Apparently teachers ‘enjoy’ 1,500 interactions every day. That’s without the emails. Any other profession would be on a go slow but, strangely, we always think we are doing too little. We fill our days and work nights too.
At the end of a long term, just when we are the point of collapse, along comes Christmas, or whatever we are calling it this year, with its demand that we be of good cheer. The staff may be shattered but the students are increasingly hyped-up and turbo-charged.
The only answer is to join in the festive spirit and have some fun. So, this year’s staff and student Band Aid recordings were screened in the final assembly in the Sports Hall to popular acclaim- thanks to the Media Department.
There’s plenty of talent here and the The Sound of Music DVD highlights was also great to see- another assembly item on our big screen. If you ordered a copy, the full length version should be on television soon near you.
At the evening Carol Service, choir and orchestra performances reminded us that Christmas was about to start. I understand why so many of us enjoy working here: the wonderful young people and the remarkable standards they achieve. The Christmas message of joy and hope filled the hall, as it did again the next day for the repeat performances on the final morning of term. It was magnificent.
We’ve had our own parties as well. The staff event was a triumph with our very own College magician, Brian Hodge, performing magic tricks that involved doves and rabbits- live ones! Brian is a fantastic Trustee and Governor of the College- a real inspiration. And he brought some true Christmas magic.
At last it’s time for turkey and telly. My two children, both of whom attended South Dartmoor, will join us for a family Christmas. After five years of freelancing, Alice has finally got a proper job (annual leave and a pension at 85) as an online reporter at Channel Four News. She cheerfully wounds the politicians as she tells the truth where they bring only spin and falsehoods. Her regular beat, Factcheck, (http://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck) even gives them a score out of 5 for honesty. I can imagine Gordon Brown asking his speech writers: 'Will this get me good marks from Alice on Channel Four? Should we knock a couple of zeros off that optimistic income prediction or do you think she won't notice?' He knows by now…. she always does notice.
Ed is now at the end of his fourth year at Oxford which followed four years at Durham which followed thirteen years in school so he can probably add up for himself how long that is. As his declared ambition is to go straight into retirement, I don’t think he’s got long to wait. The DPhil is still around the corner but he’s managing to live on air and avoid even a Saturday job stacking shelves in Sainsbury’s. He has had some of his original research published; it’s in a scientific language that’s incomprehensible to the lay person, though he could probably hold a conversation with Dr Who.
Happy Christmas to all blog readers!
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Nasty TV.com
Last week I took a phone call from ITN. Yes- it does sound exciting, doesn’t it? We’re in the media a lot but a call from ITN to ask you to feature in a good news story piece for ITN News- well, that’s worth saying yes to. Or is it?
The reporter, David Best, began by reassuring me that this was a programme for the great and the good. Had I heard of Jim Knight, the Education Minister? Of, course. Liz Reid, Chief Executive of SSAT? Yes, indeed. Steve Grainger, Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust? Attend his annual dinners. Devon Local Authority? Know them well. All were on board with the programme and would be taking part. What good company we were in. And we had been recommended as a Lead School. So far it seemed like a normal request for an interview. We have quite a lot of those. Then the sales pitch started.
He said that the programme they were making would be fronted by Martin Lewis, a familiar figure in news circles, and that we were invited to contribute a case study which a film crew would come down to shoot. He then gave me all kinds of prepared lines about media opportunities – but by this time I had become suspicious.
Good news topics would range from Every Child Matters to curriculum reform; from personalised learning to sport in the community. How, I wondered could one short piece cover everything that was going on in education? After all, didn’t he know that in the last year alone, there have been 135 changes to the laws involving schools? That means hardly a work day goes by without a new requirement.
The final full-length film would be screened throughout the day at the Education Show in Birmingham and a three minute edit would be appearing on national ITN news. Three minutes was the longest they normally screened an item for. During this patter, which lasted about half an hour, he slipped in the fact that private companies were sponsoring the programme and that £12,500 would be required from each contributor. Did that mean me?
We’d gone from a guest appearance on News at Ten with a Government Minister and some Chief Executives to a sales con trick in thirty minutes. I’d been robbed of a valuable half hour and some distinguished people had had their names taken in vain.
Did he really believe I could persuade the Governors to spend so much money on what was little more than advertising? And why would I bother, given the amount of free news and media coverage we generate because of the genuine quality of the work we’re doing?
I made no commitment but asked him for his e-mail address which he said was niceTV. So where was ITN? He hurriedly pointed out that this was a partnership organisation of ITN Consulting. I checked it out and it is a private company now fronted by Martin Lewis. Shameful.
It all sounded like a scam. The Local Authority decided to pull out of any agreement with the company when I briefed them. One thing is for sure - if I do anything in the media it’s because I want to have the work of South Dartmoor students and staff celebrated. And only if it’s free.
The reporter, David Best, began by reassuring me that this was a programme for the great and the good. Had I heard of Jim Knight, the Education Minister? Of, course. Liz Reid, Chief Executive of SSAT? Yes, indeed. Steve Grainger, Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust? Attend his annual dinners. Devon Local Authority? Know them well. All were on board with the programme and would be taking part. What good company we were in. And we had been recommended as a Lead School. So far it seemed like a normal request for an interview. We have quite a lot of those. Then the sales pitch started.
He said that the programme they were making would be fronted by Martin Lewis, a familiar figure in news circles, and that we were invited to contribute a case study which a film crew would come down to shoot. He then gave me all kinds of prepared lines about media opportunities – but by this time I had become suspicious.
Good news topics would range from Every Child Matters to curriculum reform; from personalised learning to sport in the community. How, I wondered could one short piece cover everything that was going on in education? After all, didn’t he know that in the last year alone, there have been 135 changes to the laws involving schools? That means hardly a work day goes by without a new requirement.
The final full-length film would be screened throughout the day at the Education Show in Birmingham and a three minute edit would be appearing on national ITN news. Three minutes was the longest they normally screened an item for. During this patter, which lasted about half an hour, he slipped in the fact that private companies were sponsoring the programme and that £12,500 would be required from each contributor. Did that mean me?
We’d gone from a guest appearance on News at Ten with a Government Minister and some Chief Executives to a sales con trick in thirty minutes. I’d been robbed of a valuable half hour and some distinguished people had had their names taken in vain.
Did he really believe I could persuade the Governors to spend so much money on what was little more than advertising? And why would I bother, given the amount of free news and media coverage we generate because of the genuine quality of the work we’re doing?
I made no commitment but asked him for his e-mail address which he said was niceTV. So where was ITN? He hurriedly pointed out that this was a partnership organisation of ITN Consulting. I checked it out and it is a private company now fronted by Martin Lewis. Shameful.
It all sounded like a scam. The Local Authority decided to pull out of any agreement with the company when I briefed them. One thing is for sure - if I do anything in the media it’s because I want to have the work of South Dartmoor students and staff celebrated. And only if it’s free.
Monday, 1 December 2008
The Moors and the Tors are Alive
One of the things that makes mine the best job in the world is being able to see our students performing to the very limits of their potential- out of their comfort zone and sometimes making me boggle-eyed with amazement.
I’ve interviewed many charming and totally dedicated Year 11 students recently and their self-confidence and commitment to achievement left me genuinely elated. So many are on track not just for the benchmark five A*-C high grades but for ten or more. When I go through their subjects with them and hear them speak with knowledge and authority about the wide range of options and the numerous tasks and projects they have to complete, I’m left thinking I should tell the world.
Malcolm Lee from the Sixth From did exactly this with great skill in two assemblies this week when he told the school about his project with Teignbridge Youth Council to change the perceptions of older people about the young. He used some interesting photographs and thought-provoking statements. Watch out for the campaign.
Many of the Year 11s are heavily engaged in sport and several are elite performers in their discipline, travelling to venues around the country and meeting young people from other schools. The commitment and talent are remarkable.
On Saturday we reached the climax of a dazzling seven show Sound of Music run. It was certainly the largest and probably the most impressive array of talent ever assembled on the South Dartmoor stage. Words from me can’t describe the quality of the achievement but the applause could and did.
One of the teachers in the audience earlier in the week told me that she had cried through the first night. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘It’s not such a sad story- there is a happy ending.’ Still clutching a tissue, she replied, ‘Oh no. It’s not that. I wasn’t crying because of the story. I was crying because so many of these students are in my lessons and tutor group. They’ve been coming to my classes, doing their work and their homework- and yet they’ve also achieved all this!’ She was right, of course. We expect so much of them and they constantly surprise and amaze.
At a time when there are so many pressures on schools to achieve ever improved performance, it’s also wise to remember why so many staff are willing to give time to activities such as this. These commitment levels, this quality could never come from management targets or imposed Government requirements whatever the national initiative.
What we saw in The Sound of Music, and is in the matches played, the Dartmoor Club walks and the care staff show for the students is that old fashioned, unquantifiable thing called ‘a vocation’. This is why we have such dedication and service to young people from staff without counting the hours- though it must have been over eighty last week. (I was counting). It’s that spirit of giving the best of yourself in order to bring out the best in others.
This week South Dartmoor students set the hills alive with the sound of their music. And those melodies, those soaring notes also filled the moors and the Tors, the towns and the villages, the homes and the families. So… definitely the best job in the world.
I’ve interviewed many charming and totally dedicated Year 11 students recently and their self-confidence and commitment to achievement left me genuinely elated. So many are on track not just for the benchmark five A*-C high grades but for ten or more. When I go through their subjects with them and hear them speak with knowledge and authority about the wide range of options and the numerous tasks and projects they have to complete, I’m left thinking I should tell the world.
Malcolm Lee from the Sixth From did exactly this with great skill in two assemblies this week when he told the school about his project with Teignbridge Youth Council to change the perceptions of older people about the young. He used some interesting photographs and thought-provoking statements. Watch out for the campaign.
Many of the Year 11s are heavily engaged in sport and several are elite performers in their discipline, travelling to venues around the country and meeting young people from other schools. The commitment and talent are remarkable.
On Saturday we reached the climax of a dazzling seven show Sound of Music run. It was certainly the largest and probably the most impressive array of talent ever assembled on the South Dartmoor stage. Words from me can’t describe the quality of the achievement but the applause could and did.
One of the teachers in the audience earlier in the week told me that she had cried through the first night. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘It’s not such a sad story- there is a happy ending.’ Still clutching a tissue, she replied, ‘Oh no. It’s not that. I wasn’t crying because of the story. I was crying because so many of these students are in my lessons and tutor group. They’ve been coming to my classes, doing their work and their homework- and yet they’ve also achieved all this!’ She was right, of course. We expect so much of them and they constantly surprise and amaze.
At a time when there are so many pressures on schools to achieve ever improved performance, it’s also wise to remember why so many staff are willing to give time to activities such as this. These commitment levels, this quality could never come from management targets or imposed Government requirements whatever the national initiative.
What we saw in The Sound of Music, and is in the matches played, the Dartmoor Club walks and the care staff show for the students is that old fashioned, unquantifiable thing called ‘a vocation’. This is why we have such dedication and service to young people from staff without counting the hours- though it must have been over eighty last week. (I was counting). It’s that spirit of giving the best of yourself in order to bring out the best in others.
This week South Dartmoor students set the hills alive with the sound of their music. And those melodies, those soaring notes also filled the moors and the Tors, the towns and the villages, the homes and the families. So… definitely the best job in the world.
Monday, 24 November 2008
Reaching the Hard to Reach
Sometimes I wonder if we have any students who are not part of a target group- just normal, ordinary, and getting on with their education. For everyone now seems to have a classification of some kind: accelerated, under-performing, high-performing, borderline, above target, below target, highly parked, challenging, gifted and talented (yes it’s not just Mozart), special needs, at risk, wobbly C, gradewatch- and now ‘hard to reach’.
Our latest brain teaser is how to define this last group and then how to make sure they are high achievers. Labels matter but whilst ‘G and T’ (gifted and talented) still has me thinking of crushed ice and lemon, the ‘hard to reach’ category reminds me of boggy parts of Dartmoor.
Like the moors it can be dangerous territory. Imagine a phone call to Mrs Smith: ‘Excuse me but I’m calling because we think you’re child is hard to reach and you certainly are.’ That could risk a court appearance. ‘Mind your own business,’ is the politest of replies. ‘My husband will be round there in ten minutes to sort you out,’ more likely. So how do you tell people what they don’t want to hear?
We know what these students look like in the abstract, even if we’re not sure who they are. Invisible, mysteriously shadowy and likely to underachieve, according to the universities, they are from families which don’t make education a priority. For these children, the research tells us, it’s better to change your family than your school if you want to get the best start in life. If I suggest that to Mrs Smith, the police will be in my office before I can say ‘educational research.’
But this week has been one long hard to reach trial- and not just families. Where oh where, for example are our missing table tops? This is the new outdoor eating facility- looking smart, spacious and attractive, we desperately need it during the production for lunches when the hall is out of use. It was due for completion in September but it’s still not ready. It seems they haven’t ordered enough. Someone couldn’t count. And of course it will be the fault of a school somewhere which didn’t teach the builders Mathematics- it always is.
I’m working with heads across the country on various projects and they’re the hardest to reach of all. The security system around many of them would keep them safe in Bagdad. Try to get through to one in a school and you’ll be directed to almost every member of staff before they’ll connect you. Now I keep that kind of distance for those nuisances from Mori and other polling organisations. I’ll usually talk to anyone else if I can help.
After several days of unreturned phone calls and emails, one eventually rings me sheepishly to explain that he has been ‘on the road.’ By Friday afternoon, we are trying hard to get replies from heads in two schools but to no avail. Do they all close early on Fridays or is it just their armed guards who go off duty when their security systems shut down?
Yet email has the power to bring me into instant contact with colleagues from anywhere in the world. Recently I’ve had daily contact with colleagues in South America and can return messages at the press of a button. No more sticking stamps on envelopes and waiting six weeks. Here’s instant reach and it does so much for my impatient streak. If the hour glass on my computer screen goes into over-drive, as it did this week, that’s another tick in a hard to reach column, while I curse the technology I love.
I want to reach everyone and know they’ve got the message whether it’s the builders, other schools, parents or students. Because there really is no excuse for being out of reach- not in the twenty first century when education is the priority and communication is easy. So if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll just risk that phone call to Mrs Smith.
Our latest brain teaser is how to define this last group and then how to make sure they are high achievers. Labels matter but whilst ‘G and T’ (gifted and talented) still has me thinking of crushed ice and lemon, the ‘hard to reach’ category reminds me of boggy parts of Dartmoor.
Like the moors it can be dangerous territory. Imagine a phone call to Mrs Smith: ‘Excuse me but I’m calling because we think you’re child is hard to reach and you certainly are.’ That could risk a court appearance. ‘Mind your own business,’ is the politest of replies. ‘My husband will be round there in ten minutes to sort you out,’ more likely. So how do you tell people what they don’t want to hear?
We know what these students look like in the abstract, even if we’re not sure who they are. Invisible, mysteriously shadowy and likely to underachieve, according to the universities, they are from families which don’t make education a priority. For these children, the research tells us, it’s better to change your family than your school if you want to get the best start in life. If I suggest that to Mrs Smith, the police will be in my office before I can say ‘educational research.’
But this week has been one long hard to reach trial- and not just families. Where oh where, for example are our missing table tops? This is the new outdoor eating facility- looking smart, spacious and attractive, we desperately need it during the production for lunches when the hall is out of use. It was due for completion in September but it’s still not ready. It seems they haven’t ordered enough. Someone couldn’t count. And of course it will be the fault of a school somewhere which didn’t teach the builders Mathematics- it always is.
I’m working with heads across the country on various projects and they’re the hardest to reach of all. The security system around many of them would keep them safe in Bagdad. Try to get through to one in a school and you’ll be directed to almost every member of staff before they’ll connect you. Now I keep that kind of distance for those nuisances from Mori and other polling organisations. I’ll usually talk to anyone else if I can help.
After several days of unreturned phone calls and emails, one eventually rings me sheepishly to explain that he has been ‘on the road.’ By Friday afternoon, we are trying hard to get replies from heads in two schools but to no avail. Do they all close early on Fridays or is it just their armed guards who go off duty when their security systems shut down?
Yet email has the power to bring me into instant contact with colleagues from anywhere in the world. Recently I’ve had daily contact with colleagues in South America and can return messages at the press of a button. No more sticking stamps on envelopes and waiting six weeks. Here’s instant reach and it does so much for my impatient streak. If the hour glass on my computer screen goes into over-drive, as it did this week, that’s another tick in a hard to reach column, while I curse the technology I love.
I want to reach everyone and know they’ve got the message whether it’s the builders, other schools, parents or students. Because there really is no excuse for being out of reach- not in the twenty first century when education is the priority and communication is easy. So if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll just risk that phone call to Mrs Smith.
Friday, 14 November 2008
Inspirational - and Cautionary - Tales: Gerald Haigh
If you’re looking for policy advice, views on system re-configuration (I didn’t make it up) or academic research, this is not for you. Forget those yawn-inducing guides, remedies and reports we see so much of. Here is a true gem, the real thing: a distillation of wisdom and revelations that will bring Gerald Haigh into your school as a fun-driven, humane presence.
A former primary head, leadership adviser and popular TES columnist, he has a fund of stories you will remember, re-tell and apply. And he brings in quotes and references, from tales of lion tamers and ‘f-laws’ to time machines and chewing gum fences, to illuminate his many stories.
You don’t have to skim through long chapters seeking the buried treasure. The insights spill from every page, every paragraph. The chapter headings read like memos to yourself: ‘Just tell them what to do’, ’Things to do’ or ‘Make sure the message is clear’. Each is around newspaper column length. Many readers will recognise the pieces from the leadership pages of the TES and be glad to be re-united with old friends. The collection offers easy-to-dip-into reads we could give to any of our colleagues and watch the smiles.
For example, I loved the tale, in a piece on the art of delegation, of the executive who, anticipating a long power point, switched off the projector and said, ‘Let’s just talk about this.’ Wow - how many opportunities I’ve missed when I should have done just that! But you have to know where the actual switch is, warns Haig, or you could lose the impact.
Advice on ‘Managing the impossible staff member’ who just happens to be the ‘caretaker from hell’ will make everyone smile and cry out, ‘Yes!’ when they hear the solution. It won’t work in all cases but it will be a catalyst at least: you, ‘Put the dog on the porch’, leave written instructions, avoid arguments and are cold and distant. It’s a great tactic to use on the colleague who wants to manipulate you.
There are stories on topics as wide-ranging as performance-related pay and what really motivates teachers, through to embarrassing moments and team-building. His values inspire. Cynicism is crushed by his natural assertion that the term ‘teacher’: ‘is a lifetime badge of honour.’
He often sums up what we know but haven’t quite expressed: that the best measure of your own leadership is to judge how strong the other leaders are in your school: that the hallmark of the excellent leader is the uncanny ability to be everywhere at once. All will recognise walking around the corner into a crucial discussion just when it matters.
Instead of writing ‘to do’ lists, write into your diary the actual times when you will perform the tasks: that’s so simple but effective. Gerald Haigh credits his source for this advice as, ‘someone who understands real people’, the very quality that makes this little book such a compulsive read.
Inspiration – and Cautionary – Tales for Would-be School Leaders by Gerald Haigh (Routledge Taylor & Francis Group)
A former primary head, leadership adviser and popular TES columnist, he has a fund of stories you will remember, re-tell and apply. And he brings in quotes and references, from tales of lion tamers and ‘f-laws’ to time machines and chewing gum fences, to illuminate his many stories.
You don’t have to skim through long chapters seeking the buried treasure. The insights spill from every page, every paragraph. The chapter headings read like memos to yourself: ‘Just tell them what to do’, ’Things to do’ or ‘Make sure the message is clear’. Each is around newspaper column length. Many readers will recognise the pieces from the leadership pages of the TES and be glad to be re-united with old friends. The collection offers easy-to-dip-into reads we could give to any of our colleagues and watch the smiles.
For example, I loved the tale, in a piece on the art of delegation, of the executive who, anticipating a long power point, switched off the projector and said, ‘Let’s just talk about this.’ Wow - how many opportunities I’ve missed when I should have done just that! But you have to know where the actual switch is, warns Haig, or you could lose the impact.
Advice on ‘Managing the impossible staff member’ who just happens to be the ‘caretaker from hell’ will make everyone smile and cry out, ‘Yes!’ when they hear the solution. It won’t work in all cases but it will be a catalyst at least: you, ‘Put the dog on the porch’, leave written instructions, avoid arguments and are cold and distant. It’s a great tactic to use on the colleague who wants to manipulate you.
There are stories on topics as wide-ranging as performance-related pay and what really motivates teachers, through to embarrassing moments and team-building. His values inspire. Cynicism is crushed by his natural assertion that the term ‘teacher’: ‘is a lifetime badge of honour.’
He often sums up what we know but haven’t quite expressed: that the best measure of your own leadership is to judge how strong the other leaders are in your school: that the hallmark of the excellent leader is the uncanny ability to be everywhere at once. All will recognise walking around the corner into a crucial discussion just when it matters.
Instead of writing ‘to do’ lists, write into your diary the actual times when you will perform the tasks: that’s so simple but effective. Gerald Haigh credits his source for this advice as, ‘someone who understands real people’, the very quality that makes this little book such a compulsive read.
Inspiration – and Cautionary – Tales for Would-be School Leaders by Gerald Haigh (Routledge Taylor & Francis Group)
Friday, 31 October 2008
If it's Wednesday, it must be Mexico!
I flew into Brasilia a week ago- the time change works in my favour this way and I gain three hours! I'm working on a new award for the British Council- the International Leaders' Award which I am piloting on behalf of the British Council.
Brasilia was built in 1956 to attract people to the inland, under-populated parts. So an unkind view might be describe it as a tropical Milton Keynes- all wide avenues, circular roads, artificial lake and concrete buildings mostly designed by Oscar Niemeyer. But it's on a grand scale and the separate zones work well. We went in a church which is all stained glass- blue to represent the blue tones of the Brazilian skies; the cathedral which is surrounded by water and you enter underground through a tunnel to give the effect of light and liberty; and the TV tower which has 75 metre high views of the city. There was a museum to JK, their former president and a modern design museum.
Refreshments stops were the famous cocoa nut which here they pour into cups or bottles though it's squeezed as you watch and a sugar cane juice, again squeezed from the long bamboo canes as you wait. Both delicious.
After a weekend acclimatising and sightseeing, it's into action first thing on Monday for two days with British Council staff and ministry officials from Brazil to train them in the application of the award. Great success with the movers and shakers- lots of productive work which I enjoyed.
And there's always so much food- I must have eaten a cow at a barbecue and have you ever tried chocolate pizza? I love the tropical fruits but disaster struck at breakfast: I took a delicious mango from the fruit bowl (only pineapple and paw paw in the dishes chopped) and tried to peel and eat it. The juice that spurted out was phenomenal! I think it showered the restaurant. They may even ask me to leave. Or sue me! Worst of all-one clean, ironed ready for work white shirt looked as if volcanic explosion had covered it in lava. The mango, needless to say was delicious.
By Tuesday evening I'm in the air again for an overnight flight to Mexico to repeat the process. An email tells me that things went well in Brazil: 'I would like to thank Ray for his patience, his outstanding contributions and above all his wonderful intercultural agility!'So there you go- I never knew I had intercultural agility and I will treasure that.
Arrived Mexico City at 8.00 am Wednesday after 10 hour over-night flight from Sao Paulo. They are six hours behind the UK and so I gain another three hours. How I'll pay though on the return flight. I'm taken to the British Council for a briefing as soon as I have breakfasted, and we work over the next few days on leadership standards with various ministry officials and under secretaries. It's a gigantic city- twenty million people and traffic jams that make London seem car free. When planning to go anywhere by car you can never predict how long it will take- 10 minutes or one or even two hours. We arrange to meet colleagues for dinner: they are two hours late because of traffic.
During a briefing the next day, I explain that the award is like the driving test- everyone has passed that haven't they? Perhaps I've blundered as they consider the state of the driving in Mexico. I may be lacking 'intercultural agility' after all. But after a final long day on Friday we are all signed up to the project. They eat late in Mexico- lunch starts at 3.00 and goes on till 5.00. It's the main meal of the day for most Mexicans. Exhausted by 6.00 after a final briefing, I'm free to enjoy half term in Mexico.
Brasilia was built in 1956 to attract people to the inland, under-populated parts. So an unkind view might be describe it as a tropical Milton Keynes- all wide avenues, circular roads, artificial lake and concrete buildings mostly designed by Oscar Niemeyer. But it's on a grand scale and the separate zones work well. We went in a church which is all stained glass- blue to represent the blue tones of the Brazilian skies; the cathedral which is surrounded by water and you enter underground through a tunnel to give the effect of light and liberty; and the TV tower which has 75 metre high views of the city. There was a museum to JK, their former president and a modern design museum.
Refreshments stops were the famous cocoa nut which here they pour into cups or bottles though it's squeezed as you watch and a sugar cane juice, again squeezed from the long bamboo canes as you wait. Both delicious.
After a weekend acclimatising and sightseeing, it's into action first thing on Monday for two days with British Council staff and ministry officials from Brazil to train them in the application of the award. Great success with the movers and shakers- lots of productive work which I enjoyed.
And there's always so much food- I must have eaten a cow at a barbecue and have you ever tried chocolate pizza? I love the tropical fruits but disaster struck at breakfast: I took a delicious mango from the fruit bowl (only pineapple and paw paw in the dishes chopped) and tried to peel and eat it. The juice that spurted out was phenomenal! I think it showered the restaurant. They may even ask me to leave. Or sue me! Worst of all-one clean, ironed ready for work white shirt looked as if volcanic explosion had covered it in lava. The mango, needless to say was delicious.
By Tuesday evening I'm in the air again for an overnight flight to Mexico to repeat the process. An email tells me that things went well in Brazil: 'I would like to thank Ray for his patience, his outstanding contributions and above all his wonderful intercultural agility!'So there you go- I never knew I had intercultural agility and I will treasure that.
Arrived Mexico City at 8.00 am Wednesday after 10 hour over-night flight from Sao Paulo. They are six hours behind the UK and so I gain another three hours. How I'll pay though on the return flight. I'm taken to the British Council for a briefing as soon as I have breakfasted, and we work over the next few days on leadership standards with various ministry officials and under secretaries. It's a gigantic city- twenty million people and traffic jams that make London seem car free. When planning to go anywhere by car you can never predict how long it will take- 10 minutes or one or even two hours. We arrange to meet colleagues for dinner: they are two hours late because of traffic.
During a briefing the next day, I explain that the award is like the driving test- everyone has passed that haven't they? Perhaps I've blundered as they consider the state of the driving in Mexico. I may be lacking 'intercultural agility' after all. But after a final long day on Friday we are all signed up to the project. They eat late in Mexico- lunch starts at 3.00 and goes on till 5.00. It's the main meal of the day for most Mexicans. Exhausted by 6.00 after a final briefing, I'm free to enjoy half term in Mexico.
Friday, 17 October 2008
SATs go into Room 101 - Hurray!
The big story this week is the end of KS3 SATs. For once the teachers are even happier than the students. This was always an unnatural and mis-timed set of tests- a false addition to the range of assessments used in schools. In recent years the SATs have increasingly been used to judge the performance of the school rather than support the learning of the children. We’ve had unreliable marking, disputed results and the recent fiasco with the company carry out the work. So now we can release the Sports Hall for a week for its proper purpose and let teachers do what they are best at as well. Relief all round. Mark Gale, Head of Science, summed it up for his department, brilliantly:
‘The news of the demise of the SATs came as an utter shock. We had no inkling that such a radical reform was about to be announced, and the fact that this is to come into immediate effect makes it truly surprising. I cannot recall anything as momentous in fifteen years of teaching – not that I’m complaining, however.
It’s only now that I am realising how focused we had become on teaching to the test. Yes, we set aside a few weeks during year nine for SATs preparation – perhaps less than colleagues in other schools – but we always tried to make sure that we provided a curriculum that was real and meaningful, not solely looking towards a single week in May.
Yet much of our thinking was SATs-centred. Booster classes, level 5 intervention, the level 6+ project: all of these things were to be measured through SATs results. Now how will we prove we are successful?
The answer is, of course, obvious: we will be able to see properly whether students have developed the skills, attributes and abilities that we hope they will during key stage 3. Because we don’t now have to rush through years 7, 8 and 9 at breakneck speed, we will have more breathing space to try out things that we have always wanted to, and which the revised curriculum is promoting. Things such as extended investigations, cross-curricular work, debates, open-ended tasks and getting out and about to see scientists in action will be possible without any nagging worries that students might be missing out being drilled for the tests.
We will also be able to use that strange post-SATs time rather more productively. No longer will it seem as if we are just treading water, waiting for GCSEs and trying to motivate students in the meantime. It will become a properly integrated part of the curriculum now that the artificial SATs divide has been removed.
Some schools and departments are considering starting GCSEs early, but whether or not this is a good idea, the removal of the SATs will help us to make sure that students are properly prepared for the start of their new courses in year 10.
Throughout key stage three we aim to lay the foundations to help students become scientists. We hope to inspire them and excite them about our subject. After all, it is during key stage three that many students make up their minds about what they would like to pursue during their working lives. This is the most important aspect of the curriculum and the removal of the tests means that we will be able to cherish key stage three for providing all these opportunities.’
‘The news of the demise of the SATs came as an utter shock. We had no inkling that such a radical reform was about to be announced, and the fact that this is to come into immediate effect makes it truly surprising. I cannot recall anything as momentous in fifteen years of teaching – not that I’m complaining, however.
It’s only now that I am realising how focused we had become on teaching to the test. Yes, we set aside a few weeks during year nine for SATs preparation – perhaps less than colleagues in other schools – but we always tried to make sure that we provided a curriculum that was real and meaningful, not solely looking towards a single week in May.
Yet much of our thinking was SATs-centred. Booster classes, level 5 intervention, the level 6+ project: all of these things were to be measured through SATs results. Now how will we prove we are successful?
The answer is, of course, obvious: we will be able to see properly whether students have developed the skills, attributes and abilities that we hope they will during key stage 3. Because we don’t now have to rush through years 7, 8 and 9 at breakneck speed, we will have more breathing space to try out things that we have always wanted to, and which the revised curriculum is promoting. Things such as extended investigations, cross-curricular work, debates, open-ended tasks and getting out and about to see scientists in action will be possible without any nagging worries that students might be missing out being drilled for the tests.
We will also be able to use that strange post-SATs time rather more productively. No longer will it seem as if we are just treading water, waiting for GCSEs and trying to motivate students in the meantime. It will become a properly integrated part of the curriculum now that the artificial SATs divide has been removed.
Some schools and departments are considering starting GCSEs early, but whether or not this is a good idea, the removal of the SATs will help us to make sure that students are properly prepared for the start of their new courses in year 10.
Throughout key stage three we aim to lay the foundations to help students become scientists. We hope to inspire them and excite them about our subject. After all, it is during key stage three that many students make up their minds about what they would like to pursue during their working lives. This is the most important aspect of the curriculum and the removal of the tests means that we will be able to cherish key stage three for providing all these opportunities.’
Thursday, 2 October 2008
English Schools through Brazilian Eyes
The British Council are running a five year international project linking head teachers and schools in the UK with counterparts in South America. The SLANT Project (School Leadership and New Tools for Learning) is already in its middle stage. Brazil, the largest of the partner countries, has had two visits from the five UK head teachers recruited to work on leadership and self-evaluation with Brazilian heads. This week saw the first visit of 25 heads from Brazil who spent a week partly in London with the British Council for briefings and partly in the hosts’ schools in London, Devon and Scotland. In this week’s blog, the five Brazilian head teachers reflect on their thoughts about the UK education system and life in this country:"Your country can be a scary place! When we arrived, I was asked if I could: ‘Give a hand’ to someone. I translated the request literally in my head, thinking, ‘Help. Are these English people crazy?’
Opportunities for head teachers in my country to work together are rare. So this British Council SLANT Project has been a dream for us. Not only have the five Brazilian heads visited each others’ schools, they have had two visits from the UK heads, two conferences and now a once in a life time view of the English education system.
We have looked at three secondary and two primary schools in south Devon, developing linked projects on the environment with one school (yes- Brazilian rain forests but local rain fall and temperatures as well); a health project with another and one on volunteering and citizenship with a third. These have the potential for long term relationships between teachers and children, though we have to work hard to overcome language barriers. The English teachers in our Brazilian schools are going to be kept busy!
What really intrigues us is the overarching educational structure in the UK. Within this you have complex but smooth running systems and there is an extraordinary amount of autonomy in English schools compared to ours. For example, your leadership teams, supported by Governing bodies (also an unfamiliar concept to us) are able to employ staff, make budgetary decisions, promote teachers and monitor overall staff performance.
In our state, Pernambucco in the north east of the country, head teachers are elected by the community (in and beyond the school) for a four year term and, if re-elected, can serve two terms only. It means they have massive authority as community leaders and can develop improvement projects with parents.
Opportunities for head teachers in my country to work together are rare. So this British Council SLANT Project has been a dream for us. Not only have the five Brazilian heads visited each others’ schools, they have had two visits from the UK heads, two conferences and now a once in a life time view of the English education system.
We have looked at three secondary and two primary schools in south Devon, developing linked projects on the environment with one school (yes- Brazilian rain forests but local rain fall and temperatures as well); a health project with another and one on volunteering and citizenship with a third. These have the potential for long term relationships between teachers and children, though we have to work hard to overcome language barriers. The English teachers in our Brazilian schools are going to be kept busy!
What really intrigues us is the overarching educational structure in the UK. Within this you have complex but smooth running systems and there is an extraordinary amount of autonomy in English schools compared to ours. For example, your leadership teams, supported by Governing bodies (also an unfamiliar concept to us) are able to employ staff, make budgetary decisions, promote teachers and monitor overall staff performance.
In our state, Pernambucco in the north east of the country, head teachers are elected by the community (in and beyond the school) for a four year term and, if re-elected, can serve two terms only. It means they have massive authority as community leaders and can develop improvement projects with parents.
The students complete regular, published evaluations on their teachers, ranging from punctuality to teaching. The Student Council works alongside the head teacher in promoting learning. The overworked teachers have to do two shifts a day of four and half or five hours with full contact time apart from four hours a week for preparation. Some do evening shifts in addition.
We are most impressed by the discipline in the schools we have visited. In some ways we even wonder whether things are too strict- but that’s a Brazilian perspective. I’m sure you will be surprised to know we think this.
Everywhere we go, we are welcomed and enjoy your hospitality. We have sung for the staff in a morning briefing, for 500 parents at an open day and in one school’s Media Studio for recording purposes. Watch out Brazilian television! Oh- and we even went to BBC Radio Devon for a live breakfast interview when they heard about our fame.
We have learned so much. There are pages of notes to make sense of, many new friends to maintain contacts with and the joy of experiencing a whole new educational world. We are even hoping to take a quick look at London before we fly back to Brazil, taking memories and new knowledge that will never be forgotten. So thanks to everyone for lending a hand. Obrigada"
Jose Amaro Barbosa da Silva, Pernambuco State Education Ministry, Director of EducationBeatriz Brenner, British Council translator Maria Lucia de Souza Pereira, Escola Estadual Maciel Pinheiro
Valmira Maria de Amariz Coelho Cruz, Prof. Carlos Frederico Maciel do Rego Maria do Carmo de Freitas, Escola Dr. Luiz Cabral de MeloAntonio Fernando Santos Silva, Escola José Leite BarrosAlexandre de Arruda Ricardo, Escola Almirante Soares Dutra
The group visited the other five schools in the partnership- Coombeshead College, Teign School, Ashburton Primary School, St Catherine’s Primary School, Heathfield and Blackpool Primary School and were warmly welcomed. A highlight for them was having their photo taken after their radio broadcast (under the BBC sign as you do) when a passerby asked them if they were the Brazilians- she’d just heard them on the radio! ‘Famous,’ said Antonio in amazement.
Alexandre was attacked by a seagull outside Reception. It just swooped on him, causing a cut and bleeding to his head. It is extraordinary and we must see if Health and Safety can advise us on what to do about these birds if they are becoming aggressive. However, there were lots of jokes afterwards because our first aider, Debbie, kept him for half an hour when they were waiting to leave. ‘Must have been a deep cut,’ I said. ‘Oh no, just surface,’ she told me. So the story with the staff is how she enjoyed getting her hands on the attractive Brazilian- she’s looking for flights to Brazil now- one way! And I might have a case now for a seagull cull at last
Alexandre was attacked by a seagull outside Reception. It just swooped on him, causing a cut and bleeding to his head. It is extraordinary and we must see if Health and Safety can advise us on what to do about these birds if they are becoming aggressive. However, there were lots of jokes afterwards because our first aider, Debbie, kept him for half an hour when they were waiting to leave. ‘Must have been a deep cut,’ I said. ‘Oh no, just surface,’ she told me. So the story with the staff is how she enjoyed getting her hands on the attractive Brazilian- she’s looking for flights to Brazil now- one way! And I might have a case now for a seagull cull at last
Friday, 19 September 2008
All Fired Up
I’m trying hard to keep my eyes open during a tedious Heads’ meeting. I blame the too weak coffee. The discussion about membership of the SLIG (or is SLAG?) Group doesn’t engage me. I can see why students start to become disruptive in class.
Now I understand why some say they don’t care when I challenge them. They’re telling me the truth. I’ve lost the will to live in half an hour. They have to cope with five hours a day. Do we give a C1 or go straight to a C3 for falling asleep in class?
The unexpected call from my PA is serious. She never rings unless it’s an emergency. I gather my papers and prepare to leave. ‘Got to go back,’ I call to the group as I rush through the door. ‘What’s the hurry? You look as if the school is on fire,’ jokes the Chair. ‘It is!’ I exclaim and run to the car.
We know there’s no smoke without fire, but the scene on my return is all smoke and no fire, thanks to the Fire Brigade’s swift action. However, there are twenty two classrooms out of use and over 600 students sitting in the Sports Hall whilst minutes of precious learning time tick away. It’s impressively orderly- no mere fire drill. This is for real and so everyone rises to the occasion, motivated by the drama of the event.
Senior staff are in total control and teachers are taking their roles seriously. Is this what they mean by distributed leadership? My deputy is making plans for re-rooming but it will involve class sizes of over 400.
The Fire Officer reports that the damage is confined to one female toilet now blackened with soot and the smoke given off by melting plastic fittings. It was deliberate. But the good news is that we can return immediately to the evacuated classrooms.
By the time my mobile rings an hour later, we’re almost back to normal and I’m able to tell the first of three newspapers who want a story how well the Fire Service and the staff and students have responded. The damage is confined and CCTV footage has already identified our suspect. Of course we’ll take appropriate action and, yes, arson is a particularly culpable crime. I can sense the disappointment in the reporter’s voice. Bad news sells more papers and maybe we actually have a good story to tell.
By the time paper number three contacts me at the end of the day, I risk taunting her with the information that the other papers are four hours ahead with their stories. Her false laughter is followed by a request to send a photographer. Not possible I reply, desperately wondering what reason to give. Then I remember that the toilet has been sealed off for the police.
Twenty four hours later with insurance claims lodged and renewal work contracted, we’re beginning the aftermath period when the stories are told and the dramas re-lived. No, I tell worried Year 7s, there were no children trapped in the toilet. Everyone was safe.
As I catch up by phone on the meeting I missed, I hear myself endorsing the Chair’s decision about membership of the Student Learning Assessment Group (so it was SLAG). ‘Great idea,’ I enthuse, whilst really pondering the colour of the new toilet fittings. But as I survey the wreckage and think of all the work that will go into the repair, I decide that there is only one word to describe the daily grind and surprises of life in school. Forget SLAG and SLIG. It’s got to be: SLOG.
Now I understand why some say they don’t care when I challenge them. They’re telling me the truth. I’ve lost the will to live in half an hour. They have to cope with five hours a day. Do we give a C1 or go straight to a C3 for falling asleep in class?
The unexpected call from my PA is serious. She never rings unless it’s an emergency. I gather my papers and prepare to leave. ‘Got to go back,’ I call to the group as I rush through the door. ‘What’s the hurry? You look as if the school is on fire,’ jokes the Chair. ‘It is!’ I exclaim and run to the car.
We know there’s no smoke without fire, but the scene on my return is all smoke and no fire, thanks to the Fire Brigade’s swift action. However, there are twenty two classrooms out of use and over 600 students sitting in the Sports Hall whilst minutes of precious learning time tick away. It’s impressively orderly- no mere fire drill. This is for real and so everyone rises to the occasion, motivated by the drama of the event.
Senior staff are in total control and teachers are taking their roles seriously. Is this what they mean by distributed leadership? My deputy is making plans for re-rooming but it will involve class sizes of over 400.
The Fire Officer reports that the damage is confined to one female toilet now blackened with soot and the smoke given off by melting plastic fittings. It was deliberate. But the good news is that we can return immediately to the evacuated classrooms.
By the time my mobile rings an hour later, we’re almost back to normal and I’m able to tell the first of three newspapers who want a story how well the Fire Service and the staff and students have responded. The damage is confined and CCTV footage has already identified our suspect. Of course we’ll take appropriate action and, yes, arson is a particularly culpable crime. I can sense the disappointment in the reporter’s voice. Bad news sells more papers and maybe we actually have a good story to tell.
By the time paper number three contacts me at the end of the day, I risk taunting her with the information that the other papers are four hours ahead with their stories. Her false laughter is followed by a request to send a photographer. Not possible I reply, desperately wondering what reason to give. Then I remember that the toilet has been sealed off for the police.
Twenty four hours later with insurance claims lodged and renewal work contracted, we’re beginning the aftermath period when the stories are told and the dramas re-lived. No, I tell worried Year 7s, there were no children trapped in the toilet. Everyone was safe.
As I catch up by phone on the meeting I missed, I hear myself endorsing the Chair’s decision about membership of the Student Learning Assessment Group (so it was SLAG). ‘Great idea,’ I enthuse, whilst really pondering the colour of the new toilet fittings. But as I survey the wreckage and think of all the work that will go into the repair, I decide that there is only one word to describe the daily grind and surprises of life in school. Forget SLAG and SLIG. It’s got to be: SLOG.
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Labels we can't Afford
Imagine this. You’ve invested billions of pounds in a project, given it your best intellectual capital and- whisper it softly- you are having some success. Most ordinary mortals would quietly tiptoe out of the room at this point, give a loud cheer and let the magic continue to work.
But politicians are no mere mortals. Here they are, at the end of ten years of remarkable investment in education for which they deserve recognition. In addition, the benefits of their policies are now showing evidence of success in improved results. So why go and spoil it all?
One stealthy success has been the re-branding of comprehensives. Not sure? Well ask yourself when you last heard the term used. We’re all specialist now. It’s been a clever marketing exercise- change the status, change the name and move away from the education profession’s obsession with equality. After all, it doesn’t play well with the public.
But now the destruction. The DCSF have now created two new classifications by which all secondary schools will be judged. It can only lead to a new three tier system, far more damaging than any of the old myths around comprehensive schools.
First there is the now infamous 30% figure for the lowest tier to rise above, the newly named National Challenge Schools. This is the category of ‘failing schools’ but ministers will deny they ever used the term.
They argue that they have to raise standards but their premise is false. Many of the schools are truly special in their intakes- a high proportion with pupils for whom English is a second languages, with high levels of learning difficulties or even secondary modern schools with creamed off intakes. Would they expect a designated special school for pupils with learning difficulties to achieve these scores? Of course not: point made. The top category will be those schools designated as High Performing. Again the classification has simply been dreamt up by a policy wonk. Insultingly, it even moved mid year from 60% five A* to C to 65%, including the by now familiar English and Maths mantra.
They tell us that only 30% of schools will ever be allowed to reach this designation and so admit that the goal posts may shift again. The reason? They can’t actually afford to have more schools than this funded in this way! But there are, of course, funding implications for the schools themselves as they see their specialisms snatched away.
And if these goalposts can be shifted, then so can the ones at the lower end. Why stick at 30% for failure? Who will give me thirty five? Do I hear 40% from the north west? What about 45% from the south east? The effect of this will be to demoralize many of the schools in the middle category who will see the lower classification as fluid and also realise that the high performing standard is beyond their reach, a glass ceiling.
It’s a refinement of the League Table torture. Now schools will not only be ranked in the media but a handy label will tell the public if they are high performing, middle or failing. It’s neat and everyone can understand it. There’s nothing so complex about a school that you can’t sum it up in one word!
And that, of course is the real issue here. Behind every statistic published this summer, there are stories of many individual successes and also a few failures as well, sophisticated reasons for interpretations that need to be placed on raw scores.
There are also fairer and wiser ways of judging schools. A measure of the ‘within school variation’- the difference in performance between the highest and lowest achieving departments- would at least be a success criterion within the control of the school’s themselves, the leadership in particular, to influence.
Mere mortals are often wiser than politicians whose ignorance of schools never fails to amaze me. An MP, for example, once asked me how long I’d been head of my school, before offering me some confidential career advice: ‘So you’re now in a position to apply to be the head of a private school!’ Well at least I would be free of the political interference.
But for now let me get the story right. We’re a comprehensive school, though we try not to mention it, a specialist sports college and training school and, at the last count, we were high performing but now we will now drop into the middle tier because the money has run out. Confused? We mere mortals certainly are.
But politicians are no mere mortals. Here they are, at the end of ten years of remarkable investment in education for which they deserve recognition. In addition, the benefits of their policies are now showing evidence of success in improved results. So why go and spoil it all?
One stealthy success has been the re-branding of comprehensives. Not sure? Well ask yourself when you last heard the term used. We’re all specialist now. It’s been a clever marketing exercise- change the status, change the name and move away from the education profession’s obsession with equality. After all, it doesn’t play well with the public.
But now the destruction. The DCSF have now created two new classifications by which all secondary schools will be judged. It can only lead to a new three tier system, far more damaging than any of the old myths around comprehensive schools.
First there is the now infamous 30% figure for the lowest tier to rise above, the newly named National Challenge Schools. This is the category of ‘failing schools’ but ministers will deny they ever used the term.
They argue that they have to raise standards but their premise is false. Many of the schools are truly special in their intakes- a high proportion with pupils for whom English is a second languages, with high levels of learning difficulties or even secondary modern schools with creamed off intakes. Would they expect a designated special school for pupils with learning difficulties to achieve these scores? Of course not: point made. The top category will be those schools designated as High Performing. Again the classification has simply been dreamt up by a policy wonk. Insultingly, it even moved mid year from 60% five A* to C to 65%, including the by now familiar English and Maths mantra.
They tell us that only 30% of schools will ever be allowed to reach this designation and so admit that the goal posts may shift again. The reason? They can’t actually afford to have more schools than this funded in this way! But there are, of course, funding implications for the schools themselves as they see their specialisms snatched away.
And if these goalposts can be shifted, then so can the ones at the lower end. Why stick at 30% for failure? Who will give me thirty five? Do I hear 40% from the north west? What about 45% from the south east? The effect of this will be to demoralize many of the schools in the middle category who will see the lower classification as fluid and also realise that the high performing standard is beyond their reach, a glass ceiling.
It’s a refinement of the League Table torture. Now schools will not only be ranked in the media but a handy label will tell the public if they are high performing, middle or failing. It’s neat and everyone can understand it. There’s nothing so complex about a school that you can’t sum it up in one word!
And that, of course is the real issue here. Behind every statistic published this summer, there are stories of many individual successes and also a few failures as well, sophisticated reasons for interpretations that need to be placed on raw scores.
There are also fairer and wiser ways of judging schools. A measure of the ‘within school variation’- the difference in performance between the highest and lowest achieving departments- would at least be a success criterion within the control of the school’s themselves, the leadership in particular, to influence.
Mere mortals are often wiser than politicians whose ignorance of schools never fails to amaze me. An MP, for example, once asked me how long I’d been head of my school, before offering me some confidential career advice: ‘So you’re now in a position to apply to be the head of a private school!’ Well at least I would be free of the political interference.
But for now let me get the story right. We’re a comprehensive school, though we try not to mention it, a specialist sports college and training school and, at the last count, we were high performing but now we will now drop into the middle tier because the money has run out. Confused? We mere mortals certainly are.
Friday, 18 July 2008
Level Peddling
Four days level pedalling and we’ve clocked up 80 miles, an occasional ice cream, cakes from the seventeenth best cake shop in the country, and some Rick Stein fish and chips. Yes they were as good as it gets. Though staggeringly, Julian, our superb grounds man, ate his cold and still claimed they were delicious!
So that’s the Plym Valley, the Tarka Trail, the Camel Trail and the Granite Way. They are all fairly level, easy rides and lots of fun to do. There was only one broken bicycle and no accidents this year. We’ve had a great group of students whose only mildly annoying habit has been the mini bus chorus of: ‘Are we there yet?’ At least it shows they were keen!
One of Andy Hamlyn and Heather Stimson’s many legacies is the annual Enrichment Week Cycle Camp down in Princetown. Devised and run by them for many years it continues to thrive with Don Phipps at the helm and I’m sure it will go on for as long as cycling is popular. It’s a wonderful activity for keen off-road cyclists over the varied and spectacular moor, down to the bunk house at the Plume and Feathers.
Now there is another cycling activity that deserves annual billing: Level Peddling. That Andy and Heather have put this together and run it during their final week in post is another example of the professionalism that makes teachers so respected by the public.
We said our farewells to them last week with a power point of photos in assembly that featured Andy as never before seen at South Dartmoor in his entire 37 years- yes, beardless! Did anyone recognise him? Heather was a schoolgirl at Ashburton, displaying her prowess as a hurdler- though I’m told not in a team!
One of my many memories is the first time I met each of them. Andy was a scary figure at the Governors’ and staff tea party during my interview back in 1989. ‘Lovely school,’ I enthused politely, aware that I needed to make a good impression. ‘Do you think so?’ he enquired scathingly, before filling me in on all the changes that were needed. It was just the information I needed for the interview the next day!
Heather marched in to my office, a local parent at that time, after I had been in post only three weeks to tell me I was taking the school in the wrong direction and she was considering sending her child to a different school! Once a member of staff, she repeated the warnings every time it was felt I had got things wrong. So you can see how indebted I am to them both.
They have been at the sharp end of work in the school, dealing directly with all the problems thrown up by students and parents in a period of social upheaval and changing standards. They are supreme professionals, true friends of South Dartmoor, colleagues who have shaped the destiny of the school and the lives of thousands of youngsters.
Tough times, but they have been enormous fun to work with. At last, in retirement, for each of them it now really will be level peddling.
So that’s the Plym Valley, the Tarka Trail, the Camel Trail and the Granite Way. They are all fairly level, easy rides and lots of fun to do. There was only one broken bicycle and no accidents this year. We’ve had a great group of students whose only mildly annoying habit has been the mini bus chorus of: ‘Are we there yet?’ At least it shows they were keen!
One of Andy Hamlyn and Heather Stimson’s many legacies is the annual Enrichment Week Cycle Camp down in Princetown. Devised and run by them for many years it continues to thrive with Don Phipps at the helm and I’m sure it will go on for as long as cycling is popular. It’s a wonderful activity for keen off-road cyclists over the varied and spectacular moor, down to the bunk house at the Plume and Feathers.
Now there is another cycling activity that deserves annual billing: Level Peddling. That Andy and Heather have put this together and run it during their final week in post is another example of the professionalism that makes teachers so respected by the public.
We said our farewells to them last week with a power point of photos in assembly that featured Andy as never before seen at South Dartmoor in his entire 37 years- yes, beardless! Did anyone recognise him? Heather was a schoolgirl at Ashburton, displaying her prowess as a hurdler- though I’m told not in a team!
One of my many memories is the first time I met each of them. Andy was a scary figure at the Governors’ and staff tea party during my interview back in 1989. ‘Lovely school,’ I enthused politely, aware that I needed to make a good impression. ‘Do you think so?’ he enquired scathingly, before filling me in on all the changes that were needed. It was just the information I needed for the interview the next day!
Heather marched in to my office, a local parent at that time, after I had been in post only three weeks to tell me I was taking the school in the wrong direction and she was considering sending her child to a different school! Once a member of staff, she repeated the warnings every time it was felt I had got things wrong. So you can see how indebted I am to them both.
They have been at the sharp end of work in the school, dealing directly with all the problems thrown up by students and parents in a period of social upheaval and changing standards. They are supreme professionals, true friends of South Dartmoor, colleagues who have shaped the destiny of the school and the lives of thousands of youngsters.
Tough times, but they have been enormous fun to work with. At last, in retirement, for each of them it now really will be level peddling.
Thursday, 10 July 2008
We wouldn't do it like this!
On a shelf in my Office there are two neat rows of red box files that I haven’t used for over five years since I began doing everything electronically. Yet they were part of a major refurbishment to mark new styles of working. How the world moves on.
I realised how much when I started reading a newly published book called We did it Here! on the train to London last week. Confession time- I’m not a great reader of educational books: I leave that to the guru, Martin Burt. But I’d been asked to write a review of this one for the National College.
I began We did it Here! anticipating some inspirational new thinking but it’s as dated as the material in my red boxes. The opening study features work done at Settle High School back in the dark ages of the millennium. Whilst the DCSF has moved us on to consider community cohesion, this account describes community activities we all would recognise - a special activity day with photos and children’s (hand)writing copied as evidence. Deep Learning days are streets ahead.
There are quotes from OFSTED 2003 dotted about for no apparent purpose. There’s plenty of practical advice: ‘The newsletter was printed on the school’s risograph machine for about ten pence per unit’. And another innovation: ‘a different colour paper was chosen for each issue.’ Unbelievable!
A chapter on e-learning moves the OFSTED quotes on to 2005 but a turgid management plan from 1999 is quoted over several pages. Do we need to know that the servers at QES in Kirby Lonsdale were upgraded in 2002 and the strain on the technicians was evident by 2004? What about the strain on the reader?
These are not just tired old case studies: they’re full blown documentary dramas with all the tedium of the Big Brother House. The clichéd adjectives reminded me of a Mills and Boon novel: ‘Roger’s … eyes lit up at particular moments as he remembered key milestones along the way.’ Show me a milestone that’s not key or along the way. In a chapter on a Cheshire High School, we suffer two pages of reflections on the arrival of spring, the author’s exhaustion and the Manchester traffic on the M62 when: ‘the sun was shining and spring was breathing fresh life into the moors.’ By then I realised I was being unkind - to Mills and Boon.
The theory section takes us into ‘domains’ (posh word for factors) of successful schools. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll guess leadership is tops. But: “Head teachers are not always able to take the lead.’ That’s just an excuse for a neat diagram in which circles of ‘drivers’ push each other around a bigger circle like dodgems at the fair. The head teacher though is ‘lead driver.’ I should think so too.
The book concludes with the author’s manifesto, more pleasing platitudes. We’re called to swear allegiance to ‘creating happy, resourceful and well-educated students.’ If only I’d thought of that years ago. In fact, the DCSF is about to legislate on the school’s role in ‘promoting well being.’
There are numerous excellent, tightly written case studies on the NCSL and SSAT websites. They cover the latest innovative work on curriculum development. The illustrative material reflects the digital age. Everything can be accessed electronically. So this journey in the Tardis reminded me that those red boxes on my shelf do have a purpose after all. You’ll find We Did It Here! filed away in one of them.
I realised how much when I started reading a newly published book called We did it Here! on the train to London last week. Confession time- I’m not a great reader of educational books: I leave that to the guru, Martin Burt. But I’d been asked to write a review of this one for the National College.
I began We did it Here! anticipating some inspirational new thinking but it’s as dated as the material in my red boxes. The opening study features work done at Settle High School back in the dark ages of the millennium. Whilst the DCSF has moved us on to consider community cohesion, this account describes community activities we all would recognise - a special activity day with photos and children’s (hand)writing copied as evidence. Deep Learning days are streets ahead.
There are quotes from OFSTED 2003 dotted about for no apparent purpose. There’s plenty of practical advice: ‘The newsletter was printed on the school’s risograph machine for about ten pence per unit’. And another innovation: ‘a different colour paper was chosen for each issue.’ Unbelievable!
A chapter on e-learning moves the OFSTED quotes on to 2005 but a turgid management plan from 1999 is quoted over several pages. Do we need to know that the servers at QES in Kirby Lonsdale were upgraded in 2002 and the strain on the technicians was evident by 2004? What about the strain on the reader?
These are not just tired old case studies: they’re full blown documentary dramas with all the tedium of the Big Brother House. The clichéd adjectives reminded me of a Mills and Boon novel: ‘Roger’s … eyes lit up at particular moments as he remembered key milestones along the way.’ Show me a milestone that’s not key or along the way. In a chapter on a Cheshire High School, we suffer two pages of reflections on the arrival of spring, the author’s exhaustion and the Manchester traffic on the M62 when: ‘the sun was shining and spring was breathing fresh life into the moors.’ By then I realised I was being unkind - to Mills and Boon.
The theory section takes us into ‘domains’ (posh word for factors) of successful schools. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll guess leadership is tops. But: “Head teachers are not always able to take the lead.’ That’s just an excuse for a neat diagram in which circles of ‘drivers’ push each other around a bigger circle like dodgems at the fair. The head teacher though is ‘lead driver.’ I should think so too.
The book concludes with the author’s manifesto, more pleasing platitudes. We’re called to swear allegiance to ‘creating happy, resourceful and well-educated students.’ If only I’d thought of that years ago. In fact, the DCSF is about to legislate on the school’s role in ‘promoting well being.’
There are numerous excellent, tightly written case studies on the NCSL and SSAT websites. They cover the latest innovative work on curriculum development. The illustrative material reflects the digital age. Everything can be accessed electronically. So this journey in the Tardis reminded me that those red boxes on my shelf do have a purpose after all. You’ll find We Did It Here! filed away in one of them.
Monday, 30 June 2008
Shopping or Teaching?
Friday began with a telephone call from China. Professor David Reynolds is continuing his work on Within School Variation (making sure there is consistency of quality across all Departments and teachers in a school) and he invited me to continue some of the research we have done together.
In an article in this week’s Times Educational Supplement I’m quoted as saying that a good school should be like Marks and Spencers: you know you get the same quality whether buying shirts, sausages or shoes. Did I say that? No, M&S are not paying me a retainer. It’s just a way of explaining why we need consistency.
An hour later another call from the British Council asks if I’m free for a week in August to lead a Conference in South America. This time the invitation is from Susan Douglas who I know reads my blogs. Susan, you’re quoted at last. I’d love to go but I have a prior booking in France- another time perhaps.
Then I receive one of those emails that remind teachers they can make a difference. I’m always quoting examples from colleagues who’ve received similar letters so it’s nice to receive one again. I used to teach in Norfolk at North Walsham Girls’ High School. Recently the new Head of Sixth Form from nearby Reepham High School visited us with former deputy, Chris Hassell, on a fact finding tour. It seems that I had taught his sister back in 1979. Her email read:
“The Best English TeacherMy brother, John Randall, just returned from visiting you at South Dartmoor College. When he mentioned your name, I remembered you very clearly from North Walsham Girls' High School.My name was Jackie Randall then. You took over in September 1979 and taught us English in room 9 in the Huts
I really enjoyed your lessons, especially as you had some of my essays read out, one called "A Breakdown in Communications" from a past O level paper, as my strength was maths but you increased my confidence in English.We were also studying Julius Caesar and you really brought it alive. One day, you brought in a cryptic crossword clue - something like "tradesman in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar" and I worked out the answer which was butcher, mainly because my parents always did the Telegraph crosswords on Saturdays and Sundays.Looking at your photo, you don't seem to have changed much.Like John, I recently moved from Head of Maths to Head of Sixth Form at Notre Dame High School in Norwich.
I can honestly say that I really had not enjoyed English lessons until you came along; thanks for being such a great teacher.”
Do head teachers have to have teaching experience? I certainly believe it’s essential. But there’s a debate now about whether it’s really necessary. I loved teaching and enjoyed getting to know classes and individuals well. Heads can do lots of things in their schools as well as working with distinguished professors of education or attending international conferences. But there’s nothing quite like the difference a teacher makes to an individual.
As Henry Adams wrote: “Teachers affect eternity; no one knows where their influence ends.” The quotation has been chosen to frame the certificates being given to our newly qualified teachers who are now about to have L plates removed.
However good the food and clothing at M&S, this is a claim they can never make, even if it seems to take an eternity at the check out. And that’s why we’re all in education and not retail!
In an article in this week’s Times Educational Supplement I’m quoted as saying that a good school should be like Marks and Spencers: you know you get the same quality whether buying shirts, sausages or shoes. Did I say that? No, M&S are not paying me a retainer. It’s just a way of explaining why we need consistency.
An hour later another call from the British Council asks if I’m free for a week in August to lead a Conference in South America. This time the invitation is from Susan Douglas who I know reads my blogs. Susan, you’re quoted at last. I’d love to go but I have a prior booking in France- another time perhaps.
Then I receive one of those emails that remind teachers they can make a difference. I’m always quoting examples from colleagues who’ve received similar letters so it’s nice to receive one again. I used to teach in Norfolk at North Walsham Girls’ High School. Recently the new Head of Sixth Form from nearby Reepham High School visited us with former deputy, Chris Hassell, on a fact finding tour. It seems that I had taught his sister back in 1979. Her email read:
“The Best English TeacherMy brother, John Randall, just returned from visiting you at South Dartmoor College. When he mentioned your name, I remembered you very clearly from North Walsham Girls' High School.My name was Jackie Randall then. You took over in September 1979 and taught us English in room 9 in the Huts
I really enjoyed your lessons, especially as you had some of my essays read out, one called "A Breakdown in Communications" from a past O level paper, as my strength was maths but you increased my confidence in English.We were also studying Julius Caesar and you really brought it alive. One day, you brought in a cryptic crossword clue - something like "tradesman in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar" and I worked out the answer which was butcher, mainly because my parents always did the Telegraph crosswords on Saturdays and Sundays.Looking at your photo, you don't seem to have changed much.Like John, I recently moved from Head of Maths to Head of Sixth Form at Notre Dame High School in Norwich.
I can honestly say that I really had not enjoyed English lessons until you came along; thanks for being such a great teacher.”
Do head teachers have to have teaching experience? I certainly believe it’s essential. But there’s a debate now about whether it’s really necessary. I loved teaching and enjoyed getting to know classes and individuals well. Heads can do lots of things in their schools as well as working with distinguished professors of education or attending international conferences. But there’s nothing quite like the difference a teacher makes to an individual.
As Henry Adams wrote: “Teachers affect eternity; no one knows where their influence ends.” The quotation has been chosen to frame the certificates being given to our newly qualified teachers who are now about to have L plates removed.
However good the food and clothing at M&S, this is a claim they can never make, even if it seems to take an eternity at the check out. And that’s why we’re all in education and not retail!
Monday, 23 June 2008
Unauthorised Absence?
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Virgin Trains seem to grow shorter as well as more crowded. On the return journey from attending the annual National College for School Leadership Conference in Birmingham, I sit wedged between a family whose children want to reach Torquay: (do they have their holiday absence authorised? I wonder), and a young man listening to his MP3. My laptop is finally balanced on the folding shelf in front of me, with documents on my knee and hot Costa coffee on the floor by my side. Last night’s luxury in Malmaison Hotel seems a dream away, but the Snog me Senseless mouth spray freebee is proof I really was there, as a guest speaker on the subject of Within School Variation. South Dartmoor wouldn’t have paid for a luxury hotel! As I settle down to do some work, a man with an over-large dog and a giant suitcase tries to get past. I catch my coffee just in time, but the window seat MP3 listener also decides he wants to get out, to use the buffet car, so everything is chaos. The little boy has an electronic device and is resiliently trying to change the date, which means erasing his data. His parents respond brilliantly to all questions. I find myself scoring their teaching, OFSTED Grade 2 - Good, for learning and personalisation. That’s just the parental achievement!
Parents and their communities were very much the focus of the Secretary of State, Ed Balls’, speech to the Conference. I sat with over a thousand delegates and marvelled at his knowledge and fluency – a wide ranging 45 minutes which was delivered without notes or hesitation. The largest applause came when he told us he didn’t like selection, going on to outline plans to support Secondary Modern Schools. A million pounds per school seems to be the price. Why not just take the morally, educationally and socially correct decision and abolish selection?
His story about an English teacher’s work in motivating a disengaged group in a lesson about metaphors, using lemon sherbets, held us all fascinated. We have a Secretary of State that listens, is ambitious for schools and does not sound like a politician.
A small group of us watched the opening speech by the Chief Executive of the National College on closed-circuit television as we waited in a VIP room for a private audience with the Secretary of State. We had been asked to tell him about our roles and the frustrations and satisfactions. He is the third Education Secretary I have met, and he certainly listened and commented in ways that suggest he wanted to understand, to improve things, not just to impress or make a political point. He is totally focused on schools and raising standards. I told him about the Variation Projects I have carried out with NCSL and Professor David Reynolds, which have now been published. It is a simple idea: you take the very best aspect of the school and make sure that the same standards apply everywhere to everything. We can learn from our own best practice. This was the theme of the presentation we were asked to give at 8.00 am. In the programme it was described as a ‘fringe meeting’. Well, there wasn’t much comedy, but this was Birmingham not Edinburgh. Plenty of delegates missed breakfast to be there.
Disparity in society is a result of poverty or parents’ lack of interest in education. So I am pleased that the family taking their child to Torquay are helping him to learn. After all, learning is all about feeding curiosity. They seem to be parents who care and respond - even though they are prepared to sacrifice a week of school. Now I wonder what Mr Balls would make of that?
Parents and their communities were very much the focus of the Secretary of State, Ed Balls’, speech to the Conference. I sat with over a thousand delegates and marvelled at his knowledge and fluency – a wide ranging 45 minutes which was delivered without notes or hesitation. The largest applause came when he told us he didn’t like selection, going on to outline plans to support Secondary Modern Schools. A million pounds per school seems to be the price. Why not just take the morally, educationally and socially correct decision and abolish selection?
His story about an English teacher’s work in motivating a disengaged group in a lesson about metaphors, using lemon sherbets, held us all fascinated. We have a Secretary of State that listens, is ambitious for schools and does not sound like a politician.
A small group of us watched the opening speech by the Chief Executive of the National College on closed-circuit television as we waited in a VIP room for a private audience with the Secretary of State. We had been asked to tell him about our roles and the frustrations and satisfactions. He is the third Education Secretary I have met, and he certainly listened and commented in ways that suggest he wanted to understand, to improve things, not just to impress or make a political point. He is totally focused on schools and raising standards. I told him about the Variation Projects I have carried out with NCSL and Professor David Reynolds, which have now been published. It is a simple idea: you take the very best aspect of the school and make sure that the same standards apply everywhere to everything. We can learn from our own best practice. This was the theme of the presentation we were asked to give at 8.00 am. In the programme it was described as a ‘fringe meeting’. Well, there wasn’t much comedy, but this was Birmingham not Edinburgh. Plenty of delegates missed breakfast to be there.
Disparity in society is a result of poverty or parents’ lack of interest in education. So I am pleased that the family taking their child to Torquay are helping him to learn. After all, learning is all about feeding curiosity. They seem to be parents who care and respond - even though they are prepared to sacrifice a week of school. Now I wonder what Mr Balls would make of that?
Friday, 13 June 2008
If it's Tuesday it must be the Secretary of State...
We’ve been blitzed this week! It’s like hosting a twenty four hour party but when the guests leave another lot arrive.
On Monday Sharnbrook School, Bedford came to see our Trust work and look at our data and reporting systems. They are also a Trust School with Capita Children’s
Services so it was fascinating to see what their projects looked like. They met the BECTA Five- Student Council members who are brilliant at explaining how we use data. Lunch in CTC was as impressive as ever and ended with our superb students racing off to RS period 4 carrying doggy bags of left overs- profiteroles and cream. (Sh… we are a Healthy School really).
Next it was the turn of our SIP. This stands for School Improvement Partner- and Roger Fetherston, Head of Devon Education Services, is a great partner to have, so wide is his knowledge. During interview Tuesday, he approved our priorities for the coming year, gave stimulating feedback, drank copious amounts of coffee and survived the roller coaster ride of meetings with the South Dartmoor Leadership Team. They have to be the most dynamic team never to feature on The Apprentice. Eat your heart out, Sir Alan. No you can’t have them. I hired them first.
By Wednesday, we were in full party mode- just wheel in the next visitor. This was the new Director of Teaching and Learning from Devon LA. I always enjoy working with energetic, decisive professionals and Devon is fortunate to have recruited a whizz. But she was taught Geography as a pupil by the current Head of Coombeshead. As she thought she was at Dartmouth rather than Dartmoor, for the first ten minutes we had a surreal conversation. Who said teachers make a life-long difference!
Thursday and the paperwork and emails are mounting. I have a million things to do. My inbox is fuller than the College car park (never a space) and the partying goes on. A head from Dorset spends a morning talking Trusts and vertical pastoral systems. Again, we see how much what we are doing here is valued. Notes are taken. Maybe there’s a film deal in this one.
Friday and we host our local MP, Sir Anthony Steen. This is always a pleasure because I’m fascinated by politicians and love to hear about what is going on in the House of Commons from the members themselves. By coincidence I receive an invitation to a meeting next week with the Secretary of State, Ed Balls. I have to provide a résumé for him on the school and my role. Scary.
The party continues next week when Chris Hassell, Deputy here from 1990-1996 makes a return, fact-finding visit. Twenty four hour party people. Watch out Secretary of State.
On Monday Sharnbrook School, Bedford came to see our Trust work and look at our data and reporting systems. They are also a Trust School with Capita Children’s
Services so it was fascinating to see what their projects looked like. They met the BECTA Five- Student Council members who are brilliant at explaining how we use data. Lunch in CTC was as impressive as ever and ended with our superb students racing off to RS period 4 carrying doggy bags of left overs- profiteroles and cream. (Sh… we are a Healthy School really).
Next it was the turn of our SIP. This stands for School Improvement Partner- and Roger Fetherston, Head of Devon Education Services, is a great partner to have, so wide is his knowledge. During interview Tuesday, he approved our priorities for the coming year, gave stimulating feedback, drank copious amounts of coffee and survived the roller coaster ride of meetings with the South Dartmoor Leadership Team. They have to be the most dynamic team never to feature on The Apprentice. Eat your heart out, Sir Alan. No you can’t have them. I hired them first.
By Wednesday, we were in full party mode- just wheel in the next visitor. This was the new Director of Teaching and Learning from Devon LA. I always enjoy working with energetic, decisive professionals and Devon is fortunate to have recruited a whizz. But she was taught Geography as a pupil by the current Head of Coombeshead. As she thought she was at Dartmouth rather than Dartmoor, for the first ten minutes we had a surreal conversation. Who said teachers make a life-long difference!
Thursday and the paperwork and emails are mounting. I have a million things to do. My inbox is fuller than the College car park (never a space) and the partying goes on. A head from Dorset spends a morning talking Trusts and vertical pastoral systems. Again, we see how much what we are doing here is valued. Notes are taken. Maybe there’s a film deal in this one.
Friday and we host our local MP, Sir Anthony Steen. This is always a pleasure because I’m fascinated by politicians and love to hear about what is going on in the House of Commons from the members themselves. By coincidence I receive an invitation to a meeting next week with the Secretary of State, Ed Balls. I have to provide a résumé for him on the school and my role. Scary.
The party continues next week when Chris Hassell, Deputy here from 1990-1996 makes a return, fact-finding visit. Twenty four hour party people. Watch out Secretary of State.
Friday, 6 June 2008
Deep Drilling
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Check ups are reassuring- but only after you’ve had them. Whether it’s the doctor, dentist or car MOT, it’s fine after the event, as long as you don’t need that operation, filling, or new engine.So we approach this month’s check up with the usual trepidation. After a three year period it is for the Investor in People Award which we’ve held for twelve years.
It’s a national standard, externally verified, and ensures that everyone who works here is being properly trained and supported. Over 50 members of staff, teaching and support, will be interviewed during a rigorous five day programme. There will be a written report- and it will be open for circulation to everyone. It’s a useful process, keeping us on track and giving us the views of staff about life at South Dartmoor. Do we look after colleagues? Are we a good employer? What do we neglect and how can we improve?
This time around, there are new areas the assessor can look at. We sit in front of the Plan in my Office and our assessor offers to ‘drill deep’-her term- into the leadership of the College. I’m grateful this is not my dentist speaking
A glint appears in the Chair of Governor’s eyes. “What does that mean?” he asks, with a feigned innocence that reminds me he is still an amateur actor. This is deadly serious. “Well, we can explore the deepest levels of successful leadership, penetrating right down to inspiration,” she responds. The glint has become a dazzling light of anticipation, and the Chair looks across for me to comment.
Am I feeling inspired? Well not just at that point. It feels like another bit of accountability to add to the existing burden of OFSTED, Performance Tables, School Improvement Partners, Governors…. The list is endless.
But it’s the role of schools to be open, scrutinised, analysed and compared. We can help solve the problems of society. Education is the great hope and changer of lives- if only we have the chance to provide the best for all.
In the 1980s, schools were secret gardens with no requirement to publish results or evaluate themselves. I can remember a deputy telling me to ignore a request for information from a local employer because what we did was none of their business. She believed it too. Parental choice? Hadn’t been invented yet. Some would say it never was.
As for training, that was something you did to domestic pets or babies. Teachers didn’t have any entitlement to the remarkable levels of professional support that schools now offer. A day on a course was a once in a life time event. My NQT year was a non-event. I blinked and missed it. No wonder staff rooms were often hot beds of cynicism, fed by isolation and lack of recognition.
We have a published set of priorities, a three year Development Plan, Performance Management, Learning Hubs, Learning Observations, mentoring, coaching, NQT programmes, induction for new staff, Training Days, teacher training….and we even find time to teach children in the hours that are left.
So I might as well enjoy it and go for the challenge. “Yes, inspiration would be great,” I hear myself saying, as if choosing an expensive meal from a restaurant menu. But I know who will have to foot the bill.
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Thursday, 22 May 2008
Christmas without the Presents
Springtime- a new financial year and, eyes gleaming, I can’t wait to get my hands on the budget. Not only do we have next year’s spending to plan for, but there is also a reasonable carry forward to allocate to priority projects- new lap tops, lathes and a white board or two. It’s just like Christmas- but in May. Money drives all initiatives. This is how we make things happen.
Also, we’ve been carrying devolved capital for a couple of years to pay for some smart building projects which will total nearly £750K. So we’ll have new Photography, Media and Dining facilities in the autumn if all goes to plan. It’s a remarkable bang for our buck. And we have a dozen or more administrative changes to make where staff are changing roles, increasing or decreasing hours or filling entirely new posts.
There are complex decisions around each of these issues. To make everything happen, we need to have our Finance Team both physically available and mentally switched on to what we’re trying to achieve. They are ten seconds walk away from my Office and one of the four is always available unless they are on bursar training. I’m in and out of Finance, sometimes hourly.
Financial and strategic decisions are rarely separate. They are also sometimes pretty personal to the school, about staff pay and grades- not the sort of thing you want to discuss with a stranger. So when I was asked recently to think about the benefits of ‘outsourcing’- letting a private company do the work for us, I couldn’t think of any.
Whilst I have no problem, for example, with payroll running the salary cheques each month or the bank holding our accounts, I want to be in control of the decisions. These outsourcing companies do what we tell them because their remit is limited. I would never let my bank manager make decisions for me.
The South Dartmoor Finance Team are totally focussed on the project- our school. Three of them were in our Sixth Form! They are involved in everything we do- a constant source of advice, a check against error and part of the human face of South Dartmoor. But they can also be scarier than any auditor- and they have a direct line to the Chair of Governors who drops in each week. Dare anyone send a non-order invoice? Try using your credit card to buy something at the last minute and see the reaction.
Achieving value for money? It’s in their DNA. A Subject Leader has just been told that Finance can negotiate a 30% reduction on a large text book order, saving us £700. As for cheap rail deals, they could compete with any travel agents. Value added is not just about exam results. This is our money, our school, our students and it matters to us all.
We run our own catering and cleaning operations and have an expert ICT team. All the staff are our employees with a commitment to our values and aspirations. So, for example, our ICT technicians know how to grow our system and respond to site specific problems. Imagine if they were outsourced, the frustration in having to ring a help desk and be put on hold for twenty minutes.
The Finance Team cost just 1.14% of the total budget. To provide the same level of service, a private company would have to lease its employees to us. So could they do that and still make a profit? I can see them eyeing up that carry forward and funding for buildings. It would be Christmas in the spring- but we might find our stockings would be empty.
Footnote:
South Dartmoor Community College has 1650 students on roll, 250 employees (120 teachers) and an annual budget income of £8.02 million.
Also, we’ve been carrying devolved capital for a couple of years to pay for some smart building projects which will total nearly £750K. So we’ll have new Photography, Media and Dining facilities in the autumn if all goes to plan. It’s a remarkable bang for our buck. And we have a dozen or more administrative changes to make where staff are changing roles, increasing or decreasing hours or filling entirely new posts.
There are complex decisions around each of these issues. To make everything happen, we need to have our Finance Team both physically available and mentally switched on to what we’re trying to achieve. They are ten seconds walk away from my Office and one of the four is always available unless they are on bursar training. I’m in and out of Finance, sometimes hourly.
Financial and strategic decisions are rarely separate. They are also sometimes pretty personal to the school, about staff pay and grades- not the sort of thing you want to discuss with a stranger. So when I was asked recently to think about the benefits of ‘outsourcing’- letting a private company do the work for us, I couldn’t think of any.
Whilst I have no problem, for example, with payroll running the salary cheques each month or the bank holding our accounts, I want to be in control of the decisions. These outsourcing companies do what we tell them because their remit is limited. I would never let my bank manager make decisions for me.
The South Dartmoor Finance Team are totally focussed on the project- our school. Three of them were in our Sixth Form! They are involved in everything we do- a constant source of advice, a check against error and part of the human face of South Dartmoor. But they can also be scarier than any auditor- and they have a direct line to the Chair of Governors who drops in each week. Dare anyone send a non-order invoice? Try using your credit card to buy something at the last minute and see the reaction.
Achieving value for money? It’s in their DNA. A Subject Leader has just been told that Finance can negotiate a 30% reduction on a large text book order, saving us £700. As for cheap rail deals, they could compete with any travel agents. Value added is not just about exam results. This is our money, our school, our students and it matters to us all.
We run our own catering and cleaning operations and have an expert ICT team. All the staff are our employees with a commitment to our values and aspirations. So, for example, our ICT technicians know how to grow our system and respond to site specific problems. Imagine if they were outsourced, the frustration in having to ring a help desk and be put on hold for twenty minutes.
The Finance Team cost just 1.14% of the total budget. To provide the same level of service, a private company would have to lease its employees to us. So could they do that and still make a profit? I can see them eyeing up that carry forward and funding for buildings. It would be Christmas in the spring- but we might find our stockings would be empty.
Footnote:
South Dartmoor Community College has 1650 students on roll, 250 employees (120 teachers) and an annual budget income of £8.02 million.
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Deep Signing
‘My response to anyone bringing alcohol onto this site will make any Islamic regime look soft!’ A pause to let the implications sink in. I think Year11 have got the message. As always, we want their last routine day of teaching, that great rite of passage, before the exams blast away the timetable, to be special but also comfortable for everyone.
Our great tradition, a folklore ceremony you’d imagine goes back centuries, is the Signing of the Shirts. I spell out the rules of this game with military precision. First, like Christmas present opening, nothing must happen until the declared hour when lunch begins. Second the entire year group are shepherded to the Sports Hall away from gatecrashers. It’s a party after all.
Felt tips are produced and away they go. It’s simplicity itself. And the remarkable thing is how long it takes and how totally absorbed everyone is. The happy hour is filled with scribbled good wishes that cover every inch of shirts and fill the Year Books. No one is bored or wanting to leave. Staff drop in to add their much coveted signatures and cameras click throughout. Even though it’s a blazing hot sunny day and the doors are open to the seating area outside, few choose to go there. The Sports Hall is where the action is.
If only learning could be so focussed! Guy Claxton could use this to write a lecture demonstrating his principles of ‘resilience and reciprocity’ in action. Hargreaves, architect of ‘Deep Learning’ (seven whole days of that here next year) could feature ‘Deep Signing’ in his next pamphlet.
‘Uniform is a symbol of your pride in your school and aspiration to achieve,’ I’ve told them often. But by the end of the afternoon, they resemble mobile wall graffiti. A passing Martian might wonder what anarchy five years of secondary education has taught them. One of the bus drivers gives me a sorrowful look that suggests I’ve either lost control or gone mad. There’s no telling what the public must think.
As they’ve been such a great group of youngsters, I try to analyse the process. Why does it matter so much to them? Attendance figures on this day are the highest in the year. One absentee - playing professional football already - sends in his shirt to be signed and I watch the care with which the autographs are collected.
Over three quarters stay on in our sixth form so the reality is that most are not actually leaving. But the year group itself is about to fragment, decisive personal choices are being made for the first time in their lives and the comfort zone of compulsory education with guided options is now over. Uniform symbolises the past. Tomorrow they transmogrify into sixth formers-in-waiting with personal freedoms about many things, including what to wear.
So the signature trophy hunting, far from an act of desecration, is actually a way of binding memories, fixing their lives in a moment to be remembered. The hugs, tears and fears are all part of the process: sadness and joy in equal measure.
Well, that’s my story- but I doubt if that bus driver would agree, or even know what I’m talking about. Oh, and the day was incident free, so I didn’t invoke the Islamic option.
Our great tradition, a folklore ceremony you’d imagine goes back centuries, is the Signing of the Shirts. I spell out the rules of this game with military precision. First, like Christmas present opening, nothing must happen until the declared hour when lunch begins. Second the entire year group are shepherded to the Sports Hall away from gatecrashers. It’s a party after all.
Felt tips are produced and away they go. It’s simplicity itself. And the remarkable thing is how long it takes and how totally absorbed everyone is. The happy hour is filled with scribbled good wishes that cover every inch of shirts and fill the Year Books. No one is bored or wanting to leave. Staff drop in to add their much coveted signatures and cameras click throughout. Even though it’s a blazing hot sunny day and the doors are open to the seating area outside, few choose to go there. The Sports Hall is where the action is.
If only learning could be so focussed! Guy Claxton could use this to write a lecture demonstrating his principles of ‘resilience and reciprocity’ in action. Hargreaves, architect of ‘Deep Learning’ (seven whole days of that here next year) could feature ‘Deep Signing’ in his next pamphlet.
‘Uniform is a symbol of your pride in your school and aspiration to achieve,’ I’ve told them often. But by the end of the afternoon, they resemble mobile wall graffiti. A passing Martian might wonder what anarchy five years of secondary education has taught them. One of the bus drivers gives me a sorrowful look that suggests I’ve either lost control or gone mad. There’s no telling what the public must think.
As they’ve been such a great group of youngsters, I try to analyse the process. Why does it matter so much to them? Attendance figures on this day are the highest in the year. One absentee - playing professional football already - sends in his shirt to be signed and I watch the care with which the autographs are collected.
Over three quarters stay on in our sixth form so the reality is that most are not actually leaving. But the year group itself is about to fragment, decisive personal choices are being made for the first time in their lives and the comfort zone of compulsory education with guided options is now over. Uniform symbolises the past. Tomorrow they transmogrify into sixth formers-in-waiting with personal freedoms about many things, including what to wear.
So the signature trophy hunting, far from an act of desecration, is actually a way of binding memories, fixing their lives in a moment to be remembered. The hugs, tears and fears are all part of the process: sadness and joy in equal measure.
Well, that’s my story- but I doubt if that bus driver would agree, or even know what I’m talking about. Oh, and the day was incident free, so I didn’t invoke the Islamic option.
Friday, 9 May 2008
Twenty Twenty Vision
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So how good is your memory? Can you visualise people you have spent only half an hour with- some weeks later? Be honest. Can you remember names, interests, characteristics? I ask because I’m feeling vulnerable.
You see we have an influx of new staff every year. It’s normal for us to make about twenty new teaching appointments in addition to support staff. South Dartmoor is unusual in having an extraordinarily young teaching staff whose energy levels are legendary. The average age of the teachers is around 32! (That makes me above average, but do I want to be on this count?).
We appoint early in the cycle and usually claim the best qualified and highest performing graduates around. They replace the staff who go on to promotions, retirements, maternity leave or even delayed ‘gap’ years. It’s a really healthy and virtuous cycle of development.
So far this year we have made twenty new appointments. And I’m feeling especially pleased because we have another bumper crop of really talented new teachers joining us. There are three in English and Maths, two in: History, Languages, Religious Studies and Science; one in Music, Health and Social Care, Psychology, Drama, Art and Technology. Yes, that makes twenty. And it’s probably not over yet.
So we will begin the new academic year in September with our new Sixth Formers and Year 7s but also a large number of teachers that I won’t recognise. How scary is that!
Each interview for a new post involves about six candidates, especially where we are interviewing for two jobs. If you do the sums, that’s about 120 candidates interviewed over the past few weeks for the twenty or so posts. I don’t even want to think about how many hours of interviews that has involved. My nightmare is always a dream that I have a staff that consists of all those applicants who were so weak we didn’t even interview. It’s the school from hell.
My job now is to go back to those applications and match them up against the photographs of new staff, alongside their profiles. When we ask them to send us a picture and brief comments for the on-line Connection, it’s really my way of reminding myself who everyone is. It’s no wonder I’m feeling hesitant about names and faces. But I do know that we have the best- that’s for sure.
Perhaps the most important role I have is to recruit, motivate and promote good staff. It’s the bedrock of a high achieving school. Fortunately, we are close to good universities training some of the best of the next generation of teachers. They are inspiring to interview. I am genuinely in awe of their skills, talent and university successes. No matter that I have forgotten names and faces. The good news is that for South Dartmoor students, the best is yet to come!
You see we have an influx of new staff every year. It’s normal for us to make about twenty new teaching appointments in addition to support staff. South Dartmoor is unusual in having an extraordinarily young teaching staff whose energy levels are legendary. The average age of the teachers is around 32! (That makes me above average, but do I want to be on this count?).
We appoint early in the cycle and usually claim the best qualified and highest performing graduates around. They replace the staff who go on to promotions, retirements, maternity leave or even delayed ‘gap’ years. It’s a really healthy and virtuous cycle of development.
So far this year we have made twenty new appointments. And I’m feeling especially pleased because we have another bumper crop of really talented new teachers joining us. There are three in English and Maths, two in: History, Languages, Religious Studies and Science; one in Music, Health and Social Care, Psychology, Drama, Art and Technology. Yes, that makes twenty. And it’s probably not over yet.
So we will begin the new academic year in September with our new Sixth Formers and Year 7s but also a large number of teachers that I won’t recognise. How scary is that!
Each interview for a new post involves about six candidates, especially where we are interviewing for two jobs. If you do the sums, that’s about 120 candidates interviewed over the past few weeks for the twenty or so posts. I don’t even want to think about how many hours of interviews that has involved. My nightmare is always a dream that I have a staff that consists of all those applicants who were so weak we didn’t even interview. It’s the school from hell.
My job now is to go back to those applications and match them up against the photographs of new staff, alongside their profiles. When we ask them to send us a picture and brief comments for the on-line Connection, it’s really my way of reminding myself who everyone is. It’s no wonder I’m feeling hesitant about names and faces. But I do know that we have the best- that’s for sure.
Perhaps the most important role I have is to recruit, motivate and promote good staff. It’s the bedrock of a high achieving school. Fortunately, we are close to good universities training some of the best of the next generation of teachers. They are inspiring to interview. I am genuinely in awe of their skills, talent and university successes. No matter that I have forgotten names and faces. The good news is that for South Dartmoor students, the best is yet to come!
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Friday, 2 May 2008
Destiny is Tea Bag Shaped
‘I’m sorry but you were not successful today,’ I tell candidate four over the phone. I pause to sense how the news is taken before offering a few pointers and good wishes. I can remember the disappointment, if only at the thought of having to go through the whole wretched process yet again. Tired of rejections, I threw the application form for my present post in the kitchen bin. The next day I had second thoughts. Just one tea bag splat and I would have been forced to apply elsewhere. Such is destiny. .jpg)
In fact most of the applicants at this time of year are more than appointable. But by June it will be harder to find a Language teacher than a buyer for a Gateshead semi with a view of Northern Rock. So heads race to get their adverts in first, process them with the speed of a microwave ready meal and keep an eye on the competition. If my colleague at Kingsbridge, for example, is interviewing for an English teacher on Tuesday, I’ll do my best to call the applicants on Monday. And I justify it by telling myself I’m saving them from a dull life in the back of beyond.
At least the artificiality of the day is over by the time I make the calls- from the practised handshakes to suits so dark and sharp they can’t have been worn since the graduation ceremonies.
The first to arrive recently was unaware that I happened to be watching from my second floor window. He got out of the red sports car and carefully placed his files and notes on the roof. His girlfriend, driver and perhaps car owner, smoothed his hair and helped him fasten his tie. At that moment a gust of wind sent his notes around the tarmac and the next five minutes were spent in a hasty dance of retrieval. Predictably his interview was just as chaotic.
The teaching presentation causes the most concerns. I explain that it’s just one of the many ways we assess them. If it goes badly they can explain why in the interview. All factors will be taken into account- not just one aspect. We can understand if they can explain. If only schools had the same leeway. ‘Sorry, but results are down because we ran out of time.’
Towards the close of the interview comes the moment when we ask if they have any questions for us. I groan inwardly when they take out their little notebooks and prepare to take another ten minutes grilling us. Warning: ‘Can you account for the dip in your 2006 results?’ is not a great note to finish on.
Selection involves taking a wide range of factors into account from the application and reference through to performance on the day. A governor once confessed to me that he chose by imagining who would make the most interesting dinner companion. It’s not as silly as it sounds.
If only the Department for Creating Statistical Fatigue (DCSF) would use a wide range of measures when ranking schools, instead of one raw figure. That would be good news for the next generation of teachers.
In fact most of the applicants at this time of year are more than appointable. But by June it will be harder to find a Language teacher than a buyer for a Gateshead semi with a view of Northern Rock. So heads race to get their adverts in first, process them with the speed of a microwave ready meal and keep an eye on the competition. If my colleague at Kingsbridge, for example, is interviewing for an English teacher on Tuesday, I’ll do my best to call the applicants on Monday. And I justify it by telling myself I’m saving them from a dull life in the back of beyond.At least the artificiality of the day is over by the time I make the calls- from the practised handshakes to suits so dark and sharp they can’t have been worn since the graduation ceremonies.
The first to arrive recently was unaware that I happened to be watching from my second floor window. He got out of the red sports car and carefully placed his files and notes on the roof. His girlfriend, driver and perhaps car owner, smoothed his hair and helped him fasten his tie. At that moment a gust of wind sent his notes around the tarmac and the next five minutes were spent in a hasty dance of retrieval. Predictably his interview was just as chaotic.
The teaching presentation causes the most concerns. I explain that it’s just one of the many ways we assess them. If it goes badly they can explain why in the interview. All factors will be taken into account- not just one aspect. We can understand if they can explain. If only schools had the same leeway. ‘Sorry, but results are down because we ran out of time.’
Towards the close of the interview comes the moment when we ask if they have any questions for us. I groan inwardly when they take out their little notebooks and prepare to take another ten minutes grilling us. Warning: ‘Can you account for the dip in your 2006 results?’ is not a great note to finish on.
Selection involves taking a wide range of factors into account from the application and reference through to performance on the day. A governor once confessed to me that he chose by imagining who would make the most interesting dinner companion. It’s not as silly as it sounds.
If only the Department for Creating Statistical Fatigue (DCSF) would use a wide range of measures when ranking schools, instead of one raw figure. That would be good news for the next generation of teachers.
Friday, 25 April 2008
Down in the Deeps
There’s a superb international flavour to the home page this week with the much anticipated arrival of our delightful Thai colleagues and the extraordinary diary of her Namibia trip from Jane Thomas. After spending the second week of the ‘holiday’ writing a project design for the British Council, it seemed really fitting for South Dartmoor to go international.
I learned that we’re not the first ‘blog-standard’ comprehensive after all. Another local school may have beaten us to the title because they use blogs as a regular form of communication between staff- for lesson ideas, records of meetings, and even photos and videos. These are the real thing and not the alternative story of daily life that I like to portray. But ‘real time’ reporting of another kind is being developed by the Government and we are now one of three pilot schools in the south west.
Meanwhile the video technology continues to offer us new ways to our job effectively. A broken fire alarm early in the week brought an instant confession as the culprit realised that all would be revealed by the cameras. Students saw an example of group bullying in assembly today- a screen shot of an outdoor area. One student was threatening another. But the assembled crowd of on-lookers were also bullies. All the research shows that if bullies are confronted by their peers, then they stop. This group, by their very presence, were inciting the bully when they could have taken the civilised step of walking away and reporting what was going on.
It’s a relief to be back to a day of ‘shallow’ learning after the going through the deeps yesterday. The staff reported back in our morning briefing on the vast range of activities that took place from Thai and Dreams and Teams-led sports in Year 7 to The Apprentice-style outdoor challenges from Phil Atherton’s vivid imagination with Year 9. This year group amazingly, now all have ‘heart start’ certificates, thanks to the hard work and organisation of Richard Woodland and his team. We’ve already had offers to be on standby in case of collapse. So who wants to volunteer to give Mr Hamlyn the kiss of life?
For Year 8, The Deeps offered visitors to Religious Studies and Modern Languages. Students were engrossed in the personal stories of members of religious groups who had fascinating stories of faith to tell. They polished up their French in the afternoon and were busy in role when I went round the department. In Science Year 10 were experimenting with everything that could move, explode make a smell or create a surprise. What must Mark Gale’s living room look like! Balloons attached to CDs floated across the desks at one point and demonstrated the principles of the hovercraft. And Year 11 had a terrific day in English- working at the very depths to secure those top grades in only a few weeks time. Keep up the pressure, English Department.
I attended a dinner that evening with some other invited heads from the region hosted by the Chief Executive of the National College for School Leadership. There’s no such thing as a free lunch or dinner and our role was to brief him on some of the educational issues facing schools and their leaders at the moment. By midnight we had solved most of the world’s problems. But things looked different in the morning. Deep or shallow, the success of everything we do is rooted in how and what we learn.
I learned that we’re not the first ‘blog-standard’ comprehensive after all. Another local school may have beaten us to the title because they use blogs as a regular form of communication between staff- for lesson ideas, records of meetings, and even photos and videos. These are the real thing and not the alternative story of daily life that I like to portray. But ‘real time’ reporting of another kind is being developed by the Government and we are now one of three pilot schools in the south west.
Meanwhile the video technology continues to offer us new ways to our job effectively. A broken fire alarm early in the week brought an instant confession as the culprit realised that all would be revealed by the cameras. Students saw an example of group bullying in assembly today- a screen shot of an outdoor area. One student was threatening another. But the assembled crowd of on-lookers were also bullies. All the research shows that if bullies are confronted by their peers, then they stop. This group, by their very presence, were inciting the bully when they could have taken the civilised step of walking away and reporting what was going on.
It’s a relief to be back to a day of ‘shallow’ learning after the going through the deeps yesterday. The staff reported back in our morning briefing on the vast range of activities that took place from Thai and Dreams and Teams-led sports in Year 7 to The Apprentice-style outdoor challenges from Phil Atherton’s vivid imagination with Year 9. This year group amazingly, now all have ‘heart start’ certificates, thanks to the hard work and organisation of Richard Woodland and his team. We’ve already had offers to be on standby in case of collapse. So who wants to volunteer to give Mr Hamlyn the kiss of life?
For Year 8, The Deeps offered visitors to Religious Studies and Modern Languages. Students were engrossed in the personal stories of members of religious groups who had fascinating stories of faith to tell. They polished up their French in the afternoon and were busy in role when I went round the department. In Science Year 10 were experimenting with everything that could move, explode make a smell or create a surprise. What must Mark Gale’s living room look like! Balloons attached to CDs floated across the desks at one point and demonstrated the principles of the hovercraft. And Year 11 had a terrific day in English- working at the very depths to secure those top grades in only a few weeks time. Keep up the pressure, English Department.
I attended a dinner that evening with some other invited heads from the region hosted by the Chief Executive of the National College for School Leadership. There’s no such thing as a free lunch or dinner and our role was to brief him on some of the educational issues facing schools and their leaders at the moment. By midnight we had solved most of the world’s problems. But things looked different in the morning. Deep or shallow, the success of everything we do is rooted in how and what we learn.
Friday, 4 April 2008
DCSF: Department for Controlling Seagull Faeces?
Wine and good food are great motivators! In London, at the imposing Institute of Directors in Pall Mall on Tuesday evening, the wine flowed freely and the conversation sparkled. So naturally I was happy to be as motivated as anyone could wish. As glass after glass was filled, I felt that there was plenty to be motivated about. .jpg)
The first 34 Trust Schools are coming to the end of their initial year of operation; there are now plans for a huge expansion of the scheme and we are involved in spreading the message. The dinner for Trust partners was about creating a national network- an exciting new source of expertise and energy.
We were represented at the dinner to develop a national network of Trust partners by our own partner, Capita Children’s Services. Both Phil Neale, Mr SIMS himself- the inventor of the data programmes that are now used in running the administration of most of the country’s schools, and Brian Hodge, our committed and hard working Trustee and Governor, attended in support. So did Mike Billington, our knowledgeable Chair of Governors who, I’m sure, could win on Mastermind on the topic, Trust Schools and how to become one..jpg)
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How to remember the order of the letters, never mind what they stand for? I use cows, sheep and frogs. I’ve heard less polite company refer to them as: ‘catching smelly farts.’ But in view of our recent hoax award my vote goes for: ‘controlling seagull faeces.’
But did the Institute of Directors’ receptionist need to know all this as I waited to be shown the meeting room? He thought so- more easily distracted than a Year 10 student in a Friday afternoon class.
By the end of an evening of networking and speeches, we had answered lots of questions about our Trust and the quality of the work Capita Children’s Services are doing with us. As we were about to leave- Brian and Mike for the overnight Paddington Sleeper train to Devon- we watched the amazing conjuring tricks of our Trustee who is also a registered children’s en.jpg)
tertainer.
The first 34 Trust Schools are coming to the end of their initial year of operation; there are now plans for a huge expansion of the scheme and we are involved in spreading the message. The dinner for Trust partners was about creating a national network- an exciting new source of expertise and energy.We were represented at the dinner to develop a national network of Trust partners by our own partner, Capita Children’s Services. Both Phil Neale, Mr SIMS himself- the inventor of the data programmes that are now used in running the administration of most of the country’s schools, and Brian Hodge, our committed and hard working Trustee and Governor, attended in support. So did Mike Billington, our knowledgeable Chair of Governors who, I’m sure, could win on Mastermind on the topic, Trust Schools and how to become one.
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I was almost late because I foolishly invited my wife into the Institute to admire the grandeur of the building which really is imposing. But instead of gazing respectfully at the chandeliers and portraits, she embarked on a thirty minute conversation with the receptionist about the current bizarre school holiday patterns and the meaning of the term DCSF- the new initials for the Education Department.
How to remember the order of the letters, never mind what they stand for? I use cows, sheep and frogs. I’ve heard less polite company refer to them as: ‘catching smelly farts.’ But in view of our recent hoax award my vote goes for: ‘controlling seagull faeces.’But did the Institute of Directors’ receptionist need to know all this as I waited to be shown the meeting room? He thought so- more easily distracted than a Year 10 student in a Friday afternoon class.
By the end of an evening of networking and speeches, we had answered lots of questions about our Trust and the quality of the work Capita Children’s Services are doing with us. As we were about to leave- Brian and Mike for the overnight Paddington Sleeper train to Devon- we watched the amazing conjuring tricks of our Trustee who is also a registered children’s en
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tertainer.Blowing up and folding balloons into animal shapes with the dexterity of a Tesco shelf stacker, Brian amazed the (fortunately) tiny gathering left. Sir James, SSAT Chair and our host, had already gone and so the embarrassment was not too great! He literally missed a trick- thank goodness.
Clutching the compulsory freebie- a rather novel credit card-style memory stick, they dashed for their train, leaving a trail of burst balloons behind them, and I prepared for an early morning return to History interviews the next day. So far this week we have appointed five new teachers. At least the seagulls haven’t scared them off.
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Blue Skies Day
‘Busy day ahead?’ asks my wife, as I prepare to leave for work. ‘A big one,’ I announce proudly, for I’ve organised a complete day on strategic planning, doing what every good to great school leader is supposed to do. Leave the small problems to resolve themselves. I shall resist the urge to be out and about. Think vision: it’s a big picture day.
In my office the desk is cleared, the diary is appointments free - not a meeting in sight. My role is to reflect, to be a blue skies thinker. Outside my window there is only the Dartmoor sky to distract me.
In my office the desk is cleared, the diary is appointments free - not a meeting in sight. My role is to reflect, to be a blue skies thinker. Outside my window there is only the Dartmoor sky to distract me.
I need to begin with my vision, explain the mission, articulate my aims, and state our values. Already it sounds like a Barack Obama speech. Then there are the self-evaluation forms to update, the priorities to list for the year ahead, the School Development Plan to write, the Performance Review and Training Schedule documents to include. Fortunately, I’ve already updated the specialist, training school and leading edge plans. Exhausted already I move from green tea to a large pot of coffee. The blue sky out there is turning grey.
Accidently, I press the wrong button on my computer and on the screen appear sixteen different live views of the site, all being digitally recorded. Video surveillance brings the school into my office like never before. As I watch, one of the toilets is visited by a suspicious youth, quickly followed by another. It’s only ten minutes since the start of the period. I can’t resist the urge to challenge, and I soon find myself over in the block, telling them to get back to class, taking their names and warning them that Maths is not to be missed. Remembering the recording, I return to the blue skies b
ase.
Accidently, I press the wrong button on my computer and on the screen appear sixteen different live views of the site, all being digitally recorded. Video surveillance brings the school into my office like never before. As I watch, one of the toilets is visited by a suspicious youth, quickly followed by another. It’s only ten minutes since the start of the period. I can’t resist the urge to challenge, and I soon find myself over in the block, telling them to get back to class, taking their names and warning them that Maths is not to be missed. Remembering the recording, I return to the blue skies b
ase.Half way through the scribble that might become a priorities list, the phone goes and I’m asked to visit another boys’ toilet by our hardworking caretaker. This is a smart, motorway service level convenience with fittings that could be gold. It cost thousands to upgrade. Now it looks as if it’s been in a Bugsy Malone shoot out. Rolled up pellets of wet tissue stick to every surface, wall and ceiling. It’s definitely not a Jackson Pollock. A hand basin is full of a yellow liquid that tells me the offender either hates us or missed out on his potty training at an early age. .jpg)
As the dedicated staff, going beyond the call of duty, prepare to clear the mess, I decide to play Inspector Lewis and hunt the culprits, using the new digital system. We go through the video and find the first to exit at around the time the loo was reported vandalised. The screen shot is emailed to the Sixth Form Centre and, within seconds, we have a name and soon confirmation that we have the correct time. It’s an innocent and totally reliable sixth form student. TV detectives never achieve results this quickly.
Speeding through the recordings we find the last students to go in who confirm all was well. Then we have our vandals - three year elevens who spent fifteen minutes in there - the last to come out before our sixth form witness. Now it’s just the interviews - more in sorrow than in anger. ‘Bring them in,’ I say, in my best Lewis voice.
They can’t explain why. Perhaps they really are just potty. Two caretakers have spent an hour restoring the room to normality. So all three toileteers agree to toil - twelve hours’ community service with the cleaners. Judgement passed, they are led away and parents informed.
However, it’s taken most of the afternoon and wrecked my blue skies day. I look again at the scribbled priorities. I cross out personalised learning, curriculum innovation and leading practice networks. Instead, I write in bold my first and only priority: extend security cameras to provide total coverage. It may not be visionary, but forget the blue skies - I’m on a real mission now..jpg)
As the dedicated staff, going beyond the call of duty, prepare to clear the mess, I decide to play Inspector Lewis and hunt the culprits, using the new digital system. We go through the video and find the first to exit at around the time the loo was reported vandalised. The screen shot is emailed to the Sixth Form Centre and, within seconds, we have a name and soon confirmation that we have the correct time. It’s an innocent and totally reliable sixth form student. TV detectives never achieve results this quickly.
Speeding through the recordings we find the last students to go in who confirm all was well. Then we have our vandals - three year elevens who spent fifteen minutes in there - the last to come out before our sixth form witness. Now it’s just the interviews - more in sorrow than in anger. ‘Bring them in,’ I say, in my best Lewis voice.
They can’t explain why. Perhaps they really are just potty. Two caretakers have spent an hour restoring the room to normality. So all three toileteers agree to toil - twelve hours’ community service with the cleaners. Judgement passed, they are led away and parents informed.
However, it’s taken most of the afternoon and wrecked my blue skies day. I look again at the scribbled priorities. I cross out personalised learning, curriculum innovation and leading practice networks. Instead, I write in bold my first and only priority: extend security cameras to provide total coverage. It may not be visionary, but forget the blue skies - I’m on a real mission now.
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Monday, 17 March 2008
Secrets of the Universe: Fifteen Hundred and Still Counting
After a long flight from South America, I find myself alone, cold and shivering in Europe again, waiting for a connecting flight in Lisbon at 6.00am. From 35 degrees to near zero and a cold wind whistling through the coffee-free and Wi-Fi unfriendly waste that called itself a transit lounge.
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The next day, and still jet lagged but protesting rude health, Judith Morgan (wisely) prevents me from attempting assembly. Nat Parnell is on top form with the remarkable statistic that teachers typically ‘enjoy’ 1,500 interactions every day. These are the live ones with students and he explains the need for them to be positive. Add in a similar number for emails and you can see why teachers never stop. Any other profession would be on a go slow but, strangely, we always think we are doing too little.
By Monday, though, the email system is down (no fault of the Thin Controller- some suspect internal sabotage) and we have a quiet day wondering what is building up in our out-of-reach in-boxes. But, of course, none of the staff can send emails or receive them so when the all clear comes and the bleeps return, it’s largely an anti-climax. We all wonder if an email-free day ought to be school policy- no email Friday, perhaps.
We try the electronic system to review budget papers at the Governors’ Meeting that night, rather than printing copies for everyone. It works well for text but we discover numbers are too tricky. With lights on or off, we are left squinting at rows of statistics that are too small to read. Back to the drawing board- literally th
e paper system. It’s my fault for trying to be too clever.
Our Third Trust Board Meeting on Thursday reviews some great progress in research with Exeter University from Karl Husband (who is now a tutor there on Tuesday evenings) and from the Maths team- briefed from Yusof Othman. We have also made progress on our aspiration to take the school into the home electronically through our Capita partner.
The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust is planning a new national network of Trust partners. We’re delighted to be guests at the inaugural dinner in two weeks’ time and to be one of four schools invited to do a presentation. Our Capita partner will be represented- Brian Hodge, Trustee and Governor, and Phil Neal, Chief Executive of Capita Children’s Services.
By Friday, I’m realising how those 1,500 interactions can take their toll. And the week isn’t over at the end of the day. It’s back for the second night of an uplifting Body Language- over 200 students performing with live music for many pieces. With energy levels this high, they must be bio fuel injected. I’m reminded why so many of us enjoy working here and remain committed to South Dartmoor: the wonderful young people and the remarkable standards they achieve.
As we finish the evening, we’re told that some staff and students will be in all weekend for A level and GCSE practical examination preparation. Just describing it all is exhausting. But, however many interactions we have in an average week, it’s better than sitting shivering alone in an airport transit lounge. And more good news- the fuel is liquid again and it works! Science and Body Language Week end with bang.
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The next day, and still jet lagged but protesting rude health, Judith Morgan (wisely) prevents me from attempting assembly. Nat Parnell is on top form with the remarkable statistic that teachers typically ‘enjoy’ 1,500 interactions every day. These are the live ones with students and he explains the need for them to be positive. Add in a similar number for emails and you can see why teachers never stop. Any other profession would be on a go slow but, strangely, we always think we are doing too little.
By Monday, though, the email system is down (no fault of the Thin Controller- some suspect internal sabotage) and we have a quiet day wondering what is building up in our out-of-reach in-boxes. But, of course, none of the staff can send emails or receive them so when the all clear comes and the bleeps return, it’s largely an anti-climax. We all wonder if an email-free day ought to be school policy- no email Friday, perhaps.
We try the electronic system to review budget papers at the Governors’ Meeting that night, rather than printing copies for everyone. It works well for text but we discover numbers are too tricky. With lights on or off, we are left squinting at rows of statistics that are too small to read. Back to the drawing board- literally th
e paper system. It’s my fault for trying to be too clever.Science Week is here and from rockets to explosions, it’s all systems go. Phil Atherton proudly shows me his experiments in creating bio fuel. His group of lunch time scientists are busy boiling and stirring a yellow liquid that he tells me will fuel his car! And it will cost 12p a litre rather than £1.10. I can understand the economics and pretend to follow the Science. But the next day, my spies tell me the fuel has turned to jelly. 
Then it’s on to Primary Body Language- an amazing array of dances and dancers from each of our link schools. They are colourful, energetic and great fun. Parents applaud enthusiastically and the children have a great introduction to their new secondary school. (These are the lucky ones- there are 54 on the waiting list for next year). 
And whilst these performances are going on, in the Science labs (there are only eight instead of twelve so easy not to miss), Parent and Child Science Evening offers our students the chance to become teachers for the evening- with their parents as the pupils. Now how many interactions does that involve? It’s another very successful evening with a very tired team of Science teachers at the end of it who must have counted well beyond fifteen hundred that day. Perhaps the secret of the universe isn’t 42 after all!
Our Third Trust Board Meeting on Thursday reviews some great progress in research with Exeter University from Karl Husband (who is now a tutor there on Tuesday evenings) and from the Maths team- briefed from Yusof Othman. We have also made progress on our aspiration to take the school into the home electronically through our Capita partner.
The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust is planning a new national network of Trust partners. We’re delighted to be guests at the inaugural dinner in two weeks’ time and to be one of four schools invited to do a presentation. Our Capita partner will be represented- Brian Hodge, Trustee and Governor, and Phil Neal, Chief Executive of Capita Children’s Services.
By Friday, I’m realising how those 1,500 interactions can take their toll. And the week isn’t over at the end of the day. It’s back for the second night of an uplifting Body Language- over 200 students performing with live music for many pieces. With energy levels this high, they must be bio fuel injected. I’m reminded why so many of us enjoy working here and remain committed to South Dartmoor: the wonderful young people and the remarkable standards they achieve.
As we finish the evening, we’re told that some staff and students will be in all weekend for A level and GCSE practical examination preparation. Just describing it all is exhausting. But, however many interactions we have in an average week, it’s better than sitting shivering alone in an airport transit lounge. And more good news- the fuel is liquid again and it works! Science and Body Language Week end with bang.
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