December 2006
This month we celebrate the achievements of Chapel Break First School after their outstanding Ofsted report which praised the power of Accelerated Learning; Teresa Tunnadine from The Compton School reveals how she has developed her vision of creating an outstanding 21st Century School; we note that multi-tasking isn’t always beneficial to learning and we end with a light-hearted look at some of the things we learn as we go through life.
Learning as an experience and adventure
Following their successful Ofsted report Chapel Break first School in Norwich thanked Alite for inspiring schools to take risks and achieve – find out more about the school’s vision of learning as an experience and adventure.
The staff at Chapel Break know that they are doing a fantastic job. The evidence is in the children they teach. Children who are hungry to learn and who ask questions such as, “Will the sea ever take over the land?” in Year 3.
"People take education for granted. They think school is about learning to read and write. We see it as an experience and an adventure. We are setting the children we teach up for life," says Sara Stanley, AST.
Yet there were slight concerns that Ofsted might not see it the same way. At Chapel Break, staff have taken risks with the curriculum to develop a Learning Handbook that is based on skills rather than content. A curriculum which includes Philosophical Thinking and Thinking Through Art.
They need not have worried. Their latest Ofsted report (Sept 2006) found every aspect of the school to be outstanding. It commented on the children's ‘exceptional attitudes to learning… the teachers' high expectations and a stimulating curriculum’. The Ofsted inspectors praised the school's Accelerated Learning techniques such as developing pupils' thinking skills, celebrating achievement, target setting and peer-to-peer massage.
Within seconds of beginning a conversation with Angela Moore, Deputy Head, you become infected with her enthusiasm. She, and indeed all of the staff are buzzing; brimming over with ideas and a passion for what they do. Headteacher, Jane Rolph is as aware of the teachers' individual styles as she is of the children's, and she encourages them to experiment, to follow their interests and their strengths.
Consequently, when AST Sara Stanley felt that studying philosophy could further develop the children's thinking skills, she was told to ‘go for it’.
A higher than average number of children enter the school with low base-line results in listening and speaking so the idea of teaching them how to think, how to ask questions and how to express their thoughts is a sensible one. From day one, in Reception, children are taught how to think. At this tender age they are told that it is good to have an opinion and respectful to listen to the opinions of others.
However, they are not simply expected to philosophise without being given the skills that they need. Three to four weeks are spent at the beginning of each year studying learning to learn and classroom identity. Then children are taught how to justify their ideas and to ask open-ended, purposeful questions. They are given the language of discussion - 'because' is a particularly important word - and they learn what it means to agree or to disagree.
They move on from here, drawing ideas from each other, and the teachers facilitate pushing for deeper meaning from the children’s ideas and questions pictorial representations of thinking are encouraged and this has been found particularly to help the less able. It has greatly improved the self-esteem of children with writing difficulties who can better express their thoughts. Furthermore, it enables teacher to see into the minds of all children and to ask better, more thoughtful questions.
Philosophy homework negotiated with the children usually a moral dilemma which comes from a the children’s enquiry. For example, a current homework is to discuss; "Why should I give up my dummy?" Children and their parents are then asked to contemplate whether they would wear a dummy if David Beckham wore one, or if it were the law to wear one. Parents are then expected to write down the opinions of everyone involved in the discussion - this often includes grandparents, family, friends and child-minders.
The school did not come across any difficulties with parents when introducing Philosophy homework. On the contrary, it has cemented the school's relationship with parents. And it has improved the parents' thinking skills too!
But the Chapel Break curriculum is not just enriched with the teaching of Philosophy. A more recent introduction has been peer-to-peer massage. "I had just finished our presentation at the Alite annual Conference and thought I would take a look around," explains Sara. "I looked in on a presentation on massage in schools because I thought it looked interesting." And, of course, when she mentioned it to the Head the response was, "Fine, go and get the training." At the time, the school's Year 1 and Year 2 pupils’ behaviour was challenging. They studied peer-to-peer massage as part of PSHE. Self-esteem began to soar as they learnt the benefit of reassuring, positive touch. "It is all about learning to share, care and trust each other," explains Sara.
Now pupils have fourteen massage movements that they practise on each other, and as they do so they tell as story which follows the theme that they are currently being taught. For example, when Year 2 were studying the sea and fossils, they made up their own names for the movements - 'digging the fossil' being one example.
Ask Angela Moore for one piece of advice for a Headteacher wishing to improve his or her own school and, not surprisingly, you get four! "Play to your staff strengths. Create a curriculum that allows teachers to feel safe to experiment and concentrate on skills - don't be bound by constraints and content. In other words take a risk."
The Compton Experience - 21st Century Schooling on all Levels
When schools close and then reopen with a new name, new uniform and a new set of policies, the superficial changes sometimes outweigh the more meaningful. Regression can then follow. This hasn’t been the experience of one north London school.
Teresa has been Headteacher at The Compton School since 1999. Previously she taught at the school as Deputy from 1992, appointed as one of three staff to help set up a new school on the site of one that had recently closed. Before this, Teresa worked in other London schools in a range of roles.
Teresa has undertaken the NPQH and the Leadership Programme for Serving Headteachers and completed the NCSL Consultant Head Teacher Programme. She is working as part of the London Challenge Team of Consultant Head Teachers supporting the work of other London Schools, and also for the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust as an Associate Head supporting schools in the south east of England. Teresa became a chartered urban leader in 2005 and is currently an assessor for this NCSL qualification. She is presently acting as an Executive Head for Summerside School, one of The Compton’s feeder primary schools.
It’s been 14 years since Finchley Manor Hill School transformed itself into The Compton. Just before the new millennium Teresa Tunnadine became Head Teacher and developed her vision of turning it into an outstanding 21st Century school for its learners. What she and her staff have done has inspired their students to even greater success and all the indicators are that these standards are sustainable.
The School Context
The surroundings in which The Compton School finds itself makes its journey all the more interesting. Situated in Barnet, where more than 50% of schools offer selection of some kind, this local authority community school attracts virtually all the children who live nearby. Its catchment area (only 0.6 of a mile) takes in two local authority housing estates – one of which has significant levels of deprivation – as well as an area of more advantaged housing.
In a relatively short time they have become successful and hugely oversubscribed, with 740 applications in 2005 for 180 places. Of the current school population:
- There are 30% SEN, of which 5% are statemented, thus the intake is skewed below average on entry
- 40% have English as an additional language (42+ languages are spoken at the school)
- 21% are entitled to free school meals
- Boy to girl ratio is 1:1 – unusual for a mixed school with single sex girls’ schools nearby
- Significant groups in the school include: 50% white working class, 20% Indian, 6% Black African
Moving in the Right Direction
When Teresa became Head Teacher in 1999, the school had already achieved some notable successes. However, there were still plenty of issues that needed addressing:
- The school’s good results had begun to plateau. It was proving difficult to move them above 60% 5+A*-C
- Facilities were cramped and old fashioned
- Some young staff were leaving for promotion elsewhere, either due to a lack of a 6th Form, or because they were moving out of London due to the high cost of housing locally
- As a relatively small school the budget was restricted and allowed little flexibility for school improvement
- Though student behaviour was generally good, there was a certain amount of low level disruption particularly for young staff new to the school or to teaching
The Compton School had to look into the future to address some of these issues and then decide a route to achieving these ambitions. They needed a vision that would help them reinvent themselves, one where they would be able to clearly picture what the school would look like in five or ten years’ time, and it had to be sustainable. They came up with three core issues to focus on for whole school improvement over the next six years:
| 1. Effective lessons |
improving the quality of teaching and learning |
| 2. The school environment | acquiring funding for site development and improvement |
| 3. E-school development | improving the provision and delivery of ICT to become an e-school |
It was decided that they would use research to help them get there. Some of this would be academic research, allowing them, for example, to draw on what is known about how students learn effectively. Supplementing this would be research that looked at other successful schools, and learning from them. All this would be supported by a number of important principles that the school had used since its inception:
- Consulting with staff, students and parents on every major issue
- Thinking creatively and being willing to take calculated risks
- Working together consistently as a whole staff
- Using regular, systematic reviews to identify successes and highlight further areas for development
- Committing to share and celebrate successes on an individual and collective level
- Nurturing a school climate where there is ‘no blame’ but high levels of personal accountability and responsibility.
1. Effective Lessons
It was decided that improving the quality of teaching across the entire school was to be the single focus of their efforts for at least the first three years. This would be broken down into specific whole school elements, backed up by a detailed programme of staff training, and supported and monitored through lesson observations.
Elements they focused on included:
- Using seating plans across the entire school that changed half-termly
- Developing proximal (paired) learning as a highly structured framework for student talk used to raise literacy levels, particularly for boys and less able children
- Using assessment for learning to ensure that the focus of each lesson was clearly understood by students and that individuals could access strategies for improvement
- Focusing on positive ratios of sanctions to rewards
- Ensuring pace in lessons, with tight planning and timing, setting a series of short tasks and using a range of activities and learning styles to suit all students
- Initiatives to support the work in the classroom, such as Positive Discipline, Positive Parenting Skills and developing Student Voice.
Seating Plans and Proximal Learning
A whole staff INSET launched the rationale for seating plans, and provided staff with the confidence to use them in every lesson. The focus on proximal learning and how this could raise achievement and improve the working climate was also made explicit.
“Using seating plans consistently and focusing on positive teacher talk in class resulted in improved teacher-student relationships and minimised conflict – this had a significant impact upon our working climate.”
Head of Department
Seating plans ensured that every student worked with every other student in the class. This broke down many of the dynamics that were not conducive to an effective learning environment. Unproductive friendship groupings could not dominate a lesson, ‘in-groups’ could not flourish and the ‘fear of person X’ did not make students feel uncomfortable. There is less conflict as students learn to interact positively with everyone in their class.
“The process goes beyond seating plans being used as a behaviour management tool, where stereotypically girls could be used to tame less focused boys. Seating plans are a tool for positive learning – it is wonderful to see such positive working partnerships.”
Deputy Head
Amongst other benefits, the proximal learning allowed students the opportunity to discuss an idea before writing, which means that content is more likely to be understood and remembered. The concept was of ‘think, talk, write’ and is a particularly useful strategy for boys. Of course, it’s also more fun to work with someone else and easier to have two people working on one task – and the students seem to really enjoy it. Student consultation allowed the school to regularly review their practice. One reported back that:
“I hated seating plans to start with, it was easier to work with mates and it was much easier to blag it and do nothing. Now I really like it. I’ve got to work with practically everyone in my year group, there are no ‘it’ groups and you can’t get away with doing nothing. We have seating plans in every class – everyone gets on a lot better and we learn more – simple!”
The initial implementation of seating plans was supported by middle and senior staff supporting colleagues putting this strategy into action and, within days, the system was embedded into student expectations of the school.
Initiatives Supporting Classroom Work
a. Positive Discipline
Both staff and students were involved in this from the outset through a consultation process, the results of which were fedback formally through PSHE sessions and assemblies. These include:
- Sanctions for poor behaviour – a chart clearly shown in all classrooms – that give the students a chance to modify their behaviour using informal and then formal warnings. Should it be necessary, there is an internal exclusion room that isolates students for a day. This has proved to be a real deterrent, as they don’t like being sent there, and it has reduced external exclusions from school to almost nil.
- Praise for good behaviour that catches and celebrates the achievements of all, including the ‘ghost children’ who come in and get on quietly with their work, behaving as they should. They are the vast majority of the students in schools and often go unnoticed. Amongst other forms of recognition, students now receive credits, tokens, letters and phone calls home, certificates, cash prizes, and there is an end of year celebration evening for each year group and their parents where most children take part. Again, a chart summarizing this is on show for children to see – and they love it!
- These ideas that have developed from the school’s work on emotional intelligence (first done with staff, then with students and then parents): minimal shouting, reasoning, blaming the actions and not the child and so on.
b. Positive Parenting Skills
Parents are helped to develop positive behaviour with their children. An ‘in-house’ programme of six workshops has been devised in this academic year. Parents whose children are not behaving positively in school are targeted and invited by phone, although all parents are welcome to attend. Below is an example of what is covered in the first of these workshops:
Introduce the concept of ‘Rules, Praise, Ignore’ i.e.
- Rules are needed so there is a clarity and consistency of behaviour that is agreed before a crisis arises and then set as ground rules e.g. going out and coming home on time…and keeping to it
- Praise is essential to catch them being good and, even when having to challenge teenagers when they break the rules, point out what they usually do is good
- Ignore minor incidents of poor behaviour to minimize giving attention to children for negative reasons
c. Student Voice
There has been a lot of work done on this, but one strategy that has had a particularly significant impact in the classroom (and involved the learners at every level) was the establishing of student research projects. Students were trained as researchers by an outside agency in order to gather student input from across the school on issues that directly related to improvements in the school. Projects included how ICT impacts on and aids learning, Healthy Eating and the use of Different Teaching Styles in lessons. The results from these projects were fed back to staff and students with action points provided.
The school believes that they should constantly review and challenge the way they all do things. This leads to staff embracing opportunities for professional development – a whole school goal of improving practice within the school. Complacency is not a feature of the school and the commitment to addressing issues remains.
An extensive process of classroom observation was agreed by staff and introduced to support the improvements. The Head Teacher continues to see every member of staff teach in a continuous cycle of observations; senior and middle leaders also observe all the staff and departments they link with. The observation focus changes termly and allows the opportunity for formal, structured and constructive feedback. This involves between 10 and 20 lessons of observation a week across the school.
“I learned more in feedback from lesson observations in my first year than anything else. The feedback was always constructive, forward thinking and rigorous. I felt supported but was always keen to do as well as possible. It was very positive for students in my classes to see my HOD, HOY and senior staff taking an interest in their work and in mine.”
Classroom Teacher
2. The School Environment
The original school had been built for 500 children in the 1950s. The Compton School grew to 750+ using the same buildings. Some refurbishment had taken place during its period of ‘Fresh Start’, but there were still many improvements needed to the site. So the second part of the six year plan was to improve the environment and take the school forward into the 21st Century. The key to all this was accessing the funding to do it, which was achieved by agreeing to expand, which released funding to completely refurbish the site. This has included the provision of enlarged multi-use spaces for learning instead of cramped classrooms in narrow corridors. The school decided on a simple design, where the emphasis was on light, white spaces, providing an open and airy feel. Colour and interest comes from the displays around the walls. These not only add to the aesthetics of the surroundings, but provide constant reminders about the learning going on. Walk down any corridor and you will perhaps see colourful mapping ideas for poetry, a wall outlining World War II victory, or a wall celebrating the exam results of the students at the school. Everywhere, learning is highlighted and celebrated using key tools of imagery, colour and keywords.
At the heart of the school an impressive social space for students has been developed, which is known as The Concourse. It contains an enlarged café that is used almost all day, allowing a system of staggered breaks and lunchtimes. By doing this, there is less of a ‘conveyor belt’ feel to its use and this promotes eating as a relaxing social experience. This, together with the school’s healthy eating strategies, supports the school’s work in developing positive behaviour management. Teresa concedes that the budget could have been used differently (i.e. less on social space and more on additional classrooms), but defends this aspect of the building design because, as hoped, it has meant a happier, calmer school where there is no litter or graffiti and poor behaviour has been reduced to a minimum.
Ask any child what they would like to change about his or her school’s environment and you will get the same answer: the toilets. Not only have school toilets been traditionally dingy areas of necessity, they have also been linked in many students’ minds to incidents of misbehaviour. At The Compton School, such areas were high on the list of priorities for total overhaul. Student toilets were rebuilt to make them high quality places, demonstrating the staff’s respect for the students. The students have repaid this consideration, as these areas continue to be very well maintained, and damage- and graffiti-free. Similarly, dismal locker areas have been replaced by a cloakroom staffed throughout the day. Here, student property is safe. And, of course, staff weren’t forgotten in the refurbishment. Their working and social spaces were also brought up to a similarly high standard, letting them know that the management understand that professionals also need an appropriate environment in which to work and socialize.
The landscaping that took place in the outdoor spaces around school has served a dual purpose. In the daytime these pleasant and pristine areas, such as the Piazza and the East Courtyard are used by the students; in the evenings and holidays they are hired by members of the local community for various functions, providing the school with income that forms an important part of the school budget.
3. E-school Development
Becoming an e-school has been a main focus for the school over the past two years and continues to be so. They have invested heavily in a leasing programme so that the ratio of computers to students is now at 1:3. There are nine suites of 30 computers across the school and most departments have their own ICT suite. Interactive white boards are used in every classroom and there continues to be significant training supporting staff in using these boards to best effect to aid conceptual learning.
Amongst other investments made towards upgrading the school technologically are:
- Large display plasma screens around the school to inform and celebrate
- A cashless till system for the café
- ID badges to streamline administration, such as cloakroom use and borrowing books from the Learning Resource Centre
The school has been one of only a small number to pilot the new DIDA award (GCSE equivalent in ICT worth up to four GCSEs) and, as part of this work, they provide support for the development of schemes of work for other schools new to this examination.
On the Road
More recently, as Executive Head of one of The Compton’s feeder primaries, Teresa has had the opportunity to include their school on a similar journey. The benefits have meant that not only is this primary school beginning to see an improvement in their pupil’s learning, but also that the initiatives provide the children with some continuity of experience for when they move to secondary school. In order to do this, Teresa has reapplied her own school improvement approach but in a different context; the same strategies – structured whole school lesson planning, staff development, observations, improvement of the environment and display for learning, and the ICT development strategy with the same key priorities for teaching and administration – all with the same positive improvements, implemented piece-by-piece.
Despite (or perhaps because of) all the improvements being put into place at The Compton School and the feeder primary, Teresa has this advice – don’t do everything at once. “Have the courage to decide on a timeline of improvements and do them one by one,” she advises. The ‘doing’, of course, is to train, implement and then monitor the impact through observations before moving on to the next aspect (e.g. focusing only on lesson starters for a whole term). And to do it as a whole school. Because Teresa is a committed exponent of emotional intelligence, which is apparent in her leadership style, she is keen not to overburden staff by demanding that they do everything at once. Not only would this be counterproductive in terms of staff well-being and effectiveness, but the practices would be less likely to become properly embedded and so yield limited impact. “Everything else, for example marking policy, equal opportunities, gifted and talented, any other government initiatives, etc, can wait. Show it in your medium to long term plan and then just refine the specific priority of the moment across the school…it takes courage and needs explaining to the local authority and OFSTED, but it’s worth it and understandable if part of a strategy.”
“The content and process of the construction of the school improvement plan illustrates many positive features of management (for example)...the bold decision to have just one objective focused on teaching and learning.”
Ofsted, 2002
At this point on the journey, there are still adventures ahead for The Compton School’s ambition to become a fully-fledged e-school. Teaching and learning continues to be a priority. The indicators so far seem to suggest that they are moving in the right direction. This summer all Year 9 students will be taking the first DIDA award. The GCSE results in 2005 were their best ever – 67% A*-C. In terms of the contextual value added score, they achieved 1029, which put them in the top 5% of schools in the country in terms of student progress.
Landmarks on the Journey |
To date, the experiences on their journey have been overwhelmingly positive. That doesn’t mean that it’s been straightforward or that they are now at their destination; they continue to seek to improve all learning and constantly work at keeping the environment right for staff and students alike. However, when they complete their current plans, there is no doubt that they will once again be mapping out yet another exciting journey.
Learning is reduced when you multi-task
A study by UCLA psychologists appears to have proven that distractions prevent us learning as efficiently as possible.
In a report published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the UCLA team explains how they used an fMRI scan to see which parts of the brain we engage when we are learning a new task. Participants in the study were given a learning task, which they were allowed to complete without distractions. They were then given a second task, but this time they were asked to complete it whilst counting a series of high and low pitched beeps. The research team found that the participants were able to complete the learning tasks in both cases. However, when they were later questioned about what they did, they were unable to remember details about the second task. The distraction appeared to inhibit their ability to extrapolate. "Even if you learn while multi-tasking, that learning is less flexible and more specialised, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily," said Russell Poldrack, co-author of the study. The fMRIs showed that when the participants were not distracted, they relied on the area of the brain known as the hippocampus. This part of the brain is essential for the processing and storing of information.
However, when they were distracted whilst learning, the hippocampus was not engaged. Instead, an area called the striatum was used. The striatum is involved in learning new skills. The researchers say that the results show that learning while distracted alters the brain's learning processes and changes the way we learn. "The best thing you can do to improve your memory is to pay attention to the things you want to remember," says Poldrack.
At Alite learning is our business
We take a light-hearted look at some of the things we learn as we go through life.
TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED
1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptise cats.
2) When your Mum is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap.
GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED
1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don't hurt.
3) Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fibre, not the toy.
GREAT TRUTHS OLDER PEOPLE HAVE LEARNED
1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2) Forget the health food. Get all the preservatives you can lay your hands on.
3) When you fall down, think about what else you can do while you're down there.
4) You get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.