Description

The Magenta Principles is an umbrella phrase that refers to a philosophy and an approach to taeching based upon the premise that learning should be both exciting and engaging. More specifically, the phrase represents a pedagogy undepinned by an unshakeable belief that:
Learning is the consequence of thinking… therefor our job is to get them to thinkLanguage is central to thinking… therefor our job is to get them to talkLearning is an active process… therefor our job is to get them doing.We talk about the Magenta Principles – but in reality there is just one principle: in order to make sense of the information that comes their way, children have to do something to/with it. The question therefor becomes: What are children required to do with the information they encounter in the classroom? It is central to the approach and the answer gives us the Magenta Principles – children could be asked to reduce it. assemble it, add to it, arrange it, sequence it, classify it… the list goes on and on.
The book is illustrated with examples of how the Magenta Principles have been used by teachers, both primary and secondary, with a particular focus on how Whitley Bay High School in the UK has used the Magenta Principles over a number of years to help develop classroom practice.
Whitley Bay is the school that has taken the Magenta Principles to heart more than any other. In their own words:
If our goal was to make learning an engaging, student-centred experience then the Magenta Principles was the vehicle that enabled us to get there.
Offsted judged the school to be outstanding in both 2010 and 2013 and described teaching as exciting and innovative.