They open their eyes, they sense the world, they look, they listen, they feel, they taste, they smell.
They see apparent chaos around them with a central feature, a parent’s face, their voice, their sustenance.
They respond, through crying, gradually having some muscle control and smiling, making responsive sounds.
It all takes time, but, somehow, while we can only engage with their externalising, their brains and bodies are developing in very sophisticated ways.
They start to interact with their world; their life journey of experiencing and making some sense of these experiences.
 
Each of us carries around the distillation of our passing experiences, formal, some sustained like years in education, or training programmes, many informal, some fleeting experiences, others based on life, our families in childhood, then our friendship groups and personal decisions about partners and life location.

Every one of these experiences impacts on us, some as they are pleasurable, others because they are traumatic. It can be easier to recall life’s highlights or low points than the more mundane aspects of our lives, as the significant events are our life “landmarks”; transitions almost. While our memories do alter over time and recreating earlier life can sometimes lead to embellishment, at any point in time, we are the sum of the parts.

Recently exploring my earlier life through looking at locality maps, it was clear to me that in geographical terms, the bulk of my life to the age of seven was restricted to a distance of around one mile from home, with occasional school holidays spent with more distant family. From the age of five, this was often independent and outside with friends; perhaps a luxury for today’s children.

My world expanded exponentially when we became £10 Poms, sailing to Australia via stops allowing visits to Pompeii, Athens, Aden, Columbo, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, followed by the train journey to Brisbane. Five and a half weeks of watching out for dolphins, whales and flying fish. Playing deck quoits and other novel games. Watching the sellers with their fully laden, colourful canoes arrive beside the ship with their trinkets hoping for a sale, goods and money exchanged via ropes and baskets. Children and adults prepared to dive for coins thrown from the boat. It was interesting at the time, although my adult self can see it as demeaning. It was certainly “eye opening”. There was a very different world from the seemingly grey experiences that had preceded it.

Life has certainly happened since then. I have blogged about it, highs and lows, as I remember them. I won’t rehearse the features now, but it is worth reflecting that life memories are filtered through forgetting, as well as remembering.

On 13.09.18 I tweeted that I was reflecting on the following: -
We’re all constantly creating our internal models, developing them as new information appears. Challenging this creates internal tension; destabilising for some. Learning how to accommodate and adapt to circumstance has enabled ideas to progress; a life skill.

This followed a day when I worked with ITT trainees, followed by a session with their mentors. Within the room of some twenty nine trainees, there was clear evidence that some elements of their new experiences were causing internal tensions; the personal, getting to know their context and everyone and everything within it that might impact on their professional lives; the demands of studying and running a household, some with much reduced incomes; the detail of the academic information that they were receiving, some after a significant gap since their degree. Accommodation and adaptation take time, which, at this point in their existence is at a premium.

Children are learning to take in information, learning about learning, at the same time as having to accommodate to a multi-faceted world. There is a truism that young children are naturally inquisitive, prepared to try things out, familiarising themselves with novel experiences, through what we often call “play”, which they then describe as “fun”.

As an adult, I often engage in familiarisation activity; a new camera, smart phone or laptop requires familiarisation. For a while, I “play” with them to see what they can do, in my case, using prior knowledge that comes from earlier experiences with the same technology. I am sure that my camera, smart phone and laptop can do significantly more than my current uses, but, for now each serves the purposes for which I want them.

If I am listening to a speaker, as I will at an education conference, or in a university lecture from a colleague, I can be distracted by a single point that triggers a line of thinking; it resonates or challenges a previously held piece of understanding. This may lead to a bit of note making or doodling an idea trying not to forget the thought from “the moment”, which can happen with just trying to listen and hold onto everything that has been said. The single nugget can form the basis for further reflection, discussion or reading, leading to a change in my understanding.
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In the same way, school lessons offer a similar scenario with new information being shared hour by hour. The difference could be that in school it is every hour, whereas an adult has the luxury of taking or making “time out to think”. Children in school don’t necessarily have the opportunity to reflect, unless it is built into the plans. It is to be hoped that every lesson offers something of quality to think about, to talk about and perhaps to make notes, or write about in order to remember.

In the early days of school learning, learning to order and organise thoughts is a key element, which is supported by teacher organisation and presentation of the different curriculum elements, ensuring that necessary links are made overt between aspects of learning, so that children are not left floundering with the bits of a jigsaw but no image within which to place the pieces. It is to be hoped, too, that learning in school might lead to extension in the home; appropriately set home activities can extend vocabulary or lead to further discovery. See talk homework.

It is incumbent on the adult generation to offer life opportunities to children, in and out of school, that allow them to participate in the experience, to explore with whatever is their current capability, and to articulate their thinking, enabling an adult to engage further with questions or clarification. The act of learning can be “fun” to children. They need to learn that learning is not something that is done to them, but that they are active participants in constructing their own schemas.

As a headteacher, I used this ideal as the basis for the school teaching and learning policy, which is on the blogsite. It was simplified into one diagram, as follows.  
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At any point in time, we are the product of our experiences. If they are broad and supported by articulate adults prepared to unpick inconsistencies and add further value to the experience, the child can thrive, with the opposite also having an element of truth, although we may have to accept that children can succeed "despite their home/school experience".

If a child lives in a knowledge/language-rich environment they will experience and learn to use a wide range of conceptual words. The Bristol language studies of 1971 led by Gordon Wells showed the impact on less rich environments. It has implications for the language rich environment of schools, too, especially if the home contexts are known to be less rich.

Schools and parents, within their communities, are partners in bringing children into their world. Learning to work effectively together is essential.

Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
And the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
And I haven't got time for the waiting game

Last week, with my TSA/SCITT colleagues, I had a long discussion about strategic decisions that would have impact through 2018-19 and 19-20. In any organisation, it is essential to have a strategy that can be communicated throughout the participant group, enabling short term, situational decisions to be incorporated within the broader approach.

One decision, impacting on me, is that I will do one more year supporting next year’s Primary group of trainees. It’s my decision, but, looking at the longer term needs of the TSA/SCITT, they need to consider succession planning, and this enables them to do that within the year. Decisions in education are better made if there is a longer lead-in time. Last-minute decisions can become destabilising, if they become the norm.

In every school, plans for the coming year will be being made, staff appointed to vacancies, hopefully replacing one set of skills with similar or greater. A great frustration for any headteacher is having one or more vacancies in a period of supply famine. During 16 years of headship, on at least three occasions, the year started with me having to teach more or less full time, for up to half a term while adverts went out to scour the available teachers.

The pattern of each year, to some extent, is within school control; when to have parent evenings, report writing, meetings-developmental or organisational, presentations, assemblies (to include parents). Beyond that, teachers are better placed to teach if they have a coherent understanding of how the year will pan out, to ensure that everything that has to be covered is done.
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It was at the point where, as a whole school, we sat down, mapped out the school year to look at points of highest demand and also considered the idea of an annual overview curriculum plan, that teachers began to relax a little into the coming year. A relatively small investment in time had a huge impact on morale.

A “meet the teacher” parent evening was held in later September, to share the plans and make relationships. Time was offered to parents to make appointments during the term, instead of one staff meeting; three half hour slots after school.

Events such as Harvest Festival, Christmas and Easter, became extended assemblies, with everyone contributing a short piece, rather than Cecil B de Mille productions, more often sharing poetry or songs that had been learned as part of class time. It’s very easy to raise the general, whole school, stress levels with over-elaborate productions, but parents do like to be party to what their children are doing; they only have eyes for their child!

Just before February half term, we issued reports, probably equivalent to A5 in writing, with a short personal comment and key areas for further development, that became the areas for discussion at parent evenings to follow. It kept the subjects clear. Parents could respond and ask for other specific areas to be discussed. It allowed considered use of meetings, rather than reportage and response. If more than the ten minutes would be needed, then special appointments would be made, especially if the discussion needed the SENCo or another member of staff.

​Summer term reports were issued with an invitation to see the teacher if it was requested, rather than a formal meeting.

Closure days were rarely taken tacked onto holidays. After the initial day, the three subsequent days were used for development activity, with the fifth looking at the following year. Making a long weekend, especially in the summer term, proved popular with parents, as well as staff. Development periods were significantly more active from October to June, with one staff meeting being devoted to organisational matters, and three each month to subject development; sometimes single sessions spaced over time, sometimes a whole month devoted to one subject, depending on the lead’s request and possible trial activity in between.

By taking two finalist ITE trainees, some additional development time often became available, through paired staff release, at least for ten weeks.

Each year would be different, as a result of changing needs, of individuals or the school as a whole. Therefore, every year plan would have similarities, but also occasionally significant differences, for example if external curricular change was expected.

You do have to work with available skill sets. Supplemented by external expertise, either on a personal basis, through courses or one to one dialogue, or via expertise-led closures. It’s a case of fine tuning to the evident needs.

·         Overview planning allows for communication and a certain amount of diary control, both of which have a part to play in overall workload demands.
·         Teaching is demanding on a day to day basis.
·         To take account of broader needs requires careful planning.
·         The drip feed of external, often political statements, can be sufficient to become the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

There is pattern in time, in rhythm and rhyme; give thanks for a world full of pattern… but be ordered, organised and communicate.

I didn’t grow up in a reading household, but we were taken to the library in Exeter and I remember coming home with a fish identification book, as I’d started fishing with friends in the River Exe.  Around the age of seven, I received a Biggles book as part of my birthday present and remember being unable to stop reading it until I finished it. It hooked me. I don’t remember the weather, but, as life was more often lived outside, it may well have been raining and staying in was better.

​Specific books do not appear again until I was 15. I had a serious rugby accident tearing knee ligaments and needing an extended period of R&R. In that time, I read Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward, which left an indelible impression. At the same time, 1984 and Animal Farm also made an appearance. Were they read for pleasure, or just because I had time to read them?

For quite a long time in my school-based life, giving time over to reading, apart from during school holidays often made me feel guilty. 1994 brought news of my first wife’s cancer and, in response, the purchase of a “life project”, a small cottage in France, to make an escape from real life worries for short periods. I started to find some books by Georges Simenon, via charity shops and local second-hand bookshops, to read when not involved in a DIY project or gardening. Slinging a hammock between two trees and having a half hour break created small reading spaces. Eventually, over time, the Simenon collection grew, in French and English, to be supplemented by other authors. I had developed a proper habit and stopped feeling guilty about “just sitting and reading”. It took a lot of effort and occasionally rears its head.  

​Children “reading for pleasure” appears to have been a cause of concern for the whole of my career in education, during which, having undertaken a post grad diploma in reading and language development, I have done surveys of reading at home, including numbers of books in the home. As a result, during home visits, I have met adults who rarely read anything in book form, have no books in the home and couldn’t tell you the name of any children’s author, whereas I have also visited homes where there have been library rooms and parents read to their children almost from birth.

If we were to consider reading for pleasure as something that one does outside a requirement to do so, inevitably, the approach by children to reading at home will vary considerably.

Reading at home, as mandated by schools as part of homework, can often mean children reading aloud to an adult. This then becomes a situation where a child performs to an adult, who may or may not appreciate any nuanced difficulties that the child might encounter in a specific book. If the adult then chooses to be judgemental, this can demotivate the child.

If schools were to allow children to take home books that they can read with ease, alone or to another, they may well derive greater pleasure from the experience, as they might be able to demonstrate greater facility and receive praise. In some households, too, the busyness and pressures of some family lives can mean limited time available, so reading is something that must be done, rather than a pleasant shared experience.

I have to admit to being a fan of colour coded systems, originally started by Cliff Moon for the Reading Reading Centre, where a wide range of books is sorted into broad categories of challenge.

Some will say that children judge each other, based on their colour book. They always have and always will, even if/especially if whole class reading from one book is the norm; see above and replace one parent with twenty-nine peers as was my early school reading diet.  

Within a colour coded system, teacher-level, guided books were also colour coded. As a result, a nominal decision was taken to allow children to take home any book on a colour below their guided level book, so that they could go home and read for themselves or with a parent. They were able to change their books daily if they wished. In every colour there were at least fifty books, so a child could have ten weeks of self-chosen reading, during which time, hopefully, they had moved on in teacher reading challenge.

When they finished the scheme, they had “free choice”, but with the rule of thumb of the “five finger rule”; if they read the first page and found more than five words that slowed them down in their reading, they might choose to come back to that book at a later stage.

In addition, each class had an author of the term, with books selected to provide extension, broader challenges. Letters or postcards to the authors were seen as alternatives to book reviews. One or more of the books might become the teacher read aloud book.

There needs to be thought on three layers of books; fluency, mild challenge (teacher led, five finger rule), frustration- too many words unknown reducing fluency and understanding (10 words per page as a simple rule).

Mentoring and coaching were embedded in the approach, as teachers and children regularly shared what they were reading with each other, were active in book selection from our termly bookshop, from Wessex Books (now Wells, Winchester), so were able to guide children/peers individually to books that might interest them.

Books were freely available, read by children and teachers, not just in a(n) ERIC (everyone reading in class) way, but through lots of book sharing, with enthusiasm for the process, the activity and the outcomes. Book walls shared some of the reading; eg an “I liked this book” wall.

Ease of access and availability of good quality books, time to read, share, model and talk books, all contribute to a reading culture. With tablets and laptops having recording facilities, children can read aloud to themselves and listen back, to embed some self-assessment/adaptation.

If schools don’t create a reading culture, home cannot always be relied on to do so. If children are to learn that reading can be pleasurable, they must have access to material that allows it to be so and to have time and space in which to develop independent reading habits.

​I recognise that much thinking has been done in the area of assessment, by a wide variety of experts in the field. My interest, working with developing teachers, is to instil some working methods that will enhance their ability to make appropriate judgements about children, their achievements and their learning needs. This, to me, has underpinned my thinking about assessment for the whole of my career. 
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​Assessment is thinking; about children and progress in learning and, if they’re not progressing, or progressing more rapidly than expected, doing something about the needs.

Think engaging and appropriate activity, think learning, think progress and outcomes, think on your feet and adapt for evident need, Think before, during and after the event. That is assessment; thinking, about each and every child’s response to the learning situation. Spotting those whose behaviours show lack of understanding or effort and those who may be finding the task easy.

High awareness, high surveillance and rapid and purposeful intervention; or in Dylan Wiliam's words "the reflective, reactive teacher".

​Make quality visible, so it can be discussed and evaluated openly and regularly.
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To me, assessment is just another way of saying “Know your children, well, and get to know them even better”; to define and constantly refine where they are academically, socially and personally, so that they can be challenged or supported through carefully planned activities and interventions. Assessment in one sense is about data, but, more importantly, it is about individual children and their life chances, developed through the best available teaching and learning opportunities.

To be effective, assessment has to be seen as informed, rational judgement, leading to specific adaptation of intention, through a variety of means. Most assessment is situational, being at one level a sense that something is not going as it should and seeking to make whole again. It can also mean that under-expectation means that the level of challenge (perhaps for a few) has to be recalibrated.

Looking for inspiration in the thesaurus, the following revealed itself. These are some of the synonyms for assessment. It is possible to argue that all assessment if formative, even a test, as it informs subsequent decisions about the direction and speed of learning.

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On my main blog, I have a number of posts on marking, looking to make it a realistic aspect of a teacher life, while ensuring that children can participate fully and utilise advice and feedback effectively.

Marking; keep it simple
Marking
Is marking moderation step 1
Back to marking

In “Marking; keep it simple”, the main premise is that the child targets should be on a fold out sheet that can be seen within a lesson, to guide teacher-child conversation, but also be a guide for marking later. It can incorporate non-negotiables, as they appear in earlier scripts.

In “Marking”, there is a discussion of marking as a dialogue between the teacher and the learner. I also question the place of homework where that generates marking load.

Homework can create additional marking need, but, if the activity is considered within the learning dynamics of the topic, does not necessarily need to do so.

Consider as home activity:-

• Draft from notes taken in a lesson, to be brought back as first draft, for editing in class.
• Summarise what has been learned into three key pieces of information. Boxed, it becomes a form of revision note.
• “Drawing and colouring” to save class time for discussion.
• Personal research which adds to the lesson.
• Reading a piece of text before the lesson.

None of the above needs detailed marking, as they are part of continuous effort.

As children mature as learners, they can begin to direct the teacher to areas for marking. If, say, adjectives have been the subject of learning, then the child can be asked to highlight the adjectives used, so they are easy to see.

In “is marking moderation step 1”, the teacher is acting as quality control, feeding back to the child where their work is ok and where there are areas for improvement. Teacher judgement is key to these stages.

Moderation stage 1; teacher child conversation.

Moderation stage 2; teacher-teacher conversation.

Moderation stage 3; school-area conversation.

Moderation stage 4; school-national outcomes conversation.

In “Back to Marking”, in addition to the above, I also suggest a number of key steps to consider.

• As an organisation, schools should set marking expectations that are clear, concise and achievable and have impact on learning.
• Plan mark loads over a known timescale, so that books are marked appropriately in timescales that enable feedback to be useful. If a whole week of devoted to “assessment activity” it is not surprising if workloads are heavy, especially as they usually back onto school holidays.

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

There are no easy solutions, as this area is often unique to the teacher and their interpretation of expectations. But it is worth significant consideration.
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Assessment is normally based on clearly articulated or published criteria, with a judgement of whether the outcome demonstrates certain abilities, so that the assessor can say with some definition that “x can do…”. Some assessment situations also require a judgement of pass or not, with a pass at merit or distinction. These are bottom line capabilities, seen, for example in driving tests, music exams and Initial Teacher Education, each of which requires a level of competence in order to progress, with further guidance available.

Critique is what I think I do when I go to an art gallery or listen to music, usually starting from appreciation of what I like, through areas which make me less comfortable, to aspects that I don’t like. This is coupled with a rationale, so my critique is a descriptor, linked to personal insights. There has to be a “because”. As a reflective person, sometimes this is an insular activity, but, when in company, a shared reaction can become the stuff of dialogue, comparative and nuanced, and that’s the part that interests me in terms of classroom practice.

I think children and their teachers should engage in discussion of quality in work, in all subjects. With visualisers becoming a part of classroom practice, it is very easy to share outcomes and explore and diagnose aspects of the work, together, with children being enabled to explore the language and parameters of critique. Description, followed by speculation, enables the questioner to raise issues in the mind of the producer, to enable answers which might, in themselves, highlight the specific areas for improvement. I’d also expect classroom spaces to be awash with examples of quality work, on display, or in portfolios, which set the benchmark for expectation and reflection within the class. It is a holistic approach.

I am now beginning to view success criteria as surrogate mark schemes for a specific context. If they embed statements which clarify the steps that need to be taken in order to produce a piece of work of quality, they can be checked at the end to see if they have been followed.

However, on top of that, there needs to be the capacity to advise individuals about the quality within the finished work. These personalised targets, attached to the edge of the book, can summarise the qualities being sought from that learner adding to the potential for both critique and assessment. Assessment, in this scenario, becomes a “signing off” activity, with the critique proving a qualitative set of statements.

Learners can engage with success criteria and I have visited a number of schools that embed systems where learners have to highlight areas of their work which, in their opinion, demonstrate a specific success criterion or personal target, which focuses marking. Self-diagnosis of outcomes is an essential skill of editing, drafting and redrafting activities.

Hants CC Special Ed Governors’ Conference

I feel that am lucky enough to live in, to have worked for, and to be a Governor in a County that has maintained a strong LA structure. This means that Governor Services play a very active role on Governor development, including an annual conference for Governors with interest or responsibility for SEND. It is an opportunity to meet together, but also to listen to speakers with a national profile, to bring experience and expertise from a wider perspective.

I hope that I have caught the flavour and some of the key details of the day.

This year’s conference started with Matthew Barnes, Specialist Adviser for SEND, HMI and Ofsted, whose key message was that Ofsted, while still maintaining rigour in processes, would be looking more closely at in-school systems, the impact of activities, whether a broad balanced curriculum was available to every child and personal development, including behaviour and welfare.

Learning and progress of all pupils was paramount. Leadership and management were highlighted, in that, in the absence of graded lessons, progress and rigorous evaluation of elements such as Performance Management and interventions, with clear evidence of investigation of anomalies would be needed.

Matthew emphasised that school tracking and data is for each school to determine and explain rationally, as well as being able to show the progress of children. He also shared thoughts on the IDSR, the Inspection Dashboard Summary Report, which Ofsted use to create points for investigation, utilising scattergrams and trends/outliers to clarify areas for consideration.

With a significant background and interest in SEND, Matthew also highlighted the need to track children whose performance is always likely to be described as “low”, giving examples of independence in various contexts, developing essential life skills, especially communication.

Questions that arose in my mind, as a result, were connected with a growing number of early career teachers, with, as Nick Gibb stated recently, a chance for “rapid promotion”.

• Much teacher/child interaction is based on judgements, derived from previous experiences. Is the experience sufficiently broad to encompass the skills to deal with the needs of the children in a class, or, if promoted, in a school?
• Linked to; have they had experience of teaching every year group for which they are responsible? Implications for decision-making?
• Do teachers really identify their concerns (personal/professional and about the children) sufficiently quickly and in sufficient detail to support their own and subsequent, supported investigation of anomalous outcomes or behaviours?
• Do early career teachers fully understand their responsibilities as teachers of SEND children? Do they fully understand, and adhere to, school systems?
• It is very easy for individual children to fall through or get tangled in supposed safety nets. Clarity and consistency are key.

Gareth Morewood, asked to be introduced as “a SENCo from Stockport”. Gareth is well respected among the SEND community, working at local and national levels. His title is Director of Curriculum Support, which, in some ways, could more clearly define the role of a SENCo. It is in coordinating curriculum support, teaching teachers and creating appropriate support programmes for children, that underpin the SENCo role.

His talk was essentially two parts of a whole, entitled Accountability in Action and Parent Partnerships and, in some ways, might have benefitted from being a whole session, to avoid a split in the narrative journey.

Gareth clearly highlighted the legal aspects of SEND legislation, including a very clear background to SEND changes effective from 2014. He suggested that schools should consider IPSEA online legal training module for the SENCo and possibly other members of staff. There is a need to consider the broad aspects of every teacher being a teacher of SEND, as legal responsibilities.

That teachers as teachers of SEND is especially highlighted in the legislation, was referred to often. Each teacher plays a central role in every aspect of learning, making reference to existing plans and developing and sharing personal targets, but also in highlighting anomalies as they arise, recording and discussing with the SENCo in timely manner.

A focus on definite outcomes, aspirational or otherwise, underpinned much of Gareth’s talk. To have clarity about where you want the child to end up offers guidance on interactions along the journey. In fact, it was interesting that both Gareth and Matthew talked of the importance of the journey, the process and the progress, through progressive outcomes.

Discussion of EHCP, education health and care plans was a central feature of Gareth’s talk, as this is the “sharp end” of SEND, when the way in which the school has managed a child’s needs to a particular point is placed under scrutiny by an external audience. The quality of record keeping, the interactions and interventions, with evaluations of outcomes, the involvement of external expertise and following through with their advice. The central place of the child and their parents was regularly emphasised.

In talking about personal target setting, Gareth was not a fan of IEPs, but preferred student passports. He has details of these on his blog, www.gdmorewood.com
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For me, a significant element in learning has always been how to keep the detail of current, key aspirations in front of teachers and children, so that they can be live within each piece of work. With a class of children, to remember the personal targets of each child might just be asking too much of the teacher. However, to articulate them in a form that can be easily accessed allows the child level targets to be discussed within activities. I’ll mention again the flip out sheets, within a drafting approach to written work.

For a number of parents, just to access the school can provide challenges, eg some may have had difficulty in school as children, which has left them uneasy in such settings. Making it easy to make contact with specific staff who are in a position to help or signpost a parent to help can allow easy resolution of issues. If parents know who’s who, who to contact and how to do so, with telephone, email or text access, they can more easily pass on their concerns and, if the school has a response system in place that can offer reassurance that the problem has been picked up and is receiving attention, they may well be calmed as a result. A case of a problem shared…

Staff training is of paramount importance, in creating structured approaches that help teachers and TAs to develop case studies that might support EHCP applications. Having easy to use systems, which can be digital or paper based, or a combination, allowing contemporary notes to be collected and collated, might just reveal patterns of behaviours that can give insights into issues.
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Parent Partnership issues were explored through both sections. It is important that these are established early and with some strength, ahead of potential need, especially where SEND needs are already clearly established and recorded. Active and productive parent partnership is not something that can be taken for granted as a natural part of the family-school “bond”, but, where it becomes a proper meeting of minds, can lead to proactive interventions that benefit the child and, by extension, the family and the school.

It’s something to work on.

I started teaching so long ago that it was certainly almost the dark ages for reading. The book stock in my first school was very limited and largely based on the Ginn 360 scheme, which gave a progression, so weekends and holidays were spent rummaging in charity shops to build up a personal class collection which would support the broader range of needs.

The prevailing advice from inspectors was that those with identifiable specific learning needs must be individually heard daily, those not quite keeping up at least three times and the better readers at least once.
With a class of 39 children that created a need for a lot of reading time.
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An integrated day, child-centred approach afforded some time, while playtimes and lunchtimes offered more. USSR, Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading happened straight after lunch, sometimes, but not often becoming ERIC, Everyone Reading in Class. Parent helpers were always welcomed. In the era of tape recorders, children had a personal tape, to be able to record themselves reading and to listen back to themselves as a self-correction activity. Almost another adult.

Phonics were taught, either directly to the whole class, to specific groups of children or within games situations. Approaches were multisensory, with sand trays, sandpaper shapes, plastic models, painting letters while saying out loud. We often did “rainbow letters”, overwriting or painting letters with different colours along strips of cardboard that came from the local materials bank. There was a link between gross motor and fine motor skills, enhanced by the use of blank paper exercise books with different width guide lines.

At the same time personalised phonics skills and sight vocabularies were regularly checked, developed and supported with spellings home and regular tests. Spelling was based on the look, cover, write and check approach, developing aspects of short term memory.

Cliff Moon’s Individualised Reading approach effectively colour coded the available reading schemes into bands within a defined readability level, from approximately age 5, rising by 6 months for each colour. Variation occurs, but an example from a school is below.

If each colour was stocked with sufficient books, this allowed free access to children to change books as and when they finished them, rather than waiting for a defined change time. Any commentary on the book was oral or shared through the home-school record, with any written responses limited to a postcard to the author.
It is important to recognise that the colours also had an essence of reading age embedded, so that progress could be described both in terms of colour movement and reading age, which can be compared with chronological age as a rule of thumb. Colour coded schemes also highlight children who are “stuck” and might need particular guidance.

Home-school reading record books became all-purpose reading records and comment books, shared by teachers and parents, with comments made at the time of hearing a child read. Individualised reading records were kept.

This approach created an understandable spine, with defined progression embedded. It allowed consideration of the different needs of readers, in that where a child needed some guidance within a book in order to be able to read it, defined a teaching level book. All books below this would be fluent level books, while any book above the guided level might be at a frustration level.
For reading at home, children could select from their fluent colours, changeable daily if needed. Inevitably, the movement from one teaching level to another determined the books read at home, so there was an element of motivation engendered, as well as a desire to be seen to be making progress.

Guiding teachers, children and parents within these books was achieved through bookmarks which had been written with a specific level in mind. Based on a “can do” approach, the statements, such as talk about the setting or a specific character, were given to encourage conversation between reader and listener. Colour coded to link with the books being read, they had an appreciable impact.

Beyond and around the spine, other books were available. Children took home a non-fiction book each week within their library exchange period. “Free reader” was the ultimate accolade, when self-selection from the available books required different guidance and knowledge from the teacher of the available texts. Non-fiction texts were displayed within the topic corner, available for reading, but also for study skill lessons, using the books to enhance the literacy curriculum, through note taking and information gathering. The index and contents offered opportunities for alphabetical order and judgements about suitability of the text.
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Author sets of books became a feature of each classroom, changed each term. This allowed consideration of author styles and approaches to writing across the class. In many case, the range of books written by the chosen authors allowed access across the whole class. One or more of the books would be chosen as teacher books to share with the children.

Free readers need the skills of choosing a book for themselves. To facilitate this, children were taught the “five-finger” rule; read the first page and fold one finger for each word that caused a problem. If five were counted, it’s probably too difficult. They also had to read the blurb to support their decision, made in discussion with the teacher. Children also had the (adult) right to say that they were not enjoying a book.

Children learned to read and enjoyed the process, in doing so becoming avid readers. Proof? For want of better, SAT English L4+ scores at age 11, usually 85% plus in classes with 20%+ SEN. Others will have greater evidence, from different approaches.

By now the reader will have noticed a theme developing.

• A good range of reading material should be available, organised to support progress. Colour coded would be my preference, as it saves some teacher decision making.
• Teacher awareness of available material and individual reading abilities and interests is essential.
• The reading journey should be guided and supported as well as guided personal practice and a dynamic that encourages sharing books as widely as possible.
• Adult engagement with different aspects is essential; diagnostic if necessary, such as miscue analysis and developmental feedback, written records of books read and qualitative statements of reading. Consider a home-school diary, especially for those who need close monitoring, and make sure that there is a positive dialogue, not just a parent notebook.
• Reading between guided sessions is essential to fluency. This can be in the form of expectation to read to a certain point in a specific timescale. Just to say to read at home for homework is not a sufficient driver.

​

Developing a culture of reading in the class.

• Create a book corner which actively encourages engagement.
• “Author of the term”; a collection of books by one author, to be read and then followed up.
• Postcards to an author; Fold A4 in half; Side one, a pictorial interpretation of the book, side two a postcard commentary, aimed at the author.
• Letters to an author, alive or dead; offers opportunity for commentary instead of formal book review.

Display potential

• Reading walls, considering an audience. Potential for home activity?
• Photocopy book covers. Speech bubble commentary from children.

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I LOVE books
·         Wordsmiths. Ten interesting words I have found in ……….(book title)
·         Settings, characters. Descriptions into art, art into words.
·         Settings in a box. 3D theatres allowing story telling, possibly animation.

In 1995, I wrote an article for Books for Keeps, based on 3D models. Can be read here:-
http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/92/childrens-books/articles/other-articles/books-into-art

• Storyboarding a book? Eg a book as a 5-picture cartoon.

 
Parents as partners
While parents are considered as partners within this process, there is no guarantee that they will all have a clear understanding of expectations, nor can it be assumed that every child goes home to a literate household.

Schools need to be aware of this dynamic, to avoid stress either to the child or the parents. Support and help may be needed and, where there is limited scope for support, this may need to be the focus for in-school intervention, such as additional TA time for reading.

Many schools have developed parent evenings specifically devoted to reading guidance, with modelling to parent of how to share books, not just talking about reading policies.

Where this was repeated over time and with an assurance that every parent participated, the impact on reading progress was often very impressive.

TEN SIGNS OF A SUCCESSFUL (ENGLISH) TEACHER

(Exeter University; Primary Improvement Project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust 1997)

This project looked at learning dynamics within reading classes and found the following:-

• A high level of personal enthusiasm for literature, often supplementing the school’s resources with their own books.
• Good professional knowledge of children’s authors and teaching strategies
• Importance of literacy stressed within a rich literacy environment
• Progress celebrated publicly and children’s confidence increased
• Teaching individualised and matched to pupil’s ability and reading interests
• Systematic monitoring and assessment
• Regular and varied reading activities
• Pupils encouraged to develop independence and autonomy, attacking unfamiliar words, or teachers backing pupils’ judgment as authors
• A high quality of classroom management skill and personal relationships with pupils
• High expectations, children striving to reach a high standard, whatever their circumstances

 

​No-one reading my blogs will be surprised that I like this book by Paul Dix! It's a book written with humour, humility and humanity, deriving from experience.

In any school, the climate is set by the adults in charge. How they choose to set up rules and regulations, sometimes generic, often quite prescriptive. Some choose to take this to an extreme and employ “no excuses” policies, while others work through the children taking responsibility for their own self-regulation.

Schools are based on countless interactions each and every day. The quality of these interactions enables a child to have a sense of belonging or to feel alienated and distant from the organisation, with the latter potentially demonstrating as dissociated behaviours leading to further alienation.

Consistency is a central feature of a successful behaviour management system. Everyone knows what is expected, because it is talked about and publicised effectively. The teachers have a clear understanding which allows them to interact easily and speedily. This knowing enables mutual regard and levels of trust, which in turn are enabling. Children like to feel that they are liked for themselves and will acknowledge when they are in the wrong, if the systems allow for this. This approach enables rapid restorative actions.

A sense of belonging is instilled if you are noticed and acknowledged. This might be formally, as a personal greeting on entry to the classroom, handshakes, or simply a friendly smile and noticing, as children enter the classroom. If you have a place that is yours, either a tray and hook for your things in a Primary school or a locker and a set place in a classroom in Secondary, it confers you as a school/class member.

Behaviour management can sometimes feel like “keeping on keeping on”, posters, messages in class or assemblies, or selected gatherings, eg simply having the boys of their toilets are messy. It is about clarity of expectations, well articulate, a collegiate staff approach and appropriate “follow through” that is supported by everyone.

Parents are a key group in this regard. Excellent communication is a hallmark of schools that enjoy better behaviour relations, as the parents support the school approaches.

Spotting children being good can be a very positive way to define what is expected. In a Primary classroom, this can be as simple as a thank you to a child for sitting well on a carpet. It could be a special recognition in an assembly, or a star of the day in class. Marbles in a jar can become a motivation, if there’s a tangible reason for their collection. It’s also a collaborative effort, embedding a team culture into a classroom. However, as Paul Dix points out the “token economy” can be counter-productive, as merits, or similar, are showered on some children, alienating others. Unintended consequences?

Calmness is tested by poor behaviour. But keeping calm through difficulty can be a significant factor in rapid resolution. Children recognising where they are at fault enables fair solutions to be sought. Paul uses the term “botheredness”. This takes time, patience and a drip feed of positive reinforcement; the teacher being bothered models botheredness to the children.

Passing on praise from another teacher, a parent or someone from the wider community is an important aspect. Someone has spotted something good, bothered enough to mention it and this needs to be fed back to the children. A “well done” goes a very long way, equivalent to a “thank you”.

Security and certainty are a necessary part of being an adult in school. The opposite can lead to insecurity and uncertainty in children, which results in getting into trouble, sometimes inadvertently.

This is an excellent book, that will challenge many experienced teachers, but, with newbies, will give insights into good and less useful practices, as they come to terms within their new role. Hopefully, it’ll enable them to “smile before Christmas” and to run classroom that turn into places where high quality learning takes place at all times.

As a headteacher, I’d often tell children that I was the highest paid nag in the school, that their parents expected that of me and that the teachers were paid to do that too, but that we’d prefer not to be doing that all the time. Even as young as four, they seemed to understand that…

Paul’s conclusion is that “a focus on adult behaviour is the only responsible approach”. Staying calm and in control of yourself, is a start point for controlling others.
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Or to quote Vic Goddard, of Passmores School, “We make the weather” …

When I was around 6 years old, we had a holiday in Wales, staying at my grandmother’s house. Gran had a traveller family background and, one day, rummaging around in a chest of drawers, we came across, wrapped in a velvet cloth, a crystal ball, which confirmed in our childish minds that she was, indeed a gypsy. We didn’t want to incur the wrath of Gran, nor bring bad luck on our heads by disturbing the ball, as our older cousin intimated, so we carefully put it back in it’s resting place.

That we don’t know what the future will bring, in many ways is probably a good thing.

We can only seek to plan for perceived or imagined futures.

I have been very lucky, being born at a particular time, still with some post-war rationing, but able to go to college to train as a teacher with a grant, supplemented by holiday jobs.

From a relatively poor starting point, with dysfunctional parents, I have always been a very prudent adult and have scrimped, saved and occasionally salvaged, in order to “make ends meet”.

The fear of being poor is a powerful driver. Paying off the mortgage was a significant day; I owned my house! Modest holidays, camping in the UK and then to join friends who had emigrated to France, meant that subsequent savings allowed the purchase of a very small cottage, which cost the price of a modest caravan, and still would as French house prices have not risen as they have here. Improvements have been saved for.

And now, I look forward to the latter part of this year, when I should be the recipient of that terminal-sounding “old-age pension”.

For all of this I feel lucky, but…

I cannot look to the future without considering others who are my family, especially the younger generations, who, even if they were to scrimp, save and salvage, cannot aspire in the same way as my generation did.

I am annoyed and embarrassed that (political) members of my generation and the one that followed, who also enjoyed the same, have somehow conspired to ensure that a seemingly rich nation cannot now afford many of the things that we were able to take almost for granted, which means that where I could dream, even if the crystal ball didn’t help, my children and grandchildren, will not have the same, even if they take the same job opportunities.

Then what?

Following Mark Thomas’ show, I’ve been looking at the future…I have, after all, some gypsy blood...

Brexit will undoubtedly cause many problems, that some of us can perceive, but which will suddenly become very real, as “negotiations” proceed and cause significant public disquiet; no-one, I am sure, voted to be poorer, but that may become the reality.

Politicians, especially those closely associated with Brexit, will take the easy option and resign to go into relative obscurity, but may then join private enterprise companies as directors.

Pay will continue to stagnate, especially in the public services, which will further diminish what is available.

As the current workforce ages, “controlled immigration”, as an outcome of Brexit, will not fill gaps, so manufacture and house building, hospitality, nursing, teaching and social care, supermarkets among many others, will start to retrench, as they cannot find personnel.

House prices, unless they are artificially kept high by Government intervention (see recent schemes) will start to fall. Lowering house prices will cause disquiet among home owners, but anguish among younger purchasers, as the pay-mortgage differential begins to squeeze tighter- I remember the impact of 15% interest rates on a relatively small mortgage. Lowering house prices will not necessarily help younger people get onto the housing ladder, as pay may still not be sufficient.

​"Ex-pats" will return to the UK in numbers. The value of their houses in Spain or France probably will not purchase a house in the UK. Older and possibly with illness, they will need housing and nursing care, creating a new burden on the budgets.

Speculators, hedge funds and larger landlords, however, may well have a field-day, buying up repossessed properties. What proportion of MPs are private landlords? Profumo?

The “bank of mum and dad” will come more into play, supporting children through this period, but for revenue need rather than house purchase.

This bank will also be called upon to pay for any necessary personal care, especially if you have saved over a certain amount.

And then what? In 30 years’ time, when my contemporaries, like me, will hope to be approaching 100 (that’s frightening when written down) a smaller working population, potentially made poorer by decisions in 2016-17, will not be in any position to sustain spending, even as it is now. When you’ve sold the family silver, and anything else of any worth, there’s not much room for manoeuvre, and poorer people/countries can’t borrow.

The “people have spoken”, will be used by some politicians to mean that they can do anything they wish; it will be “our fault” not theirs; they are only doing what “we” asked.

Preferred future?

Stop being celebrity politicians and get on with the day jobs. At the moment, smoke and mirrors are deflecting from the real issues that affect everyday lives.

Stop this stupid Brexit. If, as CEO of UK Ltd, Theresa May is prepared to make the country financially and morally bankrupt, she, and her Government should be held personally responsible when it goes wrong, especially if she assumes a hardened approach. I’d like them all to place their houses and banking wealth into a sovereign wealth fund, only returnable if I’m wrong and Brexit is a success, in 10-20 years’ time, just like company bonuses. They are, effectively, gambling with our futures. They are all right, Jack.

Start talking, rather than posturing and ranting about “them”.

For the rest of us, I’d like us to be able to get on with our lives, without the constant backdrop of politicking that seems to dominate every discourse.

I’d quite like to enjoy whatever life is left to me.

I’d like to be able to plan a future that includes an active and interesting retirement. I’m not a ski-er, so will continue my careful ways.

I’d like to think that, if I am ever ill, there will be a safety net available.

I’d like to think that my children and grandchildren may enjoy their lives too, to dream, to strive, to enjoy the fruits of (modest) success.

I’d like the world to be clean, healthy and able to sustain them.
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Too much to seek?

This week, I have been able to have a number of conversations that have drawn on my teaching career and life experience in general. One of these was in the context of special educational needs and “inclusion”. The term inclusion rightly became a significant part of political and social life within the past twenty years, but I have always wondered if the label itself, defined as a state of being included, implies an “outsider” who has to be incorporated into a group, which in turn has to adapt to the new person; “Please can I be included?” It reminds me of playground games; who’s chosen first and who’s left until last?

That people are different is easily understood.

The differences can, at times, be exaggerated at the expense of similarities, to the point where accommodation is deemed impossible. This, in education terms, can amount to a form of exclusion; you don’t fit us, we can’t cope with difficulties like those.

However, finding the right educational setting for defined needs is key to success.

 My career has shown me that capacity creates capacity, in that schools which find themselves able to accommodate individual needs find the capacity to adapt to the needs of all children, so making themselves desirable and valued by parents and children. Schools operating in challenging areas, taking every child who comes through the door, often because they simply have space, with a positive adult workforce, can transform children’s lives. For the first time, some have space to grow, even if, from time to time, they rail against the system. Children are little humans and have, at their age, perhaps less self-control than adults are supposed to have. They make errors of judgement.

For eight of the past ten years, until two years ago, I did substantial work with Inclusion Quality Mark. This came up in conversation this week, as a Twitter acquaintance proudly told me that her school had recently received confirmation of the award. As I had been instrumental in developing the audit in use from 2015, I was aware of the qualities that the school would have displayed, as there were significant common themes that ran through each, although there were contextual adaptations to evident need.

It made me have a look at bits that I wrote during that time, after visits to schools. The following is an extract from one summary, anonymised.

To move from Special Measures to Outstanding in three years suggests that something special happens in London Primary School. Whilst working with the same staff, the school has seen a rapid turn-around. The principle can be easily stated, as Personalisation in everything, holding to the Every Child Matters ethos, although the practical aspects are more complex to describe. London encounters virtually every identifiable barrier to learning, seeks to identify root causes and then to find solutions which allows each child to feel valued and to develop self-esteem, from which learning needs can be addressed, as children have the skills to cope when errors are made. 

Passionate, articulate, hard-working, engaged, analytical, purposeful, creative, inspirational and visionary are all adjectives that can be attributed to the London staff. It was a pleasure to spend quality time in their company.

Equally, if I could nominate a school where Inclusion is lived and breathed, it would be London. It permeates every aspect of school life, perhaps, as the Head of School commented, “With so much need, we have no choice but to use inclusive approaches”. But inclusion at London is more than that statement; it is the raison d’etre, like a stick of rock, sliced anywhere, the word Inclusive would be seen, hearts, minds, bodies and souls are dedicated to the same aims. Although the end of term was in sight, there was still and energy and vibrancy to the school which belied its Victorian building, although even that had been imaginatively used to enhance all aspects of teaching and learning, from Nursery to eleven.

I came away from this visit to London Primary with two thoughts that summarise its outlook:-

 The staff give above and beyond what one can reasonably expect of them.
 Nobody is left out, child or adult. All are valued for their unique gifts and talents.
Two quotes from a parent and a teacher add to the summary:-
“Like a big family.”
“We offer a glimmer of hope in their lives. We are here to make a difference.”
While an external view was that:-
“The school makes excellent links with the community and other schools to deliver a high quality of service to families”.

The school aims for every child to have a happy and active primary education in an environment that is caring and supporting. It provides a stimulating and structured environment in which every child will be encouraged to reach their full potential.”

Teachers, at all levels of experience, take their responsibilities very seriously, working hard to improve themselves through personal reading and regular networking, where this is easily available. Some are prepared to spend part of a weekend at conferences. They want to offer the best of themselves, so that every child receives the best that they can offer. The best teaching context is collegiate, with expertise willingly shared.

External judgements on the system, schools or individual teachers often creates a negative image; for seemingly thirty years it has often been found wanting and “in need of improvement”, to use an Ofsted judgement, while children may be judged to “not be at national standard” at SATs. Some of these children may well be told this throughout their schooling. And yet, we are, as a profession, acutely aware that labels hurt children (people), this being one of the arguments for removing levels, but we’re in a cultural period where no-one quite knows exactly what to expect of children’s outcomes, as there isn’t, as yet, a common expectation that can be articulated and demonstrated. Teacher insecurity can lead to insecure advice and guidance. We are also at a point where long serving teachers are retiring, to be replaced by younger, less experienced staff. A recent post looked at different stages of teacher development, where less experiences professionals may be more likely to be concerned with getting structures right than the details of specific needs.

Collegiality, quality mentoring and high quality communication are key to safeguarding educational opportunities for each child.

Inclusion is a personal and school wide ethos. It cannot thrive in isolated pockets, without frustration creeping in. Poor communication and inaccessibility engender parent and teacher annoyance with each other. Frustration, on either side can lead to rapidly diminishing relationships, which then have to be tackled before the needs of the children can be addressed.
​

I’ve included again, the general outcomes from multiple visits to schools to look at Inclusion (above) and also a link to a post that looks at the underlying principles of inclusive practice.
 
 
It can be a salutary experience to really take a look at yourself first.
 

According to a report today, paraphrased by Icing on the Cake aka @JackMarwood on Twitter as
To paraphrase a report today, "Since 2012 pupils from high-income families have made more progress year-on-year than poorer classmates".

If this is, indeed an accurate summary, I began to speculate why this may be the case.

We are in a very strange economic period, with many people working in low paid jobs, more than likely renting in a market where costs appear to be rising significantly annually.

Where people are working in reasonably well paid jobs and may well have started to purchase a house, their mortgage rate is significantly lower than at any point that I can remember. Unless this has led them to borrow too highly, the repayments could still be manageable. I may not be alone in remembering when mortgage interest was at 15%. even on a relatively small mortgage, it meant pulling back on unnecessary spending. It was the point where my wife and I became vegetarian; half a kilo of pulses cost significantly less than half a kilo of meat.

In both cases, additional personal debts, through bank loans or credit cards may also be a drain on finances.

To me, a significant factor will always be the amount of disposable income, for discretionary spending, after all bills have been paid, with consequent decisions that are made as to how it will be spent or saved. It’s whether other demands, like children needing shoes, or other clothes, or perhaps replacing a specific piece of household machinery need to be considered first.

How does this impact on social mobility? I’d pose the view that children from better off families have greater access to social activities that cost money and fall within discretionary spending; sports and other activities, in and out of school, visits to places of interest, museums and galleries, with entry and transport costs. They may well share more social gatherings. They may also have greater access to personal ownership of books and other elements that aid learning, such as wifi and computer links.

Each of these opportunities provides valuable opportunity to talk within a family or a social group, generating a greater social vocabulary and to develop social awareness and confidence. It broadens their view of the world, of possibility and aspiration. If you have never had sufficient money to make decisions that can appear to be frittering it on fripperies, you’re likely to hold back in some way, a form of self-limiting.

It is for all these reasons that schools need to be aware of their communities, to make appropriate decisions to offer opportunity to address some embedded deprivation. It is easy for schools to espouse a “high expectation” mantra, but it is also a case for having high expectations of the school and the teachers to broaden horizons, open eyes to the potential around them and to harness the community, including parents, to support the children for whom they have joint responsibility to educate, formally and informally.

Why does London appear to do better that other areas? I’d suggest that free transport for children and relatively easy access to free world class galleries, museums and other culturally rich experiences is likely to have a part to play; something that might be unthinkable in other areas. I recall a trip to a Redruth (Cornwall) school, where teachers were aware of children who had not visited the sea, four miles away, purely because of transport costs.

​I could see a strong argument for a part of Pupil Premium moneys being allocated to providing social learning opportunity outside of the school experience, to address elements of the inequality, providing experiences that enhance formal school situations.

Social inequality? We have inequality in disposable income, but possibly also inequality of awareness. It's not the children at fault for being born into poorer families. It might be argued that it is a state responsibility to address the issues arising.  

That plays a significant part in a child accessing social experience, which, in turn becomes debilitating socially. Poverty creates poverty of opportunity.
 

Having just come back from a summer well-spent in the garden of my tiny maison secondaire, which had few facilities, including a lack of internet connection, time was available to indulge in some of the boxed games that pass time, especially of a warm evening, or during the heat of the day, when a hammock isn’t in use.

An old game but a favourite is Boggle. It’s advertised as a three minute word game, but sometimes the time is less relevant, as it is equal for everyone. It provides a mental challenge, with an element of competition. The requirement is to make as many words as possible, with three letters or more, with one point for 3 or 4 letter words, 2 for 5 letters, 3 for 6 and 5 for 7+. The letters have to be linked on an edge or a corner to make a complete word.

For me, this year, it was interesting to reflect on my approach to the game, in line with on-line discussions about word attack skills, including phonics.
​
Letter-sound correspondence is a key starting point as is the ability to blend letters together; examples on the shared board might be ea, st or ng. Each offers the opportunity to extend the sound by adding letters before or after.
​

Over the past few months, I have been working with a school to explore and enhance their links with parents. This is through the Leading Parent Partnership Award scheme, for which I have been an adviser and assessor for over ten years.

The initial discussion demonstrated a great willingness to embrace the philosophy that engaging with parents has a significant impact across many areas of child, class and school performance. This has been explored over the past fifteen years, with notable reports by Charles Desforges (2003) and the Department for Education and Skills (2007). Links to both reports are at the foot of this blog.

The LPPA has a long track record of working closely with schools, to enhance interaction, tailored to the contextual needs of the school. This must be the reality, as every context has nuanced differences, which need to be accommodated, if the project is to be successful. Some schools already do a great deal and want to have validation of their practice, while others see a need to improve or change the ways in which they interact with parents.
In the summer of 2015, I visited several schools and wrote a blog to capture some of the benefits derived from a close look at parent-school interactions and the impact on the school of relatively simple tweaks to practice.

Three months ago, the visit was a general discussion, based on the school’s initial auditing of the current situation. During the discussion, I offered a couple of relatively simple tweaks; the first was the idea of a “stay on and …” sharing activity, for 15-25 minutes at the beginning or end of the school day, where parents and children actively engage with a joint task, many of them leading into the first lesson of the day. The second was based on an exploration of parent involvement in assemblies. At that point they did not participate.

Arriving at the school for a 9am start, I was whisked around the school to see 1) an assembly that involved a parent audience and 2) several classes, across both infants and juniors, where a large number of parents were involved in active learning with their child. The school had investigated how the parents, staff and children felt about the changes and everyone expressed delight at the impact.

Parents were getting to understand more about how their child’s class was running, staff were able to interact informally with parents, even with some who previously had been seen as “hard to reach”, who had been “encouraged” into school by their children’s invitation. Children’s attendance had improved over that period.
The school is reflecting on the project to date, is looking to distil the essential elements for the autumn term and will be actively pursuing these elements, over a longer timescale, to more fully understand the benefits.

Stay on and… activities

An image that links with a piece of writing; write a set of adjectives to describe elements in the image.
An image that links with the class topic theme. Describe what you can see; what do you know about the image?
Read together, from the current reader.
P4C question; Thunks; General topic question; Moral dilemma; School/class rules…
Play a game; generic; mathematical…
Draw; still life; plants; use pencil, ink, crayon, pastel, charcoal.
Write a short description of a character.
​Solve some maths problems.
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Please add any thoughts through the comment thread.

Charles Desforges http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/18617/Desforges.pdf
DfES file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Documents/LPPA/6937_DFES_Every_Parent_Matters_FINAL_PDF_as_published_130307.pdf

Looking out for the “newbies”.

As the term and the school year comes towards a close, staff have largely moved and been replaced, often with a newly qualified teacher, a newbie, fresh from their training. I’ve recently finished my final visits to School Direct trainees as a Link Tutor for one group and Quality Assurance for another. It is always a good thing to spend some time after an experience, to evaluate the process and the details that contribute to the whole, so that necessary tweaks can be made to improve the system for the future.
​
It was a feature of all the trainees, across both groups, that their standard of professionalism was extremely high. This I have explored in an earlier blog post, identifying Teacher Standards 8,7,1,3 as common features of early success; they have a professional demeanour, recognised by colleagues and children, enabling them to get across their ideas.
​

In my quality assurance report to one of the Teaching Schools’ Alliances, I focused on the role of the mentor as a key element in addressing the issues that will be a part of the whole training year, especially where there is a need to undertake a short practice in an alternative Key Stage. I offer these thoughts here, before extending them a little.

An earlier blog on mentoring looked at it as a form of CPD.

The quality of mentoring can be a significant variable, both in terms of the personality and the teaching quality of the individual mentors, but also in the receiving school, as a whole, in their preparedness to support a developing teacher.

In the early stages, where quality induction is required, there is a need to explore the totality of education and to make sense of the whole, as it is evidenced in their host school; eg ethos, safeguarding, behaviour management, expectations, resource base, planning approaches, among many others. This wealth of information can be overwhelming, if not carefully managed, and should not rely on the trainee just to find out for themselves. Introductions to key personnel need to be made, with Maths and English managers and the SENCo, to familiarise the trainee with current issues.

The mentor (or a nominated colleague) may also have to act as the “tutor in residence”, able to support the academic aspects of the course; at least to be party to reflective discussions about the writing tasks.

The above does require a mentor programme to run alongside the trainee programme. If, as suggested, trainees were given time to discuss “papers” during their training days, these could then inform discussions with mentors, to gain a school perspective on the topic.

In discussion, it is clear that many mentors do not generally attend formal gatherings, in doing so, limiting the opportunity to develop a network. This is not a dissimilar picture in university mentor meetings. Some thought needs to be given to incentives to encourage attendance, or at least to discourage non-attendance.
 
Regular meetings with mentors, on a personal level, “mentoring the mentors”, would also support the STSA profile. Where University Link Tutors visit more regularly, it can seem that some schools are able to misinterpret the roles of different visiting representatives.

To summarise. Mentors need to be fully appraised of the training programme, the demands on themselves and the trainees from the Alliance and the University and be able to provide support that ensures a smooth training opportunity.

After a committee discussion yesterday, I took the thoughts one step further, by reflecting on the role of the receiving school, developing the whole school into a global mentoring system, rather than just relying on one colleague, although, for weekly discussions, this would still be the case.

This, to me, sits within a “Teaching School”s Alliance; a collection of teaching schools, rather than a central Teaching School with satellite schools agreeing to take trainees. In this way, everyone becomes a mentor, additional CPD becomes an opportunity to reflect on practice and the central Teaching School could invite broader discussion within the group to explore the sharing of very successful practice.
We need high quality teachers, well supported at vulnerable times of their teaching careers.

The NQTs arriving in schools in September will not be the “finished article”. The newbies, transferring in from other schools may also be vulnerable. They will need support to settle, to organise and orientate themselves, to pick up the wide range of school systems in order to become effective colleagues. They need to get to know the children and the expectations that the school has of their progress during the year. They need to know the quality standards. These need to be effectively shared during induction, but also as a continuous activity. Induction could last the year, with regular meetings to support, enable downloading of problems, seeking solutions.

This is a school level need. Often, if a teacher is failing, it is the lack of colleague intervention that makes this harder to resolve. Teaching can be a solitary activity, but it is a team game. Everyone should be looking out for the newbies.

​Let's make all schools Teaching Schools, committed to teacher development at all stages of their careers. 
  

Assessment is very much in the news, almost daily, as we are in “Assessment Season”, with SATs, GCSEs and GCE as external testing and a considerable amount of time spent assessing every year group in between. Much of the internal time is spent “evidencing” that a child has a specific capability, not just once, but several times over a time period, so that the evidence has greater “validity” especially for external moderators. It appears to be showing up potentially significant flaws in the system as it impacts on Primary education, with bemoaning of interactions with moderators, who accept elements of school evidence and then close down discussion with their judgements.

Assessment, at core, means knowing the children, being able to sum up the child at a moment’s notice and having an idea of their needs in order to make progress.

When it comes down to brass tacks, much of assessment is a value judgement. I may not see things in exactly the same way as you. For most of life, that is fine; we can go our own sweet ways, never really bothering about each other. However, where we, as a collective have to agree on whether a specific element of a subject has been “sufficiently” evidenced and is of quality, it may well produce a fine or even a wide difference of opinion. If your judgement, by virtue of your status, is held to be superior, it may well undermine my own confidence in my judgement, with repercussions for the future.

And yet, teachers, in classrooms all over the country are making instant judgements, split-second decisions that ensure the smooth running of a lesson, especially for identified individuals, who may need greater confidence.
Having worked with a large number of School Direct trainees this year, the area of Progress and Outcomes (Teaching Standard 2) linked to their Planning (TS4), then to in-lesson thinking, evaluation and adaptation (TS 6&5) have been the hardest to evidence. One significant issue was the difference in approach between their two school experiences, where often the two schools use different approaches. This led to insecurity in decision making. In September, many will be working in yet another school, with potentially another different scheme. The lack of commonality makes it hard for trainers and trainees.

Much teacher time in 2013/4 was spent discussing or actively promoting the demise of Levels. Where levels were used purely as data points, with little or no reference to the word descriptors, they began to lose currency, especially as this approach enabled children to “progress” with apparent “gaps” in their knowledge. Where schools tracked individuals against their specific learning needs, this aspect was avoided.

We now have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in many places as indicators of capabilities being sought in particular year groups. It is significantly likely that, at the year end, a proportion of the children in a year group will have “gaps” in their knowledge, which, unless it is tracked on an individual basis, will embed those gaps throughout. Equally, a proportion of children will have found the learning relatively easy and will be working at greater depth. How to evidence that, easily, will also be important.

The removal of levels was supposed to free up the curriculum, to ensure that there were “no limits” to achievement. With a significant focus on Maths and English in the current curriculum, there are regular apocryphal stories, via social media, of children in Primary school having a diet of Maths and English (and PE if they are lucky). So, in removing what was seen as a burden on teachers, to make judgements across different curricular areas, where the descriptors supported aspects of progression, the unintended consequences might be the removal of a common language for discussion and a severely limited curriculum.

It is easy to see how the different elements that make up Teaching and Learning have become more stylised, in order to ensure that each decision point is easily pointed out to an external moderator, or Ofsted.

So everything becomes a “thing” instead of a component in a cyclic process that is based around the central premise of getting to know the children as well as possible.

Planning becomes more rigid, to ensure that every teacher conforms and it can be explained easily. Differentiation can become a range of activities, rather than tasks with define challenge to need. Quality First teaching becomes whole class teaching. Assessment, instead of meaning prompts for in class teacher thinking and interactions, can mean checking the outcome after the lesson- (even Dylan Wiliam now sees AfL as responsive teaching). This approach leads to stacks of marking afterwards.
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​The trainees emerging from ITE this summer may well be entering a very different context to those in which they trained; after all, to be designated a Teaching School, the host school has to be “outstanding”. The receiving school must ensure that a professional mentor, capable of supporting the trainee is in place and has time to fully ensure that induction:-

Allows the NQT to settle early into the day to day running of the school, as a person of status, with colleagues, parents and children. (TS8)
Has good behaviour control operating within the articulated school system. (TS7)
Is able to plan effectively over timescales that allow for thinking time in between to ensure teaching of quality and to fill in any gaps in personal knowledge. (TS4&3)
Is aware of previous attainment, so that benchmarks are established early, to ensure no slippage. (TS2)
Is aware of assessment system in operation, to embed early in expectations. (TS6&1)
Allows them to think for themselves within each lesson and tailor responses to the evident needs of the children. (TS5)
In this way, some capacity is built into the system, enabling the trainee to become more autonomous over time. Not to do so condemns the trainee to be a dependent member of staff.

And, just reviewing the bullet points, the teaching standards could very easily be phrased as learner standards and expectations. They are, after all, two sides of the coin.

Allows the child to settle early into the day to day running of the class, as a person of value, with teachers, parents and children. (LS8)
With developing self-control, operating within the articulated school system. (LS7)
Able to involve themselves effectively over timescales that allow for thinking time in between to ensure teaching of learning and to fill in gaps in personal knowledge. (LS4&3)
Aware of previous attainment, so that benchmarks are established early, to ensure no slippage. (LS2)
Aware of assessment system in operation, to embed early in expectations. Knowing what to do to get “better” (LS6&1)
Allowing them to think for themselves within each lesson and expect appropriate responses to evident personal needs. (LS5)

Regular discussions, focused around Progress and Outcomes (TS2) can support wider expectations of learners and enable refinement in planning, exposition, in-lesson behaviours and post-lesson judgements about next steps.

After all, it’s all based on assessment; refined/agreed judgements.

Remember 24652=refinement.

In between Bank Holiday garden tidying, preparing a room for decorating, trips to the dump and then a couple of hours of painting, I've been seeing a constant stream of tweets about the year 7 "resits" proposed for those who achieve less than the "expected standard" in the recent testing. It has provided some food for thought. 

In a few weeks’ time, the results of this year’s SAT tests for year 6 children will be returned to schools to share with children. Some will have done well enough, while others won’t have done. That there will be a range is highly likely. That this range will tell teachers who was an able learner and the gradation, as a class list down to the child who has come “bottom”, will also be no surprise. They could have told anyone that anyway. They know their children after a year of hard work, like every one of their colleagues.

Transition is a testing time anyway, especially as it involves moving schools, for many, at year 2 and 6. Transition within a school can be testing, as children and teachers build an attachment for each other. By the end of any year, good teachers will have extended their children in all areas, to a point where they are unrecognisable from the children who entered the class only ten months earlier. They mature, physically and mentally, achieving at levels higher than the previous year. They, their parents and the teacher are proud of their joint achievements.

Ok, I can dream that it is like that for every child in every class, but, realistically, it isn’t perfect.

However, there are some aspects of transition that can cause stresses for receiving teachers, and have done probably always. The receiving teacher has to “get to know the children”. This can take a couple of weeks or so in a primary classroom, where a teacher will have worked with the children for 25 hours a week, across a range of subjects. Even at three contact hours a week, a Secondary teacher will take 7-8 weeks to have that much contact. That’s not changeable, although I have visited a few Secondary schools that have actively pursued more of a Primary approach, with one significant teacher for much of year 7.

Before levels, transition discussions were largely centred around behaviours and friendships, who was good at different subjects and who needed some help, reading levels, and their most recent maths, English and topic books. For Secondary transfer it was the behaviour and friendship issue that dominated, as they tested after entry.

Levels gave a common language for transition, with specific numbers attached to specific children. Understanding that all “3b” children were not identical was an essential element of transition, in order to ensure that “best fit” didn’t mean missing bits as the new teacher sought to move on from “3b”. This was a main driver in developing the “Two page approach to writing”, with associated individualised targets, to remind the teacher and the child about their next steps.
 
The “missing bits” in “best fit” that were seen as one reason for getting rid of levels, to me, are still embedded in the system. Children will transition from one year to the next with some having achieved within the year and others not having done so. If a child achieves at 60, 70 or 80% of the year programme, there will be “gaps” in their understanding, which, if not identified and addressed, will remain as unfilled. “Bridging gaps” only succeeds if the gaps are kept in front of teachers and children as things to work on. Tracking the gaps is a necessary part of teacher activity.

The SATs results will show those working at certain expected standards. Those who don’t reach that expected standard apparently will have to retake the year 6 test at the end of year 7. That suggests that either year 7 will become a reprise of year 6, especially in maths and English or that some will be separated from their peers (streamed) to be coached separately, identifiable as the “slow learner” group. Each will have specific areas of need; some will be minor, having missed “achieving” by a mark or three, while others may have significant areas of need and may still have after the end of year 7.

The year 7 resits will distort transfer and add stress to many vulnerable learners at a time when they will already have concerns. Their attachment and security needs will be many. If a school tests children on another scale on entry for their own data purposes, they might be able to argue not to undertake the year 7 SATs, but that will be a brave head.
Rather than the money for year 6 and 7 SATs, why not move the funding to year 4, allowing two years of the remaining time in Primary for issues to be addressed?

If teacher assessment within year 6 was moderated, with Secondary colleagues present, it would become part of year 6 and 7 CPD; agreeing standards.

If book use between year 6 and 7 could be locally agreed, they could transfer with the child, to be used on entry, maintaining earlier quality, as previous benchmarks would be evident.

If personal targets were all on fold out sheets, the receiving teacher would have immediate access to that information.

Secondaries have never really accepted Primary data anyway, preferring to retest, so that is likely to continue.
Just to send children to Secondary school “below expectation”, will do nothing for the child’s future learning, their parents’ understanding or the receiving teachers’ organisation. That’s one reason why the new system will not work any better than the last.

Why do we keep deceiving ourselves that these tests give a more useful judgement than teacher expertise? Whatever the score, knowing the detail of how to get “better” is the core of progress.

​The words are mightier than the numbers…

Shorter, focused questionnaires?

During Parent Partnership visits, the question of seeking parent views is often raised as a topic of discussion.
It can be a seasonal event, the sending out of the Ofsted questionnaire to seek parent opinions about the school. The return rate is often poor, when schools are asked and the outcomes often less than useful. Equally, not every school is good at reporting outcomes from questionnaires. The longer the questionnaire, the longer the set of answers needed, which doesn’t make for easy reading.

Instead of sending out a long questionnaire, sometimes several pages of questions, why not tailor a few questions each month, related to the school development agenda, recruiting parent views on areas that are of mutual interest. If you are considering changes in some areas, over time, focus on one at a time and ask questions that have obvious utility. Schools send out regular newsletters, so these can be on tear off slips, or filled in electronically through the website, prompted by text messaging.

At parent’s evenings, a single question at the door could have green and pink post its, to quickly capture positives and areas for improvement.

Feeding back to parents can often be a significant missing element within what can seem like high quality communication.

A number of schools are now using a form of “You said, we thought, we did…” as a way to report to parents the outcomes of comments from parents. Where this happens, parents value the obvious two way nature of the dialogue, even if the issue raised has not resulted in immediate action. To understand the school rationale and possible limitations in decision making is purposeful.

The “You said, we thought, we did…” response can be shared back via the newsletter or website, or, as I saw in one school, on a parent notice board. In all cases where this is an obvious feature of school life, parents comment on the very good nature of communication.
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This is such an easy tweak to make to school life, yet can have a significant impact on relationships.
 

What level of disorganisation can you deal with in life?

On a personal level, I think that, over time, I have become more organised, in order that I can then deal with the inevitable changes to plan that life offers. In order to ensure some element of home-life balance, as a teacher, I sought to ensure that marking was done at school before leaving, so that, if anything needed doing in the evening, or at weekends, it would be an aspect of planning. There were inevitable compromises, as meetings or training events impacted. There had to be some element of flexibility built in. As life impacted, too, when I was a headteacher, I needed work to be as organised as it could be, to enable quality time at home.

I have begun to wonder if technology, while making some elements of life easier over time, have actually made some elements of teacher life harder. An example of this would be planning.

Whereas, as a classroom teacher, my planning was handwritten in a hard back notebook, for me, as an aide memoire, today teachers can be asked to fill in an electronic proforma, with boxes designed to inform someone in a management role that certain aspects have been considered and often written in considerable detail. I would concentrate on the bigger picture, of the essential knowledge to be shared and particular needs of children to be considered, whereas now, I often see plans as scripts, developed from an earlier medium term plan. It is possible to think that teachers are being asked to over-plan.

This was an element that exercised me throughout my time as a headteacher, as I was aware that I needed to strike the right balance between my need to know what was going on in the school, in order to be party to and to be able to share the overall narrative, while at the same time, safeguarding the well-being of staff and ensuring that they had sufficient thinking time to develop practice.

The only way to take charge of this is to operate within different levels of interlocking organisation, starting at school level.

The curriculum was clearly developed within a planning structure that I have blogged about, with different timescales developed that enabled quality time for thinking.

In essence, the whole was based on

Every topic being developed as a “specification” that detailed the essential knowledge that underpinned the learning as well as the anticipated range of outcomes across a mixed ability class, based on capabilities developed from “level descriptors”.

Topics lasted as long as needed, not allowed to expand to fill a half term/term. There was flexibility to link topics where a teacher saw creative benefits. This allowed for subtly different interpretations each year.

An annual plan for each year group (see above), covering all subjects in outline, was developed on a July closure, before the new academic year, ensuring a positive start in September.

First two weeks in September given to a teacher topic to get to know the children well.

The second Friday of the September term given to admin for the year and time to develop a detailed overview of the remainder of the half terms’ plans, based on good understanding of children’s needs. A copy came to me.

Teacher short term and daily plans were personal, in any form that supported their teaching.

Teachers met with parents in week 3 or 4 in September to share the year plan and to share ways in which they might help their children during the year.

The school overall plans ensured that high demand times for teachers, such as report writing, February and June/July, were not subject to high demand training or meeting schedules.

Knowing that specific information is required at specific times allowed teachers to organise their own diaries to ensure that this was done, in so doing reducing the need to chase staff and add to pressure.
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Knowing ahead of time that certain topics would be covered enabled library book exchange to ensure that there was sufficient stock available to support research, that high demand on some equipment could be managed and that necessary stock items could be ordered in time.

Good structural organisation also enabled quality thinking time to be planned and funded, so that development time could be focused and more effective, both in creation and dissemination of projects. Occasional slippage, caused by staff absence, or an unexpected eventuality, as can easily occur in school, could be managed more easily.

Reading. Using a well ordered colour coded reading system allowed staff to enable children to have free access to books for changing, maintaining interest and motivation. With guided reading books at teaching/challenge level, home books were at a colour below, so a greater fluency level meant children could read them for themselves.

Writing. Order and organisation was developed in the approach to writing, with books developed as personal organisers. This allowed teachers to interact with individuals with a known agenda for development. It supported dialogue and written feedback, so marking became more focused to need, so had greater impact.

The whole enabled a clarity of narrative at child, parent, teacher and school level, ensuring that everyone had as clear an idea of direction of travel as we could hope to achieve.

Additional linked blogs

Planning Learning
Director of education or scriptwriter?
Planning Permission?
Myopic planning?
Reading; essentials
Get them reading!
​Reading is a personal thing
Reading; between sessions
Reading dynamics
Fifty(ish) reading ideas
Reading; once upon a time...
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?