Chris Chivers (Thinks)

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Education is (not) a religion

30/10/2015

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This thought has been playing around in my mind since the beginning of the summer holidays, when a sudden eruption by one group against another point of view bordered on some kind of crusade. Some topics are soon polarised.

Everyone who comes into teaching is likely to have had a rationale for doing so; it is not really one of those jobs one falls into accidentally. Having been involved in interviewing prospective ITE trainees, with two universities, an important aspect is to determine the underlying reasons for wanting to become a teacher. Somewhere in the mix is a liking for children, as well as an enjoyment of learning, for a specific subject or more generally. The 18 or 19 year old, possibly older with mature entrants, will bring with them a significant number of years of experience, with 13 of them having been spent in formal education settings for BA(QTS); PGCE plus 3 years.

They embark on an Initial Teacher Education course that lasts between 1 and 4 years. In that time they will have at least two, possibly up to four different experiences in school. They come out as largely formed teachers, with the schools within which they pursue their career being the test bed within which they will harden up their formative thinking. The one essential constant is a desire to become a teacher and a belief in themselves in that role. The personal belief in ability is a significant driver in performance.

They need to have professional status, be ordered and organised, know their stuff and know how to best get it across to their audience, the children, sometimes having to interpret the same ideas in different ways. They also need the skills to fully investigate and address anomalies.

Recently, as the current half term has evolved over a couple of weeks, and a chance to watch a number of history based TV programmes, on the Celts and the Hundred Years’ War, coupled with reading several vitriolic exchanges, I was moved to go back to my original musings on the nature of belief in teaching.

Education has had a long history of pseudo-polarisation. Although the bread and butter of teaching and learning is, and always has been, the transfer of information from one generation to another, talk of traditional and progressive would appear to have more than a century of history, with classicists probably able to tell me that this has been the case for a couple of millennia. I blame the philosophers.

Anyone reading my blog would surmise that I am and always have been of a more progressive nature. I have always had an eclectic interest in a wide range of subjects, know that I have occasionally a slightly oblique view of things, and have been described on occasions as a “lateral thinker”. However, in the classroom, I would always argue that I have sought to deploy the best methodology necessary for each group of children in any class to make the maximum progress while they were my responsibility. I can remember classes where my dominant approach was traditional, and many others whose independence allowed them to take greater responsibility within tasks. One thing I found was that my teacher life was easier with more independent children in the class.

The school ethos, which is fundamentally an overarching belief system to which the teaching staff are appointed, will articulate preferred approaches to learning and teaching, so will have a bearing on the personal approach in the classroom. As long as this is very clear before interview, there should be no ambiguity, but I have a vivid memory of an error of judgement on my part, which meant that I stayed in a school for only one year. The clash of ideologies was too great to bridge and it didn’t help, professionally or personally, to be in an “or else” situation.

We develop our underpinning belief systems from a broad range of experiences, a large number from our life experiences, but also through formal training, reading, listening and working with others, and joining in communal sharing opportunities. We accord certain colleagues additional status, as they share their developed or developing experience. Some among us are braver than others to try out ideas, to take risks within the learning situation, in an attempt to maximise the learning opportunities, based on a good knowledge of the children.

I have always enjoyed listening to others talk about their experience, particularly if this was a complete narrative, not just the highlights and the special outcomes. The processes underpinning the achievements are as important as the outcomes themselves, especially if one is looking for replicability. Copying may not be the best option. I would argue that all CPD is valuable, if it makes you think, as in all learning. If I left a meeting with a nugget to pursue, I felt happy.
The prescription and proscription of approaches that can appear to have been embedded in the political rhetoric, over the more recent past, has become the background to many of the arguments that can erupt on Twitter.

Each of us is unique in our personal lives. Although we may experience similar events, each will be nuanced and builds into our psyche preferences and reference points. Where some approaches have been seen by some as strengthening their position and therefore their belief in themselves, they are emboldened to challenge others. “Prove it, prove it”, is the often heard cry. There may be some “truths” that hold on the balance of proofs, but, like all things educational, children don’t always subscribe to the prevailing truths, so the teacher needs to explore “off piste” with groups or specific individuals. The “proof” may sometimes have to rest with the outcome evidence.

There is a character played by Kenneth Williams in the 1960s programmes “Round the Horne” and “Beyond out Ken” (see pic above), J Peasemold Gruntfuttock, who, each week ‘ssumed a title, he was “self-appointed”, the greatest being the “King of Peasemoldia”. On one occasion he was a Witchfinder General. When I see Twitter spats emerging, I sometimes caricature argumentative participants in similar fashion, which may not be fair to either, but it helps to limit my involvement.

One thing that I know for certain, after forty plus years in education, is that I can’t and don’t know it all and it is not possible to do so. I have only lived my experience. And if I could do it again, I would, but I’d like to start from where I am now, not my earlier self. I’d be much better.

I have always reserved the right to be a “Doubting Thomas”, seeking clarifications and seeing with my own eyes that which is claimed “to work”. In my experience, I have seen some very strange things be made to work, by creative teachers who developed the holistic approach to go with the basic idea. One has only to look at the range of available Maths concrete apparatus to see a wide range of approaches.

I need to see the rationale, the processes and the outcomes to be able to judge for myself. I don’t need gurus, to copy slavishly, but I do need clarity of vision, which comes from clarity of explanation. I am not a fundamentalist in any area, use teacher-centred approaches along with child-centred approaches, selected to the needs of the children at a particular point in time. Timely teaching is an essential good. Use and application might require a more open ended approach to enable clarity in seeing what a child can do unaided.

It is a matter of balance, but with the over-riding need being the needs of the child within the learning context.
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To talk without a receptive audience may not lead to learning.
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Ideas

26/10/2015

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I may have said, in other posts, that I find ideas fascinating, particularly how one change can lead someone to develop an idea further, while, in the hands of another the development can lead to a significant leap in approach.
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I enjoyed working with thematic approaches to history, such as shelters and settlements, or materials in science, with a historical aspect embedded. This latter came into view again recently while watching a three part series on the Celts, and another about the Hundred Years War. In both series, it was the improvements in the technology of warfare that allowed successful winning of battles.
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Going back over time, stone axes gave way to bronze and the development of daggers and swords, while the invention of iron beat bronze any day, with the Romans adding battle strategy to their approach. In the Hundred Years War, the archers, successful early, succumbed to artillery later, and stone shot was replaced with iron. Each successive improvement gave advantage, so, continually, behind the scenes, someone was looking to invent the next improved version and this continues to this day.
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Someone, somewhere discovered the presence of metals, I like to think, in a similar way that they discovered the existence of other materials, by chance. Perhaps, after the fire had gone out, the stones around the edge had altered and another material was present in the fire, which “fired” the imagination of the finder into speculating and early exploration, seeking to repeat the experience. Trial and error are human traits. We learn from this, especially if the trials are ordered and organised efficiently, so becoming experimentation and creating the first material scientists.

Being reasonably close to Butser Hill, near Petersfield, I was able to take children to the relatively newly developed experimental archaeological site being developed by Peter Reynolds. Peter was a gracious host and often led the visits, even with the relatively young visitors, showing them how the group of scientists worked from the ground plan of the excavated buildings, but had no real idea of how the upper parts and the thatching were arranged. This was the trial and error aspect. It took several attempts to establish what was the most likely methodology. The site at the top of the hill moved down into the Queen Elizabeth Country Park for a few years, before moving again to Chalton, nearer to Waterlooville. Each time, it has been developed through the experimental route. They are still exploring, but moving onto how Iron Age people kept grain through the winter and other nuanced explorations. It is again trial and error, some moderate certainty, especially when buildings last, or when crops succeed and the grain lasts through the winter. “Facts” are constantly changing, as discoveries enhance the knowledge base.

In teaching terms, there is a perennial debate about “best ways”. My experience is that every time I picked up a bright idea from colleagues, reading or courses, everything had to be adapted to the circumstances of the school; the available space resources and time, not to ignore the needs of the class at that time. I like to think of this as an adaptable evolutionary approach, which I think is likely to be shared by the larger proportion of the teaching profession. The best way is that which gets across the ideas needing to be shared to the largest part of the audience.

Ideas are shared through real life experiences, first hand, with second hand classroom experiences being supported by visuals, artefacts, sound, and tastes, relevant to the experience. Each brings a different and essential dimension to the learning experience and needs to be retained. The teacher voice is not necessarily an appropriate substitute for effective supporting resources.

I actually like the idea that we may not know everything, that explorations can add to and alter the sum of knowledge. I think children should also understand that what is presented as facts and knowledge might alter over time and that they should be prepared to reconsider what they know in the light of new information.

That’s what life offers, as well as lessons in class. I’m happy to keep learning and playing with ideas. Teachers are, quite often, very similar to experimental archaeologists.
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Collections

23/10/2015

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For some reason, I have always been a bit of a collector. Not in any extravagant way, just occasional interesting bits of art work for the walls, maybe a book or two, new plants for the garden.

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It all started in childhood. Brook Bond tea among others, produced cards that would be found in the packets, between the cardboard and the internal packaging. Buying a new packet of tea meant the prospect of treasures, the possibility of a new one or perhaps a valuable swap. The collecting book, bought at the grocer’s for 6d offered the space to save the card, with the information printed on the back reprinted beneath or beside the space, so that, when complete, you had a useful booklet of information.

The school playground became alive with huddles of exchangers, with specials or the last few in a collection suddenly acquiring new status, with the prospect of multiples in exchange. Capitalism was rife. We learned about real life exchange rates.

Visits to grandmother were eagerly anticipated, as she, very kindly, also had retired neighbours organised to keep any cards, so visits could mean a pile of newbies, which were scanned immediately, after offering grateful thanks and a kiss, of course. The chatter in the corner was punctuated with “Got, not got, got, got…” until the pile had been explored.


After this, each was turned over to read the information beneath. Where words were difficult, there was an adult on hand to ask. In that way, the collecting of cards also proved useful in developing as a reader, in a world where books were not as common as today.

Christmas and birthdays might bring forth Observer books, on different topics, or perhaps an I-spy to encourage looking around. We were encouraged to look at the world, but, we also had the freedoms to do the exploring and to look at the world for ourselves.

We do need to offer the current generation the wherewithal to look around and to be interested in the world around them. After all, it will be theirs in turn.


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November is a rotten month

23/10/2015

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Not just because the clocks have changed and the days seem to be longer and darker, as well as wetter, windier and colder.
Discovering that a slice of cake had gone mouldy in it’s box, reminded me of an impromptu classroom topic that “grew” out of a similar experience.
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For some teachers, this week will have been half term and, for them, sadly, it will be coming to a close, just as another large group will have struggled their way through the last week, probably running on empty, fuelled by cakes and chocolate for instant energy. Some staffrooms will have been left untouched for nine days. There will be items left in fridges and cupboards and unwashed coffee mugs which will have started to develop a life of their own.

This regular event, apart from becoming a topic of great debate among the staff about whose job it was to keep the staffroom clean and tidy, spawned an impromptu running topic in a classroom at the time that I was covering for an absent member of staff.

Finding a number of unclaimed clear plastic boxes in the staffroom cupboards and in lost property, I encased a number of the more interesting items and sealed them with tape to deter the more adventurous fiddlers, at least to make it more difficult. These boxes of developing moulds became a source of much interest and were added to with children bringing in their own examples, similarly encased. We allowed some fruits to “go off”, explored the contents of a compost heap and did some basic research into related areas. It became a sort of “running homework”, as individuals added to the sum of knowledge.

For example, a child might go home and discover: -

   Sir Alexander Fleming
  • Born August 6, 1881 in Darvel, Scotland
  • Died March 11, 1955 in London, England
In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming observed that colonies of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus could be destroyed by the mould Penicillium notatum, proving that there was an antibacterial agent there in principle. This principle later lead to medicines that could kill certain types of disease-causing bacteria inside the body.

Or

A father of microbiology
Few people have saved more lives than Louis Pasteur. The vaccines he developed have protected millions. His insight that germs cause disease revolutionised healthcare. He found new ways to make our food safe to eat.
Pasteur was the chemist who fundamentally changed our understanding of biology. By looking closely at the building blocks of life, he was at the forefront of a new branch of science: microbiology.

These insights, when shared, fired the imaginations of others, who went into the school or local library or in some cases, supported by interested parents, did search the internet.

While the plastic boxes were in the classroom, they were the subject of observations, as well as drawn and written recordings.

Surrounding the whole was a working wall of developing ideas. Keeping the moulds ended when the caretaker complained about a developing smell, but it was fun while it lasted.


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Making progress

19/10/2015

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Reflections from Teaching and Learning Takeover 2015

Attending the annual TLT at Southampton University has become a part of my recent routine. I look forward to hearing the thoughts of a broad group of current teachers and bloggers, as well as to meeting with Tweeters face to face. The positivity and the general atmosphere is very special. Everyone wants to be there, on a Saturday, which is testament to the interest of a significant number of local and wider teachers. One had come from the Isle of Man to Southampton.

High quality organisation, 36 different speakers across a range of topics, an available lunch and coffee and pastries on arrival. Jennifer Ludgate and David Fawcett earned well deserved plaudits, as did Stephen Lockyer for an uplifting opening and Chris Waugh for an impassioned close.

It was a long day, as I had volunteered to help Martyn Reah(@MartynReah) with setting up the teacher5aday stall, from 8am, but, like all teachers just got stuck into the furniture moving with the early morning team. It is inevitably a team effort. I came away enthused and with a new set of thoughts to consider.

I had chosen my four sessions for different reasons; the first two concentrating on differentiation, from Jude Enright (@judeenright), from a Secondary SEN and Simon Knight (@SimonKnight100) from the Special School perspective. The afternoon focused on progress from Debbie and Mel (@teachertweaks) and Pete Jones (@Pekabelo) sharing his Project Based Learning (PBL or Pebble).

None of these speakers is likely to have considered their contribution in the light of others, yet, on reflection, each contributed to a broader consideration in my mind of the idea of progress, with probably Pete’s final presentation offering the vehicle for overall reflection, on learning as a holistic activity.
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​Learning is a strange mix of the whole and the parts and teachers have to know how the parts make up the whole. Some of the parts are school based, others from outside; real life experiences. The whole-part-whole descriptor takes me back to my early days of teaching, when, as the “young man on the staff”, I got to take the PE, with a focus on boy’s games. A training evening with the PE advisor introduced the idea, in football, by talking of giving out the balls and allowing some “play time” to acclimatise, sharing specific skills, then putting into small team game scenarios, breaking to explore a detail then putting into immediate practice, where it could be refined. Over time, the discrete skills, brought back into discussion, became embedded into the children’s full game.

Considering this approach in my classroom, I could quickly see that there were applications in any lesson. Within a carefully constructed challenging task, children could engage, have highlights or areas of development discussed, to be addressed immediately within the lesson. The flexibilities available at that time enabled additional time to be allocated to completion, if there was a need at either end of the ability range. Medium term plans, as holistic “project plans” had a defined direction, within an identified time scale. Challenges, differentiated across the needs of the class provided “match and challenge”, as differentiation was known, enabling a Vygotskian approach within the learners’ ZPDs, with subsequent refinement, guidance and adaptation to evident individual needs.

This links with Debbie and Mel’s talk, discussing in-lesson marking and responses, (without the time element). Unless a Primary school has embedded setting for aspects of learning, the time element is in the teacher control. Quality trumps time every time, in my book, as it creates a new baseline from which to progress. However, control of time is in the teacher power and should be dictated as to quality use.

To this end, I think there is a need for teachers to consider their plans over a longer timescale, so that a quality outcome from a discrete series of lessons becomes greater than the perceived improvements within a unique session. “Learning objectives” (WALT) would span the whole week, or longer, with discrete knowledge and skills dictating the “success criteria”. Success criteria as something to look for (WILF) dictates both the learner and teacher behaviours, as both are on this learning journey, one creating, the other spotting and dealing with issues as they arise. Home activities can become personalised, as well as generic, according to outcomes, and, as the project direction is known from the beginning, learners can see the point of this, avoiding the perils of much homework. If it can be seen as contributing to a known end point, which is, in part, in the learner control, effort clearly contributes to outcome.

Quality control is an essential aspect of the teacher interaction with the learner. The child is on the journey and will need guidance along the way, to know that their direction is being secured. To have an understanding of the quality being sought is important. Some use of WAGOLLs (What a Good One Looks Like), as a working wall display or just shared with a small group might provide this insight. However, regular teacher engagement and feedback is needed, especially for an identifiable group, to ensure focus and an outcome that satisfies. This level of in lesson intervention does demand good knowledge of the learners, which should be easier in a Primary classroom.

Individualised expectations underpinned Simon Knight’s contribution, where, working in a Special School for severely disabled children, the personal targets, even within a very small group could be extremely wide, but each capable of celebration on achievement. This achievement can then lead to a new expectation, to focus effort.

Children label themselves and others. Without being told, they know who is good at football or other sports, reading, writing etc. They do it intuitively, from a very young age. Colour coded reading schemes help teacher decision making. Check lists in different subjects can be equally supportive. In Primary, expertise is needed across subjects and not everyone is an expert in all. The Primary curriculum is not just English and Maths. To lose any subject is to diminish opportunity.

The words I am seeking are focus and refinement, in that, for each learner, there is a need for effort at different levels; at a general, lesson driven level and at a personal skill and knowledge level. To this end, each learner is unique, although with similarities to other learners, enabling some grouping for ease of organisation. Each group, set or stream is always a mixed ability group, with a top and a bottom. I would suggest that lessons that do not hit the mark, do so because they are too generic., so miss many targets.
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Using exercise books in a way that is
described in this post, can enable both the teacher and the learner to keep a track of the current focus.
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​Assessment, differentiation, planning, engagement and feedback in lessons, reflections, marking feedback are all part of the same process, getting to know the learner ability and their next learning needs. Over the recent past, each has become a discrete entity, but, together they form a whole. Separately, they can become a distortion, which can lead to false directions being pursued. Assessment, to me, has taken this path over the past 15 years, as the data crunchers have held sway, with overall numbers being more significant than the progress narrative. People lost sight of the words, and, as a result, the focus became blurred.

Progress is likely to be a staged affair, with an understanding of the whole creating a descriptor of the journey, with the stages being capable of description, in themselves. An understanding of what is anticipated as an outcome is the teacher guide, as they have a quality assurance role. This is probably easier for an experienced teacher than a newly qualified colleague, but can be supported with exemplars, especially if these are moderated portfolios with guidance on next possible steps. Talking through examples is stronger than words in isolation.

Progress, over time, might be easier to describe, with comparative outcomes available. Every outcome is capable of deconstruction, by a teacher, to describe the child’s capabilities. The skill of doing this is essential where there is the prospect of a child having a SEN, where a form of “miscue analysis” might be needed to unpick the specific areas of need. Of course, decisions at this level need a framework of capability against which to make a judgement. Level descriptors, as they were, enabled any teacher in 1987 to begin to unpick needs against a development frame, whereas, when APP was created, this helped with possible SEN decisions, although in use, beyond that arena was problematic and could be argued to slow learning, as expectations became too small.

Much of education outcome is based on a child’s ability to order and organise their thoughts, to express these with developing coherence, using an ever broadening repertoire of language devices, at sentence and word level, to spell accurately and recall to need any stored information on specific topics that might have been covered. 
So, if I was a Primary head today, what would I want to be doing?
  • Create an inspiring range of challenging topic and project areas that would embed the necessary knowledge to be used in other scenarios. These would have time allocations, not necessarily to fill a half term, so that Science, History, Geography and Technology all had a secure place.
  • Ensuring that each element was appropriately resourced so that it could happen and be of quality.
  • Link the English and Maths curriculum in such a way that each could make use of the current and recent past topics, so that one fed the other, with opportunities to use and apply earlier skills and knowledge.
  • Ensure that art, drama and music were deployed as interpretative subjects of worth and each capable of supporting the English and Maths curriculum.
  • MFL, music and aspects of PE can be used to support the PPA needs of the school, by judicious use of specialists.
  • Ask for teacher medium term plans, to see the direction of travel. Short term plans are for the teacher in the classroom, so can take any form that suits.
  • I’d want children to know the focus for their personal efforts at any particular time.
  • Create portfolios of moderated in-house examples that could support decision making in the school, be used to moderate against other school outcomes to validate judgements.
  • I would have some kind of measure of capability, to support and focus decision making ability, especially of early career teachers. Every area of life is governed by a measure of capability in some form, from the kick around in the playground to academic and work achievement. “Can do” statements are a guide.
It is a consequence of the fact that there is no one size fits all approach to education that, at the tail end of a forty-plus year career, no-one has created a system that completely “works” for children from 4-18. The variables will always be the children and life itself. The shifts in the world impact on the learners, but the needs are the same; understand the world we live in and have the skills to interrogate and explore it and communicate effectively.
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To seek to answer my own question; what is progress? It is the difference between two points in time, judged by an increase in knowledge and skills as they apply in novel or practical situations. Memory and recall are essential components, but, without the ability to deploy the known in challenging tasks, they may become rusty by lack of use. That’s life. I’d hate to think how many rusty skills I have lurking in the background of my existence!

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The mastery mystery

15/10/2015

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Preferably capable, competent and independently use and apply?

Will any female readers please indulge me a little?

When will I, will I be famous? I can’t answer, I can’t answer that... so sang Bros, in 1987, and, living in a house with two teenage daughters singing along, the tune and the words stuck.
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The relative simplicity of the question came to mind when the word mastery entered a recent conversation; it seems to crop up in different scenarios. A visit to the city of Limoges, in central France took in a trip to a museum dedicated to the development of master craftsmen and women in a wide range of fields, engineering, plumbing, stone masonry, timber and glass working among many others. The clear route through apprenticeship to mastery status, was demonstrated through the creation of miniature macquettes, miniature versions of potentially larger projects. These had to be created by the aspirant, to be judged by their superiors to apply for entry into the upper circles and only then could they call themselves master craftsmen and women.

Apprenticeship is seen, in France, as an equivalent route to a successful life, in a system that does cream off particular students into different universities. The artisan is seen as someone of value, in part because the public know that they have been fully trained, know the job and are skilful. Most people will not be famous, but they will get satisfaction from a job well done.
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The same cannot be said of the UK, where it can appear that anyone with a bit of DIY background can set themselves up as a jobbing builder. There have been stories of “cowboy builders” during the whole of my life.
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Mastery, to me, implies capabilities, the ability to effectively put the known into practice at a high level, a mix of knowledge and skills. I feel that, in a number of areas, I am capable, but would not claim mastery in any particular field. I got quite good as a teacher and then as a head teacher. I am seen as doing a positive job in the range of roles that form my current portfolio. But this is a result of a long career, during which time I held most management roles, subject and pastoral, in Primary education up to headship. I did some periods of extended study, to provide extra insights. I see myself as a Jack of many trades.

Among other things:-
  • I can play the guitar; ok, I can strum about ten chords and use this to accompany simple children’s songs.
  • I can play the bodhran, the Irish drum and did so in barn dance and demonstration dance group bands, as well as a summer in France, when our ad hoc group reached the finals of the “Truffe de Perigeux”.
  • I started as a teacher with an environmental science background, did a post grad certificate to deepen my understanding then a few years later a post grad diploma in Language and Reading development.
  • I played a wide range of sports; some to District and County Schools level.
  • I enjoy painting and photography. I love being outdoors, exploring the natural world, gardening and doing conservation activities. I can coppice and pollard trees. I can identify a range of trees, flowers, insects and birds.
  • I love DIY; there is a special feeling about seeing a project through to successful completion.
  • My own life has had more than it’s fair share of trials and tribulations, so I can support pastorally.
  • I know some stuff and can use this to help children to learn, by creating situations within which they can learn and I can teach, coach and support as needed.
But, I would never say that I have fully mastered anything. Competence is a positive and confident place to be. I can have a go at a lot of things and do them quite well, in most things, certainly better than the children whom I taught.
There are side issues to the route to mastery that worry me. A recent article headline that passed by on my Twitter timeline suggested that differentiation was dead, as mastery was the new buzz word. I’d argue that, as every learner is an individual, any teacher needs to know their learners well, in order to fine tune the necessary support and guidance that enables them to understand and to make progress, with any requisite practice en route. When the learner can see the journey, the point of practice and can enjoy the fruits of their labours, then they can begin to be autonomous learners.

And maybe that would be my preferred word, independent or autonomous, rather than mastery; the ability to use the known in practice, identifying the point where there is a need to know something else and to have the skills to address the shortfall in skill. These skills could be in collaborative endeavour, learning from another, book or internet research, or simply asking someone with the skill to teach it. Apart from anything else, these terms are gender neutral.

With, hopefully, time available to hone some of the hobby skills and interests, I will, when work stops, take lessons, especially in painting and in music. I will learn from people who have spent a greater part of their lives honing a particular aspect of skill, whether watercolour, acrylics or oils, or possibly a mis-spent youth playing an instrument. I will, happily, become a learner again. There may be areas where any expertise that I have might be of use to another; that will be happily shared.

To my mind, mastery or misstery or mrstery, whatever the title, should not be applied in any form in a school learning environment, especially if it applies to a small group of children, without, yet, clear criteria.

If a child can confidently, competently and independently use and apply learned knowledge and skills in a range of novel situations, appropriate to their age, this can be acknowledged, but a “title” might just be the point where they stop making an effort, as they might think that they know it all. All should be challenged and enabled to aim high, accept the need for effort and to be prepared to learn from each other; they, and we, should acknowledge that we are all learners.

A master learner is not a know-all. They recognise their limitations and also the skills of others which are available to be learned. I can, but I could do this even better...
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The bodger came to town.

14/10/2015

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The bodger was an important element of life a few hundred years ago. Someone who would turn up, with very simple tools, then use the available materials to effect repairs on furniture. As these were often with green timber cut from nearby trees, the repair might prove to be a more temporary measure than expected. Doing a bodge job means something a bit patched up, or cobbled together. The trouble with temporary measures is that, unless they are returned to and put right, they become permanent, until they fall apart. Some bodgers were effectively woodland artisans, often making chair legs for reputable furniture companies.
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I’ve come to think that recent changes in the education system have the feel of a bit of a bodge job, possibly tending to be a botch job, which is far worse, as although the bodge might be serviceable, the botch may not hold for long.
We’ve had curriculum change, exam change, SEND change, assessment change, all within a very short period. In addition, there are a dozen commissioned groups looking at different aspects. While change is definitely in the air, teachers, up and down the country, are seeking to make sense of the whole, so that their children don’t suffer. While policy makers might be engaged in bodging the whole, schools and individual teachers will do what they have always done, sought to make it all work. It may not be perfect, but it will fit together, with regular reviews to check that is so.
The trouble with the changes is that, realistically, a great deal of effort has gone into making things work, over and above the day job, as curriculum has been reformed, assessment systems created, or bought, either way demanding considerable time for real understanding.
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Assessment is likely to be a matter of contention for some time to come, as the realities of letting each school decide a system becomes apparent. Ofsted will need to come to terms with a different system on each visit. Secondary schools will receive transfer records from multiple schools, and, more than ever, are likely to put these to one side and retest the children. Transfer between schools will become complex, as systems don’t quite match up, so individual schools will come up with some form of arrival assessment to find equivalence. SEND will be affected, as any transfer between special education and mainstream will be affected in this way. Records may be less than useful. SEND will also be affected where a school seeks an EHCP assessment, where the rigour and accuracy of the internal record may be a factor in the decisions. Putting significant responsibility onto classroom teachers with regard to SEND without ensuring the quality of skill in decision making also potentially embeds another layer of issue.
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The biggest issue is that the system is not holistic, and as a result, contains holes, through which potentially vulnerable learners might fall, not necessarily at school level, but through misunderstandings; the law of unintended consequences.
Assessment, to me, is the biggest bodge/botch job of all, in that a National system was cast aside, ostensibly because it was misused for data and because “parents didn’t understand it”. In reading the first draft of the proposed National Curriculum replacement document with the attainment target statement to essentially know and understand the contents of the curriculum, suggested, when assessment was hived off for schools to make decisions, that it had been done so in order that the curriculum could stand as read. So, however it is dressed up, in effect, children either achieve or not, with different “levels” of achievement, as a scaled score or in words. As this is based on an examination outcome, there is still room for children to have gaps in their learning, as long as they get a pass score.
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This week, I have had a number of experiences that have brought all this to the fore; mainly a Governor briefing on the changes in assessment and a visit to a local special school for serious needs, where I am supporting a trainee teacher.
The former was something of a waste of time, in that it felt unstructured and over-generalised in scope. Maybe this was for the lay audience, but there were several ex-heads and teachers in the audience, as well as well-informed Governors. As assessment change was flagged up a couple of years ago, to be at this point with advice was significantly disappointing. Clarity was not forthcoming, nor did it appear that it would be, in the short term.

Assessment, seen as something to be done at the end of a period of study, to me is the weakest form of assessment.

Assessment for Learning, I have argued in a number of blogs, should inform all decisions. Starting with general knowledge of children, plans are created with structured tasks that enable the teacher to engage with the learning, asking the right questions to elicit thinking and to unpick any issues arising, to adjust to evidence then to reassess the journey based on outcome evidence. All this to be against a general background understanding of what can be expected of children of a similar age. End testing might check the specifics of what has been retained in knowledge terms, but to test all that has been covered often proves very difficult. Like all MOTs, it is also only really valid on the day of testing.


The visit to the Special School raised the issue of record keeping. This school, as it takes serious SEN needs, will require good understanding of the learning needs of the children who will be coming. Equally, they are required by the authority to have a system of their own for assessment, and, having selected their preferred model may find that any transfer back to mainstream will require interpretation or equivalence checking to support the transition.

Equally, the ITE trainee, while they pick up the needs of this school, may find that, in a second practice and in their first school, they encounter significantly different systems. Of course this will apply to any teacher moves.

Given the current complexity in the system as a whole, could there be a time where teachers choose to stay in one year group, to avoid having to relearn the curriculum for another, as well as having growing confidence in their assessment abilities, based on their experience of outcomes? This could mean that schools then need to find specialists in a particular year, within already limited fields of candidates, or be prepared to allow a significant settling period. There will be issues with short term cover, as supply teachers grapple with different systems.

I wonder who will get the blame for any botched system changes?
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Punch and Judy reflections

12/10/2015

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Oh yes, it is. Oh no, it isn’t.

A childhood with visits to Paignton seafront regularly brought Mr Punch into my early experience. Walking home, attempting to speak in a Mr Punch voice brought on either a sore throat or a bout of coughing.

There seems to be a growing number of “discussions” on Twitter and through blogs that appear to be designed to paint a contrarian view of the views of another. I first met this technique on starting my teacher training, where one of my housemates spent seemingly endless hours pulling down the arguments of others. It was only when one of us ventured to challenge him to put forward a coherent alternative with no flaws, that he admitted that it had essentially been a mental game, derive from his philosophy studies. It didn’t engender household harmony.

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When we express a view, we are, in my opinion, simply sharing where our thinking has got to at that point in time. It will be an amalgam of the taught, the learned from others indirectly or the self-taught, in response to circumstance, the natural adaptability of human beings. A couple of weeks ago, I attended #Pedagoohampshire, while next weekend, I am looking forward to attending #TLT15 in Southampton, where around three dozen speakers will share their thinking on a range of topics. I am sure that each would say after the event that listening to another has offered them food for thought, even on a topic where they have some expertise. This is shared in the spirit of discussion and development. If anyone was an absolute expert, we’d have cracked education years ago.

Interestingly, one side of the presentations will also be a form of “what works”, in our context. All ideas start off in a “pure” form and within almost “laboratory conditions” can be seen to work particularly well. The outcomes are then described and “followed”, as they work for others, even prescribe by political will, as they are deemed to be “the best approach”. When these ideas are filtered through the various layers of interpretation that denotes the cascade model, by the time it reaches the workplace, it has become something slightly different. It is then filtered one more time through the teacher lens.

Equally, of course, no two contexts are the same, with space and physical and human resources being major differences, so it is likely that the pure product then has to be adapted to a greater or lesser extent, in order for it to be made to work. So it will become a variation on the theme. If the institution is enabled to think it further, for themselves, based on outcome evidence from practice, it is likely that they will create a strong system in their context.


What works for me, has to work for me, because I have to get through my day. It works until it doesn’t work, then I may have to find out something, by reference to another, or some other source. That, to me is learning.

Being a classroom teacher in the 70/80s was a constant battle with adaptation, as school financing was based on a relatively small purchasing budget. There were ideas aplenty, from the various schemes available, such as Nuffield Science or the Schools Council publications, supplemented by trips to the teacher’s centre. Sticky back plastic turned soap boxes into file storage. Trips to the shoe shop gave a supply of storage boxes. My first classroom “library” was salvaged from jumble sales and charity shops. Junk modelling, and a large part of the science curriculum derived from available free materials. Begging and borrowing were common.

But it was all make do and mend; adaptation became a mindset. We made things work, if we felt it was important to happen. We seem to be approaching a time where school budget are likely to become more constrained.

Adaptation takes time, for thought, for exploration and some experimentation. This should not be a luxury, but, in reading many blogs, it would seem as if some colleagues feel under such pressure that thinking is a luxury.

Politicians claim that this is a good time to be a teacher. Pressurised colleagues, at all levels, might beg to differ.

This is probably the deepest thinking generation of teachers that I have encountered. That may be a result of the availability of the internet enabling the sharing of ideas across the world, coupled with social media to flag up the blogs. Within a short period, a collection of blogs on a topic, kindly shared by generous colleagues, can give a very broad spectrum of current thinking to inform decisions. Focused discussion fora on Twitter allow “conversation” across a specific topic, but also brings a collective together. People are giving time to share and discuss, in person, or electronically, in print or at conferences. Equally, there is a growing bookshelf of books sharing ideas and thinking.

“We’re all in it together”. So says the current mantra. But, in any school, the college of teacher is all in it together, to give the learners the best possible deal. It is incumbent on the institution to create the best possible context for their learners to thrive.

So why the contradictions? Education is in danger of being guru led. You pays your guru and takes your choice. The gurus question the work of other gurus. The teams line up around them and argue the case. It has been going on forever in education. The Black Papers, with Rhodes Boyson in the vanguard, was a self-referencing group in the 60/70s. It gets in the press, but can distort public opinion, sometimes with significant effect. For example, the daily dose of the “Literacy Hour” message from David Blunkett altered many minds.

So, I will go to #TLT15, look forward to hearing from others, to taking away a few nuggets to chew over and to spending some time with a group of people prepared to give up their Saturday to do the same. Education and learning are life-long activities. We are not born as empty vessels. We experience learning opportunities throughout each and every day. We need the skill to spot the opportunities and time to make the best use of what we have encountered. It is very easy to go through life without doing either.

There are no easy, ready-made solutions to longer term problems. That requires strategic thinking, not another bright idea or sticking plaster. Someone else’s solution may not be your solution.

Make time, or buy time, to think.

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Primary Colours

9/10/2015

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One year ago, I started my own blog. Thanks to everyone who has made this year such a pleasant, reflective year.

I have been in Primary education for all but a short part of my working life, having discovered that the dream of being a scientist foundered on the daily grind laboratory work, counting bivalves and worms in sea mud samples after a stormy week of collecting on the North Sea. Working with children would always be less boring and sickness was not a daily occurrence!

My own education started much earlier, of course, in the days of black and white television and photographs. Colour was around but expensive and the channel choice certainly didn’t justify the expense. It is possible to surmise that education was also a bit black and white, in the mid to late 50s, but my memories are coloured by recalling junk modelling, painting, reading outside in the sunshine, PE on rush mats in the playground, smelly outside toilets, having parts in the school Christmas plays. The colour was provided as much by the backdrop to school life; freedom to roam, to explore, to get into a spot of bother and get out of it again, to play with chemistry sets, to discover the explosive qualities of weed killer. Outside until dark playing football in the park.

​At the age of 8, the five week trip to Oz as £10 Poms. Settlement camps, new home, with orange and lemon trees in the garden. Friends with whom stories of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn could be re-enacted. School where playing sport was expected, rugby (league and union), Aussie rules and cricket on a concrete strip, with a bit of occasional tennis. Further colour on the trip back, nearly four years later, then a sort of black, as divorce wreaked its messy havoc over several years. The colour of memories were a source of reassurance.


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​On becoming a teacher, I wanted to make sure that every child could experience colour, whatever their background. A background in the outdoors, sport and a love for the natural and built world would become part of that legacy.

My first school was a strange mix of extremely well to do families at one extreme and a large estate where settled travellers had been placed. The village environment offered a wide range of opportunities to go out and explore. The church with the Roman tiles exposed, showing that there had been a settlement nearby. The 16th century tenement buildings with their Georgian facades. Open grass areas and wooded areas within walking distance. The churchyard where we read the opening of Great Expectations. Technology was very limited. We shared the few tape recorders and had to wait for the overhead projectors, while reproduction was on the Banda machine. Displays were important, to provide some further imagery, sharing photos, maps, children’s work. Occasionally a television programme was used to support information sharing.

With classes of 39 and no additional classroom support, it could occasionally be hard work, to keep the plates spinning. The job was still the same. Planning, teaching and marking were daily practice. Except that, we didn’t have the dead hand of oppressive checking up. If classrooms were visited, it was in the spirit of sharing.
Sharing of ideas was a common feature in the mid-70s. Teacher centres were vibrant places, occasionally during the day, if you were lucky, but more often as twilight sessions. These allowed experienced teachers to pass on ideas as well as their wisdom and insights. We were encouraged to read the teacher’s guides to schemes, as these held the philosophy and pedagogy behind the methodologies. Nuffield Science 5-13 was a staple, while the newer Fletcher maths was supplemented by Alpha and Beta workbooks.  

Creating methodologies to deal with the numbers involved embedded home-school reading logs, with parents and teacher writing a short comment when the child had read, creating a purposeful, shared reading record. Art and writing became extended projects, often supporting the topic areas being studied. Learning about the craft of teaching was evolutionary, listening to the local area best teachers and having time to reflect on the best way to implement in my own practice.

​Time to reflect was created by the lack of concern about heavy handed inspection. If an inspector came, it was to further develop what was happening, as individuals as well as collectively. Thinking teachers are the backbone of the profession. Unthinking teachers can become copyists or worse, clones, delivering what someone else has determined as good practice. Of course, as always gets pointed out, some schools thought themselves to a position which was an extreme interpretation of the greater norm, with disastrous results, so beginning a pendulum swing that still continues.
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It is not necessarily progressive to sit beside a child and seek to understand why they cannot make understand something. It is not necessarily progressive to draft ideas then seek to improve them through drafting and editing.

It is not progressive to want children to learn about the world around them, to walk around with open eyes and to see what is around them, to hear the sounds, to engage with the textures of the world, including the smells and tastes. They usually do that from birth, especially if they have engaged parents prepared to offer experiences and to engage with them en route.

“Learning styles”, as it has been interpreted, as the basis for teacher planning is a bad thing, but giving children real experience is a good thing, as it puts imagery into their minds which can form the framework for more abstract thinking and hopefully their own wish to explore and discover for themselves. Learning does not always happen through a teacher.

All naturalistic ideas, when they become formalised into prescribed activities become stereotypes. Groups formed naturally to sort problems, often encounter problems when they start to “organise” with nominated leaders. Someone wants to take charge of the direction of thinking. Sorting problems is the bread and butter of life. Sometimes they become a bit sticky and need a bit of a push or some extra effort.

This, now named “resilience”, is being interpreted as the need for rugby players to be involved in school, as “character building”. A number of the children will already be showing resilience and character by being there, after family breakdown and by being young carers. For these children, the need to be reminded that there is colour in the world might be greater.

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​As I spend significant time in and out of different schools and take an active part in the Teachmeet, Pedagoo style gatherings, as well as reading blogs and Twitter feeds, I am concerned at the considerable time and effort, on the latter, spent discussing supposed extremes, often with cartoon character feverishness; Tom and Jerry spring to mind. Defend yourself. The Twitter equivalent of the duel.

It has never been easier to share ideas. Like all ideas, they are a point in time, born out of personal reflections and capable of being reformed through further evidence and reflection. That, to me, is what learning is about.

Action, as a teacher/leader is about considering options and selecting the best way forward. It is, in my mind, neither progressive nor traditional. It is pragmatic, based on the best, currently available evidence.

If children have never encountered a piece of learning, to offer them time to explore some aspect of the learning, though first-hand experience, or through some form of imagery makes the spoken narrative easier, as the words can then draw from the pictures in their heads. The words, spoken out of context, may not, in themselves draw out the images, for all children, as their personal internal imagery may be limited. This conversation regularly occurs, when talking about story settings, where young children may not have gone for walks through long grass, been in woods, visited a seashore; sandy, pebbly, rocky, climbed, got wet, had a picnic. Where these experiences are missing, they either need to be recreated or accept that the outcome in story writing will have limitations.

Story-telling and learning narrative, by the teacher, needs to take account of the audience backgrounds, including their vocabulary awareness and be prepared to “interpret” hard to understand concepts into forms that can be understood, while adding the new words/concepts into their understandings. We all work with images, either substantive or abstract. Too rapid a withdrawal of the concrete realities can put vulnerable learners at greater disadvantage.
Working with children and seeking to interrogate their capabilities has, in the past 25 years become known as “assessment”.

In time honoured fashion, the relatively simple task of ascertaining what children can regularly show that they can do, became a box ticking exercise that divorced some teachers from the descriptors of progress towards an over-reliance on the numbers. With each school having to determine its own policy in this area, it is putting significant pressure on already busy staff. It is likely that, as a result of time shortages, some decisions will be taken quickly, with future consequences, for both the schools and the more vulnerable individuals. Assessment is, at heart, getting to know the children better, so that, over time, they receive challenge and responses appropriate to their current needs, rather than generic challenge applicable to all. I accept that this is likely to be easier with a Primary classroom, although formalised setting and grouping can exacerbate this.

The grey men and women in their grey suits are currently dictating the direction of the education journey. The lack of thinking time available to teaching staff at all levels could mean that a “delivery mechanism” operates. This may not be to the advantage of learners in the longer term.

The schools that I visit are vibrant places of learning and the teachers I encounter are enthusiastic for learning, but express concern at the pressures that appear to come from above. Those whose job it is to create the colour in learning need room to breathe, to look around themselves, to think, to ensure that their environment is vibrant and supports learning and that they have the awareness of each child that enables them to have the developmental discussions that each deserves.

The current rhetoric will inevitably be adjusted, as the politicians have to accept that rushed change has not had the desired impact. Those schools that I have visited that achieve at the highest level for all children do so as a result of more personalised approaches to learning, rather than whole class teaching, with learning as the central narrative, learning from each other’s thinking, as well as the teacher, supported further by their families, who may in turn be supported to do so.

Why do we always over-complicate things? Is it just to sound clever?

​It drains the colour out of living, and, as my youngest grandchildren are likely to see in the next century, I want them to learn to experience the world in colour, through their own eyes, not through mine.

My wish for everyone; Live a colour​-filled, fulfilling life.
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24652 revisited

6/10/2015

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After a period of visiting student teachers during last year, I explored the relationships between the Teaching Standards, as they described teaching and learning. The diagram below exemplifies some of that thinking.

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​With the new term and working across a range of schools, for different purposes. The same conversations are happening.

The standards, in essence, offer the following interpretations
  • 2; Know your children, and know what to expect from children, of a similar age, so that appropriate decisions can be made about challenge within planning, over time.
  • 4; Plan effectively, over a reasonable timescale, to ensure curriculum coverage, but also to take account of the range of abilities involved. In the first instance, this may well be a form of hypothesis, against which in-lesson interactions will clarify the basis for expectations.
  • 6; Think on your feet. You have set challenges, and need to engage with individuals, especially those whose learning behaviours prompt you to act.
  • 5; Where necessary, adjust the challenge so that every child has an opportunity to succeed and to make some progress.
  • 2; Reviews after the lesson will show with greater clarity the specific abilities of the children in the context of that lesson. Moderated against other class outcomes allows a deeper understanding still, especially in terms of clarifying expectations.

Repeating this cycle enables ever greater refinement of challenge and understanding of what your children can achieve. For specific groups and individuals, the nature of challenge may well become investigative, to discover the extent of any areas that appear to be less than secure, or to ascertain the extent of ability or talent.

This issue can manifest itself in many ways. A trainee may not have a secure understanding of child development, especially across a range of subjects, in a Primary setting, nor will they have a specific knowledge of the class in front of them. Equally, an experienced teacher transferring from one year group to another, while having expertise from the previous experiences, may well struggle on both counts, as with the trainee, but hopefully can bring insights that speed up the acquisition of knowledge.

Putting together the needs of the curriculum with the needs of the children is the bread and butter of teaching and learning, as it does embed the skills of assessment. This, as I have argued previously, requires a Frame of Reference against which to make judgements. Insecurity with the curriculum demands, the assessment needs and the personal needs of children, especially at the SEN end of the spectrum are all currently in play.

Planning, and using plans dynamically over the medium term, can enable a rapid recycling of 24652, to ensure that teacher and child confidence can grow, enabling all to move forward with enthusiasm.
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The bottom line is to know your children, well. Upon this knowledge, the whole teaching and learning edifice depends. Or it is a “house of cards”.
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A lesson from Gran

2/10/2015

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This week has been an interesting one, in that people whom I follow on Twitter have written, and been attacked for writing, articles promoting equality between men and women. This has often focused on the use of specific words which can be seen in different lights and therefore can be the subject of different interpretations. The two most common among these are Grit and Resilience, so I looked up definitions.

Resilience; the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
Grit; courage and resolve; strength of character.

Neither of these definitions, to me, imply a male or female trait, yet putting them into action in schools can become synonymous with team sport and collective activities. Again, neither of these activities needs to be seen as exclusively male or female, but I can see how, when interpreted at a political level, this can be seen as such. Highly publicised enterprises such as “Troops to Teachers” and involving rugby clubs in schools can be articulated as male-centric.
My personal lessons in grit and resilience have come, not from the extensive sport playing that I did as a young person, nor the broader activities through organised groups, but from two significant women in my life, my grandmother and my first wife, who died ten years ago, after a long fight with cancer.

Both showed other character traits, which I think exemplify more what might be a general aspiration.
Resolution; a firm decision to do or not to do something, quality of being determined or resolute, the action of solving a problem or contentious matter.
Resolute; admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering.

The first, a diminutive woman of 4ft 10ins (she measured herself in feet and inches), was born in 1893. She came from quite a well to do family in Brixham, whose interests were fishing, owning and running several boats. She married my grandfather, an engineer, who worked on early aeroplanes. Their early married life coincided with the First World War, with my uncle being born in 1918 and my father one year later. Being in a reserved occupation, my grandfather didn’t have to go and fight, but, sadly, became a victim of the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918/19, before my father was born. So my gran was widowed, with one young son and a baby on the way.

Sadly, again, my grandfather’s family decided to disown their daughter in law, as she had refused to agree to go to Canada before the outbreak of the war, so was held responsible for her husband’s death.

For the next 70 plus years, she became a survivor. She was an admirable and very capable seamstress, so began a life of sewing, at home and for a local department store, Rossiter’s of Paignton, where she stayed until she retired. She scrimped and saved, was helped by a better off sister and son in law to buy a house, to provide security for herself and her boys, who, of course, both went off to war, both as medics. Her resolution never faltered. She was a very pretty young woman and was offered marriage by a number of eligible men, but she stuck to her task, even after her boys had left home, in their thirties, to get married and have their families, with mine disappearing to Australia for four years.

On our return, with my parent’s messy divorce, living with gran was the stability that got me through, but it did stifle many teenage urges. The Victorian eye was kept on the growing boy and his sister!

She cooked, cleaned, washed clothes and bedding by hand and never complained, although she was well into her seventies when we landed on her doorstep. She had pride, in herself, was self-reliant, self-possessed, never had any excess money, but, growing up as she had showed incredible adaptability and the ability to make do and mend, in order to survive.

I was pleased to take her first great grandchild to see her, but, on our journey home, while stopping at friends, had a call to say that she had died after we had left. She didn’t have much, but she had great humanity, probably the greatest gift she was able to give.

I met and married Della while at training college, and we were married for 32 years. I have told more of the story in another blog. Suffice to say that, on our 20th wedding anniversary we heard that a lump was indeed cancerous and needed urgent surgery. So started the journey with cancer, which ended ten years ago. Della showed the same courage, determination, resolution, adaptability and  humanity that my grandmother had shown. She gave far more than she ever got back, supporting family, friends and me through difficult times, with never a reference to her illness. Dreaming and planning allowed a house in France to become a reality.

To both of them, and to Melanie, my wife, I owe many lessons. Love and humanity underpin true grit and resilience. Having a goal, making timely decision, being able to see things through, adapting to circumstance and learning along the way is real life. Finding contentment in smaller things, and with your lot, while working to improve it. Saving for “a rainy day”, for more expensive items, learning about deferred gratification.

The immediacy of modern life might, in reality, make these qualities more difficult to achieve, but, if we do really enter a period of true austerity, will put people under considerable strain, as they may be unused to dealing with problems.
I think it is often the ability to give, rather than to receive that is, to me, a greater hallmark of humanity than slightly clichéd words like grit and resilience. I would forecast their demise, in the same way that other ideas pass their “sell by date”.
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Life, for some, is tough. They learn their lessons the hard way; the school of hard knocks. That breeds real resilience; how to cope, with life itself…
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    Chris Chivers

    Long career in education, classroom and leadership; always a learner.
    University tutor and education consultant; Teaching and Learning, Inclusion and parent partnership.
    Francophile, gardener, sometime bodhran player.

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