Last week Sugata Mitra presented at the Senior Leaders meeting at Mount Murray, to not only introduce SOLE and it's origins with the 'Hole in the Wall' project but also to talk about the future of learning and assessment. His presentation was inspirational which provoked lots of discussion and curiousity for the possbilties of SOLE within the school settings on the Isle of Man.

Along with the presentation at Mount Murray, Willaston Primary School were also lucky enough for him to present to practioners from all over the island in a school setting. The morning began with a presentation about the benefits he has witnessed and observed with 'Schools in the Cloud.'

The School in the Cloud platform was originally launched at the 2014 TED conference to help accelerate research by helping educators — be they teachers, parents or community leaders — to run their own SOLEs and to contribute to the global experiment by sharing their experiences with others.

The benefits he has observed are as follows: -

Improvement in reading and comprehension

Improvement in self belief

Improvement in communication and collaboration

In addition Year 5 children at Willaston school demonstrated a live SOLE, so practioners could observe many of the skills outlined above. The learning environment in Year 5 has changed due to the impact of weekly SOLE sessions, these being: - less tables and chairs, write on walls and surfaces, no shoes, 3 big screens and astro turf.

The 'big question' began with "Are Inventions inspired by Nature?" This question promoted lots of curiousity and discussion and was enhanced by the children's ability to use lots of P4C lanaguage and critical thinking to develop their thinking and deepen their understanding.

We are continuing to develop relationships with Sugata and look forward to the exciting opportunities that his recent visit will enable.

Sugata left us with the following quote:-

"You go there, I will go with you."

A SOLE is a mildly chaotic environment of children, clustered around the Internet, in search of answers toBig Questions. The teacher is a friend, on this journey….