Mantle of the Expert

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Mantle of the Expert

For periods of time - often a whole term - children take on the 'Mantle of the Expert'. This is a well-established pedagogy within which there are three core features: a client, a team of experts and a commission. The children become a team of experts, and, over time, learn what they need to learn to be able to deliver a commission for a client. 

For example, the children may be a team of nautical archaeologists. They may have been commissioned to retrieve artefacts from a shipwreck and provide expert information for a museum that is planning a new exhibition on the history of trade routes in the Mediterranean. 

In order to deliver this commission, children will use their prior knowledge to establish what they need to learn more about. This is a powerful meaning making process - whereby individuals make sense of knowledge, experiences, relationships and self.  Making connections with previous understanding is key as it helps children make sense of the world and adds coherency to what they already know. 

Teachers will consider what precise subject knowledge the children will meet on their way through the enquiry, and there is also a deliberately dynamic aspect to the planning and delivery. They may decide that they want to find out more about something in greater depth. There is flexibility within the core planning to allow for pupil agency to influence the path the learning takes. There is a strong sense of co-creation throughout the sequence of learning.

You can find out about the current enquiry by going to a child's Class Page and by checking the second page of our weekly newsletter.