An Essex Boy in Yorkshire [NRocks 2015 - Part 2]

Here is Part 2 of my write up and reflection (after lunch)... see Part 1 <here>

David Cameron

The REAL David Cameron, not the Number 10 one, who focused on education tourism - and a lot more besides! 

He began by recognising what a tough job we have and reminding us that we will be played... particularly by politicians. David also highlight the fact that teachers are driven by fear, constantly wondering, what will happen next in my classroom? 

There was many name checks of the Twitter/Blogger-sphere including Alex Quigley's 'teaching plateaus that featured recently in the Guardian (see <here>) and Debra Kidd's book where she says, "it is pedagogical activism that will be the butterfly of change.". David then pointed out with conferences such as NRocks that people are not compelled by status to come, they are here because they hope to learn and want to find something to put into practice - and there should be great comfort that many teachers still want to do that. 

He said that if we do not believe in change, then it will not happen. There is much to try and imitate, but adoption doesn't work; it doesn't take things to the heart. 

David cited David Starky's experience in the classroom (see <here>) where we say a world class historian unable to control a class, and unable to teach. Adoption leads to transient movement forward... take the free schools in Sweden - "That's what we need!" said the UK Government - but the OECD report has just declared it a "basket case, failing system". The great marketisation of schools has lead to complete disruption, but we're still sticking with it.

In one of many fun anecdotes, David said that people saying "work smarter" is a valid place for violence in education... it's basically saying, "you are working pretty stupid right now!". A very valid point, it is deeply unhelpful as a remark. He also cited David Brailsford and his marginal gains theory, often used by schools... is it really fair to compare an Olympic cycling team to a school? Is this a good analogy? Personally I have always thought that there is some value in it, but you don't co

me to a conference to nod along to everything.

It was then time for data. Schools have an obsession to get it right for the school, not the child. The idea that teacher can do everything is the very reason that teachers are being burnt out. He cited many examples of how agencies need to pull together and work together for the child.

An interesting comment he made was about 'the club'. We, as teachers, are in the club; we have knowledge. We need to give our children the knowledge so they can join the club. This is the way things work. However, should we not be challenging the rules of the club to let others in? This confused me. I don't know what the club would involve it wasn't the rules as they are... so anyone can get in? Or are we trying to say that knowledge isn't the key to great freedom and choice?

He concluded by saying we are not going to find the answers to our problems in Taiwan or Sweden. We only every talk about adding to teachers workload instead of taking things away... what we need to do with the spinning plates is work out which are Wedgwood and which are Ikea! Which lead to a rousing finale of David shouting about us taking control as the Clash played...

Follow David on Twitter <here>

John Tomsett

It is always a pleasure to hear John speak; he is also one of those who appears to cross the traditional / progressive divide being asked to speak at pretty much every conference going! His blog is always an honest joy to read (see <here>) and he is insightful on Twitter (see <here>)... can't wait to read his book!

The reason I was so keen on this, is that I wanted to see John's meta-cognition ideas in practice. I've been working hard on this, this year and having read a blog back in April, I thought to myself... I do that, I think... (see <here>). For A-Level Philosophy, I simply deconstruct the questions; I underline, highlight, annotate, in front of the students so they know my thinking in approaching a question. I was glad I was no alone! 

John explained how with his Physics class, he knew that they knew the material but couldn't understand why they got such poor marks. He started to look to meta-cognition (the posh word for how your brain works), looking at how it reacts to pressure and what happens when we don't know what to do. So rarely do we train up our brains for exams!

He bought an Ipevo visualiser, gave them another copy of the mock paper and spent time going through questions explaining his own thought process. They annotated as he did. 

John then gave out a third exam paper. Nearly all students went up 3 or 4 grades with no new teaching of content.

We then tackled Hannah and her sweets together! It worked and I am glad my Ipevo arrives next week so I can start looking at other ways to help students with this technique.

The second half of the session included various other nuggets of wisdom from John, based on ideas found in his book: "This Much I Know About Love Over Fear ... Creating A Culture For Truly Great Teaching" (see <here>). He spoke about how school leaders must drive out fear; fear debilitates. We also need to teach students to avoid fear. John spoke about why this must be the reason to take away graded lesson observations for a start. Teachers should not fear the students in their class not getting the right answer... after all they shouldn't be doing easy tasks! He also refered to Rita Pierson's TED talk about being the champion for our students (see <here>)

He ended by highlighting the fact our students are living in a perfect storm. There are cuts to CAMHS and other mental health providers, we have cliff-edge judgements, terminal examinations, harder exams and social media that leaves no down time. 

We ended this time with Joe Strummer... 

Again, it's worth checking out John's blog on his session <here>

Closing

After this there was heated discussion between Mary Bousted of ATL and Sean Hartford from Ofsted about the inspection future.

Then music and silliness. Then the pub... see more <here>

All in all, well worth a weekend in Leeds!

An Essex Boy in Yorkshire [NRocks 2015 - Part 1]

Northern Rocks was many things for me. It was CPD, it was reflection, it was a chance to network, and a time to socialise with friends. I've already written a short post about how great it was to be part of Staffrm on tour and the SLTCamp reunion! Read it <here>

This blog focuses more on the CPD, including some vital reflection. It's probably got an RE and pastoral leadership slant.

Martin Robinson says in Trivium 21c, “Schools need... a culture that is at once traditionalist and progressive”. I was reminded of this as I arrived and was told, "this is pretty left of middle and progressive" (I would probably have known, had I had time to study the programme in advance!). I didn't know if this troubled me or not, as I often find myself drifting towards the traditional and right of centre as I hit 10 years in the job. I become obsessed with students learning stuff, and writing essays, and reading. However I am also a Head of Year and I know that actually to facilitate that, you sometimes need to step outside of the traditional approach to 'make things work' in a specific context.

The opening debate featured discussion on the Ebacc, teacher retention and government rhetoric adn testing. A few things, and reflections, that stick out in my mind:

• There is not enough pressure promoting the importance of arts: government, parents, universities, students themselves... are the arts actually important? (I believe yes, so why are we not doing anything?)
• School leaders are not currently doing enough to protect the arts, they can be rebels!
• Why are there so few teachers willing to run extra curricular activities than enrich the lives of students, sharing their own passions and interests? (Workload is the simple, and probably correct answer)
• In an increasing 'evidence based' culture, can we evidence the arts and the effects of arts education?
• Should a basic curriculum not include art, drama, gardening, cooking, sport, outside learning... and documenting this would include lots of opportunities for reading, writing and maths? Personally despite the noble content, I'm not sure I could cope with such a curriculum!
• Teacher recruitment is linked to the economy and as the economy does up, teachers go down... the labour market is what it is. I can't help feel, government rhetoric doesn't really help though!
• Teachers are made of tough stuff, if you couldn't cope with Gove, you'll never cope with Y9! Totally agree with this from Laura McInerney.
• The fragmentation of training routes is confusing and not helpful to graduates. Most teachers couldn't tell someone who wanted to become a teacher how to become a teacher, let along the 'best' way!
• What do teachers want more of, time or money? (Or both?)
• Andy Knill made a very valid point of valuing teachers aged over 50.
• Marking... became a key theme of the day. Triple impact marking got an absolute slating time and time again as not the best use of teachers time. An example was cited of teachers spending lots of time taking photos of practical lessons to keep them as evidence. For who?
• School leaders are key to workload and need to be clear on what Ofsted want (and don't want) and ensure it is communicated to staff. 

Stephen Tierney 

"We are going to collaboratively plan what we want to teach, teach it as well as we possibly can and then find out what worked and what didn’t.  It’s our new master plan." 

I had been keen to hear Stephen speak as he produce's a lot of really useful resources that he shares via Twitter and his blog (<here> and <here>).

He started off challenging us all to picture great teaching. I admit that it is not a clear vision that I have made explicit to myself, like many, and this is perhaps a worry when you are leading, observing, supporting and challenging. He is Stephen's vision:

He asked some pertinent questions about planning... always ask why you are doing something in a lesson? "Where is the learning?" He reminded us about the best ways to assess and how that should be our start point and work back. Architects ask, "How do we want to live?" rather than "How do you want the concrete poured into the foundations?" Plan learning and cut out the nonsense... are you simply tacking in some resource you found? If you don't know why it is there, take it out.

Stephen also reminded us about the authority leaders have: you dictate how people spend their time in school, what classes they teach, what meetings they attend (reminding me of the Billy Bragg line, "no power without accountability" - and how schools need self-reflection over the 'workload crisis'). He also said that for too long in his career, meetings had too many apologies... if you are simply relaying information, surely there is a better way to do things rather than replicating meetings down a chain of command? he suggested that meetings should be focused on talking about your subject and how to teach it better.

As a leader, you do not want someone doing a great job, and someone doing a useless job, when had you planned it together, they would have both been doing a good job. Learning and teaching is complex and should usually be a team-based decision making process. Too often we use teams for simple decisions and discussions, wasting expertise.

A real interesting piece of information share was that the majority of students get to the right place, by the wrong route... raising lots of questions about post-level assessments, trajectories and flight paths:

Stephen then concluded asking about how well we know 'our people'. Do we know our team / staff's interests, skills and needs? He explained how his schools use a GoogleForm to pair staff up for coaching and mentoring. He also said it is a really high priority to do all that he can to keep good staff, and develop them, as they are what really make the good school.

We were left with some questions as leaders:

• How will you seek to build quality into every child’s learning experience?
• How will you use assessment to support teaching & learning?
• How will you develop teachers (and keep on developing them) to be the best they can be?

For me, the most powerful thing that came from listening to Stephen is that he has really considered the vision that he wants for his students, staff and schools. There appears a great coherence and lots of joined up thinking... observations, planning, appraisal, CPD, teaching... all are part of this. 

I strongly urge you to have a read of Stephen's presentation in full <here>

Hywel Roberts

It is always pleasing when someone who works as education consultant reminds the audience that there are no magic beans! Sadly for too long there have been those who have tried to sell a solution to a school that will solve all things... thankfully Hywel is different, and in many ways more than that! 

He session was slightly controversially named, "Lessons Worth Behaving For", which promoted one or two sat at home on Twitter to make the assumption that Hywel was saying there are also some lessons NOT worth behaving for. This was not the case at all. 

Hywel explained that we have to take some responsibility in setting the tone for our classrooms; we know how kids behave in certain areas and spaces and need to be proactive in our approach. He then went on to talk about hooks... and how staff need a set of experience and skills up their sleeve. It did worry me that we were getting into the 'relevant and engaging' discussion; whereby too many teachers have a potentially dangerous idea of that this. 

However Hywel looked at some ideas to do with studying the Egyptians and then went on to explain how teachers need to be the 'Sherpas of the curriculum' creating deliberate engagement by being organised, meeting and greeting students, welcoming them to the classroom with warmth and intimacy. 

There was some important discussion about survival. I think he is right to say, particularly in secondary, we get obsessed with coverage and travel through the specification for GCSEs. He made a reference to Jaws and the 3 characters who had 3 different views: "We've always done it like this", "We need to do things differently" and "Can we just get it done?".... Too often, we are the goats on the roof simply trying to survive:

(and the goat on the left is doing a learning walk!)

The final thought was this, we need to make children obsessive about their learning, They may leave saying, "Please can we do it again?"... or for a Y9 they may say, "It was alright."!

Overall, a really entertaining session that did make me keep thinking about relevance and engagement, despite quite a few nods to primary teaching, this was well-worth attending.

Follow Hywel on Twitter <here>

Part 2 to come!