"When people feel safe to talk this becomes self-perpetuating and positive." More than a catchy course title, this training session part of our on-going Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work with Diverse Educators was set to be a life-affirming session for the SWIFT Central Team and Delivery Partnership Group. How do we empower everybody to ask questions, share views, and things that should have been said? Typical examples of Courageous Conversations include handling conflict, confronting a colleague, expressing an unpopular idea on a team, asking for a favour, saying no to a request for a favour, asking for a raise, or trying to have a conversation with someone who is avoiding you. Research shows that in particular, many women find such ‘courageous conversations’ to be challenging. Think of the language that betrays who can “get away” with certain behaviours. Men are labelled the boss and women as bossy. These mindsets are reflected in the workplace and how women have been conditioned. Too often, the premise of courageous conversations is associated with conflict, fills us with dread and we descend into a defensive, blame culture that magnifies the existing tension and struggle and becomes a negative scenario. Whereas we need to act in a neutral, open way, without bias and to show a willingness and openness to learn. The fear zone of hurting someone risks inhibiting us and we can worry more about having the courageous conversation than the act of doing it. We waste energy attempting to mind-read what people are thinking and feeling that boxes us in. Know your strengths and what you bring and learn to control yourself. Consider the power in having a conversation. No-one shies away from safeguarding conversations. It should be the same for a courageous conversation that whilst often difficult and necessary, when done effectively, it can have a dramatic impact on how we lead ourselves, the team and/or the organisation. It can be difficult to find a time to talk in a busy school and it is important to book in time and to reframe as part of the workplace culture that builds positive psychology and a collective commitment. But for many of us, we have to step out of our comfort zone to discuss a topic that can be emotionally charged and we fear an emotional response. Whilst we might seek to avoid such conversations, they can help to build an inclusive workplace and push through to the learning zone to learn about ourselves, our team and the wider culture and ultimately, to ensure growth. See Matthew Syed’s book, “Rebel Ideas” that asks if we are open to ideas and the importance of learning how to reframe and negotiate. For example, in asking for flexible working, or a salary raise. We need to build our confidence to build our competences as strategic intent and a framework of training. Intentional psychological safety should be for everyone in the workplace. The ideal reset opportunity is in September at the start of a new term, building in “contracting” for courageous conversations at a neutral and unemotional safe point. All staff should be trained. Not only the dominant, senior and more confident members of staff. Experience shows when all staff are trained, the best response is from operational staff who have never had a voice in the school. Sub cultures across an organisation need careful navigation. By building psychological safety in a school, all staff will have the courage to speak out and share how it will be received and processed with positive intent. Practically, this means creating a subtle and private space, especially in an open office and equally on the telephone. Tell the other person that you are in a confidential space to show mutual respect. There are many advantages of psychological safety (door open policy). Staff feel valued, and are more productive and creative with higher wellbeing, thriving and a feeling of belonging, leading to better staff retention. Energy is conserved as there is an agreed way of talking and less frustration, with more flexible working that is very positively mirrored in the classroom. The negatives of psychological safety (doors shut) are damaging to an organisation. It can result in high absence; staff have a limited sense of purpose and connection and disengagement of staff. When it comes to courageous conversations with parents and carers, it is not always possible to plan for what are often unexpected meetings. Understandably, a parent is emotionally attached to their child and might be defensive if they perceive the conversation to be a challenge. But it is encouraging that this generation of students seem to be more open to courageous conversations. Essentially, understand that we have the responsibility to raise the courageous conversations if an issue or something has happened. Pre-empt. But be aware that one conversation is not the same for everyone. Make the time for the conversation. Be intentional and think through and reiterate the key points. Listen actively and hear through it and do not take it personally and strive to be objective. With the Radical Candor model (Kim Scott) the balance is towards growth and to bring awareness to the person you are having the conversation with. “When you said this, it made me feel like this…” and join up the dots in the conversations. Part of the problem is letting someone behave badly. But if you have a courageous conversation, you can do it in a caring way, “I care about you so I am going to challenge you…” and this can disarm people in a positive way. Think how we modify ourselves to other people and our relationships and the use of language. This modifies from the early phase of a professional relationship in the opening interactions and evolves over time when you have a positive track record. Use a buddy as a sounding board. Then, if difficult situations arise you can leverage the relationship capital from your authenticity, credibility and integrity. Move from impulsion to intentional. With the Fierce Conversations model (Susan Scott), “Create an organizational culture where candor and curiosity are the expectation…Think passion, integrity, authenticity, collaboration. Think cultural transformation. Think leadership.” “Get curious rather than critical.” Part of coaching, reframe questions to how or what – not why. Meet in the middle and learn from it and learn some awareness from each other and tackle the challenge, contracting how to move forward. “It’s the conversations that we don’t have, that cause the biggest problems.” The key principles of fierce conversations are:
If you are good at regulating your emotions you can guide the other person to stay regulated too. Preparation before the courageous conversation is essential to anticipate how they might respond. For example, lesson observation feedback in the person's classroom. If it is good or bad, they will be in their own space. Use emotional intelligence of how and where they are sat in the classroom. Or book a phone call later to suit you both and use an out of office sign, and phones and emails off so that you can give your full attention. “The conversation is the relationship.” The impact of not having a fierce conversation can be the breakdown of employee relationships and a lack of respect for them and us and damaging the organisational/school culture. There can be a mismatch and an unhealthy dissonance culture between what they say and what they do and bad situations can fester. Learn also how to manage the emotional wake and the emotional wake of others. Useful sentence starters can allow time to process. “Am I hearing you correctly to reclarify?” “Can you tell me more..” “What I hear you saying is..” Remember the power of the pause and encouraging comments and always regulate yourself as how you respond will dictate how they respond. Do not hijack their story or interrupt. Do not play one-upmanship and minimise the difference or discount and explain away. Do not get defensive or take it personally or try to validate assumptions. Remember also, self-reflection after the conversation about what went well. A strong strategy is to build opportunities and routines into the way we work. For example, a mid-year appraisal and create an expectation as the norm. As deliberate practice courageous conversations can become the Code of Conduct and working proactively helps to make the workplace a psychologically safe place to work. “We make the weather in our own environment.” Radical candor = consistent behaviour. Proactive to the workplace culture.
Fierce conversation = to resolve something. Not all the time. Reactive to challenge something specific. We thank Diverse Educators lead, Hannah Wilson for guiding us through this empowering session on Courageous Conversations and reminding us of the value of a shared collective, close to our SWIFT heart founded on partnership. Report by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team
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We are seeking to appoint a highly talented Director to lead our Teaching School Hubs’ programmes across Devon, Plymouth and Torbay and to be part of a highly experienced Director and Central Team. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to build on excellent foundations laid through Years 1 and 2 and to outline new routes to improving the quality of programmes and extend further the range of schools that engage with SWIFT. We seek applicants with the ability to deliver professional development at scale through partnership-based approaches and to lead the design and quality assurance of materials, seminars and conferences. The post is based at our Colyton Office and can be flexibly structured to accommodate applicants that are seeking full or part-time employment (1.0 - 0.6 FTE), with the option of office or hybrid working arrangements. We are strongly committed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. For us Diversity means ensuring that diverse representation is built into everything we do, Equity means we remove barriers to access and Inclusion means we embrace and respect the full range of human identities. Safeguarding of children is our highest priority and the successful applicant will be required to complete an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check. More Information Salary | L19-L22* £69,022 - £74,283 p.a. Full-Time / Part-Time, Permanent* (*subject to staffing review confirmation). Start Date | 1 September 2023 Closing Date for Applications | Monday 22 May 2023 noon Interviews | between Wednesday 24 and Friday 26 May 2023 N.B. This post is not suitable for ECTs (NQTs). Colyton Grammar School, Colyford, Colyton, Devon EX24 6HN
Phone | 01297 552327 In this issue, ESW Associate & Strategic Leader of Teaching & Research Schools | Education South West, Roger Pope CBE reflects how history can be traced through the evolution of language and the context of the reasons behind the teacher strikes.
"Never have we had such need for sensitive, subtle, nuanced school leadership as now." You can also read about the Spring Term Curriculum Forum, the ECF Extra session on High Expectations and Behaviour and as part of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work, read an interview with Louise Jaunbocus-Cooper, Co-Founder of MixEd. Have your say in the National Institute of Teaching (NIoT) Consultation on Professional Development and catch-up on the Mother of All Pay Gaps 2023 Conference. We introduce our new sponsor Praestantia Technology and their IT services for school and SchoolPro share insights into Marginal Gains impacting attendance and how they could help your school. Discover more about our sponsors' services from Lyfta who celebrate World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development and Atomi who provide engaging curriculum content to to find better ways to make learning fun. Educatering share their healthy food innovations for schools and find out about working as a supply teacher in the nursery/primary sector in Devon and Torbay with Exeter Supply Partnership. “Sometimes as a person of mixed race leaves you in the middle or left out completely.” As part of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work to raise awareness and continue the conversation about this important agenda, I spoke with Louise Jaunbocus-Cooper, co-founder of MixEd, a platform for educators (and others) to discuss race, racial identity and diversity. MixEd works closely with Diverse Educators, who are leading DEI training across our SWIFT partnership. Mixed heritage is the fastest growing ethnic group in the UK. Mixed race is currently the most under-represented ethnic group in leadership with only 1% of senior leaders of mixed heritage. Founded during the pandemic following the death of George Floyd, MixEd co-founder, Marcus Shepherd contacted Louise in response to her Tweets about her own mixed heritage. Louise has a White-British mother and Mauritian Muslim father and grew up in Oldham in the Northwest and engages in the religious and cultural aspects of her dual heritage – for example, celebrating Easter with her Mum and Eid with her Dad. Whereas, Marcus is a black man of White British and Ghanan heritage who has little contact with his Ghanan family and is immersed in his British family culture. Together, Louise and Marcus believed that they could do something to get their voices across. Exchanges ensued and MixEd as a platform was born that featured their own blogs and with an invitation to other guest bloggers to contribute. The website has evolved from mixed race to intersectionality, including religion and race and sexuality and race. 1. How do you envisage the continued role of education in opening up the conversation about mixed race? Both Louise and Marcus are senior school leaders and value the role of education in providing a space and an understanding about mixed identity. Louise is Deputy Headteacher at Wellington School, a 11 - 18 years school with Academy status in Timperley in Greater Manchester and Marcus is Regional Education Director for E-ACT. I believe it is always important to look at things from an educationalist’s perspective and to consider our outside work persona and how others are treated. Student voice is an essential part of this conversation in education and you can read a powerful blog on the website by Jordan a secondary student of mixed race, sadly, on the fringes of criminality who writes about his experiences and hopes. In my own school, we have looked at decolonisation of the curriculum that required a staff mindset change, beyond a departmental or teacher level as a culture shift about identity. The biggest misconception for me is around the misconception about who you are. I am known as “white passing” because I am still quite fair skinned despite my dual ethnicity that means it stays hidden. People sometimes say things to me - including casual Islamophobia - and do not realise that this is offensive to me. But because I feel that I do not fit into a neat ethnicity space because of the colour of my skin, it does not feel right to be offended. It is the opposite experience for Marcus, as people make misconceptions about his culture due to the colour of his skin and assumptions about his appearance of ethnicity. Assumptions can be based on what people cannot see, which makes it a unique experience for people of mixed race. However, it is significant to note that even people of mixed race are not a homogenous group. They are all very different and with very different lived experiences. I recall an incident when I was a child in McDonald’s in Rochdale with my Mum and brother, who is darker-skinned than me. A lady came up to my Mum and said “How lovely, you’ve got one dark and one white.” It was well-meaning, but clearly inappropriate and growing up in Oldham as a family we were used to overt racism. Part of our MixEd work is providing training in schools to support them on their journey – which starts from reviewing policy to staff training, to the curriculum and we are big on promoting student voice.
In our school, we have a Gender Equality Council who have led awareness campaigns on period poverty, sexism, and gender pronouns. Our Race Equality Council Year 8 students led a thought-provoking assembly on afro-textured hair and talked about the history of hair discrimination dating back to the Transatlantic slave trade and will be leading a future assembly on micro aggressions. Whilst the LGBTQIA+ Council has looked at gender pronouns and making schools safe for transgender students. “As Educationalists, you could say that we have the most important role to influence the future generation.” 2. Are you optimistic in our Black Lives Matter era? Yes, I am optimistic that education is proactive in the post-George Floyd Black Lives Matter sphere and has galvanised thinking. But we need to do more. A growing number of Schools and Multi Academy Trusts are approaching MixEd. So, there is lots of hope of positive change and young people are brilliant. However, I am mindful of the recent Met Police report and blatant racism that was very disheartening, which I believe has a lot to do with the institutional structures. I also worry about immigration rhetoric and racism in certain areas of the country that is polarising one group against another and is often used as a weapon against people. See the recent issues about immigrants in Liverpool. So, there is wider work to be done. 3. What do you consider to be the success (es) of Mix-Ed to date? Quite simply, but significantly, MixEd is a platform that amplifies the voices of people of mixed race and as part of our work, Marcus and I meet some amazing people who want to work with us and we are proud to be the trailblazers in this work. Our collaboration with Diverse Educators is another important space for us and we are grateful for the opportunities provided to us. 4. What are your personal gains in leading Mix-Ed? Huge! Marcus and I are “very, very proud on a personal level” of what we have created today that was conceived from a chance chat on Twitter. It still blows me away how many new wonderful people we meet who are passionate and engaged and want the same things as us and that we can help to make them feel safe. It also affirms a sense that the world is a good place – especially, if and when, you read the doom and gloom on social media. “It heartens me and keeps me going and we can only impact what we can impact.” 5. Looking to the future, what are your main aims for Mix-Ed? The big one is to allocate some more time to MixEd from next year. We will be relaunching the website and will be offering low-cost training to help retain and recruit minority ethnic staff to help support the recruitment crisis in the teaching profession; especially as so many people of mixed identity say that they do not see themselves represented on the staff body. We will also be offering a coaching model from September to coach Early Career Teachers and aspiring senior leaders. And finally, we want others to continue to join us and to feel safe in their mixed identity. We thank Louise and Marcus for sharing their experiences and for their ongoing MixEd work in providing a safe space for others of mixed ethnicity and identity and may it continue to be rewarding, as well as successful. Interview by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team We are pleased to welcome our new sponsor, Praestantia Technology who will be working with us to provide a wide range of IT support opportunities to our schools and Trusts. The Praestantia Team have a background in education and offer exceptional IT and audio visual solutions designed exclusively for education settings, including: Praestantia understand the difference the right IT can make to an outstanding learning environment from their own experience as School Governors, consultants and naturally, IT and from working with educational partners. By looking after your tech, you can focus on the learning. Discover how Praestantia made a difference at Preston Primary School and the successful steps taken to co-ordinate all the individual Trust schools. Passionate about technology, find out how Praestantia Technology can help your school with their innovative, forward-thinking approach. It is intended that our SWIFT sponsors bring relevant value to our Schools and Trusts with their products and services and we are pleased to welcome Praestantia Technology.
Sponsors also support and help SWIFT to invest in our CPD programme to bring high-quality and meaningful speakers and programmes. "Our lives are built on and held together by words." Tuesday 20 June 2023 | 0930 to 1600 Broadclyst Community Primary School, School Lane, Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon EX5 3JG Reading roadblocks can be a daily problem for school communities. For many learners, significant roadblocks interrupt the journey to becoming an avid and fluent reader. The Cornerstone English Hub 2023 Conference will explore the various challenges and hurdles faced by pupils as they embark on their reading journeys and will unpick strategies and approaches to make lasting differences to children and teachers. Words help us to discover new information and imagine new worlds, they underpin human creativity and provide us with the foundations of rational thought. When we help children to learn new words and to love using them, we unlock the limitless possibilities offered through the wonderful world of reading. Join like-minded colleagues at the 2023 Cornerstone English Hub Conference and explore these reading roadblocks and learn how to support every child to overcome the hurdles hindering their reading adventures. Be inspired and reflect on the subject of reading. FREE to attend for all educators, the Reading Roadblocks event will be of most interest to primary English / Reading Leads or Senior Leaders.
30/3/2023 0 Comments SWIFT Spring Curriculum Forum“Curriculum is a never-ending story.” For our Spring Term Curriculum Forum, education adviser, writer and speaker, Mary Myatt shared her curriculum wisdom and experience as our keynote speaker on Refining the Curriculum. A Teacher of R.E. and former Local Authority adviser and inspector, Mary engages with pupils, teachers and leaders about learning, leadership and the curriculum. She has written extensively about leadership, school improvement and the curriculum, and most recently, ‘Huh: Curriculum conversations between subject and senior leaders’ with John Tomsett. A co-founder of the R.E. Quality Mark, Mary is a member of the Curriculum Advisory Group for Oak National Academy. A curriculum should help to encapsulate and inspire, as well as to provide a QA standard that is strong, robust and clear and gets to the spirit and heart of the subject. Teachers need to have higher expectations of pupils. The tendency is to make classwork too easy and to think that they cannot cope. But they can and they want more demanding work. Consider high challenge, but low threat. Learning is only effective if pupils put some effort into it. Research shows they like doing things that challenge them and make them think. This was found to be especially true for disadvantaged students who often have a diminished reading diet. Through reading, their curiosity was stirred and they could ask if they needed help or an explanation. It is essential to consider and understand the concepts that go through the curriculum. Concepts are like holding baskets for information and grow over time and are powerful for children’s learning. Compare and contrast learning to deepen knowledge and consider the value of Tier 3 vocabulary. Find the gateways into subjects. For example, routes into a topic through the origin of words (etymology), Latin and Greek that can deepen knowledge and skill-up pupils. Dinosaur | from the Greek deinos ‘terrible’ + sauros ‘lizard’. Children like to find out and discover. It makes them feel clever and the role of the teacher is to make pupils feel clever. There is a value in learning through stories as we learn more if we have heard about a topic in a story and stories create the picture. “It makes new knowledge stickier.” But the reading deficit needs to be addressed. Make reading enjoyable. It does not have to be considered work. Think of reading as “a collective cuddle” and make time for reading in the day. A well-chosen text will manage complex ideas, visuals, tone, concepts and rich vocabulary. Use a high-quality text to underpin any element of the curriculum Remember stories are not only in written format, but visual as well and see the high-quality recordings like Lyfta’s storyworlds. Open up the curriculum to children and make them think by offering rich reading materials from authentic sources often with vocabulary lists as with Mary’s inspiring examples of beautifully visual books. We thank Mary for her uplifting talk that makes refining the curriculum feel doable and dynamic. Next academic year, SWIFT will be launching one of Mary’s programmes on Refining the Curriculum with five sessions of resources and opportunities, including access to online resources and self-guided sessions in which up to three school colleagues can take part (delivered by the Tarka Learning Partnership). Check out the Myatt & Co CPD film library of films and webinars designed to support schools’ curriculum, pedagogy and leadership. Headteacher of Marine Academy Primary and Director of Education for the Ted Wragg Trust, Siobhan Meredith led the presentation on the Curriculum in Outstanding Primary Schools. Graded Outstanding by Ofsted in two successive inspections (last inspection March 2022), Marine Academy Primary is also a Department for Education Behaviour Hub and a StepLab Coaching Hub. Siobhan strategically leads Disadvantage and SEND for the Ted Wragg Trust and has oversight of primary and all-through schools within the Trust, which is founded on the late educationalist and academic’s beliefs. There is a broad range of Pupil Premium across the Trust schools from 9% to 59% and social justice is key to support the less disadvantaged, and to provide an education which gives the less privileged access to the knowledge they need to succeed. But also, to give everyone a fair chance in their lives. “Senior staff, including Governors and Trustees, lead the school with an unfaltering moral purpose. They are highly successful in raising pupils’ aspirations and reducing social disadvantage. Leaders place no ceiling on any pupil’s learning or ambitions.” (Ofsted) Curriculum can make the difference and at Marine Academy Primary, it is based on the values of Selflessness, Ambition and Collaboration that demonstrate love and support children to succeed and grow into great people with the highest standards. Not only knowledge is needed to nurture the best human beings. Curriculum is more than learning, and includes a behaviour curriculum, values and morals that are essential for children to develop and builds on cultural capital. Marine Academy Primary is “a school full of joy and rigour” with consistency. Too often curriculum is a buzz word. But it is important to remember that it is a not a trendy initiative. It should be the backbone of a school and is bigger than one person. It is better to do fewer things, but in greater depth and to consider how you create the core. So, to be successful, a school needs a great curriculum, culture and pedagogical understanding to deliver excellent results for children and great teachers to deliver the curriculum. A toxic culture kills anything exciting. It is how the curriculum is taught that is important. Mindful of attendance issues across our region, a curriculum can go a long way to encouraging children to be in school as they do not want to miss out. Marine Academy Primary has a culture of high expectations and strong attendance and is proud of their 96.6% attendance to date this year, thanks to the hard work of the school team and 97% is the goal by the end of the school year. Work on the curriculum began in 2018 when Reach Academy Feltham were given a curriculum innovation fund, working on the basis of no ceiling in the curriculum. It comprises all learning and is knowledge rich and considers how all children are going to achieve; tracking back to where children need to be at the end of their GCSEs in in considering what a successful 16-year-old needs to know; mapping lesson-by-lesson, and planning what sits underneath each lesson and ensuring the cognitive conditions are right. Similarly, for the Early Years children, the curriculum is purposeful and planned across the six terms and matched to the key concepts of the National Curriculum: Daily Phonics, Daily Maths, Daily Guided Lessons, Drop Everything and Read, Plan, Do and Review and Independent Learning Time. The Early Years team have an understanding of Year 1 and if a child finishes one challenge, they do it again tomorrow even better Curriculum stars are awarded to the children across all the year groups who have shown a proficiency in the subject and are encouraged to be polite, articulate and confident and to talk about their learning as part of the living by life’s greatest values ethos. As part of Map Manners, they are guided with scripted conversations and the motto: “Work hard, be kind and amazing things will happen” so that ultimately, they are set up as best they can be for the future for secondary school and to be “well-rounded human beings.” As a special addition to the presentation, next up, Marine Academy pupils: Salam, Jessica, Lilly and Isla-Rose memorably talked articulately to share first-hand their experiences of the curriculum: Star | Sit up, Check the Speaker, Answer all Questions and Respect Others. Shape | Think about how you articulate your voices when you answer in full sentences. Map Manners | For example, holding the door open for someone or when you pass through and someone holds the door open for you, say thank you. In English, the children have been learning about all different types of letters, e.g. complaint letters; as well as formal and informal techniques, and the use of emphasis. Progression between year groups is a key part of the curriculum. For example, in Year 5, guided reading books are built on in Year 6 to help with English learning and the children have studied “Beowulf,” along with “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” For the topic of the Industrial Revolution in History, the children have read a book about a little boy whose parents died from cholera and he was put into a factory to work. Whilst for Geography, in Year 5 they went on a fieldtrip to Bellever Forest and identified the evergreen trees and have studied push and pull factors that they regularly revisit and review from Years 4 to 6. For example, on the topic of population growing and decreasing, the children have considered wars and deadly diseases (pushes) and better health care (pull). Geography or History are a focus each term and the other subjects are grouped together. So, in a term where they teach History, Art and Computing are taught and Design Technology and Music are taught alongside Geography. All other subjects are taught every term. The children are encouraged to apply their learning, knowledge and understanding and to use and study texts alongside the topics. In addition, learning takes place outside the classroom with after school clubs and a residential trip in June, plus theatre trips and British Science Week and more. And if a child likes a topic, other books are suggested that they can read at home. It was lovely to see and hear the children’s love of learning and how their knowledge is stored in their long-term memory thanks to their progress, which goes beyond curriculum documentation. The children are a lovely representation of an outstanding school. We thank Siobhan for her uplifting talk and to her and her pupils for sharing their enthusiasm about the curriculum at Marine Academy Primary and the Ted Wragg Trust. Headteacher of Colyton Grammar School Tim Harris led the presentation on the Curriculum in Outstanding Secondary Schools: Playground to PhD. Colyton is an 11-18 years selective school and has been graded Outstanding consistently by Ofsted (last inspection November 2022), positioned as one of the highest performing secondary schools in the region. “The curriculum and the ethos of the school help pupils to develop a strong understanding of the value of people of all backgrounds. There is a culture of appreciation of others for who they are and what they contribute. Students in the sixth form run groups to celebrate those who are sometimes under-represented in wider society. This contributes to the inclusive culture of the whole-school community. As a result, bullying is very rare. If it happens, leaders stop it.” Tim shared a narrative of the curriculum journey at Colyton and how it is important to have a clear purpose and lots of ways to establish the curriculum that meet the needs of your context. The message to students is that they can achieve for life beyond GCSEs and A Levels. The curriculum is a way to support students to excel and thrive at the best universities. But also, to reach their dreams and goals beyond exams and university. With endearing memorable references to The Wizard of Oz, Colyton not only seeks to prepare students to survive; but also, to thrive as creative, resilient, reflective and resourceful young people in an ever-changing world (“over the rainbow”). To show a willingness to go on and acquire further knowledge. SATs, GCSE, and A Levels are all stepping stones in going forward in life. But part of the challenge is to keep moving forwards and curriculum planning is successful when it is underpinned by understanding students’ environment and background in the context of the shared values of Scholarship, Humility and Service. Aspirations are not stable over time and can change and so, constantly, need to be negotiated. Universities and colleges are working with schools and other organisations to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils in order to improve their chances of going onto higher education, gaining a good degree and a graduate-level job. Tim cited the well-known work of Lee Elliot Major OBE, Professor of Social Mobility at Exeter University and the startling research that shows the South West is one of the worst performing regions for the number of disadvantaged students progressing to top universities. A curriculum should have ambition, and direct and allow the opportunity to learn and increase attainment and for attainment to meet aspirations. Work sampling can be an effective tool in checking a curriculum is consistent and clear. When the Colyton Leadership Team was looking at their curriculum statement principles, they reflected on what they needed it to look like. They wanted to create a love of all subjects and to provide the best support for students to achieve their goals through a knowledge-rich curriculum. Extracurricular activities are not separate to the curriculum. They are part of the curriculum as real time activities. Students are almost instructed to try new activities that enables them to adapt their knowledge and skills for jobs and apprenticeships. As part of the planning the Colyton SLT involved Heads of Department and Subject Teams and encouraged them to work backwards from Year 1 undergraduate to Year 7. They provided them with time to plan, by taking a day off teaching to meet as a team to plan their subject curriculum. In September/October, firstly, to help their thinking, following a review of the exam results and later in the Summer Term; which all supported buy-in from staff to be adapted and built upon with ambition. The move to a digital environment has successfully helped to improve the work-life balance. Once a curriculum is designed and implemented, it is important to check that it is engrained and to look at the building blocks and to see progression in everything the students are doing. As a curriculum support, subject specialists are in place, competitions and enrichment are essential components and reading is key. Students are encouraged to be autonomous scholars. Colyton no longer uses effort grades. Students are given a grade on their scholarship and scholarship leaders are developed across the school. It is worth noting, this year, as a high achieving school, Colyton has 14% of Year 13s holding places at Oxbridge. Tim concluded his presentation by returning to The Wizard of Oz and how Dorothy’s journey was as important as the end result of going home. “Remember your experiences.” There is always lots to learn and improve (and to continue the Oz theme, think also of the journeys of the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow) and it is expert teachers who help to create the pathways so that students can achieve these dreams. We thank Tim for his presentation and sharing insights into the successful curriculum at Colyton Grammar School, with his generous invitation for school leaders to visit should they wish to do so. Tim has been teaching for thirty years, in which time he has gained experience through roles as Head of History, Head of Sixth Form and Director of Admissions. The majority of his teaching career has been undertaken in the Thames Valley region of the South East working in a variety of schools in both the selective and non-selective sector before moving to Devon from his position as Deputy Headteacher at Reading School. With grateful thanks to our SWIFT sponsor, Lyfta who put us in the right frame of thinking about curriculum as the award-winning immersive learning platform, supporting teachers to build interactive and curriculum-aligned lessons that ultimately bring learning to life.
Lyfta’s Head of Educational Research, Dr Harriet Marshall works with teachers all around the world and brings the world into classrooms for those young people who might not be able to visit so that they can glimpse at the different ways of living and perspectives. Based on the Global Learning Programme and sustainable goals, Lyfta enables young people to feel a connection with their learning and is a powerful resource that encourages a sense of belonging. Lyfta develops abstract concepts through human stories as 360 experiences that can be mapped to PSHE lessons and other subjects in the curriculum that enable young people to connect with challenging concepts that might otherwise feel distant. For example, deforestation and melting ice caps. Report by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team This next SWIFT Early Career Framework (ECF) Extra session on High Expectations and Behaviour was led by Professor of Social Mobility at Plymouth Marjon University, Sonia Blandford and Retired Headteacher of a PRU and Educational Consultant, Wendy Casson MBE. The “Extras” are free optional sessions available to SWIFT Early Career Teachers and Mentors and their wider school setting to enhance their experience on the ECF and benefit their reflection and practice in their classroom. Founded on 80 years of combined teaching experience and enthusiasm aplenty, Sonia and Wendy’s love of education, teaching and children was palpable and is also rooted in their backgrounds. Wendy comes from a background of a family of six children who were nurtured by their parents according to their different needs and nurturing has been part of Wendy’s practice as a teacher and school leader. Sonia and her twin were part of the Born to Fail study for their first 15 years (which is also the title of one of her books). Financed by a grant from the national Children's Home, the Born to Fail study looked at socially disadvantaged children born in Britain in the week of 3 - 9 March 1958. As children, Sonia and her sister did not care, because those around them did not care; which included failing her English Language O Level five times – although she has made up for it with her prolific 55 published books. There needs to be care and support. Commit, control and inspire pupils and young people to be curious about what they do, about what teachers do, and to be curious about the context and the standards of behaviour. Teaching is a learning journey for everyone. Even when it gets tough, it is a learning experience. Teachers should not always blame themselves. “Embrace the trips and slips.” If a lesson does not work, consider the many other external reasons and events that might be taking place at home. For example, the pupil might be a young carer with family pressures. An understanding of children’s backgrounds can help to support them in school and in addition, an awareness of the cyclical pattern of parents who failed at school and do not know how to parent their own children. The past will affect the present. This needs to be a whole school approach. “Go into the classroom in a positive way and speak to colleagues in a positive way.” Share your good practice and any concerns. Reduce the impact of toxic stress and support children more effectively by helping them to learn emotional self-regulation, show unrelenting positivity and kindness and use language that reduces stress rather than increases it. Relationships are key in school. “You’ve got to give what’s inside you.” Children can work out the frauds and if you do not want to get to know the children in your class, they will not want to get to know you. Maintaining boundaries, of course. Developing strong relationships with parents at home is equally important, and requires the development of skills to enable positive relationships with parents. Involve the parents every step of the way. Consider the six Principles of Nurture: Transitions for children that involve them stepping out of their safe environments can be managed. From home to primary school, then to secondary school and even consider the challenging and sometimes traumatic transitions between lessons. Teachers need to be flexible through the school day. We are all learning. “If we can’t teach to the children, then we can’t teach.” If a child does not (appear to) want to learn, the issue might be that the lesson needs to be pitched in a different way to meet their primary needs. Maintain high standards, and engage with every pupil and know them and understand how they learn. Be aware of misconceptions. If a child will not sit still, it might be that they need a sensory assessment and/or they might have an undiagnosed/ unmet behaviour or learning need. If a teacher is shouting all the time, they have lost control. On-call systems risk disempowering the teacher as the pupil perceives that that teacher does not want them in the class or cannot teach them if, and when, they are withdrawn from their lesson for poor behaviour. Learn from experience. Talk to the child. Confront without confrontation. “Most children love coming to school, some come to school to be loved…” When children feel safe and loved they will thrive and need the following eight things to thrive:
Rather than changing the child, change the support around them, which requires the skills to support the young person. Key Takeaway Action Points
SWIFT thank Sonia and Wendy for leading this insightful and positive session on High Expectations and Behaviour, which was a collaborative effort between Plymouth Place-Based School Improvement, Plymouth Marjon University and SWIFT. The next session in the series will take place on Thursday 18 May 2023 at 1600 and delves into 'inclusive practice' in all classrooms. Look out for more information in the ECF Programme Weekly Newsletter. By Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 March 2023 at 1115 and 1400 We understand that pressure on budgets and staff time is making it increasingly difficult for schools to offer students a broad range of experiences. With school trips and other enrichment activities sometimes seen as expensive and resource-heavy for a regular basis, children can miss out. As part of the countdown to Earth Day, our sponsor, Lyfta would like to invite classes in your school to join them for an exciting FREE live lesson and go on a virtual journey to Ethiopia to explore themes of sustainability, creativity and inventiveness. The live lessons are taking place on Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 March 2023 at 1115 and 1400 (on both days).
As the live lesson is led by Lyfta, there is no teacher prep work required. You only need to sign-up and join with your class on the day via Zoom! There will also be an exciting opportunity for students to be part of the Lyfta Earth Day competition with the chance to win a book bundle worth £100. Exposure to Lyfta’s rich human stories is helping young people across the UK build their cultural capital, curiosity and oracy, as well as develop vital knowledge, skills and understanding. It provides the opportunity for pupils and students to be exposed to people, places and perspectives to whom they might otherwise not have access, in a highly accessible and cost-effective way. “Boys should be happy and successful and able to contribute to society and make it more fulfilling.” Hosted on behalf of SWIFT by Caroline Sherwood, Deputy Headteacher at Pilton Community College, the idea for this professional development programme came from a love of reading and an understanding that the power of a shared text can make anything possible. The programme takes its name from “The Boy Question: How to Teach Boys to Succeed in School” authored by Programme Lead, Mark Roberts, Director of Research and Teacher of English at Carrickfergus Grammar School in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and is the follow-up to “Boys Don't Try? Rethinking Masculinity in Schools” co-authored with Matt Pinkett. Cognisant of the EEF’s Implementation Guide and based on research and evidence, the five sessions will consider the following key areas to implement change:
The plan is to focus on fewer issues, but meaningfully and deliberately to ensure the highest leverage priority. Delegates are invited to think precisely about characterising challenges in their own schools to work towards achieving positive improvements with the opportunity to revisit and act on ideas discussed in the programme. Mark began with the call to action that the well documented gender gap cannot be allowed to continue. Nationally, boys are underperforming compared to girls. Locally, the percentage of boys attaining strong English and Maths at GCSE is 6% below that of girls in Torbay, 7% in Devon and 10% in Plymouth. This first session looked closer at Expectations, Motivation and Relationships. Myhill and Jones’s study at the University of Exeter on “Troublesome boys' and 'compliant girls': Gender identity and perceptions of achievement and underachievement” (2004) asked teachers whether they thought that boys should do as well as girls at school. The results were significant. 80% of teachers from the collection of primaries, one middle and one secondary schools in the study said yes, boys should do as well as girls; which might, at first, appear to be positive. However, it calls into question the 20% who had clearly “written off” boys before they had even started. Teachers were found to refer to attitudes to girls and boys achieving well or not well at school as “typical” behaviour and if they performed better or less than expected, often noted this as an anomaly. In particular, the interesting disconnect was when teachers said that they believed in boys, yet commented negatively, reflected in how they responded to boys in the classroom. Research found more negative perceptions of boys than girls. Recurring words used to describe boys were “fidgety, immature, lazy, disruptive, noisy and apathetic.” Labels, as we know, can be damaging and become generalisations. Labels do not help boys who are switched off and need to find new motivation. Teachers’ preconceptions were found to impact on student performance. Myall and Jones led a follow-up study a few years later and asked students, “Do you get treated differently depending whether you’re a boy or a girl?” 62% said yes, boys get a “raw” deal from teachers in their school with the following key differences:
The delegates considered ways that this different and detrimental gender treatment might look in the classroom:
Negative messages to boys can lead to low expectations and the risk that the academic potential of boys is side-lined due to the focus on their behaviour, which can cloud the judgement of their academic potential. Jackson’s research at the University of Lancaster on, ‘I have a sense that it's probably quite bad … but because I don't see it, I don't know’: staff perspectives on ‘lad culture’ in higher education” (2021) looked at “laddish” behaviour and listed the following behaviour characteristics:
High expectations from teachers are vital. Mark considered the Pygmalion Effect of the self-fulfilling prophecy, in which situations with high expectations lead to improved performance and low expectations lead to worsened performance. Teachers will not admit that they have low expectations. It is often unconscious. But the good news is when pupils sense that teachers believe that they can do well, they notice and respond to expectations. A study by Green, Martin and Marsh at Western Sydney University on “Academic motivation and engagement: a domain specific approach” (2005) described academic motivation as: “Students’ energy and drive to learn, work effectively, and achieve to their potential at school and the behaviours that follow from this energy and drive.” Motivation can be either extrinsic and intrinsic. Generally, girls are more intrinsically motivated and boys extrinsically motivated. Often, girls do not believe that they are clever and work harder in terms of quality and quantity of work and have better concentration and evaluation skills; whilst boys respond better to external rewards. Success leads to motivation, not engagement and there needs to be more consistency amongst subjects. Mark shared his practical tips on how to motivate boys in the classroom: 1. Feed for fulfilment (scaffolding an answer). 2. Rephrase to amaze (add in extras to make it sound like a great answer). 3. Let them write like you (show what excellence looks like and narrow the gap). 4. Do not focus on grades (relieve the external pressures and obsession on goals, encourage boys to enjoy learning instead to reach the goals). And remember, it takes time! Boys can fall back. As part of considering relationships, Mark presented a series of scenarios of misbehaviour and invited delegates to consider how they might respond. In avoiding a confrontation at the start of the lesson e.g. for a uniform infringement, teachers would avoid a public confrontation, regular shouting and be aware of their body language. Time would be given for boys to cool off and reflect and the teacher would use polite, insistent language (“thank you”). Wherever possible, Mark advised the group to depersonalise boys’ behaviour and to deal with it discreetly. Avoid using individual names. Pluralise, so that one particular boy is not centre stage for a telling off. This can be powerful to remove any theatre /drama from the classroom in front of peers. Another pragmatic tactic in the classroom, instead of speaking, Mark highlighted how boys often respond better to non-verbal gestures (see how many you recognise here): How teachers praise boys can also make a difference. Boys prefer private praise. Mark advised against praising for basic behaviour, as it undermines boys’ confidence, as if teachers do not expect them to do anything more complex. Boys like and respond well to positive contact with home for genuine praise and Mark shared his routine of phoning home to parents on a Friday afternoon to end the school week on a positive note. Importantly, praise ideas and the boys’ work, rather than them, as an individual. Research has found the most effective form of communication in helping boys to behave well is direct, but non-threatening, with honestly articulated thoughts and feelings; not using blame, and considering the other’s needs, and trying to patch things up and being firm, but fair. In conclusion, teachers often have lower expectation of boys’ behaviour and academic potential and in order to support boys’ and build motivation, they need to taste success in a subject. The best way to support boys to behave better is for teachers to adopt a calm and direct teaching persona that is ultimately motivating. Delegates asked questions based on their own experiences of teaching boys. Does research show that boys have a dislike of being taught by female teachers? Reassuringly no! Research shows that boys want kind teachers who know their subject. There may, of course, be some openly misogynistic boys; but this would be a question of deeper issues that need unpacking and guiding boys to understand why this attitude is unacceptable. This would raise potential safeguarding implications and additional support for teachers, particularly female teachers. Similarly, how can teachers deal openly with boys’ views on the controversial Andrew Tate? Mark acknowledged that context is key and individual teachers are not expected to work on their own. Work is required school-wide through dedicated staff professional development training, and assemblies etc to convey a positive ethos and culture that deconstructs and unpacks perceptions of what boys seem to like about these negative role models. Is it genuine or provocative? If, it appears to be a genuine obsession, Senior Leadership and safeguarding input may be needed. Importantly, however, boys need to feel that they have been listened to; otherwise, silencing could belie conspiracy theories. One teacher noted their work on the transition from primary to secondary school and how boys can struggle more than girls. Mark agreed that peer pressure in anti-school attitudes can be a big issue for boys in how they perceive reading and writing to be uncool and complete homework with the bare minimum of effort. Notably, boys tend to be less organised; possibly, in part due to the way that they are raised and socialised and expectations on them and they will need to work harder, which takes longer. Is there research that shows boys respond differently to rewards for good work compared to girls? Research shows that boys are more motivated by rewards than girls. But in the long-run, research shows that extrinsic rewards are not good for boys. The risk is that when these tangible rewards cease, boys might stop working. At Mark’s school, they have removed merits and instead, have introduced a small square card presented to pupils: “A positive note awarded by Mr Roberts…” which they can show their parents. This moves away from the idea that boys need to receive something tangible for working and behaving well and is a healthier nudge towards intrinsic motivation. One teacher asked for guidance on how to manage a disruptive Year 11 “boy heavy” (caution the use of “burdensome” language!) double lesson that boys struggle more with. Mark suggested separating the two hours by building in periods of silence as standard expectations and explaining the reason is to work hard and to focus and to incorporate expectation reminders. In seeking advice in how to fight against laddish culture and counterbalance toxic masculinity, Mark encouraged the group to be kind and gentle and to celebrate the good aspects of being a boy; which needs to be school-wide and revisited constantly in tutor time, PSHE etc. Another delegate asked why boys present their work less well. Clearly, teachers like to see all pupils’ work neatly and well presented. Graffiti on work/books can show a lack of focus and poorly presented work can be an act of rebellion. But to maintain motivation, teachers need to balance priorities and feedback on content and not over-obsess and make presentation the main focus. We thank Mark for this launch session that opened up an encouraging discussion in how to teach boys to succeed in school. The next session is on Wednesday 8 March 2023 from 1545 - 1715 and future sessions will deep dive into the key issues that are the most important for delegates’ own contexts: whether behaviour, motivation, and raising expectations. Report by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team
“As an artist, my own style is constantly changing, so it's a good process for me to be forced to stay consistent over a number of weeks and months.” Behind every organisation’s artwork, there’s a story. Or that’s our happy experience at SWIFT. We proudly believe that our distinctive artwork across communications, documents, and socials reflects our vision and values to support schools in achieving the best educational outcomes for all children. The creative process of bringing to life vision and values into pictorial format is an exciting task and this is where our SWIFT artist, Olivia has worked her magic so effectively. We spoke to Olivia to find out more about her creative evolution as our SWIFT artist. 1. How did you come to be the artist for our SWIFT artwork?
I like to think that it has been a series of chance opportunities which have led me to being asked to illustrate for SWIFT. So, it's great to feel that I’ve taken up the opportunities that have been presented to me along the way, which have led to this project. Art has always played a part in my life. At school, I studied Art GCSE and A Level and for fun, I have kept a sketch book alongside my coursework as a space for therapeutic doodling and jotting down ideas. A turning point in my artistic explorations was when I was gifted a tablet for a joint birthday and Christmas present, where I soon discovered a new Apple software digital platform, Procreate, an app which has allowed me to experiment with and progress my style very quickly. I also like to trace my involvement with SWIFT to Year 11 at school, when I entered a Science Department competition to design a post card - which I won! On the back of that competition, other Departments started asking me to undertake designs to represent their subject: English and Geography, Science and Psychology and a few others until I gained the status as a kind of resident digital artist for the school. I don't really agree with the idea of natural talent. Though, as a child, my interest in art was largely encouraged by being told I was 'so talented' etc. It definitely comes with consistency and not being too hard on your own style in comparison to other creators. Having somewhat tunnel vision with regards to my work has foster my skills and, though I have always appreciated other people’s praise and positive comments, I try not to let them define whether a piece of my work is worth sharing or not. It was after I left school that I was contacted by Chris Harris (SWIFT Deputy Director) who had seen some of my designs and asked if I might be interested in designing some artwork for SWIFT. It was a natural leap and I said yes (of course)! 2. Your artwork is lovely and looks and feels right for our SWIFT ethos and identity. But how did you develop this style? It was an iterative process working in a series of calls with Martin Smith (Director of SWIFT) and Chris Harris to discuss what they were looking for. Truthfully, to start with, the SWIFT artwork was not really my core style. I'd describe mine as more detailed and textural, I often use a digital brush which mimics pencil led and include more detail in faces or illustrate patterned clothing or background elements. After a few discussions about what style SWIFT were keen to express, I was able to adapt my work to the current SWIFT style and I think the more abstractified forms and use of block uniform clothing and pupils and staff better conveys the work of SWIFT, and better suits the messaging based on the Teaching School Hub, of say, progress, teamwork etc. It also allows me to express more of a fun element with lively and colourful playfulness. I develop the designs by starting with a few thumbnails, (small compositional sketches the size of a thumbnail) before moving to the development with mood boards and images and a colour palette with more detailed drawings. At this stage, the designs are very loose as I map out the composition by hand using paper and pen, before I use the tablet to sketch out digitally. 3. What have you found to be most challenging in creating the artwork? The most challenging part has definitely been creating a consistent style; not only as this is new territory for me as an artist, instinctively wanting to add more detail and embellish to unnecessary lengths. I kept the importance of keeping a recognisable uniform SWIFT style in the front of my mind and managed to get into a good workflow in order to produce consistently-styled illustrations. 4. What has been most rewarding? Definitely seeing it all come into fruition on the SWIFT website and it was wonderful to see a picture of a SWIFT promotional billboard that featured my style in print; seeing the physical manifestation as it is being used as a product is very rewarding. Also, more recently, I enjoyed designing the SWIFT Christmas cards and refreshing the designs into a new theme and I am currently working on some initial teacher training designs. 5. Do you have any plans to use your artist skills in your career? At school for my Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) I wrote and designed a poetry anthology with my own illustrations. So, I'd quite like to pursue my own writing and illustration work; perhaps with children's or young adult fiction. I am also interested in working in film concept art as a character designer that plots out the look of a film, which would involve being on the creative team working behind the scenes on the film aesthetics and designing what the characters might look like conceptually as a series of studies and ideas before settling on the final look which appears on screen. Whatever and however Olivia uses her art, we are sure that it will be enjoyed as we enjoy her SWIFT artwork designs. Watch out for more to come in the future. Interview by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team SWIFT Summer Conference #SumConf2023 Thursday 15 June 2023 | 0900 - 1545 | Exeter Racecourse We are delighted to launch early details of the SWIFT Summer Conference #SumConf2023 when the following line-up of speakers will be leading the discussion on educational topics of the day:
+ More speakers to be announced soon! New this year! A "Question Time" style session. Watch out for more details. This year's Summer Conference reflects our vision to create world-class opportunities for leaders to learn, develop and connect. We are passionate about enabling schools in the South West to have access to the best of regional, national and research as we know many school leaders experience varying degrees of rural and coastal isolation. We also know your time as leaders is precious and funding limited in schools. Our conference programme will provide choice so that you can select what best meets your interests and priorities. And because SWIFT is not-for-profit, we can offer this high quality experience to members for £80 and £120 for all other colleagues. Great news too if you are one of the 800 leaders currently training on one of our NPQs with LSSW: you are entitled to a 50% discount. A full conference programme will be published in March, but this is an early opportunity to book your place. You can read about our previous SWIFT Summer Conferences HERE Make #SumConf2023 on Thursday 15 June 2023 a date for your diary! Martin Smith, Director of SWIFT This event will be supported by our valued SWIFT sponsors, Goosemoor Educating, Lyfta and others.
Already February, and in this latest issue, ESW Associate & Strategic Leader of Teaching & Research Schools | Education South West, Roger Pope CBE considers the case of Beth and her experience with her school leadership that contrasts with our SWIFT schools and partners: "By engaging with professional development, you are exploring the evidence-based principles of good teaching rather than slavishly following a mantra."
Read the entire feature in the newsletter link below. Find out about our DEI work with Diverse Educators, plus the recent History Masterclass on Revision Strategies led by Carmel Bones. And, if you have yet to encounter The MaternityTeacher PaternityTeacher Project you can read an interview with the founder and lead, Emma Sheppard. Discover our sponsor, Atomi's curriculum-aligned content library ideal for GCSE students and we introduce the National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy (NCELP). 31/1/2023 0 Comments SWIFT History Masterclass Session 3 | Revision Strategies in History with Carmel Bones“Revision is for life. Not only for exam time.” The third SWIFT History Masterclass session was led by a popular personality in the History teaching community. Carmel Bones’ credentials testify to her competence and commitment to the profession. But being in the same room as Carmel – albeit virtually – her enthusiasm and passion for teaching, plus her tried and tested experience from a 30-year teaching career (so eagerly shared) were wonderfully apparent. You can read Carmel’s biography at the end of this report. Carmel’s session on revision comes at a point when reinvigorating this fine art is proving to be a challenge in schools. Carmel is clear that students need to get used to revision, that it requires mental effort by them as the learner and that they are responsible. Teachers can only do so much. Fostering independence and autonomy so that students are motivated to do their own revision is essential. “Students, your learning needs you.” Forget the idea of looking through folders and exercise books to recognise information. Take a blank piece of paper and retrieve the information from the forefront of your mind. Clearly, students have different starting points so cues and prompts maybe needed too. But by embarking on revision skills with the younger years it is natural for GCSEs. Get students into good habits of learning and memorising and retrieving - early. Rather than leave revision until Easter or when the exams are imminent, revise as you go along. Teachers need to be ambitious and do what they can do to support students, to get the information into students’ heads… and the best grades will ensue. Try this tested technique by Carmel’s daughter. Ciara felt that she had been “given” her GCSEs as a child of the Covid lockdown and did not know how to revise for her A Levels last year. So, she fast-filmed herself making old fashioned flash cards, and then tried to recall what she could by mind mapping and noting any gaps, before returning to the flash cards or text books as necessary. This method tested her memory and retrieval and enabled her to note her progress. Ciara’s History grade A* endorses her method. Worked for her! But with the obvious cautionary note to put distracting mobile phones and tablets away when revising! Referring to evidenced research. Check out The Great Teaching Toolkit that encourages hard thinking and embeds understanding. Lots of R words! Reinforce the information. Review and revisit as you go along. Retrieve. Revisit. Retain. Rehearse. The most effective revision is practising retrieval and calling the information to mind. Use it or lose it (as they say)! Also see Dough Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion - a study of the craft of teaching with successful outcomes. Memory is the residue of thought. Make it stick. On that sticky note, Carmel recalled her own Geography teacher guiding her to remember how liquid stays hotter for longer than the land. He literally made it sticky with the treacle sponge principle. Perfect (and delicious!). Other personal examples: PG Whips, à la PG Tips… to remember Parker, Grindal and Whitgift Elizabeth I’s three Archbishops of Canterbury. Use mental models that work for the students and ask them to share how they remember. With gusto and glee Carmel shared a plethora of top tips. Invite students to write a song, or a mnemonic to help them remember the material. Choral speaking: sing it back! Try the catchy Pomodoro Technique (for everyone, including Italophiles!). Use a timer for students to recall information. Register Wars. An idea from Lesley-Ann McDermott shared at the Schools History Project 2017. Tee up the students beforehand. Mix up the students’ surnames and when you call out their name for the register, they have to say a word linked to what you have been studying. Keep it live, active and low stakes and it very quickly shows any gaps. An added twist, include a buzz word that places extra emphasis as the golden word. Given the register is a legal document and students have to answer for their name high participation is guaranteed. Dare to devolve the revision sessions to the students. Get them to lead the class and ask questions and summarise learning. Create a supportive environment and motivate students to make them want to revise. Build class camaraderie and collaboration by planting a secret (student) spy who reports back at the end of a lesson on who has worked particularly well. Students look out for each other and it also means the teacher is not always on the case. Check out the technology. Use multiple choice questions with the free card activity plickers or Ankiapp flash card app. Get the students moving. Harking back to her childhood, Carmel suggested taking revision out of the classroom, say to the school hall. A different (novel) location can boost recall. Inspired by the 1970s children’s tv show “Runaround,” invite students to select multiple choice answers by standing on mat 1, 2 or 3. Make their thinking visible. Go deeper and controversial and work up to an essay question or debate. Another game. Bunch of 5ss. Demoed by willing volunteers, Becky, Paul and Andrew, who in a classroom situation would have been out at the front. Model the rules first: One asks the questions. One answers the questions. One counts the bunch of fives. Set the timer and let’s play! Name five types of cake… Fun either verbal and/or written, the game of 5’s creates an element of competition that students love. They see progress, are motivated and can spy any gaps for urgent revision. This can also be a paper-based activity as inspired by Karen Knight. More games. Create a simple fact board, 6x6 grid. If students land on a square they say five things about the topic. Tarsia puzzles that connect topics. The Bermuda triangle to fill in the missing pieces. Summarising pyramids of information with words and phrases visually themed for the time of year. So, lots of ideas to retain information, next to do something with it and look after it as if it is precious. Learning is a reiterative process. Turn it into pictures or diagrams. Encourage students to make it their own. Testing and study are interchangeable and highlights those important gaps. Get the students to mark each other’s own work. They will want to close the gaps in real time and it also stimulates discussion and pride in their work. Look at the derivation of words that can help to remember and embed subject specific terminology. In a lovely supportive way mirroring school and home, students’ families can get on board too as the teaching triangle. The Protégé Principle, of teacher, student + someone on their side at home who supports their revision. Who would have thought that revision could be such fun? Were it not for the confines of our hour session, Carmel would have clearly raced on with even more ideas and insights. But we were grateful for the time and thank Carmel Bones for being an uplifting and enriching History Masterclass session 3 speaker. We thank Becky Bailey, Executive Director of History of Westcountry Schools Trust for organising the SWIFT History Masterclass Series and of course, our delegates for their whole-hearted participation. Report by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team Carmel Bones | Biography
Carmel Bones is an Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association. A regular conference contributor she spoke at the Historical Association National Conference in Bristol May 2022. During the lockdown, Carmel formed part of the national BBC Daily Bitesize lockdown team producing tailored content for home learning used by millions of families and collaborates extensively in schools across the UK and Europe focusing on all aspects of learning and teaching; real and remote. 2023 Sees the launch of the ReTeach History Podcast series with Carmel as host and two new BBC Bitesize GCSE History series focusing on USA in the 20th Century and Crime and Punishment Through Time. These followed her highly acclaimed ‘Explain This’ and ‘Cluetubers’ Series’ for BBC Teach. In 2020 she was listed in the prestigious Edtech50 for her innovative work bringing the historic environment to life through virtual visits as part of teacher and student webinars and was a finalist in the Teach Secondary Awards Best CPD Category 2022. Carmel’s secondary content work with Clickview and Hodder was nominated for the Bett Awards 2020 and Teach Secondary Awards 2020. Her work on curriculum design was published in Teaching History Magazine in December 2021 and she was appointed to the ReTeach Content Board. She has co-authored two Amazon best-selling Hodder books in the ‘My Revision Notes’ series for GCSE History. Carmel is proud to be a long-standing trainer and team leader for the Osiris Teaching Intervention leading the first secondary and whole school cohorts in Scotland. As part of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) commitment to creating a sense of belonging for everyone, SWIFT is working with Hannah Wilson, co-founder of Diverse Educators. Initially a grassroots network, Diverse Educators is now a training company working with all types of schools to support their DEI strategy and training needs, in the belief that schools are stronger, and can go further together, in collaboration with national and international organisations. VISION | Everyone is celebrated in every classroom in every school. MISSION | A collaborative community that celebrates the successes and amplifies stories of diverse people. VALUES | Promoting acceptance; increasing visibility; encouraging celebration; creating belonging and enabling learning. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion celebrates the nine Protected Characteristics identified by The Equality Act (2010) SWIFT is endeavouring to understand the needs of all the nine Protected Characteristics groups and seeks to improve a sense of belonging. As part of this pledge, we have created consistent branding and are creating new representative artwork and photo images as improved imagery on our website and socials that and humanises our community. DEI should be about celebration, not tolerance (as in the hero image below): For Diverse Educators, DEI is about the three Cs: Consciousness, Confidence and Competence. Diverse Educators will be providing training and support for SWIFT, our partners and schools; incorporating the development of our DEI Policy and Procedures, strategy and vision and we are embedding DEI through a partnership committee to leverage insights and diversify perspectives. Improving our DEI awareness and how we use inclusive language will increase our confidence and enable us to increase our competence to share within our team, and also help us to raise awareness of our shared goals and approaches with everyone we work with: our partners, school leaders and teachers, Early Career Teachers, Mentors, trainers and trainees. We want to breakdown any barriers so that everyone feels included. For our training events we are seeking to make reasonable adjustments to ensure accessibility and we have been striving to increase the diversity of speakers at our SWIFT conferences, Curriculum and Leadership Forums and CPD events. Last Autumn Term, we provided menopause training and maternity / paternity training and established a SWIFT Equality & Diversity Professional Community led by Ruhaina Alford, Executive Headteacher of The Carey Federation (find more information about the April meeting here | free to SWIFT members and £25 for other colleagues). We are reviewing our staff recruitment and retention policies so that everyone feels welcomed and a sense of belonging with equitable opportunities for career advancement. The number of people being promoted in education to senior leader positions is low, especially here in the South West, particularly for women and black people and as part of our initial teacher training responsibilities, we will be putting DEI at the centre of our new SWIFT SCITT. Ultimately, at the heart of our affirming, validating and celebrating diversity, equity and inclusion, we understand that this will positively impact on our pupils and young people and we welcome news of any interesting DEI work undertaken by our partners. More Information and Resources To support the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion journey in your school, you can find lots of free resources on the Diverse Educators website, including a toolkit, a DEI Directory organised by the nine Protected Characteristics, and key words and acronyms. When scheduling events in your organisation, you can find a list of awareness and celebration days/weeks/months of religious and cultural significance. Listen to the #DiverseEd Podcast in which co-hosts Nick Kitchener-Bentley and Yamina Bibi interview a contributor from each of the 10 chapters of “Diverse Educators: A Manifesto.” For regular news and views, read the Diverse Educators blog. Report by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team In this January issue and the first for 2023, ESW Associate & Strategic Leader of Teaching & Research Schools | Education South West, Roger Pope CBE reflects that "teachers would make great robins."
You can find out why in the newsletter link below. Back in the classroom, rather than the garden, you can also read about our continued work to build on success through our partnership, the key principles from the Making the Difference for Disadvantaged Pupils programme and Curriculum Leads can find out how to apply to be lead a workshop lead at our Spring Term Curriculum Forum and discover more about our sponsor, SchoolPro TLC's upgraded Data Protection portal. 29/11/2022 0 Comments SWIFT Autumn Leadership ForumLevelling Up the South West | Lee Elliot Major OBE “All the secrets are within our own system.” Thanks to the ease of online forums, we were delighted in early November to be joined by Lee Elliot Major OBE as keynote speaker at our Autumn Term Leadership Forum in transit home to the South West from a trip to Norway. As Britain's first Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter, Lee spoke with practical passion on “Levelling Up the South West.” An essential issue that is adding traction to the North-South Westminster debate. Delegates were particularly privileged to be in the audience the day before a hot-off-the-press feature in Schools Week. Lee hardly needed to remind school leaders that the classic images of the South West’s beautiful coastlines and landscapes - and not forgetting, the time-honoured cream tea, can too often mask the level of disadvantage within our region. As his starting point, Lee explained his involvement in the pivotal “Social Mobility in the South West | Levelling up through Education” report. Supported by the Cobalt Trust, the report published in April 2022 highlighted the region’s poor social mobility and unique challenges, and offered practical and impactful recommendations. Very pleasingly, the report is proving to be a call to action, and has clearly “lit some fires;” successfully bringing people together who have been thinking about the same issues and are now working together to find realistic solutions. The report figures were stark. Educational outcomes for poorer children in the South West are very low. In 2019, disadvantaged pupils in the South West were furthest behind at the end of both the primary and secondary stages of their education. Fewer disadvantaged pupils attained basic English and Maths GCSE qualifications and fewer went on to university than in any other region nationally. Recommendations focus on the following:
Data is being published on the disadvantaged for MATs across the region and nationally, developing a “school scorecard” that is more than the binary free school meals. Lee’s energy and excitement about implementing the report’s recommendations was evident. Aptly, he is an advocate for more explicit policy on levelling up in order to understand disadvantage at a deeper level and to seek how to address some of the issues and “best bets” for improving progress. Lee is working beyond the South West and speaking to lead national providers, as well as presenting to the Labour Front Bench, and the current Government. In case you were wondering (like one of our audiences), what in Lee’s opinion is the single most important thing that schools can do to better support their disadvantaged pupils without any extra funding?
Parental engagement. Too often, it is a weak spot for schools in how they interact with parents. So…as starter advice from Professor of Social Mobility, Lee Elliot Major OBE. Develop a focused parental education strategy: re-think home visits, home school agreements, and parents’ evenings and offer dedicated advisory sessions. Consider neutral meeting venues for those parents who never come into school and communications with parents. Reassuringly, Lee reminded school leaders that excellent practice is already in existence in all schools. Be innovative. Not least as schools face straitened funding in the future. “All the secrets are within our own system.” We thank Lee Elliot Major for joining us at our Autumn Leadership Forum and for sharing his insights and positivity into levelling up the South West. Report by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team Our sponsor Lyfta recently presented at our SWIFT Character Education Professional Development Community on the topic of "Flourishing for All – Implementing and Embedding." Character Education is one of the core Lyfta focus areas, and is at the heart of education - and it could be said to be our true legacy as teachers. Lyfta considers here how character and values-based learning can be made part of the curriculum. When you were at school, who was your favourite teacher and why? When I ask teachers this question, they often focus on those who were kind or caring or passionate. Qualities and values that went well beyond knowing their subject well. As teachers, we want to help young people realise the best version of themselves, particularly in our ever-changing world. Character and values-based learning equips students for the future and sits at the heart of what we do as educators, but it's not always easy to embed it into classroom practice. When I was working as a secondary teacher, my Headteacher used to encourage us to ‘teach the children in front of us’. Sounds obvious doesn’t it? But ultimately, we often teach to our own style, our own tastes and preferences. What we have to do is consider every individual we have in front of us and what they need, based on their experiences. “Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author.” RUDINE SIMS BISHOP Academic, Rudine Sims Bishop, explored children’s literature and the extent to which children's literature is written by African American authors and represents African American characters. In her work, she advocated for books to become more than simply windows, allowing us to look in at other people. Instead, she suggested that stories should act as mirrors, allowing children to see themselves reflected back at them and even better is when they act as sliding glass doors, allowing us to step into another's life – to experience what they do, and learn to empathise with them. As teachers, we can develop values and character in our children by giving the opportunities to both see themselves reflected and experience the lives of others. Beyond our own moral obligation to support students to become the best version of themselves, there are also statutory requirements that every school must adhere to. For example, the Ofsted framework expects students to behave respectfully and courteously, as well as the school providing lots of opportunity for personal development. The newest RSE statutory guidance, released in 2019 and updated in 2021, outlines the ways in which schools must teach and support students to develop healthy and respectful relationships. There is also an expectation for all schools to provide spiritual, moral, social and cultural education, which includes moral and social skills and values. Lyfta gives teachers the opportunity to nurture the whole child, build character and embed values, including resilience and service. Its immersive platform can help you to embed positive values in your classroom and equip your students for the future through its world of positive human stories. Each story has its own 360 degree environments, unique soundscapes and powerful short films to immerse students fully in a world beyond their own. Students meet with individuals from communities across the globe, connect with their inspiring stories, and reflect on their values. Our Kids’ Cup storyworld, which features the journeys of five young people competing in an international children’s football tournament, is one of many that helps teachers introduce values including perseverance, resilience and leadership to students. Independent research conducted by the University of Tampere has also shown that Lyfta’s immersive human stories help students to develop empathy and understanding for those who are different from themselves. By Anna Szpakowska, Lyfta Professional Development Lead Explore Lyfta for FREE when you register for the Lyfta starter, no-obligation trial. You may wish to explore the Department of Education’s Character Education Framework Guidance. Whilst it is not mandatory, it provides a possible starting point for schools considering how they embed character education into their curriculum and wider school life. The countdown has begun for the Men’s Football World Cup 2022. As excitement grows about the competition, teachers can leverage this exciting opportunity to harness the power of sport to nurture positive values in the classroom. Join Lyfta for a FREE live lesson, delivered by their team beamed directly into your classroom via Zoom.
Your students will enjoy an immersive story from the Lyfta Kids' Cup series as a collective experience with other schools across the UK. Sessions are running on: Wednesday 30 November 2022 at 1130 and 1415 Friday 2 December 2022 at 1130 and 1415 (with separate sessions available for older and younger learners). No preparation or account is required. Simply sign-up and join via the Zoom link on the day. To find out more and secure your place click on the link below. Lyfta looks forward to sharing a powerful storyworld experience with your class. At the start of October, we were glad to be joined by Senior Leaders, Curriculum Leaders and other colleagues for our Autumn Curriculum Forum led by national and regional expert curriculum speakers. The termly Curriculum Forums are designed to explore models and approaches to curriculum design, including the implications of Cognitive Science, and how to prioritise curriculum knowledge and content. The Forums also consider equality, diversity and inclusion and explore how leaders can ensure these values are enshrined across curriculum development, and consider the implementation for inspection and beyond. Part A | Keynotes “The most fundamental reason to choose curiosity isn’t so that we can do better at school or at work. The true beauty of learning stuff, including apparently useless stuff, is that it takes us out of ourselves, reminds us that we are part of a far greater project, one that has been underway for at least as long as human beings have been talking to each other. Other animals don’t share or store their knowledge like we do.” (“Curious: The Desire to Know and Why your Future Depends on it,” Ian Leslie). "Principles of Meaningful Curriculum Development" | Kat Howard With evident enthusiasm for all things curriculum, Kat Howard opened this launch event with her keynote on “Principles of Meaningful Curriculum Development,” looking at how to align subject and school curriculum and shared her experience and expertise with some invaluable takeaways. Director of a large MAT Teaching School Hub, with experience as a school senior leader, Kat is author of the bestselling “Stop Talking About Wellbeing: a Pragmatic Approach to Teacher Workload” and is also co-author of “Symbiosis: the Curriculum and the Classroom.” An in-house Expert Adviser for the Teacher Development Trust, Kat writes curriculum content for the Reformed NPQ Leadership Suite. Curriculum development is a fundamental aspect of school life and is linked to teacher workload and retention and is one of the reasons teachers often state for leaving their post due to the disconnect and discontentment from wasted time on what they perceive to be fleeting initiatives. Hence the value of ensuring best intentions in crafting a curriculum do not go to waste. Often cited by teachers as the top two bests of teaching are: 1. Talking to students and 2. Teaching their subject. Kat encouraged leaders to empower Subject Leaders to design the curriculum as she believes they are best placed to make decisions about the curriculum and, of course, all subjects are different. Curriculum conversations are a must as curriculum implementation can be a fragile process. Interrogate the problems of the curriculum, explore and prepare the monitoring and evaluation as an ongoing process. Think objectively. Learn to critique. Is your curriculum fit for purpose for your school and students? Even if this means stepping away from an agreed national standpoint. A vital starting point is to create a shared language for the curriculum. Consider whether students can access the information and move to the next stage within the subject curriculum as a granular process. Be more informed by the substance of the teaching and be aware that oracy has an important part to play. Ensure a sense of balance and share as much as possible. Mitigate where misconceptions are more prevalent. Ask the right questions and interrogate the problem in the first place. In understanding the common barriers to curriculum development, leaders need to consider a shared purpose and make peace with the fact that working with children changes every year. Considering professional fulfilment in the process rather than the outcome can make a difference. Curriculum development can be the tension of balancing autonomy whilst contributing to a collective purpose. Prepare teachers in the design and development of the curriculum and work collaboratively together in an atmosphere of support, trust and feedback to improve student outcomes. Ensure everyone feels like a subject expert to teach the curriculum. So, what does your successful curriculum look like? Agree a theory of action process before any changes to the curriculum are made as a dialogical (= the use of conversation or shared dialogue to explore the meaning of something). Be tangible in the way the curriculum is discussed in identifying the problems. Look for evidence through conversations with staff and students. Ask deliberately provocative questions. How does it challenge students’ thinking so they can go out into the world and question for themselves? In sustaining curriculum development, it is essential to keep teachers at the heart and consider: What do we teach? Why do we teach it? Does it look as we imagined? What can we do to build on what’s working? Above all, do not compromise on the curriculum. Kat encouraged leaders to devote three days at the end of the Summer Term as protected time for curriculum discussions. We thank Kat for her energising talk and her guidance and encouragement in developing a meaningful curriculum. Follow Kat on Twitter at @saymiss and read her blogs at www.saymiss.wordpress.com "Approaches to Decolonising Curriculum Knowledge" | Marlon Moncrieffe School leaders and educators understand the significance of equality and diversity in the curriculum, but this awareness was undoubtedly brought into public prominence and perception by the 2020 Black Lives Matter international protests. Next keynote speaker, Dr Marlon Moncrieffe led on this agenda with his talk on “Approaches to Decolonising Curriculum Knowledge” in how policy relates to theory and practice. Principal Lecturer at the School of Education at the University of Brighton, Marlon is the Knowledge Exchange Leader and Chair of the Research Ethics and Integrity Committee. His academic research work and expertise focuses on decolonising primary school curriculum knowledge with the aim of enabling and advancing critical consciousness in teaching and learning. Formerly a primary school Assistant Headteacher, Head of Maths, English and also Physical Education, Marlon is a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and Council Member of the British Educational Research Association. As part of his research, Marlon engaged with the UK Parliament and House of Commons Education Committee to share his work; and through the Chartered College of Teaching, he has created resources that champion inclusive and equitable approaches to education, teaching and learning and to guide teachers in how to have confident conversations in the classroom. A child of the Windrush generation, Marlon reported how his research into centring the “Black” British voice in teaching and learning has found that nothing much has changed in the History curriculum from a UK perspective. The colonial time-warp persists with the past recurring in the present: from the slave rebellions across the Caribbean up to the Black Lives Matter antiracism protests in the 21st Century. It is a false justification of the hierarchical power of one racial group to be given more privileges in society. Macpherson’s recommendations in response to the murder of black British teenager Stephen Lawrence called for the decolonisation of curriculum knowledge and antiracist education to combat institutional racism. However, the National Curriculum has not changed in response to Macpherson’s recommendations. Teaching and Learning of British History has come under sharper scrutiny with calls for changes to the Conservative National Curriculum History getting louder and over a quarter of a million people signed a public petition calling for cultural diversity with Marlon working alongside other academics to share their findings. However, in response, the Government maintained that the Gove Education Curriculum Policy was “broad, balanced and flexible.” Yet Marlon showed how this denies the dominance of the one-dimensional Anglocentric and Eurocentric (= whites only) historical starting points throughout the statutory National Curriculum content, e.g. “Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots” and “the Vikings and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England.” Multicultural Britain = diversity in white and black. A curriculum should be broad or else it risks being narcissistic and, in this case, the British Government become the History-makers of identity. A hegemonic (= ruling or dominant in a political or social context) curriculum creates narratives for teachers to deliver. But it is important to be critically conscious. Time can bring about change in political consciousness and this can be challenged for relevance for the now and the future. Too often, Marlon found that when teachers are asked what British History in the curriculum means to them, they simply restate the National Curriculum content and their own existing knowledge, e.g. the Tudors, World War I and II. In other words, Anglocentric History as a cultural preproduction. Hence the value of a critical historical consciousness in the curriculum and as teachers, to take note when drawing up Schemes of Work to challenge policy and reform. We thank Marlon for his thought-provoking presentation and the reminder that it is good to challenge our sense of history across the British Isles. Follow Marlon on Twitter at @DrMoncrieffe Part B | Workshops Part B of the Curriculum Forum was opportunity for delegates to choose from a range of phase-specific workshops. Amy Le Bredonchel | Primary | Curriculum Design: Knowing, Thinking and Communicating. Based on the principles of a Trivium approach, this workshop presented the principles behind a linked curriculum that ensures progression, retrieval and opportunities and showed how the questions ‘Why this? Why now?’ have been addressed, underpinned by the aim that remembering more, is knowing more. Ruhaina Alford | Primary | Whose Culture has Capital? Approaches to diversifying your curriculum to prepare children to be global citizens. Exploring the rationale behind why we should be doing this work; this workshop explored practical examples in various curriculum areas as to how we can reframe how we teach. Re-examining how certain subjects are taught through a western or colonial lens, and re-framing. Tom Graham | Secondary | Prioritising the curriculum at a whole-school level. This workshop explored how a focus on curriculum at whole-school level has helped to drive a deeper understanding of curriculum by all teachers and explored the structures to train teachers and quality assure the curriculum within a secondary school setting. Holly Pennington | Early Years | Language Led Learning – closing the word gap in the Early Years. This workshop looked at how this language-led spiral curriculum is implemented over an academic year, and the impact on children’s transition into Reception and beyond. Toni Smyth | Primary | Supporting primary schools to transform P.E. experiences for EVERY child, teacher and family. Given ambitious P.E. curriculums have the potential to transform experiences for every child, this workshop explored the intent and how schools can use the P.E. Premium for solutions that support teachers to implement effectively P.E., and have the greatest impact on the children in their care. Matt Pennington | Primary | How can Cognitive Science Drive Greater Outcomes for Early Readers? This workshop explained the intent of designing an early reading curriculum centred on Cognitive Science and looked at the implementation and how the cognitive science is embedded in long, medium and short-term planning and the significant impact it is making on the lowest 20% of pupils through quality first teaching. Annabel Skelton | Secondary | 'Book Club': The Jewel in the English Curriculum Crown. Book Club is an hour a week for all Key Stage 3 students, and is dedicated to the reading and academic discussion of a challenging text that complements learning within the curriculum. Using reciprocal reading strategies: summarising, clarifying, predicting and questioning, it explains how students are encouraged to see themselves as literary critics: building background knowledge, developing vocabulary and improving reading fluency. Harriet Marshall | Crossphase | A curriculum that prepares for life, learning and work through the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs or Global Goals) are an ambitious framework for not only a better world, but also for a relevant and empowering school curriculum. This workshop looked at why a growing number of schools are developing their curriculum by linking to the 17 SDGs. Anthony Lees | Approaches to Formative Assessment in Primary Computing. This workshop considered and exemplified a range of formative, low stakes assessment mechanisms for instant feedback for teachers and learners through the lens of Primary Computing and considered how Computer Science concepts, such as sequence, repetition and condition can be reviewed with a range of digital tools and become embedded in the learning cycle for teachers and pupils. We thank and are grateful to all our contributors for sharing their curriculum experience and expertise, and providing considered sessions for our Curriculum Forum. Watch out on our social media channels for details of the Spring Term Curriculum Forum. Report by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team 31/10/2022 0 Comments Sport England Programme Findings | Insights for Schools and Sector Partners + FREE Top Tips and ResourcesSport England, in association with Sheffield Hallam University, Youth Sport Trust, Activity Alliance and Association for Physical Education, has shared key insights from its Secondary Teacher Training (STT) programme. Research explored how Secondary Schools can adopt inclusive practices and incorporate student voice to provide a better P.E., school sport and physical activity (PESSPA) environment for students. Inclusivity, increased participation and student voice were the dominating topics brought to life through pupil-focused research. Giving young people, especially those who are less active, the chance to shape their P.E. lessons created a happier environment. Getting to know and understand students’ motivations and barriers can help to encourage enjoyment and engagement, and that the least active students do not recognise opportunities to be active at school, as easily as their active peers. To showcase the findings, Sport England has created five infographics detailing key outputs from the STT programme to be shared far and wide across the teaching community. Teachers can access tips that answer questions about why P.E. matters and why P.E. makes a happy school; as well as insight on how to make P.E. great and accessible for all students. In addition, Sport England has also developed 10 short films that feature case studies of teachers and students positively impacted by the programme. The films highlight the easy-to-adopt ways secondary school teachers have implemented new approaches having completed the STT programme. The films focus on themes such as; why an inclusive approach is key to increasing participation, why a changing approach to P.E. makes students think differently, and easy ways to incorporate student voice. The research also talks about the importance of activity in schools, with a view to the following benefits it has on the mental health of young people:
The STT programme was created in 2018 to support secondary schools with access to professional development opportunities that support teachers in placing pupils' enjoyment at the heart of PESSPA participation. The research was conducted throughout the £13.5 million Lottery Funded programme that impacted more than 2,500 secondary schools across England.
ESW Associate & Strategic Leader of Teaching & Research Schools | Education South West Roger Pope CBE opens this October issue reflecting on the concept of a servant leader in the context of the recent passing of Her Majesty the Queen:
"The very fact that you are reading our SWIFT newsletter suggests to me that you have a predilection for this kind of leadership. To be passionate about staff development means at least two of those servant leader traits are core to your vision and purpose as a leader: commitment to the growth of people and building community." In this first issue of the new school year, you can read about the launch of the SWIFT WalkThrus programme, the first SWIFT History Masterclass on Literacy and Vocabulary: The Power of Words led by Josh Vallance of Oasis Academies and gain an insight into the role of one of our Directors + more besides PLUS features from our sponsors. 29/9/2022 0 Comments Interview with a SWIFT Partner | Director of West Country Training School Alliance (WCTSA) Jen KnowlesDirector of West Country Training School Alliance, Jen Knowles presents a palpable excitement and commitment to her role and all the more so this academic year with SWIFT’s expansion of the Appropriate Body Service and Early Career Framework she is working full-time in the role. 1. How long has West Country Training School Alliance (WCTSA) been a SWIFT partner? Since its inception as SWIFT (South West Institute for Teaching) - officially from April 2021, before the fully fledged programmes got underway from September that year. Although it is fair to say that we were involved in prior strategic planning with Colyton Grammar School in its early stages as a Teaching School Hub through conversations with SWIFT Director, Martin Smith. It is certainly great to be on board working in partnership as SWIFT and I continue to be enthused and excited about us working together. 2. What are the benefits to West Country Training School Alliance as a SWIFT partner? Lots! First and foremost, having a strategic say in the professional development for our schools is a huge benefit as opposed to a top-down approach. I value the way that all the SWIFT partners, including WCTSA, can have input in developing the Universal Programme of continuing professional development and other training programmes. I also value the way we work towards common goals in partnership with national leads and providers. For example, working with Teach First, English Hubs, Research Schools, Schools Trust in building positive working relationships on a national and local level and it is great to be leading the popular WalkThrus programme for SWIFT working in partnership with national speaker, Tom Sherrington. As a SWIFT partner, we take an active role in certain areas of the Teaching School Hub delivery, including the Appropriate Body Service for Colyton Teaching School Hub. Engaging in early exploratory work in choosing our national partner for the Early Career Framework delivery and the support and development was also beneficial. Building on our work as a legacy Teaching School Alliance in networking with leads and teachers through our Professional Communities network is both beneficial and enjoyable. Ultimately our work with SWIFT enhances the positive profile for West Country and validates the two-way process of our established alliance of schools whom we continue to support, combined with our hands-on role as a SWIFT partner. It is definitely more effective working together for a wider reach across the region - and beyond, in working together as two Teaching School Hubs united as SWIFT, offering a range of courses. 3. What are the benefits to you personally as Director of WCTSA? I relish my very varied role and I look forward to doing it every day – I am passionate about the process of professional development from supporting trainee teachers to Headteachers, as a perfect exemplification of the Golden Thread. I also appreciate Martin’s proactiveness in continuing to upskill, push and upgrade us for our own professional development as SWIFT Directors. For example, the Kingsbridge Research School Theory of Change training was instructive for my work as a Director. Within the SWIFT team, there is an incredible amount of expertise and I feel very grateful working and learning from fellow like-minded professionals every day. 4. What are your goals and aspirations for this academic year working with SWIFT? As a lead partner for the Appropriate Body Service (for Colyton), I am keen to build on the success of last academic year - and to continue to strengthen our support for Early Career Teachers at what is a really integral time in their career in terms of the support that they need. I aspire to continue our networking with schools and to be open and visible as a SWIFT partner in continuing to strengthen and support teachers with high-quality professional development opportunities. The new WalkThrus initiative will continue apace and it is great to be working with a large number of schools on the launch, supporting them to implement coaching programmes based on the Walkthrus in their schools. Similarly, I want to continue to expand our Professional Communities using the feedback from our members to drive the input that we provide for teachers so that it is personalised to their needs. For example, last year, the common consensus in one of our communities was that they really wanted some CPD on subject specific Ofsted deep dives and we were able to facilitate this for them and it was in turn very positively evaluated. We have some very exciting new Professional Communities, such as Food which are providing opportunities for professionals who might otherwise be working individually or in very small teams to collaborate with other professionals across the region. 5. What are your longer-term expectations of working within the Teaching School Hub programme? A big question! Obviously, I want WCTSA to reach out to more schools and to continue to strengthen our relationships with existing schools which is so important within the Teaching School Hub model. We aspire to continue to provide further opportunities for schools and teachers across the Golden Thread building on the feedback that we receive to ensure that everyone gets exposure and access to the best evidence informed practice and support. Striving to be even better. We thank Jen for her reflections and we also very much value working with her and WCTSA. Interview by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team 27/9/2022 0 Comments Sustainability Support for SchoolsFind out more about our sponsor Computeam's work to support sustainability with IT that lowers schools’ energy costs, CO2 emissions and drives sustainability. That’s why they're thoughtful about the partners they work with.
For example, Computeam supply laptops and Chromebooks from Acer because they have one of the best sustainability programmes as a technology manufacturer. For example, 80% of an Acer Vero laptop is composed of recycled Ocean bound plastics. Acer also offer 70% reduction in carbon emissions from an average mixed environment of desktops and laptops. Working with PX3, a team of scientists providing sustainability assessments to a wide range of customers and via PhD research, in partnership with the University and Business School of Warwick; PX3 found an 84% reduction in CO2 emissions across a typical legacy estate of Windows desktops when using Acer. Coupled with cashback incentives via Acer’s Green Rewards; an overall Trust-wide user device strategy from Computeam can significantly reduce both operational and capital costs. So what are Acer’s Green Rewards? Put simply; you get a valuation of your old energy-zapping kit, purchase new devices, make a claim, have your old devices collected and then receive your cash reward! In five easy steps you’ve offset some of the cost of newer, energy saving devices and helped to lower your carbon footprint whilst doing your bit for sustainability. Given the targets for all Government Departments to ensure sustainability and decrease carbon dioxide emissions; including the Department for Education (DfE); it is no surprise that large scale projects funded by the DfE seek to push Schools and MATs to declare carbon offsetting. How will your School account for this should it be required? Yet, it's not only user devices. Large scale infrastructure projects, such as replacing whole Networks and Switches can incur huge costs. Through Computeam's partnership with Aruba-HPE, you can benefit from 0% interest loans directly from Aruba-HPE and even a ‘buy back’ of legacy kit, reducing cost and saving you money. Speak to a member of the Computeam Team who will assess your wireless network and advise on moving to a mobile device strategy that will reduce the number of energy-draining switches and the demand on your electricity bills. As a Cloud First provider; Computeam look to replace energy-zapping Servers with all the associated costs of maintenance and possible failure, with a cost-save Cloud solution. Assuming a server utilises 136 watts at 100% efficiency, did you know that keeping a server operating 24/7, 365 days of the year - assuming a cost of 35p per kWh for electricity - will cost you £4,169.76 per annum! The older the server, the less efficient it will be and costlier to run! Now consider schools running two or more servers... So, schools are invited to speak to Computeam about a move to the Cloud that makes sense. But what about Computeam's credentials pledge regarding sustainability? Like Acer, Computeam are in partnership with Ecologi who plant trees (whole forests actually) that ensures a lower carbon footprint of all employees both at work and in their day-to-day private lives! For the last 14 months Computeam have reduced 617 tonnes and planted 8,673 trees; supporting 21 projects to generate new carbon-zapping forests! See more information here Contact Email or call Computeam directly to discuss any aspect of your IT requirements and how they can help you to save costs. Paragraph 221 of "Keeping Children Safe in Education (2022) states that: “schools and colleges should consider carrying out an online search as part of their due diligence on the shortlisted candidates. This may help identify any incidents or issues that have happened, and are publicly available online, which the school or college might want to explore with the applicant at interview.” Our sponsor, SchoolPro TLC works with schools to provide specialist expertise and explains what this means for schools. Consider the Purpose of this Processing In this case, it is part of your recruitment process so any data that you collect or process as part of this, should only be used for that purpose. Lawful Basis Make sure you know what lawful basis you are using for this processing. As this is being proposed within statutory legislation (i.e. KCSIE 2022), the lawful bases that apply are likely to be Article 6(c) legal obligation or Article 6(e) public task. In this case, Article 6(e) would seem to be the most appropriate if you are a state school. If you are a private school, Article 6(c) would be relevant here. Actual Data Consider what actual data you are going to be processing. Are you going to be keeping any results from these online searches? If so, what? And for how long? And how are you going to keep the data secure? This essentially covers a number of the principles of the UK GDPR such as data minimisation, storage limitation, and integrity and confidentiality. Retention In terms of retention, use your retention schedule (refer to the IRMS Toolkit or similar) to identify how long you might consider keeping any relevant data from the searches. Make sure this is proportionate to the purpose. For most checks, you might record in your SCR that the check was conducted. For others, you may want to keep the evidence in case of a challenge before securely destroying it. Consider Transparency Your job applicant privacy notice should make it clear that this data is going to be processed and explain some of the points above. You should also consider a statement on your application form. Job Applicant Privacy Notice Template
An updated job applicant privacy notice template is available on the SchoolPro portal (in Global Documents). Contact For more information or if you have any questions, you can contact SchoolPro TLC. |
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