One of our students has been away for several weeks, travelling through Asia and Oceania. While she is on the other side of the world, away from school, without face-to-face lessons and without anyone prompting her, she continues to learn mathematics. And she is learning it well. This is what we mean when we talk about student agency. Agency is not a complicated idea. It simply means that a pupil has learnt how to learn. That learning does not depend on the teacher being physically present. That the pupil has internalised not only the content, but also the attitude of continuing to ask questions, look for answers and follow a doubt or curiosity through. When this happens, the classroom no longer has walls. Learning travels with the pupil. How is she organising her learning remotely? Before she left, we agreed on a flexible plan: she would follow the programme at her own pace, with the autonomy to decide when and how to study each part. She did not have a fixed timetable. She had clear objectives and our trust that she would manage them responsibly. It has been a success. She sends us her work on time, asks precise questions and, most significantly, has gone beyond what we asked of her. In addition to the agreed work, she made another decision independently: to keep a notebook where she records all the real mathematical situations she encounters during her journey. No one asked her to do this.
