Team learning is the process of working collectively to achieve common objectives in a group. In the learning organization context, team members tend to share knowledge and complement each other’s skills. If there is no commitment and effort from team members then working and learning from team work may fail.
Sharing knowledge, learning from our mistakes, working collectively… these are skills required in our contemporary society and all of us need to struggle hard to be good at them. At St. Peter’s we encourage team building through subjects such as Coaching and SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning), or in activities and programmes outside the school such as the Ski week 3rd ESO took part in last week.
Many of the trips scheduled throughout the school year include activities to learn about team work. Sailing at the beginning of the course with Classes 4 is a clear example of it.
Of course, skiing at night with torches requires working together apart from being a very exciting activity, in which the links between the team members get stronger and trust becomes a need.
Coaching with horses is another example of the importance of working in teams.
Every year, the students who come back from ski week, the sailing trip or from Coaching with horses, find they are a stronger team, who have learnt a little more about their strengths and their weaknesses. They get to know each other better, which is essential for learning and working in teams.
Apart from the outdoor activities and trips, the Pre-U students do a lot of team work in their “Coaching” class. This year, for instance, they have been doing activities such as building a square with strings blindfolded or collaborating in a sports competition.
In addition, the Creative Learning Projects that children are following from Foundation Stage upwards is a very good team learning experience in which the students are split into different groups every term, getting to learn all their schoolmates and working together on cooking, gardening, magic, geography and many others projects.
