Newsletter October 2023
Welcome to The Bridge Welcome to the very first newsletter for The Bridge to keep you up to date with everything as it is developing in Wellington College’s new centre for Teaching, Learning and Educational Research.
In this issue, you will have a chance to learn more about The Bridge, what it will do, who it involves and how you can benefit and contribute. For you to look forward to in the next issue: a digest of the current hot topics in educational thinking and research. What is The Bridge? The Bridge is Wellington College’s new centre for Teaching, Learning and Educational Research. Why is it called The Bridge? It will help to bridge • between research and practice • between not knowing and knowing • between novice and expert • between educational cultures and places • between phases • between Wellington and its international family • between us and all of our local partner schools • between EdFest and day-to-day excellence in education What will The Bridge do? The Bridge will do three main things: • Make available the best, most inspiring and formative Professional Development opportunities to Wellington, to the Wellington Family of Schools, to our partner schools locally, and eventually to the wider educational world • Engage in, utilise and disseminate useful educational research in order for Wellington to be near the forefront of the best in current educational thinking • Integrate with the expertise and engagement in the growing number of Festivals of
Education around the world, both to benefit from the best in current educational thinking and to provide a platform A menu of CPD is included in this newsletter. How will I see the benefit of The Bridge? In the first instance, the introduction of the Great Teaching Toolkit will enable all teachers to develop and improve their own teaching in the most appropriate way for them. Coming soon will be Wellington’s new pathway for developing middle and senior leaders, so that those applying for, and beginning, new leadership roles will be much better skilled and prepared. We will be looking for people who want to work for a period on a project within The Bridge. This could be creating excellent courses, workshops or other materials; initiating and executing a piece of research, or providing support to a Wellington Family school as required or requested. If you are interested in finding out more, please email imh@ wellingtoncollege.org.uk to discuss.
Welcome to The Bridge
Why did the name change? At its inception, it was initially and provisionally entitled the Centre for Transformative Education, but that word “transformative” is problematic.
Many of us will recall initiatives or ideas that were “going to transform education” but were either groundless, or had the opposite effect to that intended.
Firstly, it suggests overly ambitious or grandiose claims. The Bridge will do things that teachers and school leaders can integrate pragmatically and productively in their day-to-day work, otherwise it can have no meaningful impact.
• • •
Secondly, genuinely transformative education is rarely, probably never, evident in faddish ideas that sound good in other domains and are universally imposed, like: • open plan classrooms (“quick – put up some partitions!”….good on property programmes, not in schools) • pupil-centred learning (what learning isn’t?) • skills not knowledge (it’s not a binary choice) • give everyone an iPad/Lego/*delete as appropriate, so they can teach themselves everything and be creative • Discovery Learning (often can be beneficial where stakes are low; catastrophic for learning to drive a car) • Project Based Learning (valuable in some contexts and phases eg Early Years, but limited value in others, and pointless if universal)
Learning Styles Smartboards 21st Century Skills (don’t get me started on this…..) • The teacher will be made obsolete by the smartphone • Lollipop sticks for questioning etc… No, transformative education is about repeatedly doing great things that work, curiously seeking ways to refine and improve further, knowing that what we put into practice is beneficial and knowing why. Since at Wellington we educate the whole person, and we believe fundamentally that the best education does so, the remit of The Bridge goes well beyond the classroom.
Welcome to The Bridge
Who are The Bridge staff? Currently there is just one: me. But further appointments will come in the next few months. Who are Evidence Based Education? EBE is an educational research, professional development and consultancy business based in Sunderland. They have been operating since 2015 and have a team of 16 people. EBE is well-known for an evidence review of education research that was released in 2020, which formed the basis of the Great Teaching Toolkit (GTT). The evidence review evidencebased.education/ great-teaching-toolkit-evidence-review/ and GTT have both been well received and EBE is an extremely well respected contributor in the sector. Professor Dr. Stuart Kime is co-founder of EBE, and is our direct link from EBE to The Bridge. He is profiled in this newsletter. What is the Great Teaching Toolkit (GTT)? The GTT is a platform to enable teachers to take ownership of their own development, integrate it into their practice, generate input (surveys) and evidence (video reviews). It contains the rationale, supporting evidence, tips, hints, video tutorials and impact measurement tools. It is based on 3 important things for Wellington teachers: • Nuanced and pragmatic understanding of a robust evidence base • Teacher autonomy: a desire and curiosity to improve, and trust in that • No judgement: judgement almost always results in a defensive response. On the contrary, all teachers can get better and it is an essential part of being a Wellington teacher to model the sort of curiosity for improvement that we want in our students Current thinking is that making categoric judgements of teaching quality based on single lessons or even a series of those lacks validity and is damaging. Ofsted and ISI have both stopped this practice recently. “Those who think they are best at judging teaching quality are almost always the worst at it”. (Dylan Wiliam; June 10th 2022 keynote speech, EduFest Le Rosey) Stuart Kime puts it across succinctly: “A great measure of teaching quality is the extent to which that teacher is prepared to do whatever is realistic to be better next year than this year”.
What research will The Bridge do? Areas of focus initially will certainly include the impact of AI in education, and this has already begun. Other research areas will be developed in due course as they become key current topics, and as we have the capacity to do this effectively. Why will The Bridge partner with other organisations? Because much great work has already been done in the sector, and it makes no sense to spend several years reinventing that work while the pace of change is so rapid. Where is The Bridge? The Bridge will eventually be a new development of Green Quad as seen in the picture, but for now is based in the offices in the centre of that quad. How will The Bridge benefit me as a teacher or leader in school? To an extent that is up to you. You can derive as much benefit as your efforts warrant. You can use your PDR to shape your Professional Development to your needs. But one reason that many people are attracted to teach at Wellington is the investment in people, and it is an inherent expectation of Wellington culture that staff are motivated to improve and grow.
Professor Dr. Stuart Kime
Iain Henderson – Director of The Bridge
Stuart’s work at EBE focuses on innovating pragmatic and evidence-based professional learning experiences for educators.
Iain is Director of The Bridge at Wellington College and Co-Director of the Festivals of Education. Until recently, he was Deputy Head (Educational Developments and Partnerships). He has taught in both state and independent sectors in the UK. He has been a Biology teacher; a Head of Year; a Boarding Housemaster; Assistant Head; and Deputy Head.
He is a qualified teacher of English, and worked as a classroom teacher, middle leader and senior leader in both state and independent secondary schools between 2001 and 2011. Stuart studied for his doctorate with Profs Rob Coe and Steve Higgins at Durham University, developing interests in the areas of evaluation design and teachers’ professional learning. In 2014, he took on the role of Policy Fellow in the UK Government’s Department for Education. Stuart currently holds the title of International Visiting Professor in the Hector Research Institute for Education Sciences and Psychology at the Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen. He is Chair of the Partnership Enhancement Board at the University of Teesside, a member of the Editorial Board of Impact, and serves on the International Advisory Board for the German federal project to enhance teacher development.
He set up the golf programme at Wellington and built an enviable reputation as the leading school in the UK. He has worked with all of the schools in the Wellington Family to embed the essential Wellington DNA, ethos or culture, sensitively in each new context. Along with Shane Mann of Lsect, he has developed the original concept of the Festival of Education at Wellington to be one of the most important events on the education calendar. He has also overseen Educational Conferences, the Wellington College Learning Alliance and the Wheeler Programme, as well as any other partnership or collaborative work undertaken by the school. He is a trained coach and has introduced and grown a coaching culture at Wellington. He has now trained over 500 teachers there and at other schools to become coaches. He is also a governor of Wellington College International School Bangkok and until recently, a trustee at Corvus Multi-Academy Trust.
Welcome to The Bridge
The Bridge CPD
(Items in italics are under development)
Classroom Teaching and Pedagogy Great Teaching Toolkit
Talent Development Pathway NPQSL NPQH
Subject Expertise Enhancement Prince’s Teaching Institute
Character Education
Coaching
Executive Function Skills
Foundational Coaching
Ongoing CPD internally. May develop into
Advanced Coaching
a programme for wider use in due course.
Coaching Certification Instructional Coaching – an introduction Becoming a Coach Trainer
Further CPD to be developed Wellbeing Sports Coaching
Leadership (Wellington College Leadership & Coaching Institute)
Teaching the Arts
Global Leaders in Education
Action Research
•
GLE Certificate
Boarding Education
•
GLE Diploma
Outdoor Education
Leading for Impact Tough Conversations Leading a Department
Talent Development Pathway A new opportunity in development now
Safeguarding