Instead of being able to really enjoy the scenery above, as we had planned to do, our holiday plans were somewhat scuppered when this happened a short distance from the house, resulting in the car as shown.
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Downtime can be mulling time, but it is essential for everyone to have some “me” time. People in education spend their lives giving and there’s never a shortage of takers. So, once the response to whatever the latest Government, school or Governor need is complete and detailed plans and aides-memoire for the autumn are recorded, make time for yourself.

Whether walking, cycling, cooking or any other pastime, enjoy yourself, enjoy the people around you and let the mind wander.

I’ll be doing a very bad Monet impression, at least as far as the straw hat is concerned, accompanied, occasionally by a passable glass of red wine. Paint will from time to time be placed on the canvas. It’s the thought that counts. The product can occasionally be pleasing, but the relaxation is the most important element. DIY will also happen, as long as the weather is helpful.

Walking, talking together, stopping to admire views, taking photographs, picnicking, spotting and watching the abundant wildlife, will all feature and a short trip into the Pyrenees is planned, to explore a new area of France. It's all a kind of discovery, or place and self.

Books will be read; the hammock will be used and hopefully will result in extra sleep, or mulling, which for me will be reflecting on this year of school visits for a range of providers and the many positive outcomes, which continue to suggest that personalisation of learning has a significant impact.
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Salut. Bonnes vacances.

PS Coffee will also be drunk, with the view at the header, towards M. Bontemps farm, watching the sheep.
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It’s the end of term; hooray say all the tired teachers I meet and my grandchildren. The tiredness is not just from the past year, ending with the usual flurry of activity days; sports, parent evenings, discos, leaver’s assemblies, but also thoughts turning towards next year. Planning classroom or year group moves, possibly even moving schools and changing jobs altogether.

Changing class or year group can cause a few headaches, especially now, with a year-based curriculum. A move requires a complete learning of requirements of the year, in some significant detail. As for assessment systems; each school may have a variation on several themes, for the new member of staff to get to know.

Change is hard enough for experienced teachers, but will cause considerable concern for a newbie, fresh from their university experience, suddenly having to make all the decisions for themselves. Hopefully, they will be in a situation where they have an experienced mentor, with the time and professional space to really mentor and be working in a school where they have some background planning available for the newbie to consider against the specific needs of their class.

It would help transitional decisions if a piece of work from the recent few weeks was chosen by each child, as an example of their best current work that they’d like their new teacher to see, perhaps even to have in their new book as they write their first pieces in September, to be able to compare with the earlier benchmark. It tells the new teacher what “good” is for each child, to calibrate and refine their expectations for the near future.

As a HT, the last exercise book of a year transferred to the next year, together with personal targets, to provide simple continuity and progression information to the receiving colleague.

Adults need reference points against which to make decisions. Children can see from one piece of work to another whether it’s a better effort or not. We need to use the available evidence to ensure that transition (and transfer) doesn’t mean that progress stalls because the children reset the expectation through a blank page approach.
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There is a need for some (few) to have a fresh start, but all start from a known point, or they can regress through their own (lack of) effort. Teachers need to remain in charge of the learning agenda.

You can’t see me learning

If talk supports learning, so it follows that children need to learn to talk to a purpose, so that it enables learning. Pie Corbett’s Talk for Writing and Philosophy for Children encourage purposeful, deeper talk that goes beyond finishing and activity. However, there is a greater imperative to incorporate high quality talk purposes into every aspect of teaching and learning; the teacher is the model thinker and speaker in the classroom...
 
You may not “see” me learning, but have to rely on other things.
The term “proxy” appears often, but seems to be used as a negative.
Proxies can apparently include engagement, motivation and interest,
Which have been evident in classrooms forever.
Apparently they’re not learning.
Working might also be a proxy; busyness certainly doesn’t necessarily mean learning.
That’s been a constant throughout my career.
 
It’s easy to give children busy work, low level activities.
It always has been; just colour in this picture…
Before differentiation, we use the term match and challenge,
With challenge being the significant driver.
Task design was carefully considered to embed a clear outcome into a process.
Something to think about, to talk about, to decide, do act on, to review and revise,
To create or produce, so that both the outcome and the process could be evaluated.
 
We talk of a thought process, which is enhanced through talking ideas and getting feedback,
Which becomes an activity process,
Working to create a suitable solution to the problem that’s been set.
And when it’s finished we can look at the outcome,
reflect on what we’ve done,
edit and improve if the need is immediate,
or hold in mind those things that we need to work on further.
 
So, no, you can’t see my learning.
You can talk with me about what I am doing
and get a feeling for my thinking and where the journey is taking me.
You can give me advice and help me to refocus if necessary.
You can sit with me and talk through a problem as my guide.
You can critique the outcome of my thinking, a form of conversation.
 
To know my thinking, you need to listen, to observe, to engage in discussion, to guide, to help me evaluate and decide where to focus next; in other words, to be party to my thinking. Otherwise you might be guessing.

That way, what I produce can improve, with quality creating pride and a focus for effort.

Learning needs challenge, focused effort, constant editing or evaluation, occasionally support and refocusing.

It can’t be seen in and of itself, but you can perceive my growing capability and enable me to build myself as a learner.
A range of blogs that look at the place of talk in learning.

All talk? Every lesson is an English lesson.
Voice activated
Articulating thoughts

Originally started by the English Civil War Society in 1984, Little Woodham, a reconstruction of a small village from the 17th Century, was such a success that local volunteers created the Gosport Living History Society in order to keep the village developing as a local resource. Over time, from its early beginnings, more buildings have been built, showcasing a greater number of trades.

The village hosts school trips in the week, as well as families and individuals on selected weekends. It just happened that this past weekend it was open. I had visited several times previously, as a teacher and with family. Despite having lived in this area for well over twenty years, Melanie hadn’t, nor had local grandchildren, so, armed with 20th century camera, some small provisions and sufficient currency to effect an entry, we journeyed forth.

Getting there requires some local knowledge, or a sat-nav as the area around Little Woodham is in the process of being redeveloped, from very old naval quarters into a very modern estate. Surrounding Little Woodham on the other side is the newly designated Alver Valley nature reserve, reflecting how Gosport grew out of very small hamlets simply growing together, particularly with the growing naval and military connections.

Effectively, you have the hamlet with the temporary residents, each with their specific roles, in which they “hot seat” to ever changing groups of visitors. Some are more general in their roles, helping out where needed.

So we met the travelling salesman, with his barrow of goods, which he kindly showed in the hope of a “sale” to the passing public. In addition, he gave much insight into some of the products; crushed plantain mixed with olive oil and beeswax to make an ointment/skin balm or oak galls steeped in water, mixed with ferrous sulphate, or some other iron based liquid (eg leave nails to rust in water, use the water and gum arabic. He pointed us in the direction of the producers and users of his products.

The Phoenix Tavern is a rebuilt version of an earlier building that burned down. The female proprietor was a mine of information about the food and drink available, as well as the formalities of hospitality; discovered a new word “palliasse”, a straw mattress. For children to understand something as simple as where and how people slept is significant.

Spinning, dyeing and weaving were demonstrated, as was calligraphy, the apothecary’s shop, some eye-popping sleight of hand, simple knitting, woodcraft, pottery and bodging and the armourer encouraged some participation to feel the weight of swords and helmets.

The woodsman brought out his tinder box, made by the travelling tinker, to house the flint and iron to strike a spark that could be used to catch some dry tinder alight. A couple of cut fingers later, a spark was created. On an earlier visit to Little Woodham, the woodsman told the story of the “square peg in a round hole”, the means of holding timber joints securely. While the lower part of the peg was rounded to facilitate entry into the hole, the top was left square to bite into the wood and hold tight.

Social history, shared in this way, can be a means of children entering into a study of history, by linking how they live now with an understanding of how people lived in the past.

Very young children have a limited compass against which to judge “before”, but they themselves have a story as do their parents and grandparents, perhaps great grandparents. By linking generations, “histories” can be explored back, in extreme cases up to 100 years. Creating an interest in the past means leaps in imagination. To make some parts more real, through visits, artefacts and different forms of images allows greater insights, against which less obvious elements can be explored.

History is all around, if you know how to “read” buildings and road or landscape names, or visit the local graveyard. When I was a HT, the discovery of a WW1 role of honour board led to a visit to the graveyard opposite the school, finding some of the graves and tacking down the local families that still lived in the village. A parcel of photographs, a family’s genealogy and recalled stories added to the sum of available knowledge. Personal genealogies followed and many interesting stories emerged.

If you’re in, or near, southern Hampshire, check out the website. A day out for a family (of five) costs £16, which, after a four hour visit, felt like excellent value and it did what it said on the title; living history.

Schools need to book visits.