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December 2015
Issue 24
Lighting the
06
Way
Comparing Primary and Secondary
15
19 Best moments in RE
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Issue 24: December 2015
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From the Editor
4 Where does RS go from here?
Chris Eyre shares his insight into where religious studies is currently at and what he anticipates in the near future.
6 Primary vs Secondary
We take a tongue in cheek look at the differences and similarities of teaching at primary and secondary in this month’s UKEdchat feature.
8 It’s time to Energise RE!
Arabella Carter discusses how educators are looking to breath new life into RE and shows the relevance in today’s world.
10 Faith Box
Amjad Ali promotes cross faith dialogue and introduces FaithBox - the new initiative for non-Muslims to gain greater understanding of Islam.
13 ICTmagic EdTech Resources 16 Teacher Goes Sketching
Andy Knill discusses his new pastime that is restoring his working/life balance, reducing stress and making him more social - Sketching.
“In light of recent events” was how I was planning to being this introduction to our Religion and World Culture of UKEd Magazine, but that seems too late. Gaining insight and understanding of the beliefs, culture and lives of others is a continual state of mind, rather than reaction to global event, and schools are well placed to foster an outward view, with many schools being a diverse microcosm of the world outside with people in the school community from every walk of life. Cultural understanding is not just the preserve of the Citizenship or RE classroom, but should be intertwined across the school in every area of the curriculum and beyond. In this issue of UKEd Magazine we have ideas and tips for bring a cultural element into your teaching. Happy exploring! Martin Burrett - Editor @ICTmagic @UKEdMag editor@ukedchat.com
18 Developing EAL in RE
Michelle Carrier shares her insight into the development of English as an additional language skills in her RE class.
19 Best Moments in RE
Andy Lewis introduces and collates online RE educators best moments teaching their subject.
22 In Brief
Gary Henderson, Sam Garnham, Jonathan Coward and Jane Still share there short articles on a range of educational issues.
20 Book Shelf
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24 UKEdResources
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GCSE and A Level
Where do we go from here? By Chris Eyre
The long awaited specifications for religious studies GCSE and A-level are out. Although it is tempting to put it all to one side as September 2016 seems a long way away, these are specifications that are significantly different from previous versions and it is well worth spending some time thinking and planning ahead. What are the changes?
This raises a number of considerations: 1. The ground gained at GCSE in needing coverage of two faiths is then lost on A-level specifications where only one faith can be covered, if this was to be an opportunity to raise understanding it has been an opportunity that has been missed. 2. As much as I enjoy theology (and I do, it was 75% of my degree), it is difficult to gain student engagement on some of the theological issues. They do not initially see the relevance. A better principle of teaching is to start where students are at and on issues that they are interested in and work from there. This is where philosophy and ethics based approaches have been so successful.
At GCSE there is a requirement to study two faiths, previously in some versions one would suffice, this is now worth 50% of the whole course. At A level the subject can now best be described as philosophy, ethics and theology of a religion, and the teacher is free to choose which religion is to be studied. In both GCSE and A Level the possibility of delivering 3. It will be interesting to see how the numbers are purely philosophy and ethics is ended. affected by these changes. Most teachers feel that So what? the golden days of over 20,000 students nationally Whilst the recommendations could have been doing A-level religious studies may be coming to an worse there are a few observations about the end. This is not entirely due to the changes; there specifications: it is a bit of a ‘camel’ – a horse has already been a decline at GCSE from schools, designed by a committee. One of the fundamental mainly academies, who feel able to ignore the law. tensions in religious studies in recent years has been It will also be interesting to see if there is a swing the fight over what the purpose of the subject is. at a level towards the AQA Philosophy course. Is it to increase understanding of different faiths in Already I have been contacted by an ex student, our diverse society or is it to engage with ultimate now a religious studies teacher, who is considering questions? The new specs attempt to do both, the switch and wanted some advice. There has also rather than allowing teachers to choose one path been an online campaign for a GCSE in Philosophy. Perhaps Religious Studies cannot be all things to all and cover it well. men.
“Is it to increase understanding of different faiths in our diverse society or is it to engage with ultimate questions?” What now? Much of what we have written above cannot be changed so what three things can we do now to ensure that we are ready for September 2016. 1. Get choosing: now, or make more realistically the next weekend or holiday, is the time to choose your spec for next year. There are a number of considerations: What are your specialisms as a teacher? What are your students interested in? What is the format of the assessment? What support is being offered by each board? For us we will stick with OCR. By the way, the case that one board’s marking may be more reliable than another is very flimsy indeed, each of the boards has problems recruiting examiners and this is likely to be exacerbated for whichever board ends up with the most entries. 2. Get promoting: you are particularly likely if you offer A level to find your numbers a little squeezed. This is where, for those of you in 1118 establishments, the relationships you establish at key stage 3 to recruit to GCSE, and at GCSE to recruit to A level are crucial. As a sixth form college we have always had to market ourselves: making a promo DVD featuring students, putting on events for year 10 and year 11, and some glossy flyers bragging about last year’s statistics are standard tools in our arsenal. There is no reason why others could not do this even if they have an established in-house catchment.
3. Get preparing: now is the time to argue the case with SLT for planning time; these are significant changes. If you are in a local area where you get on well with other teachers, there may be the possibility of joint planning. I suspect that support via the Twitter and UKedchat community may prove invaluable. Certainly there is not likely to be any textbooks at A level any time soon and it may be a case of cutting and pasting some existing resources for topics you have talked before. Are there topics that you will need to read books on in the next 6 months? I hope I haven’t sounded too negative with regard to the changes to specifications. Religious Studies will survive this as a result of high quality religious studies teachers. After all, it is the teacher as much as the content that makes the student experience. Chris Eyre @chris_eyre is Curriculum Manager for Religious Studies and Philosophy, and Lead Practitioner for ILT at Stoke-on-Trent sixth form college. He is an experienced examiner and has co-authored A Level textbooks. He blogs on well being and other issues at chriseyreteaching.wordpress.com Image credits: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pictoquotes/14677942863 by symphony of love used under Commercial Creative Commons 4.0 License.
Special Feature
Different WO R L D S
Ten Contrasts between Primary and Secondary Teaching ALL teaching is very demanding & time consuming, but the challenges of a primary teacher and a secondary teacher very different. This tongue-in-cheek article celebrating the different cultures of primary and secondary schools, and celebrates the different worlds that teachers inhabit. 1. The build-up to Christmas Hark! The build up to Christmas is stressful to many primary and secondary teachers, but usually for contrasting reasons. The haggard primary teacher will be driven to mulled alcohol if they hear “Little Donkey” once more as they prepare for the video-captured judgement of parents during the annual nativity or Christmas production celebration! Angels, sheep and wise men costumes clutter every free corner of the school - there are tears and tantrums abound... sometimes from the children too. However, balance is restored in the knowledge that you will soon use your weight in glitter in a panic-stricken two day Christmas card making fest! The contrast in the secondary school could not be more distinct. Mock Exams. The knowledge that Christmas lunch will be eaten with the accompaniment of that pile of marking in the corner, that just insists on watching you tuck into your sprouts. The worry of too many ‘D’s from pupils who should be aiming for an A! There’s still a while to go, but ….argh! 2. 30 Pupils versus 250 pupils The list of pupil names which usually arrives on your desk in June or July can either inspire or discourage a teacher, when they note they have ‘that Samantha’ o r ‘that Daniel’ coming into their class. For the primary teacher, this can lead to a challenging year, as they have the company of same individuals every day for the next three terms.
Only PPA time and weekends can save them! Even then, there is the chance of an awkward encounter during the weekly shop. For secondary teachers, those similar pupils will only appear in their classroom at the same tear-soaked places in the timetable, perhaps for only 50 minutes at a time, but every minute can feel like an hour. Yes, each class will have similar challenges, but there usually is a ‘treasured’ class of pupils of which you can look forward to. The dream group. 3. Same subject, day after day after day… This could be a blessing, or a curse, depending how much you endure repeating the same message week after week, but even though primary colleagues need to teach all the curriculum the diversity of topics mean that there is so much creative freedom. Secondary teachers are seemingly restricted to a monopath of repetitiveness. If you can’t dig wide, you’ have to dig down and secondary teachers cover topics to a much deeper depth compared the the shallow paddling and toe-dipping of primary teachers. 4. Parents Evening There are clear similarities between primary and secondary school teachers here, as you know when the school bell rings that you have another four hours of carefully tempered talking, but this time trying to enthuse about your pupils and, once again, justify your existence to their parents. Naturally, there is only one hiding place... behind the data, and hope for mercy that they don’t understand it either. At primary schools, parent consultations are often conducted in the familiar surrounding of the classroom, so items can quickly be grabbed in answer to queries. In Secondary schools, the teachers usually gather in the emotional, tactical and factual no-mans-land of the school hall, perfectly designed to smother the soft tones of praise and echo the slightly raised voice of passive aggressive criticism for all to hear. 5.
Respect and behaviour At primary school the children adore you, until sometime early in their school career they realise that the classroom moves to the enigmatic moods of the class computer. After that their faith is shaken and their loyalty is divided, and their true education in the fallibility of humanity, with you as the case study, continues until the final scarring evidence the traditionally humiliating, but ‘feels so right at the time’ teacher dance at the year six leavers party.
Secondary teachers have it no better. With the teacher jiggles still only 6 weeks ago and still fresh in their minds, the new year seven pupils will remain at their most quiet for any point in their schooling until they realise they are safe - dancing is not endemic in schools from year six and that the worst is behind them. However, they have harks and capers to catch up on, and in the absence of the promise of a shiny sticker, the chat, pushing boundaries and the growing (always growing!) will continue until the day they hit twenty.
Image credits: Martin Burrett 06 UKED Magazine
6. Shampoo (nits) At primary school learning and need are not the main drivers of classroom management and differentiation. The comparative wriggliness of the head biodiversity is and teachers count their blessings that they have a TA to direct to work with the scratching children. The only issue is making sure you can fake a surprised face when the TA informs you about the problem - “Oh really, I had no idea!”. The smell of anti-nit shampoo is quite inimitable, and one which is recognised quickly by primary school teachers. You know which child is being treated from 10 metres away! Secondary teachers... you have no idea... there are simply no words... 7. Tissues For the primary teacher, this is an important part of the classroom furniture as runny noses and ‘productive’ sneezes, (also known as ‘sinuses stalactites’) are a daily occurrence that needs clearing up promptly, before the demon sleeve swipes away the slime in a translucent frothy frenzy. At secondary school, the teacher’s tissues are a behaviour management tool. The main purpose of tissues in the secondary school is for pupils to spit out the chewing gum, of which they have been told countless times not to bring into school. Where do they get this endless supply of gum from? “Here’s a tissue. Spit it out and put it in the bin!” 8. Free Lessons Usually the course of much contention between many teachers, and being able to catch up on marking, planning and assessments within school time is treasured among colleagues in all levels of schooling. So who does better? Let’s compare…
challenge itself, and supporting pupils to improve gaps in their knowledge is an on-going task. 10. Technical Issues Rows and rows of shiny tablet devices and the equally shiny eyes of the students eager to use them are an inspiring sight. but sometimes educational technology does it’s level best to ensure that no learning will take place. Secondary schools are slowly getting their act together, with a dedicated team of technicians to ‘turn it off and then on again’ for the teachers. At primary schools, the teachers usually have to flick the on/ off switch all by themselves. At all levels of schooling, teachers have to deal with a special set of personalities that they never mentioned during teacher training - the tech. Wifi that enjoys playing hide and seek, photocopiers and printers with more jams than a great aunt, and anti-social projects who refuse to ‘talk’ to our computer.
Overall, primary and secondary teachers have much more in common than we have differences. We are linked together in the pursuit of knowledge and understand for our pupils and ourselves, we are united in the worship of the unwaving perfection of the class planner, but most of all we do our best in the ridiculous system in which we all work.
Primary school teachers usually get their PPA time (or should we rename that APP time?) for a morning or afternoon each week - if they’re lucky enough to find a hiding place that no one has yet thought of - and that’s it! There are only two only other modes of free lessons open to primary teachers - The much anticipated course and the always expected illness. Meanwhile, secondary teachers should get their PPA time, which could also include ‘free’ periods where the timetable has enabled them to have a free session. The problem with this is that they could suddenly be used to cover an absence of a colleague - therefore, that free-time is thwarted and not guaranteed. Then, at the end of the school year, the Year 11’s leave, and those gaps are not filled until the new school year. Freedom! 9. Assessments / Progress The difference here is stark, and understandable. Summative tests are part of the course in secondary schools, where data is key in showing progress. This is understandable when teachers have so many pupils to look after and assess - there simply isn’t chance to take a holistic view of the child. This is more achievable to the primary school teacher, who can take a more ‘whole-child’ approach to pupils across all the subjects covered. Who has the easier task? Well, technology can help with summative assessments, producing pretty charts (but don’t use the colour ink!) and clearly showing trends, but the constant pressure to improve progress and get the best results possible is never-ending. This is the same for primary teachers, but covering many curriculum areas is a
ukedchat.com/magazine 07
It’s time to
Energise RE! by Arabella Carter
This year has been a busy one for Religious Education nationally. The publication of A New Settlement: Religion and Belief in Schools in June has thrown into the spotlight the fact that RE is sometimes brilliantly taught, is essential to the curriculum; but its quality is too often undermined by a range of factors. The RE community cannot allow these factors to continue damaging the subject’s quality: we need change. Those looking to lead and support the development of the subject were united at the ‘Energise RE 2015’ conference in Reading over the first weekend of October. There, Culham St Gabriel’s Trust brought together over 200 teachers and other RE professionals for a unique opportunity: to hear and respond to outstanding speakers and national leaders in RE, to network and form new alliances. In the opening address led by Mark Chater a weather report for RE was offered; there is a lot of rain, mist and thundery spells. Current rules on RE are complicated; RE is statutory but not national curriculum; compulsory, but you can withdraw; local, but not that local; different if you are an academy or independent school; populated by 151 syllabuses, all broadly similar in content, but in form and structure, so different and complex that it takes an army of advisers and consultants to interpret - an army we no longer have. Indeed, being left out of curriculum reform, finding ourselves side-lined by the Ebacc and still waiting for new GCSE and A level qualifications to be approved by Ofqual means there are uncertain times for RE ahead. But, it is not all overcast. There are some sunny patches to be found in the great work being done by schools, universities and faith groups around the country. The conference offered delegates insights into what we can do to facilitate a heatwave for RE in three key areas: 1. How is religion and belief changing in the UK and what impact should this have on RE? There is a widespread opinion that congregations are shrinking, the UK is becoming increasingly secular and that religious belief is no longer relevant in modern society. In her keynote, Linda Woodhead highlighted research in sociology of religion which shows that belief paradigms are shifting, but it is not the case that faith is a thing of the past. She highlighted that the 2011 census simply gave the illusion of a decrease in Christianity and an increase in secularism, when the reality is that those who might describe themselves as having ‘no religion’ are simply not conforming to what might be fit into ‘traditional’ categories. The consequence of this is the perception that religion in the UK is ‘slowing down’ and that we are at odds with what can be seen in the rest of the world. This is an argument for the continual relevance of spirituality and religious belief for our young people despite appearances of secularism, as well as a suggestion that 08 UKED Magazine
with such extraordinary change to our religious landscape, the legal structures underpinning a Religious Education of 1988 are no longer relevant today. Put simply: ‘The place of religion and belief within our education system should change to reflect modern realities. But there is absolutely no case to remove it, as some suggest. In fact we need a more coherent and effective means of increasing the quality of religious education throughout our school system’ (Clarke and Woodhead: 2015, p35). RE is still as important to our young people as it ever was, but it needs to serve them better. 2. How is RE developing and where does its future lie? Dilwyn Hunt gave a powerful and pacey talk about developments in assessment and progression within RE. He argued that data-obsession has hurt the process of pupil learning and highlighted that levels in RE had not delivered the ‘coherent basis of assessment’ they promised but, in fact, merely generated ‘unreliable and spurious information’. He argued that this problem, coupled with the massive amount of material available for RE teachers to deliver, had resulted in some very poor RE. It is true to say that over a child’s school career, they may well encounter a wide-range of different faiths. Instead of spreading teaching thinly over some grand, all-encompassing scheme, Hunt suggested that we might consider devoting more curriculum time to teaching a core curriculum of Christianity and Islam with space remaining for teachers to then select others areas of investigation most relevant for their learners. His argument for ‘fewer things, taught well’ is a sound one. Taking steps to reduce the amount of content and establish a core curriculum in RE was a cogent suggestion which, coupled with a focus on formative, rather than summative, assessment, might well be the way forward to genuinely rigorous RE provision. Indeed, highly specific learning journeys that can be clearly assessed and built upon across the Key Stages is a valuable endeavour already working well in the sciences. 3. How can we best strengthen our collaborative networks in order to improve standards in RE? Meeting other RE professionals in person is clearly the best manner in which to collaborate, share, develop and improve our own teaching. Making the effort to connect with others is an important part of improving standards in RE and online networks are a great way to strengthen existing partnerships and form new alliances. With the hashtag #EnergisingRE trending within the first hour of the weekend, it was clear that many teachers are already united in the desire for something better; RE which has real intellectual integrity, reflects the reality of religion and belief in the modern world, and makes an excellent contribution to pupils’ education. However, if we want to improve provision, there is still important work to be done.
At present, RE faces a genuine threat of marginalisation. The current structures and standards in place are not working. The observations made by Clarke and Woodhead in A New Settlement reflect the sense of crisis felt by the RE community as it was left off national curriculum reform in 2013: ‘Overall, the whole area of religious education has suffered from being treated very differently from other subjects. Sometimes it has been treated as less important, sometimes as more important. It has been freighted with too little significance or too much. The consequences have been negative and have inhibited reform. We believe that the subject should be put on a similar footing to other subjects, and no longer as the exceptional case’. (Clarke and Woodhead: 2015, p7)
ensure that there is a promising forecast for RE learners: high status, modern structures, rigour and engagement, and better alignment with the exciting real world of religion and belief in the 21st Century. To achieve this we need to take a resilient view. If we can recognise that there is no bad weather, only bad clothing, we can look forward to a great future for RE. Just as faith calmed the storm for the disciples, faith in positive changes for RE can enable a heatwave to come. It is change in RE which is our raincoat; we need to wear it well.
It is fairly unbelievable that the Religious Education Council’s Non-Statutory Curriculum for RE was brought to Westminster having been put together without public funding, even though RE remained a subject required on the curriculum of all state schools. This, for me, truly reflects a need for reform. One of the most energising moments of the two day conference was seeing two-thirds of the packed room raise their hands in agreement to the recommendation to do away with the 151 locally-agreed syllabuses and replace them with one National Curriculum for RE. Indeed, a National Curriculum does present itself as one possible solution to the crisis facing RE. Whether you agree with this approach or not, it is clear that teachers need to engage in positive discussions about change in order to
Arabella @MissAVECarter is a Teacher of Ethical and Religious Studies at an independent school in Derbyshire. She is an advocate of Philosophy in schools and a supporter of the importance of good Religious Education. She contributes regularly to discussions on those themes on her blog missavecarter.wordpress.com and for @BlogSyncRE.
Further Reading Clarke and Woodhead (2015), A New Settlement: Religion and Belief in Schools (Westminster Faith Debates) Robson, J. (2015) Think Piece: Epistemic Change and RE. How We Got Here and Where We Are Going bit.ly/ uked15dec01. Religious Education Council (2013) Non-statutory National Curriculum for RE: A Curriculum Framework for Religious Education in England (Religious Education Council of England and Wales) Lewis, A. (2015) RE in 2020? Why we MUST get change right bit.ly/uked15dec02 Carter, A. (2015) Informing Good Practice- A Blog about #EnergisingRE bit.ly/uked15dec03 Ramasami, J. (2015) A Magnificent Seedbed. Energising RE: A Personal View bit.ly/uked15dec04 Become part of the community and continue the discussion for positive change in RE by contributing your thoughts to #BlogSyncRE via @REEchoChamber
Image credits: flickr.com/photos/magicicada/4625335593 by Jong Kim used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
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ukedchat.com/magazine 09
Faith
BoxED
By Amjad Ali The Paris attacks have reinvigorated what appeared to be an apparent subsidence of oppression against people of the faith of Islam. Before the unjustifiable, horrific Paris attacks, persecution and discrimination of Islam and Muslims in the mainstream media was saved for only a few headlines a month. However, the powers that be are currently churning out the message of segregation and hate at an ever quicker rate. I wrote about my concerns and worries here for our students as educators here: bit.ly/faithboxed. I have also set up an exchange project for schools to get involved in, where I pair up schools together to send each other a box of 'faith.' This is similar to the #CultureBoxED idea, the aim is to help students interact with each other in ways they may never get a chance to do. In light of these concerns and the horrible stories I am hearing almost daily about the way students are being isolated in their schools or feeling they must isolated themselves, I have created @FaithBoxED. This Twitter account is to be run by a many variety of Muslim educators across the world. The idea is that if an educator has a question, a query, an issue, anybody using the @FaitboxED account can respond to the query posted to the account or using the hashtag #faithboxed. Eventually, we would like students to be able to contact the account directly too. How can you help? If you are a Muslim educator and would like access to the account, please get in touch with me on Twitter via @astsupportaali. I will give you the user name and password and you can help monitor the hashtag/tweets and respond to people directly. It is vital that the account is followed and engaged with by a variety of educators, religious or non-religious, working in a diverse, multicultural or mono cultural school. It is also imperative that the answers are not only provided from one or two individuals, but are from a network of Muslim educators, of contrasting age, sects and upbringing. Answering questions will mostly simply require providing the questioner with links and guidance to further information from more reputable, authoritative sources. For me, that is my mum! So, if you want to spread tolerance and help reduce ignorance, please get involved with @FaithBoxED. Please share this message, tweet it, recommend it to colleagues, get people involved. 10 UKED Magazine
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5 things Schools should do by Martin Burrett
before Calling the Consultant
Many years ago I was browsing my Twitter feed when I spotted a conversation between two educators about Geocaching (essentially putting an item in a location and letting someone else find it by posting the map coordinates or clues online). At that time I had heard of it, but had not tried it, so I began to ask a few questions and explained my interest. The reply came that the gentleman was a tech consultant and his advice wasn’t free. So I simply asked someone else, got my answer and unfollowed the other guy. Thankfully, this attitude is now vanishingly rare on Twitter these days and advice, help and collaboration is the norm. Yet the same isn’t true is the educational world at large and schools are wasting their funds by inviting in consultants and going to courses without exploring other options first. Don’t get me wrong. I fully recognise that there are times when schools have reached an impasse and need outside help to move forward, but it seems that calling someone in is often the first reaction.
ONE Expert Staff Your colleagues are far more brilliant than you know and have many hidden talents. They are likely hidden for three reasons: • no one has asked them about them. • modestly about their hidden abilities. • they think they will have more work to do if someone knows they have that talent. For example, a colleague of mine worked in our primary school for 7 years without anyone knowing that she was an amazing pianist, as she felt she would be asked to play in assemblies constantly. Those of us who have a way with computers will tell of the countless hours that are spent away for teaching to fix little tech issues for others, which we don’t mind doing of course. I have conducted many staff training sessions on a variety of topics at my school. 14 UKED Magazine
There are yet more colleagues in your school who have useful interests, and while they may not be experts, their curiosity in a topic of skill means that they have done much of the groundwork to develop that area in school. As a school team we need to harness this talents and interests by creating an atmosphere of collaboration where skills and talents are shared, not just taken. Pool ideas from everyone. Some of the most popular courses I see on online are designed to introduce iPad apps into your teaching. Putting aside the fact that pedagogy and the students’ needs should be the drivers of designing learning opportunities, not that you have an interesting new app you need to work into a lesson, if you ask your staff to suggest interesting apps and/or research a few new ones to introduce to colleagues. Therefore, there is little need to ask an expert to read out their list of apps at your inset and show you how to use something which is very intuitive.
Two Give it Time & Ownership If we are asking colleagues to develop something of value, we need to ensure that they have enough non-contact time to develop, trial and roll out training session for the staff. To be frank, many of the courses offered by visiting experts are a shortcut to simple ideas that everyone with a few spare hours could research online and deliver to other colleagues. Asking colleagues to develop an initiative can have numerous benefits over asking someone to develop and idea from outside. Yes, we don’t want to re-invent the wheel, but sometimes a bespoke wheel for a particular school is needed. Ideas and initiatives that will have a true impact of the learning of students across the school will take some time to assess, research and implement, but it is worth the investment of time, and should not be an add-on
Image credit: pixabay.com/en/man-depressed-hoodie-unhappy-sad-390340 pixabay.com/en/dog-mixed-breed-canine-black-white-531481
to what the teacher does already. Schools should consider the price of hiring a consultant for the day and whether that money could be better spend on giving release time for a colleague instead. Sustaining a worthwhile initiative should be the job of everyone in the school, but haven’t one or a few ‘go to’ people to fly the flag and keep up momentum with in the school, rather than an inset for one morning, no matter how inspirational it is, certainly has advantages for the longevity of the idea.
THREE Think Bespoke
The school community beyond the school gates has a wealth of untapped skill and knowledge available just for the asking. However, it is not always easy to discover what the community can offer. The children are a wealth of information, and while a teacher shouldn’t pry too much into the professional life of a child’s parents, primary school children have a wonderful habit of dropping their parents in it. For example, in my Year 5 class last year I was elated when one of my children volunteers his micro biologist dad to come in to talk about bacteria and to culture petri dishes with the supposed washed hands of class. The school governors, as ambassadors of the school in the community, have a role to play here. If the skill or knowledge isn’t available within a school, it may be available in the wider cluster or chain of schools. Local schools are working more closely than ever before, but this can be limited to the senior team to act as a critical friend during activities like work scrutinies and moderating, or learning walks. But perhaps more valuable is to share, swap and disseminate the knowledge and expertise of frontline educators in nearby schools. This can be organised on a one to one basis, or in the style of a teach meet.
In my experience of both sleeping through insets and dozing through courses that a one size fits all approach to professional development is neither productive, nor desirable. Not every member of staff is at the same level of understanding or at the same stage of implementing it, so training, just like with students, needs to be differentiated to the individual. Guest presenters may be great at pitching to the middle, but in any whole staff CPD you can see both bored and perplexed faces at either end of the bell curve. While whole school training has a place in schools, it should be reserved for wholly new ideas which everyone will benefit from. The day of passive professional development is coming to an end, with educators seeking out their own development opportunities becoming more Teachers have access to real expert via the online common. network. If your Twitter network can’t help you, they probably know someone who does, and within hours of an ‘ask Twitter’ request you will be pointed in the right direction.
Five Get Online
Four Ask the School Network
Many questions have already been asked and answered. The UKEdChat archive of discussion at ukedchat.com/ archive is a treasure trove of ideas, and the near 300 sessions which cover a vast range of topics. If a session doesn’t quite answer your query, you have the Twitter handles of educators who are interested in the topic there for you to ask.
In schools, teachers are out numbered, and don’t the pupils know it! But schools can use the abundance of skills, knowledge and incite into their to their CPD advantage. Most pupils have a good idea of what works for them and this source to information shouldn’t be ignored as an important part of your CPD network. The digital leaders initiative has show that pupils can be more skilled than You’ve considered and/or tried all of the above, but you many of their teachers in some areas, and I have often still need assistance. Guest presenters have a lot to offer, invited my group of digital leaders to assist my colleagues both in terms of inspiration and expertise, and there is an during training sessions. abundance to pick from on Twitter – Choose wisely.
Exhausted
ukedchat.com/magazine 15
Teacher Goes Sketching
By Andy Knill
I am Andy and I teach Geography. I am a Head of Department and I work too hard. Are you the same? I often seek something to do that means that I can switch off from school work and do something sociable away from my job. I’m sure that like me, your family would appreciate that you are off duty more and that your attention is not limited by marking, planning etc. I also suffer from depression when work consumes me and I sacrifice myself on its altar – this is not a positive attribute and has led to absences on and off since 1998 for a variety of reasons. As I write this I have had what I can honestly describe as a breakdown, rather than a rescue before breakdown. Yet, one of the activities that I have started this year is helping me to recover. I have other friends who suffer from mental health issues and we often share ideas on how to distract ourselves. One that has been discussed a lot recently is creativity through craft and / or art. One of this group has been sketching for over 20 months. She has seen her sketches improve and has discovered a social outlet through urban sketching. I decided to try this and since June, when I bought my first sketchbook, it has become an escape, a chance to switch off the work brain and an act of mindfulness where I feel safe. I sketch using fineline pigment pens – black fineliners of various widths all in black and with permanent ink. I have discovered where art materials are available, art retailers in London and how there are lots of techniques and equipment possibilities – a whole new sense of geek to discover.
An outreach workshop at the base of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern There are just two of my sketches. Please look at them, think what you may, as they are working for me. How do you step away from work? Share your ideas via #UKEdChat. More details of my work are available on my new blog – about sketching! mishmashlearninggoessketching. wordpress.com.
Combining photos from a walk by the River Chelmer and sketching it later in the warm
My output varies from sketching objects on the shelves at home to going out and sketching while on visits to different places or grabbing time while on the train, bus or park bench. I have posted copies of sketches on my social media accounts and received feedback from friends and colleagues. An ex teacher training friend who is a part-time artist made the best point that I have hung onto – do this for fun, if it stops being that, rethink. Sketching by its nature involves me, a drawing implement (pen) and a surface to record the art on. How then can this become a sociable activity and a chance to meet others who enjoy or earn their living from their art? Cue, Urban Sketching – drawing / creating art live on location. Near to me there are three groups: USK London, USK Cambridge and USK Essex and Suffolk. Over the last two weekends I have met members of the first two and drawn with, drunk tea and chatted about our artwork, techniques and materials used. I have learnt new terms like brush pen, Tombows and many more. The groups are very welcoming and the standard of art varies greatly – because there is a camaraderie as well as links and sharing opportunities through Facebook groups it becomes a thread through every day whether I have sketched or not. 16 UKED Magazine
Andy Knill @aknill is Head of Geography at The Albany School, Hornchurch, Havering. Find him online at mishmashlearning.wordpress.com
Are you passionate about school leadership? Share your ideas and what works at your school by writing for the new quarterly UKEd Leader Magazine Go to
ukedchat.com/magazine/submit for details and to submit your ideas Look out for the first combined UKEd Magazine and UKEd Leader Out January 2016
Goes to School
As part of UKEdChat’s Social Enterprise mission, to improve teacher development through social media, we are offering completely free workshops at your school into how Twitter and the online community can aid professional development. The workshop will include:
• Staff meeting INSET for getting staff started with using social media professionally and exploring how it can be used for CPD. • Help with getting the school using social media to engage with their community, and beyond. • Co-constructing a digital media policy for school and staff. • Profiling the school as UKEdChat’s featured school of the week.
Followed by a live, after school #UKEdChat Twitter discussion hosted by your school. Visit: ukedchat.com/goes-to-school to apply
ukedchat.com/magazine 17
Developing EAL ous Educati on in RelibygiMichelle Carrier
I shudder, thinking back to my differentiation for EAL students at the start. I Google translated the whole PowerPoint, brimming with pride at my achievement. It was sadly, as the kids would say, an epic fail. It didn’t make sense. The students were grateful for the effort that I had gone to, but pushed the paper to one side as it was no help at all returning to use the English one. Fast forward to the present - The demographics of the school I teach in has changed and a large proportion of my students are now EAL. The first battle was to win the students over to Religious Education by overcoming the barrier of a view of irrelevance to the subject. A lesson on rites of passage saw the lightbulb moment, the one where finally the penny hit, and they made a connection to their own lives, when we looked at baptism about pouring water over the baby’s head! The schemes of work are relevant to the students’ lives and set a foundation of understanding and engagement to build upon for GCSE. More success came when they shared their own experiences, talking about their faith and making comparisons to the experience of others, reinforcing the importance of their voice in the classroom. The current year 11 students have taught me a few phrases in their own language, but I am sure my accent is terrible. They are now my language helpers, who double check my use of Google translate. It has made them proud and given them value whilst celebrating their culture. Currently all of the EAL students I teach in year 11 are working at or above target. I use their work to showcase good practice, which has been used across my classes, across the department and through the local RE network. This is a tribute to their hard work and determination in working upon the feedback I have given to support their answers. They are pleased to see the work they have achieved and actively seek to improve. I am delighted with the progress they have made and their confident approach to RE. In the future, I hope to build on the EAL resources by building up a resource bank on the other languages in school, using the critical feedback of the students using the resources. am joining an EAL working party to share and build upon good practice across the school. Ultimately, I would like to be able to say that EAL students reach or exceed their targets without having language being a barrier. Michelle Carrier is leader of learning for Religious Education, Citizenship and PSHE at Lyng Hall School Trust. Find her on Twitter at @mrscarrierRE.
Image credits: flickr.com/photos/dahlstroms/5187417797 by Håkan Dahlström used under Commercial Creative Commons 4.0 License. 18 UKED Magazine
I
The Best Moments in RE
collated and introduced by Andy Lewis
Many RE teachers are passionate about their subject and what goes on in their classrooms. Some try to argue that religion is irrelevant and it would be better to not study it in the curriculum like in many countries around the world. Other realise the value, but don’t fully understand what goes on in modern RE lessons*. Andy Lewis asked RE teachers about their best moments in the classroom: “Y7 pupil took over lesson on God after saying 'I see God as a circle', facilitating discussion for rest of lesson.” @justBmoore “Students realising the importance of human rights in the UK.” Harry Barrett “A Y8 student with SEN explaining to rest of class why reading the Qur'an in Arabic is fundamental for Muslims. Then read the first surahs and translated them.” @MaryMyatt “Students experiencing issues around death and sharing experiences in class. Helping others and healing hurts.” Claire Doherty “Debating God's existence: religious Y10s leaving lesson wanting to question their beliefs more and coming back with stronger arguments after!” @MrsBurridge “Pupils developing their own spirituality and feeling comfortable talking about it.” Bella Carter “My Muslim PGCE student stopped her lesson following a pupil question on prayer to show the prayer positions to the Y9 inner city kids” @beckib77 “Y10 debating philosophical theodicies about the existence of God. These conversations carried on beyond the lesson into lunch time.” @mcclurebaker “When philosophical discussion gets so deep it leads to a wholeclass existential crisis.” @MissAVECarter “Pupils' genuine, inspired love for the subject which has changed their perceptions about others and also themselves. Seen more times than not!” @WaqarAhmedi “The best thing I see in RE classes, and I see it often, is minds opening through being challenged by religious stuff they never thought of before.” Lat Blaylock “A student: “I only picked RS as my 4th A-Level as I didn’t know what else to pick. I’m now going off to study it at university and I am thinking of becoming an RE teacher.” @iTeachRE “Where else on the curriculum do students discuss such amazing, thought provoking, life changing and ultimately preparation for life issues?” @wclou
“Miss my brain hurts, this lesson makes me think." @missdcox “When a 16 yr old boy put his hand up and said RE has made me a better person.” Tilly Hodson “Watching 30 normally noisy Y9s be completely silent for 20 mins in an experiential lesson on meditation as a last lesson reward.” Alison Bradley “Sat at the back of my classroom watching an ex-student return to his old classroom to embark on RE teaching himself” Daniel Hugill “A student [after reading Dawkins’ God Delusion], asking me if we could do more biblical studies as she wanted to have greater religious and cultural literacy” @iTeachRE “A Catholic and a Muslim discussing Pascal's Wager and the usually unengaged students engaging with them.”@deacontf “A very quiet Y1 pupil volunteered info on believers baptism in lesson on infant baptism saying “not everyone does that” before sharing their own personal experience” @CatrionaCard “Christian student arguing with teacher about problem of suffering, Muslim student joins in, both find common ground in their scriptures.” @LundieEducation “Big Bang, Evolution, creation, faith, purpose... Y8 lad, head in hands, "This is hard! It's driving me crazy! It's amazing!” @maxandtedteach “Gave a video project for a homework and a Y8 with SEN went home, drew pictures, videod them and put music to it. Kids applauded.”@Llennoco “A Y9 group experiencing a Muslim speaker cry with joy discussing how the words of the Qur’an make him feel. Truly unforgettable.” Matthew Vince “A student asking to study John’s Prologue in it’s original Greek as they had been doing poetry in English and wanted to compare it.” Anon “Hearing, after visiting a Jewish secondary school with my Year 9s, the joy and surprise about how much they all had in common”. @danielhugill
This selection of RE moments were collected via Twitter and the Facebook group Save RE. So often the RE community shares it concerns about the purpose, delivery and future of the subject, yet it is clear there is so much good going on in RE classrooms up and down the country. We need to look carefully at the future of RE (see Issue 19: July 2015), but as Tom Bennett said, “Taught well, it’s a genie’s goddamn lamp of wisdom and human life” bit.ly/uked15dec17 * I am not making the distinction in this article between the legal requirements of RE lessons and the A-Level/GCSE subject of RS.
ukedchat.com/magazine 19
Book Shelf
Review by Martin Burrett @ICTmagic
Teacher Toolkit: Helping you survive your first five years by Ross Morrison McGill @TeacherToolkit
Education is a complex affair. More changeable than a British summer and more acronyms than the secret service, army and police combined. Finding your way through the initiatives, educational research, and, perchance, innovative ideas is a constant battle and almost a job in itself. Teachers in the system already have enough difficulty keeping up with what is going on in the educational world outside of their classroom and with what they ‘should’ be doing in it. For new teachers starting from scratch the jargon and myriad of things to learn about and try seems insurmountable. If only someone would cut through it all and write a guide to it all in… say… 204 pages. Ross Morrison McGill has done just this. His latest book condenses the whole pedagogical and teaching world into its essential components in bite-sized, beautifully illustrated chunks, bringing the best of the online education community for everyone. The eclectic mix of topics range from sound advice about job interviews and climbing the career ladder, to managing your time wisely and assessment tips. There is even a ten point guide to surviving the mind numbingness of playground duty.
View on Amazon at
www.bit.ly/ttoolkit Priced at £18.99 (paperback) and £12.34 (Kindle) at time of publishing
for recently qualified teachers. But, as an experience teacher beyond my first five years in the classroom, I found a few sections didn’t quite satisfy my curiosity, and I yearned to find out more depth beyond what was written in the text.
The toolkit is equally large applicable for both primary and secondary colleagues and, as a primary teacher, I found Ross’ explanations of teaching at secondary of great interest. The no-nonsense guide Ross has championed the 5 minute plan format via to staffroom politics will be familiar reading to all his activities online and a range of these templates experienced teachers and essential information for have been included throughout the book to save you new teachers entering the ‘battleground’. time and help you organise your own teaching. This insightful, succinct and often inspiration book is The book is designed to be a reference book to nibble a must for every teacher’s bookshelf. What ideas will on a buffet of ideas and inspiration - A teacher’s first you add to your teacher toolkit? port of call when researching on an aspect of teaching. It does this exceptionally well and is essential reading
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20 UKED Magazine
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If we look at how it has changed, and I purposely avoid using improved, we can see that we there is an increasing focus on evidence. PISA results and other standardised tests are used to compare results across years and across countries and educational systems. Student performance data (read: standardised tests) has led to complex student management systems which can analysis data and present it in a variety of different ways. To help in the analysis we “identify” student groups as minority students, students with support needs, students from poorer backgrounds, etc. We keep adding in attempts to make education better. Is it possible that all we have done is make a more complex and fragile system than ever before? Is it time to consider what De Bono suggested in the need for “simplicity”? @garyhenderson18 Somerset - Educational Consultant
Appraisals: Praise, punishment and reward Appraisals linked to merit pay or performance-related pay is a controversial issue. Many psychological studies defend people’s motivation when generated through praise and reward in different environments over other studies, which defend the long-run benefits of punishment because it enhances socially beneficial cooperation (Gätcher et al., 2008). However, no one can deny the findings by top educationalist Professor John Hattie about the influence of feedback “just in time” to enable the learner to reflect in his/her positives and negatives and, most importantly, to then respond to that feedback. Through this, Hattie found that ‘speed of learning doubles following effective feedback....praise, punishment, reward being the most effective forms of feedback’ (Hattie, 2008, p.31). Hattie goes further and suggests the use of feedback as part of the appraisal process (Waack, 2014). @resilient_kids London - Deputy Principal
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22 UKED Magazine
Vocation, Vocation, Vocation... It baffles me when I see fellow lecturers in further education teaching without any relation to a relevant vocational setting. Here we are, supposed to be preparing our learners for the real world of work, yet how often do we actually challenge learners to apply knowledge in a realistic context? Not enough. There are four steps I choose to take to ensure vocational relevance is achieved: 1) Each lesson is themed to a scenario. For example, “Carrying out a risk assessment for a fitness facility.” 2) The main task in each lesson requires members of the group to simulate the role of a particular employer or employee. For example, “Take on the role of a lifestyle coach, by efficiently assessing the lifestyle of an individual, then providing recommendations for improvement.” 3) Ensure each unit or module studied is related in some way to real-life industry experience. For example, facilitating a project where learners must collaborate to deliver a sixweek sports programme for a local primary school. 4) Link all of the above to assessment, by using a range of employment-based tasks. How many learners will progress to a job that demands written reports?! Only when we provide the opportunity to develop workbased skills, will we produce skilful workers! @SamGarnhamEdu Leicestershire - Lecturer
In Brief
Complexity? The act of educating the youth of tomorrow has now being going on for a large number of years and in that time we have sought to improve it. That said there are those that will point out that education hasn’t changed that much from over the last century and possibly at times I have been one of these people.
She Loves Me, She loves me not? Variation in flower petal numbers Remember the lovelorn cartoon character plucking petals from a daisy saying , “She loves me, she loves me not?”. Most students do. I ask them, ‘Using this method is he more likely to discover that she loves him or doesn’t?!’ We vote on it. We discuss how we can test this question. I give them hints like ‘if there’s an odd number of petals how will it end up?’. So then the discussion becomes ‘do daisies have an odd or even number of petals?’ If the daisy has an odd number of petals she will ‘love him’; if even she won’t. We vote on it, and the class hypothesis is the one, odd or evens, which has the most votes. We test it by collecting lawn daisies and counting their petals. Count at least 100 daisies. Record the numbers, divide into odds and evens, and make a bar chart. Amazingly it is always almost exactly a 50:50 split! I have used this practical with a wide range of ages (9 to 15) and abilities. More able groups could count more daisies and make bar charts of the numbers. The range I have found is 20’s into the 70’s! @JaneStill2 Dorchester, Dorset - Science supply teacher
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Re-Blog
The Genius of Einstein Explored – The Theory of General Relativity bit.ly/uked15dec18
Emoticons for Teachers bit.ly/uked15dec19
The £3.30 Raspberry_Pi Nearly as cheap as… (Micro) Chips! bit.ly/uked15dec20
The Wisdom of Pessimism bit.ly/uked15dec21
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How one School Transformed Learning through Technology by @t4stweets bit.ly/uked15dec22
Building Positive Relationships by @cillachinchilla bit.ly/uked15dec23
Idea Mining by @paulcarney700 bit.ly/uked15dec24
Shaking up Shakespeare with visual imagery by @Missscottperins bit.ly/uked15dec25
Are you a genuine inquirer? by @DrGaryJones bit.ly/uked15dec26
Updated (& new) DIRT Sheets by @MrsHumanities bit.ly/uked15dec27
Are teachers perpetuating the curse of the playground bully? by @viewthrudifeyes bit.ly/uked15dec28
A spiral of disciplined inquiry by @DrGaryJones bit.ly/uked15dec29
The 5 W’s and How – Using Creatively in Lessons by @samoldale bit.ly/uked15dec30
Teaching for Learning Foundations by @tim_jumpclarke bit.ly/uked15dec31 ukedchat.com/magazine 23
Emoji Exit Ticket Circle the Emoji(s) that reflects how you got on today in the lesson. Explain your reasons why…
I chose this Emoji because …………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………… Exit Ticket Emoji by @87history End of lesson task to allow pupils to reflect on how the lesson went via the medium of Emoji. Download at ukedchat.com/WSR00034
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