Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work

Jason Fried at TED

Flipped Classrooms

The Flipped Classroom conversation is becoming louder and louder.  There are ever-increasing numbers of educators engaging with the concept who are coming up with their own take on 'flipping the classroom'.  Flipping the classroom isn't just a single, one-size only,  model.  There are, seemingly, many different ways to flip a classroom....
When Khan Academy is brought into the 'flipping' conversation, things liven up.
Does Khan Academy 'flip' the classroom?
Is there anything truly innovative in Khan, given that it is based on a very traditional knowledge transmission model?

Does flipping the classroom have anything to offer us, or is it the latest educational fad... The latest in the long and discredited line of Emperor's New Clothes technology-based 'transformations' in education?
Does flipping the classroom 'Shift The Paradigm' that many of the professional education trainers and, often self-proclaimed, experts talk about?

Khan Academy
Knowmia
Udacity
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
Backpack.tv
and the many, many more sites... including the incredible content within iTunesU... have much to offer.  Not least the fact that they democratise learning.  It is accessible to anyone, anytime.  The absolute beauty of these online resources is in that the very fact that the content can be accessed by anyone, anywhere.

Do they flip the classroom?

In one sense, yes they do.  We don't have to go into the classroom to acquire knowledge. 

There is more to education, of course, than knowledge acquisition.  Once we are able to read, we have access to knowledge.  The classroom represents the 'what's next?' steps.... the understanding, the interpretation, the re-formulation, the creation, the re-creation... the deepened understanding and application that comes as a follow-on from the knowledge.

Collaborative culture is the key to success

The extracts below are taken from an article by Andreas Schleicher, Deputy Director for Education and Special Adviser on Education Policy to the OECD Secretary General,  TES Fri 8 Mar 2013.  The section titles are mine.


The No-Brainer
OECD data shows that the quality of a school system cannot exceed the quality of its individual teachers, so the focus on teaching and its impact on learning is key to school success.

The Importance of a Continuous Professional Learning Culture
Teachers' participation in professional development goes hand in hand with their mastery of a wider repertoire of pedagogical practices. There is a close relationship between professional development and a positive school climate, cooperation between teachers and teacher job satisfaction. Analysis shows that effective professional development needs to be ongoing and include adequate feedback, appraisal and follow-up.

The Importance to the system of experts and of sharing expertise
The best teachers and schools need to provide the expertise and resources for all teachers to update their knowledge, skills and approaches in light of new teaching techniques, circumstances and research. Teachers should help one another to develop effective improvement strategies.

The Argument for Teaching Schools and for every school being a Teaching School
Knowledge about strong educational practices tends to stick where it is and rarely spreads without effective strategies and powerful incentives for knowledge mobilisation and knowledge management. That means you will have to think much harder about how you will actually shift knowledge around pockets of innovation and attract the most talented teachers to the most challenging classrooms and get the strongest principals into the toughest academies.
It is certainly not impossible. Schools in Denmark, Finland, Japan, Norway, Shanghai and Sweden have a good history of teamwork and cooperation. They often form networks and share resources and work together to create innovative practice.

The Pay-Off
Pisa data show that if you have a school system in which knowledge is shared effectively and you are in a school with significant autonomy, your pupils are likely to perform better than pupils in a school with limited autonomy. But if you are in a system without a culture of peer-learning and accountability, autonomy can work against you.

Link to original article

The Granny Method

It was this paragrah from the previous article that caught my attention most:

"The academic also pioneered the "granny method" to help children learn about biotechnology. Under the scheme, adults offer children encouragement and ask them to explain what they have learned, which improves their understanding. In the Indian village where the method was trialled, children's test scores rose to the equivalent of school-taught children."

“The role of the teacher (mediator) is to ask the right questions and listen to the children bragging about what they did,” Mitra says.  He calls this the "Granny method" of teaching, as opposed to the 'standard' model of direct instruction.  This approach is similar in philosophy to other “child-driven” methods such as the one espoused by Maria Montessori.

The best teachers ask questions.  They ask children to reflect.  They challenge thinking.  They ask children to articulate their understanding.  They ask.  They ask.  They ask.

They question.  They question.  They question.

"Encouraging is key.... saying Wow!  Celebrating the learning."

'Hole in the Wall' pioneer handed $1m to develop new India project

Reproduced in part from TES Fri 8 Mar 2013

Sugata Mitra is a pioneering academic, an innovative thinker and an engaging speaker: he now also has $1 million (£660,000) to make his dreams a reality.
Professor Mitra, whose educational experiments inspired the book on which the film Slumdog Millionaire was based, has been given the money for winning the 2013 TED Prize, awarded annually by the non-profit organisation to a "visionary leader".
The winner is handed the money to spend on their "wish to change the world", which in Professor Mitra's case is to support children's learning through a "school in the cloud" - an online learning lab in India where children can connect with information and mentors via the internet. It will also act as a research facility.
The school in the cloud is the most recent development in Professor Mitra's groundbreaking work on self-organised learning environments, which began in 1999 with his celebrated "Hole in the Wall" experiment.
The initiative involved putting a computer with internet access into the wall of a Delhi slum at child height and leaving children to work out its functions for themselves - which they did successfully. This experiment in self-directed learning inspired the book Q&A, which director Danny Boyle later turned into the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.
The academic also pioneered the "granny method" to help children learn about biotechnology. Under the scheme, adults offer children encouragement and ask them to explain what they have learned, which improves their understanding. In the Indian village where the method was trialled, children's test scores rose to the equivalent of school-taught children.
Professor Mitra, born and raised in India, came to England in 2006 to become professor of educational technology at Newcastle University. He has been described by fellow Newcastle academic James Tooley as "probably a genius".
But the Hole in the Wall project is not without its critics, with some fearing that the experiments could be used to justify delivering education on the cheap by cutting out teachers.
In an interview with TES in 2011, Professor Mitra said that this was not the case. "A way of misrepresenting the work is to say 'therefore a teacher is not required', which is absolutely untrue," he said. "We have curricula, we have examinations, and children desperately need their teachers to handle the system. Until the system itself changes, there is no question about the teacher's role."
The professor writes in his latest book, Beyond the Hole in the Wall, that some headteachers have been inspired by the idea of self-organised learning environments and have integrated them into regular schools in a way that he could not have done. But he admits that in other places the approach has not been embraced and has fallen into disuse.
The question nagging at him now, he writes, is what constitutes "deep learning". Professor Mitra suggests that what children need to be taught can be condensed down to how to read, how to search for information and a rational belief system. But to go further, he believes, children need a learning environment and a source of "rich, big questions". "Hence, the teacher's role becomes bigger and stronger than ever before," he concludes.

article source http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6323223

Ofsted Dashboard

http://dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk/

Teach Less, Learn More

We discussed increasing learning time and improving the conditions for learning in classrooms this week through the means of teachers talking less.  Analysis of global data from ofsted lesson observations points to the length of teacher talk time in sessions (and thus implied pupil passivity) directly linking to the quality of teaching judgements.

Teach Less Learn More
Reducing Teacher Talk Time
Singapore Ministry of Education information - Teach Less, Learn More
Teach Less, Learn More - Spencer Kagan

Risk It

RiskIT is a NAACE campaign that encourages, empowers and supports teachers in trying something different in their use of technologies in the classroom.  Essentially, it is about giving permission to try something new in a non-threatening and exploratory way, presented as "a fantastic opportunity to encourage ALL the teachers in your school to try out a new tech-based tool to enhance teaching and learning, whatever subject they are teaching."

http://www.naace.co.uk/schools/riskit  

It's a great idea.

And what about broadening this concept to the classroom, to teaching, and to learning, as a whole... a RISK IT Day... that encourages teachers to do those things, try those techniques, explore that idea that they might otherwise never do?  Because...

This is how we develop teaching, learners and learning... by trying different things, by going outside of the box at times, by venturing outside of the comfort zones of day-by-day practice, by exploring and by sharing our findings together as communities of enquiry in schools.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
True.
But could it be even better?
And is that worth exploring?

If we do what we always did, we'll get what we always got... and we run the risk of never knowing what we might have got.

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn."
 John Cotton Dana

What Are Schools For?

Seth Godin at TED.

Khan Academy

Salman Khan explains that, far from "dehumanizing" education, video tutorials have helped free up teachers to work with students.

“Talking is urgent and calls forth an urge to get it all out. A good indication of an expert teacher is how this urge is controlled”.

Origin unknown

“Less teaching produces more learning…applying the less-is-more approach to the classroom requires changing teacher performance. It takes practice and self awareness to develop judicious uses of silence.”

Ball State University teaching website

"Teaching is tougher than learning because teaching requires the teacher to let others learn."

William Ayers

"We don’t receive wisdom.  We must discover it ourselves after a journey that no one can take us or spare us."

Marcel Proust

The Myth of Perfection

"Teachers would do well to avoid falling for the myth of perfection…Be aware. Avoid confusing this tendency with the essential mission of teaching…to teach the spirit of students and to walk with them towards self-fulfillment. This mission is a human one that invites sharing at its deepest level, connecting with others humanly and spiritually. Don’t be perfect, be human."

Cunningham, Building Connections, 2001, p118

What can Thomas Suarez teach us?

Thomas Suarez at TED.
Thomas is 12 years old.
Please watch the video and then consider:

In Thomas's classroom:
Who is teaching what to whom, and why?

How does what Thomas has to say fit within our 'traditional' definition of the teacher/pupil relationship?
Where does control of the learning lie?
Does it matter?


Do we expect enough of our pupils?
Do we, as educators, have sufficient imagination to imagine what our children can potentially do?
Should 'traditional' have any part to play for us anymore.... in our thinking, in our actions, in our practice?

The accumulation of marginal gains

An article in today's Guardian highlights the importance of marginal gains...

"The sports scientist Matt Parker, a key figure in British Cycling's Olympic success in Beijing and London, is to join the Rugby Football Union.... Since 2009 Parker has been head of marginal gains at the cycling team, leading the squad's quest for perfection in areas such as diet, performance analysis and aerodynamics."

Parker is quoted as saying, "We are obsessed with getting the details right; we are relentless in pursuit of it. It's not easy for other federations to do, because of the details involved. It's about everyone being the best they can be – the carer not leaving anything behind, the mechanic testing everything – but it's not just two weeks. It's two months, two years. When you put that in place, your chances of success are higher." 

In the two years before the London Olympics the Great Britain cycling team brought in numerous innovations to provide small but significant performance gains that, when combined, gave an advantage over the opposition. 

Sir Chris Hoy describes the approach thus:  “It’s finding the smallest areas that you can make gains in.  The British Cycling slogan is about the accumulation of marginal gains – you’re not looking to make a 10 per cent gain in one area, you’re looking to make a 0.1 per cent improvement in 50 areas or 100 areas."

In education, we're not aiming to gain an advantage over the opposition.   We are, however, aiming to do the best that we can do, be the best that we can be and constantly improve.  We have that opportunity as teachers because we do what we do over and over again.  We're in practice every day.  By adopting the accumulation of marginal gains as our approach, we can commit to that  incremental approach.... to improve what we do and how we do it.  There are no magic formulas for outstanding teaching, just good, old-fashioned hard work allied to rigorous and honest reflection and self-analysis.  Rather than do what we do and keep on doing it until a magic formula comes along to solve the problem for us, let's seek to improve bit by bit by bit, every day.

Full article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/nov/19/rfu-bradley-wiggins-british-cycling?INTCMP=SRCH

What makes a great education system? Its teachers, first and foremost. But what makes great teachers?

The Innovation Unit worked with the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) to visualise and animate in a short video how great teachers are great learners. AITSL is working across Australia to push for greater resources and enthusiasm to be invested in teachers' and school leaders' continuous professional development.

http://www.innovationunit.org/

Goodhart's law

Goodhart's law, although it can be expressed in many ways, states that once a social or economic indicator or other surrogate measure is made a target for the purpose of conducting social or economic policy, then it will lose the information content that would qualify it to play that role. (Wikipedia)

and to paraphrase... if attention is focused on a particular outcome then that outcome becomes useless as a measure of performance.

In the arena of social and/or economic policy, this can be because people 'game' to optimise the outcome that is the focus of attention, eg; hospital waiting times.

"The teacher has the defining influence.  We're coming up to the Olympics and there won't be a champion who hasn't got a world-class coach behind them."

- David Sheepshanks, National Football Centre Chairman speaking on the eve of the Olympic Games, London, 2012 -

"You are only going to be the size of your dream.  To dream big or dream small takes the same amount of energy, so why not stretch a little bit?"

- Carlos Brito -

Sir Michael Wilshaw argued in this week's TES that the best heads think outside the box. “Don’t be afraid to be slightly maverick,” he said. “Do things out of the ordinary; don’t necessarily be a conformist. Strange is sometimes good. The best heads are often quite odd people - I think I was one of them.”

"You don't have to be crazy to run schools, but....you do. Wilshaw and the eccentricity of leadership

http://behaviourguru.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/you-dont-have-to-be-crazy-to-run.html

"If you can't fly, then run, if you can't run, then walk, if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward."

- Martin Luther King -

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

In 1996, Dolly Parton launched her Imagination Library to benefit the children of East Tennessee. Dolly's vision was to foster a love of reading among preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a book each month. By mailing books directly to their homes, she wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create, regardless of their family’s income.

http://www.imaginationlibrary.com/

We cannot be satisfied with our previous achievements, no matter how good they are.

Environment - 4

Picking back up on a theme that I last addressed in this blog some time ago (see previous posts)... the environment that we present for children, the community, stakeholders, visitors and for ourselves and our staff is really important.
I have posted extensively on Creative Spaces and Learning Environment on my Creativity Blog http://wilsonm011.blogspot.co.uk/, most recently http://wilsonm011.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/creative-spaces-18.html
It is a theme that I wanted to pick up in my Leadership blog also in terms of display.

Displays should be inherently interesting.  They should capture attention.  They don't have to be formulaic and display ideas can come from anywhere.  This one (above) was on a wall at Zizzi's, Leeds.  Good ideas can come from anywhere.

Displays should celebrate success.  They should show good examples of what we wanted to achieve.  They should act as an inspiration to other children.

Displays are great when there is something to engage with.  Where you can turn a page, or touch a surface.

Displays should be dynamic.  They should change fairly regularly in order to maintain their currency and remain of interest.  There should be displays on show that have the Wow Factor.

The criteria that applies to displays can be applied equally to other aspects... like the display of books.  Books in shops are marketed, sold, displayed.... How many times are books in schools seen only by their spine, or piled up, or heaped in book bins?
In this case, the principles of display have been applied to the 'marketing' of books in the school.  There are downlights directly above the book display area in order to make it stand out even more.  the books look exciting and interesting to read.
There is a branch of 'Starbooks' in every classroom....

"Getting better never stops."

- Humphrey Walters -

"I am still learning."

- Michaelangelo -

Third Millenium Learning - long film

This film captures the philosophy and the views of School Leaders at Robin Hood Primary School, Leeds, current in January 2012.  This film is a companion piece to the short film that shows children learning in their classrooms that was captured at the same time.

Third Millenium Learning - short film

This short film exemplifies some of the practice current at Robin Hood Primary School, Leeds in January 2012.  The film features short interviews with teaching staff and footage of children using technologies as part of a creative, stimulating and immersive learning experience.

A report by ofsted in April 2011 rated the curriculum at Robin Hood as 'exceptional'.  Standards, leadership & management, teaching & learning at the school were judged as outstanding in the same report.

This film also features on my linked creativity blog.

Higdon's Law

Good judgement comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgement.

If not us, then who?
If not now, then when?

The children as leaders

Children thrive on responsibility.  It is part of our duty as schools to foster their sense of responsibility... both personal responsibility for the decisions that they make and communal responsibility that acknowledges their role, and others roles, within a social and communal context.

I wanted to explore the idea of responsibility.  What could children be responsible for in school?  How many children can actually have a responsibility?  How could working to enhance the sense of responsibility in a school help both the individual and the community at large?

These are a few thoughts... with pictures to go with it.  The pictures are photographs of badges I had made.  Children love badges, just as they thrive on responsibilities.  It could be badges, it could be stickers, it could be cards on lanyards worn around necks...

This is a good one to start with.
I thought of calling a child a Member of Parliament, rather than School Councillor, because it sounds grander and connects with the real word... one that they might actually hear about.  It presents opportunities to develop a really democratic system for Parliamentary membership in school, with a professional approach to addressing the pressing issues of the day.  It supports teaching about democracy and political representation... and about listening to the viewpoints of others, about representing other people's views and about advocacy, public speaking and debate.

The Digital Native is the classroom technical support.  The Digital Natives know all there is to know about technology and what they don't know... they fiddle with the thing until it works.  This responsibility group are a real help to both the teacher and other pupils in the classroom.  They're the first people called upon in the event of a software or hardware issue.

Don't know where the Find and Replace option in Word is?  Call a Digital Native.
Computer frozen?  Call a Digital Native.
Don't know the password for the iPod?  Call a Digital Native.
Computer crashes during the Assembly?  Call all the Digital Natives......
Server crashes?  Call an experienced and preferably qualified computer technician.

Children who attend Lunchtime University should be recognised with a badge.  They are, after all, responsible for their own learning.  The Lunchtime University might run in a quiet classroom.  Lunchtime University students are independent learners, they might (for example) use a range of Apps on iPad to teach themselves a foreign language that is outside of the remit of the curriculum.  They might study videos on iTunesU or learn about Rainforests, courtesy of National Geographic.

A Leader of Learning carries a very big responsibility in every classroom.  A Leader of Learning is someone you ask when you're stuck in The Pit.  The Pit is that part of the lesson that you feel like you're at the bottom of a pit and you don't know how to get out.  It's the bit where you're stuck.  What do you do when you're stuck?  Ask a Leader of Learning.  Every table might have a Leader of Learning.  The role might change daily, it might be reserved for those who show their true expertise.  A Leader of Learning helps enable learners in the room and enable the teacher because, of course, if it is the Leader of Learning who is helping someone up out of the pit, the teacher is able to focus on others.  The more Leaders of Learning there are, the more everyone knows the steps they can take when they find themselves in The Pit... the more independent the learners are and the more powerful the teacher and the teaching is... because there are many, many teachers in the room.

The Eco Warrior has a really important responsibility in the classroom.  It is the Eco Warrior (or Warriors) who ensures that the computers are switched off at the end of the day.  It is the Eco Warriors who switches off the digital projector at lunchtime, because Miss forgot again.  The Eco warrior looks after the Earth's interests by looking after the school's interests by looking after the consumption of non-essential electricity.  Last Eco Warrior out... turn out the lights.

Being a Play Pal is an incredibly important responsibility in school.  The Play Pals make sure that everyone has someone to play with.  They may institute and manage games in the playground.  They organise the leagues, the points, the tables, the scores and the games that keep things interesting (for the competitive types, at least).  Play Pals are the oil that make the playground games run smoothly.  They are happy and co-operative players themselves.

The Classroom Co-ordinators are responsible for ensuring that the classroom runs like a well-oiled machine.  They keep the pencils sharp, they make sure there are enough rulers in every pot, they make sure that resources are in the right place at the right time and that they are then returned to the right location, they make sure that books are collected and that they are stored neatly.  Classroom Co-ordinators are essential in every classroom.

And other roles that I haven't yet had badges made for?
Lunchtime DJ - every self-respecting Dining Hall has resident DJ's, doesn't it?
Assembly Crew - otherwise; who puts out the benches, checks the radio microphones, checks the sound system, looks after the computer, etc, etc?
Hall Help - those children who help out with the little ones in the Dining Hall and perhaps get first call on second helpings once a week as an extra reward.
Environmental Club - who look after the grounds.
The Animals - who look after the needs of the school livestock.
Peer Mentors - a very highly trained group of people with a key responsibility... for helping everyone to get along better and seeing one another's point of view.

And I'm sure there are many more very successful roles that are being used in our schools to build children's self-esteem, give them an important role in the management of the school and truly develop that sense of personal and community responsibility.

http://www.schoolbadges.net/literacy-school-badges/jumbo-metal-literacy-school-badges.html

We choose the lens through which we see the world

"The best managers have a fundamentally different understanding of workplace, company, and team dynamics."


http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/8-core-beliefs-of-extraordinary-bosses.html 


I am certain that we can apply these principles to our work in schools....

The Power of A Good Teacher (2)

The Ethiopian town that's home to the world's greatest runners...

What do Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba, Derartu Tulu and Fatuma Roba have in common, apart from being Olympic gold medal-winning runners? They all come from Bekoji in Ethiopia – and they were all trained by one man.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/apr/06/ethiopian-home-worlds-greatest-runners?INTCMP=SRCH

 

Narrowing the Achievement Gap

'The achievement gap can only be closed by professionalising teaching and eliminating the educator achievement gap - that distance between the teachers we are, and the teachers our students need us to be."
Killian Betlach

Staffing Innovation in schools

If we are to rise to the challenges of education in the twenty first century, we have to think about staffing innovation.

Web designer – who builds multi-platform (computers and mobile devices) dynamic websites that fully integrates the curriculum with learning resources, has private and public access areas that enable high levels of parental engagement and celebrate learning, as it happens. 

E-Resources Manager - who curates the computer network, enabling teachers and freeing their time to teach, coach and mentor by managing the flow of high-quality video and audio support resources, populates Topics for the teachers, manages the Learning Platform - a key and increasingly important interface between Home and School - manages the website, perhaps supports the assessment of learning that has been produced by pupils using ICT.  S/he provides the specialism to enhance the Out of Hours offer with accredited learning such as Digital Cre8tor that presents exciting and creative opportunities to collaborate in teams in the production of films, websites, games, etc that can result in a GCSE equivalent award. 

Narrowing The Gap 1:1 teacher – employed to work for a period every day with key identified pupils in short, high intensity intervention programmes. 

Apps and Flash Games Writer - who converts individual pupil learning needs into games, drill, challenge and skills-based activities that are accessed using IPad, IPod and/or computer… anytime and anywhere.  There is, of course, the potential to develop a service in selling output to other schools. 

Business Development Manager – who provides the additional capacity to explore potential funding streams, develop our collaborative networks and partnerships, build our community role and respond to opportunities to raise revenues and maximise opportunities for pupils as they arise. 

Additional in-house teaching staff, meaning that Supply Staff are never called.   

Specialist Teachers, eg; Sports Specialist – who leads swimming, leads the delivery of PE throughout the school, manages the approach to Healthy Eating and Lifestyles, leads and manages a range of Out of Hours Sports programmes, leads lunchtime sports activities, manages representative School Teams, co-ordinates and develops an inclusive programme of Sporting Events, manages development and maximises the potential of the School Field and works to a set of Key Performance Indicators, such as; all children being proficient swimmers by age seven, School resources used by minimum of two community groups per week, minimum two school-focused events per week, minimum three representative teams competing in league and cup competitions, participation in minimum number of sporting events, etc.

Investment in staff as the key driver for School improvement

The single most important factor in the success of a school is the quality of the teaching in classrooms, all day and every day.  How do we achieve a sustained and sustainable quality workforce into the long term?

A multi-school model, allied to the development of school-led Initial Teacher Training underpins sustainable, strong and long-term school development, growth and improvement.   Recruiting trainees direct into schools and determining their training enables early talent spotting and reduces the level of risk in making appointments.  An integrated induction, support and development programme for trainees and new employees brings consistency, coherence and a deep connectedness to a school's ethos and values amongst all.  Professional development opportunities in coaching, mentoring and action research are extensive and embedded.  

Development programmes for all staff at all levels exist.  Lasting networks across all schools form.  Teachers have the opportunity and privilege of observing fellow colleagues in their own and in other settings.  Teachers, recruited for their growth mindset, passion and energy, learn from the very best in the system.  Standards are judged against the very best.  Teachers in all settings teach an outstanding curriculum with outstanding resources.  The scale inherent in a multi-school model enables the retention of outstanding individuals within the organisation.  Long-term benefits from the depth of professional development that they have been enabled by are achieved.  Professional growth pathways are created, eg; a newly qualified teacher in a school moves into Subject Leadership in another of the schools and then into a Leadership role in yet another. 

There is a consistent approach taken by the leadership of the settings.  Leadership is aligned through very close collegiate working.  The whole of the Leadership Team have a stake in the success of all of the schools.  They share and compare data, standards, finances, quality of environment and quality of teaching.  Self-evaluation in each of the settings is rigorous and robust.  The Leadership Team benefits from a comprehensive training and development programme that looks to the best in the country and the world.  A cadre of exceptional School Leaders is built.

The scope of School Leadership is up to us to decide...

Community Hubs

A school converts the front of house into a Community Hub, where parents can go to enjoy a coffee with friends in relaxed and informal surroundings, while there they browse through the products created by children for their enterprise curriculum  projects.  There is free coffee and wi-fi.  Two parents who have a dial-up Intenet connection at home use use the free broadband wi-fi, browsing using the school IPads that are available for use.

This Open Plan Community space features social seating areas, offers a space accessible for parents throughout the day – enables friends to meet in an informal setting inside the school, deepening the community’s relationship and connectedness with the school and provides a welcoming, community-focused atmosphere at the front of house.

• rather than having to wait outside in all weathers for school events, parents and the community enjoy a coffee and chat in the Community Hub before taking their places in the school Hall;
• a group of Mum’s meet together to enjoy a coffee and a chat after dropping their children off at school in the morning;
• A member of the Leadership Team is based in the Community Hub every Thursday from 8.30am to 10.00am.  Parents are welcomed to drop in for a chat.  Every Half Term, the Leadership Team member is joined by a School Governor;
• Grandparents drop in to browse the displays of pupils learning that is displayed in the Community Hub;
• Parents drop in to buy school uniform that is up on display and to browse products that children have created in their curriculum enterprise topic;
• A parent who has no Internet connection at home sits in the Community Hub enjoying a coffee.  He browses the Internet using a school IPad and free broadband wi-fi connection;
• Informal Grandparent Open Days use the Community Hub as their base.  The group enjoys a guided tour of the school, sees their grandchildren in class and enjoys a cup of tea and cakes made by the pupils.

The space gives scope to engage with individual families and small groups in an informal atmosphere and provides a space for colleagues from other agencies to engage in non-confidential matters with families.  Informal meetings between staff and parents take place in this space. 

Narrowing the Digital Divide

Schools upgrade to a 100Mb broadband connection.  They install powerful wireless transmitters that increases the footprint of the broadband into the local community.  Pupils and parents are able to access filtered Internet using the school connection at all hours.  

Out of Hours Offer

A school in an area of high deprivation and low sports participation employs their Sports Coach from Wednesday to Sunday, giving her Monday and Tuesday off.  On Saturday and Sunday she runs a series of Sports Clubs, football and netball teams in League competitions.  School equipment, facilities, including mini-buses are used.  The confidence that children build from involvement in these clubs has a significant impact upon their school lives.  Several parents become increasingly involved with the clubs and begin to take on some of the coach and organisational responsibility. 

The school begins a Saturday morning University of the First Age.  Pupils from all of the schools in the area can access sessions, some that support towards SATs Levels 4 and 5, others that offer a fun, exciting and enjoyable pathway to accreditation and/or GCSE or equivalent.

In-house Catering

Daily hot, healthy meals are sold at cost and in some cases are subsidised.  Hot evening meals are cooked for the children who access After School Clubs. 

Identify your failings, and then ignore them.
Discuss.

Average

Average is a word that we are obsessed with in education.  It's a word I hear as often as 'ability'.

Someone with one foot in boiling water and the other in freezing water is not 'on average' comfortable...

Pattern breaking

These were the prevailing orthodoxies of their time and their field, before the pattern was broken...

'I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.'
Thomas Watson, Head of IBM 1956-70

'Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?'
Harry M Warner, Warner Bros, 1927

'Groups with guitars are on their way out.'
Decca Records, rejecting The Beatles, 1962

'Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures in the first six months.  People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.'
Daryl F Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946

'Everything that can be invented has been invented.'
Charles H Duell, Commissioner of Patents, 1899

Reproduced from "Sticky Wisdom", ?WhatIf!

L began by describing her classroom… which she is using really creatively as a tool/learning resource.  That is an important insight… the classroom itself is precisely that – a learning resource.  We can sometimes become locked into an orthodoxy… about how a classroom is set up, etc.  This can in itself become a limiting factor.  L, C and F have been engaging in what is known as pattern-breaking. 

Pattern breaking means making yourself do things that you wouldn’t normally do, or perhaps don’t even like doing.  At a simple level, it brings freshness… a new stimulus.  At a deeper level, it brings dynamism, an alternative way of experiencing the classroom for the children, new networks and learning relationships, different connections with the teacher/adults, a deliberate challenge to the ‘standard’ assumptions.  For me, it’s great that the team, more than not being afraid to experiment, are actively testing assumptions and are, in effect, in the middle of an Action Research project. 

There are some really interesting things happening with table arrangements/covering tables with lining paper, etc.  We are seeing new learning opportunities emerging, alongside opportunities to deepen learning and enhance pupil action/interaction within sessions.  The L topic, during which children and staff dressed up all week was and is a truly immersive learning experience.  This is what we should be aspiring to in our curriculum throughout school.  Levels of pupil engagement with the topic are incredibly high because they are so very motivated by it.

F talked about the impact that insistence from the teacher has on attainment.  We are using a ‘full contact’ marking method throughout school.  That, allied to high quality feedback, is having a clear impact upon writing.  If we pick up on all of it…children will improve.  We have talked about the fact that where the teacher has a focus on something ….it improves.  F talked about something as simple as sharpened pencils having an impact upon children’s feelings about writing… having a nice sharp pencil makes you feel better about writing.  Your writing looks better when you have nice resources to use.  Take care of the small things and the big things take care of themselves.

C and B both spoke about the power of expectations and the rapid pace of improvement that this can bring about.  Within three days, the output that their children were able to achieve and sustain went up by at least 50%... wholly based on their expectations.  It’s incredible, when you think about how high a bar both C and B set all of the time anyway, just what can be achieved.  This too is pattern-breaking.

The human brain is hard-wired to use an automatic and subconscious classification system based on past experiences… it seeks and sees patterns.  This is highly effective and allows us to process huge amounts of information very quickly.  But it also keeps us locked into current and past realities.  Indeed… we create the reality, don’t we – we get what we expect – don’t we (?)  We get that pattern, because we expect that pattern, so we sub-consciously impose that pattern.  Breaking out of this pattern, this limiting mode of thinking, taking new information as our default, our expectation, changes the game.  It allows us to break through and see a new enhanced pattern as our norm.

B provided compelling evidence of this.  Many of her children are achieving now what last year’s children (a group who made great progress during their R year) were achieving in the Summer term last year.  This is not ‘the children’.  This is all down to teachers ambition.  B talked about the impetus coming from the teacher… the teacher is the driver of the ambition in the room. 

E made very similar points, backed up with the compelling evidence that she is successfully recording.  E reiterated the message that the expectations that we have and the ambitions that we have for our children are key.

I reflected on the absolute power that the teacher has over the customs, the mores, the expectations in the classroom, on the prevailing orthodoxy that says that progress is a matter of tiny, small, incremental development steps.  This is, if you think about it, a pattern that has been accepted as the norm.  We have spoken tonight about how quickly can we change things, how fast we can go… if we break the pattern.

And finally, a few quick reflections on the things that have got us to where we are in terms of the consistency and consistent quality of teaching at R.  These are the principles that guide us all of the time and the elements in our teaching that we should consistently expect to see.

High challenge

High participation

High engagement

… use of talk partners, envoys, whiteboards, chatterboxes, table groups, hot seating, etc – no ‘hands up’, ever…

… children comfortable to be spending time in ‘The Pit’… They should be in The Pit at times.  They shouldn’t always be able to do it, any of them.  If they can – you’re not challenging them enough…

… Teachers build the hype.  Lessons are fantastic because the pupils live and love the experience…

… excellent use of the excellent resources.  We have the resources.  The children should be using them powerfully…

… We do not use the excuses of previous teacher or impoverished home life or lack of enthusiasm to hide from our responsibilities to each and every child in our class.  We commit to narrowing the gap between our highest and lowest attainers…

DIY Reports

Pause for reflection on end of year reports, by Daniel H.Pink from his excellent book 'Drive'...
"Try experimenting with the DIY report card.  At the beginning of a semester, ask students to list their top learning goals.  Then, at the end of the semester, ask them to create their own report card along with a one-or two-paragraph review of their progress.  Where did they succeed?  Where did they fall short?  What more do they need to learn?"

One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself.
Mihaly Csikszentmihakyi

The value of a life can be measured by one's ability to affect the destiny of one less advantaged.
Bill Strickland

Figure out for yourself what you want to be really good at, know that you'll never really satisfy yourself that you've made it, and accept that that's okay.
Robert B.Reich

Try to pick a profession in which you enjoy even the most mundane, tedious parts.  Then you will always be happy.
Will Shortz

It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
J.K.Rowling

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
Helen Keller

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
Albert G.Hubbard

Best Practice or Next Practice?

In a world where everyone is interested in Best Practice, is it any wonder that organisations all begin to look the same?
Those interested in Next Practice, however... they're the innovators.  The ones who change things.

The Power of a Good Teacher...

Reproduced from The Guardian, Sat 25th Feb, 2012:
'The question is this: how did one northern town of around 81,000 people hijack one of international rugby union's biggest days? Clearly a degree of Anglo-Welsh rivalry will still swirl around Twickenham on Saturday but the whiff of Wigan is unmissable. Two rival coaches – Andy Farrell and Shaun Edwards – were part of the same all-conquering Wigan side. So was Wales's head of rugby, Joe Lydon. England's two main scoring threats, Owen Farrell and Chris Ashton, were born there, as was England's fitness coach, Paul Stridgeon. Most of them even attended the same school, St John Fisher Catholic high school in Baytree Road. It cannot all be a coincidence. "I see Wiganers everywhere," Farrell Sr says. "You only have to do a bit of digging."
Why should this be so? Statistically there are hundreds of English union strongholds which stand a better chance of dominating Saturday afternoon's cast list.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/feb/24/wigan-andy-farrell-england-wales

This example echoes Matthew Syed's points in 'The Myth of Talent'.  Where you're born , when, who the teachers around you are, the critical mass of competition that surrounds you during your formative years that those talented teachers have helped to create... these are crucial factors in determining prospects and career paths.  Much like Silverdale Road in Reading was to British table tennis in the 1980's, Baytree Road in Wigan has similarly blessed the country with rugby coaches and stars since the 1990's.

So every time you hear a teacher say 'It's the kids round here' as the excuse for failure... question it.

Here's a video to watch while you think about that one:

Governance in Schools

"A strong Governing Body holds us to account and drives improvement.  And the chair of that governing body not only has to lead it but also work in partnership with the head teacher – it’s a pivotal role."

Steve Munby

Ex-schools Minister Jim Knight wrote an interesting piece on Governance and the future of school organisation in England in this week's TES

Do-gooder governors must now do better

"It does not need a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
Samuel Adams, 1775

"Curiosity and imagination are the well-springs of innovation."
Tony Wagner

"Have you learned more from your successes or your failures?"
Tony Wagner

Does your answer to this question have any implications for our curriculum, for the way we teach or for what we reward and celebrate in the classroom?  Does what we do and how we do it prepare our children with the skills they'll need to be successful in the world at large?

"Create a meaningful experience and the learning will follow."
Gerver Tulley

"The opportunities for engaged learning are inversely proportional to the knowability of the outcome."
Gerver Tulley

Brightworks

I came across this link via The Tinkering School website - Brightworks: An Extraordinary School
http://sfbrightworks.org

Brightworks is a school that reimagines K-12 education. By taking the best practices from both early childhood education and hands-on, project-based experiential learning, we strive to meet students’ needs in a flexible, mixed-age environment that breaks the traditional walls between school and the community outside the classroom. We offer a broad-spectrum learning environment designed to encourage creative capacity, tenacity, and citizenship.
Using the Brightworks arc as a framework for deeply engaged learning, children develop the ability to find wonder and delight in the exploration of any topic, to practice working together to turn ideas into reality, and to learn how to communicate what they have done and why - all in the context of a diverse community of collaborators, families, volunteers, and supporters.

Ten Big Questions for the System...

http://www.teachingquality.org/our-work/resources

On the Shoulders of Giants

On the Shoulders of Giants blog by Ariel Sacks.
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/shoulders_of_giants/

In this video, Ariel talks about teacherpreneurship... a concept that is developed in the book Teaching 2030.  I like the concept of 15% time... 15% of the teacher's week spent on developing ideas and pet projects.  Teachers write a proposal, bid for a project... cost it out in terms of resources and time and look to projects that affect provision both at the school itself, and beyond - out into the system.  I like this.  I can see this as an engine for innovation and bottom-up, self-sustaining system development.  As Paul Pastorek said, "If you create a system where initiative and creativity is valued and rewarded, then you'll get change from the bottom up."

When Adora Svitak rules the world...

When Adora Svitak rules the world...  This is a great polemic: What Adults Can Learn from Children.

Education Scotland Podcasts

Education Scotland have been very proactive in posting series of podcasts on the iTunes Store for Early Years, Primary and Secondary education.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/early-years-high-quality/id433403400

I'm certain that I could be more proactive myself in making use of podcasts.  I haven't really worked that into my learning routine.
Must try harder...

Fifty Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do

Here's another radically different view of what a school is and what a school does.

http://www.tinkeringschool.com/
There are many videos all over the internet of Gever Tulley... the inspiration behind The Tinkering School... speaking.

There are some great curriculum ideas here, like building a rope bridge from 200 pounds of recycled plastic grocery bags.  Our curriculum should respond to challenges like this... How do our children address their world?  How do they address the challenges of recycling?  How can they be creative in re-using resources?  These are Big World issues.
http://ww3.tvo.org/article/power-tools-can-help-kids-love-learning-expert-says

Big Ideas Fest

This is a really interesting site with lots of really good, provocative thinking.
http://bigideasfest.org/
There are lots of great videos from the Festivals on YouTube.

"Knowledge is silver.  Outlook is gold."
Alan Kay

We see things not as they are, but as we are.

DFE School Comparison site

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/
Comparative information on schools in England.