Image from Conrad Blakemore; review in the Chichester Observer

Currently running at Chichester, in the Minerva Theatre is a three-hander play by Michael Frayn, premiered in 1998, based on events from some 75 years ago, when two giants of theoretical physics, Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. Patricia Hodge as Margrethe Bohr, Charles Edwards as Werner Heisenberg and Paul Jesson as Neils Bohr kept the narrative tight, as was demanded from the script, ensuring that the audience was kept in thrall.

It was challenging, as much because it referenced many historical events and key people, so could be hard to keep up.

It was fascinating because it showed how ideas were being shared, formally through published works and meetings among this eminent group, where publication and talks were seen as opportunities to share current insights and to allow others to question and challenge.

In so doing, other individuals, such as Rudolf Peierls, Lise Meitner, Erwin Schrodinger and Max Born, to work on specific details and to take credit for each of their articulations. All of them were detailing parts of a whole that many actually feared; the potential for, and the impact of, splitting atoms. On their own, each part was benign.

Frighteningly, as some had postulated, combined as they ultimately were, with a number of expatriate nationalities, at Los Alamos, under Robert Oppenheimer, they created the atomic bomb.

The play demonstrated that the younger German scientist was mentored in his early career by Bohr, seeing him as a father figure and pre-eminent in their field. Heisenberg returned to Germany at the start of WW2 and oversaw elements of uranium enrichment, with the ultimate aim of securing a nuclear warhead. He knew the worth of Bohr and resulted in an abortive visit, in 1941, to see Bohr in Denmark, to try to elicit some information or his help in his project. Rebuffed, it isn’t clear if he was helpful in Bohr’s escape to the USA in 1942.

It was a play that brought the protagonists together in death, to reminisce about the earlier meeting and to seek to elicit the truth behind Heisenberg’s visit. Bohr adopted his mentor role and encouraged a number or iterations of the sequence of events, to help Heisenberg to clearly articulate his reasoning. This was interesting, as it demonstrated the potential of one person to help another to clarify their thinking, simply through encouraging them to talk through inconsistencies, or areas that are less clear.

This approach allowed Heisenberg to propose the Uncertainty Principle; asserting a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle, known as complementary variables can be known. Historically, the uncertainty principle has been confused with a somewhat similar effect in physics, called the observer effect, which notes that measurements of certain systems cannot be made without affecting the systems, that is, without changing something in a system. Heisenberg and Bohr undertook “thought experiments”, where they sought to visualise the effect of what they were seeking to capture in mathematical formulae, often resorting to long walks in order to do so uninterrupted.

One key message that I took that would have resonance in education would be the importance of a “talk partner”, not just for the children, as can often be seen in day to day practice, but also for teachers at every stage. Coaching and mentoring, if sensitively handled, allows for clarity of thought and articulation, the process ultimately leading to increased understanding and sometimes new areas for consideration.

The second key message would be that collegiate thinking or thought experiment, enables expertise in specific areas to ultimately be combined to enhance the whole. Each of us sees the world in slightly different ways. We learn from and through each other; the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.

Education is not about creating the atomic bomb.

It is about one generation helping a new generation to learn to take in information, to think, to articulate their current thinking, enabling an engaged other to reflect back or question this thinking, to seek to help each child to continue on their journey, their own “thought experiments”, which ultimately is a contributor to how each of us develops as learners in our own right.
   

Let’s try to put some things in perspective. Schools, in England and Wales, will soon reopen, teachers will receive their classes for the next academic year and the annual diary will start and pan out, plus or minus a few hiccups.
There are four areas of SEN description in the 2014 framework

• Communication and Interaction
• Cognition and Learning
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health
• Sensory and/or Physical needs.

The vast majority of children will arrive with their past educational history well documented, showing their earlier achievements and some areas where there appear to be continuing concerns.

A very few will arrive with an Education Health and Care Plan, EHCP, in place, with specific needs identified and methodologies and support required for them to achieve the needs. This may, or may not, include some statement of dedicated teaching time or adult support.

Others will already be highlighted on the school SEN register, with earlier needs identified. That these last two groups are known ahead of time allows the receiving teacher to prepare and plan, anticipating their ongoing need within the class plans.

There may well be some children whose needs only become apparent during the new academic year. This could be as a result of external trauma, resulting in unexpected responses to learning situations, or it could be an unspotted earlier need that becomes apparent as challenges become harder to accommodate.

If, after a couple of weeks back in class, with new children, one or two are causing some unforeseen concern, it is important that every class teacher and additional adult recognises their place as front-line eyes and ears of T&L need.

Changes to the organisation of SEND provision have been in train for the past few years, during which time I have blogged, as I have come across useful information. These blogs are archived within my blog, see Contents but I will refer to aspects to provide an introduction.

In this post, I am not looking to describe the range of individual needs that might be encountered. There are many expert colleagues who are much more able to offer insights into the specifics of individualised SEN(D). I have focused on issues as they affect mainstream school teachers, which can be summarised as developing a coherent, investigative approach that can fit with normal classroom practice, which is premised on the need to look, to reflect and record concerns to inform deeper conversations.

SEN is an area of teaching and learning where teacher expertise can easily be challenged.

A feeling of vulnerability, identifying a personal need can create a tension. There is always the possibility of meeting a child whose needs fall outside previous experience; the truism that “you’ve met one child with autism, so you’ve met one child with autism” can exemplify many areas of SEN.

For known needs, it is essential that earlier information is available, read and planned to be actioned within the new class organisation, and where needed, specific advice sought, considered and planned.

With any new class, there is a period of what I would call “calibration or sometimes recalibration”, the teacher challenge in learning being more generic, based on earlier reading of records and possibly earlier experiences with that year group. Outcomes show greater detail “in the moment”, resulting in more tailored responses, questioning and feedback/guidance. Outcomes also enable finer tuning of challenge levels and responses, as individual needs become apparent.

On entry into the formal learning situation, the staff eyes and ears should be alert to issues, noting down things that are said and done, to ensure that future reflections can be based on pattern finding or evidence across a range of issues. Evidence finding is the bread and butter of teacher life, in terms of interactions, questioning, feedback, support and outcomes.

General statements like, “x cannot read”, are unhelpful to discussion.

Investigating and sharing specifically what a child can and cannot do can lead to focused intervention, rather than general approaches.  Leaving a child in a situation where they are clearly failing, are seen to be failing and knowing that this is the case, is destructive to the child and to the teacher. Acknowledging specific issues and seeking the specific means to address the issues demonstrates a positive, professional approach.

There is no doubt that, when a teacher encounters a child who does not fit the “normal mould” that they are used to, that they may experience unease. Once a child enters school, it is less likely that concerns about potential special needs will be unknown, raised by parents or professionals, which hopefully have been followed up and investigated, so that, by the time a teacher encounters the child there may already be records with substantial supportive information available.

The journey to SEN decisions is likely to be a phased affair, especially with regard to learning issues and possibly over an extended timescale for many children, much to the frustration of parents and teachers.

“Getting a handle” on the problem can be a case of more structured investigation that may eventually lead to diagnosis, prescription and deciding on courses of action.

It is really important that teachers and other adults in class note down their concerns, from their earliest awareness, so that timely discussion with professional colleagues can distil patterns, suggest alternative courses of action and also avoid delay should there be a need to refer to an external form of support, eg the school Educational Psychologist (EP). Unless there is a track record of concern, the EP may well request that the classteacher undertakes activities that have already been tried, but the outcomes not recorded. This can add to unnecessary delays in addressing key issues.

Action is also embedded in classroom relationships and these need to be carefully considered. All children need teacher time, as they are the key strategic decision maker.

Children seem to know where they are in comparison with their peers. They can judge for themselves those who can achieve in an area and can also highlight what they can’t achieve, across a wide range of subjects. This can lead to self-esteem issues, to go along with their understanding of a learning struggle. Children know when they are being given easier things to do, so presenting appropriately challenging activities, with commensurate scaffolded support is important. Allocating a teaching assistant to an issue can create a mutually dependent relationship, with a child’s independence and decision-making capacity being limited by constant adult support. It needs careful oversight and review.

The children with the greatest need, need the best teaching.

The class teacher must teach these groups or individuals, to ensure quality teaching is available to them and also to deepen their understanding of the child(ren)’s needs.

Where this is the case, reference to teachers of earlier years can provide pedagogical and practical advice. In many ways, teaching standard 2, progress and outcomes, is THE key standard to support teacher understanding. What is the anticipated learning journey of children from early years through to year 6? While we know that learning is never linear, concerns about a child’s learning is often judged against such an expectation.

This crib sheet at the header might support record collection and prepare the ground for discussion. The centre box suggests an approach.

Teacher judgement plays a significant part. If a teacher has never met an issue, or makes simplistic inappropriate judgements, then the subsequent learning journey for the child will become more complex, with the potential for regression, rather than progress, as the relationships can become strained.

So, from a classroom perspective, I’d offer the following:-

·         Start a RADIO* file on individuals who are raising worries. *Record of Actions, Discussions or Decisions, Interventions and Outcomes.
·         Annotate plans regularly with individual concerns.
·         Annotate exercise books with appropriate supportive commentary.
·         Make diary notes in the RADIO file to deduce any pattern arising.
·         All adults become “spotters”. Keep a post it note record of things that happen in the lesson, to add to the RADIO. Ask any support adults to do the same.
·         The record should allow the teacher to create a proper narrative, with action, outcome and judgements/decisions, refined actions. There should be a record of planning adaptation.

At this point, the class teacher can take the beginnings of a case study to the SENCo, thus avoiding the generic conversation that starts, “X has a problem with…” or “Y just doesn’t get it…” which then needs to go through the process outlined above. By adopting this approach early, and similar systems are embedded in many schools, valuable time for vulnerable learners is saved.

Neither the class teacher, nor the SENCo is not being asked to be a diagnostician, but an investigator and describer of learning, behaviours and outcomes. The TA or other adult support can provide additional insights into issues. The broadest view available will support decision making.

Stepping up a notch.

If the teacher has got to the point where the child’s needs exceed their expertise or experience, they may feel the need to involve another adult, an experienced colleague such as the SENCo, to seek advice and solutions. There is nothing wrong in saying that you need help with a specific child’s needs. By asking for advice, broader school awareness is raised.
This stage was previously called School Action (Plus), and may involve deeper exploration of the issues supported by a range of external expertise, all of which will be subject to reports to the school, enhancing the available evidence.

I’d expect some kind of agreed internal plan to be developed, with the focus on actions, from the teacher, to seek to effect specific change; to keep a further diary of interventions, and outcomes, over relatively short timescales. These Personal Action Plans need to be seen embedded in plans and visible in practice. They should be clear descriptors, accessible and shared with parents at each stage. The focus on classroom action is essential. Progress should be capable of being measured in some form. They were called Individual Education Plans, IEPs, but could sometimes appear to be disregarded in practice.

Regular reviews and refinements eventually build to a more substantial case study file, which is likely to be then supported with reports from a range of additional professionals.
These files start with the teacher spotting and recording needs over a time scale, investigating anomalies, so that the support systems around them can offer advice based on detail.
That’s teaching…
 
SEND is often linked to Inclusion practice
Inclusion can sometimes be seen as an add-on to “normal” teaching activity.
It is possible to argue that inclusion, far from being an add-on,
is an integral part of practice,
explicit in the detail of the standards for teachers.
Teachers will go to work each day to secure the best opportunities
for each and every child in their class.
Inclusion occurs in the best of teaching experiences.
 
Inclusion is not something that is done to people.
It is an aspect of ethos, a principle and, as such, exists or it doesn’t.
An inclusive environment is one where people matter,
their needs and aspirations are not only known but are also supported.
Therefore, it is a college of individuals which cares for each other,
the collegiate approach.
Inclusion is an ethos based on love and care,
with the opposite extreme leading to exclusion and a child being ostracised.
An inclusive ethos should allow individuals to express themselves
and, at times, to articulate different opinions.
Openness and articulacy can support the resolution of issues more easily.
Inclusive organisations often support discussion and resolution
through mediation and allowing advocacy for vulnerable members.
 
All school staff are the eyes and ears of the organisation.
In this approach, early identification of concerns,
such as behaviour change, physical hurt and absence
can lead to early intervention, by the most suitable means,
sometimes external to the school.
School staff have a responsibility to keep children safe.
Intervention can be testing for the adult,
but to ignore warning signs puts everyone at risk.
 
Every child is unique, demonstrably so, educationally,
physically, emotionally, socially, though heritage and life experience.
It is possible to perceive thirty different needs in a class of thirty children.
That puts a strain on a teacher’s organisational abilities
and their ability to engage with each individual.
However, differentially challenging activities can lead to deeper engagement
with small groups and individuals, where whole class teaching cannot.
 
Differentiation has been a significant challenge to teachers,
as it implies the need to plan for several layers of ability within groups.
Some schools organise in sets or streams, but it is arguable that even in sets there
is a continuum of ability, even if it is narrowed.
One only has to ask the simple question, “What’s the point in being bright in this classroom?”
to see that some may not be sufficiently challenged.
Challenge implies expectation,
where the teacher has analysed the child’s needs and can see what that the next
learning step is.
Expectation can lead to aspiration,
with targets being set slightly higher, but with support.
Teachers need to be aware that task
completion does not automatically mean success in learning,
but the combination of learning processes with positive outcomes is energising
to both the child and the teacher.
We all want the “light-bulb moment”.
 
Inclusion should imply personalised approaches to learning and teaching,
with individualised challenges for children
to enable them to become engaged learners and active producers,
rather than consumers.
 
Assessment, analysis and reflection are embedded within practice,
supporting individual and institutional progress.
The mantra for each school and each individual within a school should be,
 
“Inclusion is what we do.”


More reading?
​Practical SEN(D) Linking ideas into a coherent whole.
SEND 2014; possible class teacher Crib sheet.

If there is one word that I’d like to see feature more during the coming academic year, it would be challenge.

Challenge in itself holds together all the disparate elements that appear to make up the teaching lexicon, including resource and space need, differentiation, activity, thinking, talking, engagement, intervention, evaluation and assessment and resilience.

Challenge, in different forms, describes the purpose of action; trying to do something, which may be just a little harder or different to anything that has been tried before.

When faced with a problem, a difficult task, this can test earlier knowledge, by bringing to the fore earlier efforts and successes. The comparison between earlier and current needs can enable the practicalities of overcoming the perceived obstacle to become clearer, with a series of practical tasks to be accomplished. Problems can then become achievable. If, during the course of action, including dialogue, it becomes clear that the proposed solution, although initially decided as the best course of action, is going awry, the evaluation of the current need might lead to decisions to stall, to review, to seek additional information from external expertise, before continuing. These actions become useful life skills.

Working together, in itself, can be a challenge, in that collective decisions might be subject to disagreement, including opposition. The ability to negotiate through difficulty is another human need, occasionally requiring a moderating voice to be available.

There is a simple question that, to me, indicates the quality of challenge; what have they got to think about? This can vary from relatively simple recall of earlier facts through to dealing with an overarching challenge.

Activity may hold some challenges and there are some activities that have to be in place as practice tasks in order to undertake more significant challenges. In earlier incarnations of the Design Technology scheme in the National Curriculum, these were resource tasks. The principle can be applied across all curriculum areas. Of course, there is an easy way to ensure some level of concentration on these tasks. Simply ensure that children are aware of the purpose; we’re doing this SO THAT we can use it in the next challenge.

Resources, including space can be a challenge, but it’s feasible to consider challenge within the available resources. Tables can be moved to create different working spaces, covered, as needed for different activities. Resources availability, if planned ahead of time, in labelled boxes or drawers, can enable independence in retrieval and return.
I’d want to frame challenge over time, so that the timetable, in itself, does not become a limiting factor. Current timetables can appear to preclude continuity of challenge, ensuring that there’s enough available to fill the available hour. This can push some to discrete activities that might be less challenging. Quality outcomes can take a little longer, especially for some children. It might be better to have one finished piece of quality, as a baseline, rather than a series of unfinished pieces.

I said at the top that challenge incorporates other areas that make up teaching. Challenge is set by the teacher. In the early days with a class, the challenge may be generic, as a means of getting to know how each child thinks and reacts. Over time, this becomes more refined, as the teacher recalibrates expectations to the new group.  In so doing, the interactions are also likely to become more refined and meet the needs of each learner. In another blog, I propose that differentiation is informed dialogue.

The challenge of keeping going, in order to produce a piece of quality work, can require different levels of resilience, but might also require different layers of coaching intervention. This act, in itself, underpins assessment; how much could x do independently and in what areas did x need?

Ongoing challenge can be provided by low level sharing of developing outcomes; reading out loud an interesting fact or sentence; a child sharing how they have solved a maths problem. Visualisers or iPads linked to IWB can help to make this more overt.

Challenge can enhance dialogue, including the use of vocabulary appropriate to the task. Enabling different layers of planning and preparation provides the groundwork for taking first steps, including identifying the knowledge and skills that are likely to be needed.

At no point does a challenge curriculum divorce from the need to directly teach discrete elements. This has always been a need, it’s the simplest way to get information across to someone who needs it, and, in the context of learning, the knowledge and skills become “resources” in themselves. The challenge is to use and apply the knowledge and skills in the problem context, which, in itself, becomes the test.

Thinking a little further, I’d propose such things as Learning Objectives and Success Criteria are shared at the beginning of the challenge journey, as part of the overview of how the week, fortnight, half term will pan out. It will be the overview “so that”, sharing the eventual aim. Discrete pieces of resource tasking could have discrete LO/SC, eg how to set out a letter.

Children should be able to tell someone what they’re learning and why. That shouldn’t be the challenge.

Michael Palin, interviewed by the Guardian on 6th August, offered the following thoughts on the value of geography.

“The world is much more accessible, and I think it is hugely important that we understand the world and why countries are where they are, why they live how they do, what the climate is, what they produce,” he said.
“Geography is no longer just something which you learn from a book and a map and that’s it. It’s very much now a collaborative thing.

“The world is out there, you can go and see for yourself, very often now for very small amounts of money, what the world looks like, and I think that’s a great opportunity.

“I think it broadens the mind. That’s one obvious thing, but also I think it just helps us to understand how other countries are the way they are, and this is really very important in just helping us to realise that we all share the same planet and we should know more about what makes us different as well as what makes us similar.”

“I looked at books, I looked at maps, I looked at atlases, I enjoyed that, but the thing that inspired me most of all was being taken from the school into the local area to look at nature,” he said. “To look at the way the land looked, to understand the geography, to walk up little hills and streams and see how the ecological system worked, look at the environment.”
Getting outdoors was “where the magic appeal of geography lies,” he said. “It’s being out there, it’s being able to see and touch and feel what the land is like”.

I’m not quite as old as Michael Palin, but the article made me think about how I came to enjoy geographic knowledge, as a child, then as an adult.

My 1950s childhood was spent largely outdoors, in all weathers, playing in different places with friends, exploring together, without really thinking about it, making our own mental maps of our locality, to be able to meet up in the right place at the right time. These were the days before mobile phones and even a telephone in the house.

I was lucky to holiday with my Welsh miner family, with my Uncle taking us for long rambles after his shift, pointing out places of interest and also the local wildlife. These experiences instilled a life-long interest in the natural world.

Geography, at Primary school, was largely based on atlas work, learning the names of countries, their main cities, rivers and other significant features. Occasionally, this was supplemented by stories, songs or snippets of information about the country. We get oranges from Spain; we always had an orange at the bottom of our Christmas stocking.

Emigrating to Oz as a seven-year-old, the six-week boat journey, eventually each way, was enough to give an idea of the vastness of the world, especially the oceans, with stops on the way in places that created memories that are inevitably out of date. However, it piqued an interest in people and where they live, especially where housing and clothing were very different to our known world. As an 11-year-old, I returned to the UK having had a broadening experience.

Geography, at Secondary school, was in many ways, an extension of the Primary experience. Teachers who had learned facts about countries regurgitating their knowledge, with maps drawn, lists of products, other key facts. The days before easy access to TV programmes, or today’s interactive whiteboards meant that stimulus had to come via the teacher, and if they weren’t stimulating… small photographs don’t really hold a class attention.

As a NQT and early career teacher, teaching geography well before the National Curriculum was even a twinkle in a minister’s eye, the locality became a significant element, with exploratory forays into the village, highlighting essential landmarks, such as the church, the old manor house ruins, the play park, the river, finding the Roman tiles in the church tower, “meeting” the effigy of the local lord of the manor who had blocked the river, meaning that boats could no longer ply their trade. The history of the settlement linked to the geography.

Maps, obtained from the County Record Office, covering around three hundred years, allowed access to the idea of the settlement growth and change over time. Census material showed how households had changed, and, exploring the houses showed the timber framed 16/17th century houses had all been “modernised” between 1780 and 1810, with Georgian fronts covering the tenements behind. A local lady invited us into her house to see some original features.

Uncovering where we live allows access into broader themes, comparisons with other places and ways of life. A paucity of locality understanding could be seen as a dereliction in terms of safeguarding children. The better the understanding of an area, the safer a child can be, in my opinion, so I would want children to be walking their local streets, drawing sketch maps, putting on essential landmarks, able to give directions to get from one place to another; this can even be done within the school building, giving directions for how to get from the classroom to the office, hall etc.

As a relatively simple exercise, I once linked with a local Secondary school art department, whose lead teacher wanted to use the locality for photography. My need was orientation, with a junior class. We divided children into small groups, with a couple of year 10s and a parent to lead. The idea was that the Primary children would create an “I spy” trail along a walk, while the year 10s took photos to work on later. Swapping trails, different groups then had to follow the trail and identify the features drawn. Back on the classroom, sketch maps were drawn, incorporating the “I spy” features as landmarks. Exploration of road names enabled some exploration of locality history, supported by the local history society.

Geography opens the prospects of assuring a sense of place, our place in the world. Understanding our place in the world is a fundamental part of a broad education.

Geography is people, language, places, settlements, materials, buildings, clothing, food and transport among many other things and how each impacts on another, creating a unique culture with song and stories.

Geography is the stuff of narrative, settings, understanding where things take place and the nuances that the interplay between characters and their environment can have on (sometimes power) relationships.

With an Interactive Whiteboard in a classroom, it is possible to explore even distant parts of the world, bringing more life into a topic. Smaller artefacts/images can be made suitably large with a visualiser.

From that point of view, geography is central to any curriculum, if children have any chance of understanding how the world functions. And in today’s political world, it is even more vital, if connections are to be secured and the inter-related nature of geo-politics is to be maintained.

If you want children to have ideas to think, talk and write about, they need to develop and internalise these through a broad range of experiences.

It can all start from local walks, maps and atlases … home activities included? Where do I live?
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Linked blog; on psychogeography
https://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/people-and-places-psychogeography

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