P4C and the Power of Talk

“You know what thinking is? It’s just a fancy word for changing your mind.” – The Doctor.

“I like having discussions – it’s fun. We get to talk about interesting things. Sometimes I feel a bit nervous if I don’t know what to say. But then I find my words deep inside and then they come out. Then I feel happy.” – Year 3 girl, Rutherford House School.

“I feel like this year P4C has really helped us in our subjects.  In English it’s really helped us teach better. They’re making more connections now.  It just changed the way they wrote because they came up with deeper ideas.  We’re going to make it part of our writing process for each unit. Their writing is 10 times better – they’re so much more engaged.” – Year 4 Class Teacher, Rutherford House School

Talk, what is it good for? I’m sure we have all experienced the shiver of dread when we hear of yet another school focus on oracy or on the importance of speaking and listening (especially if you are old enough like me to remember the old focus assessment grids!). And that does not even cover the oft-cited fear of public speaking that the word conjures up. Too often, it is seen as another onerous burden for an overworked teacher to teach, assess and feedback on. Those were certainly my feelings when I first heard of P4C (Philosophy for Children) nine years ago. I thought to myself, “Here we go again”, something else to clog up my timetable when I should be teaching English and the miracles of fronted adverbials and semicolons that they will never make use of in later life. Plus, I worked on a tough council estate in south-west London: what possible need would my class have of talking when getting them to school was challenging enough? Talk seemed like a luxury that I, and they, could not afford.

I could not have been more wrong! The two-day course I received in Level 1 opened my eyes to the power of talk! P4C is a living, breathing thing that has relevance across all areas of the curriculum as well as giving children something even more precious: a voice.

Through it, I saw how a well-facilitated session is so much more than just another box-ticking exercise or something that will inevitably fall by the wayside once the first rush of enthusiasm has waned. P4C is quite simply life-affirming. The impact of having your voice heard about difficult and complex stimuli and concepts cannot be understated. The idea that your thoughts and words have inherent value as well as the power to sway people to your way of thinking and that you too are allowed to change your mind is quite possibly the most liberating one a child can enjoy.

I was fortunate that my school then was deeply committed to P4C and working alongside Thoughtful to achieve their Gold Award. Through their support, I grew as a facilitator and felt I had finally found the tool for supporting my children in their learning as well as enriching their lives in a profound way. To work in such an environment was a great boon and certainly underpinned my development and underlined the importance of a committed workforce and management team in order for P4C to thrive in a school setting.

It was this background that I brought to my current post at Rutherford House School (RHS) in Balham, London. The school, through a curious quirk of fate, had actually trained two members of SLT to Level 1 and they had visited my previous gold-rated school on a tour and watched me facilitate a session. I knew then that my experience and passion for P4C would fit in perfectly with the school’s own strategic objectives as a premium had been placed on the importance of oracy and talk to support Writing within its School Development Plan.

The school’s position on P4C was just beginning to coalesce around a joined-up, cross-curricular approach with a focus on supporting the Thinking Matters pedagogy deployed across our whole trust. These Thinking Frames meant that there was a strong basis for P4C to flourish within Rutherford and, coupled with a strong commitment to six core values of: Enthusiasm, Partnership, Reflection, Ambition, Resilience and Respect, there would be plenty of opportunities for children to develop as philosophers and for communities of enquiry to take root.

The first steps were to persuade the school as to the efficacy and effectiveness of P4C in supporting higher attainment and the more intangible benefits of calmer classrooms, more focused children and fewer disagreements amongst pupils, borne out of my own experience teaching at my previous school. This took the form of evidence provided from reviews on Thoughtful’s website as well as my own experiences as a facilitator trained to Level 2B. Of particular focus was how we could close the “COVID gap” that many of our most vulnerable children had suffered throughout the various lockdowns and, given P4C’s focus on building a community of enquiry rooted in mutual respect and the development of talk and other vital social skills that had been curtailed over this turbulent period, P4C seemed a natural fit to proceed with in a more structured way. These proved persuasive and I was able to gain the support of SLT in driving through our application for the Going for Gold programme to start in January 2022 with a two-day, whole-school INSET Level 1 training course.

What followed was an excellent introduction to P4C from our Grow P4C trainer, Topsy Page, who brought it to life and helped to train 22 members of staff to Level 1. The staff went away enthused and excited to implement P4C in their own classes. I do feel that this was helped by the groundwork I had laid previously through staff meetings and implementing P4C portfolios in classes to at least give staff and children a start with forming rudimentary communities of enquiry. Additionally, I had brought with me my own extensive bank of stimuli, ideas for thinking games and planning structures for enquiries built up over my years of training and experience that allowed staff to quickly adapt processes for their own classes.

Progress swiftly followed as every class teacher and their support staff embraced the possibilities and approaches of P4C. Children were exposed to a wide variety of stimuli that provoked deeper thought and rich responses as well as raising the quality of the talk children were engaging in. Children enjoyed their sessions and actively looked forward to engaging with each other about thorny, topical and complex subjects.

Some of the biggest impacts we have seen as a school as a result of introducing P4C has been the more cohesive approach taken by subject leaders towards their subjects. As the lead teacher for History and Geography, I know that I have made extensive use of P4C strategies in my teaching when discussing various topics as well as ensuring that links and stimuli for discussion are signposted within the schemes of work I have written. These so-called “diagonal links” are a way to provide teachers with the opportunity to enrich their teaching by providing pupils with a context in which to draw upon their historical and geographical knowledge. Other subject leads have followed a similar approach and we are beginning to see the payoff as pupils draw upon their understanding of one thing to make links with something else – the very epitome of Creative Thinking.

It has been particularly wonderful to see the development of thinking skills amongst our Reception students as they are given regular chances to practise their thinking and speaking skills courtesy of our highly enthusiastic staff team down there. Staff have found the impact of attending networking events and meetings run by SAPERE to be particularly helpful and they have found that their children are increasingly independent as the year has progressed.

Our Year 4 team have found that the deployment of P4C approaches in different subjects such as Maths has promoted greater understanding of key concepts such as fractions, decimals and percentages. In the words of one teacher, “It’s completely changed the way I’m planning. It helped them understand the concept of fractions more.  It gave it purpose and made them much more engaged.”

One of the most positive aspects to have emerged has been the older children running their own enquiries and recording their thoughts and the transcripts of their conversations in their own Philosophy Journals. You know you are onto something special when the children are asking to run it themselves!

I do hope that this small piece has persuaded you as to the effectiveness of P4C and I know that our school’s children have greatly benefited from its introduction. The impact on staff and children has been immense and is almost impossible to put into words, but I have made some effort to convey just how great it has been in our community. I cannot wait to see what the future brings as we continue our journey towards Gold!

Mark Needham, April 2024