Early years learning environments

scameron — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:33:17 +0000

Children need…

Inspirational athlete: Desmond Douglas, table tennis player

scameron — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:56:43 +0000

Many billions of balls have pinged and ponged their way over the net since table tennis was invented more than a century ago. What began in Victorian Britain as an after-dinner amusement for the upper classes is, behind football, now one of the most popular sports in the world.

The game made a debut appearance at the Olympics in 1988 and, with London 2012 guaranteeing British participation in the four Olympic events for the first time since 2000, renewed interest in the sport is to be anticipated.

White boys' achievement

scameron — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:50:06 +0000

When the Slough and Windsor Observer scrutinised last year’s Ofsted report for Churchmead School, a mixed secondary in Datchet, it found some disturbing conclusions. The report, published in June 2007, graded the school as ‘inadequate’ overall and gave it a ‘notice to improve’. The inspectors said: ‘Churchmead is an improving school but its overall effectiveness is unsatisfactory because too many students make insufficient progress by the end of key stage 4.’

Curriculum planning: a new start

scameron — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:33:59 +0000

It must have been a strange feeling for those who were set free after the fall of the Bastille. They were suddenly liberated, in unexpected circumstances and probably without an idea of what to do next. ‘We are free! What do we do now?’

Focusing on relationships in schools

scameron — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:16:11 +0000

If schools are to tackle educational inequality and raise levels of achievement, they need to be re-designed with a focus around relationships, according to a paper written by policy adviser Charles Leadbeater for The Innovation Unit at the DCSF.

‘Children learn,’ he says, ‘when they have the right relationships. Those relationships make them feel cared for; give them recognition for who they are, where they come from and what they have achieved; motivate them to learn; engage them to be participants in learning.’

Reducing within-school variation

scameron — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:56:35 +0000

Within-school variation (WSV) – the difference in outcomes between subjects within the same school at secondary level and teachers within the same primary school – is four times greater than the differences between schools. This startling statistic puts the UK near the top of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s WSV table .

Making personalised learning a reality

scameron — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:05:50 +0000

For the past 18 years, I have been attempting to find ways of allowing learners to gain more control over their own progression. In 1993, as head of a science and technology faculty in an average-sized secondary school, I worked out ways to share assessment criteria with students and their parents. This had a dramatic impact on the departmental results, raising them from 35% A*-C up to 67% A*-C.

Renewed support for headteachers

scameron — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:02:02 +0000

The renewed Secondary Frameworks developed by the National Strategies build on the existing frameworks for teaching English, mathematics, science and ICT but reflect the emphasis in the new programmes of study on key concepts, processes and skills. They are modelled on effective pedagogy and good use of assessment for learning.

Bridging the gap between school and home

scameron — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:28:46 +0000

Back in 2001 when we were reviewing areas of behavioural need across Sunderland, there were two questions we asked ourselves:

how do you connect the professional background of the school with the home?
how do you introduce a consistent approach to behaviour management across a whole school, and mirror this within the home?

We ended up choosing the Family Links School and Nurturing Programme to help us meet these challenges. This reflected our desire to:

Shaping an emotionally literate school environment

scameron — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:50:57 +0000

Caldecote Community Primary School was formed in September 2001 from the amalgamation of an infant and a junior school in a predominantly white area of Leicester with high rates of crime and drug use.

Among the challenges we faced were:

Tackling school underachievement

scameron — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:23:10 +0000

In July 2007 Ed Balls indicated in his inaugural speech to the House of Commons that tackling underachievement and raising standards among disadvantaged children was a government priority. In the Guardian of 20 May 2008, under the headline ‘One in five 11 year olds fail to make grade on three Rs, warns Ofsted’, there is a dispiriting report on standards and achievement.

Improving social skills using sport

scameron — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:11:04 +0000

The Bexley School Sports Partnership (SSP) was set up in 2002 with the initial aim of reaching and exceeding the national target of young people taking part in two hours of PE and sport a week. Over time, the remit and focus of the partnership has changed, as we have come to use sport as a tool for making fundamental changes to young people’s lives.

People skills to affect change

scameron — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:45:49 +0000

Drapers Mills Primary School is located opposite a fine example of a preserved Kentish smock mill. When I applied for its headship, I was responding to an advert that suggested the pupils needed someone to put wind in their sails. Now that I am approaching the end of my tenure, I look back and wonder if I managed to stir up a gale or a storm in a teacup.

Inspirational athlete: Tom Daley, swimmer

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:48:32 +0000

Tom Daley is an extraordinary boy. As most children prepare to move from the comfort of their primaries up to ‘big school’, 10 year-old Tom was preparing to become British U18 Diving Champion. Then, in February this year, he qualified for the Beijing Olympics: he’ll be just 14 years and 79 days old when he dives for Britain at the world’s greatest sporting showpiece.

Encouraging science activities with external funding

scameron — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:47:42 +0000

Despite the ongoing debate about the need to improve standards, in many respects science is still the Cinderella of the curriculum when it comes to looking for ways of funding projects. Science has not enjoyed the most exciting of profiles and, as a consequence, while many people are attracted to ‘technological advances’ and can see the benefit of investing in IT, there is very little interest in investing in developing scientific awareness.

Coursework: supporting staff and students

scameron — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:26:32 +0000

You may remember the heady days of the late 1980s, when subjects such as English, enabled students to secure the highest grades at GCSE by submitting a coursework folder as 100% of their curriculum assessment. In 2007, QCA announced changes that have far-reaching implications for the delivery of all GCSE specifications in every school. By September 2009, teacher set and marked coursework will be replaced by controlled assessments.

Promoting students' happiness

scameron — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:35:47 +0000

Research shows that we can promote happiness by:

training ourselves to see the best in people and situations
learning to deal positively with adversity
retaining a sense of balance whatever the circumstances.

This means that there is considerable potential for teaching children how to actively pursue happiness.

Curriculum

Nurturing hidden talent

scameron — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:51:26 +0000

The aim of widening participation policy is to ensure that everyone with the potential to benefit from higher education (HE) should have the opportunity to do so. But although the total number of students participating in HE has grown, it seems this is mainly due to an increase in numbers of students from affluent backgrounds. This highlights a need for targeted interventions addressing particular issues for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Involving early years children in planning and evaluating their own learning

scameron — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:22:22 +0000

St Joseph’s Pre-school, based within an increasingly diverse socio-economic community in the suburbs of Bristol, is a busy voluntary-sector group operating in a church hall, where equipment and resources have to be set up and packed away every day. It has expanded over several years – from three pre-school sessions a week ,to nine sessions plus lunch clubs, a toddler group and two ‘drop in’ sessions – and now serves the needs of more than 50 families.

Linking personal and social development to curriculum aims

scameron — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:42:17 +0000

Education minister Lord Adonis has said that personal, social and health education is ‘key to the effectiveness of schools in meeting all the national outcomes for children, and that ‘without effective PSHE, a school’s ability to demonstrate how they are contributing to the Every Child matters agenda, addressing pupil well-being and supporting personal development is compromised’.

Developmental process
Personal and social education is a developmental process that includes:

Learning together: how collaborative research can benefit students and teachers

scameron — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:10:13 +0000

The ‘Learning Together’ project

Give disadvantaged students the opportunity to shine

scameron — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:54:02 +0000

In the current education arena, the ‘skills agenda’ focuses on developing the intellectual capital of individual students and the ‘personalisation agenda’ provides a potential framework to enable this to occur. However, a third major education agenda is the need to reduce inequity in the system.

Improving school performance management can improve learning

scameron — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:36:43 +0000

Some schools are well on their way to embedding performance management and professional development of all staff within their systems, but there are others that have simply tweaked what they already had in place to ensure compliance with the statutory performance management regulations. But they are missing an excellent opportunity to draw together two key elements of school improvement.

Raising standards by tackling behaviour

scameron — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:18:54 +0000

When I took over the leadership of Drapers Mills Primary School I knew that there could be no quick fix to the problems that the school faced. In the event it took three years before we started to get the behaviour right: only then could we focus all our attention on raising academic standards.
I write this on the eve of a visit from Ofsted; so we will soon find out whether we have succeeded, in their view.

Electronic interaction improves attainment

scameron — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:38:34 +0000

I have been in the very fortunate position of headteacher at Anton Junior School for five years now and, during that time, our school has progressed on a journey of investment and investigation into the use of interactive technology, in order to support and enhance teaching and learning. In this article I describe how a piece of new technology was used to boost attainment in the school.

Using data to target learner success

scameron — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:18:38 +0000

I come from a background in scientific research, working in the field of cancer research. But two-and-a-half years ago, I made the serious step of considering a career change. When I spotted the data manager position at Serlby Park, advertised in the local paper, it seemed like a perfect position for me.

Management information systems can transform teaching and learning

scameron — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:23:28 +0000

In many schools, the power of management information systems (MIS) is not properly exploited, in large part because the amount of data is so great. The purpose of information systems is to identify patterns and anomalies in pupil performance and enable schools to trace the causal links with the quality of education. This means schools need to identify what they want to monitor and evaluate, what information they need and how they are going to organise and interrogate the evidence base they have created.

Using SEAL to build values

scameron — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:05:52 +0000

In his bestselling book, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, American educationalist John Paul Gatto describes the output of our Western education system as being students who ‘hate solitude, are cruel, materialistic, dependent, passive, violent timid in the face of the unexpected and addicted to distraction.’ He recommends ‘massive rethinking’ to create a healthier society.

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.

Essential therapy: reassurance and praise

scameron — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:00:59 +0000

I’m back at work, with a snappy new job title – research and emotional literacy coordinator – but not yet a job description.

After six months of maternity leave, it is pure joy having opportunities to complete sentences, sit quietly, write and finish cups of coffee. My ability to make people laugh has been upgraded from saying ‘boo’ to making attempts at satire and irony! Colleagues say thank you without being prompted. They don’t burp out loud, seem pleased to see me and are very welcoming.

Implementing positive psychology

scameron — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:37:07 +0000

The classroom is a microcosm of the school. It needs to be a positive, challenging, safe place where mistakes are regarded as normal, laughter is frequent, and people focus naturally on strengths in themselves and others.

Strengths
Strengths are capacities to think, feel and behave in certain ways. They represent what is best about us. When we use our strengths, we are energised, sparkle and soar. We achieve the highest goals of which we are capable:

Developing a pastoral team to improve your school

scameron — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:29:46 +0000

In the last article, I described how we moved at Drapers Mill from a ‘discipline code’ to a ‘behaviour policy’. Despite this, lessons went on being disrupted, our exclusions were excessive and our standards were dropping through the floor. Clearly, looking to raise standards was futile unless we could get on top of the behaviour.

CPD through teacher enquiry and research

scameron — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:22:38 +0000

Why should teachers use and engage in research activity? With all the workforce pressures on teachers, is such involvement an indulgence they can ill afford? In fact, there is an increasing body of literature and school practice which indicates quite the contrary. Rather than being an effete activity which diverts energies from the school’s core business, school-based enquiry and research are now being seen to make an important contribution to self-evaluation, improvement and the professional learning of staff.

Using sport to motivate all achievement

scameron — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:30:00 +0100

Increased motivation, improved independent learning and better decision making are just some of the results Windsor High School boasts following four years’ involvement in the PESS investigation, which it joined in 2004, two years after being designated a specialist sports college.

Meeting the needs of looked-after children

scameron — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:24:21 +0100

The first sentence in the DCSF guidance on the Education of Young People in Public Care reads ‘Children in public care are our children.’ This is an emotive sentence. The government continues to nail its colours to the mast by declaring that it is our responsibility to ‘ensure they get the education they need and deserve.’ This is a collective responsibility. Due to the complex nature of these young people’s lives, many external agencies can be involved with them and all these agencies have to ‘share the care’.

Inspirational athlete: Sharron Davies, swimmer

scameron — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:20:14 +0100

There are so few examples in the UK of swimmers making their mark internationally as young as 13. What was it like as a child to be one of Britain’s best swimmers?
It was normal progression really into that sort of dedication. I started swimming at six and by eight I was training most days. In those days most swimmers started very young. They are older now. I had to grow up quickly I guess in some ways.

Positive psychology in the classroom

scameron — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:17:54 +0100

Positive psychology brings scientific tools to the study of what makes people flourish, and the impact upon them of experiencing positive emotions. Good teachers have always known that cheerful children learn more effectively; now there are scientific studies that show this to be true.

Using a virtual learning environment (VLE) to raise attainment

scameron — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:12:56 +0100

There was once a time when using technology in a school was a laudable aim but prohibitively costly. In time it became a reality for schools to have whole teaching rooms kitted out with expensive hardware that enabled pupils to access the curriculum in more adventurous and high-tech ways.

Turning things around: reversing special measures

scameron — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:00:19 +0100

When I came into the headship of Drapers Mills Primary School, the school was in special measures. Although I was an experienced primary headteacher, I quickly realised that my 20-odd years of experience had not really prepared me for the challenges ahead.

The Isle of Thanet

Activities to support pupils with low self-esteem

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:28:26 +0100

Practical, self-esteem boosting activities

Written by Gillian Shotton and Sheila Burton

This resource will lay the core foundations for supporting pupils with low self-esteem. It explains the characteristics of pupils with low esteem, and suggests practical activities to help.

Worksheets to record pupils' learning journeys

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:28:25 +0100

Worksheets to record learning experiences of pupils

Written by Margaret Sutherland and Colin Sutherland

Primary Assembly: Jessica Ennis

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

Resources

Picture of Jessica Ennis (plenty on google images and on her website)

The importance of school size

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:21:01 +0100

The media coverage given to the Channel 4 Dispatches programme The Children Left Behind and the fact that it was made in the first place, has provoked mixed feelings. Since the government is spending billions on rebuilding and redesigning schools, I’m pleased to see people discussing issues of school design. I was disappointed, however, that the discussion has been focused on school size, which, it seems to me, is a red herring in this important debate about the form of future schools.

Playful science

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:21:00 +0100

Letting children play as part of their mental and physical development has, until recently, always been taken for granted, but in today’s society it seems to be becoming more and more restricted. A combination of parental anxiety mixed with excessive legislative demands placed on teachers has forced some schools to move away from play-based activities and turn towards a more formal (and some would say, in terms of science teaching, more boring) approach to teaching.

Raising Achievement

Switching the lights on for potentially able learners: part two

Emotional literacy in teenage boys: raising achievement

Raising boys' achievement: starting at early years

Motivating students to take responsibility

How can aspiring footballers be encouraged to gain academic qualifications?

Mixed-ability teaching: a case study