade Workshop in May 1998. The presentation is available on video (#JUK-17).