HWRK Magazine: Issue 20 - May 2022 by HWRK MAGAZINE

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written by teachers for teachers

Career or Family?

Can i Have BotH?

CLOSINg ThE gAp WITh QuALITy FIrST TEAChINg h O W T O A N S W E r … A Q A g C S E E N g L I S h L A N g u A g E pA p E r 2 SAFEguArDINg TrIAgE EFFECTIvE ASSESSmENT IN mFL hOW TO TEACh… rEvISION

We work tirelessly to change the lives of those affected by bullying and we know we make a difference. We see it in the way young people engage in our projects, how we empower them to Make a Difference and how they develop confidence and learn new skills. By developing a positive ethos across a whole school/organisation community, we can create an environment that meets the emotional, academic and social needs of pupils and staff. Creating an anti-bullying and respectful ethos is a powerful way to Inspire Change. Our Youth Ambassadors are a dynamic team of young volunteers working together to help deal with the issue of bullying. They are committed and dedicated and all have a passion to Make A Difference in their local communities. The programme is open all year round and you can join wherever you live and whatever your background and interests are.

H W R K M A G A Z I N E . c o . u K // I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E

Closing The gaP wiTh QualiTY FirsT TeaChing

FEATURE

“We need to think about how we can improve not just how we can evidence what we are doing for these pupils.”

assessmenT in mFl: isn’T There a BeTTer waY? CURRICULUM

“as students begin to understand the science of learning, it’s important to explicitly teach students practical methods of retrieval to help them play a more independent role as active participants in their own journey towards long term retention of learning.”

whaT Can TeaChers reallY learn From masTerCheF?

FEATURE

There is evidence this can be true of pupils from these backgrounds, but without exploring what our pupils can and can’t do we could end up setting the bar too low or focusing our energies on something they just don’t need as a priority.

The Final CounTdown: PasToral PreParaTion For Year 10 inTo Year 11

For example, in a group of 10 pupils I mentored, all of whom were identified as being higher prior attainers, six were also identified as ‘pupil premium’. These pupils were articulate, had high aspirations and goals for post-16, engaged with a range of learning activities outside of school and, on the whole, enjoyed being in school and learning. What this group needed most were practical ways to access materials and

If our focus had been on vocabulary or we’d enrolled them onto additional after-school interventions, it could have placed them under additional pressure which would not have helped with their learning. Equally, if the school decided selfregulation was the key, then alreadyindependent pupils could find themselves restricted in how they worked, making their use of time less efficient. It is therefore important we really understand what issues they are facing before we decide on what those ‘best bets’ will be. This is also true within our classroom practice. Good diagnostic testing will ensure we identify what it is our pupils of all backgrounds may be struggling with

Diagnostics at subject level are also crucial, identifying the gaps in foundational knowledge, rooting out where misconceptions may be residing and really clarifying what it is our pupils already know and can do. High quality formative assessment should run through everything, alongside those formal opportunities to assess, bringing to light information that might challenge or surprise us. That also means staff must have a good understanding of the content of their subject and the steps and processes needed to be successful at different stages. Time should be devoted to this if we want to

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WHAT CAN TEACHERS REALLY LEARN FROM MASTERCHEF?

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understand how to close gaps and enable students to achieve.

order for teachers to make the best use of these different aspects.

Once we understand the issues, we then need to explore how we might go about addressing them, returning again to those ‘best bets’. That includes considering how we sequence our curriculum, how we create opportunities for pupils to practise applying knowledge, how we utilise spaced learning so pupils have to think hard about what they are retrieving and ways we can build on their prior knowledge.

They need to decide on the key priorities as a whole school and ensure that all staff have a shared understanding of the main focus and what it is they mean by Quality First Teaching in their context.

If we have a strong understanding of pupils starting points through our diagnostic processes, we will then be in a better position to develop responsive teaching, enabling us to adapt our explanations, our questioning, and the scaffolding we use to address the needs of all. There is a huge amount to unpick there though, and leaders need a clear understanding of the strengths and areas for development across the school too in

Staff also need to be given time to reflect, refine and feedback, engaging in defining what that means in their classroom for their pupils too. Leaders and teachers also need to keep a sharp eye on how these choices are impacting upon groups of pupils as well as individuals, giving them a better chance of closing those attainment gaps, returning us again to that ongoing diagnostic process we use day-to-day in our classrooms. We need to think about how we can improve not just how we can evidence what we are doing for these pupils. Having this detailed understanding can also create opportunities to stop less effective practices where needed and to concentrate

on building in more of what their pupils need, be that modelling, other types of scaffolding or probing questions to get all pupils thinking hard.

This is may be a fault with the mark schemes. The role-play element of the exam is arguably redundant as time goes on, presenting exchanges such as booking a hotel room or buying concert tickets which would more than likely be done online without the need for any interaction in the target language. But the photo-card elements of description and sharing opinions and a general conversation across several themes seem sensible and appropriate to enable candidates to develop answers and share a range of structures. It is the demands of

The challenge here of course is no two cohorts or groups of pupils are likely to always need the exact same things, so schools need to build adaptative expertise and responsive teaching, rooted in subject knowledge, to allow teachers to react to that changing picture. Coupling Quality First Teaching with well-placed and evidence-informed interventions, plus good relationships with pupils and parents, means we might be in a good position to really make a difference to those pupils who need it the most.

the mark scheme which requires the jumping through hoops.

What do we need?

We need an assessment model which is in line with age-related expectations, given curriculum constraints, and that also rewards the kinds of real-life interactions that would be useful in real life. This is probably a conundrum faced by exam boards for all subject areas – how can we authentically test a wide spectrum of knowledge, whilst showing progression over time, but also instil the key skills and attributes of those expert learners? Is it ever possible to create an assessment which rewards those skills of a true historian, a real mathematician? I’m mindful that the perfect assessment model for languages probably doesn’t exist and that exam boards, restricted by requirements set out by Ofqual, can only seek to change so much when designing exam content and

If we can identify what pupils from less-advantaged backgrounds need, what barriers they experience and how we might overcome them, we will be on track to ensuring the best quality teaching and learning for all does indeed come first.

However, what is painfully apparent is that GCSE results in MFL are historically far lower than other options subjects. How can this be, when it is the same students taking the exams? Surely, we aren’t producing a nation of students that can access the material of a Geography paper and secure a grade 9 but can’t replicate that success in French? We must ask questions of the current assessment processes, to ensure that in the first instance, our students aren’t short-changed out of the grades they’ve worked hard for, nor that they are discouraged from the rich and diverse experiences learning a language offers in place of securing better grades elsewhere. We need to level the playing field and that doesn’t have to be through starting again but tweaking what we do have and ensuring it serves our purposes best.

“the Speaking assessment for the current GCSE is not suited to a good natural linguist, but is suited more to someone who is good at memorising chunks of language”

1. https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2teachers-impact-report-final.pdf 2. https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2teachers-impact-report-final.pdf Slater, H., Davies, N. M., & Burgess, S. (2011) Do Teachers Matter? Measuring the Variation in Teacher Effectiveness in England. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics.” https://bit.ly/ecf-sla 3. https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/support-and-training-for-schools/teaching-cambridge-at-your-school/great-teaching-toolkit/ 4. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit

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marking criteria.

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PEDAGOGY

Is teaching a lesson the same as cooking a meal on Masterchef: The Professionals? Whether it is or it isn’t, Adam Boxer has a few useful takeaways… By Adam Boxer

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PEDAGOGY

How have some of the issues of homework been combatted?

Furthermore, when writing exam answers we enforce that all answers should be handwritten therefore a device is not required.

Issue 3 - Chasing students up & setting detentions

Many teachers are less inclined to set homework due to the problems that are commonly associated with it. However I have identified some of those issues below and provided ways in which I have attempted to combat these issues in my own classroom.

Issue 2 - Marking

Chasing students that have not done homework is my biggest bug bear however there are ways we can minimise the chasing and the consequence implication of not doing the homework.

Issue 1 - The disadvantage gap

KS3:

It is common knowledge that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to have a quiet working space, are less likely to have access to a device suitable for learning or a stable internet connection and may receive less parental support to complete homework and develop effective learning habits.

The Power oF homework

These difficulties may increase pupils’ abilities to do homework and do it well. As a result, these are the ways in which we have tried to combat the issue and close the disadvantage gap in our department:

KS3:

Students with a physical booklet do not require a computer or the internet as all the information they need to be able to do the tasks are within that booklet.

KS4/5:

Show My Homework quizzes need an electronic device and a reliable internet connection. However, students know they can come up at break, during lunch or after school to the History rooms to use either a device or facilities in the school library.

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Another reason why some are hesitant to set homework is due to the marking load implication. However, there are ways in which we can work around this as we can see below: Homework is commonly self or peer marked at the beginning of the lesson. However, if I do not have time for this, I would live mark students’ homework whilst they are working independently on the main task.

KS4/5:

Quizzes are marked by Show My Homework and students get to see what score they achieved automatically, accessing immediate feedback. I always check who got the highest in the class and then I reward them accordingly the following lesson. Nevertheless, Exam questions are marked by teachers to provide detailed feedback on their application skills of the knowledge. I work in a school whereby departments get to set their own marking policy under the three pillars of quality presentation, feedback and response. In my department, as HOD I have banned the marking of classwork but what must be marked is all exam questions and assessments. As a result of a workload-friendly policy to marking feedback, marking exam questions done as part of homework does not act as an additional load.

How to encourage students to start?

In my school we have centralised detentions, which means individual teachers do not need to use their own time to conduct a detention. If your school does not have a centralised detention system maybe have a departmental centralised detention, whereby each person each week conducts the detention.

1. Give clear instructions that make starting sound easy 2. Help students commit to a plan of doing homework by planning WHEN and HOW they will act e.g. I will do homework immediately after school. I will study alone in the school library or join homework club. If I am invited to go out and see my friends, I will wait until have finished my homework. I will share this plan with my parents to keep me accountable.

We used to have departmental centralised detentions before our school adopted centralised detentions which worked perfectly.

Issue 4 - Lack of motivation & discipline

IS TEACHING

PART-TIME

REALLY SUCH A GOOD IDEA?

is TeaChing ParTTime reallY suCh a good idea?

Is teaching a family-friendly profession? Many have gone part-time to seek that elusive balance between work and life. But does going part-time actually pay off ? Sherish Osman isn’t convinced… By Sherish Osman

3. Share models e.g first examine the model, then see if you can do the similar task.

If we can deal with the problem of lack of motivation, then issue 3 almost becomes non-existent. Being able to do work at home is a key skill students need to develop, there will be times in their career whereby they will need to finish off work at home.

4. Set a default e.g if you are unsure about what to do then use your how to guide. 5. Revisit past successes e.g your homework task is almost identical to what we did in class today, the one where you got all the questions right.

However, they will be more inclined to do this due to the reward of pay at the end of the month as well as having greater maturity. Nevertheless, at this present time students need to be able to practice delayed gratification and know that the feeling of motivation may not always be present but that is when discipline kicks in.

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Discipline is doing what you know you should do in the absence of feeling motivated. But how can we help students become more disciplined & motivated to do homework? I believe it is in helping students build good habits. Here are a few tips that I got from Harry Fletcher’s book: Habits of success:

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“The Education Endowment Foundation has also found that homework has a positive impact (on average +5 months) particularly with pupils in secondary schools.”

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“I guess it’s natural to feel unsettled and lost when part of your life changes. Should I feel guilty for feeling this way? Should I feel lucky to be working part time?”

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CONTENTS EDITORIAL 05. WILL WE EVER HAVE IT CRACkED?

FEATURES 07. WHAT CAN TEACHERS REALLY LEARN FROM MASTERCHEF?

What do top chefs and teachers have in common? 10. CLOSING THE GAP WITH QUALITY FIRST TEACHING

PASTORAL

PEDAGOGY

20. THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: PASTORAL PREPARATION FOR YEAR 10 INTO YEAR 11

Tips for Pastoral Leaders on laying the groundwork for a successful Year 11.

14. 5 WAYS TO MAkE NEW TEACHERS FEEL WELCOME

How to ensure teachers can hit the ground running when they join a new school.

30. THE POWER OF HOMEWORk

What is the point of homework? Is there a particular way we should be doing it?

25. SAFEGUARDING TRIAGE

37. HOW I TEACH… REVISION

Strategies for making sure Safeguarding is covered from all angles.

The science of revision and how to teach it in the classroom.

Strategies for all, that advantage those who need them the most.

CURRICULUM 44. HOW TO ANSWER… AQA GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 2

Strategies for tackling questions on AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2 48. ASSESSMENT IN MFL: ISN’T THERE A BETTER WAY?

How assessment in MFL should really look.

EXPERIENCE 54. WHAT SHOULD I DO WHEN A PROMOTION CLASHES WITH MATERNITY LEAVE?

Making the most of maternity leave when promotion opportunities arise.

59. IS TEACHING PART-TIME REALLY SUCH A GOOD IDEA?

62. HOW TO BE A HAPPY TEACHER:

An exploration of the delicate balance between home-life and career.

Tips for maximising your happiness and wellbeing as a teacher.

REVIEWS 64. BEHAVIOUR: THE kEY TO UNLOCkING SUCCESS IN SCHOOLS?

Book Review: The Behaviour Manual: An Educator’s Guidebook by Sam Strickland @hwrk_magazine

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CONTRIBUTORS WRITTEN BY TEACHERS FOR TEACHERS

Adam Boxer

Phil Naylor

Andrew Atherton

Sadie Thompson

Adam is Head of Science at a North London Academy and he blogs at achemicalorthodoxy.wordpress. com. He is a co-founder of Carousel Learning, a holistic online quizzing platform aimed at improving student retention in all school subjects.

Phil Naylor is Deputy Head at an academy in Blackpool and is the creator and presenter of the Naylor’s Natter podcast, where he interviews teachers and school leaders to discuss pedagogy, curriculum and school leadership.

Andrew Atherton is a Teacher of English as well as Director of Research in a secondary school in Berkshire. He regularly publishes blogs about English and English teaching at ‘Codexterous’ and you can follow him on Twitter @__codexterous

Sadie Thompson is Head of German at Thornden School in Hampshire. She has been teaching for 11 years and as well as flying the flag for German, she also teaches Spanish to Key Stages 3 and 4. Sadie has a keen interest in educational research and is currently Deputy Director of HISP Research School.

@adamboxer1

@naylorsnatter_

@__codexterous

@missmclachlan

Zoe Enser

Sam Strickland

Hetty Steele

Sherish Osman

Zoe Enser was an English Teacher for over 20 years and is now working as the Specialist English Adviser for The Education People and an ELE (Evidence Lead in Education) for the EEF (Education Endowment Foundation) in the Kent area. She is also the co-author of Generative Learning in Action and the upcoming CPD Curriculum: Creating the Conditions for Growth, both written in collaboration her husband, Mark Enser.

Sam is the Principal of a large all-through school, the organiser of ResearchED Northampton, and author of The Behaviour Manual: An Educator’s Guidebook, published by John Catt (2022)

Hetty Steele is a PhD student and Head of Drama at a comprehensive school in Bishop’s Stortford. Hetty also contributes regularly to to Litdrive UK and to MTPT Project - a UK charity for parent teachers.

Sherish Osman is a Lead Teacher (in charge of research and development), and English teacher at a school in West London, as well as a mother to two boys aged 2 and 5. She is the MTPT Family Friendly Lead at her school, working on making the school more family friendly with their policies for parents. Sherish is also the Design Associate for Litdrive, as well as the Educational Content Creator for Lantana Publishing.

@greeborunner

@strickomaster

@HettyLSteele

Claudi BenDavid

Eve Draper

Claudi is a Chemistry teacher at a North London academy. They are a massive nerd for all things T&L, blog regularly at notmatthew.blogspot.com, and aren’t nearly as miserable as they look.

Eve Draper is a Teacher of Geography and an ITT mentor in East Yorkshire. She loves all the usual Geography teacher cliches like maps, hills, the sea and a good walk!

@MBDscience

@EveDraperGeo

Omar Akbar @UnofficialOA

Omar Akbar is a science teacher of 17 years in Birmingham and the author of several edu-books, including “Teaching For Realists: Making The Education System Work For You And Your Pupils”.

@sherish_o

Amy-May Forrester @amymayforrester

Amy is Director of Pastoral Care (KS4), Head of Year 10 and an English teacher at Cockermouth School.

Emily Folorunsho @MissFolorunsho

Emily Folorunsho is Head of History in an inner-city 12 form entry school in London and is also a lead practitioner, SLE and governor. Emily co-authored the Collins Black British History Teacher Resources and is passionate about promoting diversity in the curriculum and making History meaningful and relevant to students.

HWRK MAGAZINE PUBLISHED BY STAFFROOM MEDIA LTD 5 Hackins Hey, Liverpool L2 2AW, UK E: enquiries@staffroommedia.co.uk T: 0151 237 7311 EDITOR Andy McHugh PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Alec Frederick Power DESIGNER Adam Blakemore MANAGING DIRECTORS G Gumbhir, Alec Frederick Power Legal Disclaimer: While precautions have been made to ensure the accuracy of contents in this publication and digital brands neither the editors, publishers not its agents can accept responsibility for damages or injury which may arise therefrom. No part of any of the publication whether in print or digital may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission of the copyright owner.

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EDITORIAL:

WILL WE EVER HAVE IT CRACKED? Right now, I’m knee-deep in curriculum planning for next year. I already have a well thought out plan, but I’m still not happy with it. The sequence of topics needs to be tweaked again. Actually no, the topics are fine, but I do need to make sure to include more extended writing. Hang on though, will they know enough by that point to be able to write well enough on that topic? I’d better make sure they’ve got enough facts behind them first. No, actually, they need to engage with some real-world issues first to hook them and see the relevance of what they’re learning. But… but… As Mary Myatt has already mentioned before, curriculum is a never-ending story. But it’s not the only one. Schools have a habit of pursuing more and more, no matter what has just been achieved. It’s a noble aim and I’m as guilty as the next person when it comes to refining and reiterating everything to try to make it as good as it could be. Our students deserve it and I, like most teachers, see teaching not just as a job but as a vocation. We’re drawn to trying our hardest for others. But at what point do we say to ourselves “actually this is really good, let’s just keep doing this. It doesn’t need to be improved”? After all, there is a cost to everything we try to implement. We have limits on curriculum time, planning time, staffing, school budgets and quite HWRKMAGAZINE.CO.UK

simply the number of hours in a day. Add to that the fact that teachers deserve as much of a break as anyone else. We can’t just keep adding more and more to our to-do lists. Something has to give. But what? Here’s a list to choose from. It’s not an easy task for you, but give it a go anyway. Assuming nothing else changes in the education system, which of these would you personally ignore for two years straight, in your own school setting, giving you time to focus on all of the rest properly?

• Pastoral care • Quality of teaching • A well-sequenced curriculum • Staff wellbeing • Examinations It isn’t easy. I’d even go so far as to say that if any one of these goes missing (even if just for two years), then like a house of cards, the rest will come crashing down too. So, we keep them all. But if we keep them and they are less than perfect, they could have a negative impact on the other pieces of the puzzle. There’s a moral imperative then to do everything we can, within our power and within the constraints of time and space, to ensure that everything is as good as it could be.

It’s a balancing act though. At this end of the year, staff are exhausted, have one eye on the summer holidays and in many cases are up to the eyeballs in exams and last-minute revision classes. I’d bet that your middle leaders have many of the answers though. They’re the ones on the ground who have implemented this year’s new policies and procedures. They’re the ones who have identified the crunch points when it comes to assessment data windows, parents’ evenings and deadlines for everything in between. Ask middle leaders what they would keep, what they would bin and what they would adapt. It probably won’t lead to wholesale change (and it probably doesn’t need to), but it might just be enough to ensure that the wheels keep turning as we journey onwards, as we’ll be in a better position than we were this time last year. We’ll never have it cracked, but that’s ok. We’re always going to be chasing perfection, whatever that means to us, because we aren’t doing it for us, we’re doing it for our students. It does take its toll, both physically and mentally, but it’s also why we do the job.

Andy McHugh

Editor | HWRK Magazine

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FEATURE

WHAT CAN TEACHERS REALLY LEARN FROM MASTERCHEF? Is teaching a lesson the same as cooking a meal on Masterchef: The Professionals? Whether it is or it isn’t, Adam Boxer has a few useful takeaways… By Adam Boxer

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I’ve always liked eating, and when I first moved out I had to cook by necessity. It was a means to an end. At the start, I didn’t particularly enjoy it, but in the pursuit of ever-nicer food I’ve tried to learn more and get better at food preparation, and now find I quite enjoy the process of putting together a handsome meal. Part of “learning more” has been watching Masterchef: The Professionals. It’s pretty intense, and unlike other cooking and baking shows it isn’t light-hearted fun. It’s serious, but excellent TV. Top-chefs Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti put professional chefs through their paces via a series of gruelling challenges, assessing their culinary skills, knowledge and creativity all the while. At times, it feels a lot like teaching. There are explanations, guided practice and formative and summative assessment. Being an enormous edu-nerd, I can’t help but try and figure out, while watching it, if there’s anything I can translate into my practice. Of course, the settings aren’t quite the same, so perhaps take my findings with a pinch of salt (cough).

Wood -> trees -> wood The first challenge the chefs undergo is the technical test, where they are given ingredients and told to prepare an unfamiliar dish (ever heard of andaluz soup or sauce maltaise?). Before this, one of the presenters makes the dish so viewers can see what it is supposed to look like. A small nuance in the show’s production is that before the presenters start preparing, they show you a picture of the finished version. So it goes finished version -> presenter prepares -> finished version. This nuance is an extremely important detail: when we are watching an explanation or demonstration of something unfamiliar, we can often feel lost and unsure of exactly what is going on, because we don’t understand the bigger picture. In the classroom, we often delve into the details of an explanation, forgetting that our students aren’t as conversant with the big picture as we are, and they can easily lose the thread and get lost in the details. I refer to this as losing the woods for the trees, where the woods is the big picture, and the trees are the details that make it up. The woods are important because they help give a sense of purpose and overall structure, so when explaining something I like to briefly talk about the big idea or

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concept, followed by a drill down into the details, after which I pull out again to revisit the bigger picture: wood -> trees -> wood.

The panic and the calmdown The participants are in an extremely high-stress environments, with chefs given exacting time limits and plenty of complex variables to keep them in a prolonged state of heightened anxiety. In one episode, an otherwise very competent chef was basically freaking out, chucking the food on the plate, completely losing his train of thought, and just doing weird things. At this point, one of the presenters stopped him, calmed him down, helped him refocus and the chef got his head back in the game and got back to preparing his food purposefully and systematically. Often in school we see students doing stuff that just looks plain weird, and with 30 other students to worry about we can often get frustrated and annoyed. What we might not realise is that the brain is a funny thing and that students, like professional chefs, can get stuck in a cognitive and emotional rut. A calm reset can often help: “Hey, hey, look at me. Good. Ok. Let’s sort this out. We haven’t done the right thing, but that’s fine. Let’s bring it back a few steps. You still with me? Yeah, good. Cool, now let’s have a look at the task I’ve set you…”

Brutal feedback The way we give feedback to people depends on many things: the type of person they are, the type of person you are, the relationship you share, the nature of the feedback itself and the recipient’s relative expertise. The feedback the judges on Masterchef give can be brutal – this doesn’t taste nice; I would send this back; this dish is full of errors – and of course in a school context feedback of that kind doesn’t always serve to motivate or push learning forward. But one thing I can transfer from it is a willingness to be honest with students’ answers and say “this isn’t correct.” Time after time I find myself saying things like “not quite” or “almost” when it actually is just flat wrong. Desperate to not dishearten my students, I accidentally send them mixed messages. I need to be clear with them about what “right” looks

like, otherwise I do them a disservice and only end up confusing them. Over the long term, I’m also not sure that I do them any favours in insulating them from blunt feedback. It’s the kind of feedback they will be exposed to as soon as they leave school, and it’s also the kind of feedback we should welcome: honest, to the point and unambiguous. That’s the kind of feedback I seek on my own practice, and it’s the kind of feedback I think is most useful.

“Silly mistakes” The chefs’ responses to the feedback can also be telling. The best chefs take it on board, and say things like “I got it wrong, and need to do x, y or z better next time.” Chefs who rarely make it past the first round tend to say things like “I made a silly mistake” or “I let my nerves get the best of me.” In my opinion, these are not useful reflections. What people mean when they say things like this is “out of the things that are in my control, I did everything I could. Any error was due to random chance (silly mistakes) or external pressures (nerves).” To me, this is a way of abdicating responsibility and preventing the feedback from making meaningful changes to you as a person. I hear teachers say things like this too when talking to students, but we should be very careful. Most of the time, if students fail to perform to a standard of which they are capable it’s because they didn’t study hard enough or use effective strategies. Allowing them an “escape” through deflection to externalities does not help them move forward and improve. The simplest yet most effective things teachers can learn from Masterchef: The Professionals? Never stop learning, and steal insights from everywhere you look.

“when explaining something I like to briefly talk about the big idea or concept, followed by a drill down into the details, after which I pull out again to revisit the bigger picture”

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FEATURE

“the settings aren’t quite the same, so perhaps take my findings with a pinch of salt”

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CLOSING THE GAP WITH QUALITY FIRST TEACHING What exactly does Quality First Teaching mean and how should we implement it in our classrooms, adapting it for different learners? Zoe Enser explains… By Zoe Enser

Quality First Teaching is how we make learning accessible and effective for all. Put more simply, Great Teaching is a phrase I often encounter when discussing SEND pupils or when reading pupil premium strategy documents for schools. It is also a phrase which has come in for some criticism recently online; Quality First Teaching is often talked about but what does it actually mean? Why wouldn’t this be our aim? And who on earth doesn’t want to do this? It can easily become an oft-repeated mantra without a clear shared meaning it may bring little impact for those who need it the most. The evidence suggests that pupils from backgrounds of socio-economic deprivation benefit most from this, with the 2014 Sutton Trust review on ‘Improving the impact of teachers on pupil achievement in the UK’ finding ‘for poor pupils the difference between a good teacher and a bad teacher is a whole year’s learning’. This builds on Slater, Davies and Burgess’s 2011 research which found ‘highly effective’ as opposed to ‘average’ teaching could raise pupil outcomes by as much as 10%. It 1 0 // H W R K M AG A Z I N E // M AY 2 0 2 2

isn’t new information. It stands to reason that having access to great teaching day in, day out is going to make a difference to all. But this returns us again to the possible redundancy of the phrase “Quality First Teaching”. The phrase Quality First Teaching is pointless unless we pause to consider what it means and how we channel our efforts to benefit pupils from different backgrounds or with different needs. Professor Robert Coe, in The Great Teaching Toolkit refers to the ‘best bets’ which evidence provides us with in the classroom. Core elements such as creating a focused and purposeful environment, activating thinking hard and maximising the opportunities for learning are elements rooted in evidence. Having the time to get these things right, reflect on them and refine are shown to make a difference to the outcomes of our most vulnerable learners. There is also a wealth of evidence in the EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit which we can focus upon when considering what great teaching looks like and how we can tailor it to the needs of all. However, in order to do that we need to take the most forensic approach possible to understand what this means and what our pupils need. @hwrk_magazine

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“no two cohorts or groups of pupils are likely to always need the exact same things, so schools need to build adaptative expertise and responsive teaching, rooted in subject knowledge, to allow teachers to react to that changing picture.”

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“We need to think about how we can improve not just how we can evidence what we are doing for these pupils.”

That means starting with some detective work. We need to understand what the barriers to learning are for those pupils within YOUR context before we make decisions around how our approach to teaching and learning might overcome them. It can be easy to assume pupils experiencing deprivation will have poorer language skills, a less-developed vocabulary or will struggle to self-regulate. There is evidence this can be true of pupils from these backgrounds, but without exploring what our pupils can and can’t do we could end up setting the bar too low or focusing our energies on something they just don’t need as a priority. For example, in a group of 10 pupils I mentored, all of whom were identified as being higher prior attainers, six were also identified as ‘pupil premium’. These pupils were articulate, had high aspirations and goals for post-16, engaged with a range of learning activities outside of school and, on the whole, enjoyed being in school and learning. What this group needed most were practical ways to access materials and 1 2 // H W R K M AG A Z I N E // M AY 2 0 2 2

opportunities to get quick feedback to see their next steps. These could sometimes get lost amongst their other priorities such as their paid employment and supporting parents with younger siblings. This approach provided them with the material means to succeed and the reassurance they were on track, helping them to manage their time to focus on the things they found more difficult. If our focus had been on vocabulary or we’d enrolled them onto additional after-school interventions, it could have placed them under additional pressure which would not have helped with their learning. Equally, if the school decided selfregulation was the key, then alreadyindependent pupils could find themselves restricted in how they worked, making their use of time less efficient. It is therefore important we really understand what issues they are facing before we decide on what those ‘best bets’ will be. This is also true within our classroom practice. Good diagnostic testing will ensure we identify what it is our pupils of all backgrounds may be struggling with

and can then address this. Even though all pupils may benefit from a focus on vocabulary or reading, blanket approaches may not help everyone effectively so diagnosing literacy needs is essential, making use of data which tells us exactly what our pupils are struggling with. Is it decoding, comprehension, reading or writing fluency which might be the barrier, and if so, what is it we can do to address those on a whole school, class, or individual level? Diagnostics at subject level are also crucial, identifying the gaps in foundational knowledge, rooting out where misconceptions may be residing and really clarifying what it is our pupils already know and can do. High quality formative assessment should run through everything, alongside those formal opportunities to assess, bringing to light information that might challenge or surprise us. That also means staff must have a good understanding of the content of their subject and the steps and processes needed to be successful at different stages. Time should be devoted to this if we want to @hwrk_magazine

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understand how to close gaps and enable students to achieve.

order for teachers to make the best use of these different aspects.

on building in more of what their pupils need, be that modelling, other types of scaffolding or probing questions to get all pupils thinking hard. The challenge here of course is no two cohorts or groups of pupils are likely to always need the exact same things, so schools need to build adaptative expertise and responsive teaching, rooted in subject knowledge, to allow teachers to react to that changing picture. Coupling Quality First Teaching with well-placed and evidence-informed interventions, plus good relationships with pupils and parents, means we might be in a good position to really make a difference to those pupils who need it the most. If we can identify what pupils from less-advantaged backgrounds need, what barriers they experience and how we might overcome them, we will be on track to ensuring the best quality teaching and learning for all does indeed come first.

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5 Ways To Make NeW Teachers Feel WelcoMe With recruitment and retention such an important issue for schools, it matters even more than ever that new staff are able to settle quickly into their new schools. A significant part of that is how they are welcomed in the first place, according to Claudi BenDavid. By Claudi BenDavid

Like many teachers around the country, at the beginning of September I started a new job. It’s essentially the same role as before, just at a different school, and technically my job title is “Teacher of Chemistry” instead of “Science Teacher” but it’s all much of a muchness. Those who know me, know I hate change. During one particularly stressful week mid-pandemic, I came back after teaching double Year 9 to find the entire Science office had been rearranged and it completely threw me off my game. I prefer to be prepared for change, and I don’t think I’m alone in that. I’m also both queer and Jewish, so starting somewhere new always comes with a fear that I’m walking into a minefield of prejudices. And yet, I felt confident about this change, this new beginning, and my confidence was far from misplaced. Almost all of it is because of actions taken by my new school, my new team, and my new HoD. They weren’t actions that were particularly special, or impossible to replicate, and I’m sharing them with you today so that perhaps the new 1 4 // H W R K M AG A Z I N E // M AY 2 0 2 2

starters who join schools in the upcoming “transfer period” can feel welcomed and comfortable, just as I did and still do.

needed, to asking whether I’d prefer Sir or Madam. It was, as I said, unexpected. But it very much set the tone for September.

1. Sufficient Contact

All in all, communication wasn’t overwhelming and I didn’t feel like I was trying to work for two places at once. It was more that if there were questions, they were answered and if there were things that were relevant, they were shared.

Contact came from a variety of sources: from HR, the Head, my department directly and it was just the right amount. Despite the September start date, I got the job way back in February. This meant that there was potential for a lot of “dead time” between employment and starting. HR were fantastic, and were very clear in exactly what was needed, when it was needed and also when all the various cogs would turn. This meant I wasn’t left worrying “I’ve not had X, yet” or “Should I have sent them Y?” A week or so after the induction day (more on that later) I got an unexpected text from the Head. He was contacting all of the new starters, and he asked if I could drop him a line. I said yes. He then rang me and we discussed what September would be like. He was absolutely fantastic about making sure they were doing everything necessary to make me feel comfortable, from checking I had what I

2. Early Setup

We received our email addresses and login details on the induction day in July and they worked. Often when you start somewhere new you get given these things, but they haven’t been activated yet and won’t be until September. By having functional emails and logins before starting at the new school, it meant that we could more easily liaise with our new department and find out what we’d be teaching. As well as the IT information, most of the new starters also got their ID cards, which means they could rock up on that first day of term and not have to ask to be let in. There’s little that makes you feel less welcome than having to wait around for permission to enter! @hwrk_magazine

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“I prefer to be prepared for change, and I don’t think I’m alone in that.”

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3. Useful Induction

At the beginning of the induction day there was an opportunity to have coffee and pastries, which was obviously nice, but what was better was that my HoD came down during this time to have a very quick chat with us new starters. Running a department is busy work, and him taking that little smidgen of time to chat to us before the day started went a long way to making me feel like I was a valued member of the team. The Head of Year 7 also popped by to have a chat with me about the tutor group I’d be getting, what the kids were like and how the week is structured in terms of form times. Whilst it was a little bit of a surprise, I felt a lot more confident knowing the ins and outs than if I’d just been told “oh, by the way...”, or worse, turned up in September to be greeted with an extra block on my timetable. Also on the schedule for the day was a bit of department time. This was run exactly like a department meeting, so we got to meet the team and, more importantly, we got to work alongside our new colleagues on some stuff that would be relevant in the coming year. There was also further opportunity later where it was just us newbies which meant that we could ask a whole bunch of questions without feeling like we were boring and/or imposing on those veteran members of the department.

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4. ”Pre-joining”

This is obviously a made-up phrase, but it’s the best way to describe what my department did. Anything that was relevant and/or useful to us for prepping for September was shared with us via the same methods we’d be using to communicate next year. This meant we could engage with it if we wanted to and start planning, but because it wasn’t via our personal emails it was very easy to completely ignore it until our start date. It also meant that when we did start, everything was in one, sensible, logical place, instead of floating around an inbox as a bunch of super-important attachments.

enjoyable time. It was an opportunity to meet my new colleagues outside of work and to sort of get to know them (and also, the food was fantastic).

5. Make Enthusiasm Visible:

Even after I’d got the job, any contact I had with my HoD about the school was filled with enthusiasm. At one point I joked that I didn’t need the sales pitch anymore, I had already accepted the job! But in all honesty, knowing that he was so enthusiastic about our school made me feel very much like I’d made the right choice.

In Summary:

Treat new starters like they’re part of My new department has a very the team. Keep them in the loop. Show strong sense of ownership over their off your enthusiasm for your school, departmental policies. Each year, they get department or team. together and make any necessary changes or updates to the department handbook. Despite the fact that we very much hadn’t “By having functional started yet, both myself and my fellow new starter were included in this process. emails and logins We were also invited, personally, to the traditional end of year meal. Often when invites go out they say things like “new starters are welcome to join us” which is lovely, but if you’re the sort of person who runs low on confidence, you can trick yourself into thinking they’re just saying that, and that if you went, you’d be the only new starter there. This wasn’t the case here. Both I and my fellow non-trainee starter went along and it was a thoroughly

before starting at the new school, it meant that we could more easily liaise with our new department and find out what we’d be teaching. “

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PASTORAL 20. The Final Countdown: Pastoral Preparation for Year 10 Into Year 11 Tips for Pastoral Leaders on laying the groundwork for a successful Year 11.

25. Safeguarding Triage Strategies for making sure Safeguarding is covered from all angles.

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PASTORAL

The Final CounTdown: PasToral PreParaTion For Year 10 GoinG inTo Year 11 High-stakes assessment can feel intimidating to young people, especially when they have little prior experience of it. Strong Pastoral Leadership can pave the way for students to adapt and cope with the pressure. Amy-May Forrester explains how… By Amy-May Forrester

One of the greatest challenges Key Stage 4 students face lies in the form of their GCSE exams. Given the disruption that they have all faced over the past two years, this feels more important now than ever before.

done anything like this previously. Even where you have, we know that students need regular retrieval practice to create long-term learning. This is exactly the same as what we might think of as more traditional, academic learning.

Now, more than ever, Pastoral Leaders have a real challenge on their hands in preparing and supporting KS4 students effectively. As we look towards a new academic year, now is the time to turn our attention to long-term plans to do just this, giving our students the best possible chance of achieving success for themselves.

There are some key concepts that it is vital that students understand, to maximise their potential in their future exams.

How should Pastoral Leaders approach a long-term plan?

The first thing that you need to account for is how well your school has already laid the foundations for your students, in terms of their knowledge of learning and in how best to systematically approach revision for their exams. The transition point between Year 10 and Year 11 is the ideal opportunity to begin working on this, if you haven’t

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Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve:

When we teach students about memory, and about learning, the study of memory, and of forgetting is a crucial part of the work that we need to do in this area. In my experience, students’ perceptions of forgetting can become something that they fixate on, and use to create a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. This is because our brains naturally forget a lot of what we know, encounter, or learn about in any given day. Unless students understand this, and are suitably reassured that this is a normal foible within the human brain, they can risk fulfilling a narrative that leads them

to failure, simply because of how easy it can be for them to assume that their weakness means they are stupid. Ensuring students know this and can appreciate the regularity at which our brains forget things we have learnt, is a vital part of helping them to overcome the natural difficulties that we all face when trying to create long-term learning. The route to empowering them lies in the way that we educate them about learning and memory. Once they realise that we forget things quickly, and that recalling them helps us to strengthen the memory, they can understand the value of recapping learning or in revising regularly. Teaching them specifically about Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve can really help them to understand how to work more effectively with their own learning and revision. Not only is understanding this important, but the most crucial aspect that our students need to take from this lies in the way that we strengthen our memories, our learning, through regular recap and retrieval practice.

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PASTORAL Retrieval Practice

The findings from the Cepeda paper also helpfully highlight just how regularly we need to remind ourselves of subject knowledge and content if we are to retain it. This needs to be the message that you craft when educating your students; learning is a long-term commitment, not a short-term activity.

After this point, as students begin to understand the science of learning, it’s important to explicitly teach students practical methods of retrieval to help them play a more independent role as active participants in their own journey towards long term retention of learning.

The concept of effort, when it comes to schools and students, is a complex one. It’s something we might talk about regularly with students, but its meaning and what it means in practice can often mislead teachers and students.

This goes hand-in-hand with teaching students about The Forgetting Curve. As students begin to understand the concept of forgetting, and how recapping learning helps to strengthen the duration of the learning, they also begin to see the value of it in helping them achieve longer term retention.

It is also helpful at this point to bring on board your subject-experts from within departments. Retrieval practice looks different in different academic disciplines, and we need to incorporate the expertise of classroom teachers to further help students know what to do specifically in each subject. Furthermore, it is also helpful at this point to make use of the findings from Cepeda et.al 2009 which explores the regularity at which the recap of learning should be done, broken down by the period of time that we need to learn something for.

1 week

Optimal interval between study sessions 1-2 days

1 month

1 week

2 months

2 weeks

6 months

3 weeks

1 year

4 weeks

Time before test

The way that we talk about this with students needs careful thought. It can, if delivered clumsily, lead to some students viewing it as a tool from which they can cram revision in the short term. With this in mind, it’s helpful to use this to underpin your message that longterm learning is the goal that we are all aiming for, and that learning in and of itself is a wonderful thing.

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Effort

If I asked you whether you’d ever told a student to ‘put a bit more effort in’, would your answer be yes? I’m willing to bet it would be. In the same vein, if I asked you if you’ve ever had a student say to you that they know they need to put more effort in, I’d also be willing to bet that your answer would also be yes. It’s easily done. Now, if I asked you what that meant, what would you say? How would you define effort? And, crucially, does it even impact learning as much as we might think? Defined as ‘using more mental energy for any given unit of time – not just using more time’ by renowned expert in the field Professor John Dunlosky (2020), effort, it seems, is simply a measure of the energy that we might exert on a task.

Crucially, as Dunlosky explores throughout his research, it may not be the case that effort, in and of itself, makes any discernible impact on learning. In fact, it is more so the case that it is students’ actions, and the things that they are thinking, which are what matters, and what, crucially, makes the most impact on learning, according to Dunlosky. He argues that it is what students are doing that has the causal impact on their learning, not the effort that they invest in it. In practice, this means we need to train students to understand that it is not their effort that will directly impact their progress – the real success lies in ensuring that they are doing the right things. In our role as Pastoral Leaders, we have a duty to ensure that students not only understand this concept, but also to ensure that they also know what they should be doing, that are the ‘right things’. We are uniquely placed to bring together their different subjects, with expert input from subject teachers, to ensure that every child is appropriately supported to work independently in the most effective ways possible. They should very clearly know what they should be doing in each discrete subject, to revise effectively. In bringing all of this together, Pastoral Leaders can create a Pastoral curriculum which directly addresses the knowledge that students need, including the knowledge of the inner workings of their minds, that empower them to be active participants in their own success.

“long-term learning is the goal that we are all aiming for, and that learning in and of itself is a wonderful thing.” REfEREncEs: Cepeda, N.J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J.T. and Pashler, H. 2009. Spacing effects in learning: A temporal ridgeline of optimal retention. Psychological Science. 11. Pp 1095-1102. Dunlosky, J., Badali, S., Rivers, M.L., Rawson, K. 2020. The Role of Effort in Understanding Educational Achievement: Objective Effort as an Explanatory Construct Versus Effort as a Student Perception. Educational Psychology Review, 32, pp. 1163-1175

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Safeguarding Triage The role of the DSL still carries the “Ultimate lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection”. Phil Naylor explores the issues surrounding Safeguarding and how school might collaborate efficiently with external agencies to triage Safeguarding concerns. By Phil Naylor

The days of a sole DSL with absolute responsibility for all safeguarding concerns in schools is coming to an end. Systems in which one person picks up and deals with all concerns are flawed and unsustainable. Keeping Children Safe In Education 2021’s arguably biggest change is not in content but in emphasis. Despite many children living in riskier environments during the pandemic, referrals to children’s social care fell dramatically1. This was partly due to schools having less contact with all children in the school environment1. School safeguarding referrals have anecdotally risen significantly following schools full reopening.

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The pandemic reversed a trend of decreasing child protection and care interventions1. The results of societal pressures exacerbated by the pandemic have seen a 23% increase in calls to childline1 and a 134% increase in under 18’s being referred to mental health services. This is particularly evident in schools serving more disadvantaged communities. KCSIE 2021 does allow for the appointment of one or more Deputies to assist the DSL. “It is for individual schools and colleges to decide whether they choose to have one or more deputy designated safeguarding leads. Any deputy (or deputies) should be trained to the same standard as the designated

safeguarding lead” The benefit of one person being responsible makes sense from an accountability and contact viewpoint. In my view, this is too small a team for large 2/3 form entry primaries and most secondary schools, particularly those serving disadvantaged cohorts. It is also not in the spirit or the ethos of the new iteration of KCSIE to have one person making all decisions in the best interest of a child Managing a high number of safeguarding referrals, attending child protection conferences, liaising with partner agencies, spending time

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PASTORAL with pupils and families, supporting students’ mental health and meticulously completing the attendant paperwork is in practice not the work of just one or two people. To mitigate this, schools have increasingly invested in safeguarding teams and the relevant training. Speaking regularly with school leaders as I do on my podcast, here is a non-exhaustive list of some of the safeguarding team positions discussed:

Child protection officer LAC co-ordinator Family support workers Early help co-ordinator’s Mental health lead Mental health practitioners Pastoral managers Heads of Year As these staff feed into the overall safeguarding of all students, it is firstly vital that these staff are appropriately trained. As DSL, I ensure that all staff working in pastoral teams are trained to level 3. This ensures that they have a full understanding and appreciation of the work of the DSL and are up to date on the complexities of child protection. Secondly, we have an easy, attractive and timely system of reporting2 that is constantly reinforced through posters, briefings, CPD and line management. Thirdly as individual members of the team will know the child better in some instances than the DSL, we enable colleagues within the team to act within the system as KCSIE 2021 states: “Ultimately, all systems, processes and

policies should operate with the best interests of the child at their heart” In order to ensure that we have a whole school approach to safeguarding; with child protection at the forefront of process, policy and practice, we have introduced a triage process to manage our referrals.

What is a safeguarding triage?

All safeguarding concerns are recorded (on the system of choice) and discussed with the named DSL on duty as soon as they occur. The DSL will assess the nature and severity of the concern and then triage to the most appropriate colleague or deal immediately when imminent risk of harm is identified.

a supervision meeting from a trained Educational Psychologist. This is an opportunity for the DSL to receive support in a confidential environment and to maintain their emotional stability in what is always a challenging but rewarding position. The future of safeguarding in schools still sits with the DSL but ably supported by a multi-disciplinary team of highly trained and skilled practitioners. The linking together of these teams is vital to ensure clarity of decision making and acting holistically with the best interest of the child at the centre of practice. The processes put in place make the role of the DSL sustainable and more effective; ensuring they continue to have the ultimate lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection.

This process will be logged in a chronology with a time frame. When actioned the concern form will be updated accordingly and returned to the DSL. An example could be a concern around a student’s mental health. This could be triaged to the mental health lead who will be able to either provide or access further support.

How can we set up a triage meeting?

In order to support the DSL’s decision making and to provide professional scrutiny, a weekly triage assessment meeting occurs. This meeting includes all stakeholders from the safeguarding team at intervals (for confidentiality purposes) working through caseloads with DSL and the Headteacher. The Headteacher through this process is fully informed of all relevant cases and is able to professionally question the decisions made by the team and offer support and suggestions. The multi-disciplinary and sometimes multiagency team can therefore work more holistically and in the best interests of each child. These meetings then inform chronologies allowing cases to be revisited and periodically reviewed. The DSL is also supported monthly by

“Managing a high number of safeguarding referrals, attending child protection conferences, liaising with partner agencies, spending time with pupils and families, supporting students’ mental health and meticulously completing the attendant paperwork is in practice not the work of just one or two people.”

REFEREnCEs 1 Instituteforgovernment.co.uk – performance tracker Children’s Social Care 2 https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/publications/strategic-communications-a-behavioural-approach/

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PEDAGOGY 30. The Power Of Homework

What is the point of homework? Is there a particular way we should be doing it?

37. How I Teach… Revision

The science of revision and how to teach it in the classroom.

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PEDAGOGY THE POWER OF HOMEWORK Homework is loved by some, loathed by others (and that’s just the teachers). History teacher, Emily Folorunsho, makes the case for homework and how it could be implemented in your department too. By Emily Folorunsho

In some schools, there has been a decline in homework being set, due to the increased workload it brings in terms of marking, chasing students and setting detentions. However, there are tremendous benefits that homework can bring and there are ways to work around some of the issues it can have on teachers’ workloads. When I think of my own education and the most effective teachers that I had, they all set regular homework and ensured it was done. To master anything in life we need hours of practice therefore I am here to make a case for homework as it ensures that students get the opportunity to further practice what they learnt in school. What does research say about homework? Inner Drive stated that ‘Students who were set regular homework by their teacher performed significantly better than those who were set it occasionally.’ It also found that ‘The frequency that homework was set was found to be more important than the amount of time students spent on it.’

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Research has also shown that doing homework independently encourages autonomy, which has been linked to developing self-regulation. The Education Endowment Foundation has also found that homework has a positive impact (on average +5 months) particularly with pupils in secondary schools. It was also found that homework that is linked to classroom work tends to be more effective. In particular, studies that included feedback on homework had higher impacts on learning. This is why at KS4 & 5 we set students exam questions to do for homework, as they see it as worthwhile due to further practice and the feedback they know they will receive, as it provides students with further practice in terms of exam technique and structure, as well as application of knowledge. (It is important to note that students also have the opportunity to practice writing in exam conditions during in-class assessments which act as our summative assessments.) The EEF also found that ‘The quality of the task set appears to be

more important than the quantity of work required from the pupil’. There is some evidence that the impact of homework diminishes as the amount of time pupils spend on it increases. The studies reviewed with the highest impacts set homework twice a week in a particular subject.’ As we can see above, homework is important. Tom Sherrington writes ‘homework is a vital element in the learning process; reinforcing the interaction between teacher and student: between home and school and paving the way to students being independent autonomous learners.’

What is our intent for setting homework in my department? We want to use homework to enrich, consolidate and give students the opportunity to practice knowledge & skills they have gained in lessons. We plan homework into the design of our curriculum. We also want to use homework as a means to nurture a love for History.

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PEDAGOGY

Particularly at KS3, we want homework to build discipline among our students so that by the time they reach their examination years they have developed the skills and characteristics required for learning independently at home. Furthermore, the building of students’ historical frameworks and their sense of period, to enable access to future learning has been disrupted due to covid; therefore, our hope is that our homework booklets at KS3 will fill in those gaps and strengthen students’ sense of period.

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Implementation: How does my History department set homework? KS3:

Homework booklets which compromise of the following tasks for the whole year for each unit: 1. Scholarship Reading 2. Meanwhile elsewhere tasks 3. Revisit tasks: Quizzes 4. Improving assessments 5. Revision tasks/explicit practice of study skills

We set a variety of tasks within the homework booklet as research has stated that ‘pupils… want interesting, challenging, and varied tasks that are clearly defined and have adequate deadlines.’

KS4 & KS5:

1. Show My Homework quizzes 2. Exam questions

“Build a community through collective activity e.g celebrating when 100% of the class has completed the homework.”

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PEDAGOGY How have some of the issues of homework been combatted?

Furthermore, when writing exam answers we enforce that all answers should be handwritten therefore a device is not required.

Issue 3 - Chasing students up & setting detentions

Issue 2 - Marking

Chasing students that have not done homework is my biggest bug bear however there are ways we can minimise the chasing and the consequence implication of not doing the homework.

Issue 1 - The disadvantage gap It is common knowledge that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to have a quiet working space, are less likely to have access to a device suitable for learning or a stable internet connection and may receive less parental support to complete homework and develop effective learning habits. These difficulties may increase pupils’ abilities to do homework and do it well. As a result, these are the ways in which we have tried to combat the issue and close the disadvantage gap in our department:

KS3:

Students with a physical booklet do not require a computer or the internet as all the information they need to be able to do the tasks are within that booklet.

KS4/5:

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Another reason why some are hesitant to set homework is due to the marking load implication. However, there are ways in which we can work around this as we can see below:

KS3:

Homework is commonly self or peer marked at the beginning of the lesson. However, if I do not have time for this, I would live mark students’ homework whilst they are working independently on the main task.

KS4/5:

Issue 4 - Lack of motivation & discipline If we can deal with the problem of lack of motivation, then issue 3 almost becomes non-existent. Being able to do work at home is a key skill students need to develop, there will be times in their career whereby they will need to finish off work at home. However, they will be more inclined to do this due to the reward of pay at the end of the month as well as having greater maturity. Nevertheless, at this present time students need to be able to practice delayed gratification and know that the feeling of motivation may not always be present but that is when discipline kicks in.

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PEDAGOGY

How to encourage students to start? 1. Give clear instructions that make starting sound easy 2. Help students commit to a plan of doing homework by planning WHEN and HOW they will act e.g. I will do homework immediately after school. I will study alone in the school library or join homework club. If I am invited to go out and see my friends, I will wait until have finished my homework. I will share this plan with my parents to keep me accountable. 3. Share models e.g first examine the model, then see if you can do the similar task. 4. Set a default e.g if you are unsure about what to do then use your how to guide. 5. Revisit past successes e.g your homework task is almost identical to what we did in class today, the one where you got all the questions right.

“The Education Endowment Foundation has also found that homework has a positive impact (on average +5 months) particularly with pupils in secondary schools.”

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PEDAGOGY Once you get them started how can you keep them going? 1. Highlight intrinsic rewards e.g what has been satisfying in completing your homework 2. Surprise students with rewards e.g giving students merits/points for the habit of completing homework. 3. Build a community through collective activity e.g celebrating when 100% of the class has completed the homework. 4. Empathise students success and its significance e.g asking students what they achieved this term as a result of completing homework and how its increased their progress in your subject 5. Check what the barriers are to give a more targeted form of solution In conclusion, although there are recognisable barriers in the setting, completing, and following up on homework there are ways we can dismantle these barriers. Homework is worth setting, reflecting upon & refining and is a vital component in every curriculum.

“Homework is commonly self or peer marked at the beginning of the lesson. However, if I do not have time for this, I would live mark students’ homework whilst they are working independently on the main task.”

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PEDAGOGY

HOW I TEACH… REVISION We all know that students struggle with revision, whether it’s because they don’t know what to revise, how to revise, or why they should bother at all. In this article, Eve Draper explains how she teaches the skills of revision to her students. By Eve Draper

A few years before I started teaching, I was taking my first driving lesson. Even though I’d passed my theory test I didn’t know how to use a clutch to change gear at the right time, how to navigate a roundabout or how to park a car. Despite having read the rulebooks, been in cars and seen people drive for all of my life, I couldn’t do it. Without someone explicitly teaching me how to drive I would not have passed my test. I needed specific knowledge on the ‘how to’.

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Yet here I was in my first year of teaching, standing in front of my class, collecting homework in. I’d asked them to revise for an upcoming assessment. The students had worked hard in my carefully planned lessons but I was disappointed the next week. The revision homework I collected was copied-out notes, a beautifullycrafted mind map with bubble writing or an A4 page of writing where every word was highlighted. But they had not rehearsed moving information between their long-

term and short-term memory. I shouldn’t have been so surprised. After doing some reading on metacognition, I’d found my golden ticket for revision: it needs to be taught. Students need to be taught how to revise themselves without me leading them through it. It seems obvious now. Just like any other skill, revision needs instruction, scaffolding and practice. A few years later and I now set aside lessons to teach this skill and how to apply it specifically to Geography.

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PEDAGOGY So, here’s the scenario: I have three lessons to revise with Year 11 until an assessment and they need to be revising at home too. What do I do?

revision with the added benefit of the teacher in the classroom. This then improves student confidence to tackle revision in their own time.

Metacognition

1 Retrieval practice

Before I deliver any revision in class, I explicitly introduce metacognition and the ‘science’ underpinning it. This time is well invested if it is completely new to students. I begin by mentioning Perkins’ four types of metacognitive learners (1992) and students identify where they are and where they want to be. We then discuss the principle of Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve, which shows why revision is so helpful and why regular revision with spaced practice is even more helpful. Next I introduce my four steps of revision (retrieval practice, learn the facts, application, reflection). Different types of activities fit into these categories so it can be adapted for all subjects. Finally the categories can be arranged into ‘revision sequences’. All of this key information is given to students so they can refer back to it in the lesson and at home as their ‘how to’ guide. A clear introduction provides a common language to talk about revision and gives a rationale as to why this way works particularly well. Like my driving lessons, the theory is needed but without deliberate practice it means nothing. As such, revision lessons in my classroom usually follow one of the simple revision sequences. First this shows students this process works and second they are practicing the skill of independent

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The next step is to share the topics we will cover in class with students and give them tools to find gaps in their knowledge, such as checklists or quiz questions. This is key as there is little point revising the knowledge they know the most - I make this clear to students too. It also means they can plan their own revision outside of school more effectively and puts the onus on them. I then identify the topics I’ll cover in class, based on data from retrieval quizzes, assessment or mock exam results, learning checklists and also by asking students. The first task in the lesson contains approximately 8-10 short-answer retrieval questions. I already know there is a knowledge gap but it is helpful to pinpoint specific areas that I should place more emphasis on in the lesson. The quiz also establishes a starting point and reminds students of some of the content they need to know.

2 Learn the facts

Now students need to learn the facts. This will look different independently compared to in the classroom. In the classroom, the teacher is the best resource so I will recap the topic. I ask students to do nothing but listen. As a geographer, images and diagrams are helpful to recap content so I may use my visualiser or some slides. Questions can be useful but I don’t want to introduce any misconceptions so I try to balance this carefully. It’s all about clear delivery of accurate information.

Students then complete a notes summary from memory on what I recapped. A template with scaffolding such as headings, bullet points, incomplete diagrams, etc, provides a quick prompt and enables notes to be made quickly. This should be challenging. The hard work of retrieving information from different parts of the memory and rehearsing that process is how revision is done. I encourage students to think hard for as long as they can bear and then let them use their resources (revision guide, exercise book, knowledge organiser etc.) to fill in any remaining gaps. This step teaches students to be able and confident to do this section without a teacher at home.

3 Application

Knowledge is one side of the coin; skills to answer the right question in the right way in an exam is another. Application is all about applying their knowledge in the right context. Exam question practice is useful here, although in different subjects this will look different and some revision lessons may skip this step and focus on knowledge only. Sometimes I will re-teach a specific skill if I know that there are weaknesses, before my students practice independently. Again I follow the model from above: first attempt the practice questions from memory and then improve using revision resources independently. This is where I find it most beneficial to circulate and provide feedback by correcting misconceptions and helping them to improve their improvements.

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PEDAGOGY

“images and diagrams are helpful to recap content so I may use my visualiser or some slides. Questions can be useful but I don’t want to introduce any misconceptions so I try to balance this carefully. It’s all about clear delivery of accurate information.”

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PEDAGOGY 4 Reflection

The most significant skill in the metacognitive process is being able to independently reflect and change to improve. In the classroom, I can model this alongside students by ending the lesson with a discussion of the revision sequence we just completed. Before we do that, I ask them to repeat the retrieval quiz from the start of the lesson. The resulting follow up discussion may go something like this: Are your scores higher? Did your revision work? Yes, so the forgetting curve is up to x% on that topic. When might you revise that topic next? Should we add some paired quizzing next time before we do exam questions? Should we split the teacher talk into smaller chunks? Can you repeat this sequence at home

using your revision resources instead of me talking to you? How will you identify your next topic to revise? What will you use to do your own revision sequence? And off they go…

Looking back and moving forwards Establishing these tools has been hugely beneficial to my exam classes over the last few years. Last academic year we had to revise huge amounts of disrupted learning due to the pandemic. I was worried students would get bored of repeating the same structured lesson for weeks and weeks. They didn’t. Even when I offered an alternative, they chose revision sequences. The feedback they gave was that they knew it worked so why change it… I really couldn’t argue with that!

To take this further, the language and skills of the metacognitive process of revision can be introduced in KS3 to give learners more time to develop and improve. There is also an opportunity for a whole-school approach to use the same language around revision across all subjects. Parent sessions on ‘how to revise’ can also be of huge benefit too: the more people who are on the same page, the easier it will be for students. However, I think the focus of learning something new should always be on practicing with an expert, to learn exactly how to do it, whether that’s a teacher in a classroom, or my very patient driving instructor on a quiet housing estate!

“A clear introduction provides a common language to talk about revision and gives a rationale as to why this way works particularly well.”

References and further reading

Perkins, D (1992) Smart Schools: Better Thinking and Learning for Every Child. New York: Free Press Ridley, N (2020) Understanding how to learn: An exploration into teaching metacognition explicitly https:// teaandlearning.home.blog/2020/01/12/metacognition/ EEF (2018) Metacognition and self-regulated learning: guidance report

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EXPAND YOUR MIND ONE SUBJECT AT A TIME

44. How To Answer… AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2

Strategies for tackling questions on AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2

48. Assessment in MFL: Isn’t There A Better Way?

How assessment in MFL should really look.

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CURRICULUM

HOW TO ANSWER… AQA GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 2 What should students focus on to maximise their marks on AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2? Andrew Atherton offers his strategies for high-performance on this tricky paper… By Andrew Atherton

As we move towards GCSE examinations, there will be countless students (and teachers!) across the country looking at English Language Paper 2 and scratching their heads. ‘So, let me get this straight’, they might be saying, ‘Q2 asks me to write a summary but what it really wants is inference?!’ At the best of times, English Language is a complex examination, and not necessarily because of the content it assesses. But, Paper 2 is especially difficult, and again not because of its content. In order, as much as is possible, to alleviate some of these difficulties this articles offers a step by step overview of how to approach each question on AQA English Language Paper 2. One quick caveat before we get started, though: this article is written from the assumption it will be most useful for those teaching Y11 as students make their final preparations for the upcoming examination. The below advice is very much targeted to the exam and strategies to help navigate its specific questions.

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As such, it doesn’t address or dwell on general approaches for reading and enjoying non-fiction. Whilst this is crucial, and hopefully students would have been fed a rich diet of varied non-fiction already, this article assumes these foundations have already, as much as possible, been built.

The idea here is for students to quickly extract relevant information from the two sources and place it in the table: an overall point of difference and evidence from each source that would substantiate this difference. They now have everything they need to answer this question.

Question 2

Here’s how to use the table: the top row simply becomes the opening sentence of the response. We then look at the column for Source A and work our way down, jumping from one piece of evidence to the next. As we do so, we build in points of inference using phrases such as ‘…, which might infer’ or ‘…from which we might conclude’.

Let’s begin then with Question 2: a question that expects our students to infer that it isn’t actually a summary they need to write, but instead inference. However, once we know this, the question doesn’t need to pose us, or our students, too many problems. My top strategy for approaching this question is to use the below structure table:

It is also possible to bundle columns so that two points of evidence are effectively referenced simultaneously, with a point of inference relating to both. We then signpost similarity or difference (In direct contrast to Source A…) and work our way through the second column, again including inference as we move through each piece of evidence.

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English

The benefit to this table is that it offers a structure not only to our writing, but our thinking too, restricting the amount of evidence we can use, prompting us to select carefully. By displaying all the information in one glanceable table it also helps students to better make connections and to spot patterns of difference or similarity. The 10 seconds it takes to draw the table and the extra couple of minutes to extract the relevant information is, to my mind, well worth it for the added concision and quality of inference this support helps to produce. However, if students feel drawing and compiling the table will take too long in a question that is admittedly already tight on time, they can of course circle the relevant evidence directly onto the Source and write their response from that. I still very much recommend rehearsing and modelling this table, though, because even if students decide not to actually draw it in the exam, I’ve still found it significantly helps with how to think about and better understand

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what this question is expecting from us. With enough practice, whether or not they physically draw the table, its shape will remain imprinted on students as a way to structure their response as they write.

Question 3

I’ve found that students tend to be on pretty firm ground for this question, given it is effectively the same as Paper 1, Question 2 and indeed similar in skill to more or less any language analysis they would do across their English GCSE. As such, I approach this question much as I do with Paper 1: students select 3 or 4 images from the relevant extract that strike them as especially rich. These are images they should be able to say multiple things about, and, if rehearsed often enough, it tends to be reasonably easy to identify those images in the passage that are suitably fertile. Once they have highlighted or underlined three or four images, they can start to write the response itself. I tend to suggest students begin

with a ‘big picture’ idea that they express in the first one or two sentences of their response: ‘When considering how the writer uses language to describe the landscape it is immediately obvious it is hostile and dangerous’. This helps to co-ordinate the rest of the analysis, ensuring the students begin their response with an overall argument about how the writer is using language to achieve a specific effect. Students can then select the first image to discuss, making sure it elucidates or substantiates they big picture idea they have started with, which it should since the opening idea comes out of the three or four images they have already chosen. I always recommend students begin with whatever image they consider to be most analytically interesting, the image about which they could say the most. This is because English Language as an examination very much succumbs to the law of diminishing returns: most of the marks students receive will come from the opening of their response and as their response continues they will find it harder and harder to squeeze further

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CURRICULUM

marks out of their answer. So, we want the opening of their response to be as good as possible. This also helps because, as above, the Paper is very tight on time and it might well be students need to stop writing mid-sentence if they reach their imposed question time limit, which might feel galling, but is really crucial for the Paper as a whole. As such, we want the opening to be as good as possible so if they do finish mid-answer they have still been able to accumulate a significant number of marks. Once they have finished analysing this first image, trying to notice several things about it, and considering the overall impact of the image as well as why specific words may have been used and how they connect to the big picture, they can then move onto the next image. And so on, repeating this same pattern 3 or 4 times.

Rather than phrases such as ‘… from which we might conclude’ we use more traditional methods of analysis, for instance considering the overall feeling expressed by the given image and why this word and not another one. As we move down the table, we use Janus-faced transitions to knit the argument together (The writer’s feeling that Y is further suggested by X…) and again include a clear shift to the second source (This is in direct contrast to…). However, for this question, a variation on how to use this table might be to interleave the analysis. After we select relevant images from Source A and we are ready to look to Source B, we might try to match the two so each row offers a link, like the below.

Rather than moving according to column (all of A followed by all of B, with links back) students could move according to row (all of the first row, all of the second row, and so on). I don’t find this as effective, but it might be useful for this question where a focus on both writers at the same time can be helpful. Given this question is worth 16 marks, the temptation is perhaps to attempt the above process twice. However, after lots of experimentation, I feel this is a mistake, although it is something I’ve done before. As is always the case, depth trumps breadth. As such, I think it is much better to explore one overarching point of comparison and then really dwell on the imagery and methods being used by the writer to express their perspective and how this compares to the other source.

Question 4

For this question, I basically use the same table structure as Q2, but we deploy it in a different way. So, here is the table:

The top row is the same as in Q2 and is designed to identify an overall difference or similarity, but the content will differ as in this question there is typically a focus on perspectives or feelings. Again, we then have three or four rows divided between a column for each source, A and B. Same structure, but different use. We extract from the sources images we might like to explore or analyse.

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English

Question 5

As we now know this question will ask students to write an article, we can be a little more targeted in our preparation. For this question, I teach students an overall response shape I call Describe, Position, Relevance, Now (or DPRN for short) and whilst this can be used with any form of writing, knowing this question will be an article based on the Advanced Information in helps us to work on how to mould this shape specifically to what students will be asked. But, what is DPRN and how can students use it, both to write and plan?

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I’ve found this overall shape works brilliantly in helping to give student work a argumentative trajectory or impulse, given that it carries them from some kind of emotional outline to an overview of the issues to an explanation of its relevance and finally how we might address or solve the issue. When planning, I encourage students to take a single side of A4 in their answer booklet and to divide it into quadrants. In each of the four spaces, students would generate ideas relevant to each element of DPRN. They might, for instance, consider what kind of scene or character to introduce in

the descriptive hook and bullet point some ideas before then listing why they think what they think, and so on. This means that when they come to write they can focus on constructing an authentic voice that is appropriate to the specific task rather than trying to generate ideas in the moment of writing itself. It also helps them to focus on constructing a cogent and linear argument that has a clear thread or perspective running through it, all crucial to success in this question. And there we have it: an overview of top strategies to help maximise student success for AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2.

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ASSESSMENT IN MFL: WHERE ARE WE AT AND WHERE ON EARTH ARE WE GOING? Are we assessing the right things in the right way in MFL? Sadie Thompson argues that we aren’t. There is a better way… By Sadie Thompson

The current GCSE assessments for Modern Foreign Languages in England are facing upheaval as the specifications for French, German and Spanish are set to be replaced for first teaching in 2024, with the first of the new exams due to be taken in 2026. Although these changes are in their infancy and yet to be set in stone in terms of an assessment model, it provides an important point to reflect on assessment in MFL currently and how to design an accurate model which rewards authentic communication and ensures accurate grades for all learners.

What are we striving to achieve?

As a linguist, my primary aim is to ignite a lifelong love for language learning amongst my pupils and to create linguists. Idealist though this may be, secondary to that comes the need for my students to pass exams and secure highest possible outcomes; I’m usually banking on that being a natural and welcome outcome.

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Yet all too often this is not necessarily the case and talented linguists, indeed sometimes even native speakers who enter for an extra bonus exam grade, can surprisingly lose marks. This leads us to question our assessment model and what we are striving to achieve in the first place. Do we want great results or linguists for life?

Are we expecting too much?

As most MFL teachers across the country will tell you, the current GCSE specification falls short. There is too much content to teach across a two-year key stage 4 and too many exam-specific skills to master. The assessment is based on 4 key areas, Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing, each comprising 25% of the mark and with no allowance given for the mixing of tiers to play to students’ strengths. It is therefore vital to address the skill of answering exam questions successfully. Unfortunately, this is too often at the expense of valuable curriculum

time which needs to be devoted to an already crammed-full-withcontent specification. Losing the ability to mix tiers is also problematic in that many MFL classrooms are mixed ability. It is also unusual for a given class to be either entirely higher or foundation candidates. So the teacher must also become an expert in teaching a content-heavy specification, while addressing exam skills for groups of students at two different tiers of entry. Add in the fact that the two tiers then have vastly different mark schemes for Speaking and Writing and you are creating an almost impossible challenge for any classroom teacher to rise to.

Natural speaker or exam performer?

It is no secret that most GCSE candidates dislike the Speaking exam with a passion. In fact, most adults can recollect most details of the toe-curling experience, some can even recite a line or two twenty years later! However, this is probably because the scenario in itself is so high-pressured, so daunting and presents so many

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Modern Foreign Languages

“teachers want their students to be rewarded for authentic communication in the exam without the need to artificially squeeze in grammar features that don’t occur in real life conversations.” hoops to jump through that it never resembles a real-life conversation. Even the so-called ‘General Conversation’ comes with a list of structures to try and shoehorn in for top marks in the Range and Accuracy of Language category, all the while sounding natural enough to get full marks in the Spontaneity and Fluency category. Confused? That’s before we’ve even discussed the other 30 marks available for the Role Play and Photo Card elements of the test. As a linguist first and foremost, this has never sat right with me. My ambition in teaching is to inspire a generation of future linguists. We want pupils who go out into the world with a confidence and an ability to hold a conversation in

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the target language, at least enough to leave them wanting more and motivated to continue learning so that their next conversation is always better than the last. I suspect this in the same way a History teacher might want to inspire future historians, or a Food Technology teacher wants to instil a lifetime appreciation for delicious and nutritious food. However, the real frustration is that the Speaking assessment for the current GCSE is not suited to a good natural linguist, but is suited more to someone who is good at memorising chunks of language, and therefore “performing” in exams. I have known native speakers to drop marks because they did not

include enough examples of the future tense, favouring the natural conjecture of the conditional, no matter how accurate or fluent their response. This isn’t right. In the assessment, a native speaker should be able to achieve full marks with minimal effort.

Recently on EduTwitter…

In a recent #MFLChat (7/2/2022), the weekly online Twitter chat for MFL teachers, we were asked to imagine if there were no more exams, what lessons would look like. The responses centred mainly on two key themes: incorporating more culture in lessons through the inclusion of music or literature, and a heavier focus on speaking and communication.

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CURRICULUM

We can deduce then that it is not that teachers want to spend less time concentrating on speaking but more that they want to be able to devote more time to more authentic communication. At the very least, teachers want their students to be rewarded for authentic communication in the exam without the need to artificially squeeze in grammar features that don’t occur in real life conversations. This is may be a fault with the mark schemes. The role-play element of the exam is arguably redundant as time goes on, presenting exchanges such as booking a hotel room or buying concert tickets which would more than likely be done online without the need for any interaction in the target language. But the photo-card elements of description and sharing opinions and a general conversation across several themes seem sensible and appropriate to enable candidates to develop answers and share a range of structures. It is the demands of

the mark scheme which requires the jumping through hoops.

What do we need?

marking criteria. However, what is painfully apparent is that GCSE results in MFL are historically far lower than other options subjects. How can this be, when it is the same students taking the exams? Surely, we aren’t producing a nation of students that can access the material of a Geography paper and secure a grade 9 but can’t replicate that success in French? We must ask questions of the current assessment processes, to ensure that in the first instance, our students aren’t short-changed out of the grades they’ve worked hard for, nor that they are discouraged from the rich and diverse experiences learning a language offers in place of securing better grades elsewhere. We need to level the playing field and that doesn’t have to be through starting again but tweaking what we do have and ensuring it serves our purposes best.

“the Speaking assessment for the current GCSE is not suited to a good natural linguist, but is suited more to someone who is good at memorising chunks of language”

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54. What Should I Do When A Promotion Clashes With Maternity Leave? Making the most of maternity leave when promotion opportunities arise.

59. Is Teaching Part-Time Really Such A Good Idea? An exploration of the delicate balance between home-life and career.

62. How To Be A Happy Teacher Tips for maximising your happiness wellbeing as a teacher.

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EXPERIENCE

#WomenED

What Should I do

When PromotIon and maternIty leave CollIde? Career opportunities don’t always present themselves at the most opportune time. Hetty Steele outlines her strategy for success when promotions and pregnancy collide. By Hetty Steele

My first daughter was five months old when we were plunged into the two weeks to “flatten the curve” (*cynical laugh*) and I was on maternity leave. As the weeks rolled on and it became apparent that the landscape of education was set to be turbulent for the foreseeable future (cheeky litotes there for any English Language enthusiasts), I decided to use this opportunity to take a couple of years out of the classroom to do a PhD. Once that was over, I would dive right back in with the best CPD you could possibly hope for, and maybe use the extra qualification as a stepping stone to become a head of department. And that’s sort-of what I did, although it immediately became obvious that without external funding, PhDs aren’t financially viable full-time (but that’s a story for another day). I took a small detour via a bit of in-school tutoring, but I emerged in February 2021 partway through my PhD and ready to reapply for a teaching position. And I was pregnant, again.

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Below Is a brief outline of my experience of applying for a promotion whilst pregnant: how to tackle the interview stage, maternity leave CPD options, how to hit the ground running and managing expectations once you land.

The Interview

Now I’m no Human Resources expert, but even I know there are certain things you can’t ask at a job interview. Anything about race, religion, or sexual orientation, basically. And *quite* rightly so. It’s none of their business. But when it came to pregnancy, it was a bit of a grey area for me. I knew they weren’t allowed to ask if I was planning on having more children, but if I turned up with a bump were we allowed to address the elephant in the room? Would it decrease my likelihood of being offered the job at all? Suddenly, I was unsure. So I started doing some research into promotion with an upcoming maternity

leave: I read some fantastic, uplifting personal stories about women who had gone for interviews for Senior Leadership teams with a prominent bump and securing the post (https:// womened.org/blog/stepping-in-andstepping-out-maternity-leave-on-seniorleadership-team) and equally, I read horror stories about women who were offered the job, informed their potential employer at that point that they were pregnant and had the offer rescinded. My takeaways? Honesty. In many ways having a visible bump is a blessing because you don’t need to break the news to them and everyone knows where they stand. Be open and honest about how you propose to manage the balance between maternity leave and your new role (schools aren’t allowed to ask you when you plan to return, but if you have a set date in mind, share it if you’re comfortable). Show that you have considered the CPD that you can undertake while on maternity. State the new skills you know parenthood will give you.

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“Be proactive in looking for opportunities available while you’re away from school, but also be realistic and kind to yourself about what you are going to achieve.”

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EXPERIENCE Maternity Leave CPD

I really enjoyed this aspect of gaining a promotion right before maternity leave: there are so many fantastic resources out there, perhaps a silver lining of the pandemic. In the first few months of parenthood, you won’t be reading academic articles or pedagogical tomes. But maybe (and if not, no dramas) when the new offspring is in more of a routine, you might get an hour to read *something*. A blog, an article - you might even get time to listen to a whole podcast (in your headphones whilst you walk a new-born around the room, rocking them to sleep for their nap, for example).

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afraid to tentatively send an email or two to seem how the ground lies, and then go in-person (if you want to) to give yourself confidence for your return, whenever that may be. If you don’t want to lose a day of maternity or paternity being in school thanks-very-much, that’s also absolutely fine too. You do you.

Expectations

Once you’re back and in a new team, with exciting new challenges, with a new child (ah!), I cannot recommend enough setting your own hard-line boundaries and communicating those with your team and/or line manager.

There are now fantastic conferences available online and more and more the trend seems to be to record these so you can access talks at a later date (while small children are in bed, hallelujah!)

There is a temptation to ‘prove’ oneself when given a promotion and of course this can be positive in that you’re aiming for the best results. But it can also be toxic.

Don’t underestimate the power of coaching sessions either – Maternity Project for example have lots of different dates (and depending on where you live, some are fully-funded) with workshops on returning to work.

Sure, do the best job you can and use every resource in your power to get the best outcomes for the team. But you have a small child now. Your line manager probably won’t even notice that you left last Tuesday at 6pm rather than 4pm because you were tweaking a scheme of work, but your one-year-old will notice

Be organised and make a small, manageable pile of things you would like to get through. And if nothing gets done that week, so what? You’ve got some time.

that you weren’t home for bath time. For me, the hard-line was home-time. I live just under an hour’s drive from school. My return to work coincided with my husband being sent away on a military tour for six months. Tell your team your circumstances and delegate if necessary. Heaven forbid, ask for help. Unless I have a very specific (and they are always short-term) extracurricular activity, I leave school by 5pm. My extra-curricular involvement is focused during school hours. That was my red line. In theory, pregnancy is no barrier to promotion and might even be a positive (depending on the CPD you can manage and the open-mindedness of your new school). Be proactive in looking for opportunities available while you’re away from school, but also be realistic and kind to yourself about what you are going to achieve. Talk to people, and try not to have too much of a point to prove. Hopefully this new promotion will result in you being at the school for years to come; think of your return as building solid foundations, not fire-fighting and unnecessarily trying to prove yourself immediately.

Hitting the Ground Running

Keeping In Touch (KIT) days are great for touching base with a new team; ideally you would get to meet them before you go on maternity or paternity leave, but if not there’s no reason why you can’t meet for the first time after. I used mine for catch-up meetings, as ideas sessions for new schemes of work, to look over some moderation for exam classes, and to attend whole-school INSET. I tied myself up in knots over the fact my new baby wouldn’t take a bottle and had to come with me, but honestly no-one minded. I know colleagues who used them to go on school trips, and you can use conferences (in-person or digital) as KIT days as well. I think the key is to take as much time in the new baby bubble as you need, and then not be

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“There is a temptation to ‘prove’ oneself when given a promotion and of course this can be positive in that you’re aiming for the best results. But it can also be toxic.”

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IS TEACHING

PART-TIME

REALLY SUCH A GOOD IDEA? Is teaching a family-friendly profession? Many have gone part-time to seek that elusive balance between work and life. But does going part-time actually pay off ? Sherish Osman isn’t convinced… By Sherish Osman

“I guess it’s natural to feel unsettled and lost when part of your life changes. Should I feel guilty for feeling this way? Should I feel lucky to be working part time?”

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EXPERIENCE

10 years ago, when I qualified as a teacher, I was single and had no children. I stayed at work until after 6pm almost every night. I would then go home and my mum would have made dinner for me. Life was all about work and I loved it. Fast forward to the present: I’m married, have two children and live in my own home. Things have become, let’s say, challenging. To try to balance work and life, I decided to go part-time after my second child, but I’m not sure it’s the answer. After my first child was born, my passion for the job did not change, but I knew that I had other responsibilities which needed to be seen to. I returned to work full-time, and in the role I was doing, I had enough hours while I was at work to get most things done and bring home minimal work.

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with the global pandemic. I had spent almost the whole year with my two boys, and realised how much I enjoyed watching them grow, and how much I wanted to be around them and be there for them. I also struggled to think how I would manage work and life. I was in the fortunate position that my husband could support us even if I went part-time and the logical answer was to reduce my hours. However, having worked full-time all my life, it worried me. This is very common, and according to Understanding Society, “Fewer than one-in-five of all new mothers, and 29 per cent of first-time mothers, return to full-time work in the first three years after maternity leave.” 1 Mothers all over the country are having to compromise their jobs in order to have a better worklife balance.

The study then goes on to say that “Mothers who leave employment It meant that my son was at nursery and completely are three times more likely I would leave either when the school day to return to a lower-paid or lowerfinished, or straight after any meetings or responsibility role than those who do not take a break.”2 This is probably why scheduled events. Anything not done by then, would wait until the following day, most women would choose to go parttime as opposed to leaving altogether, knowing I’d be back in school. I would as it would mean that their experience, still have the time to do it. expertise and value would all come to nothing. As if having children meant My second maternity leave coincided

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they were automatically not any good at their job. Seeing these figures and statements, it added to my worry about going parttime, but with my husband being the main earner (again, typical, according to Understanding Society: “the man was the main earner in 54 percent of couples. This increases to 69 per cent three years after birth” 3), it was either up to me to stay full-time and struggle with pick ups/ drop offs/managing workload; go part time; or leave altogether and risk being demoted or finding a job later at a lower salary. After umm-ing and ahh-ing for so long, I applied for flexible working, and it was approved. My current contract is to work 4 days a week, where my teaching hours are compressed into 3 days in school. In principle, this sounds great. I go into school every other day, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and am at home the other two days. But is it as great as it sounds? Firstly, a year into my new contract, and I am still trying to adjust. In a job like teaching, it’s hard to switch off on the weekend, let alone in the middle of the week. Mentally, I’m always at

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“In a job like teaching, it’s hard to switch off on the weekend, let alone in the middle of the week. Mentally, I’m always at work.”

work. Being in school three days a week, where pretty much all my time is taken up teaching, I barely get time to do my planning and marking. I still need to ensure that I leave in good enough time to pick up my son from nursery, and then knowing I won’t be in ‘the next day’, anything that needs to be done for anyone for the following day gets taken home; to do when the boys have gone to sleep. On the days that I am at home, I wonder on many occasions if it’s a good use of my time. Those who have children know how full-on and needy they can be. I find my mind wandering back to the amount of work I have to do, and I wait until I can get some peace before sitting down to do it. Of course I do it, but is it actually sustainable? To be working either at school, or looking after my children during the day and then get on with more work after they’ve gone to bed?

How much longer can I continue before I burn out? I’ve been reading on social media about the number of parents who are leaving the education system completely for this very reason. Working part-time also feels like I’m neither here nor there. At school, I may miss certain notices or meetings or events that fall on the days I’m not in. Working every other day also means pretty much all my classes are shared, and the logistics of knowing who will be teaching what can get messy. Would these things happen if I were still working full time? Would I get the time to do all the things I needed to do? According to research carried out by MTPT Project, there are many other mothers who, like me, mostly aged between 30-39, tried working part time to balance their work and life, but it didn’t work out for them, and they ended up leaving the profession due to it being unsustainable. Some

of the women claimed that although they were officially working part-time, and receiving a part-time salary, their workload would be considered full-time. So, would they be better off working full-time? I know this is the best option for me at the moment and the school I’m working at, are beyond supportive of all the decisions I make, as is my husband. I guess it’s natural to feel unsettled and lost when part of your life changes. Should I feel guilty for feeling this way? Should I feel lucky to be working part time? 4 I realise I may come across as being ungrateful to those working part-time where it works for them, or especially to anyone who has applied for part-time hours and been rejected. But this side of the coin needs to be discussed. Teaching part-time is not the silver bullet that it seems.

1. https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/2019/10/22/how-womens-employment-changes-after-having-a-child 2. ibid 3. ibid 4. www.mtpt.org.uk/research

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EXPERIENCE

How To Be A HAppy TeAcHer Teaching is tough, both mentally and physically. So what can you do to ensure that you can sustain the pressure, while still enjoying life to the full? Omar Akbar has some strategies for you to try out… By Omar Akbar

Save time

As an ECT you are working more hours than you will ever work as a teacher. This means that your time for hobbies, kids, gym and so on is limited. You can, however, increase the time left for yourself if you make some small adjustments. For example, household chores can be done more cleverly; you could get yourself a dishwasher, pay for a cheap ironing service, or cook in bulk on the weekends. You could even switch to online grocery shopping to avoid spending valuable free time waiting in a queue. If you want to keep fit – and I recommend that you do - but going to the gym takes up a lot of travelling time, remember that some of the most effective workouts e.g. HIIT, require nothing but your PE kit, an exercise mat and 30 minutes (and doing these at school before you leave for the day is usually not a problem). If you’re partial to an outdoor workout, then running is also practical as simply running from home and back cuts out the faff. At the core of this, the key message is that as an ECT, try not to fall into the trap of allowing non-work time to happen to you. There is no worse feeling

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than realising you actually could have continued with a particular hobby, for example, but the time was accidentally wasted on inane chores/tasks. Plan your free time the way you plan your lessons.

Get some sleep

Lack of sleep takes a huge toll on the body and mind. Physically, in the long run, it can increase chances of impaired immunity, early ageing, weight gain, hypertension, and diabetes. You may read these and not feel any immediate threat, but you cannot ignore the more immediate effects of sleep deprivation which include irritability, forgetfulness and less efficient organisation. Clearly, these are counterproductive to good teaching and you wouldn’t want your classroom practice to be adversely affected by something over which you have a good degree of control. Remember, there is nothing brave about ‘just getting on with it’ or ‘powering through.’ Hit the sack. For a good night’s sleep, it is a good idea to avoid looking into a smartphone, or similar device, for about an hour before bed time. Melatonin, the hormone involved in sleep, is produced by the body during darkness, thereby enabling

sleep at night. The blue-light emitted from a smartphone is known to decrease melatonin production, so in effect, you are telling your body not to release melatonin and instead remain alert. Not the best thing before bed time. Relax by reading a book using normal lighting lest you unwittingly snap at your subject mentor the next day!

Exercise

When you begin teaching, you soon learn that going out on a Friday night is normally out of the question and during the last week of the winter term, you are literally forcing yourself to school. You cannot physically take any more. Or can you? Teaching is a job that is high in what psychologists refer to as ‘emotional labour.’ This can be described as the managing of feelings and expressions to fulfil the emotional requirements of a job. In plain English, this refers to the way you feel when you’ve just had a challenging group who danced circles around you, and you practically had to staple your lips together (with the stapler you ‘borrowed’ from another classroom) to stop yourself losing

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your job by saying something you’d regret. There are countless examples of ‘emotional labour’ which you experience on a daily basis and in addition to being on your feet all day, much of why you are so tired is because of this. There are two main reasons why an ECT should embrace exercise: Firstly, it reduces stress - thereby increasing your overall happiness, and secondly, because it gives you more energy. During exercise, endorphins are released which promote positive thinking, confidence, and an overall sense of wellbeing. Not only do these effects continue on the days you are not working out, but exercise (ironically) gives you more energy overall: the more active you are, the more active you have the ability to be. A regular workout routine will keep you positive and energetic in the classroom as well as when working on your buns of steel. The NHS advises 150 minutes of exercise a week over 3-4 sessions. As an ECT it is a good idea for you to have your gym gear to hand so you can squeeze in a session if you finish early one day, for example. Be flexible- the important thing is to get the work outs in, not the day or time of the sessions.

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Go easy on yourself and accept that a very rigid routine will be difficult to stick to.

Eat healthily

Your mind and body take a beating from teaching so it is important that you don’t beat yourself up further by having a poor diet: last night’s pizza is no longer an acceptable breakfast. Instead, begin the day with a high carb meal that will provide you with the slow release energy needed to get you through to break/lunch time. Keep the coffee and sugar to a minimum as not only does sluggishness often follow the initial energy burst, but they are also known to increase anxiety. To increase your energy levels, instead pack your lunch box with green leafy vegetables to provide you with iron - an essential mineral in preventing fatigue. To reduce the impact of stress, switch to foods high in antioxidants (antioxidants fight cell-damaging free radicals produced by factors such as sunlight, pollution and stress). Get hooked on berries, prunes, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, whole grain bread, kale, brazil nuts, fish, sweet potato, avocado and even dark chocolate - the list is endless. Diet and exercise are key factors in overall wellbeing and as these are almost

entirely under your control, it is a good idea to maximise on these in order to oppose some of the negative effects that teaching will inevitably have on your mind and body.

Manage anxiety

Allow me to be direct: you will likely experience bouts of anxiety. The inner voice which constantly replays, questions, and doubts every part of you and your actions will at times become extremely bothersome. Firstly, remember that like physical pain, anxiety is more often than not temporary. You will most likely pass your ECT year(s) and your July-self will very probably look back at your December-self and wonder what all the fuss was over. Notwithstanding this, it is important that you take charge of your mental health early on; the old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ couldn’t be more applicable. You may choose to practice mindfulness meditation or you may recite the prayer for serenity. You may rant on the phone to friends, or you may do all or none of the above. The important thing is that you make time to lose yourself in something you enjoy. It doesn’t have to be for long or even every day, but making time to actively switch off does wonders for your wellbeing.

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BEHAVIOUR:

THE KEY TO UNLOCKING SUCCESS IN SCHOOLS? Teaching is tough, both mentally and physically. So what can you do to ensure that you can sustain the pressure, while still enjoying life to the full? Omar Akbar has some strategies for you to try out… By Sam Strickland

Behaviour has the potential to drive every single member of staff to distraction. It can cause staff huge anxiety, huge concern and huge worry for many. It is a reason some people choose to leave the profession. It is the first area that any senior leader or Headteacher worth their salt should focus on and ensure is secure. Even in an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ school there will be pockets of behaviour that are not as they should be and classroom cultures that are, at times, not quite right. But how can we talk about the curriculum, approaches to teaching and pupil performance if behaviour is not secure? Behaviour is the main pre-condition that is fundamental to the success of any teacher, any lesson, any thoughtfully-sequenced curriculum. A lazy narrative is that good planning leads to good behaviour. This is too often not the case and this statement often implies, directly or indirectly, that the teacher is at fault when pupils misbehave; that it was because their lesson was not quite interesting, stimulating or challenging enough. Behaviour is one of the most divisive

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topics of debate in educational circles and at times leads to binary camps. The debate ranges between exclude, don’t exclude; sanction, don’t sanction, restorative justice yes or no? And on and on and on. The truth is, there is no one way or THE way. There are, however, a number of best bets that can lead to rapid transformation in any given school’s culture and which will likely bring about positive change. Every setting, every context, every school, is ultimately different. This is not to say that there is not some form of commonality and that some approaches can be applied universally. One area that very few would disagree on is the power of positive relationships. Arguably this is a key starting point for building a platform of trust as a class teacher. But you can only develop relationships with the right conditions for learning and behaviour in place. Some see this as a chicken and egg situation. This brings me to my new book, The Behaviour Manual - An Educators’ Guide Book (John Catt) and is the book I probably should have written before Education Exposed and Education Exposed 2. It is an area

that I am hugely passionate about and have led on in multiple settings. I have served as a leader in a school built on clear systems, I have worked as a Vice Principal in an Academy that did not employ the use of punitive sanctions and relied on restorative practices and I have led as a Principal in a school that where I have crafted the behaviour system in a manner that I believe truly serves the best interests of all pupils. One that is built upon warmth, firmness, care, professional love, relationships, systems, tenacity and a clear sense that driving a positive culture is not just key but critical to success. When I say success, the natural inclination is to think of outcomes and no one will deny their importance. However, I take “success” to encompass a culture that allows staff to successfully do their job to the highest professional standard possible, that allows all pupils to learn and make progress, that allows pupils and staff to thrive. This is a halcyon ideal and I would be arrogant to say that every single day is one of sublime perfection. All schools have their moments. All staff have their bad days. All leaders

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REVIEWS

have wobbles. This is both natural and normal within a profession where we are dealing with people day-in and day-out. You cannot predict from Monday to Friday in any given week how pupils and staff will behave, act and respond to situations in school. Nor can you predict what baggage they will bring into school from the outside world and the impact that this will have. What you can do, realistically, is create a series of systems and have an array of strategies in your professional armoury that allow you to create the conditions for pupils, in the main, to succeed and that effectively supports situations when they arise. If there was a magic silver bullet to behaviour then we would all know by now what it was and have implemented it. So, my new book offers over one hundred strategies, approaches and teaching methods that will help any school, leader, middle leader, teacher, ECT or ITT to pro-

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actively lead on behaviour. It has been designed to help the entire profession and anyone at any level and all ranges of experience. The book is divided into three broad sections. Section one examines the role of the Mothership (the school) and the role that leaders at any level can play. Section two looks at the role of the satellites (the key areas that make up the school) and the integral role that middle leaders play. The final section looks at the micro level, focusing on the role that teachers play and offers a plethora of approaches teachers can employ. I would encourage all members of the profession who read this book to read it from cover to cover. That said, you could treat it as a dip-in, dip-out guide book. The intention behind the book is that it will serve like a manual or a Haynes guide. Each of the one hundred plus

strategies is unpacked over a one or two-page spread. Within each spread is an outline of what the approach is, it is then unpacked to detail how it works or can be applied and each spread finishes with a cautionary warning and an advice tip. This book is deliberately written to help, to offer support, to offer advice and there is, bluntly, no waffle, no padding and no fluff. If you want a book that you can pick up, easily read and digest a key approach or strategy in less than 5-10 minutes then this is a book that will be an essential read. It is grounded in expertise, experience, research and deliberately written in a clear, straightforward and open style that leaves you in no doubt as to how any of the given approaches work and could be employed in your school setting. The book will be released in Spring 2022, and is available on Amazon and via the publisher, John Catt.

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HWRK Magazine: Issue 20 - May 2022

Articles inside

ASSESSMENT IN MFL: ISN’T THERE A BETTER WAY?

HOW I TEACH… REVISION

SAFEGUARDING TRIAGE

PREPARATION FOR YEAR 10 INTO YEAR

CLOSING THE GAP WITH QUALITY FIRST TEACHING

WHAT CAN TEACHERS REALLY LEARN FROM MASTERCHEF?

THE POWER OF HOMEWORk

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER

5 WAYS TO MAkE NEW TEACHERS FEEL WELCOME