The pictures above are from holidays to Alicante.

Why do we take and keep photographs?

In some ways, it’s an easy answer, because we want to remember someone, some thing or a place that we have visited. In other areas of life, we might make notes or lists.

They are memory joggers, aides memoire, because life’s busy and we forget things, often the little details, which are then remembered in detail because you’re looking at a specific photo. Remembering appears to be the new definition of learning. The amount of information that passes by us in the course of even a short period of time can be lost, or, more likely, replaced by subsequent imagery and associated experiences. We are sensory beings, from birth.

This week, the idea of imagery has cropped up in virtually every conversation that I have had with ITE students, uni and SCITT. This has been prompted by interrogation of lesson purpose and the value of the imagery used.

If one assumes that a teacher is the keeper of the lesson narrative, this, in turn develops the notion of the keeper of the images. The images in a teacher’s head are translated through talk, diagrams, pictures, artefacts or direct experiences; the pedagogical choices of each lesson. This is now being shared as a concept as dual coding, but I would contend that this has been a truism for every generation of teachers. One significant change over time has been the technological improvements that enable an ever broader range of imagery to be shared in a classroom, such as video enhancing the stills to moving images.

Learning to “read” the images presented is a key element of early learning; description encouraging reflection, similarities and differences, inference and deduction, working towards hypothesis and imagination. The whole, if supported by an engaging talk element, discussion within a small group, dialogic discourse with adult lead enables a broadening of vocabulary, embedding concepts more firmly in memory.

Imagery impacts on overall planning, as teachers “conceive” of a learning journey or narrative, that then becomes a scheme of work that ensures each lesson “chapter” has significant “sub-headings, that then can be reviewed before moving to the next chapter. The images at the head of this blog were taken in Alicante. In order to driver there, I ensured that I had a mental map of the journey, with the sub-headings as the key towns that we would encounter en route, so could reflect on choices and adapt to any deviations away from the sat-nav directions.

Teachers need to “narrate” a coherent story, in every subject, supported by carefully chosen images that amplify the story.

It’s a bit like an early reading book, where the pictures add significantly to the written storyline. Interrogation of both add to the overall experience.

Open the pages carefully, sharing appropriate images in order, use quality modelling of language and the whole learning story becomes available.

Teaching minus images leaves talk, with mental imagery totally dependent on stored images which may be incomplete or may not exist, so disables the learner from participation.

If they can’t “see” it, they can’t manipulate it. Let’s make “seeing” and enhancing talk more overt.

There is a truism in natural history;
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You probably don’t know what is currently becoming extinct, because you’ve never see it. Reports of the demise of animal and plant populations may not affect people who don’t spend time outdoors, nor know what they are looking at when they are out and about.

And it can be a case of if you can’t see it, or name it, it probably can’t be very important.

But, every minute living entity has developed to adapt to it’s surroundings, sometimes becoming part of a broader food chain.

And, when it’s gone, it’s really difficult to get back again, especially if the special habitats required are altered or damaged.

Extinction can be caused by one-off catastrophic events, or, perhaps given the current climate debate, slow changes that gradually alter life patterns.

In many ways, it’s exactly the same with schooling.

Schools are habitats where young organisms spend a part of each day hopefully soaking up the knowledge and life skills that enable them to fully participate in the world. Inevitably, like all organisms, plant or animal, they grow and develop at different rates. While that is something that nature caters to, school organisation and external “quality assurance” can sometimes give the impression that the fledgling is somehow of a less than adequate standard. Given the complex nature of the human organism, being deemed in need can, in itself, become a further depressant on future achievements.

Unlike nature, school habitats are created and controlled completely by adults. What the adults choose to put into the school environment demonstrates the values that they hold; broad, balanced, rounded experience, or narrow and very focused on a specific end point.

There was a time where organisation was completely controlled by local needs and available expertise. There was a focus on maths, English in it’s different elements, talking, reading and writing, but also topics for interest, covering history and geography. Science, in the 1950s was often limited to nature and phenomena, like shiny things; playing with knives and spoons. Music was from the radio, PE was outdoors on the tarmac on rush mats. There was an art and making table, which is the source of many of my earliest school memories.

The 70s were developmental years, introducing some additional structures into experiences, led by thinkers such as Zoltan Dienes in maths and Seymour Papert in early ICT (Logo). Science education grew stronger, with schemes like Nuffield Science 5-13, offering structure, background reading, knowledge and pedagogy. Other subjects also took on greater structure, as various advisory teachers brought their expertise to bear on generalist colleagues, through twilight sessions at local Teachers’ Centres, or you just chatted with one of your colleagues who explained what you wanted to try.

Working in Hampshire, a broad, balanced, structured, relevant curriculum was developed and in place across large parts of the County in 1986.

“HMI were also supportive of developmental thinking. Curriculum Matters was a series of 17 booklets published by HMI between 1984 and 1989. They were intended as a contribution to the 'Great Debate' about the nature and purpose of education which Prime Minister Jim Callaghan had called for in his Ruskin College speech on 18 October 1976.”
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You can see more of the “Raspberry Ripple” series at http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/hmi-curricmatters/

​The 1987 National Curriculum, therefore, when audited, provided a 95% correspondence with existing practice. A few tweaks and we were “good to go”. We kept most of our experienced teachers, so systems were not compromised.

Subsequent revisions put pressure on schools yet again, but, this time, as a result of change, some experienced colleagues decided to leave, rather than spend another period revising plans and working approaches. It took a lot of effort, from 1990-2005, to hold the breadth, balance and quality of what we were offering. As people left, new colleagues had to be inducted and mentored into the breadth on offer. This was, for some, particularly after the introduction of the National Strategies, an extreme challenge, particularly as their training had been based on that approach, through Government requirements.

In 2005, the last full year of my headship, we achieved SATs scores in the 90s, (L4+ with 50% L5 in some subjects) across all tested subjects. Talking with that class’s year 6 teacher recently, we reminisced about the full year that they had had, with a nod to SATs from around Easter. The breadth and depth of their varied studies had prepared them for reading and answering questions, across each subject.

Then came my catastrophe, the death of my first wife from cancer, a teenager at home requiring support and so I became extinct in that role. It required a bit of nurturing to re-establish myself in school habitats, in a series of support and advice roles. A bit of a use for ageing experience?

Of course, a significant systemic catastrophe (my thoughts) occurred in 2014, with an almost seismic alteration to seemingly every aspect of education. It was not an evolution, as whole swathes of prior working were cut down dramatically, leaving schools with the tattered remains of what went before, seeking to understand the new requirements and every school independently having to rapidly create structures that ensured curricular stability.
An analogy would be the wiping out of vast areas of the rainforest, with commensurate wildlife damage. See the potential demise of the Sumatran Orangutan, as a result of a dam project.

The 2014 vision for the curriculum was so heavily maths and English focused in Primary schools, that more “minor” subjects were marginalised, from their earlier place as “foundation” subjects; to me the word foundation implies that on which the main structure is built.

In 1970, James Britton said that “Reading floats on a sea of talk”. You could extrapolate this to talk floating on a sea of experience, with someone to help, guide and tell...
This has impacted my whole career, in that the broader curriculum has offered the areas for exploration, for conceptualisation, for thought; playing with ideas. In so doing, building vocabularies that can then inform what is being read, if the words are to evoke imagery in the reader’s head. A rich curriculum offers the potential for a rich vocabulary, which, in turn enables engagement with further spoken and written challenge.

Giving children something to think, talk, read and write about, to me are central to learning. Passing children from Primary to Secondary with a love of learning is key to future success.

By putting the wider curriculum back to the foreground, it has highlighted the demise over a relatively short period, of the Cinderella subjects. The next period will be one of sharing knowledge and expertise across the board, and, in some ways, social media can be a great help, rather than seeing each school making everything up from scratch.
Like all things that are bordering extinction, it will take the identification of need, the recreation of supportive habitats, appropriate resourcing and regular oversight and nurturing, if subjects are to re-establish themselves in the Primary experience.

And it may need a period of play by teachers seeking to reacquaint themselves with areas that they may have allowed to become rusty through less use.
How about we set the first challenge to make every teacher as good in each subject as the best in a school, cluster or area? Share ideas; collaboration not competition.

Let’s rebuild the foundation.

Ps. I could have used the story of Winchester Cathedral, whose Norman foundation was on tree trunks, which needed to be excavated and replaced to avoid the cathedral falling; foundations are essential to strength, rich habitats are the foundation of successful ecosystems.

2.3.19
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Suella Braverman,
House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

Reference democracy and a public forum.

Dear Ms Braverman,
For the first time in my voting life, I was moved to attend your open meeting at the Kings Church in Fareham on 1st March, mainly because of the impact that Brexit will have on the lives of many current family members and certainly my children and grandchildren for longer than for me, through the loss of Freedom of Movement.

I have to say at the outset that I was disappointed by the organisation and tone of the meeting. While I can accept that it was an attempt at open democracy, out of a 75-minute meeting, you spoke for 40-45 minutes, seemingly in self-justification of your personal choices on this issue. The subsequent questions enabled a reprise of many of the points already made, and in doing so, essentially encouraged a body of opinion, which ultimately was prepared to shout down any dissenting questions. You may not be aware that your own tone, initially presentational, with some attempt at demonstrating understanding towards alternative views, became hectoring towards any questioning of your position during the Q&A session.

Your factsheet, placed on seats before the session were covered during your 40-minute speech, but, in both, economy with the truth enables part fact to be seen as gospel. With a son-in-law who is also a barrister, over time I have been able to see how narrative can be created to suit any purpose, whether or not the speaker fully believes it or not. This is the current state of British politics. While I accept that life is often a judgement call, your allusion to your crystal ball at different points during the evening is probably as good as mine.

For anyone who follows Edwin Hayward or Steve Peers on social media, the detail and complexity of Brexit are laid bare. For it to be reduced to a few routine sound-bites is demeaning.

The NI backstop is there, not because NI becomes a third country, but because the UK becomes a third country, with a hard land border with an EU nation, which is then subject to international laws and treaties, not least the Good Friday Agreement. You wouldn’t want your neighbours hopping over your fence to take a short cut, which effectively is the ERG argument; we can get around this…

The WA is an agreement to leave a “contract”. Leaseholders and mortgage holders are tied into contracts with another party. To leave either early results in a penalty to be paid through the loss of earnings from the rest of the lease. The £39 billion is a release clause payment. It is interesting that your much-vaunted “Malthouse Compromise” suggests paying £10 billion a year during any transition, which may be compromised by WTO details.

The Political Declaration is a statement of intent to carry on talking should there be an agreement, with some general areas to be discussed, not pinned down in detail, as that is what the Government representatives, including the Prime Minister signed up to in late 2018. It is deliberately vague, to allow future discussions to be necessarily broad.

Freedom of Movement is fast becoming a rhetorical red herring, in that, at no stage has the Government organised a registration system, despite being reminded on numerous occasions that it was for us to do so; three months grace, no job, no benefits, as with other EU countries. As a result, a relatively easily sourced workforce, highly visible in many front-line industries, is fast disappearing, causing business distress, closure and relocation, while immigration from non-EU countries is still rising, despite being in the Government’s “control”.

Malthouse no deal “transition” may well end up being yet another pipe dream, in that it has already been rejected by the EU, but, while words are played with in Brussels, we may well be offered a fudge, which superficially satisfies a few extra MPs. It seems less about the future health and security of the country and more about sustaining the Conservatives in power.

Your own Government produced a series of impact papers, a summary of which was recently published. Every Brexit related scenario showed negative impacts on the UK, with some areas extremely hard hit. Brexit, in part, is responsible for swathes of industry relocating into the EU to ensure business continuity.

Your “myth” busting, like all myth busting, creates more myths, in that they are potentially small truths elevated through your political need to present a particular argument.

Dover-Calais, port entries. The chairs of port authorities can be overridden by the regional and national governments, so, while there may be good intentions, there are no guarantees.

Your repetition of technological fixes to the NI border is a direct myth. No border has a “technological fix”, although there are computerised systems that enable tracking of goods. These are not currently in place, nor will they be on March 30th. Checks still need to happen at borders to avoid smuggling in various forms. In extremis, this will slow queues, leading to disruption.

Your mention of agencies charged with guaranteeing various qualities of goods in transit. Given that the UK agencies currently work closely and under the auspices of the EU agencies, ours would have to go through a process of validation to agree standards. One notable issue is the use of vets to validate meat exports.

The UK, through the current EU agreements, is enabled to sell goods freely with around 70 countries, including the EU 27, under agreed terms that are better than WTO, including now Japan. This offers huge potential, that will disappear in 27 days’ time. At the same time the EU is negotiating with India, so the vast proportion of the world is available to us, if we are EU members; it’s the benefit of a membership fee. You get cheap general access, not having to pay piecemeal. It’s interesting to note that Germany already export more to China than we do, under the current rules. Maybe we just don’t make what they want or need?

We may well be about to throw away access to over half the world, to have to seek to replicate all those current agreements, in search of agreements with significantly smaller countries, who will probably come into the EU umbrella in due course. In the meantime, as a much smaller entity, desperate for trade deals, we will be taken to the cleaners by larger countries, who will use their economic muscle to tighten any future deals; eg the recent US announcement on agriculture. It’s a pity that the UK government and MPs don’t listen to the economics of farming. One thing we need is food.

After thirty-three months of “negotiation”, based seemingly solely on the premise that the EU will “blink first”, we are twenty-seven days away from the first self-inflicted wounds ever recorded. There is no country in the world that only operates on WTO rules.

The biggest danger to this country is the loss of easy access to security cooperation. While NATO operates at a supra-national level, the police and other security services have warned of the dangers of no access not data files. This may also include the Galileo satellite system.

Under your much-vaunted no-deal, using my crystal ball and my historic gypsy heritage, on April 1st, when markets open, there is likely to be a significant run on the pound. Speculators who have already moved their wealth to a safe currency, will then be able to return with even greater wealth, in order to buy up assets cheap. Reduced FoM will decimate agricultural labour just as planting season starts. British lamb farmers, currently lambing, will have excess stock, as they may not be able to sustain 40% tariffs. By the end of the first week, if there have been hold-ups at the docks, supermarket stocks will dwindle, causing panic buying. It was recently reported that supermarkets are talking with police about protections.

We are entering a period of such uncertainty and potential insecurity, unprecedented in my lifetime. There are more dangers than bright spots. Brexit is an unnecessary political act. We currently enjoy a disproportionate representation in the EU parliament. Had this been used to effect, the need to reform aspects of the running on the EU has been long telegraphed. Being a part of discussion is a stronger position than sitting outside.

Speculation has been behind some of the recent 33 months. Movements in currency allow speculators to take advantage of moving money from one currency to another. The example of Crispin Odey, a Tory donor, making significant amounts after the referendum is a well-publicised case in point. It is even speculated that during the referendum night, Nigel Farage announcing loss or winning caused market fluctuation.

My concern, as I said at the beginning, is the future of my children and grandchildren. If it takes ten or more years to regain our current status, I will hopefully have reached 76. However, it will last the whole childhood of every one of my grandchildren.

Twenty-five years ago, following my first wife contracting breast cancer, we bought a very small cottage in France that became a “life dream”. I have kept it, following her death, as a place of escape, available to the whole family. My sister retired to Spain, buying a house and living on her NHS pension, with the ubiquitous bad back, which had necessitated many hospital visits. Living in the warmth of Spain, she can exist on low dose painkillers, swim and walk to enable a healthy lifestyle. My step-daughter is married to a Spanish national and lives in Portsmouth and both speak Spanish when out, for her to practice after her Masters’ study. Recent reports of attacks on others for “speaking foreign” are very concerning.

This is your “yellow vest”, Brexit Britain. If you are right, then everything will go swimmingly. Your assertion that “it may get worse, bumpy” runs counter to your colleague assertion that it would be “easy”. If it goes badly, as I and other remainers fear, it affects everyone, apart from those who have been able to ring fence their wealth, or who have made money from speculation.

The public are impotently watching the politics and in-fighting, holding our breath. Staying in the EU would mean current stabilities. Every other scenario holds the prospect of damage to the country, socially, morally and financially. Satisfying a small group will ultimately potentially lead to the rise of populism that you sought to minimise through quoting Italy and Greece, two very different economic scenarios. However, with reports that the Northern League are being investigated for Russian money interference, it rather demeans your argument, if people like Carol Cadwallader is to be believed, that our own politics is being infected in the same way, but potentially from the US with their own agendas, as highlighted by the US ambassador this morning and recent pronouncements on the NHS.

I hope that, by April 5th, you will be able to hold another public meeting and face whatever the new reality brings. This is in your hands.

Yours sincerely,
Chris Chivers
 
 
 
 

I am just back from a day of visiting students on their final teaching experience and have spent the day considering the idea whether trainees should plan their own lessons, from a few elements that arose.

I would have to say that this has exercised my thinking at different points in the past thirteen years as a link tutor, for universities, Teaching School Alliances and a SCITT.

This thinking has been premised on a relatively straightforward notion; how does one get better at thinking about being a teacher? Teaching is a multifaceted set of demands, beyond the personal attributes of professionalism (TS8), behaviour management (TS7), having expectations (TS10) and subject knowledge (TS3).
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It’s very hard to describe a dynamic event in a 2D diagram, but a while ago, I sought to describe the idea of impact, to help trainees explore the thinking elements of teaching in a way that would fit with their day to day experiences and came up with this…
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Trainees often find themselves in a 2 or more form entry school. On occasion, these schools allocate specialist responsibilities to each other to write the plans for the year group, which suits a settled team, especially where the plans are reviewed in the light of previous experiences. However..

·         Plans are a distillation of broader thinking.
·         An experienced teacher should have the capacity to interpret the narrower plan into a more holistic whole and add personal value to the plan.
·         An inexperienced teacher or trainee may take the plan as a whole and find themselves in difficulty if children start to demonstrate that they are insecure in learning.
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Trainees and NQTs are learners and need support, as per this diagram.
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Trainee placements are in disparate schools, with variable approaches to planning and other school elements. The best that a training organisation can do is to provide generic advice on these, with the understanding that the trainee will encounter different realities in different schools.

They therefore need mentoring into planning in the school style and will still do so in their NQT year or even as a new appointee. The assumption that anyone is “ready-made” is misplaced.

Trainees, at the end points of their training may be offered the opportunity to plan a theme over a period of time, where they can explore all the different dimensions, but equally it is likely to be already decided. They still need to be taken through the process to fully understand the pre-determined lesson plans, in order to extract the essentials for their own lessons.

It shouldn’t be a magical mystery tour through someone else’s planning idiosyncrasies.

They also need to know the children to be able to calibrate their challenges and to be able to consider when children may not understand something.

Rather than argue that trainees should be following detailed school plans, I’d argue that both the trainee and the mentor gain a great deal from the reflective journey of mentoring and coaching, reviewing the school approaches.

Schools need to talk with trainees about their planning approach.

​It’s the bread and butter of their existence, but should be capable of review, even within the learning journey of a trainee. It should be based on easy to understand concepts.

Order and organisation (TS4) is fundamental to good teaching for progress. Disorganisation or lack of understanding of the nuances of the intended plan have more often been reasons for a trainee receiving negative feedback from an observation. Where they have receive the plan from a colleague, they do often feel aggrieved or let down. 

 Evidence of Impact? Rational thinking...
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I would want to suggest, in this blog, that system leaders should, as a priority, look at the demands made by their system and adjust accordingly, to reduce or ameliorate external demands where possible. Workload has an impact on well-being and work-life balance.
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I’ve spent the past 47 years in schools in some capacity, so have a lifetime’s experience of workload over an extended period. I’ve written some blogs about this in the past and the links are at the bottom of this post, for anyone interested.

A Twitter question in passing led to me offering some thoughts on the needs of a first time headteacher.
·         Start from a clear, preferably audited, description of where the school currently is.
·         Strengths/areas to develop.
·         Essentials/priorities.
·         Aspirations.
·         Create a map for development, term, year, 3 year.
·         Projects; what, who, when, how much?
·         Evaluation schedule.
·         Communicate fully.

When I reflected on these, it gave rise to broader thoughts on the workloads of individual teachers and the demands that can be made by management.

Workload has always been a relatively simple thing to express in terms of work; expectations and available time.
The time is a finite element, in terms of the teaching load and associated expectations from disparate parts of the system, planning, preparation of resources, marking and assessment and any necessary meetings.

Expectations are also personal, in that each of us is aware of the need to ensure that our knowledge is appropriate for the teaching that we have to do. I have never met a teacher who didn’t want to d a good job. Maybe I have been lucky in that, but with teaching being a thinking job, thinking doesn’t stop at the school gates. In addition, it is probably a truism that a less experienced teacher will take longer over planning, preparation, marking and assessment than an experienced teacher.

System demands vary between schools; some expect x amount of planning, while others might need x+ or x-. This may be as a result of school insecurity in a world where external (Ofsted) validation is needed.

System and personal demand can alter from one year to another, especially in Primary, where total responsibility for a year group can alter from year to year. If this is coupled with a change of school, contextual differences can be significant. This is very evident when working with ITE trainees moving to a second key stage in a different school; earlier confidence from the first placement can soon be dented.
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Ok, so what can be done to seek to support this variety of needs and avoid teachers looking like this?

As a headteacher of a one form entry Primary, I was very aware of these different aspects as I regularly taught as first line supply cover, which in some cases was extended periods. Organisational demands need to be capable of achievement within available time.

·         So, as a school, we looked at planning demands. There is a need to look at the planning needs over different timescales, long, medium and short.

·         Every subject area developed subject specifications for each year group, showing what was anticipated as a minimum level of understanding to be developed during each topic. This took place during staff meetings, closures or bought in cover time. This was occasionally supplemented by taking finalists ITE students, which enabled a small amount of extra release.

·         We eventually settled on an annual plan to show the coverage of the whole curriculum for the year. The structure changed with each new teacher, who could look at the overview and see their own linkage to get best advantage from successive learning. It allowed some element of creativity and utilised personal expertise. This was then captured within topic spec reviews.

·         This was developed during half of a closure in late June or early July, before the summer holiday. It included a two-week topic of the teacher’s own devising, which would be the only detailed planning that would be needed during the summer holiday.

·         On the second Friday of the autumn term, we had a closure, half of which was administration, the other half given to refining the planning detail of the rest of the term, based on the teacher knowledge of the new class. These plans were the teachers’ own plans and would only be referred to by others in development discussions, only on one occasion with reference to capability.

·         School resources were sought to needs, especially after Local Management of Schools (LMS). Every February/March, subject leads were asked to list those things that had to be replaced or updated and a list of those “nice to haves” that would enhance the school offering. These lists fed the budget decisions and gave each subject lead their allocated budget. Resources were listed on the topic specs.

·         Staff time was bought before PPA became an expectation, through the employment of PE coaches and a music teacher. In addition, I took the school, as infants and juniors for a half hour singing session, so that each half of the school could have a short meeting. How PPA time is allocated and then used to good effect is important.

·         The timetable of meetings was decided largely at the outset, in general terms, with additional demand such as parent evenings or reports leading to no staff meetings in those weeks. Closure plans were linked to staff meeting schedules, so that follow up could be more effective; retrieval practice for staff meetings? Closures and staff meetings were largely devoted to subject development, once a month for admin, or a ten-minute noticeboard, to need.

·         The NQT or newbie will need some support, so partnering or mentoring may be necessary for both, if there are not to be avoidable issues. A bit of help at the right time can be all that’s needed. A school where help is generally available, rather than “someone’s job” is better, in my opinion. Everyone a mentor would be my maxim, but I accept that for some purposes a single talk partner is needed, even as a headteacher.

·         It’s also a need for every member of staff to be the eyes and ears of the school, looking out for each other, seeking to avoid the inevitable additional demands when a colleague is off.

       There is one overriding question that everyone should continually ask; why are we doing this?

                                    Collegiality and communication are key components.

More on workload
https://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/on-workload
https://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/workload-thoughts
https://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/education-house-of-cards-workload
On planning
https://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/planning-learning
 

It’s interesting having a perspective on working in education and learning that now spans 48 years from walking into Training College. There have been many changes and challenges along the way, but, in essence, there is much more in common across the ages than difference.

Let’s start at the very beginning
A very good place to start.
When you read you begin with ABC
Let's see if I can make it easier

As a parent of three, step-parent to three and a grandparent to eight, I have had a lot of opportunities to view children growing up; the current span is from 15 months to almost 15 years. Each of the family settings varies, in place, parental jobs and therefore available time and in disposable incomes. These variables inevitably play some part in the opportunities that are available to each family and therefore on the cultural potential made available to each child.

The children grow and flourish through their parental love, diet and their spoken language, with appropriate encouragement to make marks and to enjoy books.

The environment that surrounds young children today is different from that which I enjoyed. Not in terms of the natural world, where there are still plants, animals and natural features; in some cases just… but perhaps their opportunity to engage with it, with an interested adult able to point out the different elements and to provide the names of things. There are also the distractions of the digital world. Whereas as a child, I was more au fait with string and a penknife and den making, today’s young have early access to screen distractions and can very soon work their way into desired apps.

I have long worried that a school cannot rely on a child’s ability to identify easily with the elements of their locality to support their speaking, their reading and their writing attempts. Having spent time as a volunteer, leading wildlife groups, it was clear in the 1980s that it was a minority interest. Education does still rely, to some extent on a child’s experience beyond the school gates.

How does a child describe the feeling of walking on sand in bare feet, paddling in the sea or lake, getting caught in a rain storm, walking through long grass, the sound of leaves being walked on or kicked, and so many other things, if they haven’t had the opportunity?

Can we build a strong curriculum and strong education on missing experiences? Is experience the beginning of “knowledge rich” education, in that it provides a base for things to “stick” to?

What’s school? People, places and things

Organise rooms, which used to be defined as 55 sq m for a group of 30 children, or a currently defined infant classful.
Supply desks and chairs; this has varied over time, with discussions about the amount of table space needed.

There’s also been wide variation on whether to supply personal storage space for books; should children be responsible for their own exercise books or should they be centralised? Either decision can cause logistical issues when books are needed for a lesson; either movement of each child to find their one book, or teacher/monitors to give out books. This can be pre-empted between lessons, getting out books on entry to the classroom, or someone must give them out before the lesson; assuming places are known…

Classroom resources need a retrieval and return system that can facilitate whole class lessons as well as intermittent needs; variation between age groups, from picture clues to written headings.

Space, resources and time have always been the variables within a school and teacher’s organisational control.

Space…

How much space is available to support the learners, and how is it orientated to support the teaching that is likely to happen?

How desks are arranged, to allow sight lines, ease of movement around the classroom, for children and adults, but also to facilitate different areas of the curriculum. Alteration to the needs of different subjects and teaching may need to be easily accomplished; I have seen whole classroom reorganisation within a couple of minutes, accompanied by a piece of music. “I can’t do x because of the way tables are arranged.” does not seem to me to be a reasonable response. Where there’s a will…

Resources…

Throughout my teaching career, there have been shelves of resources that have been bought at some stage, because they seemed a good idea at the time or because the sales patter was irresistible. They gathered dust through lack of use, often because newer staff were unaware of the potential of the resource. There’s a significant need to keep on top of learning resources, to ensure that they are up to date and do the job that’s required of them. Collated and identified, they are more likely to be used than if they are just in a pile somewhere.

There’s probably a similar kit of resources in every classroom, centred around the stationery, which also needs some organisation. Painted tins and glass jam jars were a feature of my first classroom. Today there’s a variety of plastic tool boxes (scissors, erasers rulers), cutlery drawers (paint brushes) or cutlery holders for pens and pencils. Classroom desks can also sometimes be awash with SPaG reminders, or similar prompts.

Maths, reading, writing, art corners might be created, as resource bases, with topic resources brought in to need, from a central collection.

Time…

It’s sometimes easy to forget that time in school is under teacher and school control, but, some organisational elements can exert control over the available time that puts pressure on lesson dynamics, especially for some vulnerable learners who can’t quite get things finished. If it’s clear that a child has worked hard, for them, and needs a bit of finishing time, does this mean part of a playtime lost, or can the teacher allow a few extra minutes in order for the child to finish?

We have been in a period where maths and English have seemed to dominate the curriculum. Some organisation of this, sets for example, impose a timetable need. This can mean that some children might not be able to access the learning in the available time, but, in a classroom setting, perhaps the teacher can make an executive decision to add a few necessary minutes to a lesson, to bridge a playtime and allow children some “finishing off time” rather than rushing and not completing or not being able to show their best efforts.

It’s also possible to find many examples where tasks/activities are chosen to fill the set time, rather than being able to challenge all children, limiting some.

School time is often extended through “homework”. At Primary, if homework is to be seen as a useful adjunct to school work, I would prefer to see talking homework, eg a question or an image to discuss, with the outcomes of discussion feeding back into lessons. Click on the blue title to open a linked blog.

 Primary Curriculum; a child’s world?

There have been great similarities across my career in the curriculum offerings of every school. For a start, there was always mathematics, more often than not supported by a bought scheme. The strictness of adherence to the scheme varied from school to school, but, in all cases, we were required to use the Teacher’s Guide as our methodological “bible”, to ensure consistency of approach.

English varied more from school to school, with the majority drawing heavily on the topic curriculum for stimuli for talk and writing. Reading, from around 1975 was supported by the Cliff Moon colour coded system, with different layers of books available to the children; one at teacher level, where there might be a small number of errors, and one at more fluent levels, to read in free time or at home, with or without a parent. Most of the schools in which I worked in the 70/80s also had a Home-School reading diary, with parents encouraged to record their thoughts from hearing their children read. It was very much individualised and we were encouraged to hear children read regularly. Writing was collated into excellent practice during the National Writing Project 1985-8. It mirrored what good schools were already doing, but also gave the basis for conversation between schools about what constituted good writing experiences.

Topic work enabled science, history and geography to lead investigation, with music, PE (dance), DT and art to be used to interpret the outcomes of the investigation. This element of the curriculum provided the opportunities for report writing, letters, note taking and a range of genres with imaginative narratives. The school library was a source of investigation through reading non-fiction texts, using the index and contents list to find out facts for themselves and to share with their classmates, often producing a glossary display; an alphabet of…topic.

It is interesting to me that the 1987 National Curriculum was a 95% correspondence with that which my and other local schools were doing. It meant small tweaks rather than big alterations.

I am finding the current discussion on the broader curriculum a little stilted at times. There will be significant similarities across time and there will already be a lot of good practice that can be retained.

Topic titles allocated to year groups.

Planning is essential.

Topic details; essential knowledge to be shared; key questions to be explored; resources available within the school or locally. When I was a head, we developed “topic specs” in around 1993.

Link opportunities between the topic and spoken, read and written English, or mathematics; using and applying knowledge from each to benefit the other, making appropriate links.

Timescales allocated and the order of study, to enable learning from earlier topics to impact on subsequent learning.  

Organised into an annual plan, it’s possible to ensure coverage and also sufficient opportunity to explore specifics in depth, knowing that the year was planned.
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It’s useful to have an end point for each topic area, maybe a small museum, a display, a performance, piece of art, music or drama/movement, with the potential for an audience to provide the spur for higher quality outcomes.
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​In many ways, it is sad that we have reached a point in our education history where we are having to reinstate that which was already there in many cases. The 2014 curriculum changes were such that elevating maths and English to such heights distorted teacher efforts, in schools and across training providers who have to follow Government expectations. It takes time and effort to develop curriculum, to articulate a school approach, to embed this into daily practice and then to evaluate and refine, with a constant need to revisit when there are new staff who will need support and mentoring.

For interest, here’s my school KS2 science overview from 2004; based on 7.5 hours per week, blocked time to need.
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In the meantime, while this development is actioned, five years on from the changes, another generation of children passes through the school, potentially fed a diet limited by the school interpretation of it’s needs at that point in time. Data in maths and English define external judgement. If a school feels vulnerable, concentrating on what is measured can seem an appropriate course of action, but is can also lead to a diminished learning opportunity, which, if coupled with a diminished home opportunity can doubly exclude children from wider life opportunities.

There’s much talk of cultural capital. We need to look at life experiences, too…
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Is showing children pictures the same as being there?

Thanks to the good offices of Simona McKenzie whose Twitter handle is @signoramac, there was a gathering at The Alexander Pope hotel in Twickenham to discuss Early Years issues. By no means an expert, I wanted to avail myself of the collective expertise and I wasn’t in any way disappointed.

There was Sue Cowley (@Sue_Cowley), Dr Lala Manners (@MattersActive), Ali McClure (@AliMcCureEP), Bethlyn Killey (@StarlightMcKenz) and June O’Sullivan (@JuneOSullivan). It was good to see Sue and Bethlyn again, after significant gaps between events, but equally interesting to hear the view of a broader group of speakers.

Sue Cowley gave a barnstorming opener for the day, as she put it, a bit of a rant, particularly about the general direction that it can appear that even early educational experiences are talked of in more formal terms, with testing and more structured “delivery” models being interpreted as “what’s wanted” from the “powers that be”. That this is external and top down can give the pronouncements greater weight, which in turn becomes interpreted into localised approaches, which, whether “liked” or “disliked” by the inspection regime, inevitably becomes the stuff of the local grapevine with other local providers changing to anticipate the needs of their next inspection, simply because no-one wants to be found wanting.

Topicality is the stuff of young lives, something that they have seen, heard or found and want to share with others. Equally, the adults will also want to bring in items of interest that will generate interest and inquiry. Sue spoke of “door handle planning”, in this context. Sue has a healthy scepticism of what is asked by others without the expertise in the age group.

Lala Manners is a professional who has links with Government decisions in the area of Physical Development (PD). With Sue, Lala shared the values of physicality in young lives, with specific mention of avoiding obesity at young(er) ages. In this regard she made reference to the need for EYFS professionals to be role models. One would think that getting children to be active would be one of the easiest things to organise, but the discussion moved to packaging of approaches, so that they required some form of preparatory training in order to deliver the programme.

While space can be an issue for some settings, there are many ways in which PD can be enhanced with limited equipment. Running and jumping are probably the easiest, dance can be supported by music and movement, as it was for many generations of children. General movement can be directed within a space, perhaps with floor markings helping instruction, or even masking tape, as a “balance beam”. Putting out scaffold boards, with bricks to enable them to be raised, can add to the balance challenges. Throwing stones or other natural objects (fir cones), balls, bean bags into a bucket. In many ways, it’s often limited by teacher imagination.

In my own mind, I linked physical development with literacy. I wonder how many teachers have considered that movement PE provides some of the oral base for many verbs and adverbs in describing movement that can be drawn into reading and writing?

Ali McClure worked with a wide range of ideas drawing from her career. She is a practising SENCo, as well as EY specialist and EP, so brought ideas about brain development through stimulus. While some colleagues might have argued with some interpretations of the internal workings of the brain, the idea of stimulus and vocalisation leading to some kind of mental schema organisation was central to Ali’s discourse. Using the term “Anchor of Attachment” made me think about the place of educational settings on the lives of children. For a number, the order and organisation of the setting may well be one of the few oases of calm in their lives; settled staffing, room organisation, resources and opportunities and understanding their place within the organisation can be stabilising factors.

Bethlyn Killey is well known to Twitter, as a strong questioner of SEND legislation and opportunity, or the lack, within the broader system. Bethlyn use the example of her son who had had nine settings by year seven. He’s now in a much better place, thankfully. The process of getting to this stage has been effectively analysed by Bethlyn, utilising the skills drawn from her work life. It is a salutary experience to listen to someone trapped in the complexities of EHCPs and the endless seeking of access to the relevant specialists, or advice, then to find school settings capable of addressing identified needs, but also to be aware of the potential for further diagnoses. In an education system that is gradually losing expertise, even staff in senior positions might not have had experiences that enable them to fully adapt their approach to the new needs. The system established in 2014 is complex, appears to offer a great deal for children with needs, yet often lacks the essential external expertise to support non-specialist staff. It is also budget constrained, as is regularly evidenced by contributors on Twitter.

When Bethlyn finished her talk, there was a collective gasp, as if we had all been holding our breath. It was more moving because it was her real-life experience.

June O’Sullivan was reticent to follow such an emotional experience, so we had a short break for refreshment or comfort.

June was another contributor who has the ear of Government. Her company runs a significant number of EY settings across London, including the House of Commons. Her brief was pedagogy and she took us on a journey that explored the philosophical background to pedagogies currently available. June is very down to earth, though and her approach is very child based; children doing, making, experiencing, exploring, discussing. She talked of dialogic reading as her philosophy, getting children into books. With over 100 languages across the settings, speaking is a key aspect; a mantra that I express as, something to think about, talk about, record (write?). In fact, the teaching and learning approach that she shared would have been seen in many successful mainstream primaries in SE Hants in the 80s-mid 00s. June’s organisation runs its own training for staff, calls each member of staff a teacher, so giving equality of status. It was always going to be the difficult “twilight” slot, but such was the knowledge base, delivered with humour and humanity, of June’s talk, that she held us over the planned finish time, yet the time passed very quickly.

As a first, Simona McKenzie can count BrewEdEY as a significant success. Thanks Simona.

All the speakers encouraged dialogue within their talks, so the significant collective expertise could be brought to the fore and available for everyone. Thanks to everyone for such a positive day; even on a Saturday… I was pleased that the Munster-Exeter rugby was still running on Channel 4+1 when I got home… even if it was a disappointment that Exeter lost…
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Books to support writing development

I was fortunate to be able to share a couple of books from Bloomsbury Education with practising teachers in the school where I am a Governor and to get some feedback, which I thought I would share.

Teaching for Mastery in Writing, by Mike Cain had the greater impact of the two. The English lead used this extensively in looking at the writing process at the school, using extracts to supplement a broader PowerPoint presentation that had been supplied through an authority training opportunity.
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Jacqui Hyde wrote; This book is a useful resource when reflecting on current school practice in the delivery of writing. It has clear guidance on the importance of feedback, self and peer assessment and how this helps to improve children’s writing. There are clear steps in learning, for each year group, which emphasise the importance of building on current skills and, if there are steps missing, how this will impact on a child’s progress in writing.

The steps for each year group were shared with all teachers at the staff meeting on mastery in writing and were particularly useful for NQTs who were not so familiar with the whole writing process. There is clear guidance on how to embed grammar and some interesting ways to edit and redraft writing. The staff meeting helped staff to reflect on their current practice and the broader school approach.

From the 100 Ideas stable, Rob Smith (@redgierob) and Katherine Simpson’s book on Literacy was seen as providing some useful reminders of activities that could be incorporated into discreet lesson planning. The teacher who used this book identified some of the ideas as having been shared on courses, so the book was seen as a distillation of very useful prompts, collated into one volume.

In combination, the two books would provide a very useful basis for any developing teacher to get to grips with the process and also to have a well-rehearsed set of practical ideas from which to be able to plan over longer and short terms.
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The books were certainly recommended by the teachers.

For interest, personal blogs on writing.
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Note making, not note taking...
Draft-check-improve/redraft
National writing project; revival time?
All writing in one exercise book?
Writing process; tweak your books
Exercise books as personal organisers?
 

Build a high-quality teacher; structuralist to holistic. Putting some flesh on the bones...
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Much of my working life is spent working alongside developing teachers, at different stages in their careers. In 2012, the Teacher Standards changed, from 33 statements to 8 headings. It still surprises me that, after nearly six and a half years, many teachers still cannot identify all eight standards, even though they are supposedly working within them each day.

However, in my developmental roles, they can be very interesting, as it is possible to play with permutations of the standards that exemplify what it means to become a complete teacher, especially during university degree, PGCE or School Direct (shorter) experiences.

One of the things of which I am very proud is that, for the 2012 teacher standards, I created what has become known as the “Dartboard” at Winchester University and forms a part of every student record of progress. It is useful, in that it’s a dynamic and embeds action in a holistic framework which can be unpicked to individual needs. You may need to click and make the picture full screen.
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​It did lead to much reflection on how the teacher standards are considered and whether the language might lead to isolation rather than purposeful combination. Teachers have to be good at a wide range of reflective, reactive and communicative behaviours, often exaggerated further when working with younger children or with children with SEND.

For information, the eight standards are

1)      Expectations
2)      Progress and Outcomes
3)      Subject Knowledge
4)      Planning
5)      Adaptation
6)      Assessment
7)      Behaviour management
8)      Professionalism

Plus there’s a part 2, which describes further the professional standing of a teacher within the broader community.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/283566/Teachers_standard_information.pdf

Behind these headings are many lines of exemplary materials. Click to link to pdf download, with a shortened version.

However, the headings are quite useful, in themselves, as supports for a narrative that seeks to describe teachers in development. I’ve given them nicknames where they might suit.

Presenter approach

34 – Not necessarily the ultimate age for a teacher, but this could describe, say, a wildlife expert, or similar, who knows their stuff and can put it across in a clear narrative to an audience, using age appropriate vocabulary and language structures. The chances are that children in the audience are with parents taking control of behaviours. As a local leader and County organiser for Watch Wildlife Groups, I often invited such people to present their specialist knowledge to the children. It's similar to inviting  special speaker into a classroom. They share their knowledge.

To some extent, it also describes some television presenter approaches, although they can take for granted that their core audience is watching. If people are also looking at a mobile phone, making a cup of tea, or are in any other way distracted, it’s not the presenter problem.

873 – A person of professional standing, who has the skills to control an allocated group, for a period of time, who can be trusted to get across some subject knowledge in an ordered manner.

This could be used to describe a teaching assistant, or other adult whom a head deems appropriate to lead an activity. They can work within any prescribed approach to behaviour, dealing with issues that arise appropriately.

Anyone in a professional role in a school is highly likely to have at least GCSE level education, while teachers will have a degree plus a teaching qualification. I would also expect Primary teachers to have at least five GCSE good grades and three GCE A levels, so they will have some subject experience across the Primary curriculum.

If they don’t, they can be expected to address this; teacher standard 8 talks of the proactive self-developer.

Structuralist approach; eg a trainee still making sense of the longer term organisational and learning needs.

8731 – Having appropriate expectations of behaviour and learning (TS1) raises the expectations of the adult, as the conduit through which some level of progress in a subject area might be accomplished.

It is often the case that these standards are the first and easiest to be evidenced for a trainee teacher, as, by and large, they describe the personal, professional persona of the adult, who knows their subject and can organise a classroom to get information across in a coherent form over time.

It is also likely to describe a teacher confident in their professionalism and ability to get what they know across to a range of school audiences, within an overall planning approach. 

The limiting factor from this point is embedded in standard 2, progress and outcomes; in other words, how well are the children known and how well does the adult understand the learning outcomes appropriate to different year groups?

Holistic approach

432-65-2 - You’d want the person described above to have a wider range of skills; 432, being able to organise their subject over different timescales, so that the subject requirements were built up appropriately and checked on the way, with the intention that children should embark on a journey towards an expected point.

It can depend on how you understand children making progress (TS2) and how you determine whether they have. If the definition is coverage - then test for memory, it might preclude analysis of the needs of specific individuals (TS6), leading to further engagement with them, undertaking adapted approaches (TS5). 

Interaction with learners, engaging with the ongoing learning and making subtle or more significant alterations to the expectations of some, responding to evidence within the classroom, TS6&5, are probably the key to ultimate teacher success, in that it is the sum total of progress of each child (TS2) in a class or cohort, that ultimately is the signal that the school is doing well by every child, whatever their needs.

See also 24652 blog

Teacher standard 2 also covers the full range of needs likely to be encountered. If, for example, a teacher has experience limited to one year group, as can happen in some organisations, knowledge of achievement in years above or below enhance and extend the outcome knowledge base, enabling the teacher to make more nuanced decisions about challenge and intervention needs. Mentoring and moderation are key elements in this area, to allow the less experienced teacher to benefit from the wisdom of more experienced colleagues.

Teacher standard 2 is also the area that is currently causing concern, in looking at assessment and tracking needs for teachers. It’s the one area where experience provides the basis for personal development, in making accurate judgements about children as learners, leading to better planning, interaction and adaptation; TS 465. The bottom line question; “How well, breadth and depth, can you show that you know your children?”

It takes time, and is a stage in a progressive development, based on analytical reflection, from reading and first-hand experiences on behalf of the developing teacher. Self-development is a constituent of teacher standard 8; developing yourself into the best possible professional, as a team player and a team leader, is key to long term success in teaching.

Teaching, in many ways, is an investigative role, based on an original hypothesis that the planning is pitched at the right level, with in-lesson evidence showing the need to alter course, or to provide additional scaffolds to support individuals.

Thinking takes time and that can be a rare commodity in a busy school room. So it is incumbent on each teacher, especially trainees, to make best use of available time to think and talk about the role. It is a job where it can be difficult to switch off, too.

Many will use holidays as time to catch up on thinking. As a head, I often thought of the job as 24/7/365.
 
Getting better at getting better… personal development or CPD?

Building capacity breeds capacity

Variations on success breeds success? Or “Love the ones you’re with”, Dylan Wiliam.
Building Professional Capital, Hargreaves and Fullan?
This view was first put into print by Sir Arthur Helps, in Realmah, 1868: "Nothing succeeds like success." [Rien ne réussit comme le succès.]
And apparently even earlier in a different form: Success nourishes them. They can because they think they can...Virgil

The most damaging thing a teacher can say is “I can’t…” There is a need to consider the problem being faced and to come up with a solution within any available constraints. In my book, teachers are paid thinkers and solution finders.

As a headteacher entering my own school for the first time, one of the main tasks was to get to know the staff, as well as the children, to establish a view of the overall capacity of the staff and where each was in their personal development. This was an important first step, as I set to the task of creating out of the available “raw material” the future picture of the school.

This did involve a significant amount of reflection, from the staff and me, as each challenged the other to clarify thinking, so that meanings were clearer, enabling reflection that supported development. Some of that reflection meant that a few staff chose an alternative route forward. Living with challenge is not always a comfortable position. The school needed to be challenged. It was happy with itself, had create a comfortable existence for the staff, who did “nice things” with children. However, the general expectations were slightly too low and needed to be extended.

Challenge, time to reflect, within an articulated timetable, with resourced time, appropriate external support and internal evidence of momentum, through sharing improved outcomes, began the process of regular review, which ultimately was supported by release time for shared research, which further supported the collegiate approach and team development.

Internal moderation, or just sharing outcomes, became a regular feature of staff discussion, as illustrations of what was being expected and achieved.

Over time, the notion of success nourishing the staff led to deeper, sustained challenge, to staff and to children, with a further increase in outcomes, the achievement of which established much clearer expectations and benchmarks. The rich curriculum became richer, as teachers tried out ideas, with children feeling the pleasure of achievement, so improving their attitude and motivation.

Teachers had to adapt ideas to the context of the school. We were an open plan layout and areas were set aside for specialist activity at different points around the building, but each was within sight of a classroom, so every area could be overseen by a teacher, even if children were from another class. The “independence” being fostered could be put to good effect in supporting challenge in tasks, especially as the children got older. 

The past twelve years of school visits through a variety of organisations and for different purposes, have allowed me to see a broader base of evident practice. Improving outcomes, so that both the teacher and the child can see what the next step looks like is essential. For the teachers, this has sometimes meant advice to go and look at years above or below, to better understand what quality outcomes can look like.

Only by having a deep understanding of progression of learning within each subject, what success at different stages looks like and clarity in understanding where each child is in that continuum at any specific point, can a Primary teacher support incremental learning, as a combination of knowledge and capability.

Adaptability

It seems to me, after a lifetime in education, from the many initiatives passing my way, that every piece of education research is interpreted to the profession through a filter that comprises national and press reviews, personal interpretation of the original material, or the ensuing book and inference from an existing practitioner, as the original ideas are adapted to the circumstances of a classroom.

By the time a teacher presents “how it’s working for me”, in a staff meeting, a Teachmeet, or some other external talk, it has been through several layers of interpretation. It has been adapted to the particular circumstance of that classroom teacher’s views. Copying, by a colleague, in another context, may not get the same result.

There are three main variables in teaching in a teacher control, even assuming a common knowledge base; space, resources and time. A classroom has a set size and shape that determines furniture arrangement for ease of working and movement. Organisation and availability of resources, for ease of accessibility and return will affect practice, to a significant effect.  Limitations of timetabling, especially the need to move as a whole class for activity, is further compromised by grouping and setting for different aspects, all of which impact on working approaches, not least the need to complete tasks within a set time.

Personal self-limiting

An inability to adapt can lead to teachers saying “I can’t do…” which impacts on children’s development. Self-limiting should not be part of a teacher make-up. The teacher who “prefers” to stay in year 6, or EYFS, for example, if they do not then have opportunities to explore practice across the school, can become entrenched in their working methods and expectations.

Self-limiting can apply to schools as well as individuals, where they do not communicate effectively, especially if there is a form of “competition” between phases and prior judgements are not fully accepted. Collaboration and excellent communication between professionals enables smoother transition and transfer.

“Novelty children”; apologies…

Within the idea of adaptability comes the issue of “novelty children”, those with needs that the teacher has never encountered. The SEND specific need, the travellers, the EAL child with a never before met language, the extra-talented (gifted) learner, in a specific subject. How to deal with the new issue is likely to depend on prior experience and the base from which decisions are made. These will therefore range from rough-hewn, to refined. A self-aware teacher will admit to shortcomings and seek colleague advice, from within the school, as in the SENCo/ABCo, or through available language/specialist support, where the LA or Academy chain has access to expertise.

These “novelty children” extend the boundaries of teacher knowledge and expertise, which, over time, enables further adaptation to circumstance.

Adaptability and reflection are precursors to personal growth.

Adapting to new knowledge is a large part of how we learn, through reflection, adjustment to circumstance and a new balance point, based on knowledge and capability.
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The more adaptable you are, the more adaptable you can become. Seeing the need to adapt is the first step. Getting better at getting better takes thinking time and a bit of effort, but getting better is positively reinforcing, for everyone, as teacher self-esteem can be a fragile beast.
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In reality for around six years now, but the title scans with the “Wild Rover” first line, the second of which is “And I’ve spent all my money on whiskey and beer”, which probably doesn’t sit well with the idea of Governance or good management.

I became a Governor in one school after a few years of waiting until I reached 60 and effectively “retired” from the front line, having been invited onto the Governing body a few years before. It was a body in need of bodies, to ensure that meetings were quorate.

I’d like to think that it was for my lifetime in front line education and continuing involvement in specific areas, such as inclusion and parent partnership, as well as initial teacher education. Governors bring a wealth of expertise into a school and can act as critical friends as well as supporting the school in the development agenda.

Getting a “good” after an Ofsted inspection was testament to the hard work of the staff and management, including the Governing body. It also bought further time for necessary continuous development.

After a few years, a second school identified itself as being in even greater need of support, so I did a transfer having worked with the recently appointed Executive Head and Head of School in my ITE role. We had enjoyed many interesting exchanges of ideas, which they felt would help their new agendas, in a school with a very chequered history.

As Governor with particular responsibility for coordinating with SEND and inclusion, pupil premium and vulnerable children, I have been able to spend quality time with different staff, enabling them to articulate their developmental focus and actions, clarifying our joint understanding where necessary and occasionally offering areas where additional thought might be useful.

All visits to the school in any capacity as a Governor are written up and shared with the body, to ensure everyone is aware of what’s happening.

Where I am still involved in education, I also buy, receive and read a wide range of books. Where these could add something to the school, they are offered and have evidently been of value. I would especially mention Paul Dix, Jarlath O’Brien and Mary Myatt’s recent books on behaviour and ethos as having been well-thumbed. I have struggled to get the books back on occasion…

Twitter occasionally throws up interesting reads, too, so these are forwarded for information. This did occasion the school’s involvement with the Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants process, led by Rob Webster, which over the past year has developed significant conversations within the staff as a whole.

The Governor role is an interesting one, in that, while Governors are included in the Leadership and Management area of Ofsted, we are always at one remove from the day to day realities, which is why I feel that my school visits are essential, to fit the imagery with the reportage. It would be easy to take everything at face value, especially if you value the management and their work. I know that both the Executive Head and HoS value the conversations and the challenges that arise. This has been noted in discussion with the allocated LA inspector.

For all that, though, I am probably one of the quieter members of the Governing body, preferring to reflect before speaking. Governor meetings can become reactive in nature, and we all know that “stuff happens” in schools, but a reflective Governing body is more likely to support progress, avoiding creating “busy work” and distractions from the day job for already pressed managers. A reflective body is also more likely to look at itself and the roles, to add some value to the journey.

The education system is a bit like an Airfix kit; the bits have to go in the right place, with the right amount of glue, if the finished model is to look like the picture on the box. As in many reorganisations in education, there isn’t always a very clear picture on the packaging, so bits are in danger of being put in the wrong place.

With an emphasis in 2019 on the school curriculum, keeping sight of the school picture will be even more important.

Strong Governance needs to be a part of every school, but it needs a strong local base, supported by a supportive, easily available, local centre of information. I’m lucky that my LA still retains a Governor Service providing up to date training opportunities.

Like all school development, it never ends, simply because it is a human system, subject to human frailty as well as strengths. It only achieves through the efforts of others. It’s my pleasure to be able to continue offering support and occasionally some mentoring based on experience.
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An open book? How do you tell your story?

Do you offer children something to think, talk, read and write about?

It’s been a quiet Christmas break, which is how it is when you get a bit older. It’s usually making sure that younger generations have a good time; that they are fed and clothed and have presents to open. It has been interesting to drop in and out of Twitter to see what’s being discussed. It can be an eye opener, or occasionally a tablet shutter, as views pass that might elicit a type-delete response.

However, recent tweets about the curriculum suggest that Curriculum is the current hot topic, as Ofsted are putting it at the centre of their next round of thinking, and some commentators seemingly jumping on the opportunity to propound their “knowledge rich” agenda, as if it’s a new phenomenon.

My career in teaching started with training at St Luke’s College, Exeter, from 1971-74. Although Plowden was a high-profile element that was the new core of pedagogic reflection, the sharing of knowledge was central to the science course that I started and the Environmental Education course to which I transferred in year 2, providing a broad subject base for Primary, which became my passion.

It was based on knowledge, the interpretation of which into classroom narratives was left to us. We explored “programmed learning”, which was exemplified by exploring the stages of making a cup of tea or a piece of toast. This showed us the essence of embedded knowledge that is assumed in giving instruction or developing a narrative. It made us better “storytellers”; a mixture of substance and exploration. If you think of sharing a book/(his)story with children, their background knowledge inevitably impacts on their understanding of the whole; that’s Hirsch in a sentence.

We talked of challenge in tasking, with the challenge depending on our understanding of the knowledge that the children had already encountered; it was effectively tested through use and application. Within the task, when children encountered difficulty, it highlighted areas that had ether been missed or had not been assimilated effectively, so in-task teaching would occur. There were tremendous similarities to my own education experiences in the 1950/60s. It was also writ large in the available resource materials, such as Nuffield Science 5-13.
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Knowledge and challenge were intertwined.
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And, in my school experience as a teacher, it remained so throughout.

I still have a copy of the textbook that underscored my initial training; Environmental Studies, by George Martin and Edward (Ted) Turner, who was the course leader. For those who would wish to claim that knowledge-rich is a new phenomenon, I’d offer them this book, from 1972 as both a starter knowledge across subjects that sought to give an introduction to thinking practically about the world, supplemented in each chapter with an extensive bibliography for extended reading.

The premise of the course was to provide teachers with the background to introduce children into their world through three layers, Investigation and interpretation, communication, inspiration. Over time, this gave rise to my personal mantra of learning challenge as something to think, talk, and write about, leading to presentation, preferably to a known audience.

The course explored the living and non-living world; essentially chemistry, physics and biology with added geology; the past world around us, architectural features, local archaeological sites and using artefacts; rural and urban living, settlement studies, including use of materials for dwellings and other buildings; conservation, especially within an urban settlement; histories, especially from a locality perspective, but also within a national and international perspective. (Ted Turner took as his inspiration the notion of the Renaissance, especially Leonardo da Vinci. That allowed the summer field trip to be to Florence, at a time when it was possible to wander into galleries freely. However we also had to write about the other aspects too; planning how we would use the available resources to offer the broader curriculum.

Mathematics, of measures, counting and data, language, art and music were significant features.
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It was a good basic starter, to which I later added two part-time Diplomas, one in Environmental Sciences and the second in Language and Reading Development.
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Every school within which I worked, from 1974 onwards, had curriculum organisation, to differing degrees. Some had simply headings, of topics that had to be covered within each year, others had broad resource materials from which to develop the topic narrative, which was left to the classteacher to develop based on knowledge of their classes.

The 1987 National Curriculum was a 95% match with our existing curriculum; I was a deputy in a First School.
The subsequent Dearing Review gave a 95% correspondence.

When I became a HT in 1990, there was a need to create a firmer base for the curriculum, which could have been described as a little ad-hoc.

We had a mix of planning layers, starting with whole school and year group. This was premised on allocating topics appropriately.

Every topic had a “topic spec”, which was designed by the subject lead, ensuring that the NC expectations were clear, articulating essential knowledge, skills, challenges, available school and locality resources, plus reminders of quality outcome expectations (Level descriptors rewritten as descriptors of child capability).
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Every teacher received their planning file in July, before a half day of a closure that allowed them to organise their planning thoughts before the summer holiday. A copy came to me as HT, so I knew in July what the next year “learning map” looked like.

The first two weeks were always designated as “getting to know and settling” weeks, with a teacher designed topic. The second Friday was always a closure, half a day given to planning the detail of the next (few) topic(s), including resourcing from school stock. Topics ranged from a week to several weeks, depending on the needs. The interplay of topics with English and maths allowed for topic generated information to be used in writing or to create mathematical opportunity that offered measures, counting leading to data, or shape and space exploration.

Because the year was based around revisiting areas, especially in maths and English, revision of ideas, aka interleaving, was embedded.

In so doing, we had a curriculum with meat, two veg and a good helping of dessert.

It was planned longer term, so that it had substance. It was broad, balanced and relevant, drawing from the locality as much as possible, to fully immerse the children into their community, as well as drawing from wider opportunities; we did take the children on local trips, but also to London, to the British Museum for Greek, Roman or Egyptian exhibitions. However, time was always against us for day trips, with at least two hours each way on a coach and costs getting ever higher. The IWB did allow us to bring a level of experience into classrooms, taking over from the video or CD player.

While “bright ideas” might be imported, these were always evaluated against what was already offered. If they added something, they were incorporated.

It was a cycle of constant improvement, supported by every subject lead having at least a half day with a County inspector to review the school offering as a whole.

The 1997 National Curriculum with the accompanying strategies, did put some of this under strain, especially when we needed to replace experienced staff. It was noticeable that some applicants were used to a narrower diet. However, personalised CPD opportunities, eg shadowing colleagues, allowed insights into expectations. Staffing stability helped with this; we held onto the “tribal memories”… see blog…

The breadth paid off in national testing, too, where English, maths and science scored highly. Every subject was valued, with quality outcomes celebrated throughout the school, with displays or presentations opening learning to others.

The 2014 Primary National Curriculum was always a worry to me, even though I was not school based, but working in ITE and with parents and inclusion. It articulated English and Maths extensively, while others were diminished. Listening to Tim Oates, early in the process, saying that it was designed to be easier to test highlighted an underlying political agenda.

As we are now a couple of days into 2019. Perhaps a chance for reflection and refinement?

I have no problem with a conversation about what children should be exposed to through their school experience. There must be a clear narrative to learning; it is after all, the school’s internal book.

Every subject can be explored by a 2-year old, a 12-year old or a 22-year old. Their ability to interact with the experience will vary widely, from an initial exploratory phase, which I would see as “play”, through to accommodating, reflecting on and reacting to, ever more sophisticated information. We are on a constant journey, carrying with us, at any point, the accumulated wisdom of earlier experiences. So a “knowledge organiser” as our “topic specs” can be seen today, will vary considerably for each age group, and should do so. It should support a developing narrative approach, not become a knowledge dump which an inexperienced practitioner might simply regurgitate.

Order and organisation are key to teaching and learning success, over different timescales.

I would argue that annual plans allowed teachers to ensure coverage while also developing each topic at depth. Colleagues also benefited from collegiate sharing, either one to one or within practical workshops.

At classroom level, each teacher planned in ways that suited them. They were personal diaries, only considered if there were question marks over children’s progress. Classroom teachers are paid to think. They need to think clearly, on multiple layers, always with children and their progress in mind. That’s why it can be tough at times.

When teaching becomes top-down, teachers start to look at what is expected, to second guess what “those above” are looking for. That this has, on occasion been subject to the management or Ofsted rumour mill, can’t be denied; one local school or colleague passing on their tips from their own inspection, so others copy.

To hold to your own course can be challenging, but it is your own school’s journey that’s important.

It’s your narrative, your history, your present.

More important, it’s your children’s narrative, their history and their present.

That’s your data; what you do for them and what they get out of it. It’s a mix of the obvious, the displays and the books, but also their attitudes in school, their capacity to engage in talk with others. It’s a story, based on words, not numbers, so that children can engage with their own developing narratives.

Children’s pleasure in overcoming challenges and learning…led by teachers who enjoy teaching.
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Curriculum 1971-2014; broad, balanced and relevant.
Curriculum 2018; knowledge rich (or learning rich)?

Put simply, classroom learning is children, context, engagement, guidance and adaptation, evaluation of outcomes. The whole captured within communication.

Remembering always the maxim that education( life) is a journey not a destination. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century.)

It’s strangely fascinating occasionally just to be a bystander to conversations on social media. There’s a current penchant for everything curriculum, as if it’s the next new thing that no-one has ever thought of before You can almost hear the sound of cash tills ringing with the book potential.

The recent Ofsted commentaries on curriculum are strangely reminiscent of earlier HMI statements, one series of which was dubbed the “raspberry ripple” books because of their covers. The September 2018 commentary suggested that there was a lack of curriculum development expertise. In some ways this is not surprising, as for twenty years curriculum and pedagogy has been engaged through ever tighter dictat, seemingly removing teacher and school discretion, whereas autonomy is the life-blood of a thinking organisation.

Forgive me for being old(er). I started as a classroom teacher in 1974 after three years at training college; my first Primary class will now be coming up to 55 years old. In that extended career, I never worked in a school without a curriculum in some form. Some were stronger than others. They might have been based on a scheme for maths and English, with Topics (now called the foundation subjects) being the area that was apportioned to specific year groups. Once you knew the topics, there was the search for the available school resources, or perhaps an investigation in the locality to seek out appropriate places to visit or people with local interests. We were, to all intents and purposes, organising the knowledge, supplemented by the County Library Service and, from time to time, museums and costume services. It was relatively easy to put together a package of essential knowledge that would be shared, sometimes with teachers making some kind of information book that was derived from the various sources.

In looking through my notebooks from my career, I came across a diagrammatic version that was the top layer of an early curriculum map. It’s not detailed, but an overview that enabled themes to be allocated to year groups, then further developed through locality resources and resource boxes.
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In many ways variations on this have been a feature of my career. Start at the top layer, then work ever deeper, providing greater detail at different points to support teacher thinking in their classroom. This last layer might include agreed details that have to be structured into the theme narrative and retained for future use.

​These early thoughts were supplemented further with a very active inspection and advisory service and teachers centres that provided both courses and in-house support to school development.

From an earlier blog:

Curricula are usually written by experts, from the expert perspective, ensuring that information is delivered, whether or not it is appropriate for the learner’s current needs. 
As teachers, unconstrained by predetermined curricular expectations, we were able to assume the mantle of experts, reflecting on what the four year olds brought with them in the way of life experiences which would be the start points for school based experiences and exploration.

So history started as My story, based on storyboards created with a series of photos, then developed into His or Her story, with reference to parents and grandparents. Local walks to look at houses of interest started a link between History and Geography, with sketch mapping, drawing in situ or photos being taken (development time, much easier now?). Parents and grandparents came to tell their own stories, recorded onto c45, 60 or 90 tapes to be replayed and reflected upon. For homework, children were asked to telephone grandparents to ask a series of questions. Timelines were created throughout, so historical perspectives were constantly being revisited, as knowledge was added. And we got back to the Victorians with photograph based family trees, together with the accompanying narrative.

Building materials became the stuff of science, complemented by Lego or other construction material, as well as clay models of houses, made out of very small bricks, fired in the kiln. Trials with garden clay compared to the bought variety. One child brought in a tile found in their garden, which we took to the local museum to be told it was Roman. Visiting the local church we discovered even more tiles, being used as wall bricks and on the way back a local aunt offered the chance to have a look inside a house originally dating to 1580. I know, risk assessments, CRB etc. The Tudor context allowed exploration of timber as a building material. One idea often led to another, with settlements, including the Anglo-Saxon beginnings of the village being explored, with the support of the local history society.

In reality, what is a curriculum? It is a series of related contexts within which learners will enhance their understanding of the world in which they live, allowing opportunities for language acquisition, broadening communication, real contexts for writing and other recording.  The mathematics of measures and data creation supported the core learning at every age. So the basics were the backbone of topic work. The contexts provided the creative structures into which the relevant subjects could be fitted.

Asking questions and seeking answers were the basis for both library research and experiential science activity, which might be based on the notion of finding out interesting ideas to share with the rest. Every subject had value for what it brought to the child as thinking and learning opportunities. The art table was a permanent fixture within the classroom, with half a dozen children regularly interpreting information in picture form.

When the National Curriculum was brought in in 1987, I was a deputy in a First School. Our audit of the school curriculum against the NC showed a 95% correspondence, with a couple of tweaks to be effected.

This became a feature of revisions; small tweaks were needed to accommodate the update.

I came across my notes from 1987, when I had responsibility for science. I had grouped the sixteen attainment targets, yes 16, into three main areas; scientific processes, our environment, make it move/forces, and three supplementary areas; electricity/magnetism, sound and music and light. These might have been organised as larger, three-week projects, or perhaps a week of experiences.

It was not long before a reorganisation led to the sixteen ATs becoming four main areas; virtually the same content, but a reduction in areas for assessment, essentially materials, physical world, living world and scientific exploration.
When I became a HT in 1990, we worked hard on the curriculum, because, although the school had taken on elements of the NC, there were gaps which needed to be addressed.

The approach was refined over time and can ne read about in a blog on planning. There is a clear focus on layering.
In addition, as a school, we also looked at quality versus quantity in writing.

It was clear that children were being asked to undertake a considerable amount of writing, but that, for the most part, any writing in subjects other than English were of poorer quality.

We moved from this to identify the main writing approach for the week, which would be developed through different stages; modelled, organised and drafted, with occasional redrafting for display quality, for an audience.

The two-page approach to writing that we developed is shared as writing process, tweak your books which morphed through all writing in one exercise book, to using the exercise book as a personal organiser. This highlighted that writing is writing in every subject. It allowed for each week, or fortnight to be devoted to a particular project, perhaps a report from a practical experience, to letter writing, or imaginary story. As a head, I encouraged teachers to consider the use of time available for quality writing. This could be an hour by hour for essential teaching and modelling, note making or early organisation activities. It might be a morning to enable a range of drafting and evaluation/critique activities. Timetable flexibility allows quality to emerge, rather than unfinished work. Over time, the time frames reduced to emphasise fluency.

Topic areas, essentially the foundation subjects, were organised in different layers, as articulated in the planning blog. Topics lasted as long as was needed, but all allocated topics had to be shared. Topic themes were resourced by subject coordinators, with a topic specification and a collation of the resources available within the school. Book resources were sourced through the County Library Service.

Within these areas, we reflected on the commonality of learning themes and came up with the “Making Sense of Experience” model; a means of looking at deepening experience, at any age. The “Experience, explore, explain” mantra was central to the thinking; simple enough to remember, but embedding many different elements.

In 2014, the current NC was enacted. Having listened to Tim Oates, when we shared a panel, telling the assembled staff that the 2014 version was created to be easier to test, I started to worry. With it being maths and English heavy with testing in these areas, the next few years have shown that the wider curriculum has diminished, in some cases significantly. However, there is a strong argument for the curriculum retaining its breadth and depth.
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So why are we where we are?

My simple answer would be estate-wide small thinking, more from the point of view of ever closer attention on the minutiae of teaching and learning, especially by some individuals who have made national and international names, and a lot of money from publishing, by a focus on small bits. The words that we use, such as differentiation, assessment, planning, writing, reading, phonics along with others, have been packaged and repackaged into formulae, then interpreted into book form, to be sold into the education spending market, which itself has grown significantly over the past 25 years.

A couple of the latest high-profile areas are “growth mindset” and research. Each has the potential to become formulaic, distracting and ultimately to be devalued. The former, to me is what teaching and learning are all about, otherwise what’s the point and the latter, as an investigative mind-set, is what I’d want from all teachers, seeking to refine their practice.

The issue with buying a scheme for doing the thinking for you is that you can stop thinking about the whole and how things fit together, and that’s what I’d say some have done. These schemes can dictate timetables, as children are packaged up into appropriate sized groups to undertake the specified activities, often led by the less well-informed members of staff, so that, although “coverage” might be assured, the depth of understanding might be suspect for many. These groups are, by default, mini sets or streams, so can become self-limiting systems. Time is also lost, as children move between areas of the school to be part of their small groups.

There has been successive reorganisation of priorities, with literacy and numeracy taking over from English and Maths, with a subsequent downgrade of other subjects, all of which provide the background information against which English and Maths operate in the real world. There is talk of the knowledge curriculum, but the knowledge areas of the curriculum, in some places and for some children are under some threat.

The small thinking arises out of a sound-bite need for politicians, to show that they are doing something to improve the situation. The Literacy Hour was not the be-all and end-all of the Literacy Strategy, yet it became the simplistic message given on the radio and TV every morning. For the past four years, we have heard phonics equals reading as the mantra.

The problem with both messages is that it can distort practice to the point where other aspects of each subject, which are equally or more vital, are diminished, so teachers and children lose sight of the bigger messages.

Levels became the bête noire of the system because they became distorted into data points, rather than remaining as the progress descriptors that they were in the beginning. From misuse, they lost their purpose and became distorting, as they became high stakes in showing progress. The number and the data point lost the accompanying words, but, at least in some of the foundation subjects, the words could still be a useful starting point for reflection on progression.

Like all things, I’d argue that a focus on detail is essential, but that at every stage any change in one aspect needs to be reflected upon across the whole learning system, otherwise it can be distorting.

It’s a little bit like an exercise regime where concentration on one part of the body can create a distorting effect.
It's got to start with the whole, consider the parts and then put the whole back together. 

And when it comes down to simplicities, the whole relies on effective communication in all forms, pitched to the audience, using words that they can understand, sharing images to supplement the words and to enhance the capacity to make links with earlier experiences.

It takes an aware teacher to be able to do that with facility. Teachers need subject and pedagogic knowledge. Thinking teachers sharing a thoughtful curriculum and supporting each other with their own knowledge and sharing successful pedagogy can significantly alter the curricular diet for every child.
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A young man decided to become a teacher…

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. There was a significant shortage of teachers, as the generation that had trained before or after WW2 were coming, en masse, to retirement.

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.

I did change course after the first year, moving from pure science to Environmental Studies, which was a brand-new course designed by the previous head of science to enable Primary teachers to be able to teach the breadth of the curriculum.  

Teaching practices in Totnes, year one, and Torquay, year three, meant digs for the first, during a winter of power cuts, so planning and marking by candle-light. For the second, I had a lift from two PE specialists, both of whom were on their way to international status, so the hour or so each way passed quickly.

The second-year experience was an extended study practice, where the entire teaching group was twinned with a school in Sidmouth. We would be paired with a small group of children, plan for learning, enact it, evaluate the outcomes and make subsequent decisions for learning. Getting to know the children also meant home visits. This entailed staying on in Sidmouth, walking to the family homes, having a scripted chat, then a long bus trip back to halls, which were six miles out of Exeter, unless someone with a car was around.   
 
It became clear during 1974 that the teacher shortage was coming to an end. At the same time, the James Report was considering the potential for offering teachers sabbatical time after a period of service. It was envisaged that this would support further training, perhaps to Masters level.

Both had an influence on deciding to get a job for September 1974. Even as a probationary teacher, I had a class of 39 mixed ability children. There was no such thing as a teaching assistant, nor technology. Resources were very limited, but there was a pleasure in creating learning opportunities from little, using the local environment as a significant resource, eg taking the class to the local graveyard to read the first chapter of Great Expectations…

Becoming a teacher was never designed to make me rich; perhaps comfortable was the best that could be hoped, and it was a career, which, in 1974, was still considered an asset. 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 will have a huge impact on life plans.

Teaching is teaching and of it’s time. It has always had to adapt to changing needs, but, over the past thirty years, we have seen revolution from politicians that have put pressures on the system, such that successful, experienced people left. This inevitably reduces the core of knowledge available, with new people having to learn from scratch how to make things work for them.

The fact that you are teaching one approach while a “new” version has to be developed and embedded is stressful and an additional burden.

Change has rarely been handled in an evolutionary fashion, apart from the first iterations of the National Curriculum, which largely described what my local schools were doing, with 95% correspondence. Managing “improvement” would reduce the stress burdens of people who are, at the core of their role, paid to think.

Governments often see change as synonymous with improvement and then have to twist and turn as consequences become apparent to everyone. It can be analogous to the cowboy builder; who put this up like this…?

I’d still encourage someone with aptitude to become a teacher, and also, in time to develop themselves towards headship. Both are great jobs and they are very much and always will be needed.

I sometimes think we need Governments to step back and let teachers get on with the job and to become the advisers in the system. Children, in every classroom, deserve teachers who enjoy their jobs, know that they are doing a good job and that their efforts are appreciated.
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Leaders, at every level, from Government down, only achieve if each classroom is a space for learning.
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The HMI report for 2018 includes a commentary about the teaching of and support for SEND.

​In many ways, I am not surprised. Working with Inclusion Quality Mark for eight years up to 2014, it was clear, from visits to and supporting schools, 2013-14, attending and presenting at conferences, that the complexities of the changes that were being wrought on schools in a very short time would be very difficult to achieve. That the changes also included system changes outside schools, at a time when austerity cuts were really beginning to bite, only served to exacerbate the situation for more vulnerable children.

Schools felt that they had to focus on curriculum and assessment, the latter having been put into free-fall by a Government unwilling to offer clear guidance. As schools would also be inspected on the new system, it became an imperative, especially for schools which felt vulnerable; borderline good, RI or SM.

Systems are still not yet fully effective in all schools. The sheer weight of requirement, especially for Primary schools, to embed mathematics and English, meant that the wider curriculum was sometimes given less prominence, to a point where this is flagged up as a concern for the 2019 inspection framework. It is also feasible now, after four years, that schools are beginning to see issues with their earlier decisions and are making adjustments.

One big structural change in 2014 was to put emphasis on the classroom as the prime place where good or better teaching and learning is seen as addressing the needs of all individuals. Therefore work has to be well planned, well delivered, activities engaged with, feedback given and supportive, developmental feedback afterwards.

In which case, the class teacher becomes the conduit through which SEND decisions are effected, with enhanced responsibility. Consider for a moment the position regarding Performance Related Pay (PRP) where a teacher can be held responsible for the outcomes of all groups of learners.

Teachers need to know their children very well, to be able to personalise interventions and commentaries. The deployment of available support, for specific purpose, with defined, checkable outcomes, will be essential. However, as the highest trained person in the classroom, the teacher may reasonably be expected to take the greater burden of the most challenging learning needs, while the support does just that, supports other learners.
All aspects need to be considered, starting with the appropriateness of the task, or the necessity to adapt, the need for support to achieve an appropriate outcome.

Within the task, the deployment of staff to be the eyes and ears, with the capacity to intervene appropriately to need will be essential. It will become an essential skill to spot and deal with issues as they arise to smooth the learning path. These interventions will need to be noted in some way. Therefore a methodology needs to be considered. In the first instance, the exercise book could become a part of the dialogue of concern, noting advice given, as well as clear, readable, understandable feedback. A secondary need will be to keep a track of teacher thinking, within and between lessons, through post it notes, amended planning, or diary format.

The teacher needs to get better at initial investigation of issues.
 
In addition, within the 2014 NC, the idea of levelness gave way to yearness. I blogged about this, from 2013, as I could see considerable potential pitfalls, especially for children who didn’t “make the grade” in the previous year. This may have been further exacerbated as teachers chose to stay in the same year group for a few years, to make use of their need to get to grips with yeargroup requirements.

Primaries are possibly in a much more difficult position, in that the new National Curriculum is very year-group based, with the assessment criteria as articulated, to know and understand the year group requirements. The use of the phrase “Secondary ready” cast an implied level of expectation against the achievements at year six. The rhetoric to date seems to suggest whole cohorts moving at the same speed. Topics are also relatively year group specific, which could cause issues if a child is either slower or faster than their cohort at learning in a specific subject. It is arguable that for Primary schools, level-ness has been replaced by year-ness.  So measurement of progress will be against year group expectations. Within the documentation, it is possible to infer the hierarchy of expectation, so schools may do that to ensure that their learners are tracked against the new criteria.

Where schools have been freed from the need to use levels and asked to create their own systems, those which have been shared through social media like Twitter have to date looked very much like levelness in a different form. And they always will, because the schemes shared have been recording sheets to keep a track of children’s performance.

And that’s my main issue. Subjects have hierarchical skills, which have to be introduced, practiced and embedded in produced work. Levelness articulated the hierarchy of skills and allowed this within whole class tasks and topics, with all learners challenged at a personal level, in the best practice. Level and grade criteria support expectation, planning, in-lesson interventions, reformulating of challenge to need, feedback, both oral and written, then food for thought after the lesson.

Year-ness will do that, but I have a slight worry that the articulation of achievement within the new system at Primary level has the potential to become a new system created barrier to learning for a number of vulnerable learners.
We had a system that could have been tweaked to make it more coherent, challenging, robust and acceptable through the system.
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We may embed new issues. I hope that I am wrong.
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All classes are mixed ability, even a set or streamed group, so creates an internal dynamic that needs to be accommodated; from prior records, simple starter assessments to confirm or ask questions, to seek to refine planning that allows appropriate imparting of information and learning challenges, both of which may be subtly altered in delivery through engagement with individual or group needs.

This is articulated in another blog; 65, based on the teacher standards.

Not all Special Needs get identified early. Some become more obvious as school challenges get harder. Some may have a source outside school, but which impacts in the setting, eg social and emotional needs.

Individual responses will offer challenges and cause concern. This may multiply over time, if established as a seeming pattern of response. Investigation and recording of the developing situation informs a discussion with the school SENCo. Not to do so might result in a request to do so over the next period of time. This delay can be the source of irritation in a teacher who wishes an immediate remedy.

From 2013
·         SEND is no longer “someone’s job”, it is everyone’s job…

Training is an interesting issue, in that there are and will be significant calls from all sides for “more training”. The availability of external staff is likely to be seriously strained in the near future, as all schools ask for the same personnel. I can see a number of options addressing these needs.

Local specialists (possibly including Special School staff) to create fact sheets available to all local schools, to address possible concerns across a range of needs, ASD, ADHD, SALT, OT as an example.

• In-house solutions 1. Some special needs in learning can be evidenced against the outcome of younger children. Therefore, by definition, the expertise is in-house. Exemplar portfolios will help with decision making, if they incorporate both a statement of what’s evident and a description of potential next steps. In “old money” a level 2 child in year five is operating on a par with an average year 2 child. By talking with the year 2 teacher, the professional dialogue will offer insights into routes. In a separate system, it may be necessary to make links with feeder schools.
• In house solutions 2. The school SENCo, if (s)he has undertaken the required training, should be in a position to offer the broad-brush explanations necessary for class-based colleagues.
• Planning for learning needs to look at the dynamics as well as the fixed points. The plan, based on expectation, should prompt thinking on the hoof, ensuring interactions that result on lessons being tweaked to the evident needs.

The basic principle of SEND, know your children well, and that would be my suggestion for the 2019 inspections; how well do schools know and support their children’s needs?

It could be that simple…

Everyone needs someone to talk with?
 
In watching my Twitter feed over the past few days, it has been interesting to note the concerns raised in response to some colleagues coming together to express concern about the use of excessive isolation for some individual children. It made me go back to a number of school visits that I made with inclusive practice in mind. Perhaps it’s always better to look at realities rather than just to express an opinion. I am happy to accept that the schools concerned were wishing to demonstrate their inclusive credentials, so will have been a self-selecting group.
 
In no school, out of over fifty visits, did I encounter isolation facilities. The closest example would be a school that set up a restorative centre, in a small building at the centre of the school where children could either be sent or take themselves, should there be a need to do so. There was always at least one member of staff on duty, available to offer a listening ear. Other staff were available around these listeners, to provide greater help as needed. For some children, being able to articulate their feelings and needs was sufficient for them to see a way to resolve what they had perceived as a problem. For others, who needed signposting to wider help, resolution took longer, but identification, advocacy and coordination helpd to reduce the time between identification and help.
 
I am struck by the similarity of approach with the Samaritans, available to listen to people in need. This is also available in prisons, with prisoners acting as listeners to others. Articulation of a problem can sometimes put it into a practical frame with commensurate practical actions to be taken, in order to resolve the issue for oneself. Articulation also allows another to question further, to seek additional clarity.
 
In looking at this area, we have to accept that each school operates in a specific context, which includes the community, families, and available staffing, so each has to determine internal practices that address issues that arise. Current school funding may well be putting pressures on school ability to provide nuanced support to individuals. Sadly, this can lead to off-rolling as an alternative to supporting a child through their personal issues.
 
The route to exclusion should be well documented for most children, especially where issues are identified as persistent low level. For this, clear documentary evidence should be kept, for future reference as needed. I’ve appended a copy of an earlier blog that seeks to do this.
 
There are occasions, in any social situation, and we should recognise schools as always being a microcosm of their context, where the issue is immediate and dangerous, so requires immediate response to keep others safe.
 
In simple terms, every school decision should be capable of justification in the face of robust challenge, with evidentiary statements available for external review; in the first instance the school Governing Body, especially if faced with parent requests for review or complaint.
 
 
School 1
There is much evidence of creative and innovative practice. This is broadly shared within a staff seeking to develop its own capabilities. Within a challenging environment, staff often exceed what might reasonably be expected. This is fully recognised by parents and students, who expressed fulsomely their praise for the staff, individually and collectively.
 
Staff development is a strength of the school. Starting from being valued for the role being undertaken, staff accept challenge, which is not only met but often exceeded. Individual staff are enabled to take on responsibility, supported to succeed and enjoy personal growth as a result. This is a staff with considerable personal and collective expertise. They also present as happy, throughout the staff group.
 
Innovative practice is encouraged from all categories of staff.
 
There is much joined up thinking, with staff articulating their working relationships with others. This was particularly evidenced in conversations with the staff who are involved in Inclusion, where each found ways to describe how they work together for the good of children. This was endorsed through other conversations focused on curriculum entitlement, where children are supported to succeed. All conversations had a focus of building capacity, taking personal responsibility, good communication, demonstrating that each child in this school has an identifiable Team Around each Child, should they need that level of support, always looking to enhance opportunities.
 
Joined up thinking is also evident across other aspects of the school, with staff describing how roles interlink and sometimes overlap, to ensure coherence and consistency as well as a high level of adaptability to personalised needs. This was clearly described with regard to KS4 routes. The discussions about the timetable also showed flexible thinking. The timetable does not create curricular constraints.
 
The staff are enabled, supported and challenged to ensure that the best possible opportunities are created for children, that, where possible, barriers to progress are identified and remedied to minimise the impact of disruption. The whole staff are the eyes and ears of the systems. They are vigilant, proactive or reactive as necessary or possible, developing functional capacity in the child, the family, with support, or the school, where individual staff may be coached in specific skills.
 
Documentary evidence shows the interactive approach that is taken within the school to ensure that all vulnerable children are identified and supported through an internal Team Around the Child, as well as utilising appropriate external agencies for focussed work, both inside and out of school.
 
Inclusion Group descriptor
 
Multi agency meetings scheduled termly
Regular meetings with outside agencies re individuals, to help in overcoming barriers to learning i.e. Speech and Language Service, CAMHS, YPSS, YoT, Connexions, Social Services, EWO
Extended Services Core offer & Freetime Project
Extra-curricular uptake is high
Annual Reviews – SEND
Parents meeting with SENCO/ GLs / Inclusion Manager re bespoke programmes for students 
School nurse
 
School 2
The enriched curriculum is evident and the search for quality outcomes is a feature of a walk around the classroom areas, which benefit from a range of well put together displays. Children’s work in progress shows an attention to detail and care in finishing.
 
Words and phrases that come to mind when thinking of The F Education Centre include: -
 
Humanity, empathy, complex, personalisation, order and organisation, enriched curriculum, adaptable, creativity, stability, complementary, rigour, fun, expertise, valued, trust, communication, excellent information, distributive management, reflective, coherent, sensitive, independence, participatory, articulate, visionary, opportunities, clarity, team, expertise, problem solving, integrated, coherent, normality, humour, humility, spirituality.
 
These can be summed up as people matter and a personalised approach as the default position.
 
These are essential characteristics of the staff team, who work tirelessly to ensure that the pupils attending the Centre are given the best possible opportunity to succeed. There is a significant team ethic, trust and collegiate approach, which ensures that each team member is supported by the whole group.
 
School 3
The college policy can be summarised as a dynamic continuum. There is 1) rigorous analysis of evidence leading to 2) detailed planning, including the provision of appropriate resources and staffing. 3) Students are actively sharing in their learning journey, which is 4) tracked and reviewed at regular intervals with 5) accurate and detailed records being collated and disseminated, allowing the process to be cyclic and developmental.
This process has been evolutionary, with some avenues having been explored, adapted to need or rejected, if not useful to college development. As in all college development, mistakes were the catalyst for rigorous consideration.
          As a result, Inclusion is evident in every aspect of college life, ensuring that Every Child Matters and, as an extension, that every person associated with the college is also fully valued.
 
SEAL is an integral part of college life, ensuring that Emotional Literacy is embedded within the inclusion aspects of college life. This includes active engagement in restorative conversations.
TAs have many individual specialisms, enabling them to be a strength of the system, supporting pastoral and learning needs. Many have been developed to become significant members of staff, including through GTP routes into teaching roles. The college supports staff personal growth.
 

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.

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. Scroll down the page and click on download.

Twenty four years ago, for the price of a modest caravan, my first wife and I were able to buy a small house in deepest France as a "life project" following a diagnosis that she had developed breast cancer. It has been a refuge, a place to think and to unwind, while making firm friends and being able to spend quality time as a family. Following her death, it continued to act in this way, enabling balance to be restored, through the "green gym" of conservation style gardening, walking and personal time, in quiet surroundings and extremely fresh air.

My thoughts after a recent visit...

We are fast reaching a stage where Brexit either falls down or becomes a cliff edge reality. Having recently spent time in France, talking with English and French friends, it is clear that the uncertainty is causing significant stresses. I was minded to go back to something that I wrote a 18 months ago; a series of speculative thoughts that were a sort of prediction. I am worried that many have already started to come to pass; not Project Fear, as much as realistic and reflective.

 A Little Bit of Futurology

In addition, since my recent visit, we decided to write to our MP, who, sadly, has chosen to align herself with the self-styled European research Group, so we are not hopeful of any positive response.

​Dear.....,
We are writing to you, as constituents, to seek some guarantees that the original promises made by Brexit supporters will be realised; effectively that we would have the same unrestricted opportunities as we have enjoyed as full members of the EU.
This leads to a number of questions, for which we would hope you are able to provide answers.
As owners of a holiday home in France, we want to know whether we will still be able to enjoy the ease of access that has hitherto been the case. We have friends and family who have chosen to retire in France and Spain, who may require support at short notice.
·         will visas be needed and will they be country specific or Europe wide?
·         will our driving licences still be valid, and will car insurance and breakdown cover be maintained on the same terms?
·         will any support for health care be available as per the current EHIC arrangements?
·         will we need to take out additional personal and health insurance?
·         will credit and debit cards function as now?
·         we have been able to take house insurance through a UK provider; will this continue?
·         will there be restrictions on items that can be taken into or brought back from the EU?
·         will we be able to use our UK mobile phones, benefitting from current roaming freedoms?
 
Concerning our family members and friends living in the EU.
·         can they remain resident in their own properties?
·         will their pensions still be paid direct into EU banks?
·         will their pensions continue to be index linked?
·         exchange rate change has already devalued pensions (and travel funds) by around 20%. 
·         will they continue to receive reciprocal health arrangements?
We have a further concern that our son in law, a Spanish citizen, living and working in the UK for five years, will be guaranteed the right to remain indefinitely and be entitled to health and social benefits. If not, will our daughter have the right to emigrate and reside in Spain?
On the wider implications of Brexit,
·         can you guarantee continuous supply of food, medicines, fuel and ease of transport?
·         many industries rely on a source of available labour. Can you guarantee that restrictions on labour movement will not impact on provision across many areas, eg NHS, social care, hospitality, agriculture and fishing, construction, academia, heritage industry (museums and galleries)?
·         an ageing population, described as baby boomers, coupled with a falling birth rate, will exacerbate any workforce shortage.
·         Mark Carney suggested that house values could fall, by up to 30%. As parents of children just embarked on the housing ladder, such a fall could wipe out their personal capital and potentially put them into negative equity. Will the Government seek to safeguard personal security?
Many deprived areas have benefitted from EU funding in different forms. Farming has benefited from CAP funding, which has supported the maintenance of a proportion of food production and the environment. Can you guarantee that such funding will continue?
Our food production has fallen to approximately 40% of need, meaning that we are reliant on imports for a greater proportion. The suggestion that we will need to stockpile food in the event of a no-deal Brexit has echoes of war-related rationing, of which I have a memory, which, in peacetime, would seem to be a dereliction of duty by the Government.
Having listened to and read the arguments over the past 30 months, our concerns about the impact of Brexit have not been assuaged in any way; in fact, the worries have grown. Lives will be impacted significantly, for an indeterminate period.
The whole of our adult lives has coincided with EU membership.
We have seen significant improvements across a wide swathe of experiences, enhancing our lives and giving opportunities not available to earlier generations, not least the ease of travel and access to EU countries. We would wish our grandchildren to enjoy the same benefits, as well as to enjoy the peace that has derived from the cooperative venture that emerged from the second world war.  
We look forward to a full response.

From summer 2019, I have planned to retire and have always hoped that this will mean the potential for extended stays in the house; I have to really polish up my French somehow. But, in the current uncertainty, none of that can be planned, nor guaranteed to become a reality, in the short or longer term.

We just don't know...

In an earlier blog I looked at my childhood from the point of view of my locality and the distances that I could explore as a child under eight.

When I was eight, as a family, we emigrated to Australia as “£10 Poms”, based on my father being a State Registered Nurse. For my parents, who had lived through WW2, father as an army medical orderly and mother in a munition’s factory, the idea of a new life was enticing. As children we had no idea of what to expect, apart from being told that it meant being able to play outside a great deal, as there would be lots of sunshine.
​
So, we sold up in the UK, packed everything from one life and headed off on the train to London to catch the boat train to Southampton. Now living a few miles from Southampton, we often pass the railway gate into the port where we caught the P&O ship Oriana for the five and a half week ocean voyage to Australia, via the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, Colombo, then Perth, where we disembarked for the extensive train ride to Adelaide, to pick up another boat that took us to Sydney, and another train journey to Brisbane. Here we were billeted in a transit camp, a holding place from which a job was sought, followed by house purchase, meaning that we ended up living in a suburb called Zillmere, in Beams Road, which was an area that has since been extensively remodelled.
​

However, it did offer the outside life that we were promised. At that time the walk from home to school took us across open fields to Boondall Primary; the barefoot walk often meaning a bit of a hop and skip to avoid the snakes that crossed our paths. Boondall Primary meant that I learned to play cricket, on a concrete strip and Aussie rules football, both played barefoot. You learned to be a bit nimble on your feet.

Weekends and holidays offered extended opportunities to walk to the local creek, with our fishing tackle, a mix of a rod and line together with a number of coke bottle lines. This was a local affectation, with the line wound around the coke bottle, twirled around the head and the weight taking the line out into the creek. Catfish and eels were regular catches. A small picnic allowed us to stay out a bit longer than perhaps we should have in the days before easy contact through children having their own phones. Suffice to say that none of us wore a watch either. I do remember a very angry, or worried, mother hitting me after I arrive home late.

Best friend John’s dad had a chicken farm along the road. The alternative to fishing was snake hunting, with the family Jack Russell and a forked stick, sitting in the mulberry tree picking and eating mulberries, with inevitable stained clothes, or climbing the banana trees to cut a bunch of bananas.

It did become the idyllic place to grow up, but it was to change again, with parents deciding that we were returning to the UK, but with an extended timescale, not telling us of the plans. Once the house was sold, we moved to the coast, to Shorncliffe, a very short walk from the pier and the shark-fenced beach. The pier meant much more fishing, often into the evening, with frequent hauls meaning that we were well fed on fish for days. Sharks of different types were also often hooked, resulting in a bit of a tussle. Shorncliffe School changed the Aussie Rules to Rugby League, and swimming at the Sandgate swimming pool.

Neither school has left a detailed imprint on my learning, apart from the sport and the copperplate writing done at Boondall with old-fashioned nib pens.
​
Memories are of being outdoors, exciting my life-long interest in nature in all it’s forms, with a particular interest in insect life which led to an unrequited wish to become an entomologist. Seeing a manta ray leap from the water while fishing on a short pier beside the fishermen’s cooperative on Nundah Creek will stay forever, as will the memory of cockroach races along Shorncliffe Pier. 
​

Homesickness eventually overtook my mother, which drew our four year stay to an end, with another six-week trip back to the UK, the reverse of the original. I think it’s probably true to say that, through the eyes of a child the excitement of the cruise foreshadowed the break up of my parent’s marriage on our return and their eventual hard-fought divorce. That 54-year-old memory is seared into my mind, dulling my memories of my teenage years. The few black and white photos that have survived the travelling and inevitable distribution across family members show shadowed smiles, perhaps based on an awareness of inevitable change.

All part of life’s rich developmental experiences...developing resilience that would be useful later in life.

As a result, I learned, at a young age, how to explore, to be safe and self-reliant, but also to be fully aware of my surroundings, orientated and secure, attributes that I learned to use more especially during my later teens.
​

There are a couple of questions that every school and every teacher should be able to answer;
What are you doing? Why are you doing it?
Which can be transposed as…
What are they doing? Why are they doing it?

The because, in both cases, should provide the narrative behind the decisions. A lack of clarity, or slight diversion, such as “lesson shared across a year group”, needs to be further questioned, especially if an observed lesson has raised questions for the observer.

This situation is one which, as an ITE tutor, can arise when a trainee is unable to respond effectively within a lesson to the specific needs of individuals or groups. A lack of rehearsal and consideration of their own class facing the challenges of the learning can lead to misconceptions being unchallenged and addressed. By rehearsal, I mean consideration of “What ifs”, not just practicing their script, anticipating concepts and vocabulary that might need further exploration.

Everyone makes multiple decisions each day. It’s just how life is. We normally don’t even think about the decisions in depth, especially if the situation has arisen before, so we have built up alternative (rehearsed) strategies. I can recall driving to my school, with my mind on the working day, and suddenly being aware that I had reached a certain point in the journey. Traffic awareness on the route had become “second nature”. The idea of “second nature” can be applied to many aspects of an experienced teacher repertoire, to the point where a trainee might ask for the rationale behind what they have seen effortlessly achieved, only for the observed colleague to become flustered. For this reason, I encourage trainees and mentors to observe together where possible, to identify less obvious, or harder to explain elements of the role.

It’s also why I encourage mentors to be a “parrot on the shoulder” of their trainee, to prompt in-lesson reflection and action.

Impact.
To me, the idea of rational decisions in the course of a learning process allows for a post-experience evaluation of the impact of the decisions and actions. This, in itself, enhances the case for rational thinking, linking to the computer logic gate of “If-then-else”; if I do x in this way then I expect, else I will have to…

Teachers are the lead thinkers in their classrooms, not heads of year or heads of department, nor even SLT. The people who get to know the fine detail of learner needs are those in regular contact with the class. There will always be a difference between a Primary and Secondary teacher’s fine knowledge of their class, but the principle is the same.

Being the lead thinker, the decision-making thread should be clear to other and the class(es) before them. A longer-term narrative allows a teacher to place each item of learning within the linear continuum, making links with prior learning and also alerting the learners to the need to retain and refine their understanding so that it can be used for a purpose later in the process.

Planning

Other blogs on the site look at planning in detail, however I would propose here a simple tweak that would impact on teacher wellbeing. It was an action that I took as a Primary head some 20+ years ago, based on earlier experiences.

School level planning is important, putting topics in every subject into a coherent school map; ensuring “coverage”. Every topic had a “topic spec”, essential details and knowledge and links to internal resources.
In June/July, during a closure, time was given to continuing teachers to create an annual plan for their next class, organising the order of their topics in any way that allowed them to maximise the potential, as they saw it. This became the annual overview.
Each teacher then planned a topic of their own choosing for the fist couple of weeks of the autumn term; a getting to know the class/establish expectations topic. This meant that the only planning that they needed to consider was the first nine days and how they would set out their classroom; many did this in July and left a plan for the caretaker. 
The second Friday was always a closure, half of which was allocated to planning the term in more detail, with better understanding of their class needs.
The teachers planned in any way that suited them, knowing that their plans would only be looked at if there were concerns for learning. In this way, duplication was avoided, and each stage of planning had a purpose.

Because the greatest resource that any school has is the teacher, who has got their mind around the topic in hand and the needs of the class before them.

If modelling thinking is a key element of teaching, why do we appear to remove concrete apparatus when the mathematical concepts start to get more difficult?

Based on an earlier blog: https://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/talking-maths

It would be interesting to know when the concrete apparatus is withdrawn from the teacher explanation repertoire, as this can be seen as only useful for SEN children, yet, used effectively, can enable even more able learners to make connections through very clear visual manipulation. This can be demonstrated through the use of Dienes base 10 material to explore place value and four rules with decimals to three places, using the 1000 block to represent 1.

How do you know what a child is thinking unless you ask them directly to explain something?

We have become used to Talk for Writing, so why not Talk for Maths? If teachers and children engage in learning dialogue, the teacher can get a better view of how the children are thinking and the learners might become more secure in their willingness to have a go, especially when facing novel situations. We also talk of it being ok to make mistakes, especially in the context of Growth Mindset thinking. I would suggest that an openness to dialogue underpins GM, in that a child should be able to share insecurities and to be able to talk through a resolution. Learning to think and talk is an important stage in being able to do so internally, from the scaffolds developed through discussion and manipulation.

The early days of my teaching career were in a school that focused its approach on the work of two key figures in mathematics; it helped that the head was a County adviser for maths, so we also benefitted from regular visits by his colleagues in the inspectorate.

There were two key elements highlighted, logic and modelling mathematical thinking supported by continuous use of structured materials. The work of Zoltan Dienes was central, embodied in the structured approach created by Harold Fletcher, whose workbooks were the spine for mathematical activities by the children. For both, we were given the key background texts to read and understand. In this way, we avoided falling into the trap of just doing the activity booklets, as both the teacher guides and the senior staff accentuated the central place of concrete apparatus. This, in itself, was accentuated through staff training as a group or 1:1 coaching to need.

From https://www.stem.org.uk/elibrary/resource/30000 an extract of Fletcher’s background.

Harold Fletcher was seen as an outstandingly gifted teacher and educationalist. While he was always a firm believer in children being able to calculate accurately, he found from his own teaching that they could achieve remarkable results in other aspects of mathematics. Harold Fletcher considered the mathematics he wanted children to learn under six strands:

Number Pattern Shape Pictorial Representation Measurement Algebraic Relations.

With the help of a team of experienced teachers and educationalists, Harold Fletcher wove these strands into a teaching sequence which was called Mathematics for Schools. Examples of classroom activities are used to describe the mathematics, complete with teacher dialogue, diagrams and outcomes from recording.

Each element of number, addition, subtraction, division and multiplication along with place value was developed showing the use of concrete materials and styles of notation (many of which would be seen later in the Framework for Teaching Mathematics (NNS; National Numeracy Strategy).

​

Shape begins with an introduction to solid shapes before bringing in 2 dimensional or plane shapes. This is followed with measuring, area, capacity and volume before concluding with symmetry and tessellations. As with all aspects of the series it was stressed that concrete materials should still be used.

Pictorial Representation focused on students, from an early age being able to collect information, record it in pictures and most of all, think about it and use it for further number practice. The foundations for graphs were introduced before dealing with them further in Algebraic relationships. A final section on “How can I help my child?” contained some do’s and don’ts. A pdf of a parent guide is available from the STEM site above.

The second key character in my mathematical education as a teacher was Zoltan Pal Dienes (Pal anglicized to Paul). Looking up some detail, I came across his relatively recent obituary.

​

DIENES, Dr. Zoltan Paul Obituary from http://www.zoltandienes.com/obituary/

Age 97, of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, passed away peacefully on January 11, 2014. Zoltan Dienes, internationally renowned mathematician and educator, was both a public figure and a much loved family man.

Zoltan was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1916, son of Paul and Valeria Dienes. His early years were spent in Hungary, Austria, Italy and France. He always had a fascination with mathematics, even hiding behind a curtain to hear his older brother’s maths lesson, for which he was deemed too young!

At 15 he moved to England. He received his Ph.D. from the University of London in 1939. Zoltan understood the art and aesthetics of mathematics and his passion was to share this with teachers and children alike.

He was fascinated by the difficulties many people had in learning mathematics and wanted others to see the beauty of it as he did. Consequently, he completed an additional degree in psychology in order to better understand thinking processes. He became known for his work in the psychology of mathematics education from which he created the new field of psychomathematics.

Referred to as a “maverick mathematician”, Zoltan introduced revolutionary ideas of learning complex mathematical concepts in fun ways such as games and dance, so that children were often unaware that they were learning mathematics – they were having a wonderful, exciting, creative time and longing for more. He invented the Dienes Multibase Arithmetic Blocks and many other games and materials that embodied mathematical concepts.
​

According to a Montana Mathematics Enthusiast monograph from 2007, “The name of Zoltan P. Dienes stands with those of Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner as a legendary figure whose theories of learning have left a lasting impression on the field of mathematics education…

Dienes’ notion of embodied knowledge presaged other cognitive scientists who eventually came to recognize the importance of embodied knowledge and situated cognition – where knowledge and abilities are organized around experience as much as they are organized around abstractions. Dienes was an early pioneer in what was later to be called sociocultural perspectives and democratization of learning.”

I had a wry smile when I realised that his initials are ZPD, which is immortalised in the work of Vygotsky as the Zone of Proximal Development, something, I am sure that Dienes would have appreciated.

Conservation of number became a shot topic of conversation on social media during the week. It is, without a doubt an underlying concept in the learning of mathematics, akin to chunking of information to make subsequent thinking and manipulation easier.

Definition
Conservation of numbers means that a person is able to understand that the number of objects remains the same even when rearranged.
What is conservation of number?

• Conservation of number - the logical thinking ability to recognise that the numerical value of an object remains invariant with physical rearrangement - is a fundamental "cognitive milestone" during children's development (Crawford, 2008 p. 1). 
  
  
• The concept of conservation was developed by Jean Piaget during the mid-1900s, who claimed it as "concrete operational" and, therefore, "unattainable" until children are of 7 or 8 years old (Halford & Boyle, 1985, p. 165). 

It is interesting visiting schools and classrooms, watching many numeracy lessons. It is often clear that children are regressing to counting from one, which suggests that they have not reached the conservation stage, even when dealing with relatively small numbers. This might be down to lack of modelling, therefore expectation, with high adult oversight and interaction.

Some of the materials being use for modelling may be less helpful, in that they might encourage children to start counting from one, for security.

Multilink or Unifix blocks are common in early classrooms. Where the mathematics takes children beyond tenness, breaking the chain into ten rods can be useful to accentuate that concept. It is heartbreaking to watch a child count, then have to restart the count because they have been interrupted. Making rods of ten would allow for interruptions and a means of continuity.

For this reason, I still have a preference for Dienes base ten equipment, as it allows early access to models of exchange, creating tens then hundreds. It accentuates place value and, using the function machine conceptualisation allows all four rules of number to be modelled effectively. With a visualiser attached to a class IWB, the modelling can be done on a large scale, enabling more to access. I recognise that in the days before such technology, there were visual limitations to modelling to large groups.

From Maths No Problem, the following accent on concrete apparatus seems to fit with this approach.

Concrete, pictorial, abstract (CPA) is a highly effective approach to teaching that develops a deep and sustainable understanding of maths in pupils. Often referred to as the concrete, representational, abstract framework, CPA was developed by American psychologist Jerome Bruner. It is an essential technique within the Singapore method of teaching maths for mastery.

Recently working with ITE trainees, in the conversation the idea of conceptualisation was raised. Using the simple example of 2+2=4, the trainees were challenged to explore the underlying necessary concepts to have a full grasp of the challenge. Twoness, fourness, addition (including synonyms) and equality, or balance, linked to balanced equations, eg 2+2=3+1. It was an eye opener to some.


​Race to the flat
A very simple activity that can be very effective in supporting rapid calculation could be called race to or from the flat.

As long as you have Dienes base 10 materials and dice, this can be developed to cater for a variety of needs.
The rules of each game are simply described.
·         Decide whether it’s a race to or from the flat (100 square). Decide whether, when the dice are thrown, the numbers are added together (any number of dice) or multiplied (two or three dice?).
·         Dienes materials available to each group, plus dice appropriate to the needs of the group.
·         Each child takes turns to throw the dice and calculate the sum or product.
·         This amount is then taken from the general pile and placed in front of the child. The calculation can be recorded eg 3+4=7. This can provide a second layer of checking.
·         If playing race from the flat, the child starts with ten ten rods, then takes an appropriate amount from these.
·         Subsequent rounds see pieces added to the child’s collection; recorded as needed, eg round 2, 5+2=7 (7+7=14; the teacher should see one ten and four ones)
·         The first child to or from the flat is the winner.
Altering the number of dice alters the challenge.

An extension could be a race to the block (1000 cube), or from the block, each child starts with ten 100 squares. If multi-sided dice, or different numbers of dice are available, the challenge alters yet again.

I came across some notes from some years ago, where I sought to put together examples from Dienes to enable colleagues to utilise the system to support their maths teaching.