Hill West Primary School Issue 5, October 2012
Pedagogical Newsletter – October 2012 Accelerating Pupil Progress Did you know that a Report by the Sutton Trust found that teaching approaches that are most successful at accelerating pupil progress include - Effective feedback - Metacognitive and selfregulation strategies - Peer assisted learning - Homework
In this issue: Accelerating Pupil Progress Authorised Absence Spelling, punctuation and grammar (Spag) Impulsive Behaviour Behavioural, social and emotional difficulties Curriculum innovation Building learning Power E-Safety
Reminders: Parents Evening Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th October Parent representatives wanted to join the Parent Council
AUTHORISED ABSENCE According to the Sunday Telegraph, Secretary of State Michael Gove is to crack down on parents who take children out of school during term time for holidays. Head Teachers will no longer be able to allow authorised absence during a school term. Discretionary absence is intended to cover illness, bad weather and
bereavements, but Head Teachers often come under pressure to allow it so that children can be taken on holidays at times when it is less expensive. The move which will be accompanied by tougher fines for parents of children who regularly truant, follows a review of school discipline. We will advise you of any further guidance issued to school as soon as we receive it.
Spag Test for Year 6 As a result of the findings in the Bew Review, the coalition government have introduced a new test for all Year 6 pupils in England. This test will be administered during their SATs week in May. The English Spennling, Grammar and Punctuation test will only include questions that assess elements of the current English curriculum. The Department for Education are introducing
the test because they want to make sure that when children leave primary school they are confident in spelling, punctuation and grammar. The test has been designed, suggest the DfE, to ensure that primary schools place a stronger focus on the teaching of these skills than in previous years. It will be administered in a similar way to other Key Stage 2 tests.
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Glossary of Terms Pedagogy – the craft of teaching
Metacognition enables successful learning, and has been associated with intelligence. It refers to higher order thinking
SPAG – Spelling, punctuation and Grammar
E-Safety – protect children from harm in relation to electronic sources of danger
BLP – Building Learning Power
Impulsive Behaviour A study has found that students who blurt out answers in class often do better than their quieter classmates. Durham University academics compared English and Maths test results with monitoring reports of 12,251 students in Reception classes in 556 state and independent schools in England. They observed a full range of students, including those considered inattentive or who had symptoms of ADHD. Students who displayed impulsive behaviour, for example an inability to resist shouting out to teachers in class, were more likely to achieve higher test results. Students who were considered well-behaved and able to pay attention were more likely to be higher achievers than those who were inattentive, but there was a similar pattern within this attentive group, with those who were not self-conscious shouting out responses in class being more likely to have higher attainment. What does this tell us about how we should be structuring learning opportunities for our children?
Behavioural emotional and social difficulties Pupil Premium recent Article the genetic factors that lead
A published in my Head Teacher Update September 2012 entitled what’s in a name? caught my attention. It suggested that the way a child behaves comes from a mixture of the interplay between environmental and genetic factors and that this assumption is generally now widely accepted. It said that in schools that provide an environment where pupils are focused on their learning, where relationships are developed, where children make choices for themselves and peers are supportive of each other,
to challenging behaviours can be easily disguised. In schools where this is not the case however there has been a history of overdiagnosis and such early, inappropriate categorisation can be seen as lowering expectations for these children and removing responsibility from the class teacher. However, failure to recognise the different needs of a child and ensure that these needs are supported can compound the problems. There is therefore, a very definite balance to be stuck.
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Building Learning Power Building learning power is about helping young people to become better learners, both in school and out. It is about creating a culture in classrooms - and in the school more widely - that systematically cultivates habits and attitudes that enable young people to face difficulty and uncertainty calmly, confidently and creatively. Pupils who are more confident of their own learning ability learn faster and learn better. They concentrate more, think harder and find learning more enjoyable. They do better in their tests and external examinations. Pupils need to learn how to be tenacious and resourceful, imaginative and logical, self disciplined and selfaware, collaborative and inquisitive.
BLP schools have been pioneering ways of taking this ambition really seriously and all Hill West staff are undertaking a day of BLP training on Monday 29th October.
Curriculum Innovation The future of the curriculum is subject to intense debate with some arguing in favour of a skills based curriculum and others promoting more traditional, knowledge based approaches. At Hill West we believe an innovative primary curriculum that meets the needs of all our children will combine both approaches. We are keen to give our pupils a sense of ownership in their learning as this motivates them and enables them to think more deeply about their learning. We want the children to learn together through investigations and practical tasks assisting each other and in doing so reaffirming their own learning. We are committed to designing our curriculum so that it develops every aspect of the child. This means building rich learning experiences that develop children’s skills, knowledge and understanding as well as their intellectual, practical, aesthetic, social and emotional abilities. Our newly formed collaboration with the Learning Partnership Schools (Brookvale, Slade, Mere Green, Stockland Green and Arthur Terry) is enabling us to develop creative and innovative practices within and across phases and we are excited about our future projects on KS2 to KS3 transition, early years development, gifted and talented provision and building learning power.
Do not go where the path my lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
E-Safety E-safety may be described as our ability to protect and educate pupils and staff in their use of technology and to have the appropriate mechanisms to intervene and support any incident where appropriate. Technology offers unimaginable opportunities and is constantly evolving. Access is currently becoming universal and increasingly more mobile and pupils are using technology at an ever earlier age. For example: 91% of children aged 5-15 live in a household with internet access via a PC/laptop, up from 87% in 2010. Smartphone ownership in 2010 comprised 3% of children aged 5-7, 13% of children aged 8-11, and around 35% of children aged 12-15. 34% of children aged 8-12 have a profile on sites that require users to register as being 13 or over, up from 25% in 2009. Our school Governors will be evaluing our E-Safety policies and practice during Governor Week this term. If you need any help or advice on E-safety please just ask.
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