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.
Friday, 31 October 2008
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
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