Transition Time

21st June 2017Miss R Jordan

So I’ve been thinking back to my first days at secondary school as a new student. I’m a bit reluctant to admit that it would have been 33 years ago in September! Where did that go then?

I was one of just three children from my school heading in to a new year group of over 200 with an eight form entry! My middle school was not one of the main feeder schools, and looking back now I can’t actually recall any ‘extra’ transition work happening because of this. My parents packed me off on the bus on the first day with my older sister and I met up with my two buddies, Lara and Julie, on the school playground. I remember my new burgundy slip-on Clarks shoes. What a trend setter! But….I certainly don’t remember being scared or anxious. Surely I must have been at the time?

I’m currently immersed in managing the transition for what must be my 15th cohort of children across various schools in my career to date. I’ve been able to refine transition procedures a lot because of this experience.  I consider this role as a genuine privilege. I see the students at the very earliest opportunity. I capture the honest and frank impressions from their teachers and more often than not, I get to host the first meetings of new parents. Having all of that knowledge is a huge responsibility. How should it be disseminated to staff? Have I planned enough support? Did I pick up on the discrete messages relayed enough to capture the full needs of each new child? And on..and on….

In my current school, we’ve developed very bespoke arrangements for the Year 6 children coming to us. Three years ago we worked with the Educational Psychology Service in Warwickshire to research the anxieties around transition. A paper was produced as a result of this work. It transpired that the biggest worries about starting secondary school came from parents who had either not been in a ‘scary’ secondary school for years, or who were concerned about how they accessed support if they needed it; seeing teachers on a primary playground each morning certainly prevents small worries from getting bigger. In fact many of the parents questioned at the time had experienced negativity during their own time at secondary school.  They were still carrying this with them and were unconsciously passing this on to their own kids.  Children then told us that they were most worried about getting lost in a new building and having more homework! As such, we’ve added an extra Year 6 event to our calendar where parents and students come to meet SLT more informally over a coffee, and the children are given complete access to the school site so that they can explore and fully look around (yes, every corridor and toilet!). We link this to a treasure hunt for them. They love it! We’re then able to then tackle the more serious concerns around homework and how we support this. We do run seven homework clubs each week and have found these to be invaluable to the new students.

In the weeks running up to the ‘step up’ day, I arrange extra visits for students who been identified by their primary school as needing these. I pre-warn the staff that the children are coming; you’d be amazed how much a welcome greeting by name can mean the them. Our Subject Leader for Art/DT can always be relied upon for this gesture!  Our receptionist is also amazing at this. I have a welcome cookie and drink waiting on their first visit up and I always write a letter or postcard afterwards to tell them how much I’ve enjoyed meeting them.  I now tweet (huge learning curve for a blog another time…) after their visit in the hope that the primary school and parents see this. I plan a larger event for the children coming up to us on their own or in very small groups so that they can begin meeting each other and making new friends. At this, I’m able to ‘manufacture’ the start of new relationships and often by the time students leave, they’ve exchanged email addresses or phone numbers so that they can make contact with each other over the summer holiday. I’ve got 48 children being dropped off for this tomorrow!

For children with special educational needs, we plan any essential documentation in advance of starting. They have numerous guided tours with any new TA support. We send their timetable home to them in advance of September and postcards over the holiday in order to keep in touch.

In honesty, this all takes hours and hours of work. I have a fabulous team though and work very closely with the other SLT members, the pastoral and office staff. We are a genuine team on this. The investment at this stage is worth its weight in gold. We see children blossom with greater confidence and settle much earlier within the school community. They feel able to approach us more easily and we are more able to support their specific needs effectively. I do believe that it saves time in the long run.

In reflecting, I can only wonder how I survived being thrown in at the deep end in my burgundy shoes all those years ago! I did of course, and don’t consider myself negatively affected by my experience luckily. I can only conclude that our Year 6 children are all very lucky today. My story is just one of many interpretations of great transition programmes around secondary schools of course. Our children are very cared for and we all want the very best for their future success.

A top tip for transition leaders – buy from Amazon ‘Simone’s Diary by Helena Pielichaty’. There are some cracking anecdotes for children starting secondary school to be used for a first assembly or an initial gathering of nervous Year 6s!
Sarah Mellors, Deputy Head and SENco at Alcester Academy, Warwickshire

Memorability

20th June 2017Miss R Jordan

Is there a better way to help our students remember?

What an exciting time of year it has been for us at Studley High. As well as breathing a collective sigh of relief along with our year 11 students that all their hard work has come to fruition and the exam season has ended, it is also the time to begin planning for September and reviewing best practice, whilst being outwards facing to see what we can learn that would impact positively on our students.

I have been reading ‘Make it Stick’ by Peter C. Brown; a book that I highly recommend. It draws together a range of evidence-based research and various approaches to looking at how we remember what we have been taught. Now we have terminal exams as the model for many subjects, memorability is a key issue.

As a starting point, I need to understand more about the science of learning and take a fresh look at how I teach children to remember what I have taught them in class. It’s very easy to fall back onto our own experiences and simply regurgitate what we think works, rather than exploring what the latest research and trials on memorability are telling us does work.

Brown begins with a view which we would all agree with, ‘Learning is deeper and more durable when it is effortful’ and we do strive to keep students in the ‘struggle zone’ with their learning. He then explores the effect of ‘massed practice’ which in all honesty, is what most of us do in the classroom. We deliver on a topic for a sequence of lessons and invariably do some form of revision and then test to see how well students have learned. This works well for us as we plan a sequence of lessons and students like it as it does not diversify from the topic and we feel it is being embedded.

But do they remember it when tested at a later date?

The key here is that evidence tells us that actually, they don’t. ‘Retrieval practice’ is a more effective learning strategy – the idea of low-stakes quizzes at intervals throughout the learning journey will produce better outcomes as the information is stored in the brain.

I’m also keen to explore how I can interleave the learning for pupils and build in testing at points across a scheme with low-stakes quizzes. If this does result in students improving their memorability and as a consequence, increases their progress in the subject, this can only be beneficial. Of equal and perhaps even greater note is that Brown attests ‘Frequent low-stakes testing helps dial down test anxiety among students by diversifying the consequences over a much larger sample: no single test is a make-or-break-event.’

Admittedly, with Gove’s move to create terminal examinations and significant weighting based on memorising information, anything that we can build in that helps students’ welfare and sense of well-being through test conditions can only be worthwhile.

So my next steps are to plan in a way to test at spaced intervals, key concepts in low-stakes quizzes across the year.

What’s also key, according to Brown, is ‘the more you can explain about the way your learning relates to prior knowledge, the stronger your grasp of the new learning will be, and the more connections you create that will help you remember it later’.  This reminds me to vary the ways that I am linking the lesson and learning to the ‘big picture’ and purpose. Of course we link to exams, assessment objectives and their weightings, but this reminds me that it is an opportunity to move beyond that to the world of work, career choices and opportunities for enrichment to wider areas within and beyond the subject.

Next time, I’ll let you know what changes we plan to make, but in the meantime, enjoy the summer break and happy reading!

 

Anna Ingram

Assistant Head, Head of Teaching School and English Teacher!

Aspiring Leaders

7th June 2017realsmart admin

Aspiring Leaders – The Next Generation

Leadership is not a rank. Leadership is a choice.

(Simon Sinek Leaders Eat Last – 2013).

We have recently had the privilege of hosting an Aspiring Leaders’ Conference on behalf of University of Worcester with the primary aim of reflecting on how to develop leadership characteristics and qualities in the first years of teaching. With a room packed full of PGCE/School Direct trainees who had applied to attend the training, expectations were high that  this would be an exciting day. Second to that, was the opportunity to meet a wide range of leaders within our school context; to hear stories and experiences of how different staff members progressed into ‘Leadership’.

As part of this day, our ‘aspiring leaders’ explored well-researched and evidence based leadership behaviours, habits and competencies that contribute to superior performance in all areas of the profession. For me, as a new Assistant Headteacher, the experience had the added benefit of giving a personal opportunity to reflect on key characteristics that any ‘aspiring leader’ should aim to instil in their professional life. By the end of the session, leaders from across the school had shared their words and wisdom and as a group, had highlighted the importance of the following traits (a non-exhaustive list!)

Don’t forget the ‘why’!

As Simon Sinek argues:

Every single person, every single organisation on the planet knows what they do, 100 percent. Some know how they do it … But very, very few people or organisations know why they do what they do. And by “why” I don’t mean “to make a profit.” … By “why” I mean: What’s your purpose?What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organisation exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?

Teachers care. It is part of the key attributes that make a teacher in that we all have a common purpose and understanding of ‘why’ we get up in the morning; the children we teach, help and support. At the heart of effective leadership has to be a sole focus on improving the educational experiences and outcomes for the children we teach. It’s all about impact. Everything we do, for the effective leader, has impact at the heart of it.

What is your why and how do you share that with your colleagues?

‘Set out your stall’

Above all else, our next leaders will be those establishing themselves in their classrooms now. Effective leadership begins, and continues, in the classroom. Visible leadership, that which pupils and parents and staff comment on, is long-lasting and develops a professional reputation no matter what stage of your career.

For any aspiring leader, opportunities need to be embraced, expected behaviour needs to be modelled constantly, and the ‘setting out of your stall’ and what you stand for starts from day one.

When your pupils go home after school – how will they describe the learning in your classroom?

Get things done!

Teachers, even the best leaders, will face times when an overwhelming sense of ‘stuff’ that needs to happen just won’t get done. There is never a ‘quiet time’ of the year anymore. Exam groups may go but teaching staff are constantly moving on to the next cohort, looking for ways to develop intervention and/or support work. Procrastination is the enemy of the effective leader.

Sometimes difficult decisions need to be made. Avoiding them, ignoring them or trying to divert them may buy time but will lead to greater problems.

The effective leader gets things done. They use their team, rather than dictating or trying to do other people’s jobs. They inspire and motivate and build teams that achieve, whether in the classroom, department or school wide.

How can you plan ahead and learn to prioritise?

Never stop learning

As teachers, we constantly emphasise the importance of learning. We expect pupils to reflect, review and amend in order to improve and progress. We need to expect the same from ourselves. Leadership requires experience. Not in terms of years of dedicated ‘service’ but in terms of facing a variety of situations. Effective leaders will take all of these situations and review what worked, what needs improvement and what could be done differently next time. Above all else, our new teachers need to embrace failure on their path to leadership.

When will you build in time to reflect?

Leading takes time

There is no one path, no one route, no fixed journey into ‘leadership’. Gone are the days when teachers specialise in one area. We all take responsibility for data, teaching and learning, pastoral support, vulnerable groups. The best leaders will experience different aspects of school life and develop their skills based on this.

How will you develop your skill set and address any areas of weakness?

You are never going to be ‘ready for it’!

In the midst of a rapidly changing educational and policy landscape, and with more demands on schools than ever, surely now is not the time to be promoting leadership to colleagues so early on in their career?

Nothing could be further from the truth. It is because of these demands and changing landscape that exceptional, driven and determined leaders are required by schools more than ever.

As a member of a Senior Leadership team, succession planning is essential for ensuring the continual development of department areas, management models and leadership capacity. Succession planning is increasingly being used to support bespoke CPD models, that support and challenge aspirational and able staff.

It is comforting that, despite controversy over teacher recruitment, education policy and political upheavals of this year, our new cohort of teachers are not perturbed and are ready to embrace a leadership journey with a passion for learning and excellence at the heart of all they do. Our children and our schools are in safe hands!

 

Amy Page
Assistant Head, Studley High School
ITT Lead