Chris Chivers (Thinks)

  • Home
  • Blog-Thinking Aloud
  • Contact
  • Contents
  • PDFs
  • Sing and strum

On Workload

28/11/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture


Since I started in education in 1971, workload has been an issue; I am not sure if it will ever finally be resolved, but attention will need to be paid to it, or teachers will ultimately vote with their feet and leave in numbers that cannot be replaced.

Workload patterns have shifted in that time, but workload, in terms of hours worked, in reality, probably is the same. It is the pattern that has shifted.

When I started training, and for several years after, my classes were regularly in excess of 36 children, sometimes getting to 39/40. There was no such thing as a classroom assistant, no photocopier, only the Banda machine, which offered two or three colour printing, only if the carbons were available. We class taught those things that needed to be taught, and also ran our classrooms on Integrated Day lines. This meant up to five activities happening, across a range of subjects, at any one stage, some that required direct intervention, others for more independent activity. In reality, this did not cause problems overall, as it became a case of nudging groups along at an appropriate pace. Some activities were designed for the long term, several days or a couple of weeks of effort leading to a final product. That embedded drafting and redrafting into the activity too. Marking was focused to in-lesson needs. There was a culture of marking with the children for maximum impact.

Technology consisted of a shared tape recorder. The excitement when the overhead projectors arrived in school was palpable. You could talk facing the class and record at the same time.

Clubs ran during lunchtime and after school. Training, at the local teacher’s centre was after school, or at weekends.

As now, any large scale marking was done at home, as with planning. Making workcards, rather than worksheets, to ensure a prolonged life, took many hours with felt pens in hand.

It was the way it was and you got used to thinking in a more lateral way, in order to solve issues as they arose. I’d probably have to admit that the quality of thinking was greater than the detail in planning.

Picture
As a headteacher, I was always aware of the workload issues for staff, particularly as I was willing to spend extended periods in the classroom, covering for absent colleagues on long term sickness. Better that, than a succession of supply teachers. Picking up someone else’s plans is not always the way to an easy ride in the classroom.

We looked at the pattern of the year and the periods where the demands on teachers were greatest and sought solutions that enabled the school to run efficiently, while also ensuring teachers achieved all that was required, as efficiently as possible.

Planning is often an ongoing bugbear. We developed an annual plan and medium term system that described the class journeys. Topics had internal specifications, which were developed with local inspectors and advisors, who also ran the school CPD days, to embed good practice. There was a certain coherence to this, in that the teachers knew what areas that needed to be covered, could juggle them into a form that suited their thinking, so they were able to impart what was needed in a form that they found most creative. They had some ownership. Specs were available in June/July when classes were allocated, so that initial thoughts could be gathered about how the term would start in September.

A couple of final staff meetings in July were largely put to planning for the coming year. In September, I would receive the annual plan and the overview of the autumn term.
The first two weeks were always a “settling topic”, of the teacher’s choice, to get to know the class as well as possible. Then, on the second Friday of term, we had a closure, part of which was overview school planning issues, then time allocated to develop the first main topic in detail.


Teacher short term plans were kept in personal logbooks, in a style that suite their teaching. Unless there were issues with the quality of outcome, as evident in books and display, or other evidence, I was happy with knowing the direction of travel.

Teachers had some in-week planning time, before PPA became official, as I took either the Infants or the Juniors for singing, silly songs to my guitar playing, for a good half hour. We used sports coaches to support games, particularly, so additional time was also available. Music, from the LA music service provided another hour, each week.

Development time was supported by taking ITT students regularly. When they had proved themselves and could take the class, they enabled the teacher to be released. Paired placements allowed pairs of teachers to be released for development activities. High quality TAs could also be asked to provide a small amount of temporary cover. In both cases, balance is essential.

We altered the timings of report writing. Instead of the main report being needed at the end of the year, when it would have limited learning impact, they were prepared for Parents’ evenings just after the February half term. Some January and February staff meeting time was given over to that. Half term was available for slower writers! Staff meeting times were adjusted to suit both the parents and the teachers, with only one late evening.

Summer reports were more personal, reflections on the year and also had a child page reporting on highlights and reflecting on their next steps.

We developed an after school club system that was based as much on expertise from our local sixth form college, as available adults, and in so doing offered a very broad range of opportunities at low cost.

One thing that I did do as head was to filter innovation, to ensure that teachers were not over-burdened from above, but also that they took full account of the workload implications of personal interests and decisions. We did innovate, with a clear plan to do so, but sometimes too many initiatives, in too short a time, causes overload, which can stultify efforts.

Did this approach wipe out workload issues? No, and for one very good reason. You can’t take away the personal side of need. How long it takes one teacher to do particular aspects of the role will vary from person to person and may well depend on expertise, or experience.

Time management is a significant skill for a teacher. If demand is under some element of personal control, it gets done; otherwise it becomes a millstone. Line managers need to be aware of the impact of their demands, to ensure they don’t have staff quickly burning out.

Management of workload in a school setting is a whole school issue. It should be discussed, with unnecessary activity and any duplication removed rapidly. Systems need to be clear and easy to use, otherwise they become time-consuming.

1 Comment

Whose aspiration is it anyway?

28/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture



Aspiration can appear to be one of the new buzz words, along with growth mind-set. It seems to be accepted as a universal truth that aspiration is a key to success, and to a large extent, I’d agree, as long as the aspiration is held by the person concerned and not an imposed aspiration. Target setting, in whatever form, is not, to me, the same as internalised aspirations.

Parents have aspirations for their children. Most want their offspring to do well a school, to succeed in exams that allow them to make progress towards the good job, the house, family and so on, achieving better than they did. For many post-war families that was indeed the reality. The baby-boomers did exceed, considerably, in some cases, the achievements of their parents and now have the security of a home, car and a reasonable pension. The generation after is well on the way to achieving that too, but I have concerns for the current 20+ group and the generations afterwards.

The world is in a state of flux. There are national and international issues that pass through our TV screens or through the radio, that talk of financial difficulties, wars, illness, climate change, energy limitations. We have politicians who seem to enjoy talking tough about any issue that passes by them. They can always find something against which to rail. Debate is replaced by sound-bites and occasional sneering at any opposition. This is the world that the reasonably well off are bequeathing to the next generation of decision makers. It would be good if they held the same aspirations as those of us who have passed through the system.

But, I think aspiration, in itself, may be in danger of bypassing many, because they cannot see what the future will bring. At a time where we need problem solvers and solution finders, we may be in danger of creating a risk averse time-bomb, with insecurity, rather than security underpinning the decisions that they make in the future.

Why? Because we have top down models of decision making.

Accountability measures rain down on everyone, like confetti, from successive Governments and interpreted through each subsequent layer. They talk up the bright ideas that they have, then create targets to measure the impact of their decisions and find an external reason why it isn’t their fault when the target is missed. Some ministers are protected from any ire as a result of pseudo-governmental satellite agencies.

Top down models of accountability diminish the potential of those further down the organisational scale to make autonomous decisions, as they wait for decisions from above to filter down through the system. It can be made even worse with a target setting culture, with underlings having to prove their value by hitting ever growing targets. In business offices this can be seen on the ever present whiteboard with target figures. Targets, in these circumstances, can become a control feature; you don’t get a bonus until you get to a certain point. Suitably high targets mean effort, but no cost. However, this can result in diminished effort.

Aspiration, for some parents, is a top down model. It can become a case of “I expect”, with disappointment if the target is not achieved. There might be the incentive or bribery approach. Achieve this and you’ll get… This model can sometimes be seen in work too. It can become the supposed route to promotion.

Aspiration, to work really effectively, has to be internalised, a part of a healthy self-reflective persona. It benefits from the ability to see forward to potential futures and the decisions that might need to be taken. It would appear to me, to be similar strategic thinking, where consideration of facts supports decisions. It embeds processes, which can be refined over time, and is not constrained by short term set-backs, each of which is seen as the basis for self-improvement.

It could appear, from that descriptor that aspiration is not the lot of “us”, but of “them”.

A society where the “top” sets ever higher targets to be achieved, and this is clearly the case in education, risks the focus being on that which has to be achieved, rather than the breadth that enables holistic approaches to personal development.

Children deserve an education system that opens their eyes, minds and hearts to the big, wide world that surrounds them and helps them to make sense of what they experience. Providing ever higher hurdles will only make a few more feel a failure, which, in the end, is no good to anyone.

Let them learn to dream and to see ways to make that dream come true. It is the adults who have the responsibility to ensure that younger generations get that chance.

0 Comments

Plug-ins can (seriously) damage your (system) health.

28/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Two life experiences led me to reflect on the current state of play in education. The first was the impact of updating website plug-ins that led to an incompatibility and a website failure. One plug-in was apparently negating an aspect of another and the end result was a need to go back to an earlier incarnation and start again. The second could have been, at the time, much more serious. A relation had a number of ailments. Each time she went to the doctor another drug would be prescribed, to the point where one counteracted others and she experienced system failure and ended up in hospital. A sharp-eyed junior decided to explore the medication side of things and discovered the incompatible drugs. Removal and careful reintroduction of the necessary medication brought her back to some health.

Education is full of plug-ins, often as a result of political decisions of pronouncements on the "best way" to do something. Often simplistic and undefined, they take centre stage and create a distraction from the core purpose of educating each child. Most recently, education has been distracted with textbooks, assessment, teacher oaths and private/state school relationships. While the first two should be debated, probably heatedly, the latter two are peripheral to the needs of all children.

Picture
Fads, fixations and bright ideas 

Useful fact: do you know the derivation of “Square peg in a round hole”? t I didn’t until I visited the 17th century Living History Village in Gosport, where the carpenter showed how timbers were held together, by hitting a squared peg into the round hole, in order to hold the joint as tight as possible. Worth a thought when considering staff?

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.


Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 159–167

I’m beginning to argue within myself, the pros and cons of the debate about purchasing teaching resources and other people’s ideas, promoted by a Twitter discussion on the pros and cons of Inset, as well as the use of Twitter as an aid to CPD.

Health warning; Twitter CPD can become addictive!

Among the Twitterati currently writing openly about their journeys in learning are Keven Bartle  @kevbartle , Alex Quigley @HuntingEnglish,  David Didau @LearningSpy, Zoe Elder @fullonlearning, Tom Sherrington @headguruteacher . Many have associated blogsites with much food for thought.

Keven Bartle’s school recently published the outcomes of their inset at https://www.dropbox.com/s/a7swjxfjmy16o5c/16235%20Marginal%20Gains%2016ppA5%207.1.13.pdf

The main thing teachers are paid to do is think, about teaching and learning, the subject at hand and the children. The best teachers often don’t switch off enough, but reflect on every detail of activity in their classroom. They believe they should be seeking to develop their practice to the best they can, because their children deserve the best and are often hypercritical when a small error is spotted. Teachers, in my experience, are self-critical, sometimes requiring support to get through. This is where “Professional Capital”, by Hargreaves and Fullan has something to say; invest in people as the major resource. How much teachers are enabled to think for themselves is critical in this regard, as lack of room to think and manoeuvre can lead to frustration, a negative and sometimes destructive place.

Zoe Elder’s book (Full on Learning ), is well worth a read as it is full of useful, thought provoking ideas, and follow her on Twitter (@fullonlearning) where she is exploring marginal gains, looking at the small details within learning that make a difference, with additions by other colleagues/ followers. Not sure if this recommendation will ultimately qualify as a potential fad or bright idea?


Picture
As a headteacher, the mail was invariably full of brochures and flyers for fabulous products which we couldn’t afford to miss. Often there were several versions of the same kind of material, many of which already were in existence within the school, so there had to be a compelling reason to buy into yet another “bright idea”. There are schemes of work; book and card based resources as well as technological aids for every subject. The product has to be sold and sometimes the sales team arrives with some kind of offer “only available to you, today”. Hard sell, in my experience, leads to shelves full of unused resources, because an earlier subject manager thought the product was the bees’ knees.

There is currently probably a larger group of consultants at different levels, including active teachers, whose ideas have been developed and honed within their classroom experience to the point where others want to hear from them how it is done. These outstanding people certainly have a great deal to share and are very confident polished performers. It is a pleasure to be in the company of passionate, reflective people. Ideas are always food for thought, to be adapted to local circumstance. But what happens when the person also becomes the product? The mantra can be sold as, “Follow me and all will be well….”

The problem with a fad or a fixation, especially in education, is the adherents or disciples become evangelical in their zeal to ensure that their school should also be devout followers and, I have to admit, where a whole staff works collaboratively on developing an approach to learning, this can become very successful, because they are determined to make it work. The creative process is contagious and personally developing. There is no better CPD for teachers than creating a scheme of work, or just a lesson, that really works well. The class buzz, the direction, the feedback from and to learners and between colleagues can become electric and other teachers want to know how it is done, so the more confident take career steps in developing CPD for others and so the snowball rolls.

In a busy world, it is understandable that finding a useful resource, including a proven method that might suit a particular piece of learning is a good thing. One interesting innovation over the relatively recent past, in selling, has been the use of words such as accelerate or big in the product title. Does this really make them better? Then of course, there are the training courses to be able to use the product, or to meet with the person, with subsequent cascading of information. It takes time before a clear evaluation can be made, in order to decide whether or not to pursue and the cascading will inevitably be the interpretation of the original.

Schools and staff can become fixated on a product, the ethos of which can become the principles on which a whole subject is developed. This can assume national proportions, as was seen with the introduction of the Literacy Strategy. The politics became “The Literacy Hour”, while local interpretations allowed individual advisers to promote personal practice at the expense of current school practice which may be better, but changes under pressure.

The difficulty is that what works for one cannot be instantly successful for another. The current push for synthetic phonics as the main approach to reading is a political imperative, based on a centralised view that it is the “best” approach, as was the “Literacy Hour” and that became a millstone and a drag on learning for many.

How much time are teachers spending trawling the internet? Is that in itself a kind of fixation? Is this directly to the benefit of learning in the classroom, if the resource is used without adaptation? Equally there are many excellent teachers doing wonderful things, but just sharing the worksheet with a colleague may not produce the intended outcome, unless the receiver has a very clear idea of the process of development, the internal screenplay for the lesson, the off the cuff improvisation and adaptations that can occur when you “know your stuff”.

I’d argue that all time for reflection on pedagogy is valuable, so that decisions are based on informed choices. Perhaps time purchased for thinking time would be better than time looking for another new resource?

Teachers are responsible to some degree for their own CPD, either through reading, conversations with experienced colleagues as mentors/models, in-house and external experiences including Inset, which should provide at least minimal food for thought.

Teachers have a small amount of dedicated PPA time. Is this time out of class always put to uses which can take teachers further in their thinking than filling in planning forms, which in themselves might be the product of someone else's mind? Reflecting on practice, with colleagues, is an essential part of self-development, made more interesting if there is a challenge to come up with slightly oblique or unusual ways of sharing ideas with learners. It’s well worth considering binning the worksheets and thinking about the developmental framework and scaffolding questions, rather than prescribing the script.  

Inset is valuable time out of classrooms without the burden of responding to issues. Prescriptive inset that is delivered can be demotivating. Inset should model the Teaching and Learning approaches that the school is seeking to deploy, on the basis of” Know-how with Show-how”. This supports the visualisation by teachers of what is being said, especially if pedagogical change is outside their experience. They need to be able to “see it”, just as much as the children.

So:-

Think for yourself and your setting first.

The school should establish a clear ethos, philosophy and pedagogy. Communicate.

Staff can then reflect on innovation and what it can add to the whole, especially on what has to be adjusted or lost. 

Copying may be a form of flattery at an initial stage, but adaptation may lead to further innovation and cross seeding of ideas back to the originator.

Schools have something to learn from each other and collaboration is a key driver of innovation, with ideas dispersed, trialled in different settings, then outcomes compared.

'No Man is an Island'

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

MEDITATION XVII

Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

John Donne

0 Comments

The truth is…

25/11/2014

0 Comments

 
This simple phrase is uttered often by politicians of all parties, particularly when there’s an election looming. What they really mean is, “This is what I understand by…”, which may or may not be the actual truth, but an interpretation which suits the case that they are seeking to make, to gain a slight advantage over their opponents . An alternative form is “In reality..”

Children do the same thing, particularly if they’ve been caught doing something and they can see a means of putting their case better. They are, in reality, developing as mini politicians, seeking to gain advantage in social situations. Maybe politicians just haven’t grown up….. One and only (poor) political joke!

Teachers use the same phrases, in promotion of or in defence of a particular approach to learning and teaching. Sadly, this can degenerate into a form of name calling, such as “You’re one of THEM”, “You’re progressive, child-centred…”

As a head, it was often my lot to act as Solomon, and judge the merits of a case. When faced with two conflicting versions of the same event, it was often necessary to seek “witnesses” and to weigh up the “evidence” as presented. I would always ask children to tell me “their version of the truth”, but always with the caveat that I’d check the details, especially in marginal cases.

After considering all angles, I’d present the evidence that I had collated to the children and gave reasoning behind my judgements, showing the balance of evidence. Sometimes I had to demonstrate that this was inconclusive. Why bother? Simply because I wanted the children to realise that I would listen to them, that they had a voice and that sometimes we see the world through our own filters. In a bizarre way, I was probably intuitively working with a form of Restorative Justice, although I wouldn’t have called it that.

It was important that the children thought that they had been fairly treated.

The truth is, I probably made, in life as well as in school, as many errors of judgement as correct ones, because, however hard we try, we all have our own world filters, derived from our world experience and we can only see the world as we are at that point in time. Fortunately, errors in these scenarios did not become compounded, as they often can in a school setting, when (groups of) parents become involved too.

The truth is that I ran my school with three rules;

  • Be responsible for yourself

  • Be responsible for the way you treat others

  • Be responsible for the way you look after the school and the locality

These three statements allowed me to have individual conversations based on personal responsibility and, in reality, these conversations also covered more traditional articulation of rules, but the context embedded for the majority a clear expectation. They often opened up other background issues too, so were more useful in supporting vulnerable children.

And the truth is, as a result, in a sixteen year headship, I excluded only two children for extreme behaviour. Equally, I know that it won’t be the same for everyone.

The real truth is that I am still learning and would do things differently now than I did when I started. Our decisions do change over time. I’m a little more grown up now, but only a little. Life will offer more opportunities for reflection.

Maturity comes with reflection.

0 Comments

Experiential learning

24/11/2014

0 Comments

 

Or understanding the wonderful world of stuff and the associated words.

Pick up something in front of you. Have a close look at it. Do you know it’s naming word, noun?

Describe it in terms of shape, colour, size and texture, adjectives.

What does it look like, smell like, feel like, taste like, sound like?

Welcome to the world of seeing things for the first time, just like early learners do. How much do we, as adults, take for granted about the world around us and how we got to know things for ourselves?

When children are young they ask, continually, “What is it?” and a bemused parent repeats the name of the object, which then gets extended through colour, shape etc, in an effort to broaden the vocabulary, sometimes just to make the “conversation” a little more interesting.

If you have two objects, then you can compare them in a variety of ways, starting with the sensory experiences above, introducing the language of comparison, rougher, smoother, heavier, lighter…

You can explore similarities and differences, for example, a handful of different leaves allows sorting and the beginnings of classification. It can also embed the idea of simile.

Things that move can be exciting, as then you can seek words that try to describe the movement, beginning to incorporate a range of verbs and adverbs.

What is it made from? This could be the beginning of some kind of materials science explorations, or perhaps also incorporating geography, as the materials may have been imported.

Picture
Feel it, talk it, think it, explore it and then think again. Why should there be talk in class?

Life is lived for everyone as a sequence of experiences, time-bounded, and often constrained by geography. Each experience is absorbed in different ways by different people, depending on an individual’s sensory acuity, and possibly by the preferred means of accommodation of incoming information. Sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell all play a significant part in absorption of each experience. How can we know the impact of the experience on the receiver, without them having a well-developed articulacy and the active participation of the listener?

Picture
Over time, experiences will build together, with each relating to earlier ones, comparison being a key skill in processing information. To start with the premise that something similar has been seen before leads to early classification which has, at its base, the notion of similarity and difference. How do we learn that dogs are similar and yet different, but that collectively they are still all dogs? Simply by attributing the key elements of similarity of the species, four legs, furry coat, a head at one end, a tail at the other, and a barking sound. The differences of size and fur colour come with expanded experience, often accompanied by new names for each new breed.

Gradually internalised pictures begin to develop which can be drawn to mind when the naming word is given, so to talk of a dog will create an image of such a creature. However, will it cause the same image to be called to mind in everyone, or will some think of a terrier while others recall a Great Dane?


Picture
Children, as engaged learners, can develop an articulacy that enables them access to a wide range of experiences, whatever form the experience takes. Articulacy and the ability to think for oneself are the forerunners of success at school and beyond. The current challenge is to engage children in their learning, to show them how they learn and to allow them the time, space and resources to develop into the best learners that they can become, within and without the formalised settings of classrooms. We currently have a range of structures within which we have to work, but each of these stands or falls with our ability to ensure that the children are active participants in the process.

The simplest response to a stimulus is to describe what has been experienced. Articulacy and names of objects are vital first steps in seeking to understand anything new, especially if the thoughts are shared with others who are able to respond appropriately and to share their own insights, so we have the beginnings of discussion and collaboration in learning. Therefore the key to this approach is communication of reactions to experience, employing any appropriate form of language and a variety of associated skills.

Picture
We tend to make huge assumptions about ourselves and others, often indulge in communication limited to the superficial for fear of causing any offence by having seen things differently. Communication, discussion and reflection, often thinking aloud, are the bedrock of understanding. Are these skills valued by society as a whole? What proportion of the population falls at the first hurdle, by not engaging with the world of experiences around them?

The issue of how we learn has taxed many generations of educationalists. Over a hundred years ago, Dewey coined the idea of visualisation as a key to learning. If one considers this idea, at its core is the idea that we need mental images that can then be manipulated to develop deeper thinking, more abstract thoughts. The ideas of Piaget were often simplified to the notion of concrete and abstract thinkers. This idea does fit with Dewey’s, in that the concrete stage is concerned with experiencing for oneself, at any age, playing with materials, artefacts, tools and seeking to understand some attributes, so that, by the time maturity appears, there is an ability to draw from memory images that can then be manipulated mentally.


Picture
A reflective approach to experience can be developed with questions arising that are worthy of further consideration. Exploration, experimentation including measurement, and evaluation further enrich the memory bank. The learner can begin to test hypotheses, checking things for themselves. By sharing thoughts within as wide an audience as possible, these can be further refined through feedback, clarification and reorganisation to a point where the learner can be more secure in their beliefs. This accords with both Vygotsky’s and Bruner’s thinking, on language and the impact of informed outsiders reflecting back within discussion.

Picture
So what is the effect on school learning? How many children come to school lacking in experiences which were once taken for granted, such as visiting the beach or lake, a wood or just knowing what is happening in the garden? How many of them play with toys that demand a high level of engagement, alone and with others, not just through a screen? Do they come to school with a set of visual images which are available to help them in their learning? Without these picture clues, if abstraction and imagination derives from the base of experience, how can children understand a story set in a specific setting, or think of a variety of characters if they have nothing on which to base their imaginings?



Picture
The best teachers are good storytellers, engaging with their audience, knowing their script so well that it can be adjusted to the needs of the participants. Engagement means a common understanding, shared experiences and the knowledge that each values the other. High levels of articulacy will be evident, suited to the children’s needs. The listeners will have the skills of attending and thinking alongside the teacher, sharing the common idea and might from time to time interrupt to clarify points or to embellish the telling with their own experience. In a climate where all experiences are valued, there is a collective growing with everyone benefitting from each other’s lives.


Picture
It is down to teachers to lead from experience.

Picture
Let me learn?

Put learning in my way then walk beside me.

Talk to me.

Point out things that I may not yet see.

Answer my questions, and ask me some.

Ask me to explain what I think.

Add new words and ideas as you see that I understand.

That way, I’ll grow a little and you’ll know how much.

Then you can put new learning in my way.

Talk to me about learning, share thoughts and words.



Excite me to join in the world of stories and of discovery,

To fit with what I already think.

The world’s a very big place and I am very small.

The stories are sometimes enormous, too big for me to understand,

Perhaps for you too.

Share with me the secrets of discovering things for myself,

To experience,

To experiment and explore,

To explain with my words what I have seen, read or heard.

Help me to learn to think for myself.

That way I will become a learner.

Give me a voice. Give me the words to join in.

0 Comments

Wroxham reflections

23/11/2014

0 Comments

 
I was lucky enough to be invited to spend a day at The Wroxham School, by the head, Dame Alison Peacock, as part of one of her regular “Learning without Limits” days through the Teaching Schools Alliance. The 5am alarm and the 6am setting of the sat nav, did seem a little tough, as I had no idea what to expect. Fortunately, the M25 was kind and, having prepared a second breakfast, with coffee, arriving early was no problem, as it provided an hour to collect some thoughts, ie, do some work in the car/mobile office.

The school building, nestled in the centre of a housing estate, does not, in itself, suggest something exceptional, in the way that some of the Building Schools for the Future arrivals do. It’s a single story, I am guessing 60/70s building, with reasonable sized grounds, creating a school that makes the best of what is available. Within the grounds are a Forest School area, a bus, bought on Ebay, as an extra gathering space and a Celtic roundhouse. These three elements suggest that the school looks to extend experiences beyond the classroom.

The reality is that the building and the grounds are simply the base from which learning is derived and enacted. Wroxham is a people place, where older humans create learning opportunities for younger humans to engage in, to make sense of and within which a rich language opportunity arises, through which each of them learns.

The whole ethos is premised on capacity building, of the professionals as well as the learners. Relationships are strong, supportive of learning, and the school enables learners of all ages to encounter more challenging areas that might include the potential for failure, with every experience being seen as a learning opportunity. Learning dialogue is strong, between learners and teachers, between teachers and teachers and parents. These conversations enhance relationships, which, in turn, create an openness that enables difficult conversations, as well as allowing support, guidance and challenge appropriate to need. The whole demonstrates a collegiate approach to enhancing learning, within which learners thrive.

Acknowledging that learning and life occur with risk attached, activities are created where risk, although inherent, is considered, discussed and appropriate training and guidance given to minimise the potential. The whole setting is risk-aware, rather than risk-averse. As a result, children enjoy experiences which challenge them to be involved, to make sense of what’s happening and to become producers, rather than consumers of learning; they get to think for themselves.

There is the usual range of lessons, with maths supported by concrete apparatus and other lessons by appropriate first hand resources; e.g. one classroom had a labelled skeleton, another had a Roman soldier uniform. Opportunities to be involved in structured talk supported every lesson visited.

The children were very willing to engage with visitors, to share what they were doing and show those things of which they were proud.

This is a school where teachers are challenged and empowered to think for themselves in the best interests of the children for whom they are responsible. They create rich learning opportunities, with challenge embedded, within which they have the capacity to alter course to need, dependent on the evidence from the learners. It is a balanced and shared journey. As a result, the learners feel that they can tackle challenge, can keep going, with appropriate support and guidance and be proud of the outcomes.

There is a simplicity that sums up Wroxham; the teachers know their stuff and know their children and create a balance between what can, at times appear to be competing needs.

Knowing their stuff means knowing about progression in each subject so that clear advice can be given to each learner about the next steps to be taken.

They match and challenge appropriately, so children make progress.

Summarising what works at Wroxham.

An open, honest and humane learning culture that involves everyone.

Clarity of structure, so there is a clear overview of direction.

Confidence in the professionalism of teacher and other adults.

Thinking teachers who know their stuff and who are adaptable to need.

Feedback, based on learning needs, that supports everyone’s learning journey.

Virgil summed it up best

 (With thanks to John Thomsett)

Success nourishes them; they can because they think they can.

 

 

 

 

0 Comments

24652 ; Teacher Standards

19/11/2014

3 Comments

 
I’m not disclosing my bank pin number, but the Teacher Standards that, to me, make the significant difference to learning and learning discussions.

Picture
The teaching standards tell a story, to me, especially if they are arranged into the dartboard that I developed for Winchester University ITT department. The 8 standards, if used as a list, become tick sheets to be completed, with possible judgements ensuing.

However, if they are regrouped, they begin to create an interesting developmental narrative.

In the first group, there are descriptors of the individual and the personal and professional strengths that are likely to have been evidenced at interview. An articulate, open and honest colleague, prepared to use their strengths to support and enhance the efforts of the group, who develops status with the pupils in the school and establishes good working relations with parents.

They have good subject knowledge; in Primary, across the wide range of subjects that make up the broad and balanced curriculum that should be an aspiration.


Picture
The second grouping of standards describes the in-lesson relationship between the teacher and the learners. The lesson plan will have been informed by good knowledge of the children, their current learning achievements, their learning attributes and the expectation/aspiration of progress.
Progress, outcomes and expectations are the stuff of planning. The short term planning of a lesson, or short series of lessons will have an appropriate short-term series of expectations, with a clear description of anticipated progress, across the range of abilities. These expectations will be embedded within tasks that should provide an appropriate level of developmental challenge to each learner.

Once the lesson is planned, and in the teacher and TA minds, there is often little reference made to the plan as the lesson gets under way. The expectations are articulated through a variety of means, the Learning Objective or WALT (We Are Learning To), supported by Success Criteria, or WILF (What I'm Looking For) or sometimes Steps To Success, as well as within the task challenge.

It is interesting to consider where the steps come from. Good subject knowledge will include the steps in a naturalistic way. They were described, in the last National Curriculum, as level descriptors. Schools now need to develop or select an appropriate scheme that supports decision making in classrooms.


Picture
The teacher does need to have a good understanding of the potential progress and outcomes that apply to the children in the class. Too many lessons founder on this lack, if the teacher cannot bridge the gap between the current and next learning, or to make judgements about the progress that has been made within a lesson. These are the rapid fire decisions that a teacher makes throughout a day, with experience enabling more rapid engagement.

This set of decisions informs the teacher-child discussion, unpicking areas of concern, providing the basis for feedback, guidance and coaching.

Where learners are not achieving as expected, or greater than expected, the teacher needs to tweak the demand up or down, dependent on the need, if the intervention suggests this.

In lesson judgements need to be a source of reflection by the teacher, to ensure that the task demand was appropriate, too challenging, or not sufficiently stretching.

Teaching is a judgement call, throughout the process.

The quality of teacher judgement is paramount. At the outset, and especially in ITT, there is a clear need to understand the process of learning across a range of subjects, with mental exemplars as reference points, the alternative being to see the child’s exercise books as developmental portfolios, where the interactions, including the marking and feedback enable the learning journey to be visible, but also capable of articulation, as to achievement and next steps. Without the steps being clear, understandable and capable of being enacted by the child, progress may not occur.

 


3 Comments

Assessment; words matter

19/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.

How many times did parents say that? The reality is always that the words do hurt, perhaps not physically, but they can cause untold harm and result in the aggrieved person self-harming in extremis. The education system, perhaps, is at a point where it needs to look at the words that are being embedded in the articulation of new assessment systems. If you are in a vulnerable position, the  misuse of words can hurt even more.

Since 1978, when Baroness Warnock produced her landmark report, Inquiry into the education of handicapped children, which became known as the Warnock report, the individual needs of children have been seen as paramount. A large number of schools have developed very good systems for ensuring that those children with specific needs receive an appropriate curriculum that enables them to make progress in their learning, monitored against systems that were developed against National Curriculum level statements or P levels.  

In 2010, Baroness Warnock, in a review of the impact of her report, Warnock, M (2010) Special educational needs: a new look: M. Warnock & B. Norwich, Special educational needs: a new look, ed. L. Terzi. (London, Continuum), looked at the essential premise of her report and made a number of reflective suggestions, the gist of which was that children should receive the education that suited their needs, and that not every child was suited to a mainstream situation, because, schools being a microcosm of society;

“They are full of people who are as yet immature, who cannot be expected to know how to behave until they are taught, and who are even more prone to persecute the weak and gang up against the eccentric than are people in the world outside”. (Warnock, 2010: 35)

She asserts: ‘Statements should indeed be used as passports’ (Warnock, 2010: 33) (To appropriate support and provision)

I know some people dislike anecdote as a start point for discussion, but, in this instance bear with me.

Imagine an extended family with three children of the same age; one seems to be getting on really well in school, one enjoys intermittent success, but will achieve at an appropriate level and one is seen to be struggling.

All three, at times, can appear to be in schools where the teachers don’t quite know how to support their learning, the first, because they don’t often get “high flyers” so are not sure how to add value on an incremental scale. The second, as a result of teacher and in-school changes, that have led to disruption in the flow of learning. The third, as a result of again being outside the school norm, so challenging the school expertise.

The recently published Performance Descriptors for Key Stage 1 and 2, do not impact on these three children, as they are year 2 and will be judged on levels. Looking at potential outcomes for each, there is a significant chance that one will get level 3s, one 2s and possibly a 3, and the third, will get level 1 possibly, but with a chance of less.

 https://www.gov.uk/government/.../KS1-KS2_Performance_descriptors_...

However, were they to be judged on the outcome terms of the new Performance Descriptors, the outcomes are likely to be one at mastery level, one at or “working towards the national standard”, one “not at national standard”.

One currently presents as potentially bright and able, one within the average range, some things good, others to be worked on, the third struggles. The parents are aware of each of them and their successes and areas of need. Like all parents they praise where praise is needed and seek to support where that presents as a need. This can, at times be a very subtle art, as the children with some areas of need actively present as resenting the need to “do schoolwork” at home, raising tensions. Worried and anxious parents pass their anxieties onto their children, often unwittingly, quite often overtly, reinforcing the negative status of the child.

In the case of the second and third children, for parents to be told, possibly at the end of year 3, that the child is “working towards the national standard” or “on track not to be at national standard”, as might be the case, especially given the school approaches, will not help the child, the parents or the school; the child because the self-esteem is not enhanced, the parents, whose anxiety levels will raise further and the school, because, unless they use the outcome as an audit of need and set up clearly defined interventions, the child will experience the same situation in years 4,5 and 6. There is also a likelihood that the needs will become more pronounced and leave the child prey to less accepting children.

The whole depends on the school, and the individual teacher ability to implement support for different learning needs. This is no different to the situation in the past, before levels, now or under a level based system.

For some teachers, the idea of “not at national standard”, as there is no mention of potential special educational needs, might not seek to investigate fully the needs of the child, preferring instead to use that label as a catch-all descriptor.

The words that we use matter; Every Child Matters, always have and always will.

 

 

0 Comments

First there was a level,

16/11/2014

2 Comments

 
then there was no level, then there is
First there is a level, then there is no level, then there is


The caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within
Caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within


Adapted from Donovan, The Essential Donovan

Picture
I toyed with the idea of using the Hokey Cokey as the theme for this post; both songs use the impression that something is either there or not. The same can be said about levels. They weren’t there before 1987, then they were. They were revised, then adapted into sub levels, and APP trackers, before they were abandoned by the current Government, but with the requirement that schools had to have some kind of (coherent and rigorous) assessment system in place.

Money was given to some schools, in 2013, to develop and refine their systems, the current state of which was summarised within this document.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beyond-levels-alternative-assessment-approaches-developed-by-teaching-schools

In October 2014 the Government published Performance descriptors for use in key stage 1 and 2 statutory teacher assessment for 2015 / 2016
https://www.gov.uk/government/.../KS1-KS2_Performance_descriptors_...

This latter document appeared to revise the gradation of children at 7 and 11 into groups, depending on the outcomes of national testing, with such terms as mastery, at national standard, working towards national standard and not at national standard. Now, these words, to me hold more than a passing insight into the thinking of the people who are making decisions, in that they describe children in very specific ways, especially the idea of mastery and not at standard. If there was a future call for Grammar schools to be revived, the test regime could supply the data. Equally, the data might support someone who wished to suggest holding children back a year, as they were not at the standard.

Stopping levels was deemed to be necessary because parents couldn’t understand them. I’m not sure they’ll understand, or like the new suggestions any more than before, especially if they have a child not at standard. I would agree with the premise that levels may have held back some learners, but this, in my opinion was largely due to inappropriate understanding and application, rather than the level descriptors being useless. I make a distinction between the words of the descriptors and the use of numeric scales.

There is the potential, within schools, who are charged with tracking a child’s progress against criteria, to establish “staging criteria” en route to the year 2 and year 6 statements, to see if children are “on track” to achieve, with the possibility of a parent in year one being told their child was not “on track”, again in year 2 and so on, repeatedly, despite support and help along the way. These children, formerly, may have moved more slowly than peers through levels and possibly achieved a level 3 by age 11. Not “at national standard”, but, described as level 3, allowed the view that progress could be made towards 5, 6 etc at some stage, each being criteria based.

Ex-level scales might have produced a model like this:-


Picture
Growth Mindset is currently being talked of across all schools, together with the idea of learning without levels. Progress, to me, has to be based on clear criteria that describe the progress, or it begins to falter.

Let me explain. I was a classteacher and deputy head of a First School in 1987, when the original National Curriculum arrived, by courier, with multiple coloured folders that required a whole shelf on their own. I would describe the school as having a growth mindset, in the way it sought to develop the children, across all aspects of learning; we offered a broad, balanced, relevant and rich curriculum that caught the children’s attention, gave them challenges, and ensured that they move to the Middle School with an excellent starter framework and enjoyment of learning. Embedding the level descriptors into that scenario was not too difficult, even accounting for the age profile of the staff. They gave a clarity of words to the already existing expectations.

Taking up headship in 1990, and working with a school in need of raising standards, the level descriptors became the words against which we sought exemplars to share and challenge staff and learners to improve. The level descriptors, in themselves, supported improvement, as long as it was based on evidence from outcomes. Within a rich, topic based curriculum, with appropriate challenge and targeted support, this did mean that we enjoyed good success in national testing, across all subjects and reports from the Secondaries suggested that we sent children excited to learn.

As levels became firmly embedded, then adapted through sub-levels, then into APP grids, beloved of data experts, the clarity of level expectations were diminished, as some teachers strove to create ever tighter activities to accommodate the children’s sub levels. Some got to be experts at spotting the small details that seemed to make a difference, while most struggled, often relying on a “gut instinct”, which would ultimately skew their in-class expectations and their support to learners. In one case, this became a capability issue.

The refining of levelness to fit with ever tighter data needs did, in my opinion, potentially import barriers to progress, except for the very able, as some children were expected to evidence their progress several times, in order to “prove” to the teacher that they could do a specific activity.

In part, I think that a teacher view on levels was always likely to depend on when they entered the profession, which in turn may have contributed to the views of professional studies tutors in ITT. The clarity of the early, whole level descriptors to describe, in outline, the learning journey, across the multiple subjects of the Primary Curriculum, may have been lost, to a point where students didn’t actually know “what they were looking for”.

The development ladder of levelness did support developmental conversations, based on achievement and next steps. Yes, there was an embedded deficit model, until a learner had achieved at the highest level, but, I’d argue that this approach was progressive. It is still, to my mind, evident in many of the alternative schemes being articulated, especially at Secondary, where GCSE grades provide the scale for many.

The current Primary National Curriculum, from the draft process onward, had only one assessment criterion, “to know and understand the contents of the relevant PoS”. This was an overt indication of a pass/fail mentality in the minds of the developers, which has now been amplified into a clearer pass/fail model. Children who struggle to learn will be classed as either working towards or not at national standard, both of which imply below standard. The negative connotations embedded in both statements will create additional tensions in the learner and parents, who may then put additional, inappropriate pressure on the learner.

In other words, the children who find learning hardest will be hardest hit, with no obvious gain.

Butterflies from caterpillars? No, just a dog’s dinner.


Picture
2 Comments

An open letter

14/11/2014

1 Comment

 
Dear Ms Morgan, Mr Hunt and Mr Laws,

The roles that you have in education is very important, at this moment in time. The significant changes envisaged my Ms Morgan’s predecessor have become active parts of the education system, with each still causing confusion and some difficulty for schools, in terms of curriculum, assessment systems and SEND change. It is highly likely that they will not all have settled across all schools by the time of the election. Nor will any child have been tested under the new regime. That will not happen until the summer of 2016. In other words, the proof that the changes will be seen as improvements is still almost two years away, by the time the analyses are undertaken after the summer results. On that basis alone, education will have been faced with up to six years of disruption.

Having spent an active lifetime in education, as a teacher, headteacher and now as a University tutor and consultant/assessor for a number of national schemes, I hope you won’t mind if I share some thoughts on the current state of education, as you reflect on your education strategy.

It is a truism that children are born today in exactly the same way as they have been over millennia. They grow through the same stages as every preceding generation, seeking to engage with the world, developing skills which enable them to explore their close world using their senses. While some may have some elements of genetic or physical advantage from birth, it is also clear that some are born into poverty, while others have significant enhancement from birth. Children, in my experience, as a teacher and a parent are different, one from another, even if they have the same parents and ostensibly appear to have the same upbringing. I am not convinced that this is always the case, as the uniqueness of individuals demands certain behaviours from parents, so their children do not receive equal treatment.

It would be good, but probably naïve, to think that every family provides the same early years’ experience, in terms of care and cultural awareness. Sadly, this is not the case, perhaps because of lack of money, poor housing, the poverty of the locality or parent educational poverty, access to and interest in using, parks, museums and galleries and lack of provision of parent and child support. Where a, potentially significant, proportion of families miss out, others have access to the full range of opportunities and are sufficiently interested to make full use of all that is on offer.

So children start school in differently advantaged settings, from their own starting points. While some start in Early Years classes at an age-appropriate stage, others will not. In order to make progress to age-appropriate levels at the end of the EYFS, some children already have to make significantly more progress than others, to attain parity. Where some children will make easy progress in school, supported by interested parents, others will find learning harder and may not have such supportive parents.

The early stage of learning is so significant that it should be a major area of concern, with additional focus and funding to allow every family and every child to enjoy success from the beginning. If some parents, families and children need more support, it should be identified and made available, to ensure home life adds value to early learning opportunities.

A child playing a continual game of catch up in their education, unless they have significantly high motivation and resilience, may well fall at different hurdles. Mentoring and coaching for vulnerable learners should run parallel with formal education, to supplement family support, and, if necessary to support the families too. Their own motivation and resilience might be low.

However hard we try, we may not make all children achieve equally, but we should be aspiring, as a nation to ensure that each learner has every opportunity to make the best of their opportunities. Perhaps we ought also to become better at recognising that sometimes appropriate focused effort means a learner makes progress, but not as much as a peer; both should be celebrated to encourage continuous effort. Bridging gaps may need to be done over a slightly different time frame.

National aspiration is currently described, in a recent consultation document, at the end of Key Stage 1&2, as a national standard. There is a descriptor of expectation of what needs to be evidenced as success against this standard. It does feel like a return to an 11+ system, with an interim 7+ system alongside. There is likely to be, at some stage a call for a 9+ assessment too and by extension, each year is likely to have its own assessment need. Some children could be found to be below or working towards the national standard throughout their school lives, which is likely to be more demoralising than the current systems which describe different levels of personal educational needs. A significant minority of children could go through their schooling with this “below standard” label, which may have, as a root cause, some poorer than wished teaching.

Handing the creation of an appropriate curriculum back to schools and teachers would release a creativity which was the hallmark of earlier times. Creative teachers provide an energy into the system which enthuses children more, so that they achieve more than they thought.

Current plans can be envisaged as a deficit system, especially as some may apparently be allocated a “mastery” grading. By doing that, a large number will be below “mastery”, but at some discrete point, say 20%, there will be a child on one side of the divide, so becoming a master, while another with one mark less may be perceived as having “failed”. The terminology is potentially destructive. It also plays into the hands of those who would cream off the most able into a separate system; grammar schools have been talked about by some commentators.   

Start to build a new strategy on the needs of children’s learning, within a holistic system, not just a focus on small aspects of the system which might support a sound bite. Leave the creative aspects of the curriculum to teachers and support the widespread dissemination of excellent practice. Develop a teaching force of classroom investigaters, broadening and deepening the collective understanding of learning and teaching. Engage in a system wide approach to moderation in everything, with the following benefits to all participants:-

   ◾If moderation occurs across a school, there is common assent to decisions regarding achievement and progress expectations.

◾If moderation occurs across schools, an area wide understanding occurs.

◾If outcomes of National testing are seen as moderation, the outcomes provide exemplar material to support internal moderation.

◾If moderation became a common tool across all schools, supported by external expertise as necessary, there would be a reduced need for formal testing, so we could save money on SATs testing.

◾If specialist in-house teachers became trained moderators, for internal and external use, the use of such people would provide opportunities for mass CPD and lead to higher expectations, based on a common understanding.

◾If lesson observations became a moderation exercise, based on the common agenda of the teaching standards, then feedback would be developmental. Nobody is perfect all the time.

◾If Ofsted and other assessment/inspection visits were moderation visits, to validate the judgements of the internal moderation team, we would establish expectations common to every school in the country.

◾If Ofsted inspectors moderated each other, the judgements across every establishment would be consistent.

◾If judgements across every classroom in every school in the country were common, as a national educational establishment we would make progress.

So, to summarise; children are all different, but deserve every opportunity to achieve at the highest level. They deserve highly motivated, engaged teachers, supported by systems that enhance teacher development. It is that simple. Why try to make it more complex?

Yours sincerely,

Chris Chivers

1 Comment

100 word solution

13/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Allow teachers to think (creatively), it is their job. Creating quality learning challenge demands drive and commitment. One size does not fit all and children have different learning needs.

Teacher mantra: - analyse, plan, do, review, record.

Know your children well, analyse their needs.

Plan engaging challenges for all abilities, in class and at home.

Do, teach them well, choosing the best ways to get ideas across.

Review and adapt within the lesson, then reflect and evaluate after to decide the best way forward.

Record what you need to keep as an aide memoire. Clear reports to parents.

Picture
0 Comments

Back to marking

13/11/2014

0 Comments

 
And so, back to the marking…

It would appear that marking is becoming the next “big thing” in education discussions. It is an aspect of teaching and learning that everyone values, yet, because it can take inordinate amounts of time to do, becomes the object of significant detestation.

There are multiple messages abounding about the amount, type and purposes of marking, with school interpretations sounding as if they are requiring over and above that which may be necessary or useful. There should be a clear view of the impact of such edicts on those whose role it is to effect them.

Picture
For some, the argument is that marking is planning, and to some extent that is correct, as it forms the review part of a Teaching and Learning cycle (above), where outcomes inform next steps. Marking also forms a continuation of the teaching and learning dialogue between the teacher and learner, providing quantitative and qualitative judgements that should support both in progressing learning. Where marking is an active constituent of T&L, with time dedicated to improvement and requiring a response (DIRT), it can enable a learner to see more clearly where errors have occurred.

If the child can’t read what the teacher has said, nor has the time to engage with the feedback, there is a question about the purpose of marking.

As a class teacher, if there was a need to check specifics of knowledge, such as spellings or tables, or other number facts, or remembering key facts from subjects, a straightforward test could be marked by a peer using a coloured pencil, then skim-marked for accuracy.

Where a longer piece of work required marking, I sometimes adopted the idea of deep marking the first 100 words, then skimmed the rest, to be able to both mark for spellings and grammar (Ist 100) then for content, order and organisation and interest. It did provide the necessary feedback to the children to correct spellings and grammar and sometimes redraft (identified) aspects of the writing.

Some schools use symbols to support marking, well known to the learners and the adults. For younger, less sophisticated readers, this can be helpful. If overt and articulated to parents, they too can understand the system.


Picture
In another post

http://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/marking-keep-it-simple  

I argue that it is possible to fine tune marking to individual needs, by having a flip out sheet at the side of the exercise book on which “carry forward” targets are written. These can be outcomes of marking, so that, once the page is turned, the target is still easily available.

The essentials from that post

Can you remember the personal targets for each child, especially if you have thirty children in a class and maybe, in a secondary school you take a dozen different classes in a week.?


If you set targets, where are they?
On a display or interactive board?
Inside or on the outside cover of an exercise book?
On a card in the middle of the table?

Are they easily available to support in-passing conversations within a lesson?
How often do they get reviewed- half termly/termly?
If a child has three specific learning targets for a half term, they may then have eighteen targets over a year. Does this support dynamic progress?

Importantly, where are they when you want to mark the books?

Solution?


  • Put personalised targets on a fold out slip, at the edge of the exercise book, so that during the lesson, the child and the teacher can be aware of the specific targets.

  • This can prompt conversations specific to that child, support the learner’s self-evaluations and also support teacher oral and written feedback, as the slips can be folded out during marking.

  • Targets can be achieved , then become non-negotiable in future work, with new ones added.

    This approach also supports record keeping, as the slip forms an on-going record of achievement.

    The big question is usually of volume. It is more the case today that Primary teachers have 30 English and 30 maths books to mark each day; I know that Secondary may be more.

    As a classteacher, I’d seek to describe, within my overall planning, the weeks where marking demand was likely to be highest, such as extended writing opportunities, from different curriculum areas, so that I could manage the marking load. By doing this, I could timetable more factual, in-lesson marking for some areas, while knowing that I had a pile of stories, science reports or some other extended work to mark.

    As for homework, I am an advocate of homework that does not require marking; something to read, to think about or talk about, to reflect upon, to create information that can support subsequent learning, might reduce some aspects of marking load. If first draft writing is prepared as homework, the lesson can be devoted to editing, which in itself is the first stage of marking, but could be undertaken by learners with the ability to do so, bringing them into the analytical aspects of review.

  • As an organisation, schools should set marking expectations that are clear, concise and achievable and have impact on learning.

  • Plan mark loads over a known timescale, so that books are marked appropriately in timescales that enable feedback to be useful.

  • Learners should see themselves as active partners in work review. It should be done with and through, not always done to. Marking in a lesson is a very supportive strategy, especially for struggling learners, where immediacy of response is needed.

  • Take control of the marking, before it takes control of you.

0 Comments

Building capacity

12/11/2014

0 Comments

 
and structural change

Reflecting on the changes being wrought currently in the world of education, with the prospect of more to come; all political parties have to promise to improve the system, I wanted to sort out my thinking.

Anyone who has read my past blogs will have come across the little mantra that I use to order and organise my thinking; analyse-plan-do-review-record. I find it useful to use this cyclically when organising any kind of project. This enables the project to move through stages of development with a coherent narrative.

Picture
Education, at its heart, is a series of interlinked systems, with the children learning in one class at the sharp end of decision-making further up the system. For as long as I have been involved in education, there have been attempts to lock into the system different discrete elements which were intended to improve the systems, but which, by virtue of their presentation, interpretation and implementation, became millstones around the neck of the system, and teachers in particular.

The past four years have seen the system at a national level torn up and restarted, so that, in September 2014, schools started with curriculum change, SEND change, insecurity in assessment systems, but locally in schools, but also change in the examination and accountability systems. Inevitably there is insecurity within schools, as they warily tread their way forward, especially if they are less secure about their outcome data.

This position can be encountered when a new headteacher takes over a school, with a brief to “improve”. Done hastily, this can lead to superficial change and the impression of improvement, but might not result in long term gains.  

System change, and subsequent capacity building, requires taking stock of the current position. This, if guided by a clear audit tool, supports the overview thinking of all concerned. If all participants can be open and honest, the clarity of the picture enables clarity of decision making. There are many such tools available. As I was very involved with Inclusion Quality Mark for several years as an assessor and developer, there is much to comment it as a baseline audit tool, as it covers all area of school life, from the point of view of inclusive practice. A similar approach taken through the school self-evaluation documentation is an excellent start.

During this period, I was able to spend significant time in London schools, many of which were achieving significantly well, despite their children living in circumstances of significant disadvantage. Out of these visits came an overview of what good inclusion practice looked like.


Picture
The quality of communication within the organisation is the key to success. Ensuring that every kind of medium is used to best effect, to ensure the maximum spread of messages, develops the collegiate community, necessary to evolve.

There is often talk of “vision” being the essence of improvement. I would argue that the quality of narrative to support the vision is even more important, otherwise improvement can become a simplified mantra, where real improvement is likely to involve some serious work on everyone’s behalf.

Vision can sometimes be limited, by the collective experience of the team. If no-one in the team has seen “the promised land”, they are not able to describe it clearly to their colleagues. They may, as a group, have to go out and find what it is they seek, through school visiting, on-line research and evidence gathering, of holistic features. They need to see “what a good one looks like”, as a whole (WAGOLL). This applies to individual teachers, too, who may need to explore what the next steps in learning really look like, so they are tuned into expectations.

Bringing back just a solitary idea can lead to a diversion, especially of the understanding of the context and the background to its implementation is weak. This can sometimes appear to be a feature of political decision making. Simple ideas are easier to sell. Education is complex.

Direction of travel needs to be clear to everyone; there’s a need for all to buy into the vision and the direction and to be able to see where their efforts need to be focused. If participants are to be enabled to grow and develop themselves, they have to be able to see their purpose in doing so; the classic, what’s in it for me? Because, at its heart, the system can only grow if the participants grow. The leadership cannot do everything themselves. It is an interdependent, interlocking cycle, which I have tried to articulate in this diagram.


Picture
If plans and their implementation are clear from the outset, with sufficient detail to specify actions from various members, together with target dates when reports will be available, the improvement system begins to get some traction. If the system is supported by ongoing dialogue, then information is enabled to be passed through the system, creating a reassurance that further motivates the participants.

Reviews and records need to be as rigorous as the original self-evaluation, as they, in turn, become staging post audits, from which to launch the next phase of development. There are significant links with the basics of good teaching and learning, which adopts the same rigorous cyclic thinking, if it is to avoid teaching and learning becoming a sequence of activities. In other words, articulating we/you are here and now we/you need to go there and these are the steps we/you need to take.  

Two diagrams seek to explore this in relation to teaching and learning.
Picture
Picture
The biggest issue in both system change and teaching and learning is the adaptability of the participants within their systems, as well as the adaptability of the system itself. Essentially solution finding, plans may need to be adapted to circumstance. In Teaching Standards terms, these are articulated within standards 6 and 5, making use of assessment and adapting teaching, which in turn can be interpreted as spotting prompt behaviour, thinking on your feet and doing something about it. These decisions are taken to maximise the potential of a successful outcome.


Picture
You are likely to be seen as a good teacher, or as a good school, if you are able to demonstrate qualities in the blue boxes. To move beyond this, however, the ability to think and adapt, to fine tune to the needs of the learners, is essential to demonstrating higher level skills. Responsive and reactive organisations work closely with the individual needs of both the teachers and the learners. They are, after all, in the business of capacity building, of everyone for whom they are responsible.

So, it’s not the curriculum, planning proformas, differentiation (match and challenge), in-lesson interactions, feedback, guidance, marking, summative assessment systems, as discrete entities, that makes a difference. Nor is it licensing teachers. Nothing, in itself works a miracle.

It is the subtle interplay of all the elements, utilised at the right moment by reflective, aware teachers, working with the evidence provided by learners as to their need that makes a difference. Confident teachers, plus confident learners, supported by confident parents enables the potential for success.

0 Comments

SEN Radio?

11/11/2014

12 Comments

 
Picture
Seeking greater clarity by fine tuning actions through a

Record of Actions, Discussions or Decisions, Interventions and Outcomes

(RADIO, in case you missed it!).

Building an individual case study.

Essentially, SEND practice describes a sequence of events, which seek to refine the actions and focus of attention, to identify, quantify and qualify the exact nature of a problem. Once this has been established, remedial action can take place. The longer the gap, the greater the problem can become, as further complications can become built into the experience, not least of which is learner self-esteem, affected by adult and peer responses to the circumstance.

Every teacher is a teacher of individual needs, which often identify themselves as little concerns when a learner either exceeds or does not grasp what is being expected.

The SEND framework 2014 does state that poor teaching approaches will handicap decisions on a child’s special educational needs. SEND is not a substitute for poor teaching or poor teachers. High quality teaching and learning should identify, describe and track needs within a classroom. Work sampling, annotations and record keeping will all contribute to good decisions. Some may say that this is additional work. However, it could be argued that well planned, well focused activities, with good oral and written feedback, to identified needs, in itself constitutes a reasonably clear start point of a record. An annotated personal record, for discrete individuals, as describe below should also be kept.






Picture
Teachers receive their classes from someone else, even at the earliest stages, where a parent or nursery member of staff has already become aware of little foibles, or gaps in understanding, or an area where there appears to be extra talent.

The parent is the child’s first teacher; it is to be hoped that their relationship is such that they get to know their children really well, through interactions at home and in places of interest that generate speaking and listening skills. As a Governor of a school in Gosport, as well as my own education career, I know that this is not the case, with children arriving operating at two year old levels, of speech and socialisation.

The adult role, teacher and support staff, is to be vigilant in spotting the child reactions in different situations, noting areas of concern, but also of achievement, so that a balanced picture can be built. The profiles built up during the Early Years stage is a more refined document than may have formerly been available.

If concerns emerge, there are likely to be three phases;

  1. Short (wave) term, classroom based. The teacher and other adults become aware that an area of need exists. They develop a short term plan to address the issue and agree a monitoring approach that allows them to spot and track the outcomes. Where feasible, discussions with the learner might deepen the adult understanding of the learning issues. Outcomes are checked carefully to deduce any patterns arising, which are then shared with parents and decisions reached about next steps.
  2. Medium (wave) term, involving internal specialist colleagues. Where an issue goes beyond the current capacity of the classteacher, the school internal specialist, the SENCo, should be involved to oversee the record, to discuss with the teacher and the parent possible ways forward and to agree a new plan of action in the classroom. This may involve using a discrete approach to the identified problem, with some specified time need. For example, a child with a specific reading issue might need some individualised time with an adult, whose role is to undertake a miscue analysis during each session to deduce with greater accuracy the nature of the problem. The SENCo may be involved in classroom observations, keeping records of on/off task behaviours, relationships, task application, with outcomes being photocopied and annotated to deepen the understanding of the problem, thereby refining the classroom action. Interventions strategies must be SMART targets. Too often in SEND situations, classteachers operate at too global a level, so that the refined needs of the individuals are missed, until they become more critical. There is a need for regular work sampling and annotations to describe the learning journey and issues still arising. The lack of such a record could handicap a child and the teacher, as it will be requested before specific help can be offered, especially if the school SLT has to allocate additional funding/adult support to address the issue.
  3. Long (wave) term, the school will involve a range of specialist experts, to support the diagnosis of the issue. Diagnosis depends on the quality of record keeping in the classroom and the school, if patterns are to be describe and the area for investigation is to be narrowed. As a result, a programme of action is likely to be agreed, timescales set and evidence needed identified. This is likely to be similar to the needs above, but within a refined remit.
Over time, a case study emerges, with a record of actions, discussion, decisions, interventions and outcomes. It may be, at this stage, that the collective wisdom is that there is a problem that is greater that the system capacity to identify and remediate the need. In the new SEND framework, schools will apply for consideration of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

The evidence file is sent to a panel for consideration, along with other applications. Each case is judged on its merits and there is no guarantee that awarding an EHCP will be the outcome. Equally, an EHCP may not guarantee extra funding or alternative education placement. The EHCP, if awarded, is quite likely to be a tighter descriptor of the learner’s individual needs, the education response to be allocated by the establishment, the timescale and regularity of reviews.

SEND issues cause teachers to become worried. I have suggested ways in which a teacher can expand their understanding of teaching and learning outcomes across the range of learners they are likely to encounter, in another post.

12 Comments

Pride's place

11/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
A craftsperson takes a pride in his or her work, whereas, to paraphrase, we all know that a “bad craftsperson blames their tools”.

The point is that pride play a large part in our lives. If we have pride, this encourages us, gives us confidence and energy to engage with tasks. Of course, pride also comes before a fall and that can be personally detrimental, but essentially, pride plays a part in performance. For education, how can we develop and embody pride into the everyday lives of learners?

During a visit to a school to explore parental involvement, the discussion developed very well, with all agreeing that parents involved in school were having a positive impact on learning outcomes. The school had been involved in a significant amount of development work in Teaching and Learning, so we sought to determine whether the T&L initiative or the parent involvement had had greater impact.

The discussion focussed on intangible areas such as expectation, confidence, pride and the presence of a broader audience, where the school had developed an open door policy and regular parent visits to look at work in progress. Parents, teachers and children were very clear in what they were trying to achieve, with detailed target setting, child self assessment and regular opportunities to describe and discuss progress embedded in the school culture. Communication in all aspects of school life was seen as a significant strength, with very good models being provided by the adults.

So what made the difference? Work was seen as valuable, at each stage of development. Knowing that the audience for the work was broader than the child and the teacher immediately put an additional, but not intolerable, pressure on the child to produce work of a quality that could be shared. Regular, supportive feedback set the tone for children to pursue areas for their own development, knowing that effort was recognised.

Their confidence grew and they wanted to share their work with others. Celebration of achievement added to the sense of pride and confidence, thus encouraging the children to take occasional risks in work, seeking to be more creative in word use, for example.

Celebration extended to having work displayed in a local library, where the wider family, and the community as a whole was encouraged to go along and admire the displays. Children and staff were very clear in their ability to articulate the improvements in outcomes. Some are tangible, level descriptors and APP sheets ticked against subject criteria, but, perhaps more importantly they became aware of the importance of the intangibles, effort, expectation, aspiration, confidence and pride, provided, by redefining the breadth of the audience for work.

So, perhaps the lesson is not to make school activity a conspiracy between the teacher and the child, with no other audience to be considered, but to open things up and show more people, both in books and in displays. Offer the opportunity for feedback from people other than the teacher and put children firmly in the producer role with greater responsibility for the outcomes of their learning. Empower children to learn, with the teacher and parent role sometimes becoming a guiding partner in the learning. In Vygotsky terms, becoming the significant other.

Teachers have to take to role of guide and partner in progress to parents in this situation, to ensure that parent expectations are realistic and focused, thus ensuring consistent progress, rather than hiccupping or regression as a result of inappropriate interventions.

Picture
0 Comments

Parents want...in a Nutshell

11/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

Keep Talking thinking

11/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
A series of tweets set a train of thought running again. I’ve already blogged on thinking, as a practical part of the classroom, seeking to see inside a child’s head.

A friend works in a special school for severely disabled children 4-19, an incredibly challenging role. In discussion recently we were exploring ideas within teaching and learning. It soon became apparent that, in order to support his learners to make progress, he had to effectively “get inside the heads” of each individual, to try to understand as well as possible what made each of them “tick”, especially those with severe communication difficulties. Inevitably there was a small element of trial and error, but with 1:1 ratios, any “misconceptions” could be addressed immediately.

I have some student teachers working in a school for moderate learning difficulties, each child unique in their presentation of need and their home environment. These students have to get to know the children really well to be able to develop appropriate plans for learning.

The notion of what makes children tick is an important one. Misunderstand this and even the most well-meaning adult can cause a situation to escalate.

Anyone watching either Educating Essex or Educating Yorkshire cannot fail to see adults seeking to understand the individual children. Even then, nothing can prevent a flare-up.

After my summer assessment visits to London schools, I reflected on these schools and their personalised, rich curriculum. Their reasoning was based on their analysis of their children’s needs. This led me to speculate about the point at which personalisation is embedded in practice.

  • If you do not see the need to differentiate, you will not do so.

  • If you believe that differentiation is a matter of simpler tasks for less able, that is all you will do.

  • If you think that an additional adult support is available, this is often portrayed as differentiation. If no extra adult, no differentiation.

  • If you view the class as a set of smaller groups with similar characteristics, you may seek to challenge them individually at different levels.

  • If you see the smaller groups as mixed ability groups of individuals, then you might see how to challenge at a personal level, modifying the group expectation.

The last two statements embed a clear expectation, of learning, use of time and potential outcomes. If based on capability, “I want to see if you can…..” The expectations embedded also drive the in-lesson conversations, questions and on-going feedback. Coupled with exploratory discussions in-lesson and the use of exemplars, they are the checks and balances to evaluation, by children and the teacher after the lesson, through well define written feedback.

Picture
Successful teaching and learning is not just the product of a sequence of activities to be done at specific times. That way lies stereotype teaching and limited learning. The strategic thinking of the teacher in defining the learning journey of children embeds the points at which the children will take over and become producers of learning, deepening the experience of both learner and teacher as skills are demonstrated which can be further refined at  a later date.

Thinking is an essential component of learning; without it a learner would not exist, except in the most passive form, the stereotypical “empty jug”.

How can we ever know what is going on in a learner’s head, unless there are opportunities for them to express their ideas cogently, with the view that all expression is a “draft thought”, capable of challenge and alteration? This can occur in writing, but writing is likely to have already gone through a thought process before being produced. However, seen as a draft, writing can be supportive of developmental conversation, orally or through effective marking.

Therefore talk would appear to be a major component of learning experience. To make real progress in learning, learners need to make sense of both what they know and how they know it. They need to have a partner relationship to ensure they become independent producers, not just passive consumers of learning.

Picture
We talk of learning journeys for children. It is possible to use the idea of a journey to support a child’s articulation of what they are thinking and reflecting on how their ideas have changed. Essentially the learner becomes the storyteller of an episode of learning, using recount in as detailed a form as possible to put across an idea. Storyboarding, or developmental notes, can support the expressive process. Their audience, members of the class, including the teacher, can ask for clarification and provide feedback. Learning thereby becomes a collegiate project.

Working with a year two class, I asked a group of children to unpick how they thought their way through a multiplication equation, step by step instructions, which they then asked a peer to follow, as a check mechanism. This produced quite deep discussions and ironed out a number of misconceptions on the way, especially as they were identified and then easily addressed.

Science with a year four class entailed a challenge to set up a fair test to find the best paper to send a parcel through the post. Having had earlier experience of fair tests, groups of four were given time to come up with a proposal of how to proceed with the test, then time to present this to others. Shared thinking ironed out issues and allowed all to proceed.

Thinking is supported by language and language is further developed by articulating thinking. Talking things through is the means by which children’s understanding of their own learning is deepened.

The fundamentals of education; thinking and talking?

0 Comments

If you could read my mind,…….

11/11/2014

0 Comments

 
..but that is exactly what being a good teacher does imply. Teaching is not just talking at children, telling them stuff; it’s part storytelling, with a clarity of storyline and enhanced vocabulary, including the essential subject language, which , having engaged the listeners and when investigated together, provides the basis upon which a child can pursue their own thinking.

Knowing your children and your subject matter well is a pre-requisite of good preparation. Effective planning matches challenge to children. Collecting/creating your own resources allows the teacher to direct learning effectively, adapting the task challenge within the lesson. Good and better teachers do this almost intuitively, as they have mentally planned, rehearsed strategies and learning directions,  even if it’s not all on paper. They are the lesson directors, unscripted, but responsive to needs. Some people just make teaching look easy. They have embedded the essence of teaching and learning and just do it effortlessly.


Picture
Developing independent learners is stated in many learning policies. 

As a Primary/Middle trained teacher, I started teaching sciences in a Secondary school, but found that I missed many aspects of the Primary classroom. When asked what I taught, initially I’d reply “Sciences”, but on transfer began to answer “children”. Maybe something as simple as that offers an insight into some current tensions. Primary teachers, many in Special schools and some, dealing with individual needs in Secondary schools are dealing with the whole child all of the time, while a proportion, taking subject classes, especially for exams, have the imperative to impart a “body of knowledge” as well as a love for the subject. The body of knowledge can take a higher profile than the needs of the learners, especially as the exam gets closer.

Children in Early Years, and younger demonstrate independence in approaching learning situations. These are often exploratory, with an adult guide intervening. Experimentation leads to questions and seeking solutions. They are not absolutist in this, but they are building conceptual frames within which to lodge information. Play is an important element in learning, whether child or adult. Play is structured and unstructured engagement with a task, seeking to find pattern or match to earlier experience, applying prior learning to understand the new experience.

Children don’t necessarily see the world in subjects, that’s an organisational construct. Deconstructing the curriculum into subjects allows someone to determine the essential knowledge to be learned and to create a timetable within which it will be delivered.

Children in the early stages of learning, by definition, have not established a body of knowledge. They investigate the world from birth instinctively, and in a more determined way from the time they develop the skills of focussing and touching. Nobody “teaches” them, but parents put experiences in their way and help them to make sense of what’s happening.

For many years schools have adopted a “spiral curriculum” approach, with learning starting very broadly, experience based, embedding essential information at an appropriate time, refining the learning to the needs of the developing learners. This has some reference to the earlier Piagetian notion of concrete and abstract learners. Subjects, discrete or in themed topics, provided the vehicles for study. As an adult learner, I still find it useful to have an overview of a subject within which I can slot new ideas, a frame of reference. I like to know my “learning journey”.

Reference to prior learning is an essential aspect of new learning, developing the context, bringing the known to the fore, ensuring that there is a base upon which to found the next steps. Learners need to be enthused into learning, distracting them from the many external distractions; just think how you feel when it gets to “staff meeting o’clock” and the need to switch brains. How do learners feel, having a different lesson focus every hour or so? “I’ve just got my head around that, and now I’m in …” Is it a surprise that some children find learning difficult?

The subject based, hour by hour change approach is an organisational construct. Problem solving crosses subject boundaries and spans larger amounts of time, demanding a broad set of personal capabilities as well as some essential knowledge. Knowledge is, with the internet, easily available, with apps like “You tube” being almost ubiquitous in supporting a “how to approach”.

Can you be a teacher without learners? Can you be a learner without a teacher?

He couldn't move a mountain, Nor pull down a big old tree-ee
But my daddy became a mighty big man, With a simple philosophy

Do what you do do well boy, Do what you do do we-ell
Give your love and all of your heart, And do what you do do well  
Ned Miller



Picture
Teach what you do teach well……

Over the recent past, this question has been circling around the parts of my brain not being fully utilised for other purposes, with an occasional nudge from bloggers sharing their slants on current education issues.

There seems to be articulation of dilemmas across the spectrum, from EYFS to secondary, to teach or not, to talk as a teacher or not, neuroscience and learning styles (love or hate), limits to learning, for and against some form of target setting.

It can be mind-blowing, but I have the feeling that it represents significant personal tension within classroom practice, some of which is caused by articulated expectations from higher up the “power levels”. Teachers want to “get it right” for the children whom they teach. This raises a range of issues and the stakes are getting higher, as Ofsted judgements are ratcheted up.

There’s often a feeling that “it works for them so I’ll copy it” is ok, while others are demanding evidence and absolute proof of the effectiveness of an approach before it should be adopted.

Perhaps this gets to the nub of my dilemma. Throughout my teaching career I have been fortunate to meet colleagues from other schools prepared to share their practice in detail, especially if there were outcomes suggesting that it was having an impact on their learners. Some attendees of training evenings would immediately articulate the view that they’d be using the ideas the next day. Where I did try this, quite often the impact was not as predicted, so I became more adept at collecting ideas, mulling them over and selecting those that would have impact, having prepared the classroom and class beforehand.

It’s a case of developing a “toolkit” and choosing the right tools for the job. A bad workman blames his tools and cheap tools support a botched job.

Bright ideas are not always immediately transferrable, because the place, the teacher or the learners are not prepared. You can appear to be teaching your socks off in a situation like this and it won’t work. Misjudged and mismatched, the teaching misses the point. Unless the approach is tailored to the local need, it has a possibility of feeding into poor learning experience.

You can’t teach if the learners aren’t ready. 

Teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin.

Teaching will always include the need to impart information to a learner. That should always be done efficiently and effectively, utilising the best available resources, which includes the teacher voice, playing a game of “pass the parcel”, something I know, enjoy and understand and want to share. In many ways, because this is totally in the hands of the teacher, apart from unwarranted or unhelpful interruptions, it should work to script.

Learning is passed to the learners. The need time to mull over information, to make sense of it against known information, work with it, reshape ideas and lodge them into their memory for retention. Young learners need reminding what they know from time to time, as their memories are fallible. Overlearning for some is needed. Significant support for some needs to be considered; but how much, for how long and from whom?

It strikes me that we need to stop bickering in the playground and start looking at the learning journeys of children. After all, it will be their world and we’ll need them to take a lead.


Kahlil Gibran:      Teaching
:

Then said a
teacher, "Speak to us of Teaching." And he said: No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of our knowledge.

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.

If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.

The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.

And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.


Picture
0 Comments

If you’re happy........?

10/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture

In May 2011 there were reports in the papers about the discovery of the so-called happiness gene. The gene, called 5-HTT, is responsible for how well nerve cells manage to distribute serotonin, a chemical produced by the pineal gland in the brain which helps control mood. People with low levels of serotonin - itself nicknamed the 'happiness drug' - are known to be more prone to depression. Two long genes inherited from parents increase the likelihood of being happy with your lot in life, two short ones and you may be less happy.

In the Observer Review on 1st January 2012, there was a report on the work of Tali Sharot, a research fellow at UCL Wellcome Foundation, into what she is calling the optimism bias. This appears to suggest that some of us are primed to look on the bright side and the optimists appear to overcome hardship and illness more easily, achieve more and again, are likely to be happier.

Andrew Curran, consultant paediatrician, writing about “All you need is love” on the Independent Thinking website, writes about the impact of a chemical released by the brain, dopamine, which encourages the intake of information, supporting learning. His very interesting article can be read on http://www.independentthinking.co.uk/Cool+Stuff/Articles/289.aspx

So what has all this to do with schools? I became a headteacher in 1990. There was a group of like-minded recently appointed headteachers who were all seeking to establish the detail of their Teaching and Learning policies in such a way that they could develop their schools over the following five years. The first task that we set ourselves was to consider our response to the starter, “Children learn best when they........” The majority answer was “...are happy.” The subsequent discussion went on to tease out what contributed to this sense of happiness.


Picture
In the end I had a Teaching and Learning policy which was guided by a number of principles, mostly premised around the theme of happiness. It was hoped that children leaving the school would have the following learning attributes:-

  •  Confidence in themselves, as people and learners.

  • Awareness of the world around them, locally and wider, showing sensitivity, an enquiring approach, and a developing sense of awareness of themselves as spiritual beings.

  • Capable of working in many different ways, with different grouping of others, and be able to sustain effort when required

  • Solve problems with different, but developing, levels of independence.

  • Think creatively and reflectively when appropriately challenged, organising their needs, and being able to talk clearly to anyone with an interest in their activities.

  • Accept guidance to achieve the best they can, with a clear understanding of their strengths and areas for further improvement.

Picture
There cannot be many schools who do not aspire to have happy children. There cannot be any schools aspiring to have unhappy children. The difficulties arise when children are put in learning situations. Tali Sharot’s colleague, Sara Bengtsson, devised an experiment where two groups of children were given either positive or negative self image comments before being given an activity. The positively reinforced group overcame problems, while the others gave up after an error.

Much school time, largely through so-called assessment activities, can be spent identifying what children cannot do, so that it can be remediated. Reinforcing the negative reduces the dopamine levels, heightens negative chemicals and thereby become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Learning is about what you know and what you don’t. What I know makes me happy and I can get on with that. What I don’t, I still have to learn.

There is a systematic confusion embedded in the transition to Secondary education. Using levelness as an exemplar, Primary schools may have sought to get their children to level 4, or better in mathematics and English. Formerly there was also a desire to match this in science and the non-core subjects. A number achieved at level 5. On transfer to secondary there is often, in year seven, a desire to ensure that they are all really at these levels and to make sure that the level 3s “catch up”. Conversations with Secondary teachers can sometimes be premised around the content, rather than the capability. It is often expressed that children can’t be level 5 unless they have had specific subject content. The National Curriculum level descriptors do not appear to be determined by subject content, but have a clear description of the learning processes.  

If we premised the learning journeys of children on their capabilities, celebrating what they can do, with clear descriptions, understandable to them, of what they need to do next, with teachers capable of systematic and sustained supportive engagement and intervention, wouldn’t the children enjoy learning? They must become the producers of their own learning, instead of consumers within a potentially limited diet.

Gervaise Phinn, in “The Road to the Dales” wrote about his schooling:-

“The teachers were not scholarly or highly qualified, they didn’t walk the corridors in academic gowns, but they were first rate educationalists. They created an atmosphere where the pupils’ curiosity could, where we were allowed to think and question, where classrooms were cooperative, good-humoured places, where learning was not derived by the acquisition of a few arid facts but from and understanding and appreciation of the material. It was a child-centred environment well before the term was widely used by the progressive commentators of the 1960s.”

So to quote Monty Python, “Always look on the bright side of life.” Try to develop the phrase, “You can’t do...” into “You may not be able to do... yet, but I can help and you can try.”  

There appears to be a song for every occasion. In the 1940s, Johnny Mercer and Bin Crosby sang the following:-

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium's
Liable to walk upon the scene


Be well and happy.

0 Comments

Children’s #authorsontwitter

10/11/2014

11 Comments

 
Picture

Thanks to the wonderful efforts of the two people below, Jo and Helena, urged on by an original Tweet from me, here is a list of children’s authors on Twitter, available to schools and libraries. Please use appropriately. We don’t want to stop their creativity!

Jo McCrum @jojomccrum Lurks at literary events when not wrestling with 2 small (but mighty) children. Works @Soc_of_Authors

Helena Pielichaty @HelenaPielichat Children's writer based in UK (Girls FC etc). Book tweets midweek, footy (#HTAFC) at weekends, nothing during a full moon.

A @RoyAppsAuthor @Alexmilway @adelegeras @PatriceAggs @davidjalmond @LaurenceAnholt @PhilipArdagh @EveAinsworth

B @tbradman @tim_bowler  @ianarchiebeck @MelvinBurgess @bevbirchauthor @DeaBirkett @TerenceBlacker @malorieblackman @NielBushnell @EmmaBarnesWrite @balirai (Bali Rai) @karenball @SitaBrahmachari @Bridgeanne @Booksmyth (Stewart Ross)

C @catwrote (Catherine Johnson) @SteveColeBooks @gilliancross @eoincolfer @lucycoats @frankcottrell_b @cathycassidyxx @annecassidy6 @joecraiguk @AlexiaCasale @emmac2603 (Emma Carroll) 

D @KerryDrewery @HelenMDouglas @BerlieDoherty @LauraDockrill @JohnDougherty8 @fidunbar @PennyDolan1 @tommydonbavand @BeaDavenport1   

E @sueeves @annevansauthor @philearle @edgechristopher @Elli_fant

F @fivekingdoms (Vivian French)

G @pippagoodhart @candygourlay @helengrantsays @jgoldingauthor @girlinthelens (Natasha) @adelegeras @mygibbo (Alan Gibbons)

H @WHusseyAuthor @edmundharris @MiriamHalahmy @dihofmeyr @cwhillauthor @johnhamilton17

I

J @OliverJeffers @GillJames @jabberworks (Sarah McIntyre)

K @Kerensd (Keren David) @nicolakidsbooks
 
L @KendraLeighton @rhi_lassiter @Sue_Limb @JuliaLeeAuthor @chrisdlacey @EMRLaird @lockwoodwriter    

M @ZMarriott @moses_brian @MichaelamorganM @KarenMcCombie @JMarchantAuthor @GMcCaughrean @nicolamorgan @anthony_mcgowan @mayhewjames @KateFJMaryon

N @LineyNell @Sally_Nicholls @gnorthfield @Patrick_Ness

O @kateormand

P @tompalmerauthor @LizPichon @EmmaPass @HelenaPielichat @korkypaul @jonpinnock @paperdragon59 @PhilipPullman @LynnePencil

Q

R @CeliaRees @H_A_Robinson @MichaelRosenYes @chrisriddell50 @H_A_Robinson @jk_rowling @philipreeve1 @annerooney @MicheRobinson (Michelle Robinson)

S @HannahSilvaUK @JustinSomper @scribblestreet (Jonathan Emmett) @HollyKateSkeet @LydiaSyson
@spirotta ( Saviour Pirotta) @colinshelbourn @andyseedauthor @SparkesAli @the2steves (Barlow and Skidmore)

T @terryandrob (Terry Pratchett)

U

V @ed_vere @AnVrombaut @ClaraVulliamy

WXYZ @acwilsonwriter @moira_young @judywaite2    

FE authors not already included above: courtesy of laura@fictionexpress.co.uk

Barry Hutchison @barryhutchison
Bea Davenport @BeaDavenport1
Alex Woolf @RealAlexWoolf
Sharon Gosling @sharongosling
Cavan Scott @cavanscott
Louie Stowell @Louiestowell
Marie-Louise Jensen @jensen_ml
Alice Kuipers @AliceKuipers
Luisa Plaja @LuisaPlaja
Tamsyn Murray @TamsynTweetie
Ann Evans @annevansauthor
Ian Billings @mrianbillings


Picture
11 Comments
<<Previous

    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.

    Archives

    March 2021
    January 2021
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All
    Assessment
    Behaviour
    Differentiation
    English
    Experience
    History
    Home Learning
    Inclusive Thinking
    Maths
    Parents
    Science
    SEND
    Sing And Strum
    Teaching And Learning

    RSS Feed

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture
    Click to set custom HTM L
Proudly powered by Weebly