March 2006
Welcome to the March newsletter. This month, we introduce a new feature: ‘Resource Review’. We hear about the impressive improvements at a large specialist college in Wakefield, and how Highfields Primary School in Rowley Regis have effectively developed pupils’ positive learning attributes. Having taken examples from some of the schools Alite has worked with, we provide some welcome advice on finding time.
Turn Your School Around
"Students first." You'll find these two words everywhere at Outwood Grange College, Wakefield: they're in its mission statement, on its website, in the corridors, on the college crest and on the Head Teacher's lips.
Everything about Outwood Grange reflects this underpinning ethos, from the carefully thought out ‘pathways’ and flexible interventions within their innovative curriculum to the orderly nature of the dinner queues in the college restaurants, where teachers line up like everyone else. With the constant reminders of students as a priority, it becomes obvious that improvements have been brought about here by focusing on their individual needs. And in an educational establishment that means their learning.
The Progress
Outwood Grange is a specialist college for Technology, ICT, Maths and Science. With over 2000 students on roll and 120 teaching staff it is one of the largest schools in the country. When Michael Wilkins arrived, it was underperforming at all three Key Stages, value-added was poor, and the curriculum was in dire need of an overhaul. Five years later and achievement and attainment are up significantly. What’s most impressive about the improvements, however, is the spread of success. When broken down into ability bands and compared to the national picture, 2004’s results (74% A*-C), for example, look like this:
% of figure achieved |
||
| Nationally | At Outwood Grange | |
| Of those with a 60% chance of achieving 5A*-C | 90 | 97 |
| Of those with a 40-59% chance of achieving 5A*-C | 60 | 85 |
| Of those with a <40% chance of achieving 5A*-C | 20 | 48 |
In other words, within each ability band a high percentage of students are fulfilling their potential at Outwood Grange. And last year their results were up again to an impressive 84% 5A*-C, an improvement of 38% in the last two years alone. So, what is it that has turned the college around?
The Framework
It is Michael Wilkins’ belief that three fundamental areas, all of them directly connected to learning, have led to marked improvements at Outwood Grange. He calls them the ‘Three Pillars’:
1. Quality in the Classroom
2. Curriculum Design
3. Monitoring and Intervention
1. Quality in the Classroom
Without this, nothing can change. A school needs to have both quality teachers and quality teaching. Students need to be clear about what is expected of them, which means them (and the teachers) being aware of the learning outcomes of each lesson.
It can often be the case that teachers don’t know what is happening in the classroom next door, not to mention in another department. This is not the case at Outwood Grange. Every Tuesday afternoon staff meet in departments to share good practice and take part in activities that promote good quality teaching and learning in their classrooms. These Learning and Performance sessions last two hours, yet they are the only meetings staff must attend in a week. Every fourth or fifth Tuesday, this development time takes place as a whole school when staff gather in the school’s conference theatre (refurbished and updated with the latest ICT and A/V equipment) to look at what is further improving the students’ learning in other departments. Staff are encouraged to get involved so that good practice and ideas are shared across the college.
2. Curriculum Design
A curriculum should meet the needs of all students. When you are based just south of one of the fastest growing financial centres outside of London, this also needs to be taken into account, as do other aspects of the local jobs market and the bigger picture of the economy. With all these aspects in mind, an innovative and flexible curriculum can be constructed and still meet the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum. This is the basis of the second pillar.
As it designs and re-designs its curriculum, Outwood Grange seems to be moving inevitably towards a ‘Key Stageless’ 11-16 experience. Already, students begin a Dida in Year 8 with most GCSE courses in Year 9 and may, if they want or if it is considered beneficial, take three years to complete the latter. Those who need support in English and Maths are provided with 20% more exposure to the subjects in Years 9 and 10 whilst still fulfilling their obligation to the other subjects.
However, more and more students are taking their GCSEs a year early, or even sooner. In the case of RE, for example, many complete the course after only one year. Students can then fill the gap in their timetables by picking up another subject or studying something for pleasure. In Year 11, students also have access to what was previously the preserve of the Sixth Form: independent study time. This takes place around the college in the many Learning Zones, again equipped with all the ICT capabilities for research and learning.
The GCSE curriculum has four main pathways from which to choose. There is no able/least able divide; students can access any of the routes and receive support if they struggle, for example, in terms of literacy or numeracy. The pathways, which all include ICT, are:
| Encouragement | between six and eight GCSEs with support |
| Enhancement | a traditional option block |
| Enrichment | 12 or 13 GCSEs that can include separate sciences and short courses |
| Entitlement | range of vocational options centred around GNVQ and BTEC |
These form the basis of the GCSE curriculum, but they are not the whole story. At any time within a student’s education here, before or during the GCSE course, other alternatives can arise that personalise the learning to their needs. To understand how this happens, a third supporting pillar must be outlined.
3. Monitoring and Intervention
“Schools need to be underpinned with a clear focus on learning and need to have a very clear behaviour policy in terms of clear expectations and consequences. And all that needs to be wrapped up in a praise culture – ‘mean what you say’.”
‘Praising Stars’ is that “praise culture”. It is a positive, learning ethos that permeates Outwood Grange and is one of the key factors in the college’s success over these last few years. It supports the change brought about by the three pillars and, at the same time, forms the basis of the third one, which centres on tracking the students’ progress according to grades predicted by the Fischer Family Trust target D.
Both students and parents know the predicted grades. Every six weeks, the teachers write a Praising Stars report to parents, advising on progress in a number of areas. These include attendance issues, progress with coursework and whether or not their son or daughter is on target to achieve their predicted grade by the end of the Key Stage. If this is not looking likely, then a range of intervention programmes can come into play to keep that student focused and moving forward. Which type of intervention is used depends on a fourth factor included in the report: their effort grade.
The three pillars have formed the backbone to change at Outwood Grange College, and a positive, Praising Stars culture has permeated all of their work. A real focus on learning has turned them around and continues to drive them on. To fully understand this vision of change we once again only need to listen to the words of Michael Wilkins, the Head Teacher:
“Schools like ours will never settle because there will always be some child, somewhere, in some subject, for some reason, who is not achieving their potential. We must find that child and help them to improve.”
As they say at Outwood Grange, “Students First.”
Michael Wilkins will be sharing his practical, level-headed advice at Alite 2006 at the Café Royal, London, on 23 June. For more details visit Alite 2006.
James Inman, Assistant Head Teacher shares his experience of introducing Alite's L2 programme at Stamford High School in Tameside.
This resource has allowed us to expand and enhance our existing programme of Learning to Learn. The impact can be seen in every classroom in Y7 and 8 across the school. For the first time ever, we have supply teachers telling us how much they enjoy teaching the students in these year groups, and how much responsibility they take for their own learning. We have much anecdotal evidence of students asking supply teachers and our own staff to modify their delivery and telling them how to do it so that the learning becomes more accessible to them.
This is a comprehensive package, which takes into account the learning skill needs of school children. We can research and put together collages of the work of others and put in countless hours researching and creating our own course, but this is the first time there has been such an innovative package off the peg which can be adapted for individual need. The resources are simple and easy to follow, yet challenging to the student and teacher. The route is clear and logical and addresses the learning needs of our students. The profiling software is great! For the first time we have a package which allows students to take more responsibility for understanding and enhancing their own learning capacity. Simple to install on the network, it provides a resource which can be delivered wirelessly in a classroom or via a wired network in an ICT suite for every student in the school; the learning profile it creates enables us to address student learning need in a way we have not been able to previously and for students to highlight their own areas for development.
The impact on learning is significant. Using L2 to build on the foundation laid by our own L2L programme last year, there has been a massive shift in the learning culture in Years 7 and 8 in what has been a very difficult school in the past. Student and staff surveys inform us of this shift, as do feedback forms from the many visitors the school receives to share good practice. We are now beginning to see the benefits in terms of levels of attainment in Y8 students when compared with their peers last year.
How can you put a value on such a positive shift in learning culture? L2 provides an off the peg package which can be moulded to meet the need of almost any student. Administrative costs are minimal, networking is simple and the interactive and practical nature whilst enthusing students and cutting down on "death by worksheet" has the additional spin off of cutting down reprographic costs. For the investment of money and time involved, the package enables a level of success in classrooms in every subject across the school upon which a value cannot be placed.
If you would like to review one of our resources for a future newsletter, please email newsletter@alite.co.uk, letting us know which resource you would like to review.
For more details of L2, click here.
At Highfields Primary School you will find resilient, resourceful, responsible, reasoning and reflective pupils in every classroom.
Helen Heap is Head Teacher of Highfields Primary School, Rowley Regis. At last year’s Alite Conference a large proportion of the 300+ delegates chose to attend her scheduled slot to hear the “combination of factors that have added layer upon layer” to the success of her school. At this year’s conference she will be sharing how they have developed pupils’ positive learning attributes, including decision-making, collaborative skills and how to be articulate learners. To whet your appetite, here is the foundation that Helen and the Assistant Head, Jessica de Vries, will be building on.
Developing Accelerated Learning
Our work with Accelerated Learning over the past five years has convinced staff that it impacts very positively at many different levels in school. We have ensured its high profile in several ways:
1. Including it in our SIP as a key priority.
2. Having a total of nine members of staff receiving intensive training from Alite. These key members of staff then lead training for the others in school during meetings/INSET days. Staff who have attended the intensive training have commented that it has been some of the best CPD and it has impacted greatly on the standard of teaching and learning in classrooms.
3. Support staff receiving Accelerated Learning training to ensure a whole school approach. This also demonstrates the value of all members of staff to the school.
4. Staff working in Phase teams (two year groups), to develop Accelerated Learning action plans on a termly basis. This involves agreeing elements of Accelerated Learning ‘tools’ they would like to implement in their phase for a period of time. At the end of the implementation time, we have cross-phase staff meetings to share ideas, successes and issues. This often results in staff then agreeing that certain aspects become school policy (e.g. the attention to VAK in planning) and useful tools become part of our Accelerated Learning toolkit (e.g. a range of plenary ideas, brain breaks, lesson beginnings).
5. Making Accelerated Learning part of the criteria when monitoring all lessons.
6. Developing in-house CPD called ‘Trios’.
Using Trios
Networking with other schools is an increasingly common feature of education these days. But this made me consider how much networking we do within our own school. Consequently, I devised a system, based on one shared with me from a neighbouring school, to enable this to happen. There were two purposes behind this:
1. For all staff to have the experience of sharing good practice and talk about learning – no matter what stage they were in their career.
2. To embed Accelerated Learning Approaches.
This was implemented by grouping staff into threes. Within each trio I ensured that there was a mixture of key stages represented and that there was at least one member of staff who had received intensive training from Alite. Each trio was asked to plan a lesson collaboratively for one of their classes, using ALPS techniques. The teacher of that class would then deliver the lesson, whilst the other two observed. Later, time was set aside for the trio to reflect/discuss the issues that arose from the process.
The teachers have really valued this type of CPD, as can be seen from some of the comments arising from whole staff evaluations of the process:
- “Great impact in terms of Accelerated Learning – learning through first hand observations and experiences”
- “Made me aware of the purpose of and need for Accelerated Learning”
- “Great to discuss ideas with people I don’t normally work with on a regular basis”
- “Helped me to see the ‘bigger picture’ and appreciate the need for consistency across the school”
Listening to Pupil Voice
Any school that is serious about personalising learning has to listen to those who should be centre of the process. At Highfields, pupils’ views are actively sought and acted upon. Amongst other initiatives, we have developed an active school council and buddy system, where pupils’ voices are heard and help guide the positive running of Highfields.
Within the classroom, children are able to articulate why lessons are planned in the way they are and can talk about preferred learning styles, success criteria, National Curriculum levels, the importance of first-hand experience and so on. If pupils are to have a voice when it comes to their learning, then we need to ensure that they have the appropriate language that goes with it. So it’s likely that if you visit a Reception class at Highfields, you will hear children talking about themselves as ‘number-smart’. You may even see a child wearing a badge that says s/he is ‘person-smart’ who, when asked, will tell you that the badge has been earned for helping someone who had hurt themselves or who had a problem. By Year 3 you will notice that the pupils’ language will have altered, to discussing those who have a strong mathematical intelligence, or who are interpersonally intelligent. Ask and they will explain it to you if you’re not sure. Year 4s may be out on a naturalist week that ties in with the theme of their learning, but Years 5 and 6 will explain how they work to a balance of intelligences across the week. We don’t hide things from the children; our language and method of teaching is explicit.
These are just some of the factors that have made Highfields a successful school with an exciting learning environment. The foundation for much of our work has been rooted in Accelerated Learning, ensuring that the focus is on the learners themselves.
Helen Heap and Jessica de Vries will be telling us more about the Highfields experience at Alite 2006 at the Café Royal, London, on 23 June. For more details visit Alite 2006.
Having looked at examples from the many schools Alite has worked with, we've honed in on some suggestions for finding time...
1. If appropriate, alter the timings of the School day to support staff planning and learning. For example, an extra 25 minutes on Monday to Thursday may allow you to finish at 12.30 on Friday and use the time for a combination of development, planning and social activity.
2. Collectively sit down and re-write your marking policy to reduce teacher marking by two thirds! Replace this with self and peer assessment approaches.
3. Typically teachers teach for 20 hours weekly and do administration for 32 hours weekly. Is this right?
4. Have a ‘no marking taken home by teachers’ week and begin to repeat it.
5. Put an end to teachers having to do meaningless tasks: eg, collecting trip money.
6. Use adults other than teachers for exam invigilation.
7. Have a celebration activity which is free for all staff termly and remove nonsensical de-motivators such as paying for your own tea and coffee, bringing your own milk!
8. Try having no written agendas for meetings and no minutes written by teachers; record agreed outcomes on a flipchart there and then.
9. Buy software for reporting, which limits the amount of writing any teacher can do on any one student to 160 characters and which automatically is downloaded onto the server.
10. Gradually find non-teaching staff for roles which are not directly focused on learning: library, careers, assistant year heads etc.
11. Provide optional in-house time saving services – ironing, dry-cleaning, car MOTs, internet shopping.
12. Prompt and purposeful starts and ends to lessons. 60 staff delayed by three minutes twice daily is 30 hours lost a week.