Primary perspectives dvd contents by Alistair Smith

Great Learning, Great Leading

A DVD resource featuring forty-two short films from four very different schools on how they improved learning and teaching

TIVES: C E P S R E P Y R A IM PR LEADING T A E R G , G IN N R A GREAT LE

DVD One: Leadership and Management • An introduction by Alistair Smith sharing our school improvement model and leadership strategies. • Head Teachers from four different schools talking about their school improvement journeys. • Staff teams on how to lead on developing features of quality teaching and learning. • Additional teaching and learning ideas which model good practice.

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DVD Two: Classroom Interventions • An introduction by Alistair Smith explaining the interventions that have real impact on learning. • Classroom examples of these classroom interventions under the headings: • Feedback and Marking • Questioning and Metacognition • Challenge, Choice and Connections • Landmarking Progress • Partnerships and Co- Construction Each film clip comes with prompt questions for staff discussion. 2

PRIMARY PERSPECTIVES: GREAT LEARNING, GREAT LEADING How schools are using the DVD resource • Targeting senior leadership and middle leadership sessions – ‘we started by watching the leadership journey discussion’. • For whole school training sessions – ‘the classroom clips provoked some really useful discussions’. • For smaller staff working groups on teaching and learning interventions – ‘our working group used the prompt questions to sharpen our thinking’. • As a shared resource for examples of good practice – ‘we put it on the VLE and now know we have some good material which we can share easily across the school’. • Benchmarking where you are on the development journey – ‘we used the idea of the learning landscape to ask ourselves some really hard questions’.

• As a training tool for lesson observers in terms of what good practice looks like – ‘we sat down beforehand and agreed what we hoped might happen’. • As a great coaching tool for staff to use to for promoting ideas, self- reflection and improvement – ‘our school is constantly seeking to improve’. • Persuading governors to invest in Technology – ‘we took the video of Worsborough to a governors meeting and showed them their school hall and how simple technology could transformed ours’.

PRIMARY PERSPECTIVES: GREAT LEARNING, GREAT LEADING

DVD One Introduction by Alistair Smith Alistair outlines the format and organisation of each DVD and how they could be used by schools. He shares our model to help you identify where your school is in the improvement journey and also prompts thinking about where you wish to be. He describes the need for all schools to develop “constructive alignment” and shares how the Five C’s will help you achieve this: Core Purpose, Clarity, Coherence, Consistency and Community. Good for: Senior Leadership and Middle Leadership Training around the core features of school improvement.

Headteacher and Senior Leader Interviews 1. A Valley School on the Up – Rob Carpenter, Headteacher, Woodhill Primary School, Greenwich Rob tells his story of the first few months at Woodhill Primary School and his immediate priorities and actions. He talks about how he focused first on such areas as learning environment, core teaching and learning expectations and non-negotiables, the language of learning, leadership training, particularly around monitoring and evaluation, as well as setting a tight schedule for school self-evaluation. He outlines in detail the core features of teaching and learning he worked on first with his staff. Good for: Senior Leadership Training around how to improve rapidly and what to focus on first. Helpful as a self-evaluation and discussion tool .

2. Valley to Summit in Three Years – Angela O’Brien, Headteacher, Wyndham Primary Academy, Derby Wyndham Primary Academy has had a rapid improvement journey and in 2014 was named as an Outstanding School. Angela talks about removing the clutter of initiatives in order to focus on quality teaching and high expectations, She takes you through each year of the journey and outlines how she has gradually stepped back from driving improvement, allowing her senior leaders and then middle leaders to take over this process Good for: Senior Leadership Training around focusing on Core Purpose and how to involve senior leaders more in the monitoring, evaluating and planning of improvement.

PRIMARY PERSPECTIVES: GREAT LEARNING, GREAT LEADING

DVD One 3. Summiting Together – Senior Leaders at Wyndham Primary Academy, Derby Angela talks to her two senior leaders about their changing roles over the last three years. They started off as Phase Leaders but have increasingly had a more strategic role focusing on whole school achievement patterns and effective interventions, alongside leading, monitoring and evaluating teaching and learning. Good For: Senior leader training around their roles and what they should be focusing on. How to build an inclusive school and motivate staff to be involved.

4. Summit in Sight – Headteacher Kate Davies and Senior Leaders at Worsborough Common Primary School, Barnsley Kate and her team talk about the priorities for a senior leadership team for the first 100 days in a school. They focus on visibility, identifying and modelling excellence in teaching and learning, promoting a language of learning, improving the learning environment and “walking the talk”. They also discuss evidence based staff development and the principles of learning that have led their school improvement journey. Good for: Senior leader training around first priorities, learning environment, staff development and principles of learning

5. Next Peak – Dame Reena Keeble, former Headteacher, Cannon Lane Primary School, Harrow Dame Reena talks about how essential it was to her school’s improvement journey to shift the teacher focus from “what children are doing in the classroom” to “what children are learning.” Modelling, joint planning and coaching have been essential to this cultural change, as has been the idea that “teachers are learners too.” Staff at Cannon Lane have been encouraged to research their own practice and engage in further education study. The process of development planning includes all stakeholders: staff, children, parents, governors and the community. Good for: Senior leadership training on how to change the culture of a school to one focused more on learning and the process of inclusive school development planning.

PRIMARY PERSPECTIVES: GREAT LEARNING, GREAT LEADING

DVD One Teacher Panel Discussions 1. “Great Expectations” - Teaching Staff from Wyndham Primary Academy, Derby • Teachers Taking Risks in the Classroom – how to benefit from a consistent culture of reflection and improvement. • Quality Feedback - developing consistency and engaging pupils. • Developing Challenge – planning lessons with high expectations. • Display for Learning – better use of the environment to support learning including effective use of Literacy and Numeracy working walls, Learning Journey walls, modelling excellence. Good For: Staff development on developing high expectations and modelling excellence.

2. “Going Public” – Teaching staff at Woodhill Primary School, Greenwich • Feedback Marking – using marking to identify misconceptions, consolidate learning, and push to the next level; using Deep and Acknowledgement Marking; how to link to lesson planning. • Published Outcomes – backwards planning from quality outcomes; involving children in identifying success criteria. • Learning Walls – modelling quality in writing and numeracy and using display to aid recall. Good for: Staff development on lesson planning and the learning environment.

3. “Question Time” – Teaching Staff from Cannon Lane Primary, Harrow • Pupil Questioning – helping pupils know what makes a good question and encouraged them to ask questions. • Feedback – engaging children in all parts to the process and have confidence to self-assess and give good worthwhile feedback to each other. • Focusing on Core Purpose – how to encourage staff to be “learners themselves” and so improve their practice. Good for: Whole staff and targeted staff training around questioning and feedback.

PRIMARY PERSPECTIVES: GREAT LEARNING, GREAT LEADING

DVD One Additional Teaching and Learning Ideas 1. “ICT and Imagination” – Kate Davies from Worsbrough Common demonstrates how the school uses ICT and projected images to create an immersive and create learning space in the school’s Hall. Good for: discussion about how the technology could be used in other schools.

2. “Learning Made Visible” – Emma Parker form Wyndham takes us on a walk round her classroom focusing on how she uses classroom display to reinforce learning. Good for: Modelling what effective learning display look like in the classroom. Great for promoting discussion around “Fabulous Feedback”, Numeracy and Literacy Walls, modelling of different types of writing using cursive script, WAGOLLS, Question of the Week, Learning Journeys.

3. “Forest School” – Gilly Milner from Worsborough models and sells the benefits of outdoor learning in a forest school setting. Children are involved with pirate maps, treasure, messages in a bottle, building ships and using their incredible imaginations! Good for: modelling great outdoor play and the benefits of outdoor learning.

4. Book Choice” – staff from Wyndham talk about how they organise much of their curriculum around books that the children themselves have helped to choose. They model a crime challenge using a Harry Potter theme. Good for: Ideas for developing a relevant and engaging curriculum.

5. “IPad Detectives” – pupils from Wyndham talking about how they used their problem solving skills and IPads to solve a crime. Good for: Ideas for real life challenges integrating core learning skills, engaging use of IPads.

6. Blogs and Codes – Kate Davies from Worsborough talks about how they use QR codes, blogs and video across the school to engage both children and their parents. Good for: Ideas, discussion and dialogue around the creative use of IT.

7. “Horseshoes” – Kate Harper from Cannon Lane sells the benefits of organising children in a horseshoe seating arrangement for optimum learning. Good for: Discussion and dialogue around the most effective way of grouping children for learning.

8. “Outside Excellence” – Dane Reena Keeble talks about and demonstrates some great creative use of outdoor space and equipment to support learning and skills development. Good for: Ideas for developing outdoor spaces and learning.

PRIMARY PERSPECTIVES: GREAT LEARNING, GREAT LEADING

DVD Two Introduction by Alistair Smith Alistair outlines the format and organisation of each DVD and how they could be used by schools.

Feedback and Marking 1. “Feedback Protocols” – Jeni Johnson, Year 2 teacher at Worsborough, talks us through the process she uses with children to help them improve their own work. Modelling and unpicking what is good, sharing Rubrics as success criteria, guided work, self-assessment and working on next steps. Good for: modelling with staff the process of improvement using feedback and protocols.

2. “Learning, Marking, Planning” – Natalie Winkle, Year 2 teacher from Cannon Lane demonstrates how she personalises feedback for children in her class. Natalie explains the link between marking and planning. Good for: explaining and modelling the direct links between learning, marking and planning.

3. “Self and Peer Assessment” – A Year 4 pupil from Woodhill explains how she uses a self-assessment sheet with clear success criteria to guide her work and judge how she is doing. The success criteria sheet is then used by others to peer assess her work and offer helpful feedback for improvement. Good for: promoting discussion, dialogue and reflection around effective success criteria, as well as, self and peer assessment that has impact.

4. “Developing Success Criteria with Children” – Kate Harper at Cannon Lane works with her Year 1 class in developing success criteria for telling the story of Red Riding Hood from the first person point of view. Good for: modelling how success criteria and learning can be co-constructed with children.

PRIMARY PERSPECTIVES: GREAT LEARNING, GREAT LEADING

DVD Two 5. “Ongoing Feedback and Steps for Improvement” – Hilary Gesko at Woodhill uses a pupil’s work in her Year 2 class to explain and model how she gives regular feedback marking and improvement time for pupils who might struggle to improve their work independently. Good for: modelling how to use improvement time in class after marking and scaffolding the steps for improvement.

Questioning and Metacognition 1. “Poorly Sentences: Thinking Like a Sentence Doctor” – Jeni Johnson from Worsborough, demonstrates some great strategies to get her Year 2 class to think carefully about and correcting some” poorly sentences”. Good for: modelling metacognitive strategies such as “find and correct”, paired thinking and talking, as well as how to target questioning for thinking.

2. “Using Working Walls and Thinking Tools” – Emma Shorter from Woodhill models how to use working walls and clear steps to success to help structure thinking around a numeracy problem with her Year 4 class. She asks a pupil to collaborate with her in the demonstration and questions her carefully to get her to explain her thinking. Good for: modelling how to use display for learning and tools to help pupils think through problem solving process for themselves.

3. “Digging Down into Thinking” – Euan Holden at Wyndham skilfully questions his group of Year 2 pupils to check on the depth of their understanding and their thinking processes. He gets them to talk about their thinking to each other, focusing on what they are learning rather than what they are doing. Good for: modelling strategies to encourage thinking and discussion of processes of learning. Questioning techniques for depth of understanding and problem solving.

PRIMARY PERSPECTIVES: GREAT LEARNING, GREAT LEADING

DVD Two 4. “Deep Learning Questions” – Natalie Winkle from Cannon Lane models some great strategies for metacognition, focusing on getting her class to discuss the strategies to solve a numeracy problem and then questioning carefully for depth of understanding of these strategies. She encourages a lot of structured pupil talk around learning processes and class problem solving. Good for: modelling questioning for depth of understanding and structured pupil talk about process.

Challenge, Choice and Connections 1. “Crime Scene Challenge” - Verity Lee from Wyndham models a real life, crime scene challenge with a Harry Potter Theme that incorporates Science, Numeracy and Literacy. Good for: modelling challenging tasks with a real life connection, offering pupil choice and decision making, use of IT to differentiate. It would be useful to combine this clip with two of her students talking about the task on DVD 1, Additional Teaching and Learning Ideas – “IPad Detectives”.

2. “Reflection on Next Steps” – Natalie Winkle from Cannon Lane starts her lesson by getting her children to reflect with each other on their “Next Steps Targets” and then gets them choose from differentiated colour codes tasks to challenge themselves. Good for: modelling the use of next steps targets to help to focus pupil choice over the level of challenge. Strategies to overcome challenge.

3. “Differentiation with a Difference” – Natalie Woodward from Wyndham models a range of engaging challenge strategies to differentiate learning. Her Year 6 class that range from Levels 2 – 6 in Numeracy. Good for: modelling how IT can be used effectively to differentiate and challenge pupil across all abilities.

4. “Challenge Through Internal Dialogue” – Kate Harper from Cannon Lane explains carefully how she has structured her Literacy lesson to allow all abilities in her class to be challenged. She talks about “challenge by independence” and “challenge by collaboration.” as well as how she often uses her children as peer coaches for others. Good for: promoting discussion and dialogue around challenge, scaffolding and differentiation by grouping and support.

5. “Consolidating Challenge” – Hilary Gesko from Woodhill talks about how she has structured her Year 2 class’s differentiated learning tasks around “Subtraction”. She uses the Steps to Success on the Numeracy Working Wall to support the tasks and differentiated “check and change” questions to focus and consolidate the learning. Good for: promoting reflection and discussion around how do teachers check on and consolidate the appropriate levels of challenge for different groups of children.

PRIMARY PERSPECTIVES: GREAT LEARNING, GREAT LEADING

DVD Two Landmarking Progress 1. “Tools for Progress” – Jeni Johnson from Worsborough models strategies with her class to work on and improve their writing. She encourages her pupils to “check and change” what they are writing to help them improve. Good for: modelling the use of feedback and rubrics to support improvement and progress.

2. “IPads and QR Codes for Progress” – Natalie Woodward from Worsborough encourages pupils in her Year 6 class to model their progress using their IPads, questioning them carefully for the thinking processes that they are using. Differentiated and colour coded QR codes are also used at the end of the lesson to allow pupils to judge and demonstrate the progress they have made. Good for: discussions and reflection around different ways to demonstrate progress in class and the use of IT in highlighting progress.

3. “What and Why Learning Objectives” – Jenny Naylor from Wyndham shows how important it is when land marking progress, to share clear learning objectives that are reviewed regularly in the lesson. Good for: encouraging discussion about what makes clear learning objectives and different ways teachers can review against these to show progress.

4. “Display to Support Progress” – Chloe Mace from Woodhill shows how she uses her Year 5 classroom working walls with key terms, words, processes and pupil examples, to help support progress in writing. Good for: modelling how learning display in the classroom can be used to support progress and the “I do, We do, You do” model of improvement. This clip could be combined with Woodhill Staff Discussion from DVD 1 – Published Outcomes section.

5. “Class Progress Review” – At the end of the lesson, Euan Holden from Wyndham carefully reviews progress with his Year 2 class using some targeted questioning, paired talk and pupil demonstration. He carefully links what the pupils have been learning to the What and Why learning objectives that he shared with the class at the start of the lesson. Good for: modelling questioning for progress, how pupils can demonstrate progress and review against learning objectives.

PRIMARY PERSPECTIVES: GREAT LEARNING, GREAT LEADING

DVD Two Partnerships and Co-Construction 1. “Experts and Spies” – Jenny Naylor from Wyndham encourages her class to improve their own work by becoming an “Expert or Spy.” She creates an atmosphere in her class where the children want to help and support each other to make progress. Good for: encouraging discussion and reflection around how teachers can get children to challenge and support each other in the improvement journey as well as co-construct writing.

2. “Partners in Learning” – Pupils in Hilary Gresko’s class at Woodhill are used to co-construction with their teacher in Numeracy and Literacy. Hilary shows how this is done with a small group of pupils and then encourages them to teach each other how to tackle a numeracy problem, using Steps to Success. Good for: encouraging discussion around collaboration, peer tutoring and co-constructing learning.

3. “Progress Potion Challenge” – Bhavisha Soma’s Year 2 class at Cannon Lane are engaged in a differentiated Harry Potter Potions Challenge that involves them in lots of collaborative problem solving and talk around their learning. Good for: helping to generate ideas for collaborative challenges and discussion around how to encourage pupils to help and support each other.

4. “Grouping, Display and Co-Construction” – Chloe Mace at Woodhill explains how she structures pupil groupings. She uses the learning display in the classroom, with examples of excellence, key terms and processes, to help support collaboration and pupil discussion. Chloe demonstrates how she co-constructs writing with her Year 5 class. Good for: generating discussion around techniques for collaborative learning, learning display and co-constructing writing using cursive script.

Primary Perspectives can be purchased at a cost of ÂŁ198 plus VAT. Delivery is free To order email al@alistairsmithlearning.com To see excerpts visit www.alistairsmithlearning.com DVD contents can be licenced and placed on the purchasing school server for access to all staff. PP has been produced by Alistair Smith and John Turner with Turtle Canyon Productions.

Thanks to: Cannon Lane Primary School, Harrow Woodhill Primary School, Greenwich Worsborough Common Primary School, Barnsley Wyndham Primary Academy, Derby