The Finale and Curtain Call were so perfect, so full of warmth and so glorious, Mr Ray and the Tarleton family will forever treasure the memories.
It was done in such style, South Dartmoor style, with genuine fun, affection and the attention to detail that makes the College such a special place to work. From the assembly through to the Marquee Celebration, everything was in the true spirit of our (now your) wonderful school. In part it was like being an award winner at the Oscars for a film that's taken twenty-one years to make; and in part it resembled an out-of-body experience at my own funeral!
The staff gift, a painting by the local artist and former South Dartmoor teacher, Sarah Bell, is a delight. It's called The Journey Home... and those of you who travel the A38 Exeter-bound, will recognise the view from the top of the Haldon Hill. When my children were at the school, as we drove back from Ashburton at the end of the day, I used to tell them to look down on the sprawling lights of the city, aware that one of those twinkles of illumination was home, where their mother would be waiting for us. Sarah's painting, your gift, captures that memory from a daily journey over the years that adds up to thousands of miles- perhaps as far as the moon.
I was especially grateful to Steve for compèring the final section of the assembly- the next Jonathan Ross? And to everyone who contributed to the hilarious DVD- some X-Factor talent there to watch out for, especially the PE Swingers and Pete's new solo bid for fame- KENatra? The students' response was overwhelming- what a wonderful group of young people. No wonder none of us ever wants to leave.
The Recipe Book is an inspired idea: I loved reading it and will truly enjoy trying out every recipe in it- even TAP's Tea. The concept is a winner- congratulations for devising it, Jane; the design is so professional- thanks to Bea and also John, Katie, Adam and Lin, to all of you for creating it. A special thanks to Nick Stimson for his magical opening tribute which reminded me of the start of a novel; and to Paul McCormick for capturing the memory so well of a meal not eaten! The recipeists all bring their personalities to their food choices. With quality photographs, highly original lay-out and easy-wipe pages, it's set to become this summer's sure-fire Amazon best seller.
The staff comments in the tribute book were overwhelmingly powerful and a joy to read. If I ever feel low, that's the book I'll take out to inspire me again. Thank you all: you never really know what people think until they have an opportunity like this. You were all so generous.
The amazing photo montage includes many memorable events and sights from the South Dartmoor past South Dartmoor. Thank you, Governors, for this imaginative gift, and John Bradford and team for shooting and compiling.
I'm unsure who to thank for the Marquee Celebration because of the secrecy surrounding it, but nothing could have been more fitting: delicious canapés from Scoffers washed down with Pimms and bathed in that fine jazz playing. Thanks to the musicians - Rachel, Jonathan, Jo and the students and to Lin who looked to me to have the air of someone in charge.....
I really appreciated everyone’s attendance. How lovely to welcome former Leadership Team colleagues who did so much with me to make the school the place it now is: Andy Hamlyn, Heather Stimson, Rachel Hutchinson, Martin Burt, Graham Allen and Dave Mardall; and former colleague, Paul Cornish. To complement the current Governors, I was also delighted to see former governors James Long, Veronica Groom and Helen Cock.
Phil Norrey, Chief Executive of Devon County Council, paid me a great compliment in attending. It was so kind of him to stay to the end to show his appreciation, a mark of his quality as a leader.
Finally to great teams and what a Team Leadership are. If only England could have played as well they spoke! But I'm not going to continue this sporting analogy- and you all know why. Let me just say that every one of them made me so proud - all those years of coaching them for Presentation Evening finally paid off! Kate led the event with such sparkle and poise, striking just the right tone and remembering everything and everyone.
Many of you told me how much you appreciated what the school did for your children. Me too! I was touched to find mine there, both home from London where they work, Alice at Channel Four News and Ed at Imperial College. They had been smuggled in by my wife, another surprise guest, in on the conspiracy from the start. We left for the final ‘Journey Home ...’ with the car boot bursting with your gifts and cards.
Prospero, the ruler of an imaginary island in Shakespeare’s final play, The Tempest, relinquishes his authority by throwing down his staff. At just the moment a prop was needed, Allan brought forth his majestic, decorated pole and allowed me to make the comparison between an island built on dreams (‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on...’) and a school built on dreams that are now real. My thanks to everyone who made the celebration of that realised dream one of the memorable moments of my life. Now let the curtain fall.
Ray Tarleton
Principal (September 1989-August 2010)
Monday, 12 July 2010
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
In Praise of OfSTED
Bus duty on day one of the new Inspection regime and the pupils are chatting about how it’s been. “What’s all this OFSTED stuff about?” asks one. “Oh I can tell you,” says another who has clearly already been through the process; “It’s dead simple. If you see a bloke wearing a smart suit and carrying a clipboard sitting at the back of your class, you are going to get a bloody good lesson!”
Eighteen years after Ken Clarke set up the system, OFSTED is still the most powerful force in education. What else will bring 120 teachers into work, at least for two days, before 6.00 am? The displays, even with only two days notice made me think I had walked into the wrong school, while lesson plans and my SEF were longer than a Victorian novel.
Whatever your role, if you know that OFSTED are going to measure it, you make sure it’s done. The Government wants to encourage diversity so the specialisms in secondary schools get plenty of attention. They want the public to believe in the re-branded comprehensive so the OFSTED agenda is to comment on how much the specialism has done to raise standards, support the community … fill in your own blanks. Schools have had both safety and health scares recently, so plenty of references to diet, lifestyle and safety conscious staff and pupils go down well.
Racist incidents? Show me your log. Bullying in the playground? Give me the records. If the Government decided it wanted all schools to serve unsalted pistachio nuts on Parents’ Evenings, test basket weaving skills and dress lollypop ladies in Union Jacks, it would only have to make these things inspection tick boxes and we’d obey.
I experienced my first OFSTED – “a training” inspection in 1992 before the full scale assault the following year. I am now through number five (just). So what’s changed on this latest, tougher framework and over the years? Short notice has been with us for some time but I can still remember a ruined Christmas holiday for the Leadership Team who were sworn to secrecy when we did hear weeks before. We broke the news to staff with a happy New Year greeting – and they still had four weeks’ notice.
The pre-inspection briefing has become as forensic as a murder investigation. Hypotheses are laid out with the misdirected fervour that comes of an ill spent career salivating over data charts. Crime suspects from the Leadership Team are wheeled in. “You wilfully, during the months of 2009-10, allowed attendance to drop.” My defence: “Actually, you’ve got the wrong bloke. Isn’t it the parents’ responsibility to get their offspring to school?”
The really big change is that the inspection is now done with you rather than to you. The Leadership Team double observed many of the lessons the inspectors went to. We were asked for our grades first to check our judgements. 'What did you think of the transitions? What was missing in the questioning? What's did your view about the pace?' These were the kind of questions posed to me by the HMI lead as we raced from class to class. This is a great way to influence classroom practice and probably the best professional development anyone could have.
Instead of us whispering in separate rooms, their meetings included me and some of the team so the judgements were transparent too. We were invited to comment but never to canvass: the criteria held firm. The student, parental and staff questionnaires were processed on the day and each section was checked against this data. One interesting student criticism was about the quality of supply. It's never cropped up before but I put it down to 'rarely cover' preventing us from using our own experienced and familiar teachers.
The Leadership Team emailed through the night and from dawn, sharing insights and heading off trouble. 'Will we ever sleep again?' mused my deputy at 5.00 am on day two. The final two hour discussion was all facts rather than opinions, each section scored as if filling up a Bingo card. We followed with absolutely no idea until the end whether we would have that winning 'full house'. But it was professional development of the best kind. Even if the number of areas inspected is reduced, as planned, this is a valuable process. Despite popular opinion, I come to praise of OFSTED and hope it won’t be buried.
The morning after the judgement I held up the TES in the staffroom to huge applause because the headline was that outstanding schools no longer faced inspection. I'm not convinced- there is always much to learn and the inspectors surely need to have the widest picture. Still- I’m off to consider academy status now.
Monday, 24 May 2010
Bonhomie is me
The police don’t do it but headteachers and politicians do. Whilst we all pound the beat on our respective patches, the real law enforcers discreetly keep their distance, striding purposefully on with an expression that conveys decisiveness. You never catch them asking everyone what their state of health is as they walk by.
Aloofness might be a characteristic to get some training on. Does it come only with helmet wearing and a chunky mobile or can anyone do it? In contrast, I go around enquiring how it’s going of everyone I meet. I’m programmed, like soap powder in a washing machine, to inject brightness. Even on the most miserable of days, bonhomie is me.
‘All well?’ I cheerily ask a senior colleague at the end of a particularly difficult week. I soon realise it was a mistake. For there are times when optimism, that essential characteristic in school leaders, can look like naivety, lack of awareness or even folly.
He’s thinking: ‘What’s the head got to be so cheerful about? He can’t know the half of what’s going on or he’d be having a nervous breakdown in his office.’ And I’m thinking: ‘The leadership manual tells me I must be relentlessly positive in the face of all adversity.’ So the smile stays fixed. The Captain of the Titanic would have been proud of me.
The teacher had just finished bus duty and all was far from well. A day of truanting and possible substance abuse from a couple of boys had led to unavoidable confrontation. It may have been the mood-enhancing quality of the substance, the start of the weekend, or perhaps the ‘broken society’ but the response from the students to a polite request was loud, personal and laced with sexual innuendo of an exotic variety. The other youngsters and some parents listening must have thought they were at the premiere of an adults only film.
I sigh in sympathy, switch off the smile and replace it with a determined expression that’s supposed to convey weighty assurance of firm action. I’m signalling that they won’t get away with it. Consequences will follow as surely as the school bells ring on the hour. Fixed term exclusion is my conclusion. But with it comes the time-consuming, energy-sapping paraphernalia of phone calls, letters, meetings and support plans. And any thought of a quick after-school getaway vanishes as the process has to be started straightaway.
Who’s being punished here, I wonder, as we wait for the first parent to answer. Will it be an abusive complaint that it’s our fault for letting him leave the site or an understanding apology? Once, on such an occasion, a parent told me he was on his way to sort me out, casually adding that he was bringing his gun. Fortunately, by the time I’d been coaxed out of the locked store cupboard where I’d taken up residence, my deputy had got through to the police to be told the gunman had handed himself in.
Calls made, I feel in control again. There may be horror stories now on the street of indiscipline and extraordinary rudeness at the secondary school, but I’m sticking with unremitting optimism. It’s a mantra to memorise, like those lines teachers used to set their pupils as punishment. And it’s Friday night, after all. So you won’t catch me kicking the wall or screaming in protest, though I might give the Jacuzzi at my local health club some stick later. And I may just practise an aloof smile, ready for the next crisis.
Aloofness might be a characteristic to get some training on. Does it come only with helmet wearing and a chunky mobile or can anyone do it? In contrast, I go around enquiring how it’s going of everyone I meet. I’m programmed, like soap powder in a washing machine, to inject brightness. Even on the most miserable of days, bonhomie is me.
‘All well?’ I cheerily ask a senior colleague at the end of a particularly difficult week. I soon realise it was a mistake. For there are times when optimism, that essential characteristic in school leaders, can look like naivety, lack of awareness or even folly.
He’s thinking: ‘What’s the head got to be so cheerful about? He can’t know the half of what’s going on or he’d be having a nervous breakdown in his office.’ And I’m thinking: ‘The leadership manual tells me I must be relentlessly positive in the face of all adversity.’ So the smile stays fixed. The Captain of the Titanic would have been proud of me.
The teacher had just finished bus duty and all was far from well. A day of truanting and possible substance abuse from a couple of boys had led to unavoidable confrontation. It may have been the mood-enhancing quality of the substance, the start of the weekend, or perhaps the ‘broken society’ but the response from the students to a polite request was loud, personal and laced with sexual innuendo of an exotic variety. The other youngsters and some parents listening must have thought they were at the premiere of an adults only film.
I sigh in sympathy, switch off the smile and replace it with a determined expression that’s supposed to convey weighty assurance of firm action. I’m signalling that they won’t get away with it. Consequences will follow as surely as the school bells ring on the hour. Fixed term exclusion is my conclusion. But with it comes the time-consuming, energy-sapping paraphernalia of phone calls, letters, meetings and support plans. And any thought of a quick after-school getaway vanishes as the process has to be started straightaway.
Who’s being punished here, I wonder, as we wait for the first parent to answer. Will it be an abusive complaint that it’s our fault for letting him leave the site or an understanding apology? Once, on such an occasion, a parent told me he was on his way to sort me out, casually adding that he was bringing his gun. Fortunately, by the time I’d been coaxed out of the locked store cupboard where I’d taken up residence, my deputy had got through to the police to be told the gunman had handed himself in.
Calls made, I feel in control again. There may be horror stories now on the street of indiscipline and extraordinary rudeness at the secondary school, but I’m sticking with unremitting optimism. It’s a mantra to memorise, like those lines teachers used to set their pupils as punishment. And it’s Friday night, after all. So you won’t catch me kicking the wall or screaming in protest, though I might give the Jacuzzi at my local health club some stick later. And I may just practise an aloof smile, ready for the next crisis.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Humpty Dumpty
According to the psychologist, Dorothy Rowe, we’re now in a period when children are being listened to and their views taken into account. Apparently, it’s a by-product of the women’s movement. But, although society is changing, in schools pupil voice may struggle to drown out the discordant noises-off from teacher unions who want to press the mute button.
Pupils are accused of over-stepping the mark, sitting on selection panels, daring to express their views during appointments, and also commenting on what goes on in lessons. Pupil voice, we’re told, means young upstarts can even ask candidates what font they think they most resemble. Well, I’d pick forte. Some apparently even rejected a teacher for a post because they claimed he was like Humpy Dumpty.
This isn’t just an infringement of union rights: it’s an assault on the teacher-pupil relationship in which the adult knows better than the child and is always right. But wait. Substitute ‘men’ for ‘adult’ and ‘women’ for ‘child’ and you can see the tectonic plates shifting as Rowe suggests, leaving the Band of Brothers on the wrong side of the debate.
I first explored student voice when I asked my classes to try out experiments with language, recording and transcribing their responses. With the tape recorder to control them, they followed the protocols of speaking in turn and commenting on the text. Once the writing barrier was removed and techniques learned for spoken contributions, classes which I had imagined to be low in ability gained the capacity to surprise each other as well as me.
At South Dartmoor, we now have an expert Student Learning Forum, volunteers selected by interview, who are trained in classroom observational techniques, using Guy Claxton’s Building Learning Power methodology to analyse and report, subject by subject. For example, they look at the learning environment. ‘Why no number lines in Maths rooms?’ they asked last year. Well, there are now and you can see the impact today as children look across the walls, counting from negative to positive numbers.
‘Who can enjoy hockey when the bibs we have to wear are dirty and smelly?’ they quizzed us. We’d never noticed but now the washing machines whir away to make sure it’s no longer an issue. ‘Can we have more student work on the walls, please?’ they request, making it clear to us that the environment really does matter to them. It’s an easy fix.
Our own push now is on assessment for learning. The principles have been explained to the Learning Forum and their latest comments are illuminating: ‘In subject X, we saw 60% of the students offering to answer questions. We think the proportion should be over 80%.’
There are comments about levels of engagement and responses by students to teacher strategies of pausing to allow reflection before requesting answers. The mysteries of how teaching works have been revealed like a David Blaine magic trick and the students marvel at how easy the skilled teacher makes their craft look.
It’s all voluntary, of course. Departments request these student-led observations because they help them to improve the learning. They commission reports for their subject SEFs- student views without the effort of processing questionnaires. And there is strictly no comment on the teaching- it’s all student-centred. Even so, I can hear the agonised cries of union dinosaurs, snarling in the swamp.
As for appointments, it was a no-brainer to use the Student Council and Sixth Form Councils as interview panels in their own right when my successor was appointed. It means he has widespread and popular endorsement. One candidate unwisely remarked that teaching would not be part of the head’s role if appointed. ‘Why not?’ asked the students. ‘It’s not important enough,’ came the reply. The candidate may not have been called Humpty Dumpty but certainly couldn’t be put back together again after a fall like that, even if forte had been the chosen font.
Ray Tarleton
Pupils are accused of over-stepping the mark, sitting on selection panels, daring to express their views during appointments, and also commenting on what goes on in lessons. Pupil voice, we’re told, means young upstarts can even ask candidates what font they think they most resemble. Well, I’d pick forte. Some apparently even rejected a teacher for a post because they claimed he was like Humpy Dumpty.
This isn’t just an infringement of union rights: it’s an assault on the teacher-pupil relationship in which the adult knows better than the child and is always right. But wait. Substitute ‘men’ for ‘adult’ and ‘women’ for ‘child’ and you can see the tectonic plates shifting as Rowe suggests, leaving the Band of Brothers on the wrong side of the debate.
I first explored student voice when I asked my classes to try out experiments with language, recording and transcribing their responses. With the tape recorder to control them, they followed the protocols of speaking in turn and commenting on the text. Once the writing barrier was removed and techniques learned for spoken contributions, classes which I had imagined to be low in ability gained the capacity to surprise each other as well as me.
At South Dartmoor, we now have an expert Student Learning Forum, volunteers selected by interview, who are trained in classroom observational techniques, using Guy Claxton’s Building Learning Power methodology to analyse and report, subject by subject. For example, they look at the learning environment. ‘Why no number lines in Maths rooms?’ they asked last year. Well, there are now and you can see the impact today as children look across the walls, counting from negative to positive numbers.
‘Who can enjoy hockey when the bibs we have to wear are dirty and smelly?’ they quizzed us. We’d never noticed but now the washing machines whir away to make sure it’s no longer an issue. ‘Can we have more student work on the walls, please?’ they request, making it clear to us that the environment really does matter to them. It’s an easy fix.
Our own push now is on assessment for learning. The principles have been explained to the Learning Forum and their latest comments are illuminating: ‘In subject X, we saw 60% of the students offering to answer questions. We think the proportion should be over 80%.’
There are comments about levels of engagement and responses by students to teacher strategies of pausing to allow reflection before requesting answers. The mysteries of how teaching works have been revealed like a David Blaine magic trick and the students marvel at how easy the skilled teacher makes their craft look.
It’s all voluntary, of course. Departments request these student-led observations because they help them to improve the learning. They commission reports for their subject SEFs- student views without the effort of processing questionnaires. And there is strictly no comment on the teaching- it’s all student-centred. Even so, I can hear the agonised cries of union dinosaurs, snarling in the swamp.
As for appointments, it was a no-brainer to use the Student Council and Sixth Form Councils as interview panels in their own right when my successor was appointed. It means he has widespread and popular endorsement. One candidate unwisely remarked that teaching would not be part of the head’s role if appointed. ‘Why not?’ asked the students. ‘It’s not important enough,’ came the reply. The candidate may not have been called Humpty Dumpty but certainly couldn’t be put back together again after a fall like that, even if forte had been the chosen font.
Ray Tarleton
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Election Editorial
So, an invitation at last to join the Government of Great Britain. I thought they’d never ask. But this tricksy Tory attempt to get my vote reminds me of my feeble attempts in assembly to persuade the school that the Student Council are now part of the Leadership Team and have shares in the Governing Body.
‘You are the young leaders of the school and your voice will be heard in decisions we make,’ I proclaim in the Sports Hall, half believing my own rhetoric. It could be an election rally. Well, I know that it will look good in the SEF and be an OFSTED crowd pleaser. But, of course, the reality is that schools these days are so complex, even the heads barely understand them, never mind the governors. What chance does a bunch of well-meaning students, even if they are democratically elected, have to get their heads around curriculum, finance and buildings?
So the great Cameron Con (and that’s con as in ‘con’, not in ‘Conservative’) is to pretend that we can be partners in the Government of the Big Society. Their radical educational idea is an import, something from the European Union they can agree to. The Swedish model has been chosen because, we must assume, it’s the most successful educational system on the planet. Well, this is the country that gave us the music of the pop group, Abba, so perhaps the Tory theme tune should be: ‘Take a Chance on Me.’
The three parties are promising much that is similar in education. Test yourself. Who is offering pupil premiums to direct funding to the most disadvantaged schools? Definitely the Lib Dems who thought of it but now also Labour and probably the Tories as well. Who wants to create a form of national service for young people? It’s a great idea and hopefully will become a compulsory part of the curriculum but it’s Labour and Conservatives with likely Lib Dem support. Who is promising one- to-one tuition? Wasn’t that a Labour policy before the Lib Dems snatched it? Feel a coalition government coming on?
My SEF is as long as War and Peace. So the Conservative policy of reducing OFSTED’s brief from seventeen areas to four will appeal to every school, especially after the Alice in Wonderland adventures attempting to monitor safeguarding, happiness and even health.
But the free schools concept will have unexpected consequences. Parents and charitable groups have a strong record of establishing their own schools in this country. It’s not a new idea. It’s just that these schools have, until now, been outside the state system and funded privately. If they can be established through the state and without regulation, checks and controls, why would any parent continue to pay, for example, to send their child to a prep school? Why not start an alternative, using existing resources and get the state to pay for it? And the biggest irony is that the Tories, the Party of the free market, could be responsible for the decline of private education in this country. Now that’s something to cheer about.
The Labour Government has a proud record in education - as long as you’re not a graduate with a £20k debt to start your career. Results have improved dramatically, with practically half of all Year 11 students achieving the Government’s GCSE benchmark - a remarkable achievement and a tribute to teachers.
There is now an educational community of schools sharing ideas, curriculum practice and even leadership. Academies, Trusts and Federations have blossomed, based on British educational research and rooted in what works rather than what has been stolen from the shelf in a Swedish store. And the budgets for bowls to catch water from leaky roofs- high spending areas during the last Conservative Government- now register zero.
In a three party race, this time it looks as if Abba’s other hit lyric, ‘The Winner Takes it All’, might be a thing of the past where politics is concerned. We may find ourselves, after a long night on May 6, with both a parliament hung over and a personal hangover. That would get my vote.
Ray Tarleton - this editorial also appeared on page 6 of the May 6th edition of SecEd digital: http://bit.ly/9Cks8W
‘You are the young leaders of the school and your voice will be heard in decisions we make,’ I proclaim in the Sports Hall, half believing my own rhetoric. It could be an election rally. Well, I know that it will look good in the SEF and be an OFSTED crowd pleaser. But, of course, the reality is that schools these days are so complex, even the heads barely understand them, never mind the governors. What chance does a bunch of well-meaning students, even if they are democratically elected, have to get their heads around curriculum, finance and buildings?
So the great Cameron Con (and that’s con as in ‘con’, not in ‘Conservative’) is to pretend that we can be partners in the Government of the Big Society. Their radical educational idea is an import, something from the European Union they can agree to. The Swedish model has been chosen because, we must assume, it’s the most successful educational system on the planet. Well, this is the country that gave us the music of the pop group, Abba, so perhaps the Tory theme tune should be: ‘Take a Chance on Me.’
The three parties are promising much that is similar in education. Test yourself. Who is offering pupil premiums to direct funding to the most disadvantaged schools? Definitely the Lib Dems who thought of it but now also Labour and probably the Tories as well. Who wants to create a form of national service for young people? It’s a great idea and hopefully will become a compulsory part of the curriculum but it’s Labour and Conservatives with likely Lib Dem support. Who is promising one- to-one tuition? Wasn’t that a Labour policy before the Lib Dems snatched it? Feel a coalition government coming on?
My SEF is as long as War and Peace. So the Conservative policy of reducing OFSTED’s brief from seventeen areas to four will appeal to every school, especially after the Alice in Wonderland adventures attempting to monitor safeguarding, happiness and even health.
But the free schools concept will have unexpected consequences. Parents and charitable groups have a strong record of establishing their own schools in this country. It’s not a new idea. It’s just that these schools have, until now, been outside the state system and funded privately. If they can be established through the state and without regulation, checks and controls, why would any parent continue to pay, for example, to send their child to a prep school? Why not start an alternative, using existing resources and get the state to pay for it? And the biggest irony is that the Tories, the Party of the free market, could be responsible for the decline of private education in this country. Now that’s something to cheer about.
The Labour Government has a proud record in education - as long as you’re not a graduate with a £20k debt to start your career. Results have improved dramatically, with practically half of all Year 11 students achieving the Government’s GCSE benchmark - a remarkable achievement and a tribute to teachers.
There is now an educational community of schools sharing ideas, curriculum practice and even leadership. Academies, Trusts and Federations have blossomed, based on British educational research and rooted in what works rather than what has been stolen from the shelf in a Swedish store. And the budgets for bowls to catch water from leaky roofs- high spending areas during the last Conservative Government- now register zero.
In a three party race, this time it looks as if Abba’s other hit lyric, ‘The Winner Takes it All’, might be a thing of the past where politics is concerned. We may find ourselves, after a long night on May 6, with both a parliament hung over and a personal hangover. That would get my vote.
Ray Tarleton - this editorial also appeared on page 6 of the May 6th edition of SecEd digital: http://bit.ly/9Cks8W
Thursday, 1 April 2010
The Curious Incident of the Blog in the Night
I’m amazed to see that these regular columns have been running for nearly three years. The first blog I ever wrote was in June 07. It must have been three years ago because it was poking fun at OFSTED who had just been here on inspection. And now we’re waiting from them to return. I hope they don’t read my earlier jibes. That might be one entry to delete right now.
Since then there’s been a pretty constant stream of blogs, though for the last year or so I’ve been in TV review mode. For the statisticians out there, the total comes to 172, made up of 116 genuine blogs and 56 TES television columns that were blog-lite but badged up as the real thing. Each had to be 500 words in length which means I’ve devoted 28,000 words to the small screen- a sad indictment of my free time.
When asked to write blogs, I confess that I didn’t have a clue what they were. And the hawk-eyed amongst you will have realised that I still don’t, though there must be a definition somewhere. But I think we got there first and remain one of the few ‘blog-standard’ comprehensives around.
A blog is forever, not just for Christmas: looking back on the archives in their handy digital filing cabinet in the ether, the entries remind me of past highlights and the daily surprises that make running a school such a fascinating job. So I’m sure I’ll return to them in the future but as reader rather than writer. That’s unless I decide to use them as material and the starting point for some other writing. Perhaps not.
Now, as well as doing all the things that I hope help to make South Dartmoor successful, I’m also working closely with my successor, Hugh Bellamy. He and I were both at a Specialist Schools and Academies Celebration Dinner recently for schools achieving an increase in GCSE results since 2006 (pre-blog) of more than 15 percentage points. Both schools received certificates but Hugh’s school gained the Oscar of the evening for largest one year improvement in results- 57%. Wow.
And for me retirement appears to be a mirage as I prepare for a new role in September as Regional Director (SW) for the National College for Schools and Children’s Services. The College has a remit to provide leadership training for leaders and aspirant leaders in education and also now in children’s services and the role is one of three being trialled. Yes, I’ll be on trial- and may find myself returned to sender.
So the future should blog-free. And will anyone notice? In the Sherlock Holmes’s story, Silver Blaze, Holmes is mystified as to why the dog doesn’t bark in the night when you’d expect it to. Well blogs are an unexpected form of writing as well as allowing you to capture the unexpected. And that’s just what schools and the future are full of. Who would have imagined, for example, that we’d be embarking on an exciting new collaboration with Ilsington Primary School from next term? Or that our students would run a public Question Time debate, as they did last week that was so dynamic and interactive.
The curious incident of this set of blogs is that they ever came to be written and that they’ve survived so long. But now it’s time to put the night blogs to bed.
Since then there’s been a pretty constant stream of blogs, though for the last year or so I’ve been in TV review mode. For the statisticians out there, the total comes to 172, made up of 116 genuine blogs and 56 TES television columns that were blog-lite but badged up as the real thing. Each had to be 500 words in length which means I’ve devoted 28,000 words to the small screen- a sad indictment of my free time.
When asked to write blogs, I confess that I didn’t have a clue what they were. And the hawk-eyed amongst you will have realised that I still don’t, though there must be a definition somewhere. But I think we got there first and remain one of the few ‘blog-standard’ comprehensives around.
A blog is forever, not just for Christmas: looking back on the archives in their handy digital filing cabinet in the ether, the entries remind me of past highlights and the daily surprises that make running a school such a fascinating job. So I’m sure I’ll return to them in the future but as reader rather than writer. That’s unless I decide to use them as material and the starting point for some other writing. Perhaps not.
Now, as well as doing all the things that I hope help to make South Dartmoor successful, I’m also working closely with my successor, Hugh Bellamy. He and I were both at a Specialist Schools and Academies Celebration Dinner recently for schools achieving an increase in GCSE results since 2006 (pre-blog) of more than 15 percentage points. Both schools received certificates but Hugh’s school gained the Oscar of the evening for largest one year improvement in results- 57%. Wow.
And for me retirement appears to be a mirage as I prepare for a new role in September as Regional Director (SW) for the National College for Schools and Children’s Services. The College has a remit to provide leadership training for leaders and aspirant leaders in education and also now in children’s services and the role is one of three being trialled. Yes, I’ll be on trial- and may find myself returned to sender.
So the future should blog-free. And will anyone notice? In the Sherlock Holmes’s story, Silver Blaze, Holmes is mystified as to why the dog doesn’t bark in the night when you’d expect it to. Well blogs are an unexpected form of writing as well as allowing you to capture the unexpected. And that’s just what schools and the future are full of. Who would have imagined, for example, that we’d be embarking on an exciting new collaboration with Ilsington Primary School from next term? Or that our students would run a public Question Time debate, as they did last week that was so dynamic and interactive.
The curious incident of this set of blogs is that they ever came to be written and that they’ve survived so long. But now it’s time to put the night blogs to bed.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Tune in, switch off - Faith, hope and clarity
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, once regarded as so dangerous that even his voice on television was dubbed by an actor, played truth seeker in The Bible: A History (Channel 4). As they couldn't get King Herod to present, I suppose he was next best choice.
He talked to experts about Jesus' core teachings from the cradle to the cross, beginning with a Bible scholar's view that Jesus was probably not born in Bethlehem or even in a manger. "You're ruining Christmas," muttered Adams in one of the few light moments.
This was Adams working again on the Irish peace process - but peace for Gerry, wanting forgiveness. He read his Bible aloud, including the injunctions to love your neighbour and not to kill. Did he agree? Well, it would depend on the day of the week and the cause itself. We would have got more truth from a Robert Mugabe documentary on Gandhi.
Did he have blood on his hands? Adams claimed to be just the leader of a struggle that had caused hurt to others. So it was all the fault of the movement. That is the kind of politician's dodge that gives the term dodgy a bad name (besides, we heard that at the Chilcot inquiry).
Some, whose relatives were murdered by the IRA, told Adams that the cause was not worth more than 3,000 lives lost. What about their forgiveness? They eloquently disappointed an unrepentant Adams: their suffering would never end.
New quiz show The Bubble (BBC Two), meanwhile, saw truth seeking of a lighter kind. Frank Skinner and Victoria Coren lived in a media-free vacuum for four days without even a mobile phone, so they wouldn't know if an election had been called or whether it was snowing. The aim? To sort real news from spoofs.
David Mitchell, the tweedy-twee quiz master, much mocked by third bubble member, louder-than-life Reginald D. Jones, sported his "women don't fancy me" persona, looking as if his hair had been parted by his mother, her lipstick hastily wiped from his cheek.
But the "true" stories he presented were so obscure that the panel could have skipped the bubble. Try this one: "What was found inside a tin this week? A cat's head, an image of the Virgin Mary or a chicken tikka masala?" Why go into hiding to miss that?
Well, it was a tin that got stuck on a cat's head. Proof was a photo from some obscure parish magazine. But before you ring the RSPCA, it was not so much Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Cat in a Spot The Tin Spoof (I made that punch-line up).
A year of Tune In: Switch Off has allowed me to watch TV in my own bubble while pretending I'm working. Now all that is left is to wipe the hard-drive of all those unviewed, unreviewed programmes. I'm pressing the delete button. Now.
Ray Tarleton
He talked to experts about Jesus' core teachings from the cradle to the cross, beginning with a Bible scholar's view that Jesus was probably not born in Bethlehem or even in a manger. "You're ruining Christmas," muttered Adams in one of the few light moments.
This was Adams working again on the Irish peace process - but peace for Gerry, wanting forgiveness. He read his Bible aloud, including the injunctions to love your neighbour and not to kill. Did he agree? Well, it would depend on the day of the week and the cause itself. We would have got more truth from a Robert Mugabe documentary on Gandhi.
Did he have blood on his hands? Adams claimed to be just the leader of a struggle that had caused hurt to others. So it was all the fault of the movement. That is the kind of politician's dodge that gives the term dodgy a bad name (besides, we heard that at the Chilcot inquiry).
Some, whose relatives were murdered by the IRA, told Adams that the cause was not worth more than 3,000 lives lost. What about their forgiveness? They eloquently disappointed an unrepentant Adams: their suffering would never end.
New quiz show The Bubble (BBC Two), meanwhile, saw truth seeking of a lighter kind. Frank Skinner and Victoria Coren lived in a media-free vacuum for four days without even a mobile phone, so they wouldn't know if an election had been called or whether it was snowing. The aim? To sort real news from spoofs.
David Mitchell, the tweedy-twee quiz master, much mocked by third bubble member, louder-than-life Reginald D. Jones, sported his "women don't fancy me" persona, looking as if his hair had been parted by his mother, her lipstick hastily wiped from his cheek.
But the "true" stories he presented were so obscure that the panel could have skipped the bubble. Try this one: "What was found inside a tin this week? A cat's head, an image of the Virgin Mary or a chicken tikka masala?" Why go into hiding to miss that?
Well, it was a tin that got stuck on a cat's head. Proof was a photo from some obscure parish magazine. But before you ring the RSPCA, it was not so much Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Cat in a Spot The Tin Spoof (I made that punch-line up).
A year of Tune In: Switch Off has allowed me to watch TV in my own bubble while pretending I'm working. Now all that is left is to wipe the hard-drive of all those unviewed, unreviewed programmes. I'm pressing the delete button. Now.
Ray Tarleton
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