T&l mag summer 2016

Welcome to PhiliPs high school’s Teaching and Learning Magazine – July 2016 - Sharing ideas with teachers!

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Contents 1) Quality of Learning

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2) The New Teachers’ Professional Development Standard Page 5 3) How to be a Head of Faculty 4) Leading Learning: Pace – Any place in observations?

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5) 12 pointers towards great teaching, learning & assessment

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6) Fun bits and pieces!

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7) #PHS Snap Shot Week

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Quality of Learning How can schools improve the quality of teaching and learning?

It appears that observational-experience can never be assumed, and it is highly probable that colleagues may never have been given the time to observe anyone else; including outside of their department and school.

I am always surprised to speak with colleagues who say they have never observed another colleague.

If I think back to the period when I was a middle-leader, I was always observing colleagues within my department. As a classroom teacher, it was much less-so, but then again, teaching in the 90s as an newly qualified teacher is very different to what it is today.

The nature of design technology departments require teachers to frequently share rooms and/or borrow resources. So much so, that you are often in-and-out of each others classrooms, picking up small nuggets of information along the way …

But how often did I have the chance to observe colleagues outside of my department? Or on my own terms and in my time?

The answer: rarely.

The third degree:

Supporting staff and asking colleagues to observe each other should not be laborious. It should not require colleagues to receive ‘the third degree’ where development and the need for improvement does quite the opposite.

Asking to observe another colleague should never be a difficult request to grant, and as a school leader I have a responsibility to make this happen.

“What do you mean, you want to look elsewhere! …”

Teachers are very busy and the default role and responsibility of their day-to-day job finds them with very little time to observe for professional development (not appraisal).

And here lies the problem.

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This is why, this coming academic year in the school in which I work, we are introducing coaching conversations for every teacher and providing staff with the protected time in their timetables to be able to do so.

When you work out how much time this is, it works out to be the equivalent of 30-40 periods in a single week (over 38 weeks of the academic year). That is 30-40 opportunities for teachers to observe each other and have developmental conversations. Over the course of the year, this equates to about £2,000 in costs for one member of staff. We are finalising the details this month, but we think the investment will reap significant returns in a) the quality of teaching over time and b) professional development of every teacher.

Asking the right questions:

This month, we are completing the final series of formal observations before we banish them under our current self-evaluation framework. We are also completing our second work sampling and early findings suggest that diagnostic feedback is becoming more of a strength in classrooms around the school. I will report back on this area.

In terms of offering teachers with a useful set of questions to ask themselves in observations and work sampling, here are some excellent suggestions by Mary Myatt.

Considering high quality practice over time:         

What are different groups and individual pupils actually learning as opposed to doing?

Are pupils consolidating previous skills/knowledge or learning something new?

Can all pupils make the links between previous/new learning?

Can pupils talk about what they are learning, as opposed to simply describing what they are doing?

Do they consistently produce work of a good standard?

To what extent do pupils take responsibility for their own learning?

How well do pupils collaborate with others? Do they ask questions, of each other, of the teacher or other adults, about what they are learning?

Are pupils creative, do they show initiative?

How well do pupils follow routines/expectations?

You can find this resource on Myatt’s website.

TT.

http://www.teachertoolkit.me/2016/06/18/quality-of-

teaching/?utm_content=buffer6a8a5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_ca mpaign=buffer ********** Page 4

THE NEW TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT STANDARD

In Debates and Polemics, Evidence in Education by Alex Quigley12/07/2016

As Christiano Ronaldo stares lovingly at his reflection in the European Football Championship trophy, we may do well to reflect on the most interesting story of the tournament.

Of course, it was little ol’ Iceland, outperforming all reasonable expectations given a population roughly the size of the city of Coventry.

So why were they a success and why does it matter?

Here are some interesting facts about Iceland and their football system. The population is 330,000. The number of expert UEFA qualified coaches is 778. This amounts to 1 coach per 424 people (compare this to England, who have 5000 UEFA B qualified coaches, which amounts to 1 coach per 11,000 people). Iceland, a country beset by difficult weather, also invested massively in more than 100 outdoor artificial-turf mini-pitches, as well as 22 full-size undersoil-heated artificial pitches.

It doesn’t take a leap to recognise why this tiny country may have performed with great success. A focus on high quality youth development with lots and lots of expert, highly trained coaches. Couple that with sustained investment in resources and a year round continuous rhythm to high quality training and development.

As teachers, we may be without a crowd – perhaps save a lively sports day scene – but we can learn a great deal from Icelandic football and their model for improvement. Schools need to similarly invest in continuous professional development, providing the time and tools for success. Happily, the DfE has today released the new Teachers’ CPD Standard to help shape the path.

You can find the Standard HERE and the crucial support document HERE. It gives some very useful guidance for schools, school leaders and teachers: “Effective professional development for teachers is a core part of securing effective teaching, and effective schools. It cannot exist in isolation, rather it requires a pervasive culture of Page 5

scholarship with a shared commitment for teachers to support one another to develop so that pupils benefit from the highest quality teaching. The thousands of professional decisions that must be made every day need to be informed by the best evidence, knowledge and professional wisdom.�

The standards are concise and clear: 1. Professional development should have a focus on improving and evaluating pupil outcomes.

2. Professional development should be underpinned by robust evidence and expertise.

3. Professional development should include collaboration and expert challenge.

4. Professional development programmes should be sustained over time.

And all this is underpinned by, and requires that: 5. Professional development must be prioritised by school leadership.

Supporting the Standard

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Now, a Standard alone won’t change practice unless we understand the essential support factors for effective CPD. Crucially, we need to give teachers time to reflect upon their practice and support to evaluate their impact. A consistent ‘rhythm’ of training is required. In Iceland, the top notch facilities allow for a year long rhythm of football training. At Huntington School, that rhythm is facilitated by fortnightly CPD, supplementing typical INSET days, with a subject emphasis alongside some whole school sessions. This regular time, sustained over at least two terms, is an important prerequisite for effective CPD. Teachers also need tools. Senior leaders seeking out experts and calling upon sound evidence (try Professor Rob Coe’s useful reading list for ‘teachers interested in research‘ HERE). By rooting CPD in sound evidence we help give teachers the best shot at impacting on student outcomes.

There needs to be a shift in thinking about effective CPD models. The Standard recognises that the good old ‘one off’ training day is unlikely to meaningfully impact upon teachers’ work in the classroom: “Evidence suggests, for example, that a one-day course as a standalone activity without a specific focus is unlikely to have a lasting impact on pupil outcomes. That same course, however, could be used to much greater effect as part of a sustained, coherent programme which includes structured, collaborative in-school activities for teachers to refine ideas and embed approaches.”

We need to better scrutinize what we do. Many training days end with the obligatory ‘happy sheets‘, but the reality (as shown in research by Sitzmann et al. 2008) is that liking does not equate with learning. We can boost our ‘happy sheet‘ scores by adding in some social interact, effectively gaming our training, but it will prove weak evaluation.

There are some clear principles that underpin the CPD Standards. Number 1. The use of evidence: “Professional development is most effective when informed by robust evidence, which can be from a range of sources. In particular, effective professional development:     

develops practice and theory together; links pedagogical knowledge with subject/specialist knowledge; draws on the evidence base, including high-quality academic research, and robustly evaluated approaches and teaching resources; is supported by those with expertise and knowledge to help participants improve their understanding of evidence; and draws out and challenges teachers’ beliefs and expectations about teaching and how children learn.”

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The three Ts matter for successful CPD – Time, trust and tools. Schools leaders play a crucial role in making good decisions for their teachers. They are effectively akin to the Icelandic army of highly trained UEFA coaches! Their task is clear: “Professional development is most effective when it is led well as part of a wider culture of evidence-informed reflection and discussion of teaching practice. In particular, effective leadership of professional development:      

is clear about how it improves pupil outcomes; complements a clear, ambitious curriculum and vision for pupil success; involves leaders modelling & championing effective professional development as an expectation for all staff members; ensures that sufficient time and resource is available; balances school, subject and individual teachers’ priorities; and develops genuine professional trust.”

We have work to do, but the CPD Standard is a great start. Give it a full read and in the coming year join the discussion and help shape tools and supports to bolster the CPD Standard. http://www.theconfidentteacher.com/2016/07/the-new-dfe-teachers-cpdstandard/?utm_content=buffer93648&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_ca mpaign=buffer

How to be a Head of Faculty July 10, 2016 ~ markrobertsteach Tomorrow, I will begin my last full week as a head of faculty. Or Head of Faculty, if I want to

make myself sound important. Specifically, I’ve been a Head of English for four years, separated by a change of school. The school contexts are very different, as is the nature of the English

teams. Through the highs and the inevitable lows, I’ve learnt a few things about how to be a

reasonably successful HOF (or HOD, if you prefer). What follows is not a comprehensive guide

through the stages of taking over the department – see the excellent advice of @fod3 for that. This is more my own eleven top tips and theories about what makes for a good middle leader.

1. Don’t waste time worrying about whether you’re up to the job. Somebody more experienced

than you has decided you are (even if this is done under emergency conditions, like the previous

HOF has run away with one of the science NQTs) so ignore the ‘you are an imposter’ voices in you Page 8

head and crack on with it. If you aren’t up to it, that will become apparent in the long run, but there’s little to be gained sabotaging yourself in the vital early stages

2. Nobody wants a stressed boss. It’s your job to act as a shield, deflecting the manure dumped

upon English teachers by the government, exam boards or, if you’re unlucky (I haven’t been) SLT.

Your team want you to be calm and positive, even if inside you are panicking like mad. Serenity is contagious. The pupils in particular pick up on this. It really does matter more than all the initiatives and improvement plans.

3. Be nice to people. Don’t shout, belittle, publicly admonish or undermine. Hold people to account for poor performance, but do it in a respectful and polite manner.

4. Have a long memory. Don’t forget what your NQT year was like. You know the one where they gave you the demonic 8X5 period 5 on a Thursday and Friday afternoon. You needed a helpful,

considerate and practical HOF. That’s what got you through your first year and help make you the teacher you are now. Never forget that. If you say you have an open door policy, mean it.

5. Do your homework. You need to read a lot. Educational policy. Amendments to the specification that get hidden away on obscure pages of the exam board’s website. Educational research. The

blogs of other HOFs. You may not agree but at least you’ll be reflective and understand the issues that others are worrying about.

6. Life gets in the way. Sometimes you just have to put your Three Year Plan for world domination

on hold. Your staff are real people and, if you want the best from them, you are going to have to be an empathetic and reasonable leader. I’ve led through periods of bereavement, marriage

breakdown, serious illnesses, the aftermath of ill-advised drunken behaviour, disputes between staff, malpractice, childcare conundrums and bog-standard stress, anxiety and exhaustion. It’s hard. But you have to be able to manage these kinds of external pressures as a leader.

7. Lead by example. And I mean really lead by example, don’t just say you do. Take more

than your fair share of difficult pupils/classes/tasks/duties etc. Being leader gives you the privilege of being able to cherry pick and make your own life easier. Don’t do it.

8. Have ‘non-negotiables’. Some people don’t like this phrase. It apparently sounds

confrontational and lacks connotations of democracy. I believe strongly in collaborative

working and on many issues believe that a democratic consensus is the only way forward.

But there have to be certain things that you absolutely insist upon, lines in the sand that have to be drawn and re-drawn regularly. Mine are high expectations and levels of challenge for all pupils. Other things can be discussed. These can’t.

9. Don’t overdo meetings. Length and frequency. Are they essential? If not, don’t have them.

Talk to people face-to-face instead. Make time for subject knowledge as well as admin stuff.

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Doing stuff is not enough. (I like the internal rhyme in this one, by the way). Some middle

leaders seem to think that because they are constantly busy and have huge to-do lists that they are being effective. Before you congratulate yourself for your efforts think: are they

having any effect on pupil progress/outcomes? Are they helping or adding to the workload

of your team? Are you doing stuff because that’s how we’ve always done it? Of course you’ll need to work hard. But you have to work clever too. This is a key difference between a leader and a manager.

10. Stick to your guns. As I’ve said previously, I’ve been lucky to have worked under three

headteachers who have trusted my judgement and listened to my opinion on the way that English should be run. That’s certainly not to say I’ve always had it my own way – certain

unpalatable edicts have had to be ‘sucked up’. But as a leader with principles you have to

stand your ground, stick up for what you believe in (insert any other cliche here that involves not bowing to pressure from above) and not give way. I’ve heard horror tales of HOFs being ordered to enter pupils for this spec and that exam, of HOFs being told to forget Literature

for this year, or to insist that they start GCSEs in Year 7 (okay that last one’s a tad hyperbolic but you get the point). You are the expert. On big issues, you need to be making the

decisions. After all, like Candy, you’ll be the one getting ‘canned’ if you’re no longer deemed useful. I wouldn’t work under these circumstance. Easy to say I know when there’s kids and mortgages involved. But I would go elsewhere, and I’d be asking these kinds of questions and seeking these kinds of reassurances at interview.

I’ve loved being a Head of English. It’s one of the most demanding jobs out there but, done

properly, is a wonderful job that can have a huge influence on the quality of a school and the lives of its pupils. Follow these pointers and I don’t think you’ll go far wrong. Oh, and tell me

what you think I’ve missed off. In this job there’s always something important that you forget about.

https://markrobertsteach.wordpress.com/2016/07/10/how-to-be-a-head-of-faculty/

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Leading learning: Pace… Any place in lesson observations?

“There’s a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure ‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.”

Stairway to Heaven: Led Zeppelin Words often do have two (or multiple) meanings, and who they are spoken by and to whom and

when is crucially important to understanding their meaning.

However, it seems in education that often we all get caught up in words. There are many reasons for this; from OFSTED, to misinterpretations of OFSTED to short hand jargon.

Does it matter? Can’t people see through it? Maybe and maybe not.

It struck me recently when reading through the lesson observations of my school that the word “PACE” kept cropping up. In fact it cropped up with nearly as much frequency as “questioning” this I found curious. It made me think, I’m sure I know what questioning is, and I’m pretty sure

I know what effective questioning is, but PACE? I’m not entirely sure. It started me thinking that I’m not a big fan of the word. What pace might look like to me might be very different from someone else, and even different for a student. Moreover “good/ lack of -pace” was not

qualified by any examples – rather it was just a word thrown into the mix of what went well, or even better if. Without an example to qualify the “good or lack of” it is difficult to tell why the pace was wrong.

So I run a poll on twitter and asked colleagues:

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Interestingly it divided opinion somewhat. A good discussion at leadership ensued with no real conclusion but it did create some head scratching.

My main objection to it is that pace is a personal judgement (aren’t they all?) on what we think is the “right pace” it is one of those “gut feelings” based more upon how we teach rather than what is happening. As talked about in the blog:

https://itilbury.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/telling-teachers-how-to-teach-is-a-sin-is-it/ John Hattie makes the point that teachers so often give advice as how they would teach, rather than the impact the teaching is having on learning.

Pace is one such area that could fall fail of this. Of course if the lesson is so slow that students are tapping their fingers and staring out the window or it so fast that students hands are

cramping it obvious that “Pace” is impeding learning, but these are extremes. The blanket use of

“good pace” I suspect is short hand for “That’s how I would have done it” – and this is dangerous because it encourages us to see the lesson through the eyes of the teacher as opposed to the

students. Moreover, I wonder if the term “pace” is a left over from the drilling of “progress” and “rapid progress” in lessons, both of which could easily be performance rather than

learning. There is a real danger that when giving feedback you tell staff the “pace” need to be quicker… resulting in more activities and potentially less deep learning.

As it is so difficult to “see” learning (anyone who is unsure of this should read Graham Nuthall’s book; The Hidden Lives of leaners. – It will change your views on teaching) surely it must be difficult to judge the “pace” of the lesson? Learning may be occurring in the minds of the

students at a slower rate than ours, or a faster one; Therefore be carful when assessing “Pace” and even more careful when reporting and evaluating it.

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Food for thought…

https://itilbury.wordpress.com/2016/02/07/leading-learning-pace-any-place-in-lessonobservations/

12 Pointers Towards Great Teaching, Assessment and Learning

POSTED BY LEADINGLEARNER ⋅ JULY 3, 2016 ⋅

Twelve is a good a number as any for directing people towards better teaching, assessment and learning. It certainly won’t cover everything and there are probably things you will disagree with. I

don’t have any monopoly on what might improve teaching, assessment and learning. Rather these

are the distillation of a number of presentations I have made of late and we are in the process of implementing across the Trust.

The quotes below in blue tend to be tag lines I use when presenting which are linked to particular slides and help me connect various parts together.

“You Can’t Teach Everything So Teach the Best that Has Been Thought or Said or Done”

There simply isn’t enough time to teach your whole subject; this would require many life times of teaching and learning to cover even a fraction of it. There are decisions to make and you need to

teach that which is essential; the big ideas, the great works, the key concepts. What must your pupils study and learn, to understand and appreciate your subject, during their compulsory schooling?

“Don’t Plan Lessons, Plan Learning” This always tends to go down well particularly if you work in a school with ridiculous rules around

requirements for lesson plans. At its worse planning lessons can lead to a whole series of activities that keep pupils busy but don’t systematically build their knowledge or skills.

What teachers should be doing is carefully planning how to teach; determining the flow of learning from simple to compound skills and simple facts to the key concepts that underpin our

subjects. Sequencing the learning, in a step by step fashion, is a prerequisite for both effective assessment and learning.

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“Trust Me, You’re All Too Clever; Beware the Curse of the Expert”

Linked to the point above is the care teachers need to take with their assumptions about what

pupils know. Having a degree in a subject and the experience of teaching it for years means you can jump from one idea or part of the learning flow to another. If your pupils are meeting the

content for the first time they need you to slow down and be methodical. It’s the Goldilocks’ Principle of learning; each step mustn’t be too big nor too small. The steps must be just right in taking their learning forward.

“Find Out What Pupils Know & Teach Accordingly”

By using the end of topic assessment at the beginning or using Launchpad pieces of writing (nicked from Hartsholme Academy) at the start of a topic you can see what pupils already know and can

already do. Armed with the learning flow you can now start at the correct point to move the pupils’ learning on.

It may be that you need to fill in gaps in their prior learning or ditch the scheme of learning as pupils already know most of what you intended to teach. The latter is far too true of many schemes of learning in Key Stage 3. Even more following changes to the primary curriculum.

“Find Out What Pupils Know & Teach Accordingly. Again”

This is the on-going assessment in lessons; the questions, short tests or exercises pupils are required to complete. It’s the dynamic, ephemeral assessment of learning. You must collect and respond to pupils’ responses numerous times within a lesson. Don’t worry about recording this

data to show someone; assimilate what you are being told and respond, in real time, by going back over something which has been misunderstood or moving to the next step in the learning flow if the class, or at least the vast majority, have got it.

“Pre-Plan Assessments to Help Define Curriculum Excellence”

Before you start teaching a topic or scheme of learning make sure you have the end of topic or

scheme assessment. This will show you the standard you are expected to teach to. In some subjects you need to put pupil’s work or prepared work from teachers alongside the assessment

to exemplify the standard required. Teaching accuracy in English or fractions in Mathematics needs defining differently in Year 1 compared to Year 3 or 5 or 9.

“Life After Levels is Primarily a Curriculum Issue Not a Data One” Page 14

This comes in two parts. The curriculum provides a set of criteria against which you can assess the learning – what do pupils know or not know? There’s no need to try and aggregate this into a

grade or level so don’t bother. If you want to evidence a pupil’s progress to someone submerge them in hours upon hours of conversation with your teachers who can show their detailed knowledge of each pupil’s learning and what will come next.

Much of the debate about assessments is actually a debate about your construct of the subject; what it means to be a good scientist, geographer, historian, musician artist, linguist or

mathematician. Do you value purely knowledge which can be effectively assessed through

multiple choice and short answers or do you see that knowledge applied to different situations and require pupils to explain their thinking, more extended responses required. Some of us like both.

“Find Out What Pupils Don’t Know and Teach Them It”

This piece of profound yet bleedin’ obvious common sense is the culmination of years of experience and study. The centrality of assessment to teaching and learning can be seen through the teacher’s age old question; “Now I’ve taught this, I wonder who has learnt it?”. Assessment connects and evidences what learning is the outcome of the teaching.

Analysing assessments down to a granular size that makes sense in your subject and for the age of the pupils you teach reveals what they don’t know and can’t do. You need to address these

gaps in learning close to the point of first teaching. English in a secondary school tends to have a

bigger assessment grain size than Mathematics but English in an Early Years setting has a very small grain size, for example, knowing the individual letters and their sounds.

Build in regular “reteach weeks”; use the analysis of your assessments to determine what you will do in those lessons. It’s too easy to leave pupils with significant gaps in their learning in a desire to cover the curriculum. Future learning is built on the strong foundations of prior learning; the alternative is trying to fill learning gaps in a frenzy in Years 2, 6 and 11.

“Use Data to Help Improve Your Teaching”

If this is going to happen you need to remove fear from the school. When you hear a teacher say, “Looking at the pupils’ results I must have taught that badly” and then having looked at a

colleagues’ data whose pupils seem to have grasped it aks, “So, what the hell did you do?” then

you’re in a good place. The culture is such that people can be honest, open and quite specific about which aspects of their subject they teach well and what they need to focus on next to improve. It’s a great form of professional development.

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“What Do You Do in Meetings? What Would You Rather Do?”

This is one that produces the nodding dog syndrome. It seems to be a generic issue across most schools; teachers and leaders who chat to me often say as much. It’s an issue for us too. We have to spend some time chatting to each other about basic organisational and operational issues

otherwise schools would become chaotic. We’re probably overdoing this at the expense of focussing discussions on teaching, assessment & learning.

People I talk to rarely tell me they’re bored and haven’t got enough to do. Time is a limited, precious non-renewal commodity. It’s why focussing discussions in meetings on what the flow of

learning should be, how best to teach an aspect of your subject, what are the common misconceptions that you might meet in the class room, pre-planning assessments and providing

time for teachers to hear about how other colleagues, who teach a particular aspect very well, approach it.

“Less Assessment for Leaders, More Assessment for Learners”

This is the moment of trust and bravery where leaders need to step up to the plate. It’s not just about collecting aggregated data less often – levels, grades or percentages – it’s about understanding you can’t create one size fits all policies. Putting an aggregated grade, level or

percentage into a spreadsheet in order to report to whoever doesn’t help pupils learn. The key information is the disaggregated data showing what pupils do or don’t know and can or can’t do. This is the data teachers need to be effective in the class room and needs to be the assessment

data you value within the school. It’s a look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves approach to assessment; I’m not saying it’s easy but I am saying it’s necessary.

“Consistency & Inevitability Not Severity; It’s the Average Speed Camera Analogy”

You have to get the behaviour right in the class room; without teachers can’t teach and may even

give up on teaching. We know this is one of the key reasons people leave the profession; poor behaviour is in a teacher’s face every second of the day that it is allowed to go unchecked. Operate at a whole school with simple rules, inevitable consequences (and rewards) and a we’re all in this together mentality. A few staff who can yield a proverbial big stick won’t help the Newly Qualified or supply teacher.

If you’d like a copy of the slides please click on the PDF link below: Presentation on Great Teaching Assessment and Learning – PDF Our Teaching, Assessment & Learning Policy is here

https://leadinglearner.me/2016/07/03/12-pointers-towards-great-teaching-assessment-andlearning/ Page 16

Fun Bits & Pieces

Check out this fab website:

http://www.thebadpedagogue.com/

And check out https://flipagram.com/ to tell your story

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Love these:

A Popcorn / Pencil Sharpenings Doodle lesson

Great website:

http://cheneyagilitytoolkit.blogspot.co.uk/

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#PHS SnapShot Week

The teachers at PHS have been snapping away during their lessons! This is a showcase of all the imaginative and innovative good practice taking place in our classrooms.

Can you guess the lessons?

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