Mentoring

Raising achievement through peer mentoring

scameron — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:46:17 +0000

Many schools have seen the advantages of supporting students through mechanisms such as peer mentoring, but Penrice Community College has developed a system of empowering students through coaching. We had long felt that, while our mentoring systems supported and encouraged students to achieve, we needed a tool that challenged our students further. With ‘coaching’ already prevalent among our staff, we felt that using this to support our students, was the answer.

Spotlight on coaching

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:42 +0100

Introduction

As learning institutions, schools are often on the look out for methods of enhancing the way learning is achieved. Sometimes the simplest of changes can increase effectiveness and efficiency, not least in the way in which we learn for ourselves.

Blue sky thinking

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:42 +0100

Practical tips

Blue sky thinking
It is a truly horrendous management cliché, but 'blue sky thinking', the type of brainstorming which acknowledges no limits in ideals and no preconceptions, can actually help to determine what might nudge professional development further towards the standards you are aspiring to.

How will the Children and Young Persons Bill affect looked after children?

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:40 +0100

This Bill focuses on the education attainment of looked after children. Why is this necessary?

Everyone agrees that the statistics showing the attainment of looked after children make grim reading. There are 60,000 children in care at any given time who, compared to children outside local authority care, are:

Remembering your calling

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:39 +0100

"Every calling is great when greatly pursued."
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Practical Tips
Can you remember why you went into teaching in the first place? Can you reconnect with your original goals and desires? Still identify your motivation for making a difference in the classroom and in the lives of young people?

Effective job hunting

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:39 +0100

Quote of the Week

"When I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is swelling or growing. "

Woodrow T Wilson

Practical Tips

Effective job hunting

Using Professional Learning Teams

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:38 +0100

"Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can − there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did."

− Sarah Caldwell

Practical Tips

Celebrating staff learning

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:36 +0100

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, 'What's in it for me?'
Brian Tracy

Practical Tips

Supporting peer to peer learning

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:35 +0100

As a professional learning leader you are probably always on the look out for ways of enhancing CPD in your school − particularly for any ideas which don't cost the Earth! With budgets in mind, this week we dig a little deeper into the world of peer to peer learning and what it can do for your school. We also highlight a General Teaching Council for England event focusing on childhood, well-being and primary education.

Quote of the Week

"Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers."

− Voltaire

Collaboration within and between schools

cassandrafaria — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:32 +0100

Naturally, as time passes different aspects of continuing professional and personal development in schools become important. Increasingly, collaboration both within and between schools is featuring in CPD and is becoming a national priority. But how can we ensure that collaboration actually works in practice rather than just in theory?

There are some clear features of effective collaboration that are worth keeping in mind when adopting this approach for CPD purposes. These ideas will help.

Supporting children with autism

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:30 +0100

Their difficulties with social interaction and communication mean that they can struggle to understand and cope with many aspects of school life. As reported in a previous issue, more children are being identified as autistic than ever before.

The National Autistic Society (NAS) describes autism as ‘a lifelong developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them’.

A day in the life of a primary mentor

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:52 +0100

I work as a learning mentor with children aged between five and 11 at Marsden Community Primary School in Nelson, Lancashire. Our school was one of the four original full service extended schools in Lancashire and provides a wide range of services to pupils, parents and the wider community during school and after school hours. The school consists of approximately 98% children of Pakistani Muslim heritage.

Supporting parents of teenagers

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:51 +0100

Background

Teacher research mentoring

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:45 +0100

With a recent advent of funding from the Training and Development Agency for postgraduate professional development, there has been an upsurge in interest in teacher research. With some 35,000 funded places available with PPD funding the nature of research undertaken in school is radically changing. Furthermore, the new Professional Standards introduced in 2007 by the TDA puts enquiring into one’s practice as a means to improvement as well as being opened to mentoring and coaching as core standards. Theme five of the new standards illustrates this point:

Raising achievement with assertive mentoring

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:45 +0100

A research team from Cambridge University, sponsored by the DfES, between 2002-05 researched the extraordinary improvements at Hurworth School. There was no doubt in the minds the research team from Cambridge University, that the cause of the amazing transformation in performance has been the introduction of a number of systems which are collectively referred to as assertive mentoring (AM). These systems include student target setting, tracking, mentoring, intervention and checking.

How to keep G&T provision at the top of your school's agenda

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:27 +0100

The role of G&T coordinator may change hands regularly: it is often added on to another, wider job specification, or it can be act as a springboard to further promotion. Consistency and continuity is sometimes hard to foster and while new, one-off initiatives are valuable and enjoyed by able pupils, it is regular opportunities and effective systems that make a school justifiably proud of its efforts to genuinely stretch, challenge and support the gifted and talented.

'Always more to do': the challenge of building an inclusive G&T policy

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:27 +0100

Despite government guidelines, there are still as many variations on a G&T policy as there are schools – what I present here is just one of them. However, once having embarked on the adventure of creating a working policy for more able pupils, there is never really any going back – and certainly no standing still.

CPD terms and concepts to debate

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:24 +0100

In an article in the March 2007 issue of CPD Update I presented my own interpretations of some terms and concepts for you to discuss with colleagues in order to explore the notion of critical professional learning.

Key findings on effective CPD

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:13 +0100

An Ofsted report, The Logical Chain: Continuing Professional Development in Effective Schools (1), published during in July 2006 (see below for information about the methods used) scrutinises the arrangements that schools make for the professional development of their staff. Given that SENCOs have a key role to play in providing training for colleagues, the following findings will be of particular interest. (2), (3)

Key findings

Guiding students to make informed curriculum choices

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:10 +0100

School context

Welcoming new staff to your early years team

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:58 +0100

The value of induction

‘..a process often credited with the reduction of turnover early in the employment relationship is the presence of effective and timely induction.’
Torrington et al (2005)

Unveil your hidden power in school: developing facilitation

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:42 +0100

Policies and practices are literally queuing up at the school gate. Somehow, whether you're a Head or an NQT, you've got to welcome them and make them part of great learning. If only you had a magic wand, a power within you... but you have. No one's let the power out for you - yet.

What makes a mentor?

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:39 +0100

Anyone who has ever thought about or even done any has a pretty good idea of just exactly what the job takes. This article focuses on the skills of mentoring... have you got what it takes to commit yourself to this important and rewarding role?

The Mentoring Wheel

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:38 +0100

A mentor is a guide, an advisor, someone on your side. Loyal, interested, trusted and, most importantly, experienced in areas that you may not be. A mentor is someone who will recognise, encourage, instruct and inspire you.

Gareth Lewis, in his book 'The Mentoring Manager', compares mentoring to a wheel. The hub, the spokes and the rim keep the wheel rigid, but having all of the necessary components, it can then get rolling! The hub of the wheel is comprised of four bases, which underpin mentoring relationships.

Forming professional friendships

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:36 +0100

Are we the only leadership team who have had enough of critical friends? Governors, school improvement partners, LEA advisers, Ofsted inspectors – all are exhorted to take on the mantle of ‘critical friendship’. The problem is that in real life such beings do not actually exist. What do we do with friends who constantly assess us against a range of performance indicators? Those who suggest how we might improve our taste in clothes, our choice of football team or the TV programmes that we watch? Well, the answer is simple: we make them ex-friends.

SEN Reviews: Reflective Reader: Primary Special Educational Needs

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:25 +0100

Individual chapters are concise, and carefully designed to encourage personal and professional reflection through the use of extracts from a broad range of thought provoking articles and up-to-date books. The text lends itself to use as an interactive reader, perhaps through seminar teaching, and it certainly illustrates how initial teacher education can ensure that trainee teachers do not achieve QTS status without gaining a good introductory grounding in special educational needs.

Getting the most from mentoring

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:19 +0100

Mentoring "...is a relationship rather than an activity" (Audrey Collin). For me, this encapsulates mentoring really well and it clearly distinguished mentoring from other forms of learning and development. I have been a mentor for most of the 12 years I have taught in secondary schools and have several good friends as a result of a relationship built upon mentoring. Relationships may last a lifetime and are often developed with people who have been a long-term and positive influence on our development.

Learning mentors improve behaviour

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:19 +0100

In recent years learning mentors have been used in schools across the country to break down the barriers to learning and help pupils to achieve their full potential through dedicated and professional support. They provide the link between academic and pastoral support, playing a vital role in the efforts to improve achievement levels.

The role of learning mentors