Leadership Focus (July/August 2010)

Issue 44 July/August 2010

£5

THE BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR ALL SCHOOL LEADERS

WHAT’S ON TELEVISION? COMMUNICATION CHANNELS ARE DEFINITELY OPEN, BUT WHICH ONE TO WATCH?

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Making Professional Development Affordable The ENTHUSE Award Project ENTHUSE is a partnership supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Department for Education, AstraZeneca, AstraZeneca Science Teaching Trust, BAE Systems, BP, General Electric Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, Rolls-Royce, Vodafone and Vodafone Group Foundation.

These organisations have come together as the ENTHUSE Charitable Trust, to provide the ENTHUSE Award to help schools send teaching staff on Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses at the National Science Learning Centre.

The ENTHUSE Award covers: } course fees } travel and supply cover } accommodation and food } a contribution to support follow-up activities in your school or college.

The ENTHUSE Award is paid directly to the school or college on completion of the course and submission of your action plan.

For further information about ENTHUSE Awards visit the website:

www.slcs.ac.uk/enthuseaward

All teachers, tutors, lecturers, teaching assistants and technicians involved in science teaching in maintained schools and colleges in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are eligible for ENTHUSE Awards.

Before coming on one of our courses you will be asked to complete an Impact IdentiďŹ er form.

The purpose of this is to help you to maximise the impact the course will have in your school or college. Most of our courses are residential and split over two periods between which you’ll carry out a gap task.

Finally, at the end of your course, you will develop and submit an action plan, identifying ways in which you can implement your ideas on your return to your school or college.

Project ENTHUSE - an opportunity for teachers of science to engage in high quality CPD at no cost.

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ROBERT SANDERS EDITORIAL

The tools of our trade “Are we live?... Sorry, is this microphone ON..? Hello! Ah, yes, the red button. Thanks.”

Technology, eh? The pressing of a single button can make the difference between being heard, and being silent.

It’s almost a cliché these days to talk about the way in which technology shapes and changes our lives and it’s often a difficult balancing act in education to define where the boundaries should be in allowing the use of technological advances like the internet, social networking, mobile phones and even the iPad (page 16). Anybody remember the arguments about whether children should be allowed to use calculators?

It did strike me how much the issue of technology permeates some of the articles in this issue of Leadership Focus. On one side, we have alarming statistics that more children possess a mobile phone than own a book. In a fast-moving society such as ours it can be a struggle for school librarians to encourage pupils to read, and charismatic authors like Bali Rai (page 40) can potentially help with this if schools are prepared to take some small risks with their book collections.

Yet in terms of children gathering information, learning and developing, books are not always the best media. Being able to research online, discuss issues on a forum and absorb information from video clips broadcast throughout a school (page 30) is dynamic and interactive in a way that few books can achieve.

And at a time when good communication with parents is of greater importance than ever before, the use of Twitter and texts alongside a VLE can change attitudes and dramatically improve the way families interact with their children’s education

(page 34). One can even begin to see – with the introduction of free schools – a situation where schools become virtual, and a building to accommodate pupils is no longer necessary.

It seems odd in this case that the Government should be ditching Becta. As Mick Brookes comments: ‘there has to be some national and regional coherence to the purchase and maintenance of IT kit’ (page 15). Perhaps too, technology will hold some of the answers to the dangers of fragmentation that Academies may threaten (page 7).

One place where technology makes an incredible daily difference to children’s lives is Chailey Heritage School in Sussex, where, for children with severe disabilities, their entire connection with each other, the environment, and even their own identity is based on the ability to use a simple on/off switch.Yet even at this school they run two communications methods side by side – one book-based and the other IT-based.

Love it or hate it, we’re stuck with technology. The biggest danger I feel comes from those who love it a little too much – to the point where the technology becomes the purpose behind things. It’s still just a tool.

‘Being able to research online, discuss ideas in a forum and absorb ideas from a video clip is dynamic and interactive in a way that few books can achieve’

redactive publishing limited EDITORIAL & ASSOCIATION ENQUIRIES NAHT, 1 Heath Square, Boltro Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 1BL www.naht.org.uk Tel: 01444 472 472 Editor: Robert Sanders Editorial board: Mick Brookes, Chris Howard, Mike Welsh, Chris Harrison and Robert Sanders Leadership Focus is published by Redactive Publishing Limited on behalf of the NAHT

17 Britton Street, London EC1M 5TP www.redactive.co.uk Tel: 020 7880 6200 Fax: 020 7880 7691

EDITORIAL TEAM Managing editor: Steve Smethurst Assistant editors: Carly Chynoweth and Rebecca Grant Designer: Adrian Taylor Senior picture editor: Claire Echavarry Deputy production manager: Kieran Tobin Cover image: Dylan Gibson Printed by: Wyndeham Heron ISSN: 1472–6181

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© Copyright 2010 NAHT All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be copied or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publishers. While every care has been taken in the compilation of this publication, neither the publisher nor the NAHT can accept responsibility for any inaccuracies or changes since compilation, or for consequential loss arising from such changes or inaccuracies, or for any other loss, direct or consequential, arising in connection with information in this publication. Acceptance of advertisements does not imply recommendation by the publishers.

The views herein are not necessarily those of the publisher, the editor or the NAHT.

Advertisement sales: James Francis Sales director: Jason Grant

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CONTENTS

COVER STORY PAGE

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TICKING ALL THE BOXES

Television often gets blamed for stopping children from playing outside, but, if it’s used cleverly, it can actually encourage them to exercise. So, is it time to rethink our attitudes to what’s on the box?

BY MARK HUNTER

10 NEWS FOCUS

24 10 QUANGOS CULLED TO CUT COSTS

6 FREE SCHOOLS COULD ‘CREATE CHAOS’

The General Teaching Council for England, the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency and Becta have all been axed as the Chancellor seeks to save £670m from the Department for Education’s budget.

While welcomed by some groups, the coalition’s proposals for free schools are raising concerns among NAHT members.

11 LAST CALL FOR VSO LEADERS SCHEME

6 VETTING AND BARRING ON HOLD The Home Secretary has halted the controversial vetting and barring system, but what will replace it?

7 ACADEMIES FRAGMENTATION FEAR While academies bring partial freedoms, will an expansion lead to a two-tier system and fragmentation of the system?

8 NAHT TAKING STRIDES ON SATS Despite making considerable progress already, National Council has issued a statement calling for urgent discussions with the new Government over Sats.

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School leaders have until 21 July to apply for a place on VSO’s Leaders in International Development scheme.

11 BEST OF THE BLOGS Susan Young is faintly perturbed by the silence coming out of the DfE – it wasn’t like that in the days of Blunkett and Balls. Meanwhile, the principal of Weston College is far from impressed with the FE funding model...

12 QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS LIST This year’s list features more than 30 school leaders who have been awarded a Damehood, CBE, OBE or an MBE in acknowledgement of their services to education.

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FEATURES

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24 SWITCHED ON The dedicated staff at Chailey Heritage school know that something as simple as being able to use a switch can make a huge difference to the life of a disabled child. Susan Young meets head teacher Simon Yates to find out more.

34 STAYING IN TOUCH In an era when tweeting and texting seem to be taking over children’s lives, are schools doing enough to keep in touch with parents? Stephanie Sparrow investigates how schools are combing technology and face-to-face techniques.

40 TAKE RISKS ON BOOKS Carly Chynoweth meets children’s author Bali Rai, who wants school libraries to offer teenagers a wide choice of books – even if they address controversial topics.

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REGULARS 15 MICK BROOKES COLUMN Our columnist pens his last column as General Secretary of the NAHT. What have been his most memorable moments and who has he been mistaken for?

16 TEN THINGS WE’VE LEARNED Technology is changing at such a pace that books are almost an endangered species. This may have come too late to save trees, but schools can save the elm, and possibly even the willow as cricketers start to take up teaching.

18 HEADS UP Three school leaders take the magazine’s Big Question Challenge by telling us about their favourite biscuits, guilty secrets and the biggest challenge of all... to tell us a joke.

20 BEHIND THE HEADLINES: ACADEMIES Hashi Syedain takes a close-up look at what the new Academies Bill might mean for the future of education.

46 WHAT’S NEW All the latest books and educational resources.

49 RANTLINE What’s making you angry? Could it be Ofsted, or the way special schools are treated? Find out here...

50 BACK PAGE: SUSAN YOUNG Our columnist liked life better in the old days, when the DCSF was an easy target for her satirical commentary.

But will things be easier for schools now?

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NEWS FOCUS

Free schools could ‘create chaos’ While welcomed by some groups, the coalition’s proposal for free schools raises concerns among education professionals about the scheme’s viability More than 700 groups have expressed an interest in setting up ‘free schools’ under the Government’s proposed new scheme.

The new schools, which will be funded by central government but be free from local council control, can be set up by parents, charities or any other group that can show demand from parents, as well as fulfilling certain other criteria. The Government expects the first of them to open in September 2011.

So far, around half of the expressions of interest have come from groups of teachers. However, NAHT General Secretary Mick Brookes described it as ‘worrying’, and the NUT has gone even further and said it could create ‘chaos’ at a local level.

“It is worrying for two reasons,” Mick said. “First, there will be no additional money to set up free schools. All of the money will come from the area’s local authority and the other schools in that local authority. Is there a connection between Building Schools for the Future being curtailed and creating budgets for people to set up free schools? I suspect there is. But it’s not just about the

funding. It’s also about what these free schools are going to be doing. Who are they for? The most benign might be that parents want to set up schools for children of parents like them and you’d create a highly selective sector. At its worst it could be people setting up schools for all sorts of nefarious reasons.”

Lesley Gannon, NAHT Assistant Secretary, added: “At the moment the big issue is the lack of detail on financing.You can’t consider the free-school programme without thinking about how they will work in the context of other schools.

“I think all school leaders will want the freedoms… the difference between free schools and academies is that they are additional schools, so you have to look at the impact on other schools. For example, there’s the question of viability.

It might be viable to set up a very small free school with X pupils, but does that then make a nearby school unviable?

There are questions about the security of other schools to which we do not yet have answers.”

Education Secretary Michael Gove said that free schools would help to provide good-quality education in areas where

schools run by local authorities are not providing this. He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “In America, some of the most successful schools that have been set up have been set up by teachers.

“We have been joined by teachers from the state sector who want to branch out and set up their own schools and they particularly want to target the disadvantaged. They want to make sure the achievement gap is closed.”

Free schools will be inspected by Ofsted and will face closure if they do not succeed.

Groups that want to set up a free school, which are popular in Sweden, will need to show there is an appropriate level of demand and that they have found a suitable site for the school. At a later stage they will also need to submit a detailed business plan, including the planned curriculum.

However, Mick said his understanding was that free schools in Sweden had yet to prove they are a better option.

“They appear to be mostly set up for the children of the affluent middle class and don’t seem to be producing a clear benefit,” he said.

‘The big issue is the lack of detail on financing. You can’t consider the free-school programme without thinking about how they’ll work in the context of other schools’

Vetting and barring scheme put on hold Home Secretary Theresa May has halted the vetting scheme that would have seen people forced to register if they wanted to work with children or vulnerable adults.

The Government described the plans, which would have affected nine million people, as disproportionate and overly burdensome.

The Home Secretary also announced plans to review and scale back the entire vetting and barring system, which

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Martin Narey: robust system needed

was introduced after school caretaker Ian Huntley murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.

The NAHT urged the Government to move quickly to find an appropriate, proportionate, less bureaucratic safeguarding system.

General Secretary Mick Brookes said: “The NAHT would draw the Minister’s attention to the current dog’s breakfast, created by the previous administration, of Criminal Records Bureau checking that is hugely bureaucratic and non-transferable between

establishments. Moving to a single safeguarding check for multiple use cannot wait.”

Some charities have expressed concern that ministers may go too far in their plans to cut back the vetting scheme. Martin Narey, the chief executive of the children’s charity Barnardo’s, said: “A robust system is needed to ensure effective barriers are in place to prevent people from negotiating themselves into positions of trust in order to sexually abuse children.”

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Academies raise fragmentation fear While the NAHT welcomes the potential freedoms offered by academy status, it warns against the threat of fragmentation and the creation of a two-tier system Opinion is split over academies due to concerns over the potential fragmentation of the school system, Mick Brookes, the NAHT General Secretary, has said.

He told Leadership Focus: “Views tend to be split in three ways. Some people are all for it, with many having already expressed an interest. There are others who wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole and those who feel excluded because they aren’t ‘outstanding’ schools.

“The NAHT understands why people would want to go for academy status – but we need to make sure there’s no fragmentation of the system.”

Earlier, Education Secretary Michael Gove had told school leaders at the National College that more than 70 per cent of outstanding secondary schools in England and ‘a significant cohort’ of primaries have already said they are interested in becoming academies.

All ‘outstanding’ schools are automatically entitled to apply for academy status.

“I believe this policy will only work if it strengthens the bonds between schools and leads to a step-change in system-led leadership,” he said. “That is why I will expect every school that acquires academy freedoms to partner with at least one other school to help drive improvement across the board.”

The NAHT called for all schools to have the right to become academies as long as it was the appropriate choice for pupils and the community. “We think the ability to become an academy should be available to all schools that think it is right for them, not just those that are outstanding or in special measures,” NAHT Assistant Secretary Lesley Gannon said. “We welcome the freedoms and we believe school leaders will choose to use them in a co-operative and socially responsible manner.”

She also advised head teachers considering changing their schools to academies to consult closely with staff, governors and the community before making up their minds. “And we would

Sharing benefits: academies will be required to partner another school

encourage school leaders and governors to set up academies that are educationally inclusive and have a commitment to the local community,” she said.

Mick added: “There are some interesting messages coming out about academies and a lot of our members are interested in the academy idea, but there are also real threats.

Academies could become isolated units and row against schools working together.

I am very concerned that we will create a two-tier system.

“There is also the worry that if the academy idea does spread there will be complete fragmentation of the national

education system and, while there are some things we would like to be free from, there are some things that we hold dear.”

For example, the NAHT couldn’t cope with 22,000 separate workplace engagements about teachers’ pay, he said.

Head teachers also need to think carefully about the implications of being entirely responsible for health and safety, HR, payroll and so forth.

And a number of questions around long-term financing – beyond the set up or transition period – are yet to be answered, Lesley added.

See also ‘Behind the headlines’ on page 20

ACADEMIES: THE NAHT NATIONAL COUNCIL STATEMENT ‘NAHT believes that the decision to become an academy belongs to the individual governing body and head teacher, in consultation with the staff and community. Indeed we believe this choice should be available to all schools that think it is right for them, not just those defined as outstanding, which risks perception of elitism. We will support our members who wish to make the choice and encourage them to build academies that: • Are educationally inclusive; • Commit to the welfare of students across their locality; • Have the trust and confidence of

both parents and staff.

School leaders welcome greater freedom and will choose to use such freedom in a co-operative, socially responsible manner, retaining their belief in education as a proud public endeavour.

However, academies legislation currently leaves more questions than answers, making good decisions difficult at this time. We look forward to working with the Government to clarify the procedures, and available finance, and provide practical guidance to members.’

For more information, please visit: www.naht.org.uk/academies

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NEWS FOCUS

NEWS IN BRIEF

EDUCATION PHOTOS

NAHT’S ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2011 WILL BE HELD IN…

The Sats campaign is progressing well

NAHT taking strides with Sats campaign Following the most sustained campaign by the NAHT in many years, it is believed that more than 4,000 schools boycotted Sats in May, a figure that equates to around a third of eligible schools. This number is particularly impressive given the aggressive stance that came from the then DCSF and certain local authorities at the time.

NAHT General Secretary Mick Brookes told LF: “There was a greater response from urban rather than rural schools, but this can be attributed to the sense of isolation that head teachers might have felt in sparsely populated areas, whereas colleagues in urban areas found it easier to cluster together.

“We also know that many members supported the principles behind the action but, because of their individual circumstances, felt unable to boycott.”

The boycott was the culmination of a process that began in 2006 with the Commission on Assessment and Testing launched by then NAHT President, David Tuck. The pressure on the Government has already produced significant results with KS3 Sats abolished in 2008 and the Science Sat following soon after. Then, in 2009, Secretary of State Ed Balls announced that he would take teacher assessment into account alongside the Sat outcomes as a more balanced data set.

“We have achieved a great deal, but we still have high-stakes testing in Maths and English,” said Mick.

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A letter enclosed in this mailing also points to some unforeseen positive outcomes of the boycott, including improved branch activism and a sharp rise in recruitment of new members.

“Ofsted was also helpful in stating that it had no interest in whether or not the school had participated in the boycott, only whether the school has ‘robust’ assessment data,” said Mick “We have also had full support from Ofsted in reversing the judgements of a few rogue inspectors who deemed that taking part in the boycott would mean a negative outcome,” he added.

NAHT’s National Council has now decided that the aim should be to reach a negotiated interim position with the new administration, and achieved via negotiation rather than threat (see below).

Next year’s annual conference will return to the south coast, where it will be hosted by the Brighton Centre, as it was in 2009. More information will be made available as soon as details are finalised, but for the moment, mark 29 April to 1 May in next year’s diary.

Visit www.naht.org.uk for more details

THE LATEST EDITION OF SCHOOLS AND INSPECTIONS This issue contains further updates on the following: Vetting and Barring Scheme and ISA Registration; Safeguarding – revised inspection guidance; Safeguarding FAQs update; *Rules on portability of CRB Checks; Update on online inspection questionnaire pilots; and new statutory guidance on information, advice and guidance. Visit www.naht.org.uk to download the document.

A* GRADES SET TO CONFUSE NAHT is advising all schools to make sure that all stakeholders are aware of the criteria for the new A* grade, which will be awarded to A-level candidates this summer. Some university admission tutors feel schools are ‘overpredicting’ the number of students who will get the grade. To be awarded an A*, a candidate must obtain an A across all units, including AS units, and average 90 per cent in the A2 units.

This can lead to one candidate being awarded an A* grade despite having a lower UMS total than another candidate who only achieves an A, even though he or she has a higher UMS total.

NAHT NATIONAL COUNCIL STATEMENT ON ASSESSMENT REFORM We are committed to changing the way in which children are assessed at the end of their primary phase. The current system narrows the curriculum, is only partially reliable in the assessment of shallow learning, is dangerously unreliable in the assessment of open ended tasks and gives an unfair representation of the work of the school.

NAHT believes that there should be public accountability of schools, that testing is an integral part of that process

and that external validation of the school’s quality assurance process is essential.

We therefore propose that we enter into urgent dialogue with the new government on the basis of our paper Positive change for a better system of assessment at KS2 and our Charter for Assessment with the intention of providing a clear steer to members at the end of our September meeting. www.naht.org.uk/assessment www.naht.org.uk/assessment-forum

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81% say FILMCLUB improves children’s receptivity to learning 86% say FILMCLUB improves their relationship with students 2010 Ofsted report: “The hugely successful FILMCLUB has had a major impact on helping students to develop and share their beliefs, cultures, and information about their religions and experiences.�

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NEWS FOCUS

Quangos culled in bid to cut costs Chancellor protects schools funding but hits quangos hard in bid to cut £670 million from the DfE’s budget The General Teaching Council for England (GTC), the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) and Becta will all be abolished as part of the new Government’s £6 billion cost-cutting programme.

While funding for schools will be protected, the Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to save about £670 million from the DfE’s budget; some £80 million of this will come from cuts to quangos.

Becta’s closure will save some £10 million this year. The QCDA can’t be completely shut down until new legislation is in place, but its qualification and curriculum work will stop immediately, saving £8 million.

Other quangos will see their budgets cut: the National College will lose £16 million; the Children’s Workforce Development Council loses £15 million; and the School

Binned: GTC to go in a £670m cost-cutting programme

Food Trust’s budget will be trimmed by £1 million. The Training and Development Agency will have £30 million cut, mostly from its marketing and recruitment budgets, The Guardian reported.

The Government has not yet announced how much it will save by scrapping the GTC,

although Education Secretary Michael Gove told Parliament: “I have asked officials to calculate exactly how much we will save and we are going to bring forward legislation.

“But it will be a sum of £36.50 for every teacher, which will save us hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

‘We have to show we are able to self-regulate, but there also has to be a central role for regulation’

EARLY YEARS PROVIDERS MUST MEET STATUTORY STAFF FIRST-AIDER STANDARDS All schools and early years providers in the maintained, private, independent and voluntary sectors that are attended by children aged five or under must meet statutory staff first-aid requirements.

These are set out in the 2008 Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Broadly, this means that any early years setting needs – at an

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absolute minimum – at least one qualified paediatric first aider on site. However, in most cases this will mean that several staff need to be trained because this is the only way to ensure a qualified person is available at all times, for example when staff are absent due to illness.

See http://nationalstrategies. standards.dcsf.gov.uk/ node/151379 for more details.

The education establishment was divided in its reaction to the cuts. Heads’, leaders’ and classroom unions were split over news that the registration body, which has said it is taking legal advice and will fight the decision, was to be scrapped.

Mick Brookes, General Secretary of the NAHT, said the GTC should not be abolished until it was clear what would replace it.

“Where we have to be as a profession is a place of self-regulation, so if we want to stop people doing it to us then we have to show we are able to self-regulate in terms of standards, accountability and all those things,” he said.

“You would think that a GTC-type organisation would have a core role in that.”

Entirely scrapping the council was not the right idea, he said. “There has to be a central role for regulation and admission to the profession. We cannot have that at individual schools and I don’t think we can have it in 150 local authorities, because then you’d have 150 different opinions – there has to be some centrality.”

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THE BEST OF THE BLOGS IT’S STRANGELY QUIET AT THE DfE Leadership Focus columinst Susan Young is finding it strange that things are so quiet post-election...

“During the first days of Labour, David Blunkett never stopped naming and shaming schools or announcing changes, a pattern which remained for a full 13 exhausting years of Government.

Of course, Ed Balls is still at it, tweeting madly about schools, hospitals and free school meals. But Michael Gove is, well, eerily quiet, and that’s something we’re just not used to.” www.naht.org.uk/welcome/resources/blogs/susan-young/

A NEW HARD LINE ON SATS?

Last call for VSO leadership scheme Funding for a VSO professional development scheme runs out this year – don’t miss your opportunity for a unique experience Head teachers and other school leaders have until 21 July to apply for a place on VSO’s Leaders in International Development scheme in Africa.

The short-term professional development placements have run for the past five years, but the funding for the scheme – which is a joint initiative between VSO, the NAHT and the National College – will run out this year.

Jacqueline Sale, head teacher at Brookway High School in Manchester, spent three months in Rwanda last year and encouraged other school leaders to find out

more about the scheme. “I would recommend this project to anyone,” she said.

“It was a fantastic experience and one that helped me to rethink what is important in education.

“My fondest memory is of sitting in a minibus taxi with a woman breast-feeding her baby next to me, two people singing religious songs on the back seat and a man outside the window holding some live chickens, which were making a lot of noise.

“Right at that moment I received a phone call from my local authority in Manchester about changes to my school. The person said, ‘is it convenient?’. . . ” Find out more about the scheme by emailing Carole Whitty on carolew@naht.org.uk or visiting www.vso.org.uk/act/leaders-ininternational-development.asp

‘I would recommend this project to anyone.

It was a fantastic experience that helped me to rethink what is important in education’

Warwick Mansell draws readers’ attention to a question posed at the end of a recent notice on the DfE website: will changes to the primary curriculum mean the end of KS2 Sats? The answer – basically, a very strong no – “looks to me like a more hardline position on testing than any of the parties were taking in the run-up to the general election”, he writes. www.naht.org.uk/welcome/resources/blogs/warwickmansells-blog/

FURTHER TO THE DISCUSSION Dr Paul Phillips, the principal of Weston College, doesn’t pull any punches in his summary of the FE funding model. “You just have that feeling that some bureaucrat in Westminster with zero knowledge of teaching or FE has created a funding model that is doomed,” he writes.

“It will be interesting to see what our new coalition government brings to the table.” www.naht.org.uk/welcome/resources/blogs/furthereducation-blog/

A HEAD TEACHER’S LIFE Secondary committees, task groups and, occasionally, football: find out what life as NAHT President is really like on Mike Welsh’s blog. So far, it seems to involve heavyweight strategic discussions and a lot of meetings.

Visitors can also view his 2010 presidential speech via a link in the blog’s archive. www.naht.org.uk/welcome/ resources/blogs/ a-headteachers-life/

For more blogs, on everything from secondary to NAHT Cymru, visit www.naht.org.uk

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NEWS FOCUS

Queen honours education leaders This year’s Queen’s birthday honours list features more than 30 school leaders who have been awarded either a damehood, a CBE, an OBE or an MBE in acknowledgement of their services to education across the UK. Heads from primary, secondary and special schools are all represented A head teacher from an inner-city school in Yorkshire and the principal of Newcastle College have both been made dames in the 2010 Queen’s birthday honours list.

Naila Zaffar, head teacher at Copthorne Primary in Bradford, and Newcastle College principal Jacqueline Fisher joined more than 30 other school and college leaders whose hard work and commitment were recognised in this year’s list.

Kenyan-born Naila, 55, said: “I was a founder member of the General Teaching Council for England in 2000 and spent five years as a council member. I’ve also been active in teacher training, race equality and raising standards.”

She also advises local early years and KS1 schools on how to prepare for Ofsted inspections – something she has the inside track on. “I’ve been doing Ofsted inspections too, they’re good development for me and I think schools appreciate it when the inspector is doing the same job that they are. I’ve had a positive reaction.”

As well as leading Copthorne, which she has transformed into an outstanding school, Naila is also the executive head at Lapage Primary School and Nursery, also in Bradford. She has already expressed an interest in Copthorne becoming one of the country’s first primary-level academies.

Desmond Williamson, who joined Castlederg High School in 1972 as a maths teacher and became its principal in 2000, has been awarded an OBE for services to education in Northern Ireland.

The popular school has 462 students aged 11 to 18 and an impressive academic record – while Northern Ireland does not have official league tables, the unofficial tables published by newspapers rank it 34th of more than 200 secondary schools in the province. “Our ethos is that all

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Education leaders honoured include: Naila Zaffar (above); Roger Legate (above right); Desmond Williamson (left); and Jeanette Dawson (far left)

‘I’m indebted to our highly experienced staff and our inspirational children who demonstrate good humour and a positive outlook when faced with challenges’ pupils should have the ability to fulfil their potential,” Desmond said. “In Northern Ireland we have a transfer test and pupils who pass it go to grammar school. We are not a grammar school so a lot of pupils come here feeling like second-class citizens, as if they are failures. We have to do quite a lot to build their self-esteem and confidence.” The work that Desmond and his colleagues – whom he praises for their commitment to students – put in clearly achieves good results: a very high percentage of his students go on to sixth form and university.

Castlederg also plays an important part in the small town’s community more broadly. In 2002, Desmond applied for Lottery funding so the school could build an AstroTurf pitch, tennis

courts and changing rooms at a cost of £1 million. Six years – and much pain and perseverance later – the new facilities were built. “They attract pupils to the school and it helps those who are already here with PE lessons, but the most important thing is that it has provided a link with the community. All sections of the community come and use it, which is a really big achievement, particularly as we are on the border between Tyrone and Donegal, and suffered a lot during the Troubles.”

Bishop Burton College’s principal, Jeanette Dawson, has also been awarded an OBE for services to education. The college, which is a centre of vocational excellence in agriculture, has worked hard to ensure that young people keep pace with developments in their sector.

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QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS LIST 2010 DAME

Jacqueline Fisher, Newcastle College, Hexham, Northumberland. For services to local and national further education.

Naila Zaffar, head teacher, Copthorne Primary School, Bradford. For services to local and national education.

CBE

David Gregory, head teacher, Fosse Way Community Special School, Bath. For services to local and national special needs education.

For example, Bishop Burton is now used

by Masstock, Thompsons Feeds and JSR Genetics as an example of best practice, thus ensuring that students get access to cutting-edge technology and research.

Jeanette has worked closely with staff to make the college’s mixed commercial farm profitable; it has also received Freedom Farm status from the RSPCA for its high-welfare pig unit.

She said: “I am surprised, honoured and feel extremely proud, especially for the college and the land-based sector it represents so well.

“I could not have received this recognition without the support of colleagues, governors and partner organisations over many years.”

Roger Legate, who was awarded an OBE for services to special needs education, also paid tribute to his colleagues at Linden Lodge School for the visually impaired in Wandsworth, London.

“I’m hugely honoured and humbled to receive this OBE,” he said. “I’m indebted to our highly experienced staff and our inspirational children who demonstrate good humour, are always hard-working and are positive in their outlook on life when faced with many challenges.”

Roger’s school, which cares for 135 children, was rated outstanding by Ofsted and was identified by HMI as one of the 12 top special schools in the country.

Roger himself has recently become the interim principal of Oak Lodge School for deaf and hearing impaired children in Balham, south London.

Jo Shuter, head teacher, Quintin Kynaston Community School, London.

For services to local and national education.

Neil Suggett, head teacher, Hayes Park Primary School, London. For services to education.

Helen Tait, head teacher, Sandgate Primary School and Folkstone Primary Academy. For services to education in Kent.

Martin Tolhurst, principal, Newham College of Further Education. For services to further education in London.

Gillian Westerman, principal and chief executive, Northern College for Residential Adult Education, Sheffield. For services to adult learning.

John Widdowson, principal, New College Durham. For services to local and national further and higher education.

OBE

Jennifer Boothman, lately head teacher, Pennington Church of England Primary School, Cumbria. For services to education.

Kathryn Broadhurst, head teacher, Green Lane Infants School, Leicester. For services to education.

Neil Bromley, lately principal,

North East Worcestershire College. For services to further education.

Thomas Canning, head teacher, Tollgate Primary School, Newham, London.

For services to local and national education.

Hamlets, London. For services to education.

Angela O’Connor, head teacher, Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Hastings, East Sussex. For services to education.

Angela Darnell, head teacher, Egglescliffe School, Stockton-on-Tees. For services to education.

Elizabeth Walton, lately principal, William Morris Sixth Form, Hammersmith and Fulham, London. For services to post-16 education.

Jeanette Dawson, principal, Bishop Burton College, Beverley, Yorkshire. For services to land-based further and higher education.

Pauline Waterhouse, principal and chief executive officer, Blackpool and the Fylde College, Lancashire. For services to further education.

Miles Dibsdall, principal, New College Stamford, Lincolnshire. For services to further and higher education.

Desmond Williamson, principal, Castlederg High School, Tyrone. For services to education in Northern Ireland.

Margaret Eva, head teacher, Bourne Community College, West Sussex. For services to education.

Dilys Jones, lately head teacher, Lypiatt Primary School and Early Years Centre, Wiltshire.

For services to education.

Jean Jones, head teacher, Grace Owen Nursery School, Sheffield. For services to early years education.

Sian Rees-Jones, head teacher, Bognor Regis Nursery School and Children’s Centre, West Sussex. For services to early years education.

MBE

Marie Erwood, assistant head teacher, Stewards School, Harlow, Essex. For services to education.

Judith Ish-Horowicz, head teacher, Synagogue Religion School, Wandsworth, London. For services to early years education.

Nancy Magrath, principal, Edenderry Nursery School, Belfast. For services to education in Northern Ireland.

Catherine Marshall, assistant head teacher, Wyvern School, Ashford, Kent. For services to special needs education.

Roger Legate, principal and head of visual impairment service, Linden Lodge School, Wandsworth, London.

For services to special needs education.

Stephen Mitchell, assistant head teacher, Shelthorpe Community Primary School, Loughborough. For services to education.

Joanna Tait-Lovatt, lately principal and chief executive, Bishop Auckland College, Durham. For services to further education.

Brian Peacock, lately head teacher, Sunnyhurst Primary Pupil Referral Unit, Blackburn with Darwen. For services to education.

Catherine Myers, executive head teacher, Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate Schools, Tower

Margaret Southren, deputy head teacher, Durham Trinity School. For services to special needs education.

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VIEWPOINT

MICK BROOKES Columnist

Bound by shared values Commitment and humour will help us through the tough times ahead

A

s I prepare to hand over the responsibilities of this privileged position of NAHT General Secretary, I welcome the opportunity to share some final thoughts with you and take stock of where we are in these most interesting of times.

One of the things that has impressed me most in working with you and visiting many schools is the connective bond of authenticity and integrity that binds the profession together. These collective values soon unmask those who lack either authenticity or integrity and who are here for themselves rather than from a genuine commitment to the profession. The physical manifestation of these values can be seen in many examples I have come across: • The gifted head teacher in Bradford who gave up his comfortable job in North Yorkshire to lead a challenging inner-urban school and has transformed the learning experience for the children in his care.

He is a man whose philosophy is to sooner seek forgiveness than ask permission, something that all of us can learn to emulate. One of the small moments was being in a classroom of children, mainly of Pakistani/ Muslim heritage, watching a lesson on Hanukah, breaking any vestige of racial stereotype.

• The children of the state schools in Germany near Bergen/Belsen who make the short pilgrimage every year from the railway station to the camp as a moving act of sustained contrition.

• The vision and purpose of the Darlington Education Village where children with profound and multiple disabilities are at the heart of the school in the best example of a symbiotic and inclusive culture I have seen.

• The tireless efforts of our Assessment Reform Campaign team, whose members gave endless hours to drive the campaign and maintain leadership of their schools, especially Amanda Hulme, who showed exceptional leadership, despite local opposition and being in her first year of headship.

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Comedy lightens the load This bond of shared values and purpose is always lightened by humour, the knockabout light-heartedness of the staffroom (well, sometimes), to the ‘Phinnian’ commentary of the children, typified by my visit to a school in Ilkley in which the children appeared to have been warned there was a visitor in the school.

During my visit I was continually asked: “Are you the visitor?” To which I replied: “I suppose I must be.”

Then came the assertive six-year-old who asked me: “Are you the vicar?”

“No,” I replied honestly, only to be told: “Well, you look like one!” I’m still trying to work that one out.

But this is not just an opportunity to muse.

The deeper point bears out Robin Alexander’s assertion in The Cambridge Primary Review: “Schools are in good heart, but under intense pressure.”

Every day you withstand that pressure because of the strength of purpose, sweetened with good humour.

I believe those qualities are going to be even more important in the coming months in what I have described as ‘a bonfire of the sanities’.

There is no doubt that there had to be review of non-departmental public bodies – quangos – but to light the blue touch-paper and see so many disappear has made us gasp.

Yet, out of the ashes will come the opportunity for rebuilding in a coherent and rational way.

There is no doubt we need a central and independent body for the registration and regulation of the profession; there has to be some national and regional coherence to the purchase and maintenance of IT kit. The resources offered by QCDA were also helpful.

The NAHT must be at the heart of the debate as to what it is that schools need in order to provide coherence and consistency in the ‘National Education Service’.

We want the freedoms being ascribed to academies to apply to all schools, but also recognise that with that freedom comes responsibility. There is a short period of time in which we can re-assert ourselves to become the confident self-regulating and actively trusted profession that will be empowered to lead and thrive.

The question is, will the new Secretary of State, Michael Gove, have the courage to let that happen? We will see.

Finally, I want to wish you all well in your collective leadership journeys, and I depart secure in the knowledge that I leave you in safe hands with Russell Hobby.

There had to be a review of the quangos, but we seem to have had ‘a bonfire of the sanities’

Mick Brookes is NAHT General Secretary

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STRANGE BUT TRUE

THINGS WE’VE LEARNED Since the last LF, we’ve learned that quangos, books and even laptops are endangered. The good news is that schools could save the elm from extinction…

More young people own a mobile phone than a book National Literacy Trust research has revealed that 86 per cent of young people in the UK own a mobile phone, while only 73 per cent have books of their own. The study, of more than 17,000 young people, also reveals a strong link between young people’s reading ability and their access to books at home. Eighty per cent of children who read above the expected level for their age have books of their own, compared with only 58 per cent who read below their expected level.

Social networking sites are hugely dangerous places A US head teacher has asked parents to ban social networking. Anthony Orsini, principal at Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Ridgewood, New Jersey, has asked parents to help him get all of his students off social networks. He explained that students were simply not ready for the cyberbullying that takes place. “The threat from online adult predators is insignificant compared with the damage children constantly and repeatedly do to one another through social networking sites or text and picture messaging,” he said.

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You could be head at a school with 13 pupils The Highland Council is finding it hard to find head teachers. In the picturesque Applecross peninsula, the local 13-pupil school recently re-advertised a vacancy that comes with a £43,593 salary and a £2,124 remote allowance. The job is one of many teaching vacancies being advertised by Highland Council. In March, a head teacher was appointed to a nine-pupil primary school on another Highlands peninsula after the position was re-advertised.

Teaching is more attractive than professional cricket Robin Martin-Jenkins, the Sussex all-rounder, has decided to retire from professional cricket to become a teacher of geography and religious studies at Hurstpierpoint College in West Sussex. The 35-year-old said: “Teaching is something I have been looking to do for a while and there are so many things that attracted me to it. And there is bound to be some cricket coaching too.”

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Laptops are so last year The days of the portable computer are numbered already it seems, thanks to the rise of the smartphone and iPad. After carrying out a survey into the use of technology in schools, the British Educational Suppliers Association is predicting that, by as early as 2015, more than 80 per cent of British schoolchildren will be using a phone or netbook device rather than a traditional computer. Even the games console is proving a more popular choice nowadays, as 75 per cent of those surveyed said using their PlayStation or Xbox has proved helpful towards their education.

Limos are a stretch, but helicopters get the chop A parent’s request to send their 11-year-old child to the primary school prom in a helicopter was refused by East Renfrewshire Council. It seems the parent wanted their child to make a big entrance to the party in the grounds of Mearns Primary in Newton Mearns. However, permission was denied on health and safety grounds. Efforts to impress at end-of-term parties are becoming more outlandish, it seems – with children often arriving at the prom in stretchlimos and other flashy cars.

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PE lessons will never be the same According to a Lloyds TSB survey, there may be more potential 2012 gold medallists out there than we first thought. The trouble is that, despite school children’s willingness to find out more about the Olympics, most of them have never tried 40 per cent of the competition’s sporting events, especially games in the Paralympics such as boccia and goalball. As former Olympic sprinter Jason Gardener said: “Children tend to take part in sports that we as a nation do well in.

By giving them the opportunity to try a wider variety we will be able to increase participation levels, widen the talent pool and help young people lead a healthier, more active lifestyle.”

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Forget parents evenings, have a grandparents’ day Bedford Modern School’s first Grandparents’ Day was held in 2006. The aim was to involve grandparents in the academic and pastoral lives of their grandchildren. The response to the event was outstanding and it was decided to make it a biannual event. This year, grandparents’ days took place on 14 and 21 May. Large numbers participated in lessons with their grandchildren, before a Q&A session with head teacher Nick Yelland.

Being head at a private school makes you feel ‘slightly immoral’ Outgoing Cheltenham Ladies College principal Vicky Tuck says she was made to feel ‘slightly immoral’ for running a fee-paying school.Vicky, principal for 14 years, told The Times: “I won’t miss the problem of us having to defend ourselves. Many of us in the independent sector work very hard and feel at times we have to apologise for what we’re doing. There are things about England and British education that are quite irksome – you have constantly to defend independent education.You feel beaten up.” She is now set to become director-general of the International School in Geneva.

Schools could save the elm Earlier this year the Conservation Foundation started the Great Elm Experiment, sending 250 young trees – propagated from healthy elms of at least 60 years of age – to schools across Britain. The schools will plant the trees and monitor their progress.

The move is part of a bid to save the tree following the ravages of Dutch elm disease, which is estimated to have killed 25 million elms from the 1960s onwards.

28/6/10 11:30:57

QUESTION CORNER

BERNADETTE HUNTER Head teacher, William Shrewsbury Primary, Stretton, Staffordshire

WHAT TYPE OF PERSON ARE YOU? In five words: Happy, helpful, energetic, hardworking, feisty.

Most prized possession? The wonderful relationships I have with my children, my family and my friends.

Favourite biscuit? Something with chocolate and nuts.

Unmissable TV? BBC News is my favourite channel.

Top film? The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Favourite song? Let’s Face the Music and Dance, by Irving Berlin.

Best book? The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger.

Which celeb would play you in the film of your life?

Kylie Minogue.

Guilty secret? I schedule my gym sessions to watch EastEnders.

UP Three school leaders take up the Leadership Focus challenge to describe their leadership style and then tell us a joke

If you would like to take the LF questionnaire, email us at publications@naht.org.uk

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I went into teaching because I was going to be an educational psychologist. Once I had my own class I enjoyed it so much I changed my career plan. I went straight from a class teacher to a head teacher, a steep learning curve but immensely rewarding.

My own schooling was a family affair. My father was my head teacher and my mother also taught at the school. They were both wonderful role models and instilled in me the values and principles that have inspired my own teaching and leadership.

My most embarrassing moment in a classroom didn’t involve children. Mine happened when I inadvertently gave the lead Ofsted inspector a copy of my report to governors that described our impending inspection as ‘the Sword of Damocles’. Luckily, she saw the funny side.

My leadership style varies according to the situation, but is mainly collegiate and collaborative. We have a large staff who are all empowered leaders in their own right. I have learned so much from them and from other schools. I also try to be affiliative, as positive relationships are so important.

If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that people matter more than policies and paperwork. Also that you have to accept that you can’t expect to ever finish this job, you can’t please everyone and you can’t do everything perfectly.

If I were the PM, I’d stop expecting schools to sort out all of the injustices in society. I would make sure all schools were properly funded, get rid of all the unnecessary bureaucracy that impedes children’s learning (including Sats), restore trust in professionals and have an initiative amnesty.

I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I really enjoy doing assemblies. All those children listening to your every word and the opportunity to be a storyteller in front of a captive audience. I love it.

Tell us your best joke. Teacher: ‘Why are you late, Joseph?’

Joseph: ‘Because of a sign down the road. ‘Teacher: ‘What does a sign have to do with your being late?’ Joseph: ‘It said, “School ahead. Go slow!”’

I-STOCK

HEADS

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES

LEADERSHIP FOCUS ● JULY/AUGUST 2010

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IAN B BRUCE

TONY DRAPER

Head tteacher, Rosemellin C School, CP Sch Cornwall

Head teacher, Water Hall Primary School, Milton Keynes

WHAT TYPE OF PERSON ARE YOU? In five words: Hardworking, enthusiastic, realistic, fair, supportive.

Most prized possession?

A work-life balance caravan.

Favourite biscuit? Kit Kat. Unmissable TV? Coronation Street/Spooks Top film? The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Favourite song? You’ll Never Walk Alone, by Gerry and the Pacemakers Best book? The Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandela Which celeb would play you in the film of your life? David Jason.

Guilty secret? I know I could make Liverpool FC great again.

WHAT TYPE OF PERSON ARE YOU? In five words: Happy, challenged, committed, determined, grounded.

Most prized possession? My Yorkshire heritage.

Favourite biscuit? Chocolate HobNobs.

Unmissable TV? Channel 4 News.

Top film? Pulp Fiction Favourite song? I’ll Be Missing You, by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans.

The lyrics resonate with anyone who’s lost a friend or relative.

Best book? Wilt by Tom Sharpe – it had me in stitches.

Which celeb would play you in the film of your life? My choice?

Brad Pitt. The staff ’s choice? Shrek.

Guilty secret? I actually quite like to listen to Take That.

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES I went into teaching because after working part-time in a boys’ club, helping them produce a pantomime, I knew I wanted to work with children. The boys’ club was in one of the tougher areas of Liverpool. That challenge has stayed with me throughout my career.

My own schooling was not outstanding. I never found school inspiring and could not wait to leave, which I did at 16 to work in a bank. I have always kept this in mind when trying to inspire children to enjoy all aspects of school.

My most embarrassing moment was during a performance at the end of the year for parents. I stood up to thank the pupils and particularly the staff. The teacher who had been on keyboards all night had been excellent and I said to the parents that I wanted to ‘thank our outstanding penis’.

My leadership style is distributive. We have a leadership team of 12 people, including myself. This encompasses senior teachers, a business manager, Key Stage leaders and the SEN team.

If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that life is too short to not enjoy every day to the full, and to make sure that everyone finishes their day with a smile on their face.

If I were the PM, I’d stop interfering in education.

I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I have always wanted to play the narrator in the musical Blood Brothers. I went to college with the writer and have followed his career with great interest. The musical says so much about my city and brings back many memories.

I cannot sing to save my life, but I would still love to do this part Tell us your best joke. The old ones are the best. Question: What do you call a scouser in a suit? Answer: The defendant.

I’ve always wanted to play the narrator in the musical Blood Brothers.

I went to school with the writer

I went into teaching because in the sixth form I did community service at a primary school. I enjoyed working with the children.

My own schooling was awful, I hated it. With a few notable exceptions, the teachers were inadequate and had the emotional engagement of the childcatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

I always thought I could do a much better job and I hope I have.

My most embarrassing moment in a classroom was being told by an angelic five-year-old ‘my mum fancies you,’ while mum was standing next to her.

My leadership style is to do what you firmly believe in. Things that are imposed on you by others will never be sustainable because you don’t own them. Take risks and, if it’s not working, do something different.

If I’ve learned one thing, it’s the solution to a problem usually exists within your own staff, it’s how you bring it out that’s important.

We use World Café, which is an effective forum.

If I were the PM, I’d be a very wealthy Old Etonian. Therefore, I’d listen to people who have led ‘real’ lives. I’d adopt the NAHT’s Charter for Assessment and Accountability as policy, implement much of the Cambridge Alexander Review and, most importantly, trust our school leaders who put the interests of the children first.

I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I have a gold VIP card to Oceana nightclub in Milton Keynes, which, as my wife and kids tell me, makes me a very sad old man, but I enjoy it.

Tell us your best joke. A vampire bat arrives back at the roost with his mouth covered in blood. The other bats get excited and asks him where he got it from. “Follow me!” he says. Off they fly, over the hills and into the dark forest. “See that tree over there?” says the bat. “Yes,” they reply expectantly. “Well I didn’t!”

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28/6/10 12:07:10

BEHIND THE HEADLINES ACADEMIES

Academies: are they real deal?

The Queen’s Speech announced the new Academies Bill, which offers outstanding primary, secondary and special schools the chance to claim more freedoms, but not everyone is convinced by it, Hashi Syedain discovers

A

cademies have always been a prickly subject: they have more cash than the standard comp, new buildings, freedom from local authority control and, in many cases, a commercial sponsor. The original idea behind them was that the new or revamped schools would raise standards in deprived areas.

But on 26 May, academies were suddenly propelled to a whole new level of controversy when the new coalition Government announced its Academies Bill in the Queen’s speech.

The Bill, currently being examined

by Parliament, will allow a dramatic expansion in the number of academies from around 200 today – six per cent of state secondary schools in England – to a multiple of many times that figure. The 3,300 or so primary, secondary and special schools rated outstanding by Ofsted will be granted automatic permission to become academies by September 2010. Other schools will also be able to apply, although will not be guaranteed success.

These new academies will have even more freedoms than their predecessors – there will be no need for them to consult with their local authority before getting academy status, no need to have sponsors and they will be exempt from reporting to the Charities Commission.

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On top of this, guidelines issued in June on so-called ‘free schools’ will make it easier for parents, among others, to set up schools. Free schools will have the same legal set-up as academies.

The concern is that these changes will shift academies’ raison d’être away from improving education in deprived localities. Instead they will provide an opt-out for the middle classes – who are more likely to set up free schools and live in areas with existing outstanding schools that can become academies faster. Local authorities, meanwhile, could be left running the schools in challenging areas with tougher intakes.

“It’s taking things in a different direction and to a different scale without a clear logic,” says Sonia Exley, a research fellow at the Institute of Education. So far, there has been insufficient evaluation of the academy model, she says: although these schools have been shown to deliver benefits, it’s not clear whether these are the result of extra freedoms or extra funding. And, as Sonia points out, “if their numbers are going to expand dramatically, then it won’t be possible to offer them all extra cash.”

So what are schools faced with this new choice to do? Education Secretary Michael Gove has already invited thousands to register their interest and it could herald a dramatically different schools landscape in coming months.

The primary head teacher MIKE WILSON Head teacher of Orrell Holgate Primary School, Wigan HIS VIEWS

Mike, whose school is rated good with outstanding features, is not going to waste much time thinking about academy status; he reckons that so little is known about the longterm implications of becoming an academy that promoting the model is the educational equivalent of mis-selling insurance.

It is a particularly risky option for schools in need of significant capital investment, he says. “I can understand how it might be attractive if the local authority has just spent millions on new buildings and there are no capital issues, but if I swapped to academy status with old buildings, the governing body would be left to deal with it,” he says.

He sees no advantage to losing local authority support for services ranging from school meals to finance, security

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PA

Most of the bureaucracy is generated by central government rather than local authorities

The trustschool parent JUDITH SHACKELL Vice-chair of Cooper’s Edge Parent Community Group, Gloucestershire HER VIEWS

and property management, which academies have to buy in themselves.

On top of this, he fears that, if too many schools in an area opt out of these services, they will consequently become more expensive for the rest.

As for the arguments about bureaucracy and freedom, he is also unconvinced. He already ignores any non-statutory paperwork and finds that most bureaucracy is generated by central government anyway, rather than the local authority. “We used to do a school census once a year. Now it’s three times a year.” He would welcome the idea of more freedom in the curriculum, but sees no reason why it should be tied to a change in status. “Why do I need academy status to give me more freedom?” he says.

“If it’s all about freedom, why can’t I just have that anyway?”

Parent-promoted schools have a reputation for being all about pushy, middle-class parents wanting a nice school for their own children. But Judith and many of her colleagues didn’t even have children when they got involved in an initiative to start a school in Cooper’s Edge, a new community of 1,900 homes on the edge of the Cotswolds.

The group is the first of its kind to win a competitive tender against an existing primary school, which was bidding to run the new school under an executive headship model.

Cooper’s Edge School will open in September 2011 as a trust school, governed by a trust that includes the parent community group and Robinswood, another local primary. It will have new buildings – financed by the developers of the new estate – and a commitment to inclusiveness and community.

The group has done its communityengagement homework, Judith says. “We have knocked on every door and spoken to people who can’t read or write, held events in pubs and community halls and taken cake to the houses of people who were too timid to come out,” she says.

“I know we’ve done that and are justified in every decision we have made.”

The school is currently advertising for a head teacher and is keen to get across the message that members of the community group have no intention of pounding the corridors or looking over the head’s shoulder – they will just be governors like any others.

Getting this far has taken a huge amount of work. Judith says that key to the group’s success was getting help from the head at Robinswood. “We knew about Every Child Matters and school buildings, but we weren’t educationalists.

We couldn’t talk about the Rose review or transformational learning and felt we needed expertise in education.”

She’s proud of the fact that the group won a competitive tender. “It was a rigorous procedure and proved that we weren’t just nice people but would give the best educational outcome to local people.”

As for ideas of academy status, they are not a priority, she says. “It’s a discussion that will take place in the future. It might be right, or it might not be.”

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BEHIND THE HEADLINES ACADEMIES

The NAHT LESLEY GANNON Assistant Secretary at the NAHT HER VIEWS

“At the moment our view is neutral,” Lesley says. “We have to consider what is being offered to academies and what it will mean for those who are not eligible.”

Funding arrangements will be key.

A lot of the detail about how current academies are run is set out in their funding agreements, but there is no equivalent model for how a primary school or a special school might look as an academy. “A lot of detail has yet to come through in the guidance,” she says.

Much will also depend on the context of particular schools and their local authority’s (LA’s) approach and effectiveness. LAs vary considerably, for example, in the extent to which they oblige schools to take their services.

Schools, too, have different preferences.

“Some find that they work closely with LAs because of their students and the services they access,” she says. “They might find academy status difficult.” It may also affect partnership working if they opt out of LA control.

As for the prospect of more parentpromoted schools being set up with the same freedoms from LA control as academies, Lesley has reservations: “It’s one thing having an established governing body being given more freedom to run their school, it’s quite different allowing groups with potentially no knowledge of the sector to set up a school – much will depend on the checks and safeguards in the application and approval system.”

The college head teacher DAVID HAMPSON

Why would you want someone else controlling your budget?

Head teacher, Tollbar Business and Enterprise College, Grimsby

Our view is neutral. A lot of detail has yet to come through in the guidance

22

“Why wouldn’t you want to be an academy if you believe in setting your own direction in relation to the curriculum?” David says. Tollbar, which has 2,000 14-19 year olds and is rated outstanding, became a foundation school in 2004, and that has already made ‘a massive difference’, he says. Now the governing body has voted unanimously to become an academy from September

in order to gain even more freedoms – and to get back the top-sliced element of the school’s budget. “Since we became a foundation, we don’t take many services from the local authority, because I get better value by buying externally. But I have still had 10 to 15 per cent of our budget retained.”

David says he is committed to a comprehensive admissions policy and

GETTY

HIS VIEWS

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IAN JOHNSON Principal, Marlowe Academy, Kent

GETTY

TEMPEST PHOTOGRAPHY

HIS VIEWS

working in partnership with other schools. Indeed, the school was already poised to take over another local school as an academy when the new Bill was introduced.

Apart from more freedom in the curriculum – “I’ve never been a great advocate of the vocational aspect. We make sure our lower ability pupils achieve aspirational results” – David says that greater clarity over employment arrangements is also attractive.

He thinks head teachers who are worried about having additional management responsibilities are ‘living in the past’. As the head of a big school, he argues, you are the manager of a big business and should be responsible for your whole budget. “Why would you want someone else controlling your budget? What other business – and this is the most important business in the world – would accept that?”

Ian heads one of the first academies in the country. Marlowe is located in a deprived area of Kent and is sponsored by Kent County Council and businessman Roger de Haan. Since opening as an academy, its standards have improved steadily: in 2002 just four per cent of students achieved five A-Cs at GCSE, while last year it was 64 per cent – although there’s still a long way to go to include English and maths.

Ian, who was previously head of a local authority school in Oxford, cites several advantages to academy status. For a start, the governors are more strategic and supportive, and less hands-on. “I haven’t got a curriculum committee and the finance committee is very high level,” he says.

It’s also easier to do things faster and it’s liberating to have the freedom to innovate, he says. The school has an extended day from 8:30am to 5pm and has always placed great emphasis on developing students’ emotional intelligence, ‘long before anyone else was talking about it’.

Budgetary freedom is attractive, although not all the extra money can

If teachers could get salary and freedoms in a leafy suburb, why would they come to Marlowe? be spent on teaching and learning because you do have extra expenses, he says. Academy heads will also need to employ a business manager or share one with other schools. “We are developing shared services in facilities management, catering, HR and admin with another academy,” he says.

It’s also perfectly possible to work closely with your local authority. Kent has always been a big supporter of academies, which makes things easier, but Ian likes to quip that Marlowe is more of a local authority school than local authority schools, because it has embraced multi-agency working. As for local authority services becoming more expensive if schools opt out, he says the increased competition can actually make everyone up their game.

Ian has just one reservation about lots of outstanding schools in nice areas becoming academies: “If teachers can get the same salary, freedoms and so forth in a leafy suburb, why would they come to Marlowe?”

STEVE SMETHURST

The academy principal

Michael Gove: the Secretary of State for Education, pictured at the NAHT Annual Conference with his predecessor, Ed Balls

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Switched on Susan Young visits Chailey Heritage School, where disabled pupils are encouraged to develop independence and staff know that small steps can brighten a pupil’s world

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EXTREME DISABILITY

KAREN ROBINSON

O

n a sunny afternoon in early summer many of the pupils at Chailey Heritage School in Sussex are enjoying watching bubbles drift into the sky before they go back to their occupational therapy sessions. A 19-year-old, who recently returned to the school’s new children’s home bbecause his adult placement didn’t work out, is on a special swing in his wheelchair, being pushed by a cheery staff member. sw Nearby, the Positive Jazz Company is rehearsing in a gloriously bbright hall, making music by moving in front of sound beams. One ppupil is performing with his head. Another is producing piano ssounds with her feet. They, and their audience, are thoroughly eenjoying themselves.

Elsewhere, it’s wheelchair-driving lessons: one novice, challenged tto drive at the head teacher and his visitor, has a valiant go with m mischief all over his face, and is only thwarted by the collision avoidance device on the front of his chair.

Simon Yates is the head of no ordinary school. Chailey, which has a specialist NHS unit and rehabilitation centre on site, cares for pupils with the most profound and complex physical and learning disabilities. The musician Ian Dury was sent here in 1951 after contracting polio, and famously loathed it.

These days, however, Dury would have been in full-time mainstream education; his needs would be nowhere near extreme CONTINUED ON PAGE 26 ➧

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EXTREME DISABILITY

enough to warrant a school place at Chailey, which can cost up to £30,000 per year, let alone to get him a boarding place – an option that is a lifeline for many children whose families have split under the strain, or who have simply become too heavy for their parents to lift and care for.

Despite their complex problems, many of the school’s 78 pupils have a dual placement in a local mainstream school, and every one spends time in a mainstream school or college.

“When I arrived here most of the kids would start and not go anywhere else until they were 19,” Simon says. “There wasn’t much training for life. The idea is not to be insular if we see potential for children to get out and do something else.

“It’s been really successful. All of the kids aged at least 16 go to Central Sussex College, if only once or twice a week. All have that experience of being a mainstream student.

We’ve got to get them out of the cocoon.

They can’t be cotton-woolled and taxied around all the time.

“In the primary years, children who are cognitively more able can – if they can get independently mobile and are reliably able to communicate – have a place in a mainstream school. We just support them for a day or two days a week.” Four or five have gone full time in the past couple of years.

This is one of the reasons why the school follows the national curriculum, albeit ‘with a massive amount of adaptation’. Some of the children are of average intelligence but have extreme communication problems and may only be able to move an eye or an eyelid.

Others will be working on the P scale, sometimes at the lower end of it. “P1: that’s basically having a startle reflex,” Simon says.

Chailey gives children a taste of ordinary life using a mixture of technology and

With head injuries, you get parents who had normal children six months ago, and now their child has come here – they are absolutely lost dedicated care. Wheelchairs are tailor-made for each child in on-site workshops. Fantastic facilities and buildings are all paid for by the charity’s trustees’ fundraising rather than charged to the children’s local authorities.

A side room houses a £3,000 trolley for those occasions when children are recovering from an operation or are in a lot of pain but don’t want to miss out on school.

“They enjoy it here massively,” Simon says.

“They are absolutely relieved to be back after the long holidays. It’s very difficult for families to get this type of child out and find things they can do.”

Much of the school’s success, which

recently moved an HMI to tears, is down to the skills of the staff. “We look for patience, understanding and respect of the rights of every single one of the kids. They are human and need to be given choices and opportunities.You can’t just treat it like a job,” Simon says.

Over the years, staff have adapted to increasingly complex disabilities and, more recently, children who have been left unable to move or communicate after head injuries so serious that were previously not thought to be survivable. “It’s a new type of bereavement. With cerebral palsy, which most of our children have, by the time the children are at school the parents are part of

‘CONSTIPATION IS ONE OF THE THINGS WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH...’

“Constipation is one of the things we have to deal with here,” says Simon, pushing back the curtain on one of Chailey’s purposebuilt toilet cubicles.

The girls’ and boys’ loos, designed in consultation with the student council, staff and an architect, reflect the competing needs of getting large numbers of young people relieved with dignity and privacy, usually in the regular breaks in the school day.

Architects are always surprised by what we want in bathrooms. We have to get the child, the wheelchair and two people in and it’s got to be done with the utmost

26

dignity and also as efficiently and quickly as possible,” Simon says, explaining that the area is staffed by hygiene assistants who keep bowel charts on every pupil.

“Sitting in a chair all day, things don’t work as they should do. We have huge tensions between curriculum time and all the healthcare needs – feeding, everything takes such a long time that there is a limited school day. Everything’s got to be efficient.”

The school council asked for curtains, rather than doors, on the cubicles, as children were concerned about being trapped in the loo. To satisfy hygiene

requirements, the curtains have to be washed each day.

The children had input into the decision to mount mirrors above the baths in the bungalows where many of the pupils live full time too. “The kids don’t get much chance to see their own bodies. Bath time is brilliant for this, particularly for the children who have problems perceiving where their bodies are, so it’s good for them to be able to see themselves moving in the bath.

Everyone has been consulted and we asked all the children whether they thought it was a good idea. And yes, they thought it was.”

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EXTREME DISABILITY

the disability world and know what to expect. But when you get parents who had normal children six months ago, and now their child has to come to a place like this, they are absolutely lost.”

One such child is Josie*. “She’s spot-on intellectually, but we need a member of staff to make sure she’s able to express herself.

We’re trying out a new technique. She could very easily be the girl left in front of the telly – she’s not going to complain.”

About two children die each year; many are kept alive by the on-site medical team. One child has a nurse constantly watching his eyes: if they flick up, he needs to be resuscitated.

Simon, whose pride in the school is clear, started his career as an English teacher at a secondary school in Tottenham. He only discovered that he enjoyed working with special needs children through looking after a colleague’s son.

“It’s absolutely wonderful. It’s full of stresses, personal issues and financial worries and all the rest of headship, but you can clearly see the difference you make to the

children – and to their families and siblings and extended families. Something that you don’t have running a mainstream school is parents coming in to you saying ‘You have done amazing things for our child, you have made the biggest difference to our lives.

How can I repay you?’”

Simon is fiercely ambitious for his pupils.

He and his staff will do anything to make sure that they can, at least, use a switch and indicate a positive yes or no to a question.

“By the time they leave, if we’ve got them equipped with some way of making a choice then that’s a fantastic job,” he says.

“Education is about enabling them to make choices. With a switch they can drive a wheelchair and go on to communicate.

They can use environmental controls, open doors and windows and turn televisions on.

If you can use a switch you can really fly.

And being able to indicate yes and no is being independent.”

Seconds later, his point is made by a tiny girl in pigtails, trundling towards us in a

wheelchair. Chloe, who is 10, has just learned that pressing the large red button behind her left elbow makes the chair go forwards. And, although controlling her body like this is a real effort, she manages to stick her tongue out at Simon, as she always does, when she sees him.

“Put your tongue away! I saw that!” he says, grinning at her.

“What we are really working on is trying to get some sort of positive ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and trying to define how each child can do this.

If they can make a choice, people can recognise some way of expressing themselves and we can build on that.

It doesn’t matter what area of the curriculum is, we can work with the child on getting a deliberate response.”

To help with this, the school has developed two major communications methods, one computer-based (Voca) and one book-based. The underlying ideas are similar, with an initial page or screen indicating broad areas. The child chooses one of these, which leads to a group of more specific words. Each child’s vocabulary is personalised by staff to reflect their family, friends and interests. For children who are deaf and blind, there is much patient use of touch-cues, such as feeling a swimsuit before going to the pool.

Assessment is another area where school staff – there are 240 of them – had to develop their own system. “You have to judge what the children actually understand and devise tests for them,” Simon says.

“We bought into an assessment tool with miles of tick boxes where children had to CONTINUED ON PAGE 28 ➧

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EXTREME DISABILITY

‘There’s an ethical debate: do we ge ta 16-year-old independently mobile, knowing that 18 months later it will be taken away?’ do things like show they could draw a circle or differentiate between blue and red. So the blind kids can’t do that, but I could get one child to show his understanding of a circle by driving in a circle.

“We do our own assessment and moderate with a similar school, then submit to Caspa, a national database. It’s good for me to make sure children are making progress and demonstrating our systems are appropriate.”

Chailey also tries to give every child the chance of independent mobility, even if it appears an unlikely prospect. A guidance track runs throughout the buildings and grounds and to the residential bungalows.

“They have a switch on their wheelchair – face, elbow, hand – anywhere they can press it, if only accidentally. The idea is that they will then start to understand cause and effect and to see that this [pressing the switch] is how they are moving. Then you can put them on the track. They can get themselves from lessons to the bungalows on the track.”

Pupils who master this may be able to move on to yellow and blue switches to choose left and right, and might eventually have the little collision avoidance device that is on the front of every chair switched off.

Sam, who is 19 and has profound multiple learning difficulties, learned to drive his wheelchair recently, after returning to Chailey when his adult placement failed.

“We tried so many times before but suddenly he started to get the hang of it and now he’s a driver. We always give the opportunity for another go because you

28

never know. Something like that makes you really proud and so glad.”

But this happy story, like so many of the opportunities Chailey provides, comes with its own ethical questions. Simon tells a shocking story of a former pupil – “a real chatterbox who always knew what was going on in school and on Hollyoaks, and loved to tell you about it” – who communicated by using eye movements to direct attention to words on the pages of her communication book. A long time was spent choosing a ‘lovely’ care home for her adult life. But when Chailey staff visited her several months in, they found her communication book under her bed with her suitcase, untouched.

This is a horror story, but even the best adult placements are unlikely to measure up to the comparative freedom the children get in their Chailey years – for instance, through the wheelchair guidance track.

Simon says: “If someone comes to us at 16 or 17 and we know that we can get him independently mobile, there’s the ethical debate: do we give him that freedom knowing that 18 months later it will be taken away? Do we give them a good time here knowing they will really miss it when they go? But we always come to the conclusion to give it to them while they’re here.”

To mitigate these problems, the school has recently registered as a children’s home, which means it can take young people up to 25. It currently has five 19- and 20-year-olds,

some of whom have returned from unsuitable adult placements, and is creating a young adult transition service. “The idea is that it gives time between schooling and lifelong placement for more consideration of what future might be. Otherwise they leave here and go where they will be for the rest of their lives.”

The pupils’ medical conditions lead to other dilemmas when the child is “bright enough and old enough to be making decisions for themselves”.

Simon tells the story of “a lovely kid with muscular dystrophy, who is 14 and refusing to wear his spinal jacket. Without it, his back is bending and bending and bending, and it’s serious; it is going to crush his lungs to the extent that he is not going to be able to breathe. He knows it, too, but it hurts him so much that he doesn’t want to wear it. Do you physically get him into it and say it’s for his own good?”

Simon pauses.

“Actually, he didn’t have it. He died aged 15. It wasn’t that which killed him but other effects of muscular dystrophy.”

Even the communication system has its own dilemmas, as it is personalised for the older pupils. “For some of our brighter 16-plus kids it will include words such as ‘masturbation’ and everything.” he says. “‘Suicide’ – it’s all in there.

“You will get kids with their Voca sitting there going ‘f***, f***, f***’. We have to deal with that in a proper way. We can’t turn the machine off because what would the equivalent be? It’s like gagging someone.

Like turning a child’s powered chair off, which is analogous to pinning the child to the floor. And in this school we are always looking for analogies.” *All children’s names have been changed.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS ● JULY/AUGUST 2010

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CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION

Ticking the right box ILLUSTRATION: DYLAN GIBSON

Television often gets blamed for stopping children from playing outside, but if it’s used cleverly it can encourage them to exercise.

Mark Hunter reports

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‘Television and video are being used in a number of ways in education.

Ninelands uses them as educational aids within the classroom, but also uses them to communicate with parents’

T

he thunder of African drums booms from the sports hall of Ninelands primary school in Leeds.

Inside, the school’s Year Six pupils sit entranced while performers from the Mighty Zulu Nation Theatre Company swirl and twirl before them in a riot of colour, dance and music.

In the audience, Maddy Hall and Gracie Gromett, both 11, are doing their best to capture every sound and movement on their digital cameras. Later, the class will download the sound and image files in the school’s ICT suite before editing the results using Photostory software.Within a few hours their film will be running on a monitor in the hall for the whole school to watch at lunchtime. Parents, waiting to pick up their children at the end of the

day, will be able to watch the performance as it shows on a large video screen permanently mounted in the playground.

It seems a remarkably efficient and professional operation, but Maddy and Gracie are nonchalant about the skills they have been using. “It’s really easy,” Maddy says.

“We just plug the camera into the computer and put the clips into Photostory – then we can show it on television.”

This is just one example of the expanding number of ways in which television and video are being used in education. Like many other schools, Ninelands uses television and video as educational aids within the classroom, but it also uses them to communicate with parents, to fulfil obligations under government directives such as Every Child Matters, and to maintain links with stakeholders such as other members of the Garforth Schools Partnership Trust.

Ninelands’ television system is provided CONTINUED ON PAGE 32 ➧ JULY/AUGUST 2010 ● LEADERSHIP FOCUS

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CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION

‘NAHT-TV shows clips from Annual Conference and runs documentary-style programming on issues such as employee engagement and staff development’ by the Life Channel, a company that started out supplying health-education programming for use in the waiting rooms of GPs’ surgeries, but which now also provides television networks to more than 1,500 schools and further-education establishments.

The company installs television monitors in carefully selected ‘dwell areas’ such as corridors, communal halls and playgrounds.

These monitors show a continuous loop of programming that can be shaped and developed according to the school’s needs.

Each month, the Life Channel produces three 90-minute programmes aimed at primary, secondary and tertiary education audiences. Each video is made up of short clips – generally between 30 seconds and two minutes long – that reinforce the Every Child Matters agenda and Ofsted commitments towards issues such as pupil safety, healthy lifestyles, community cohesion and sustainability.

“We felt that the programming ticked a lot of boxes in the kind of health and safeguarding material we need to provide,” Helen Manners-Vaughan, Ninelands’ business manager, explains. “But the network also allows us to produce our own material that we can use to communicate with the children and their parents.”

The basic 90-minute programmes can be customised in a number of ways. For example, schools can download additional

material on a wide variety of subjects from the Life Channel’s website (www. thelifechannel.com), or they can add video, still images and soundtracks that they produce themselves. They can also use the tickertape that runs across the bottom of the screen for news updates and information.

“The downloads are really useful when we have events that focus on a specific issue,” Helen says. “For instance, we had a lowcarbon day recently and were able to have a lot of material running on sustainability and conservation. We also had an ‘enterprise week’ where the children were given a budget to produce and market goods. Some of the children were using the network to run their own adverts for lemon curd that they were going to sell at the summer fair.”

Much of Life Channel’s programming centres on health and safety thanks to the company’s background and the links it has with the health service and local authorities.

But isn’t delivering health messages through such a sedentary medium counterintuitive?

Can a giant television in a children’s playground really be good for their health?

Yes it can, says Carl Huyton, the Life Channel director: “Some schools use the outdoor screens to hold early morning exercise sessions, but that’s about the only time you see kids clustered around them,” he says. “Most of the time they’ll simply watch a 30-second clip and then move on.”

WHAT ABOUT COPYRIGHT CONCERNS? Teachers are able to use any radio or television material in their lessons without infringing copyright as long as they are covered by an Educational Recording Agency (ERA) licence. Most schools either have their own ERA licence or are covered by a blanket licence bought by the local authority. To check if you are licensed, contact the ERA and give the name of your LEA. Email: era@era.org.uk Tel: 020 7837 3222.

The ERA licence does not, however, cover everything that can be downloaded from the internet. Earlier this year, the Digital Economy Act tightened up copyright law

32

on internet material; the indiscriminate use of YouTube clips, for instance, could leave schools open to sanctions such as the removal of their broadband service.

“The Act applies to any broadband subscriber, including schools, colleges and universities,” says Stephen Clark, a solicitor at MBM Commercial, a law firm. “Organisations that, knowingly or otherwise, allow their IT resources to be used to download copyright material could face the same penalties as a residential customer, including degradation of service, bandwidth limitation or account suspension.”

Despite the short time each child spends in front of the screens, they can gradually accumulate enough information from these looped clips to persuade them to change their behaviour for the better, Carl claims.

For proof, he points to a study of 20 schools and colleges carried out recently by business analysts ROI-Team. This showed that, once the Life Channel had been showing in schools for a month, 47 per cent of students had an improved knowledge of health and wellbeing, while levels of everyday exercise increased in 74 per cent of primary school children and 49 per cent of secondary school children. More than 80 per cent of teachers questioned felt that the company’s programmes had been useful to their schools.

Sources of clips Although the Life Channel’s programmes are designed primarily for use in halls, playgrounds and other dwell areas, schools can also use the company’s material in the classroom by downloading it onto interactive whiteboards. In fact, Life Channel is just one of a number of media organisations that produce material for teachers to incorporate into their own lesson plans.

The most popular is probably the BBC’s Class Clips site (www.bbc.co.uk/ learningzone/clips), which contains more than 6,000 bite-sized files that have been clipped from its own Learning Zone programmes. These can be searched by subject and age level. The Teachers TV resources site (www.teachers.tv/resource) and Channel 4’s Clipbank (www. channel4learning.com/sites/clipbank/) also contain a wide variety of clips that have been produced for use in the classroom.

“Using these clips to build multimedia lessons is a very effective way of engaging with your students, especially in languages, where it can really help them to develop listening skills,” says Erica Hiorns, a French teacher and the head of sixth form at Brigshaw High School in Leeds.

“Obviously students these days are used to receiving a lot of information through the television or from computer screens,” she says. “But rather than just sitting them in front of a television, dropping short clips into the whiteboard lets you use the medium while managing the context in

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THE EDUCATIONAL USES OF TELEVISION ■ Television

which they are used and keeping control of the lesson.”

Away from the classroom, it is teachers who are learning lessons from television.

Television specifically created for teachers can be found at the NAHT’s site, where the Association’s web-based NAHT-TV (www.nahttv.com) shows clips from the union’s annual conference and runs documentary-style programming on issues such as employee engagement, staff development and social responsibility.

Since 2005, teachers have also had their own government-funded professional development channel, Teachers TV. The channel, which specialises in training videos and teaching resources, has an active online community, with 370,000 registered users on its website.

It can also boast impressive viewing figures: its audience watches nearly five million hours of Teachers TV content each year.

These figures might explain why, even in these times of austerity, a government-sponsored television channel in such a niche market isn’t as much of a luxury as it may seem. Those

4.7 million hours are the equivalent to 783,000 training days; given that the average teacher training course costs £300 per day, Teachers TV claims to save schools and the government £235 million per year. A further million pounds will be saved at the end of August when the channel moves from its cable, satellite and freeview broadcast hosts to become an exclusively online service.

This reflects a shift in teachers’ viewing habits, with a 42 per cent increase in people downloading or streaming video content last year.

“Teachers TV is already a highly costeffective form of professional development and support for the education workforce,” its chief executive, Andrew Bethell, says.

“The savings made by moving online will allow us to invest further in video content and in useful interactive continuing professional development resources that help the whole education workforce to be as effective as possible.”

One of the channel’s most popular training techniques is to film real teachers in action in real classroom situations. Since its inception the station has filmed more than 5,400 teachers in 2,500 schools. One of these is Kate Frood, head teacher at Eleanor Palmer primary school in Camden, North London. Frood, who has helped to produce two programmes on lesson ideas in primary maths, says she learned as much from making the films as she expects teachers to gain from watching them.

“I’ve always been passionate about maths and feel strongly about the right way to teach it at primary level,” she says.

“So when I got a call about doing the programmes it seemed like a good way, not necessarily of holding ourselves up as a shining

programmes made for teachers, such as Teachers TV ■ Educational programmes for use in class, such as the BBC’s Learning Zone and Channel 4 Learning output ■ Video clips used to illustrate a teacher’s own lesson plan, usually via an interactive whiteboard ■ Community television in ‘dwell areas’ to communicate with students and parents. Providers include the Life Channel ■ Web-based TV from education organisations such as the Association’s NAHT-TV

example and saying this is how it should be done, but of giving other schools a starting point from which they could develop their own numeracy strategies. I’ve had a lot of good feedback about the films, so hopefully we’ve achieved something useful.”

Kate was determined to ensure that the films reflected the realities of primary school teaching. “If you look at some of the Government footage [produced on the introduction of the national numeracy strategy], they’ve only got eight kids in the class. Any real teacher is going to look at that and say it’s not realistic. I was very clear that we would only film real classes, with no one taken out because they might be difficult.”

She believes that the programmes, and others like them, should provide a useful resource for teachers aiming to continue their professional development. “One of my number-one demands for my own staff ’s CPD policy is that they should make a daily commitment to improving their teaching.

I think that having television and online resources allows you to do that, rather than waiting to go on a course.”

And filming the programmes was a significant professional development opportunity in itself, she adds.

“Teaching is a very reflective activity and when someone is watching you, especially if it’s a film crew, you are going to think very hard about what you are doing. That is bound to lead to better teaching.

“So if you are a head teacher out there and wondering whether you should get involved in something like this, I’d say it’s not just about providing a public service and promoting better teaching elsewhere.

The teaching at your own school will also improve.”

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ISTOCKPHOTO

‘Technology is a useful supplement to traditional communication methods but it will not replace parent-contact evenings’

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HARD-TO-REACH PARENTS

Staying h c u o t in In an era when tweeting and texting seem to be taking over children’s lives, are schools doing enough to keep in touch with parents? Stephanie Sparrow looks at how technology can help

I

s communication between schools and parents all that it should be? Schools are undoubtedly trying hard to reach out – many now use text messaging, blogs and online-reporting systems, alongside more traditional methods such as the newsletter and the parents’ evening. But there are still some parents who are ‘hard to reach’ despite the ever-increasing number of communication channels being used.

Becta, the soon-to-be-abolished quango that promotes technology in education, estimates that four-fifths of secondary schools now have learning platforms in place. This is in line with the previous Labour Government’s recommendation that online reporting should be available to all parents from this September.

Primary schools are not far behind either, with around half ready to meet their recommended deadline of 2012.

But even schools with well-established online reporting systems do not see

technology as a communications cure-all.

John McGowan, assistant head teacher at Cardinal Wiseman Catholic Technology College, introduced just such a system six years ago, yet still sees effective communication with parents as one of the key challenges facing school leaders over the coming years.

“Technology is a useful supplement to traditional communication methods but it will not replace options such as parent CONTINUED ON PAGE 37 ➧

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HARD-TO-REACH PARENTS

contact evenings,” he says. After all, persuading parents to read reports and assessment data is not in itself enough: schools also need to make sure that parents understand what they are looking at and can put it into context. That means investing time and effort in introducing and explaining the technology to parents.

At Cardinal Wiseman this meant inviting a trial group of 20 parents to test the reporting system. The results of the pilot were positive, so the college introduced it to other year groups. The introduction process is repeated for each new set of Year Seven parents.

Teachers can use the system to post real-time updates that can then be accessed by parents and other staff after each lesson.

These updates could be anything from good news about a student’s hard work to information about negative events such as refusal to comply with a teacher’s request.

Staff must take a professional and rational approach to such immediate communication, John says. “We set a level of consistency for staff about the sort of information we record and how we express it.”

While about 50 per cent of parents regularly log on to the e-portal, it is only part of the school’s five-point communication plan, which also includes an automated absence reporting system, a website, a learning platform and a weekly newsletter.

‘There is a balance between sensitivity and honesty and we maintain a regular dialogue with parents’ “This last item will never be eclipsed by technology – it’s just too good a way to celebrate students’ achievements,” John says.

Communicating effectively with parents is even more crucial at special schools, says Paul Williams, who chairs the NAHT’s special needs and disability committee and is the national council member representing special schools. He is also the head teacher at

‘WE SEND TEXTS TO PARENTS DURING LESSONS’ Both parents and children have been enthused by the technology-based communications strategy at Heathfield County Primary in Bolton, Lancashire.

While a number of schools use text messages to tell parents that their children are absent or to remind them of upcoming events, Heathfield also texts parents when their children are working particularly well.

“If they have just shown a glimmer of inspiration that can be fostered and encouraged we might send a quick text,” says David Mitchell, deputy head at the school. “We have even sent texts to parents during the lesson.”

The school is also big on blogging: every class, including reception, has a blog with photos and slide shows of their work. Parents – and often the child’s extended family – can visit the blogs to

stay in touch with what’s being taught.

And both pupils and parents from Year Six are now joining in with live lessons in the evenings. David uses a web-based live blogging tool called CoveritLive to broadcast videos to the children while they use a chat window to write their own material or discuss content. “Parents often sit next to them in the evening to help with the material, which has so far included a World War II project and maths discussions. We even had one parent joining in from work and guiding her son.”

The net effect of all this technological communication is better-informed parents, which in turn means more effective parents’ evenings. “This gives us more opportunity to discuss data because the context has already been established,” David says.

School which Shaftesbury High School, caters for 120 11 to 19-year-olds with learning difficulties from Harrow in London.

“We want to help parents see the life chances for their children,” he says. “There is a balance between sensitivity and honesty and we maintain a regular dialogue with parents, both formally and informally.”

Shaftesbury uses a variety of communication options, including email, texting and a managed learning environment, but Paul also wants to make sure that parents talk to each other, regardless of where in the borough they’re based. To do this he offers three types of support for families and carers. The first is a counselling service for parents who want to talk about their concerns, and which facilitates parent support groups. The second is via regular social events held in school but run by parents, and finally there is a visiting psychotherapist who encourages parents to share experiences and offer mutual support.

“We have various ways to get in touch with parents but communication is about being sensitive to their varied needs, giving understanding, awareness and flexibility to empower them, and showing that they are not alone. We must never forget the necessity of talking face to face either.”

Sensitivity is also a focus for Liz Whetham, who is the associate head teacher at Holy Trinity school in Halifax, where many parents do not have English as their first language. More than three-quarters of pupils joining the school’s nursery are below expectations for their age simply because of the language barrier. However, by the end of KS2, 80 per cent of pupils are at the average expectation for their age.

The school uses English as its working language as a way to promote cohesion.

For this reason, Liz is keen to bring parents into school when she needs to talk to them.

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easier for parents because they can pick up visual clues,” she says. A home-school liaison officer is also available for translation help.

Holy Trinity offers childcare to make it easier for parents to attend these meetings; it also makes sure that it runs sessions at the start and end of the day, to accommodate those who have work or other commitments.

The school is about to give parents access to a Learning Gateway, but nothing beats personal contact, Liz says. The school opens up its community room to parents for a coffee morning every Friday, and offers access to the ICT suite on Friday afternoons.

Children can join their parents in the suite after school to work on projects together.

“And in January we held a stay-and-learn afternoon for 140 of our parents, where they sat down in the classroom with their children,” Liz says. “It was one of the best events I have been involved in and the feedback from parents was stunning.”

This September, Cramlington Learning Village, a secondary school in Northumberland, will launch a new parents’ portal as part of the school’s virtual learning environment (VLE). Parents will receive e-bulletins with tips on helping with homework and will be able to access ideas on parenting skills.

Assistant head John Bird is just putting the finishing touches to the portal, which links to the VLE that was implemented for students in 2009. Involving parents in the portal’s design has been an important part of the process, he says.

“We are testing the portal with the 14 members of the parent focus group at the moment and are working with them to develop it under four headings: information, which will include calendars tailored to year groups; support; communication, which will include the facility to email staff; and progress.”

The progress section will include target grades, likely grades, learner attributes and attitudes to learning, and will present scores

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on this information. “The parent focus groups are checking whether this is accessible and easy to understand,” John says.

Parental involvement and input from the school’s web designers have added a homegrown feel to the portal. It can be customised in response to the focus group’s feedback – even down to the suggestion that parents want to know what their children are buying for lunch. The designers have responded by creating a clickable button linked to the cashless food system. “We want to take our parents with us on this and create something that they want to have,” John says.

The progress section will also incorporate students’ personal learning plans and learning reviews. A link back to the students’ existing VLE will encourage them to name their aspirations; parents will be able to comment on them and the school will track their progress.

Parental involvement has also played an important part at Rosemellin Primary School – the Cambourne school’s website was developed by a parent at the invitation of head teacher Ian Bruce. “The mother is doing it as part of a college course,” he says.

“She worked with our IT manager and also came in to help each year group upload photos and work to show to others.”

He also uses texting, email and paper newsletters to contact parents and plans to post homework assignments on a password-protected part of the site. Despite the benefits of technology, however, none of it will replace the invaluable presence of an approachable teacher, which is why he oversees the school gate in the morning and the evening. “It’s about parents knowing they are welcome and can talk to us,” he says.

CHILDREN TAKE CHARGE AT CANADIAN SCHOOL Parent-teacher interviews are taking on a whole new dimension at Lady Evelyn Alternative School in Ottawa, Canada – rather than being led by adults, it’s the children who are taking the helm.

“We want the students to lead these interviews, to say what they are proud of and for the parents to see what has been accomplished,” says principal Lori Lovett.

Her school, which has 260 pupils aged between four and 11, has used the childled initiative for grades one to six. While the experiment has had generally positive results, the school is still fine-tuning some of the detail, she says. “Initially, the students used the interviews to present a lot of work, but last year they presented a single piece instead and demonstrated their graphic organisers, which are planning and recording tools for narrative writing.”

Following the success of that event, the school ran student-led conferences in May this year. The conferences centred around three tasks: a mathematics problem that the children worked though with their parents; reading aloud to demonstrate the

difference between fluent reading and reading that demonstrates comprehension; and a recap of written work. The school scheduled these sessions so that only four sets of parents and students held conferences at any one time in each classroom, which allowed the teacher to join in conversations.

It’s an approach that could soon be seen in the UK. Preston head teacher Michael Thompson, who visited Lady Evelyn on an international professional development trip, is looking to introduce the approach at his school, Middleforth Primary School in Penwortham. He hopes the approach will help to accelerate children’s involvement in their learning.

“I liked children taking responsibility for their own learning and that they understood what they do well and what they need to do next,” he says. “We may try it out with one of the older year groups at the spring parents’ evening, when they have settled into that year’s curriculum.

When we are happy with the approach we will cascade it down the school.”

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ED MAYNARD

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Take risks on books School libraries must be more adventurous with the books they stock if they want to encourage young people – and especially boys – to love reading, author Bali Rai (left) tells Carly Chynoweth

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chools have spent years wrestling with how to get boys to read but, despite their best efforts, a recent study shows that a third of boys aged between eight and 16 still struggle to find any books that they’re interested in.

The research, by the National Literacy Trust (NLT), also found that 20 per cent of young people who read below the level for their age see reading as something that’s more for girls than boys.

While initiatives such as the NLT’s ‘Premier League Reading Stars’ scheme, which uses high-profile football CONTINUED ON PAGE 42 ➧ JULY/AUGUST 2010 ● LEADERSHIP FOCUS

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WHAT LIBRARIANS HAVE TO SAY… players as reading role models, can help, one of the biggest challenges is simply making sure that school libraries stock the books that young people want to read, according to one leading author, who was visiting Kibworth High School in Leicestershire to talk to its teenage pupils.

“When I go into schools and ask Year Nine classes how many of them read, I get a fairly consistent response,” says Bali Rai, who has written many successful books for children and teenagers. “Some won’t put their hands up because they think it’s not cool and others say they just don’t like reading, but when I introduce, say, The Whisper, they are really into it.”

Drug dealers, gangs, guns and a fastpaced plot that cracks through the novel’s inner-city setting: how could they not be interested? School officialdom, however, is not always as keen on what could be seen as controversial topics – Bali frequently finds that some of his books aren’t stocked in school libraries, or, if they are, they are not displayed on the shelves. “It completely frustrates me,” he says. “And it’s not just my books, either.

I often visit schools and find that they have, say, my (Un)arranged Marriage, but they keep The Whisper and Doing It [by Melvin Burgess] behind the counter for more confident readers, and only bring them out if they think it’s right for them. But I think that once kids become teenagers they should be treated like adults and allowed to make their own decisions about what they want to read.” In other words, let them ask about it or read the blurb on the back and decide for themselves whether they’re ready for it.

Too many adults assume that books that address controversial subjects are endorsing them – particularly if they don’t actually read them. Read Melvin Burgess’s Junk and it’s obvious that it’s not in anyway pro-heroin, despite having a reputation for celebrating drug abuse, Bali says. “That reputation is ridiculous. It’s an anti-drug book.”

He once confronted a librarian who kept the book behind the counter: “I told her that the reason her borrowing figures were so low was that she was basically treating her kids like five-year-olds.”

He has also had the occasional run-in with senior management when visiting schools, most notably when giving a reading to Year Nine pupils at a school that had brought in a turnaround team after being placed in special measures. “I read from one of my books and – completely in context,

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Julie Burgon (right) has been the librarian at Kibworth High School, which takes students in Years Seven, Eight and Nine, for more than a decade. She first saw Bali speak when he visited the school last year. “His performance was wonderful and I loved the way the children reacted to it,” she says. “The Year Nines think that they are the top dogs in school – they have all the swagger – but they just sat there listening with their mouths open.

Afterwards there was such a big rush on his books that I had to buy more.”

While both boys and girls enjoyed his visit – “the children had an idea that writing and reading books is boring but he showed that actually it’s cool” – it appeared to give a particular boost to boys’ interest in reading.

“It really inspired them to try his books,” she says. “And then when they discover that they like his books you can recommend others that they might like as well.” Year Sevens, particularly boys, love his Soccer Squad books, she adds.

Because many of Kibworth’s pupils are pre-teens, the school doesn’t have all of his books, and some of those they do have – Rani and Sukh, (Un)arranged Marriage and The Crew – are designated as suitable only for Year Nines. “If the school went up to 18, we’d have all of his books,” she says.

As it is, however, she feels she needs to be careful not to upset the parents of her younger readers. “I get to know my customers and you do have to be careful with parents – I discuss the book with the child before they borrow it. I don’t want

to stop people from having them, but I know that some parents could be upset by the titles of some books – not necessarily ones we stock, but some are a bit ‘edgy’.

“However, if the student understands it and says his or her parents will be okay with them borrowing it, they can have it.

“Then if the parent rings up I say that the book is clearly marked ‘13+’ and they told me it would be ok,” she says.

Linda Frew, the librarian at Bolton School Girls’ Division, says she has never had a problem with any of Bali’s books, which are available to all her students.

“I have never had any complaints about his books and I don’t find the content so controversial that it has to be censored,” she says. Like Julie, she gets a run on Bali’s books every time he visits. “When authors are good speakers that happens, although authors who are not good speakers can have the opposite effect,” she says.

“With Bali, the girls who end up borrowing his books are often those who think that they are a bit too cool to read.”

The Angel Collector, about a serial killer of teenage girls, is particularly popular.

Linda runs book groups and tells girls about books that might interest them – “otherwise they might get stuck in a particular genre” – but always lets them decide what they want to read. “I don’t believe in trying to make them read particular books or teenage books – some girls skip that stage altogether and move straight on to adult fiction. You need to tell them about what’s available so that they can make an informed decision.”

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as part of the dialogue – I swore. A deputy head walked up to me and ended the session then and there. I explained that he had misunderstood, but he said no, it’s just not on, you can’t do that, it’s corrupting them.

But that reaction is rare.”

And not all adults are uncomfortable with difficult topics. Most librarians are good at challenging people’s preconceptions about what makes a good read, while publishers are enthusiastic supporters – as long as the issues are well-handled. “They don’t put any restrictions on what I write,” Bali says.

“As long as I write it well they will go for it.

They realise that you have to grab young people’s attention and that hard-hitting books that confront real issues are a way of doing that.” Even some swearing is fine: his publishers didn’t bat an eyelid when he

wrote a non-fiction book for teenagers called Politics: Cutting Through the Crap, for example.

While Bali does adjust his performances for younger audiences, “from 14 up I don’t treat them any different from 24-year-olds in the way that I speak”, he says. He’s never had a negative reaction from his audience; sometimes teenagers come up and tell him that they don’t get on with his books, but he doesn’t mind that at all.

His next book will probably be a horror story, he says – the gorier the better. “You wouldn’t believe how bloodthirsty teenagers are! I recently read from The Angel Collector [which opens with a serial killer murdering one of his victims] at a school and noticed that two girls at the back of the room didn’t CONTINUED ON PAGE 44 ➧

‘Anne Cassidy, Melvin Burgess and Kevin Brooks are all writers who take risks with what they write’ JULY/AUGUST 2010 ● LEADERSHIP FOCUS

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seem to be paying much attention. They weren’t disturbing anyone so basically I left them to it. At the end they approached me to show me these drawings they’d done of young girls having their heads cut off.”

He sees this as an expression of their imagination – rather than anything more troubling – and encourages schools to take a few risks when inviting authors to visit and choosing what books to stock: “If you get authors in you will see an increased interest in books, which helps your students. If you read more, you get more intelligent,” he says.

“People like Anne Cassidy, Melvin Burgess and Kevin Brooks are all writers who take risks with what they write, who push the boundaries. Kids respect that and will listen to them. They will be interested.

Have a bit of faith in your teenagers and trust their ability to make their own decisions… We need to challenge our

‘If anyone compared one of my books to Enid Blyton, I think I would have to have it pulped’ young people and make them think rather than telling them this is right, this is wrong.”

Bali loved books from a young age, but felt there was a dearth of books for teenagers when he was growing up in the 1980s. “I didn’t have a lot of books at home, but my dad made sure my sister and I went to the public library with him every Saturday. He died when I was quite young, but I kept reading through my school library because I had the bug. When I was about 13, it got to

RECOMMENDED READING Books by Bali Rai: (Un)arranged Marriage. Manny wants to be a footballer, or a writer, or a pop star.

He definitely doesn’t want to get married – but that’s just what his parents have planned for his 17th birthday.

The Soccer Squad series: Missing!, Glory, Stars, Starting Eleven. Follow the Rushton Reds as the under-11 team fights to make the most of its season.

The Crew. When you live on a rough estate you need a crew to back you up, but older gangs can still prove very dangerous.

The Whisper. The Crew think that things

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have calmed down, but when the police launch ‘Operation Clean-up’, everything kicks off again.

Rani and Sukh. The parallel tales of two love affairs, one in 1950s Punjab that ends in tragedy, and another in modern Leicester.

Bali’s favourite books for young adults: Looking for JJ, by Anne Cassidy.

The Road of the Dead, by Kevin Brooks.

Keeper and The Penalty, by Mal Peet.

Junk and Doing It, by Melvin Burgess.

Before I Die, by Jenny Downham.

a point where I had read everything I wanted to there, so I went back to the public library and graduated straight to adult books.”

But despite spotting this gap in the market years ago, he did not consciously choose to write for teenagers. Initially (Un)arranged Marriage, his first novel, was going to be about an adult in his mid-20s rather than a teenager, but his agent suggested that he reshape his first draft. “Then I started reading things like Junk and I really got into them.

Books like that hadn’t been around when I was younger, but I would have really loved to have read them then.”

He’s now established in the young-adult market, but never feels the least bit limited by his niche. “Teenagers are a great audience because they are living and feeling so much.

They go through every emotion you can think of. When you’re a teenager you think the world’s going to end because your first girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with you.”

He doesn’t set out to be controversial, he says, “but I admit that I deliberately put my characters into the situations that affect modern British teenagers who live in cities and towns.” The end result is something very different from the ginger-beer-andboarding-school tales of Enid Blyton, or even the relatively safe world of Harry Potter.

“If anyone compared one of my books to Enid Blyton I think I would have to have it pulped,” he said. “My whole intention is to be a reaction against those type of books… even when they were written most kids didn’t have lives like that. I want to write books that connect to what life is like for the majority of kids so there’s room for everyone, not just a select few.”

Bali Rai’s latest book, City of Ghosts, is out now in paperback

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ROUND-UP

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It also includes group, classwork and homework activities for each module that will be very helpful to teachers. The book has impressive scope – going through, in detail, areas that are difficult for adolescents such as social interaction, asking for help, coping with conflict, decision making and goal-setting. It also has an interesting chapter on ‘coping in cyberworld’ including tips for parents and teachers on cyber harassment. Finally, there are chapters for those who are disabled, suffering from depression or other ill-health, or going through a divorce in the family.

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This would be a useful read not only for new teachers but for all in education. Best of all, this is a book that will make you laugh.

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Get Ge G et th through hro oug ugh th tho those osse o moving m ovin ng ggoalposts oalp posts The ne The new ew O Ofsted ffstted inspec inspection ction i n framework ffraameewo orkk aand nd self-evaluation self f-evvalua l attio on fo form orm mh ha have ave rreceived eceeived a mix mixed xed respon response nse from h head ead d tteach teachers. hers.. T To h hel help lp sc schools ch ho ools to com complete mpleette the h forms and d pre prepare epaare ffor or tthe he new h w in inspections, nspeectio t ons,, FForum has as re rew rewritten wrrittten e its t po pop popular pulaar publi publication b icat ation o o on sch school cho oo self-evaluation e e l t and d launched u c d it aas T Tools l for o Effective E c ve Self-Evaluation, e E l t n SIP IP & PM M M. The practical Th p c a ha handbook d o aand its accompanying c m n n CD are C a comprehensive, c m e n ve easy e y to usee and d real e time-savers, i - v ss, enabling n li you u to o focus c on thee right g evidence v e e and n re recording o n judgements. u g me ts T The rresource o c iss priced r e at £149.99.

4 9 To find out more, visit www.forumbusinessmedia.co.uk/education or telephone Forum on 020 8941 8589.

IT T ffor or spe special peciaal n needs eed ds tto toddlers odd ddlerrs Fun Funding ndin ng from frrom m the Roald d Dahl Fou Foundation undatio on w will ill allow allo ow a p pla play ay sscheme cheemee in No Northern orthern Ireland d to continue con ntinue its p pioneering ion neeeringg wo work ork wit with th p preschoolers resccho ooleers w with ith h dis disabilities sabilitiees ffor or tthe he nex next xt tw two wo yea years. ars.

Thee Playy aatt IT Tp pr project, roject, j run by AbilityNet, AbilityyNeet, a computing computin ng and and disability disaabilityy charity, chaarityy, aims aim ms to enhance enh hancce the the playy options op ptio ons of cchildren hilldreen with with physical, phyysiccal, vvisual isu ual aand nd lea learning arnin ng d difficulties iffiiculttiess through thro ouggh the u use se of IT. T The hee pro project ojecct leaders leeaders are looking loo okin ng for fo or 50 50 more moree nurseries nu urseeries and an nd children’s childre en’s cen centres ntrees ac across crosss th the he rregion egio on aand nd d aree of offering ffering a co comprehensive omprehen nsivee pa package ackaage of support, sup pport, equipment equipm mentt and an nd training, train ning, including incclud dingg a loan loan n ba bank ank of h hardware ard dwaare aand nd d sof software. ftw ware.

To find out more about joining the project, call Caroline Holden at AbilityNet on 0800 269 545, email preschool@abilitynet.org.uk or visit www.abilitynet.org.uk

Making M akin ng a m million illlion JJames ames C Caan, aan, tthe he cele celebrity eb briity b businessman usinesssman aand nd d on one ne o off th the he sstars tarrs off D Dragons’ Dr rago ons’ D De Den en‚ iiss doing i g hi his is bit to om mentor enttor tthe h he next ge generation eneratio on o off eentrepreneurs ntrreprreneeurss b byy pro providing ovid dingg seed d funding fund diingg fo ffor or th the he ffirst irstt 130 30 schoo schools ols tthat h hatt en enter nter a te team eam m iin this h yea year’s ar’s M Mil Million llion n Makers Make M kers challenge. chal h llengge. M Million nM Ma Makers akkers is an annual annu ual eve event entt tthat’s h hatt’s d designed esigneed tto o enco encourage ouraage chil children h ldre to o eengage n ngaagge w wit with th eenterprise nte terprise p ew whi while ilee rraising aising i g ffunds unds u s for o the he PPri Prince’s ince ce s T Trust. rust u t. This i yea year, ear, each ch ssch school ho oo team e willl receive ec v a £155 loan oa tto ttowards wa s a mini-enterprise e te p e that a ttheyy believe e v w will make m k money o e aand raise s funds u d for o the h ttrust. s M Million i Makers M e w will run n throughout r g o this t s summer mm and n aautumn. u n The h w winners, n s w who willl receive ec v a prize ri from m James, a e w will be announced n u c at tthe end d off thee year. e Find out more at www.princes-trust.org.uk

LEADERSHIP FOCUS ● JULY/AUGUST 2010

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25/6/10 15:35:34

Education for social justice

Keeping K eep eeeping aan n eye ey ye on th the he road ro oad aah ahead heaad d By now now, w, ev every veryy pu pupil upil is h hotly otlyy an anticipating nti ticipatting the he immin imminent nentt summ summer mer holi holidays. idayys. B But, ut, t whilee the w he break h r k offers f s a cchance n e to relax, e x, thee summer u m also o sees e a rise s in n the h number num umb beer o off cch children hildr ldren kille killed i ed and an nd injured inju n ured ed on o the he ro roa road. ad d. In nA August, u ugu ust, s R Roa Road ad PPeace, eac e cee, a cch charity haarityy forr road a crash c s victims, i m willl runn itss annual n a National a o l Road o V Victim t Month o h to highlight g g the t dangers n r that h thee roads o s hold o ffor children l e – and d adults d t – and d to o remind m d people e p o of the h ttragic gi cconsequences s u c of road-traffic o - f accidents. c n . Thee Road o d Peace a website e t iss has a plenty l t of information nf m t n that a can a be used s to help p educate d ca and d prepare r a cchildren d n for o N National o l Road o V Victim t Month, o h including n d g downloadable o n a b resources o c and d examples x p s off testimonials s m i ggiven e b by road o d victims’ c m fa families. i .

Find out more at www.roadpeace.org

A re recipe ecip pe ffo for or ssuccess ucceess Who W ho says saays y vegetables veggetabless ca can’t an’t be ffun? un? Charity Ch harityy Animal Anim mal Aid, Aid d, which h campaigns cam mp paigns g s ag against gainsst an animal nim mal aabuse busse and crue cruelty, eltyy, ha has as la launched auncched d a new demonstration dem mon nstrratio on DVD DVD D to promote p omo pro ote vegetarian vegetarian n cookery cookeeryy in tthe he UK UK’s K’s sc schools. chools. Thee DV DVD VD guid guides des vie viewers ewerrs th through hrou ugh g thee preparation p pre ep paratio on o off ttwo wo tas tasty styy vvegetarian egeetarrian me meals: eals: a cchilli hillii dis dish sh aand nd a sausage saussagee and an nd bean bean n casserole. caasserrolee. Schools Scchoo ols can can also o ar arrange rrange ffor or a member mem mbeer of of the th he Animal Anim mal Aid d tea team am tto o ccome om me in n an and nd p perform erfform m a co cookery ookeery d demonstration em mon nstraation fo for or th the he cclass. lasss You can order a copy of the DVD by calling 01732 364 546, ext 221.

Alternatively, videos of the cooking demos, as well as a recipe sheet, can be found at www.animalaid.org.uk/education

Students’ St tudents’ cchance han nce to o des design sign n fo for or llife iffe Dessign Design n forr Ch Change hangge iss a n new ew w co competition ompetittion tha that at aims aim ms to o inspir inspire re yo young oun ng peop people ple tto o try tto o ch change hangee thee wo world. orld. Th The he proje project, ect, recently recenttly launched laauncched in n thee UK K after aftter proving provvingg a runaway runaawayy success su ucceess iin n In Indi ndia, a, challenges cha allen ngess ch children hildrren tto od design esign a so solution olution to a problem pro obleem in n th their heir com community mmunitty – forr examp example, ple, a threat thre h eat to the th he locall eenvironment nvirronm men nt – and d th then hen putt the their eir p plans lan ns in into nto acti action. ion. Thee co competition omp petition n iss uniquee am among mong co community omm mun nity pro projects ojects b because ecaausee itt eencourages nco ouraagess pupils i to takee d di direct irectt personal peerso onal action act tion rath rather her tha than han si simply imp ply aasking skin k ng them m tto help ra raise aise fun funds nds o orr aawareness warreneess o off tthe he problem. pro pr ob bleem m. T The h hee ccompe competition m ettittion o iss spon sponsored onso sorred d by tthe h hee Institute Inst n titut t te o off H Human um man nD Development eevvelo lopment m nt aand d ssu supported up ppo orrteed b byy thee D Design esign e g Co Cou Council. un ncil.

Deadline Dea D ad dlinee ffor o or eentries n ntries e iss 15 Nove November; vem mb ber; r the he w win winners nners n sw will illl be be announced an nno ou un nced ed ea early earlyy nex next ext yye year. ear. a For more details, visit www.designforchangeuk.org

By Laura Chapman and John WestBurnham Continuum Price £22.99

The UK prides itself on being one of the most democratic countries in the world, yet evidence outlined in this book lays bare the true inequalities present in our society.

For example, the nation is currently rated 13th – below countries such as New Zealand, Latvia and Sri Lanka – in the global gender gap index, and a quarter of British schoolchildren are living below the poverty line. In Education for Social Justice, the authors explain the extent of social inequality and suggest certain courses of action that can be implemented within schools to offer all pupils an experience of a fair society.

Learningg Without Limits 1

By Tony Hurlin Imaginative Minds Price £55 This is a way to introduce children to aesthetic enquiry in art – with explanations on how to examine both the enclosed laminated pictures and those on the DVD. Written by a former head teacher and Ofsted inspector, this is a detailed study of works of art, using high-impact questions, designed to capture the children’s interest.

Then, the aim is to look more deeply and move the children’s thinking beyond the obvious. It includes examples of how some pupils, even as young as seven, have been inspired by looking at these pictures.

It also gives the teacher the opportunity to decide if certain pictures are suitable for particular age groups.

JULY/AUGUST 2010 ● LEADERSHIP FOCUS

46-47 whats new.AT.indd 47

47

25/6/10 15:36:05

The Looking for Learning Toolkit

The Looking for Learning Toolkit can transform your school and make it more learning-focused. It can help you to make the shift from looking at the teaching to looking at the learning, to rehaul the way you structure your meetings, your evaluation and planning formats and to change the way your whole school – teachers, children, parents – thinks and talks about learning.

We have much more to tell you about the Looking for Learning Toolkit. Without any obligation, we look forward to talking with you.

The Looking for Learning Toolkit is telling us everything we need to know about learning; how kids learn, what learning in action looks like, how to improve it. It’s all right there for us in the Toolkit. The thinking behind the Looking for Learning Toolkit is phenomenal and as we pick away at it we’re going deeper and deeper in understanding learning and how we can improve it.

Peter Pretlove, Headteacher, Bransgore C.E. Primary School, Bransgore, Christchurch, Dorset, UK

To get more information about the Looking for Learning Toolkit visit us online at www.lookingforlearning.co.uk, call +44 (0)20 7531 9696 or email preet@greatlearning.com

From Fieldwork Education, part of the WCL Group

www.fieldworkeducation.co.uk

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28/6/10 09:53:28

HAVE YOUR SAY

RANTLINE What’s driving you mad? Is it Ofsted inspections and catchment areas, or the way special schools are treated?

AREA: Essex SUBJECT: Inspection injustice

AREA: West Midlands SUBJECT: Inspections

Dear editor Can anyone tell me what I should say to my school-improvement partner who tells me that in order to be considered to be outstanding I need to do exactly what I am doing now but in another school with a different catchment area?

Dear editor At our last Ofsted, we were informed that, because of the attainment of our pupils, we could not achieve ‘outstanding’ status. So should our school close its SEN unit so that we could be outstanding and therefore be eligible to apply for Academy status and reduce the risk of an Ofsted inspection? Or do we continue to put the needs of all our children first?

AREA: London SUBJECT: Workload Dear editor My rant is about workload and the confusion associated with the change of government. One week back into the new half-term after spending much of my holidays dealing with the crisis-level stuff I am back out of control again. I can cope with this because I have come to terms with the fact that my job is undoable.

Week-in, week-out, I have a stack of tasks waiting to be achieved.

I haven’t even time to prioritise them.

I was, however, comforted by the fact that at least I knew where we were going. I had a focused school development plan with clear targets.

We were on track to achieve them, my performance management targets were linked, as were those of the staff.

But since the inception of the coalition Government it has all fallen apart. The new primary curriculum has gone, Safeguarding is changing, Funding is going to be cut. We await new statute and guidance. We are now completely adrift. Perhaps a boat in the middle of the ocean is an alternative I could easily be persuaded to consider.

I would like to see special schools celebrated as a positive choice, not somewhere to go when all else fails

AREA: Yorkshire SUBJECT: Special schools Dear editor I have worked in special schools for 33 years. Why? Because, like many of my contemporaries, I thought these children were getting a raw deal and wanted to do something about it. That something was to provide them with a high-quality education with specially trained staff who had opted to work with these particular pupils in a special school. But, for

the past 20 years, a state of confusion has existed around special schools.

Are we wanted or not? The Centre for Studies in Inclusive Education (CSIE) would give a resounding ‘no’ and we now exist in an uneasy truce.

So, which way forward? I would like to see the following: • An end to the fruitless, tired debate about where children are taught.

• Special schools valued as schools in their own right and not as a staging post to mainstream education.

• Special schools as part of a diverse range of schools that parents can send their children to. CSIE: please note that these are intelligent, caring parents – it is immensely patronising to remove their right to choose.

• Government and LAs promoting and celebrating special schools as a positive choice and not as somewhere to go when all else fails.

• An end to the nonsensical idea that by advocating attendance at a special school we are removing children’s human rights and condemning them to a second-rate education (let’s remember those Ofsted reports).

• Recognition that our goal is the same as the ‘inclusionists’, for our pupils to be fully included in society, but that sometimes this can only be achieved by taking different routes.

• Special schools reclaiming the word ‘inclusion’.You are included if you feel included, it’s not dependent on place.

A PROBLEM SHARED… Angered or annoyed by something at work? Get in touch and we’ll air your grievance. You can email publications@ naht.org.uk or leave a message on our dedicated rantline: 020 7880 7663.

JULY/AUGUST 2010 ● LEADERSHIP FOCUS 49

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AND FINALLY SUSAN YOUNG

Back to the good old days?

Columnists might be missing loony directives, but are you nostalgic too?

I

Meanwhile, for those heads who need the security of some arbitrary rules and guidelines, here’s a draft memo that we stole from an adviser at the DfE to keep you going through the lean times: Dear Ministerial team, please note that since we’ve said that the profession knows best, we can’t order school leaders to do any of these things – but we believe they will get the message…

History. You know it’s only a matter of time before Proper History returns to the curriculum, so get PTA fundraising for a ‘Rulers’ ruler for each child. Every pupil should know the names and dates of all Kings and Queens by the end of Year Six. Libraries. While the parents are frantically baking and selling cakes, they’ll need to be fundraising for some proper books for the school library – Enid Blyton, that kind of thing. (Avoid Biggles though, as every page probably contravenes equality legislation.)You might want to put the Jacqueline Wilsons on a high shelf – don’t want the kids getting ideas that marriage is optional, do we?

Sports day. We may have a few spot checks on these. None of this ‘just taking part’ nonsense, please. We want proper races, with real eggs and spoons and sobbing losers. And that’s just the parents.

Health and safety. Conkers will be compulsory every October.

Years 12 and 13. Henceforth to be known as the VIth Form.

Literacy and numeracy. What’s all that about? English and maths, that’s what we want you to teach. Ofsted will be making sure that children can recite their times tables up to 12s and every classroom is to have a dictionary.

Phonics. All well and good but there will also be dedicated apostrophe classes for all 11-year-olds.

Resistant Materials? Food Technology? We’ll have none of that nonsense. Woodwork, metalwork and cookery, that’s what we want. Maybe some needlework too. Skills for austere times.

Media studies. We’ll be docking points in school league tables for certain subjects. Are you sure you want to carry on with that media studies GCSE? Or that ICT qualification which some quango claims is equivalent to four GCSEs? (Note: have we abolished the quango yet?)

Detention. We want a revival of this as part of our new behaviour strategy, with proper ink pens used to write lines.

Lots of them.

Homework. This is all to be marked in red or green ink, with ticks AND crosses.

School reports. We want to free teachers from bureaucracy. We know you know best. So from now on reportwriting software is banned. But personal comments and the odd insult are to be positively encouraged, as are class positions.

Any changes, Mr Gove? Or can we send this out as it is?

RICHARD LEVESLEY

’m seriously thinking about complaining to Michael Gove. It’s just not fair. In the olden days, before May 6, those of us who write humorous columns for a living were spoilt for choice. Micromanaging, interfering and, occasionally, frankly loony directives arrived almost daily from the Department of Cushions and Soft Furnishings.

And now? It’s eerily quiet as schools are mostly left to, er, get on with it.

Postmen and couriers will wonder who’s taken all their business, as bags full of letters, documents, CDs and pious exhortations fail to be sent to schools.

Clearly, it can’t last. At some point Mr Gove will realise he’s missing the chance to send out mad directives just for fun, or a civil servant will crack under the pressure and advise schools that it is perfectly permissible to end competency proceedings with a firing squad, just as soon as the GTC is formally abolished.

By that point, though, you may have no teachers left as a result of budget cuts and the massive, all-out strike that is going to happen as soon as the Government starts doing the unthinkable on public servants’ pensions. But at least it’ll be OK to get parents to provide cover, as the vetting and barring scheme and the primary curriculum have both been sent back to the drawing board.

50

LEADERSHIP FOCUS ● JULY/AUGUST 2010

50 And finally.AT.indd 50

25/6/10 15:37:32

Akhter preinstalls genuine Windows® software

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LFO.07.10.IBC.indd 1

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JN-1497-C 14-Jun-2010 E&OE Prices subject to change without notice

24/6/10 15:40:07

This a great vehicle for communicating and sharing information with not only the children but also the parents. We celebrate school activities and achievements through the channel and feel that it is an excellent addition to our school’s resources.

Julie Bradley, Headteacher St Leonard’s Primary School

a revelation in

EDUCATION Integral to the communications strategy of over 1,800 UK schools and colleges, The Life Channel is a bespoke, interactive in-school television network: ●

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WWW.THELIFECHANNEL.COM/LEARNING LFO.07.10.OBC.indd 1

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