July 2006
In this month's newsletter we are introduced to CANUBELIEVEIT school, a Specialist Happiness College. Alistair Smith, who is preparing his application for a senior post at the College, argues a strong case for happier schools. We report back on Alite 2006, Celebrating Learning, which took place at the Cafe Royal last month, and the Head and Assistant Head of Highfields Primary School tell us how they have developed pupils' positive learning attributes and moved the youngsters from dependence to independence.
Head of Happiness
The CANUBELIEVEIT School is an oversubscribed Specialist Happiness College and Alistair Smith tells us why he would like to take up the position of Head of Happiness there.
CANUBELIEVEIT SCHOOL
NEW ROAD, BOWLED OVER, AWE upon WONDER, A1 2NU
A Specialist Happiness College
HEAD OF HAPPINESS FACULTY (TLR 1C)
The CANUBELIEVEIT School is an oversubscribed campus school in Awe upon Wonder. We are hoping to appoint a well qualified enthusiastic person with a background in Well-Being to have an overview of happiness within the school. Above all the appointee must be passionate about learning and learners and capable of spreading this enthusiasm to others.
The Faculty of Happiness at CANUBELIEVEIT is housed in a purpose built unit which is light, cheery and conducive to great learning. We welcome mavericks and creatives who have the efficacy of learning as their core value.
Please contact the Principal’s PA for our DVD – a student guide to Happiness and to arrange an informal visit.
happiness@canubelieveit.sch.uk
Investor in Happiness
HappyMark Award
Training School
Despite having better homes, higher incomes, longer holidays, improved working conditions and better health we are no happier. Studies show that in the last fifty years happiness has not increased in Britain, the US, continental Europe or Japan. If this is so you might ask, what is all this hard work, imagination, enterprise and striving for if we are no happier as a result? Maybe we need to take happiness more seriously?
The media have recently had open season on the Headteacher of Wellington School, Anthony Seldon, who has had the temerity to timetable lessons in positive psychology or ‘happiness studies’ as some have called it. He has recruited a prominent academic to help him develop a timetabled programme. The questions posed by this are interesting. Can happiness be taught? Ought it to be taught? What would it look like? How would it be assessed? How might it fare in an inspection?
A fortnight after ‘happiness studies’ breaks in the press we get another headline reminder from the Daily Telegraph that “Classrooms ‘are for work not fun’” quoting the Chief Inspector of Schools, Maurice Smith who says – “We need to reinforce the message that school is a place of work preparing youngsters for the world of work, where a work ethic is required – not a house of fun to meet youngster’s social needs.”
I visited a large Secondary School in April of this year. By the door of the staff room prominently displayed was a sign which said 13 Days to go! I asked about this sign, thinking it was perhaps a reminder of a coursework deadline for GCSE students and an attempt to reinforce the very work ethic talked of by the chief inspector. I was disappointed! It was a reminder to staff and Year 11 students how long it was until students left and went on study leave (May 5th) and the school turned them over to their own devices. The first exam would be a month later on June 6th and the staff were counting down the days!
A year ago, in the first week of April, the Times Educational Supplement ran an article on a Secondary School which had introduced, amongst other things, well-being targets as part of its staff appraisal system. This school had asked staff ‘what got in the way of them preparing, delivering and evaluating high quality learning experiences for students?’ Amongst the answers which came back, many related to time management issues and to work-life balance challenges. As a direct consequence, the school introduced an ironing and dry-cleaning service, car servicing and MOT, delivery of organic vegetables, shiatsu massage, corporate health club membership, free staff room drinks, free termly social events, early morning staff choir practice and banished unnecessary paperwork and meetings. The article appeared with photographs and prompted an immediate response from over thirty teachers who wrote in having ‘spotted the deliberate April Fool’s joke!’
As a Scot, I know misery, guilt and scepticism. If pressured, I can do all three simultaneously - but I’ve had to learn the hard way not to accept them as a life credo or, to paraphrase Mark Twain, as the instant response to the ‘worry that someone somewhere was having a good time’.
Why are so many of us so po-faced about learning and the place of learning in society? If, for example, we can teach a subject such as music - then why not happiness? Why do we allow so many to drivel on unchallenged with the view that ‘school is a place of work preparing youngsters for the world of work - when that same joyless take on what it offers will alienate them from work before they start?’ What would be so bad with a view of school and of learning that it was there to provide a happy and secure place which prepared young people to live fulfilled and happy lives, only one aspect of which was finding and securing satisfying work?
Psychologists have spent over 100 years defining misery, it’s only recently that any have bothered trying to give happiness the same treatment. What would be so unusual about a large school appointing a Head of Happiness whose job was to make the lives of staff and students better?
Happier people are healthier, more successful, harder-working, caring and more socially engaged. Misery makes people self-obsessed and inactive. There is some solid research to show some types of problem solving improves when preceded by laughter. Cornell University research demonstrated how positive emotions make people think faster and more creatively. Being young and being old are the happiest times. Don’t make money your god – it does not add much to happiness. In Britain, incomes have trebled since 1950, but happiness has not increased at all. The happiness of lottery winners returns to former levels within a year. People disabled in an accident are likely to become almost as happy again. Very happy people spend the least time alone and the most time socialising. Psychologists know that increasing the number of social contacts a miserable person has is the best way of cheering them up.
Ten things to do to make your school happier:
1. Debate, define and share the core purpose of the school. Talk it up
2. Test every decision against core purpose and only have meetings which serve core purpose
3. Find time to plan, deliver and evaluate the best possible learning experiences
4. Stop talking about OFSTED, behaviour and coping with change and start talking about learning
5. Socialise together
6. Celebrate success extravagantly
7. Stop fretting about small stuff like who pays for staffroom tea and coffee
8. Take time to improve the school’s appearance
9. Talk up the importance of roles and job function rather than status, seniority and income
10. Include work-life balance targets in staff appraisals
Despite all the benefits of being happy, I don’t think happiness can be taught formally. We can teach about it. We can extol its benefits and provide peer reviewed studies as evidence. Timetabling lessons in happiness may help students better understand what happiness is and how to get it - but it won’t make them any happier for it. That said, I do think schools can and (some) do contribute significantly to a happier life for both staff and students. Breaking down and understanding what it is they do to achieve this is surely a worthy academic study. So what’s involved?
Happiness is less easy to define than unhappiness and there are only a few early attempts being put together to provide a happiness schema. I provide one of my own below. The schema applies to individuals first and foremost but can also be applied to collections of individuals organised around a core purpose such as a school. My list is based on what the positive psychology researchers say are the features of those who seem happiest.
The Constituents of happiness
1. Sociability
• Able to tap into a supportive infrastructure
• Contact with a variety of others
• Exhibits playfulness and humour
2. Positive Perspective
• Optimistic not fatalistic
• Capable of living in the moment
• Focus outwards more than inwards
3. Integrity
• Doing the right thing consistently
• Resolute without being dogmatic
• Minimises unhelpful comparisons with others
4. Cause
• Having a sense of life’s direction
• Managing wants and needs
• Regularly experiencing challenge
5. Efficacy
• Feeling of being in control
• Able to manage negative emotions
• Making a recognised contribution
Sociability
Our first happiness category is sociability. A proven major component in happiness for the individual is the ability to tap into a supportive infrastructure. For most of us this is the family, for some it is the workplace, for others it’s those we meet through a hobby. Schools which actively encourage social activities amongst a wide range of staff and others provide supportive infrastructures.
A major longitudinal survey begun in the UK in 1958 found that those who exhibited sociability in childhood were significantly and consistently happier much later in adult life. For a child, social competence is a greater predictor of success in adult life than GCSE grades. To some extent it can be taught.
According to the Chief Executive of the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, Angela Greatley, the cost to the UK of poor mental health is £77billion annually. In the UK 25% of us experience some serious mental illness during our lives, with 15% experiencing major depression which can debilitate for days on end. The highest rates of mental disorders among children occur among those from families where no parent has ever worked. ESRC research suggests that gaining educational qualifications and good adjustment in childhood both help to protect individuals from psychological problems in adulthood, even those from less privileged social backgrounds.
In a pilot study by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and Nottingham City Council to measure well-being in the locality, young people completed detailed questionnaires to measure their well-being. Not only did both their satisfaction with life and their curiosity in life both fall as they got older, but also their satisfaction with their school experience plummeted between primary and secondary school, and did not recover. The child who can be self deprecating, who can empathise and who has a playful approach to life is set up to become successful at building and maintaining friendships.
Ten things to do to make your classroom happier:
1. Look after your own health and well-being
2. Focus on solutions and positives rather than failures and setbacks
3. Make learning itself a focus of learning for your class
4. Restore your sense of humour
5. Capture every student being successful at some point
6. Show your excitement about learning
7. Put a framed portrait of your likes and dislikes, favourite activities and ambitions on the door
8. Mix the class groupings and talk up what successful group work ‘looks like’
9. Know and use everyone’s name
10. Prepare each lesson to be the very best you are capable of teaching
In his book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam defines the major components of ‘social capital’ as trust, norms, reciprocity, and networks and connections. He shows how social capital – participation in shared and group activity – has positive economic effects and is good for your health. In the US shared and group activity is in decline. Lamenting the demise of organised social activities in the US, where people meet informally, such as bowling leagues, Putnam cites a statistic which suggests that socialising through joining these sorts of clubs dramatically reduces the risk that you will die in the next year!
Positive Perspective
Our second happiness category is having a positive perspective on life. Individuals with a positive perspective are often those who look forwards and outwards rather than backwards and inwards. They are less likely to dwell on negative experiences and misgivings. Avoiding unnecessary comparisons helps them live in the moment and have a higher concern for others. They share a sense of life getting better. This helps them respond positively to adversity. In schools these individuals are people magnets! Their optimism makes them attractive. They find time to listen. Ask yourself, who would you rather sit next to?
The classic optimism experiment involved nuns. Nuns make a good control group because they live very similar lives. Researchers who quantified positive outlook amongst 180 Milwaukee nuns who, from 1932, kept detailed diaries, discovered that nearly all (90%) of the happiest quarter were still alive at 85. But of the least cheerful quarter, only a third survived to that age. The survivors were optimists.
Positive perspectives fuel both psychological and physiological resilience. A field study of American college students before and after the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001showed that positive individuals were less likely to become depressed and better able to cope. In an experiment when the flu virus was administered to control groups of adults who had been divided according to whether they were optimists or pessimists. Those who were more optimistic showed less likelihood of becoming ill. Their immune systems were ‘boosted’ by their take on life.
However, being blindly optimistic is not always helpful. According to a 2001 study, Oscar winners live on average four years longer than those who are nominated but fail to win. Why is this? Is there something about thwarted ambition that is harmful to us?
Unrealistic goals can corrode self confidence. Children with authoritarian parenting are more likely to set unrealistic goals and have a self concept which is vulnerable to failure. Children whose parents are authoritative rather than authoritarian are more likely to have realistic goals and fewer anxieties around their achievement. Task related feedback, that is goals which are all about specific improvements to the skill rather than ego related feedback which is more about the person - are much more likely to yield improvements and much less likely to have an inhibiting effect on self esteem.
Schools which are authoritarian in character are less likely to foster innovation and creativity. A positive perspective does not mean a Pollyanna perspective. It means that there is an underlying belief that things will get better, progress will be made and the general trend is favourable. Schools with a positive perspective, like individuals, put setbacks into context and are galvanised by challenges.
Integrity
Our third happiness category is integrity. Integrity is about ‘doing the right thing when no-one is looking’. Those who operate with integrity have a strong sense of right and wrong, are less plagued by self doubt and so can do what’s right again and again consistently. To outsiders, the seeming ease with which hard decisions are made again and again is admirable.
Happier individuals don’t have to shift through the integrity gears or deal with the anxieties of having to do so. They bring the same certainties to really hard decisions and their consequences as they would to the mundane. They can be open about such decisions. Staff in schools appreciate transparent decision making provided its is guided by doing ‘the right thing’.
Happier people are often resolute without being dogmatic and so are better equipped to deal with failure. Their resolution is less likely to be driven by rivalry or self-interest or fuelled by invidious comparisons with others. To this end they are more likely to buy a new car just to keep the salesperson cheerful than to edge ahead of their neighbours!
The more an individual is clear about what matters to him or her and is resolute in pursuit of that, the less they feel the need to compete with others to get it. In many ways this is counter intuitive. We are a species where serotonin – a neurotransmitter associated with feeling good - is boosted by success. Arguably we are set up to compete, but happier people seem to feel less wounded by failure and less determined to get what they want if it’s at the expense of others.
Here’s a test for you. Choose from either:
- A. You can have £50,000 income a year and everyone else gets half that
- B. You can have £1000,000 income a year and everyone else gets more than double that
In a recent study Harvard graduates were asked exactly this question. The majority preferred the first option and were happy to be poorer provide they got ahead of everyone else. The real significance of wage rises is that people care as much about others’ wages as their own. Intense wage rivalry tends to remain within your reference group – in this case work colleagues, friends or family. Comparisons can lead to discontent and unhappiness. Happy people minimise comparisons and rarely feel the need to make them.
In UK schools, the recent introduction of a performance related pay structure, arguably overdue, known as ‘TLRs’ will have had its most difficult passage when comparisons within reference groups provoked feelings of ‘injustice’ and when decision making was not transparent and guided by ‘doing the right thing’. Levels of discontent could be correlated to the number of opportunities for comparisons fostered by the system. It would be interesting to do the above test but in the TLR context: what matters more, the money or the relative status?
Cause
Our fourth happiness category is cause. Happy people have a sense of life’s direction or are content to assume one. They are better able than most at separating and managing wants and needs. They enjoy, and regularly immerse themselves in, challenge. The challenge may be large scale - changing jobs, moving house, starting a family – or smaller - trying a new skill for the first time – but in either case they are not likely to see it as on overbearing imposition.
For young people, like toddlers, discovering that wants and needs are two different things can be a bruising experience. I may want the latest mobile phone but I don’t need it! I may want to be beautiful but I don’t need it! I may want to be famous but I don’t need it!
According to a Learning and Skills Council survey of 777 16-19 year olds in England published in February 2006, one in ten young people would drop out of education for a shot at TV fame. 16% believe they will actually become famous, The LSC research showed that most of the young people did not understand that the odds of being selected for a reality TV show such as Big Brother - and continuing to be famous afterwards - are very slim. Almost one in ten said they thought celebrity was a great way to earn money without skills or qualifications.
More than half of teenagers who said they wanted to become famous cited money and success as the principal reason. However, Ruth Bullen, LSC spokeswoman, said research showed that young people without five good GCSEs or the equivalent were more likely to earn low pay in later life. "If making money is the reason a young person wants to become famous, by staying on in education or training they can significantly increase their future earning power through gaining these essential qualifications," she said.
For many, fame equates to success which equates to money which equates to happiness. Fame seems available easily. Join a band, get onto a reality TV show, be chosen to compete in a talent competition, win the lottery. Disappointment awaits. Dramatic improvements in circumstances do little to improve happiness. Research by Brickman and others showed that within a year, lottery winners are little happier, or even less happy, than they were before they scooped the jackpot. The explanation is simple: we are creatures of comparison. As we adapt, our' expectations about what will make us happy rise. We compare ourselves to where we want to be, and to other people. This is called the hedonic treadmill. As we achieve our goals, we change whom we compare ourselves to and find a new source of unhappiness!
Individuals who report themselves as happy say things like ‘everything feels in place’ and ‘I’m content with my lot’. For a school to be a happy place it needs to ‘feel’ stable. This does not mean that there is little or no change year on year or that ‘tradition’ goes back through generations. It’s more likely that there is a shared certainty about core purpose and the values which underpin that core purpose. Our happiness category uses the heading ‘cause’ - it could be equally served by the heading ‘core purpose’.
The whole school can buy into this. As you walk the corridors, observe learning taking place or sit in meetings where debate occurs, you will attune to the ‘core purpose’ in what is overheard, seen or experienced. Where, for instance the core purpose is around best serving learners and learning, you don’t hear management talk endlessly about readying for OFSTED, about SEF and about behaviour: where the core purpose is about coping, that’s all you hear about.
To detect your true core purpose, try stepping up your aspiration. Take a typical selection of everyday activities in your school and for each step them up by asking, “If we are successful – what will it do for us?’ Keep doing this for each successive answer. As you progress the core purpose should emerge.
- Start by asking yourself, “What is it we are doing?”
- Then ask, “If we are successful in this - what will it do for us?”
and repeat to step up… ask yourself at what level do you feel you reach ‘core purpose?
Happiness! |
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Autonomy & Stability |
Happiness! |
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Improved school |
Fulfil potential |
Happiness! |
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Better relations |
Independent learners |
Independence |
Happiness! |
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Informed decision making |
Improved quality of learning |
Improved life chances |
Enhance Status |
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Professional development |
Effective Systems |
Chosen career |
Better results |
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Attend Alite 2006 |
Agree SDP |
Improved progression opportunities |
Better learning |
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SLT Meeting |
Achieve Exam success |
Teacher improves |
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Attend lessons |
Provide feedback |
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Observe lessons |
The question of core purpose is at the heart of decision-making. In an era of league tables, targets, contextual data, charter marks and public accountability – all of which threaten stability – clarity of core purpose is especially significant. Difficult decisions are made more so when there is no clarity over core purpose. Time taken to debate core purpose, to define it and to re-visit it - is time well spent. When the difficult choices come along, clarity over core purpose will provide your answers. Anomalies only then arise when someone else provides or defines your core purpose for you. Reclaiming core purpose is thus essential for a stable school. Stability, or the feeling of stability, makes individuals happier. Stable schools exhibit more of the H factor…
Efficacy
Our fifth happiness category is efficacy. Efficacy is the feeling of being in control. It is the ability to recognise and manage emotional response particularly those negative emotions which threaten to hijack us. Efficacy is also about making a contribution and having that contribution recognised in some way, either by others or by alignment to a perceived greater good such as a religious faith.
A major cause of stress amongst all large primates is a feeling of loss of control. It doesn’t need to be real - it just needs the conviction that despite all of your efforts, things are out of hand and there’s nothing to be done about it. Such a conviction ultimately leads to what a pioneer of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, calls ‘learned helplessness’ in other words, a victim mentality. Happier people do not end up exhibiting these traits. They are more likely to be able to adjust their circumstances and thus how they respond to those circumstances through some intervention. Happier people have niches in their lives over which they can exercise control. The exercise of such control provides its own reward. They may be ‘put upon’ at work but they run a youth group on a Sunday and enjoy every minute and hour that goes into it. The old saw is that ‘you find a job you love doing and you never work again’. Happier people are more likely to find themselves there.
An obvious corollary is the school where the culture is one of being ‘put upon’. Would a ‘happier’ school, by my definition, be more likely to niche control and find areas to exercise enterprise and vision where it was less susceptible to the agendas of others? Instinctively I think yes. Schools like any other large organisations have their share of ‘learned helplessness’. Some schools, through impoverished leadership, have become channels of ‘learned helplessness’ waiting to be rescued from initiative fatigue. They bemoan their lot. Others stride ahead, confidently discounting initiatives which don’t align with their core purpose and taking each challenge with ease.
The ability to niche control is vital for all human growth. Victor Frankl, a holocaust survivor, wrote in his 1963 book of his experiences, Man’s Search for Meaning, "Everything can be taken from a man but... the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." The survivors were those who were able to niche control.
Making a recognised contribution is an aspect of efficacy which is about being valued. Humans like the affirmation of other humans. This may be in the from of eye contact, the use of your name, the touch on your sleeve, the note in your pigeon hole, the recognition in a thank you speech, promotion, knighthood or a seat in the House of Lords. Recognition and affirmation is important for many of us. Happy people get lots of it but not always in formal and public ways. How satisfying is it for a dog lover to be recognised upon arrival home and then greeted with a wet tongue! Conversely, if it happened with a dog you didn’t know it would be highly distracting! Happier people are often those for whom modest moments of recognition accumulate and are given freely in return.
Happier people do not seek out recognition. It comes as a consequence of their willingness to contribute whatever. Absence of recognition does not have the catastrophic effect for these people that it can have for others. Happier people are better able to manage negative emotions. See sawing between emotional states is stressful. Stress itself is a major killer. Extended periods of stress lead to loss of appetite and libido, reduced growth, inhibited decision making and apathy. Happier people exhibit control in some, or all, aspects of their decision making and their emotional response.
We started off by suggesting that maybe we should take happiness more seriously. I think the work of positive psychologists offers something for schools. Already the Every Child Matters agenda is at the heart of the new inspection process and is a focus for cohering how we engage with young people. By studying what makes individuals, families, communities and nations happy we hot wire straight into the core purpose of learning and of schools.
Thank you and please find enclosed my application for the post of Head of Happiness.
Alistair Smith
July 2006
Daniel Nettle, Happiness: The Science behind your smile (Oxford University Press, 2005)
Paul Martin, Making Happy People: The nature of happiness and its origins in Childhood (Fourth Estate, 2005)
Martin Seligman, Authentic Happiness (New York: The Free Press 2002).
Richard Layard, The Robbins Lectures, Towards a Happier Society ( LSE, February 2003)
Robert Puttnam, Bowling Alone. The collapse and revival of American community (New York: Simon and Schuster 2000).
Dorothy Wade, So what do you have to do to find happiness? Sunday Times, October 2nd 2005
Learning to Celebrate
When did you last celebrate the learning in your school? When the exam results came out? At an end of unit creative event? At the end of the last lesson? During it? At a national conference in front of over 300 positive, learning-focused practitioners like yourself? All these and more were apparent at the 5th annual Alite conference in London’s Café Royal, dedicated – you’ve guessed it – to Celebrating Learning.
Kicking off the day – the only allusion to football in this World Cup-free zone – Alistair notched up the anticipation for the event ahead. And it didn’t disappoint. Delegates moved out of the grand ballroom and into their chosen practitioner-led presentations, which had been divided into four strands: Innovations, Learning to Learn, and Primary- and Secondary-specific experiences. Included within these areas were practical ideas centred around:
- Short and long-term strategies that took one school from good to great
- How to create a solution-focused school
- Developing Learning to Learn in Primary and Secondary schools
- How a school, once described by Channel 4 as the worst in England, had been turned around and now leads the way
- How one school merged e-learning with ‘a-learning’ to great effect throughout the curriculum…
- …And how one ICT department balanced the technology with the human – and repeatedly produces amazing results
- Phenomenal cultural change and a curriculum revolution that reinvigorated both staff and pupils
Afterwards, delegates spilled into the coffee break, buzzing with ideas and inspiration from those who felt they had something to celebrate about the learning – of both staff and students – in their schools. There was little talk of policy, curriculum content coverage or initiatives; instead phrases like “joy of learning,” “enthusiasm for T&L,” “refocusing on what’s important” and “feeling that what seemed impossible is now possible” dominated discussions. As delegates, presenters and keynote speakers chatted and networked, Alite staff answered questions, demonstrated software and ensured the smooth running of the day.
It wasn’t only learning that was celebrated at the conference. As ever, it was important to pay homage to the work teachers do on a daily basis. And who better to do this than a former Head, knighted for his services to education? When Sir John Jones took to the stage, it would be fair to say that expectations were high – it would also be fair to say that when he stepped down 45 minutes later they had been exceeded. Many in the room were later overheard talking about weaving dreams and re-writing scripts.
There’s no need to tell people about the learning taking place in your school when you have the children there to do it for you. After an excellent lunch, Janet Moffat, Headteacher of Melcombe Primary in Hammersmith, and some of her current Year 6 children demonstrated what they mean by Reaching for the Stars. Between Janet enthusing, entertaining and inspiring in an energetic duplication of her teaching style, the children provided detail and personal experience of several of the strategies and outcomes she had outlined. Unfazed by the assembled teaching professionals from across the UK, the children gave a confident and compelling account of their experience as learners at Melcombe.
By 3-30pm, everyone had had three opportunities to hear ideas and experiences from their selection of fellow practitioners, network tirelessly and be inspired by two invited keynote speakers. Now it was Alistair’s turn. Closing a conference can be a lonely affair, as delegates rush off to miss the traffic and make connections, but the ballroom looked as full as it had six hours earlier when Alistair had built up anticipation for the day ahead. Now he wanted to spread a little (more) happiness. The ‘H’ Factor in your school. What is it? How can it be achieved? Should we bother? In a whistlestop tour that challenged accepted wisdom and looked at how our institutions might become happier places to learn, he provided yet more to think about on our collective way home: how important is emotion in all our learning? The day demonstrated its importance to us as teachers; how can we ensure the same for the children? What can we celebrate about their learning? And how?
"(It was a) chance to meet others with a ‘can-do’ mentality."
Annmarie McNaney
Assistant Head, Chesham High School
"Sir John Jones was phenomenal – he made me laugh, made me think and brought a real tear to my eye!"
Jon Reid
Depute, Larbert High School, Stirlingshire
"(It’s been) great to have the space to think and engage with a wide range of challenging ideas."
Emily Brooks
AST, Fortismere School
Dependence to Independence
At Alite 06; Celebrating Learning Helen Heap, Head Teacher of Highfields Primary School in Rowley Regis and Assistant Head, Jessica de Vries shared how they have developed pupils’ positive learning attributes, including decision-making, collaborative skills and how to be articulate learners. Here is the foundation that they have built on in their school.
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.
Alite joins Bob the Builder and Angelina Ballerina at Fun Radio
Find out where to catch up with the child-friendly radio station created by the organisation behind Bob the Builder and Angelina Ballerina!
Young children throughout UK are joining in with catchy tunes, singing along to lines such as:
“It’s much much better to have a go
It doesn’t matter if you get it wrong”
and
“To start the day
And help me on my way
I need something in my tum”
Essential Accelerated Learning themes such as preparing for learning and BASICS are set to music on Alite’s popular CD, Today’s a Brand New Day. Fun Radio, the radio station created by the organisation behind Bob the Builder and Angelina Ballerina, have picked up the themes and are playing the tunes on their child-friendly station. So in between Angelina’s favourite pieces of ballet music, tots throughout the country are learning these great lyrics:
“I want to be a fireman
To sing on the TV
But first I’ll need to learn to count
And do my ABC”
Fun Radio can be heard on DAB Digital Radio in London, Essex, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Bristol, Cardiff, Kent, Sussex, Bournemouth, Sky Digital 0162, NTL Digital 882 and at www.funradiolive.com.