Chris Chivers (Thinks)

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Meetings

31/12/2015

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Together with an unrelated picture;
Ref #TeacherfiveadaySlowChat conversations


One of the things that really gets to me is meetings, especially those meetings that you can’t really get out of, yet don’t actually get anything achieved, where you can spend an inordinate amount of time only to agree that another meeting will be needed to “further the discussion”. Time is a precious commodity. To have it wasted, knowing that you could have been more productive doing something else is, to say the least, irritating. I have been known to daydream, to doodle, taking advantage of not speaking to create thoughts on another topic. People are often too busy to notice anyway.

Why do we have meetings?

Communication is at the heart of any organisation and schools are an extreme example of this.
Information needs to be shared efficiently. There are many disparate individuals or groups who need to know what is going on, for a start and sometimes saying it is the easiest method. There are meetings for order and organisation, where essential details of times and places and sometimes personal staff or pupil issues, are shared, so that internal efficiency is improved through heightened awareness. However, sometimes written communication is a better way, although it does rely on everyone reading the notes.

There are meetings to sort things out, where several people are involved in a project and the details have to be decided. Sometimes the project is starting from scratch, so there is a need for meetings to plan, how the project will proceed, who will do what and when it will be done by. Not to do this would mean that the project would not happen. However, they can degenerate into meetings about meetings.
Meetings without a clear purpose and agenda can be easily highjacked by a few, either the “leadership” element or those of an opposite persuasion, who want to have an impact. It is possible that anyone in any leadership role will have an important personal project to undertake, which is also embedded in their Performance Management targets. These certainly require meetings and good participation, in order to be able to demonstrate impact.

In schools, there can be general staff meetings, year group meetings (including in PPA time), meetings about Performance Management, staff meetings can be training evenings and there are five further training days. If the school is involved in additional projects, these will inevitably involve further meetings. Some staff, such as the SENCo, EAL or PE teachers may be involved in local networks which create meetings. There will be some staff who are also a school Governor, which also requires a series of meetings throughout the year. Parent evenings are an essential point for home-school contact, requiring around 6 evenings to accommodate all needs. Some staff could be permanently in meetings.
  • If you take a look at the school year, it is feasible to map out generally the need for meetings, so that these can be put into diaries, allowing all other meetings to be mapped also.
  • How often are information meetings needed and for how long? Can they be timetabled with a natural end-point, so that the meeting has to come to an end?
  • Development meetings, if embedded in a clear project outline and within a clear timetable, can have progressive purpose enabling feedback, review, and reflection, before moving on. In this, I would include all PPA time, which needs to have an agenda and be accountable. The half term is the “project”. Manage it effectively.
  • Where reports have to be written, and parent evenings occur, it is possible to cancel a number of meeting slots to accommodate some of the extra time demand.
  • If projects are really important to the school, it may be necessary to buy in cover time to enable key staff to have quality time together to pursue research and enquiry, leading to quality information sharing with colleagues. Projects can also be more easily costed in this model.
  • This can become possible if the school is in an ITE partnership, regularly taking trainee teachers, who can, occasionally, become a supernumerary teacher; everyone benefits.
  • Unless meetings are controlled, they are like Topsy, they grow and enlarge to fill the available time. Where we want teachers to also have time for personal development, all time demands have to be taken into account, if we are really convinced that teacher well-being is important.
Where a school is in a category, it is often the case that there is an over-abundance of advice made readily available, from the LA or academy chain, at a time when the organisation needs to take stock; to think for itself and to come up with a clear, workable plan. This might need some support, but may need to accept that this is likely to be from an external source, so might not have a full picture on which to base useful advice.

Meetings do not solve all issues. They can be a necessary evil at times, but, just because they are easy to arrange, does that mean that they need to be held. Think twice before calling a meeting; it impacts on someone else’s time and possibly their life/work balance.
​
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Stocktaking

30/12/2015

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I’ve taken part in the #nurture thread for the past few years, joining a group of people who share their recent highlights and hopes for the future. It’s not a novel idea, but perhaps as a series of shared blogs, the public nature might be irritating to some, as has been evidenced in my Twitter timeline.

Taking stock is a natural human instinct, which probably gave form to the two-headed Roman god Janus, from whom we get January. It can mean taking out the contents of a purse or wallet and checking how much cash you’ve got or perhaps a visit to the cashpoint, or online banking, especially at this time of year; can I afford yet another super-sized television?

Taking stock can mean counting your blessings, for the roof over your head, the season of gluttony and excess gift giving and receiving that you have just enjoyed, that you have a job which brings in regular amounts of money, enabling you to take advantage of holidays or replace the broken essential electrical items.

Of course, for some, taking stock might indicate all the above as negatives, in which case cutting cloth accordingly might be needed. Diets and exercise will be the subject of staffroom discussion. The current Twitter slow chat looking at teacher well-being may well, over time, conflate all these elements.

Contentment might be a useful reflection point. Am I happy with my lot? Is my discontent due to jealousy and envy, a desire for more? If nothing changes, will I retain a sense of balance? Because, when all is said and done, it is when aspects of life become unbalanced, they destabilise and can impact on other areas of life too. Life can often get in the way. You only have to have a cold for a while to know that. It could be worse.

Am I trying to fit in too much, around that which I must do, in an attempt to create a full life? Do I crave “busyness” and am I unhappy with stillness and, for example, nature (myself)?

“A change is as good as a rest”; some of the best moments this year have been during periods of activity. My bolthole of preference is a small cottage in France, which now has significant tree growth, requiring major works. Climbing and felling trees provides a good mix of exercise and pleasure at a job completed. With other garden tidying, the bonfire lasts a significant time, providing warmth and also time to stare into the flames and think. A holiday in the Forest of Dean and “meeting” a family of wild boar on the track, visiting St Ives and Barbara Hepworth’s house, while working in Cornwall, and spending three days walking in Paris would count as highlights.

With next year looming, I am slightly resisting setting any resolutions, as I am tempted to simply say “more of the same please”. I am happy with my lot.

There are places we’d like to visit and a number of interesting projects being discussed.

I know that I must get up and walk more, to go with the “green gym” of gardening and definitely the bike has to get greater use too. I’m not planning any marathons, nor other extended running. Hated it as a child, probably due to the inevitable cross country running the rain and still do, despite loving sport in general.

My blood doning has changed for 2016, from platelet donation to whole blood for sickle cell research; apparently my blood is suitable, as is a small portion of the population. That will reduce time needed, but I’ll miss the regularity of monthly visits.

Continuing to work with a couple of School Direct projects, as well as undergraduate and post-graduate schemes, gets me into schools regularly to support mentors and trainees.

I want to continue blogging about education for a while longer. There is just so much being discussed. With newest grandchildren being born on Boxing Day last year and in May of 2015, these two won’t leave education until 2033. Their world will be different to mine. They need to be able to understand it and find their own solutions to the problems that life will offer them. They will need to read, write and count, but, without an understanding of the world, these may not count for as much.

I’ll look forward to meeting people this year, at Teachmeets and at the Primary Rocks conference.

I’d like to play my bodhran again this year. Finding an outlet is not easy.

I’ll whisper that there’s a possible book, which is developing.

My biggest wish this year is for others, who do the daily hard work in educating children.

My stocktake on education.

The supply side is wrong. Government is in danger of getting in the way and becoming the problem.

The geographical need for school places should override the dogma about Free Schools and
Academisation is not necessarily the best route to improve a school. Ofsted along with internal and other audits should be used to inform decisions.

Teachers and their leaders, working in collegiate school teams, need the space and time to THINK RATIONALLY and develop approaches that are best suited to the needs of their communities.

Children need good school buildings that are fit for purpose and stocked with appropriate resources, enabling teachers to teach effectively and to deal with the evident need of the children in front of them.

Classrooms need teachers. There is developing evidence that teacher supply is not keeping up with demand. Without teachers, children will not be taught; simple. Will Government ministers and civil servants fill the gaps?

I want the mess that particularly surrounds assessment and SEND to be sorted, so that the systems around children are coherent, easy to understand and implement.

I’d like the skateboard or bike riding analogy to pertain to reading. Teach them, show them how, then let them have a go, checking regularly that they are safe secure and enjoying it. It’s not always just about the teaching. It can be about the quality of available literature and quality time made available to practice, on a book that is the right fit for the child to be able to practice comfortably.

I’d want something to think, read, talk and write about, to be hallmarks of good practice. Quality thinking, talking and reading can then lead to quality writing, as children have something of quality to say.

I wish you all good health and much happiness during the coming year.
​Be well.​
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Why Stay In Teaching?

27/12/2015

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In my last post, I explored some of the background to why I got into teaching and then into headship. In many ways, a long post can be summarised as drive and ambition; I could see potential futures.
When I entered teacher training college in 1971, to become a teacher was a high point in my family.

No-one had ever gone to university level training, and with the prospect of a vocation, I was seen as “being set for life”, which, to post-war generations, was seen as very important. Of course the vision included getting married, buying a house, having children, staying on the tracks.


I want to unpack a few episodes through my career that offered points for reflection and could have changed decisions.

This post could have been entitled from black to grey.​
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I remember nearly giving up during my second year of training, not because of the course, where I was getting good grades, but money and housing insecurity, and worries about where to live during holidays. With my father remarried and “no room at their inn”, I was reliant on and getting very worried about, my grandmother, who was then in her early 80s. Could I impose on her for yet another set of holidays? It became clear, during correspondence (real letters, none of these texts and emails) with my gran and my uncle that I’d cause more hurt by not going. Fortunately, I got a job, delivering fizzy drinks and squash, throughout South Devon. I ate well as I travelled, so needed less at home.

I did the getting married and buying a house, early, and, even though I enjoyed much of my first teaching role, in a Boy’s secondary school, being given the ROSLA (Raising of the School Leaving Age) groups as a probationer teacher, asking for, and not getting, support from heads of department about schemes of work, I made the decision to move for sanity.

The next three and a half years were spent pleasantly developing as a teacher, working with children from a wide variety of backgrounds, from the well-to-do in their large houses, to the resettled traveller families on the local council estate. I took on tasks and responsibilities that prepared for any future promotions.

The whole system was stuck as far as promotions and movements were concerned, as the immediate post war generation was waiting for retirement, so newbies literally had to wait for dead men’s shoes. The County initiated a scheme of voluntary redeployment, enabling schools to recruit from a pool, without the need to advertise; a little bit of early headhunting. As a result, I was recruited to a local junior school on a promoted post. Despite early promise, and much success in the sporting area, somehow my face didn’t quite fit. It became clear that the head was deliberately seeking my removal. Colleagues were delightful, knew the little peccadilloes of the head and understood.
 
It turned out to for the best, as I was able to move to a school that had been open only a few years, led by a visionary head, who had brought together an exceptional team, who all went on to headship, over time. Discussion, challenge, support, mutual coaching and genuine team work combined to ensure that everyone felt personally significant and an important part of the development.

Children and the need to survive on one salary caused a tension, as the school was not on conventional transport routes and I needed a car. I think this was a significant point in becoming a full blown vegetarian, as pulses are far cheaper than meat. Camping also became the main holiday option. It was a case of “cutting cloth” appropriately.

Promotion to year leader, in a school only a couple of miles from home, and my wife’s return to part time teaching, reduced a number of financial issues. While in this post, I took on the voluntary role of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust coordinator for Watch, the junior arm, having run a successful local group once a month. Doubling the membership, running many successful wildlife related activities, poetry, writing and art based, meant that when the national organiser vacancy came up, I was canvassed to apply. It was tempting. Housing costs in Lincolnshire was half that of Hampshire, but the salary was half that of a teacher and there was no clear progression. Also, family was in Hampshire.

My natural caution kicked in. I demurred and instead started a Master’s level advanced diploma in Reading and Language Development, which meant 5.30am waking up to do an hour or so before the family woke up. Did someone mention workload? No.

Suffice to say that preparation for promotions meant that I got to deputy and then headship, after 16 years of very enjoyable classroom experience, across the 4-16 age range.

Headship coincided with the birth of child 3 and, within a couple of years, a diagnosis of breast cancer. Life had to become as settled as possible, so balance home and school, so we bought a hovel in France, to allow playtime as peasants. Electrics and plumbing, along with carpentry are significant distractions.

I built a strong team and a strong organisation around them that allowed them to operate at their best. That is the job of leadership, to order, organise and to take a lead. I made sure that the pattern of the school year enabled all staff to have proper recovery time, by taking stock of classroom and school demands, creating a working timetable that didn’t put parent evenings at the end of long terms, or demand long reports straight after a holiday. Much school organisation is in our own hands. It takes a little time to get it right.

Staff change, as colleagues went onto promotion and Ofsted, as well as relapses in D’s breast cancer meant that I didn’t take all the opportunities that presented themselves.

I am still in education because it is, as far as I am concerned, the best job anyone can do. My oneness, and my delight in learning, might ignite, over a career, a thousand thinkers in their turn, so multiplying my impact.

The simplicity in my case, was aspiration, opportunity, pleasure (and manageable pain), and then life and responsibilities. Each of us is different, in any of these variable elements. The pain threshold can impact on all the others.

Currently, the pain is being partly caused by external forces that are not in the profession’s control. I would suggest that it is this that is beginning to cause a significant number to reconsider their futures. If there are alternatives and opportunities and personal situations allow, I can see how these decisions are made.
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I have only lived my life.   
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Why teach?

21/12/2015

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At this reflective time in the year, can I ask three questions?
  • What got you into teaching?
  • If you are/have been a headteacher; what was your motivation?
  • What would you do to improve the current system?

During the past couple of weeks, the question arose of how to deal with the impending significant teacher recruitment need, which apparently, according to the DfE is not a crisis. This is coupled with a subsidiary question of how to attract teachers to become head teachers, as there is apparently a non-crisis there too.

When I was interviewing for staff as a headteacher and when I am interviewing prospective entrants into the profession for ITE providers, I ask what on the surface is a relatively simple question; “What was the significant event that persuaded you that you could be a teacher?” This allows the interviewee to reflect on their past, but also to develop the theme through significant skills that they bring to bear on their role. This tipping point can be important to explore, especially where the candidate is a mature trainee, changing career course.

I have a vivid memory of one trainee who described how she had been involved in a summer residential scheme with a group of physically disabled children and supported them individually to overcome fears to be able to attempt to tackle a climbing wall. Another told of how he had worked in a refugee camp and learned that he could find innovative ways to help children learn without expensive resources. The insights and the obvious enjoyment of the experience came through and they both went on to become a very high grade prospective teachers.

While some get into teaching through their interactions with children, discovering that they can communicate effectively and make relationships, enabling their charges to attempt challenge, others love their subject and sharing their knowledge. Marrying the two creates a whole, which is the purpose of teacher training; the what and the how.

Why did I become a teacher?

I had a job with ICI, in a biological research station, nestled into an old quarry beside Brixham fishing harbour. Becoming a “scientist” had been my lifelong ambition. The reality, of counting bivalves and worms in bottom samples that we sourced from the North Sea off Teeside and Whitby, palled after several months, partly because of the horrendous effects of sea-sickness and partly the counting. Finish one tray, record, start another. When looking at colleagues who had progressed to Experimental Officer, it became clear that I’d be doing the same for years to come. I loved the outdoors, the environment, entomology, history, geography; in fact I was interested in the world around me. Ok, I was probably a bit geeky, in that respect.

A mature team colleague at Paignton Cricket Club had just finished his teaching course at St Lukes College, in Exeter. After talking with him, he suggested taking the train to chat to someone about the possibility of training. As it was June, the campus was empty, but a kind receptionist tracked the head of science to his room and sent me along. We chatted broadly, across science, but also sport (St Lukes was a PE college) and after half an hour asked if I wanted this to be an official interview. Fifteen minutes later, I was sent to fill in the application forms and started that September. That is a decision that I have never regretted, even when the going has got really tough. I found my natural niche.

Becoming a teacher was never designed to make me rich; perhaps comfortable was the best that could be hoped. I started teaching in the year of the Houghton award, where teacher pay was enhanced after many years of very low pay rises. Four times that income, plus a small borrowed deposit, was enough for the mortgage that bought the first house; I could aspire. Today, a teacher in similar position would need a mortgage ten times their income and a large deposit. That cultural shift may well have an impact on thinking.

Why become a headteacher?

In whatever role that I had in a school, I was always conscious to learn about and from the roles of those who were in leadership positions. Supporting, taking on aspects of roles, then the substantive posts ensured a gradual, upwards momentum. Promotion came from being able to describe implementing ideas, achievements and what I had learned from the journey. Working across cluster and area wide discussions meant that my name and “stock” were well known.

Eventually, having undertaken the Local Authority Deputy Head development programme, I applied for headships, was unlucky with two, but was appointed to the third, which turned out to be the “right place at the right time”.

The joy of headship is putting ideas into practice, developing and leading a team, sometimes from the front, often supporting the efforts of others. It is a heart, mind, body and soul job, as is every teacher role, but knowing that the buck firmly lands on your shoulders, periods of “slopey shoulders” or sweating blood and tears have to be short lived.

Making the school the best place for children and teachers to be was the central goal, which sometimes meant filtering external distractions, so that digression and diversion did not distract from the main thrust. If teachers know where they are going and have stability, they create the ideal environment for learning. Teacher insecurity creates learning insecurity, leading to depressed performance.

Improvements in the system?

Teaching is teaching and of it’s time. It has to adapt to change and changing needs, but, over the past years, we have seen revolutions from politicians that have put pressures on the system, such that successful, experienced people left. This reduced the core of knowledge available, with new people learning to make things work for them. The fact that you are teaching one approach while a “new” version has to be developed and embedded in turn is stressful and an additional burden. If change was handled in evolutionary fashion, this would reduce the stress burdens of people who are at centre paid to think.

As a headteacher, having developed an approach that evidently “worked”, for me, my teachers and the children, who learned and learned to love learning, so that at transfer, they still wanted to learn, I made sure that Government initiatives were scrutinised to see what benefits were offered.

Rarely was there an adjustment of more than about 5%, which could be accommodated, but someone had to be detailed and supported to do the reading on behalf of colleagues.

Change does not necessarily mean improvement.

Governments see change as synonymous with improvement and then have to twist and turn as consequences become apparent to everyone.

I’d still encourage someone with aptitude and the right attitude to become a teacher, but also to develop themselves towards headship. Both are great jobs and they are very much needed. I sometimes think we need Governments to step back and let teachers get on with the job.

I'll be interested in your story.

Merry Christmas​

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Teachers and Technology

14/12/2015

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In the beginning (1971) was the blackboard and the blackboard was the acme of the classroom. If you had a roller board and coloured chalks, this was ambrosia. Many “happy” hours were spent, standing at the board, practising my writing, which had to make the transfer from a horizontal to a vertical surface and become more readable. In time, I developed an appropriate, legible style. In the same way, I had to ensure that my writing in children’s books was sufficiently legible that they could read it, understand what was being said and respond appropriately.
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Using the art stock of sugar paper enabled other “boards” to be developed; the forerunner of the working wall. Little is really new in education. It just gets recycled, as do the arguments about the relative merits of one approach or another.
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Although the boards might have changed, transforming to write-on, wipe off whiteboards, with chalks becoming board pens, then to interactive whiteboards, the principles have remained the same. I still advise student teachers to work on their board writing skills, whatever the surface.

While on my final teaching practice, the school had a unit for hearing impaired children. In this unit, I encountered both an overhead projector and the teacher was using a microphone early loop system. In this way, she was able to sit and face the children, so that they could see her face at all times. This observation has stayed with me throughout my career. I became conscious of turning my back on the children and developed an approach that allowed me to speak to writing, rather than writing and speaking at the same time. I wanted to see the children as my “audience”. The same issue arises with other boards.

The Banda machine, with it's accompanying acetate smell, was the staple copying facility for the first five years of teaching.​ If you got hold of coloured copy paper, that was a vey good day. Otherwise, all resources, such as work cards, were made by hand, so you thought hard about how useful they were.

With the arrival of the photocopier and acetate sheets, pictures could be copied to share with the whole class, which supported discussion. The photocopier, to me, is also a cause for concern, as it is very easy to make thirty copies, so there may be less thought put into resource creation/selection. It is too easy to "copy".

Linking with the overhead projector advantages, I am a fan of visualisers, linked to the whiteboard, to be able to “show and talk”, directly with the children.
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If your only other technology is a tape-recorder and school’s radio, or tv and linked video you have to be very organised in it’s use, if you are to get any real value from the experience. The school secretary doubled as the “technician”, with a timetable of programmes to record, passing the tape to the teacher for use. This system could fall down as absent minded colleagues forgot to give back the tape for the next programme, so that subsequent class use found the equivalent of the torn out page and had to skip a programme.
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The tape recorder supported the reading curriculum, as each child had their own tape and would spend a short time recording themselves and listening to their efforts. Over time, this became a record of progress and they took this home at the end of term to share. This could now be done with tablets and laptops, or with digital microphones.
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The introduction of the BBC B computer did not herald a significant shift in approach, as it could be a very limited piece of kit. However, it did allow for word processing, whole class discussions captured and printed. Turtle logo was very popular, especially for creating images, coding to make the turtle move around the board, leaving marks, lifting the pen and moving to another place, before drawing again. Exploring geometric shapes became more exciting, as basic squares could be transformed to flowers with a little shift and a repeat instruction. It needed time to “play” with what could be achieved. I can remember having to ensure that the computer screen had been safely seat belted in, to avoid it falling in the car; a condition of taking it home.

PCs, laptops and tablets have all superseded earlier technology and, as most people know, there is always something new in technology. When equipping my school with laptops for the first time, it was decide that the philosophy would be to see them as an alternative to the exercise book, so that, at a desk, children could use one or the other, depending on the need. It was seen as a significant benefit that drafting and redrafting would be easier with laptops, with each draft printed and reflected on between sessions. It did occasionally fall down with some teachers using the laptops to get children to type “neat” versions for display, having done paper drafts.
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The interactive whiteboard, enabling images from around the world to be brought into the classroom at the touch of a button, to share interactive reading books as guided reading, to share pre-prepared lessons as a “storyboard”, or to link an electronic microscope to look at small objects amongst a wide range of experiences, enhanced learning.
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​Technology in a classroom, like any piece of classroom kit, is only as good as the teacher who uses it.
As in all things, some will have spent more time familiarising themselves with the potential uses and applications, while others want “bright ideas”, which in the wrong hands become classroom gimmicks.
So, looking at some simple principles from all this;
  • Technology can support all aspects of teaching and learning, if used effectively.
  • You buy hardware and software to add value to what you already offer.
  • Technology can be expensive. To have it sit idle is a waste.
  • Technology demands an alteration in teaching approach. New technology requires some familiarisation (play) time, if it is to be used effectively.
  • In all things, teachers should be keeping up to date with change, as their learners will be experiencing these things at home.
The basic technologies still require teachers to write legibly, so that their audience can read what they have written; some things never change.
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English as a facilitating Subject?

14/12/2015

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Photos from the Musee Zadkine, Paris.

The notion of Language across the Curriculum has been around for a very long time. Harold Rosen was doing work on this in the 1960s. From time to time there have been small nudges in this direction, sometimes more overt expectations, but with what can, at times, seem like limited impact.

So, how about using the expertise derived from the English lesson to provide the drivers for language improvement across the curriculum?

There is a difference between Primary and Secondary in this regard, as the Primary teacher crosses all subject boundaries, while the Secondary teacher is likely to be a subject specialist. In Primary, as in Secondary, children do a lot of writing in many different subjects. They can move from an English lesson to Geography or History and do more writing in some form. At the same time, opportunities are missed to use experience as the basis for quality writing in English and without intervention, the quality of English in written form in other subjects might not be as good as it could be.

A visit to a school where high quality art work was on display, along with many other high quality displays, led to a discussion about the potential for that activity to lead to equally high quality writing about the process, or an evaluation of one’s own work, or a critique of another’s outcomes. Some examples would have lent themselves to interpretation as poetry or prose. The English lessons had been created to look at writing a recount, but had paid no attention to the art work.

Equally, the displays did not include any real modelling of adult language, such as questions, explanations, bullet point statements, model critiques, can all provide insights and expectations from learners.
 
High level engagement in subjects other than English supports the development of higher level English skills, purely and simply because the children develop the broader vocabulary and spoken structures within which they can explore ideas, through discussion, then to seek to express what they have encountered, as reported speech, prior to reported writing or writing instructions or some other non-fiction element. The deeper the engagement, supported by a high quality teacher model, the higher will be the quality of speech, reportage and subsequent attempts at writing.

Jerome Bruner wrote that “the language of education, if it is to be an invitation to reflection and culture creating, cannot be the so-called uncontaminated language of fact and 'objectivity'. It must express stance and must invite counter-stance, and in the process leave place for reflection, for meta-cognition. It is this that permits one to reach higher ground, this process of objectifying in language or image what one has thought and then turning around and re-considering it."

To me, this statement implies the need for drafting and redrafting of ideas, thoughts and spoken language as well as in written forms. Ideas should be capable of an alternative viewpoint being presented, in ways that invite reflection, so that they might be reformed if needed.

Perhaps schools, especially Primary schools, need to make better use of broad activity to generate the stimulus for writing. Any ordered event, from a science experiment to a gymnastic sequence could provide the stimulus for talk, note taking or writing.

 If, during the first week of a half term there was a focus within English lessons on a specific aspect of language use, such as
  • note making from texts,
  • notes from listening to a speaker,
  • writing up notes to make sense, or an ordered report,
  • drafting and redrafting to improve
  • critiquing and acting on critique
and if the focus and purpose was clear, in terms of the input, but also the potential for development and application across different groups, could this provide the stimulus for Language across the Curriculum?

Outcomes could be shared and be put together to form a portfolio of exemplars, with teacher critique and commentary to support colleague development and internal judgements. It is important that every teacher sees themselves as a teacher of English.

These internal investigations could also provide evidence of an internal hierarchy of skills and alert staff to shortcomings, improving practice from evidence. Portfolios could also provide a baseline of evidence for teacher judgement.

Linked blogs
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Two page approach to writing (Embedding the whole writing process)
Using the exercise book as a personal organiser (SEN links)
Primary; all writing in one exercise book
Drafting and redrafting​
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Thinking time and Stress Points

11/12/2015

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It’s December, with a week left of this term. Schools running down to the holidays. Lots of end of term activities planned; Christmas parties, presentations pantomimes, carol concerts. A few goodbyes and good luck to individuals who may be leaving, looking forward to welcoming new children and staff, reminding everyone that education never really ends. It goes round.

From January to March is a time for looking forward in general terms to the upcoming year.

As a head, I was concerned that teachers should not spend all of their summer holiday thinking about school issues, so, by July, as staffing for the year was generally secure, thoughts turned to plans for the next year and a closure in early July was focused on a review of the year just passing and overview planning for the year.

We had developed the idea of an annual plan that set out the timings of key topic areas in all the subjects. This allowed consideration of how topics could feed into literacy and numeracy and vice versa. It also determined when key visits would happen, so that all arrangements could be made adequately. Before the holiday, the general direction of the year was set.

Incorporated within the plan was a two week "free" topic to start the year. This was to be one of the teacher’s choosing, designed just to get to know the class well across a range of areas and to reset expectations.

On the second Friday of the September term, we had the first closure. The morning was largely admin for the year, setting out the development points, while the afternoon was used to create the medium term plan for the first half term. Therefore, on the second Friday, an overview of five/six weeks was established. This was the key plan that I took from staff.

​The short term interpretation and planning approach was left up to them, which ranged from outlines through to full lesson plans. Everyone was planned appropriately.

We shaped staff meetings to suit subject development needs, a period of heavy report writing was given support time, largely in February, when the key report and target review was written, prior to parent evenings.

Reports in the summer were summaries of the year, focused on personal development and achievement, with an A4 page created by the children to summarise the highlights of the year. From the infants to the year 6/7 (while we were still Middle), these documents were copied as development records. Parent meetings in the summer were by arrangement.

Planning helped everyone to know where they were going, how far they’d travelled and what still remained. To do otherwise put the staff and curriculum under extra stress.   
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The world is not wallpaper

9/12/2015

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Forgive me for being distracted this morning when I am supposed to be reviewing scripts before a moderation meeting this afternoon, but I have just raised my eyes from the screen and spent several minutes looking out of the window. Admittedly, the first thing I looked at was the new raised bed edging and the upgraded small terrace which is ready to catch the spring morning sunshine around coffee time, which I completed yesterday. It is still a bit too early for the sunshine, but there is some about.

A couple of blue tits alighted on the fat ball feeders, to be chased away by a great tit, only to move to the seed feeder, where they proceeded to sort the seeds, throwing some to one side as rejects, much to the delight of the dunnock and the robin, squabbling over the bits on the ground. The names come easily, as they are embedded knowledge, but the behaviours always intrigue. I need to look in order to see. The world is a visual place.

To hear the spring calls of birds and to be able to identify some adds to this pleasure. Night sounds, of the three owl species that are found locally, or the call of the fox, while annoying in the early hours, creates a contact between the inside and outside world. The world is full of sounds.

Being outside is one of my delights. I like the feeling of the wind on my face. Growing up in the South West, by the sea, I’d often walk the promenade during strong winds, just to blow away the teenage angst. It was cathartic and restorative. I enjoy the sounds and feelings of the environment and always have had an interest in the natural world. This interest led to reading and finding out from a range of other sources. I like museums and galleries as a result and it is no surprise that I became an active conservationist and a leader of a local wildlife group for children.

Sometimes, we just need a way in, to find a foothold into an experience that enables us to prolong our interest sufficiently long, so that the whole begins to make sense, to us. It is, after all, our way of being. I don’t know if anyone else sees the world as I do; I can only see it through my eyes and seek to explain what I see to you. I am intrigued by the Nordic noir series "The Bridge" at the moment, with a unique heroine, Saga, who, as a person with autism, has her own way of looking at the world.

I love to work with wood; part of me has always wished that, instead of being academic as a child, I had continued my interest and a developing teenage talent for woodworking and cabinet making. Triple science and two languages took away the practical subjects. Nowadays, I have to restrict myself to such things as garden edging, carpentry which has to be done, but to encounter a piece of well finished wooden furniture is a delight. The world is a tactile place.

Some buildings, landscapes and experiences just make one go “wow”, just by their majesty and splendour. There are hills in Dorset where driving to see family in Devon, to reach the brow of the hill opens up a vista that covers many miles.

My one sadness over the more recent past has been the loss of a sense of smell. As a gardener and lover of the outdoors, to lose an important sense must diminish the whole experience in ways that I cannot now tell. It may well impact on my sense of taste also, in some ways. Wearing glasses, I am aware that my sight is slightly less secure without them. So I am aware that I could be encountering some elements of sensory deprivation.

If a child does not learn to look, to listen, to feel they may well live in the world with a form of sensory deprivation, but of an unlearned kind. Their awareness of the world will be incomplete. They may be able to “experience” the world through their tablets or laptops, but only as voyeurs.

Sometimes, there is no substitute for real experience. Put on a coat and go and find out.   
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teacher becomer

8/12/2015

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Over the past few weeks, I have been working with School Direct trainees, observing and feeding back with their mentors, and, more recently, reading their first assignments. In between some of this, I was surprised to be invited to attend a discussion at the DfE of differentiation and SEN(D), within the current ITT reviews.
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The range of experiences made me think yet again about how someone becomes a teacher, how the jigsaw of different elements becomes one, encapsulated in the person who stands before a class, with self-assurance.
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People employed, or selected for a training course to become teachers are chosen because they are thinkers, capable of articulating ideas, giving the interviewing panel the confidence that they have the requisite knowledge and skills appropriate to their stage of development and that they are the raw material that is the basis for creating the best possible teacher over the available timescale.

The Teacher Standards tell of the elements that need to be evident in order for the person to be allowed to enter their Newly Qualified Teacher period. These, as I have blogged before, can be divided into the personal (confidence) qualities (87134) and the investigative role (24652). There is a danger of seeing them as a list of qualities, but, looked at as I am suggesting, offers a way to interrogate and support the developing practice.

They are also not separate entities, as can be inferred when they are in list form. Created into a dynamic version, they begin to tell a holistic story.


87134
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The developing professional (8), for preference, would be a self-reflective individual capable of taking some responsibility for their own development, while taking maximum benefit from opportunities offered. They will be a good team player and also a good team leader, at least within their classrooms, making good relationships with colleague adults.

They will have read, discussed and understood relevant school policies that apply to pupil relations, such as safeguarding and behaviour management (7) and be capable of operating within these, applying them appropriately and following through on any sanctions.

Expectations of in-lesson learning behaviours (1) will derive from the operation within the behaviour management policy, as well as the ability to make positive relationships with the children. There will be evidence of status being accorded by the children within these relationships.

 (3) They will know their subject well and a developing pedagogy, sufficient to develop a clear lesson narrative, imparting information in ways that can be understood and which will provide the necessary knowledge with which to attempt any set tasks.

They will be ordered and organised in all aspects of their practice (4), ensuring plans are prepared over different timescales, but particularly the medium term, with supportive lesson notes, resources and any technology are available and working, so that each lesson can proceed to plan, until evidence requires an adjustment (see 6&5).
Standard 4 is the common feature between the two aspects of the developing professional, as the modifiers exist within knowledge of the children, where there are significant variables.


24652
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Standard 2 “quite simply” requires (best possible) progress and outcomes. This, for a trainee teacher, is likely to represent a significant challenge. To get to know the needs of each child whom they will teach takes a bit of time; less probably in Primary than in Secondary. However, the notion of progress is an area that will cause concern as, while the trainee might be able to determine that a task has been completed, the detailed quality control aspects may elude them, as they have limited experience against which to make judgements.

Standard 2, in many ways, is key to achieving at a high level in the rest of the standards, in that the pitching of expectations in lessons, as evident first within plans (4), will impact on the in lesson expectations shared, the in-lesson monitoring (6) and adjustments (5) that can be determined from learner behaviours, which can lead to achievement or not.

There will be potentially be further confusion within these areas, as with each school may have their own approach to planning and potentially also have their own unique assessment and tracking systems, each school practice experience will require adjustments in thinking, as will their NQT position. This could create insecurity in the trainee, where there is a need for security, so that decisions impact on positive learning.

Going back to standard 2; in the absence of national exemplification of standards, there is a need for trainees to develop, and reflect on, individual outcomes, to determine qualities and decide on next steps. This may be enhanced by reference to other year groups and key stages, if available. Trainees need to see the big picture, so that the smaller images have a defined place.

Support for trainees is given by a nominated mentor. This can provide another significant variable, leading to success or otherwise. Where a mentor is a good coach, prepared to engage in developmental dialogue, the trainee can develop with confidence, with the opposite also being the case. It is not always black and white, however, as relationships inevitably impact. Some class teachers find it hard to let go a little, to allow the trainee some space. Some offer little professional support. There is a significant need for mentors to be trained; with uni ITE, this is offered, in-house, by the school partnership team. I have done that role for two universities. A very good model is whole school training, so that every member of staff becomes a de facto mentor of any trainee in the building. The mentor should become a university tutor within the school.

At the same time as seeking to become effective classroom teachers, trainees, on all routes, often have significant tasks set by their supervising university, to be completed within the practice. The reflective nature of these tasks has to be applauded but they could be embedded within a reflective log approach, which could be driven by weekly thinking prompts, which could be discussed with the mentor, added to with appropriate reading and evaluated along the way, so that development was being driven along. The set essay can become a bit of a millstone, to be accomplished rather than reflected upon. On the School direct routes, where the university can be many miles away, (25-35 miles is not uncommon), access to the library requires a very long round trip after a day in school. With the internet, a set text could be shared and again, available for discussion with the mentor. If needed, a short evaluative reflection could be required, within the developing practice log.

During the NQT year, it is essential that this reflective process continues, with the nominated mentor taking a positive role in the process. Continuing to read and reflect professionally, the trainee will be seeking to refine and hone their teaching skills, possibly in a new setting. This is best done in a reflective, evaluative way, so that these behaviours become embedded into future practice. As discussed above, this creates new dynamics to be accommodated as quickly as possible.
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Differentiation as informed dialogue?

4/12/2015

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From generic to specific; getting to know the children well. “Have they “got it” and can I move on?”

At heart, differentiation is informed, rational challenge, with the teacher having appropriate expectations of the range of learners and the individuals within the group, responding to issues as they arise and reflecting on the outcomes to determine the next steps.

It is interesting to explore how concepts are built up over time. The notion of differentiation became a “thing” more recently, especially in planning demands, but, in doing so, may have lost many of the more nuanced interpretations that had been part of earlier approaches. When I started teaching, we spoke of match and challenge.

I’ve been pondering the idea of differentiation as “informed dialogue” with learners. Part of this comes from my activities with trainees on a number of routes. What kind of dialogue do you have with a new acquaintance? Superficial, or deep and meaningful?
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Multiple factors come into play in teaching and learning. The teacher needs to have an understanding of child development that spans the full extent of the school age range, to know where the children have come from and where they are going, also to understand the range of needs that can be found in a class. Teachers at “transition” years, 2/3 and 6/7, would benefit from understanding the broader range to ease the transition process. So there is a need to understand progress and outcomes, teaching standard 2, across a very broad range of outcomes.

The absence of evidence across the 4-16/18 age range could be seen as a significant disadvantage in supporting decisions, which is why in other posts, I have suggested local, school based portfolios, leading to a broader picture.

Trainees and early career teachers don’t always have this range of understanding, as their experiences may have been restricted to specific classes. Some supply teachers could be in this position and I suppose a case could be made that Secondary teachers who only see learners a couple of times a week might also be in this group. This lack of understanding can lead to more generic, directive language, rather than dialogue; activity can be greater than the learning.

Stylised approaches, such as “all, most and some” with “bronze, silver and gold” alternatives, suggest challenge, but, in reality miss the point of focusing challenge in the right place. Visiting classes where the upper challenge could only be tackled when the lower challenges had been achieved suggested that the teacher did not have sufficient knowledge of the learners and that the more able should have been challenged at a higher level from the beginning. 

Knowledge of the wider expectation enables reflection on the needs of a class within that range. If, as a Primary teacher, you receive a different class each year, you start almost from scratch. While you may have come across members of the new class beforehand and may have had some transition time with them, they can still appear as an amorphous mass in September, so the initial teaching is also more nebulous as the teacher begins to tease out the individuals, with generic questions leading to more detailed follow up from answers. You get to know the children through the interactions, which lead to ever more nuanced dialogue.

The learning dialogue continue into tasking where challenges become more nuanced as the term and the year progresses. This tweaking and adapting to articulated need is the essential aspect of more personalised approaches. It is a case of getting closer to the learners, so that the impact of the multiple 1:1 conversations is purposeful and effective.
So, as time passes and the number of discussions builds, each supplying information to the participants, the teacher can challenge in more detailed fashion, while the learners can respond in kind. With nuanced outcomes comes focused coaching and feedback, which should, over time lead to progress.

Of course, the underpinning of this is dialogue, teachers and learners talking about the learning. In a classroom where dialogue is absent, the basis for focused, formative discussions may be absent, diminishing the learning experience for learners and teachers.
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Learners need something of quality to think about, to explore and to talk about. In talking, they show aspects, if not all, of their thinking. This gives aware teachers a clue as to next steps, for individuals and as a whole, which is the essence of informed teaching and learning. Talking learning supports all aspects of the teaching and learning cycle, as the evidence base is greater.
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    Chris Chivers

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

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