How will the New 2016 Key Stage 2 tests work?

Again Michael Tidd explains how the news test at Key Stage 2 will work.

Needing help with working out Primary progress scores?

Have a look at the YouTube clip below.  Michael Tidd gives up a really clear explanation of how the new Primary Progress Scores will work.

Why we really need a College of Teaching

Before you read further; if you are a teacher, there is a health warning.  Some things here may rile.  But please don't let this cloud your reaction to my views.  I am teacher, a proper teacher, working every day in a proper, wonderful comprehensive.  I work with wonderful colleagues who do amazing things every day.  They go to the ends of the earth for our students and they deserve much more than they get for doing so.  In this post I am not bashing teachers - at all. But I do think that we don't always paint ourselves in the best light with the public and I think we could have played the political game a lot better over the last twenty years. 

On 9th December 2014 the Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, and the School's Minister, David Laws announced proposals for a (Royal?) College of Teaching.  The plans for the college are in consultation at the moment and I urge all teachers to get involved in the debate.  If you use Twitter follow #claimyourcollege.  Why do I urge this?  Well I think this could be a watershed moment for the development of the profession, but only if teachers recognise this and grab the opportunity.  However, I think this is the crux of the issue because I am not convinced that as a body, teachers have fully grasped what it means to be professional and we may let this opportunity pass.

I don't mean to be controversial by this statement, I am a teacher and I do believe that teaching is a real profession, but stating that we are professionals is not enough.

Firstly I am not sure that the concept of being a profession is fully understood and the term at points is confused with a more colloquial use of the term.  For example we refer to professional footballers, professional painter and decorators, but as important as these jobs are they are not professions, not in the sense that law or medicine are anyway!   Furthermore teaching does not protect its sense of professionalism, nor does it have the structures to protect it in the ways that law and medicine do.  And it is because of this that I believe we need a college of teaching.

Just as we confuse the definitions of professionalism we do the same with our Unions. Don't get me wrong, I think unions are important and they play a key role.  But we often refer to unions as professional associations, they're not - the are unions and are different from professional associations such as the College of Teaching would be. Teachers are represented by a range of unions, they do at points coordinate but they do not speak with one voice and they do represent different aspects of the teaching family.  Unions do not set and enforce the Teaching Standards; they were effectively imposed by government.  The unions do not gatekeep membership to the profession.  The unions do not oversee professional qualifications.  This is not a criticism, it is simply not their role and neither should it be.  For this we should have a College.  

I know some might at this point reference the GTC, but it was never financially independent of government and therefore could not be recognised as being an independent body.  We were too tight to put our hands in our pockets to fund the GTC and make it independent and as a result we never engaged with it and it did not reach its potential. It was a good idea, but it was implemented badly.  If a College of Teaching is to be successful, we need to be a bit more generous, financially and intellectually and embrace the developments. 

I will come clean here and admit that I do have an issue with the main teaching Unions.  I was previously in the NUT but left because I felt we no longer shared the same values.  I think the main Unions are too industrial in their model and that this impedes the professional development of teaching.  The Unions are far too often reactionary in their response to developments, I agree there are many occasions when there is good cause to do so, but I think they need to rethink a more positive and proactive approach.  This is particularly true when it comes to striking.  I think we need to recognise that striking, no matter how important the issue, simply loses respect in the eyes of parents.  Whether we like it or not, many people still think we are well paid with excellent pensions, that we work 9:00 a.m. -3:00 p.m. and get long holidays.  Although a lot of people admit they would not want to teach, equally, they do not see all the work that goes on behind the scenes.  Their impression is formed by having been taught and they believe we are the same as their teachers were.  And here is a key problem, because most people went to school most people have a view on what works in schools.  The problem is; this view is anecdotal and not widely informed.  But everyone is an expert on education and teachers' expertise is undervalued.  Therefore when we strike,  I think the perception is more that we are behaving like spoiled teenagers rather than winning the argument.  When other hard working people have lost their pension protections and have lost jobs during the recession there is little support for us protecting our benefits.   It is winning the argument on persuading the public that we have a specialist and professional expertise that should be valued and rewarded a College would help with.  

In teaching we are losing the ownership of our professionalism.  Over the last few years the Government have opened up numerous routes into teaching, and academisation means that (as in the private sector) people can teach without a bona-fide qualification.  They have also eroded the role of universities in teacher training and educational research.  I think this is worrying.  You could argue that this would have happened despite a College, but what is clear is our Unions have not defended our professionalism successfully, although they have tried valiantly.  I think the fact that this Government is proposing a College suggests we can move into a new phase where teacher professionalism and expertise is recognised, but if this is going to be meaningful and long lasting it needs to be led by a politically neutral but expert body.

Teaching also has to recognise that if we are to be recognised as a profession it needs to have the trappings and behaviours of one.  Therefore we should look at the other professions and see what structures and processes they have.  They all have bodies such as Institutes or Royal Colleges that ensure, promote and protect professional standards. They have rigorous processeses of professional learning and qualifications and they also have,it dare I suggest it, re-registration to ensure that they continue to meet the required standards.

Finally, I think we need to be more open to the prospect of evidence informed practice and having a body that can oversee the management of this.  Too much of the debate on the role of evidence in education and been polarised, or focussed on the merits or place of randomised control trials.  The issue is this, if we are to be taken seriously as a profession we need a body of knowledge and evidence has a role in this.  Evidence and research can take many forms, but we can not have a profession based on anecdote. Practice should be evidence informed, not evidence limited.  The art of teaching is to use evidence to develop exciting and creative lessons that capture the imagination of our students and help them learn.  Teachers by their very DNA will never be automatons and we must never worry about becoming so.  So let's embrace evidence and use it on our tems.  I believe a College can play a valuable role in helping us do this.

For a better and less rambling view it is worth reading Angela McFarlane in TES https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6454246&utm_content=bufferc2e01&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer Or following her on Twitter @AEMcFarlane or @CollOfTeaching

Teachmeet at Cheney School Thursday 18th December 2014 - #TMOxford

Firstly a huge thank you to Dr Rob Bown and Amjad Ali for organizing last night's teachmeet at Cheney School.  It was fantastic and provided a real lift before the end of term.  I think every one that attended left with a spring in their step.

Amjad's really useful learning toolkit - which is listed on the useful links - will have details of the presentations, so I won't go into detail here listing the huge range of speakers.

More I wanted to consider the significance of last night.  Firstly as I have already mentioned it was good for the soul.  I was genuinely uplifting to share our assembly hall with a range of professionals from the hugely experienced Tim Brighouse to the most recently qualified NQTs.  It was also important because we were joined by Ian Menter and Ann Childs from Oxford University's Education Deanery and Dave Aldridge from Oxford Brookes.  I think we are at an important point if we are able to build on the relationships being made with the Universities to develop a working model for evidence informed practice - exciting times.  There were also genuinely useful plugs from some entrepreneurs developing useful teaching and learning tools that I think will have a positive impact in the classroom.  Finally we were sent on our way by Vic Goddard, the Headteacher of Passmores Academy in Harlow and also of Educating Essex fame.  Vic brought us all back to earth by reminding us what it is all about.  The students - every student.  He spoke from the heart and if anyone wasn't aware that we do one of the most important jobs in the world - well the will have done by the time they left.

So what was the significance?  Well I think we are at an exciting point in education - the consultation on a Royal College and the move towards evidence informed practice could mark a point where the professionalism of teachers becomes increasing recognized and respected by the public; and last night I think we lived the spirit of this by sharing best practice and learning together.

Cheney Heroes - Humanutopia

Amjad Ali has been kind enough to let us post a page from his blog - New to the Post.  Hopefully you'll find it thought provoking.

Inspiration and Motivation- UPDATE- by @ASTSupportaali

Last academic year (March 2014) a company called Humanutopia- www.humanutopia.com came into my school to work with  a very troubled Year 9, on a ‘Who am I’ day. They were so impressive that we asked them to return for a ‘full package.’ A total of 6 days and/or extension sessions.
Humanutopia are simply mind blowing, the way they interact with our young people, the way they maintain their full attention and the way they manage to get young people to reflect, engage and apologise to one another! Yes, they got students to stand up and say sorry for times they filled each others ‘bins’.
I wrote about their first visit and The Fix Up Team here. As result of continued work with Humanutopia I have continued to reflect; What has remained with me throughout all of the Humanutopia days (irrespective of their presenters), was their mutual respect to the students. I didn’t hear once…

“You can’t talk to me like that!”

“How dare you speak to an adult/member of staff like that.”

“DO as I say, NOW!”

I also noticed how all the interactions with the young people started with the students’ names! (HOW did they manage to remember all the students names!) I think this is extremely important. Knowing your students. As a Director of Inclusion I ask all teachers to know their students, know whether they are PP, SEN, SEND, EAL, FSM, GNT etc. Yes, I expect everyone to eventually know everything about their students.
Observing other adults carry out these sessions, I again, sit back and think about they way I engage with my students, with other students. Both when I am happy and angry. I feel I am much calmer as an individual and as Teacher now.
I also leave my pride aside. I am therefore much more likely to let a student walk away from me and let them calm down before pursuing any action now. In addition, I am much better at handling my general emotions, now. Was this thanks to observing how others, non teachers carry out their role? Maybe. (Or, Is it because I turned 30 this year?!)
Other Differences:
Humanutopia came into school dressed hip, funky, cool. They wore jeans, trainers, hoodies. This to me is interesting, most of the behaviour interventions that we outsource with external agencies involve people dressed in this similar fashion. When I started my role as Assistant Head Teacher I was worried about joining a new school and wearing a suit. I always wore Chinos, designers shirts, funky ties, pumps. I thought students would see me as the other side. Wouldn’t think I was on their level. Wouldn’t think I was cool any longer. They would think I was boring. Old!? However, I have quickly realised that students do not want us to be on their level. They like stability, authority and a sense of purpose. They like to know who is who and for what. As long as you can speak to the students in a way that is not condensing or demeaning, then you have a chance.
Mutual:
The speakers always used an incredible amount of self reflective wording when asking questions. Almost all questions from our students were batted back with another question. I have thought about this in more detail since then and wonder if we as teachers do this enough? Are we using the write phrasing when challenging? When trying to push a student further? I know I can do better.
We as teachers always think when we ask a student a question we must get an answer instantly. That silence for us feels like a hundred years, despite it only being a mere few seconds. We want to know somebody knows the answer and we want to know it now! However, there are several ways to combat this; questioning techniques such as PPPB. Or no hands questioning and so on… Whatever you chose, just think about the way you word the questions, do we need to ‘give’ in so easily?
Impact:
After writing my first blog post about the inspiration/motivation day for my school, I was asked the question;

How sustainable is this? How is it measured? Is it worth it?

I did ponder the answers to these questions. I did worry about how I would justify the spending. Whether it would indeed make a long lasting impact. I did also think was this just a fad, a gimmick, a quick fix. I guess with any long term investment like this, initially a little faith is needed…? One thing I am unsure of, is whether these inspirational days are ever sustainable or long lasting. However, I don’t think that matters, all that matters is that our young people were exposed to a day where they challenged themselves and asked many questions about their inner workings. How wrong was I… Students have continued to engage with this process for well over a year now! See below the video that Humanutopia created with our Year 9 heroes. We use these students to link up with our new Year 7s. We use them as student ambassadors, as student helpers, as student voice. They are trained, informed and willing. By booking Humanutopia in again and again we are aiming to have a whole school of heroes… watch this space!

 

Click here for the Humantopia webpage- scroll down and look at their theory of change diagram (shown below). Listen to the students explanations. I feel exactly the same way.

“Get out of your comfort zone, move past the stretch zone… life is more fun in the panic zone!’

 

How do I measure the impact? How do I prove that the money I have spent is worth it? I have kept a track of my year 9 heroes, we also carry out academic mentoring during tutor times and tutors are logging the conversations with their students. But, sometimes, I just feel it was worth it, in my heart. In their smiles and their thanks. I will continue to come to this… @astsupportaali