‘You can withdraw money from the new hole in the wall in Reception,’ I shout to one of our caretakers as I dash past him on my way to check out a class. He gives a look of surprise but genuine interest and I see him going in to see for himself. Ten minutes later we pass each other again and both laugh about the latest technology that looks like an ATM but is actually an interactive touch screen- a Parent Information Point.
Matt White, leading on Extended Schools for our Learning Community, has worked with Richard Penhale, ICT System Manager, to install the information points in all the local primary schools as well. Now we are all connected and so are parents across the 350 square miles of our catchment area.
Everyone can see, at the touch of the screen, what is on offer within their own school and across the Learning Community of nine primaries and South Dartmoor, the secondary. Information ranges from clubs to holiday activities, from childcare providers to local authority networks of support. And because it’s electronic, it can be constantly changed so is never out of date.
Best of all it has an amazing metal roller ball that feels like a cool stress ball and allows you to navigate the page without all the jumping and hopping about that my computer mouse does. Now I know why it’s called a mouse.
In the Sports Hall, the new screen projector gives us Odeon quality video clips. A member of staff comments on the total absorption of Years 7-9 as they watch a few minutes of America’s new President speaking to two million of his countrymen live in Washington and to hundreds of millions of others in America and around the world. This isn’t just the technical excellence of the picture- it’s the brilliance of his words, crafted and delivered with attention to rhythm and the occasion. They are watching history in the making and their response reflects the admiration and anticipation of the planet.
Later on Friday evening my all singing mobile phone vibrates with the message that there’s a message. Live from the national Indoor Hockey Finals in Birmingham, Steve Dinnie, Director of Sport, is texting me to give me the very latest match information. Some spectacular wins, some losses. I tap in some text on the screen and send it back to cheer the teams on.
I’ve had to go up to London for work with the British Council and Teacher Development Agency four times this term. With electricity in the carriages, I can keep batteries charged so I’m able to use my computer and send and receive emails via the phone whilst listening to music on the MP3. Who said men can’t multi task? I can get a lot of work done in relative peace, as long as I remember to unplug the wires before I stand up to get a coffee.
It’s all so much easier than the days when everything came on paper and I used to go through my red boxes where everything was filed and kept. I can and now do have email conversations with colleagues around the country and around the world. Given my levels of patience, immediacy and speed really appeal. I never want to lick another stamp. One aim, as a Trust, is to work with Capita Children’s Services to bring the school into the home electronically. So watch out parents. It’s coming to a screen near you.
And as the train pulls into Paddington, I remember that I do need some cash. This time I go to track down a real ATM. as my phone sends a message from school that someone’s left their lights on in the car park. How lovely to be in close and constant contact, and all at the touch of a screen.
Monday, 26 January 2009
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Driven to Drink
In one secondary school in the North West, one in three teenagers have admitted to drinking alcohol to cope with GCSE stress. Others smoke or use drugs to alleviate the pressure of coursework and looming exams.
New research carried out by educational psychologist, Dr Pamela Taylor, has found that more than a quarter of pupils approaching GCSEs experience high levels of school-related stress. The study questioned 172 year 11 students, aged 15 and 16, from a northern school about what they found stressful in the run-up to GCSEs and how they coped.
The students said the main pressures they experienced stemmed from the large volume of coursework they were given and clashing hand-in dates. Most of the teenagers said they managed to cope with school-related stress by listening to music, watching television, doing sport and exercise and even walking the dog. However, 30 per cent revealed that they drank alcohol to alleviate the pressure, while 16 per cent said they smoked cigarettes and six per cent used drugs.
This is a wake up call to schools who probably assume that alcohol, tobacco and even drugs are part of a youth culture of experimentation and friendship patterns rather than an aspect of stress relief. We’d assume their use is recreational or to do with image and peer expectations rather than coping with pressure.
I’d be interested in carrying out the survey with Year 11 at South Dartmoor to see if we have similar issues and acting on them where we can. We already publish coursework and exam deadlines and we try to space them.
But there is no doubt in my mind that we have the hardest working generation of young people and teachers in our schools at present, and that the pressure on a school’s Year 11 to perform has never been higher. As a Sports College, we make mental and physical health a priority- even offering Friday evening sport for the staff in case they face similar temptations at the end of a stressful week! Now… where did I put that corkscrew….
New research carried out by educational psychologist, Dr Pamela Taylor, has found that more than a quarter of pupils approaching GCSEs experience high levels of school-related stress. The study questioned 172 year 11 students, aged 15 and 16, from a northern school about what they found stressful in the run-up to GCSEs and how they coped.
The students said the main pressures they experienced stemmed from the large volume of coursework they were given and clashing hand-in dates. Most of the teenagers said they managed to cope with school-related stress by listening to music, watching television, doing sport and exercise and even walking the dog. However, 30 per cent revealed that they drank alcohol to alleviate the pressure, while 16 per cent said they smoked cigarettes and six per cent used drugs.
This is a wake up call to schools who probably assume that alcohol, tobacco and even drugs are part of a youth culture of experimentation and friendship patterns rather than an aspect of stress relief. We’d assume their use is recreational or to do with image and peer expectations rather than coping with pressure.
I’d be interested in carrying out the survey with Year 11 at South Dartmoor to see if we have similar issues and acting on them where we can. We already publish coursework and exam deadlines and we try to space them.
But there is no doubt in my mind that we have the hardest working generation of young people and teachers in our schools at present, and that the pressure on a school’s Year 11 to perform has never been higher. As a Sports College, we make mental and physical health a priority- even offering Friday evening sport for the staff in case they face similar temptations at the end of a stressful week! Now… where did I put that corkscrew….
Monday, 5 January 2009
The Answer Told by Teachers
As the new American President takes office, I’ve been watching him to learn about leadership from the greatest exponent of modern times. During the campaign he sent out lots of emails, so I’ve replied asking for tips. Oddly there’s been no response so far.
Oratorical brilliance is much admired, so I’ve started there. I’m keen to improve my assembly delivery and I’m even thinking of getting his Doric Pillars painted on the Sports Hall walls.
His most famous device is the old Ciceronian technique, the ‘tricolon’ which is using a series of three for emphasis. Why not copy the master? Should I begin my next assembly with an adaptation of: ‘I came; I saw; I conquered’ as a way of silencing the masses? Much clearing of throat and Obama-style cool delivery for: ‘I’m waiting; I’m still waiting; right… I’m going off on one!’ Would it sound more dignified in Latin, I wonder?
Then there’s ‘periphrasis’, the use of a roundabout phrase, ‘a young preacher from Georgia’, rather than the name itself - Martin Luther King. But I use this all the time: ‘I want to know the name of the student who vandalised bus 17 last night,’ I declaim, hoping that someone will heed my message and dob the culprit in. ‘Yes, I’m talking to you,’ is also powerfully rhetorical, if half the school think you are looking at them. But Obama never has trouble keeping the attention of his audience.
I’ve also tried his use of ‘praeteritio’, where you draw attention to a subject by saying you’re not going to talk about it. But the groans, glazed eyes and knowing looks (did you spot the tricolon?) are a giveaway to an adolescent audience: ‘I’m not going to mention litter, sloppy uniform or poor attendance.’ The looks on their faces send the echoing response, ‘Oh yes you are!’
I’m still trying to match the lyrical, soaring flow of rhetoric that is Obama’s trademark: ‘I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas,’ but, ‘I am the son of an unemployed Irish wool sorter and a Bradford dinner lady,’ doesn’t have the same mystique.
Perhaps a bit of ‘anaphora’ is the answer, an Obama stock in trade, where a phrase is repeated at the start of successive sentences. There’s some inspiration - admit it - in this Obamaesque flight of fancy, as I muse on ways to improve examination performance, in preparation for the next staff meeting:
‘It’s the answer told by teachers in classrooms from school to shining school; it’s the answer spoken in staff rooms across the land from coast to gleaming coast; it’s the answer to the GCSE Maths problem that will get all students, from the backyards of Buckfastleigh to the front porches of Plymouth five high grade GCSEs.’ Lovely rhetoric! We may not have the solution, but it sounds as if we do. Even my Governors might fall for this one.
Or what about this, modelled on his 2004 Convention speech: ‘We’re entering a new post- SATs age in which there will be no Key Stage Three students or Key Stage Four students- only South Dartmoor students.’ That should wow them.
The new president has shown he can transform the attitudes of young people. My hope is that he will influence the young in this country and help us to encourage and lead in a new age of optimism. I’ll keep learning from the rhetoric, even though I know it can’t be matched. The best I can hope for is a well painted Doric column and an encouraging email from the United States.
Oratorical brilliance is much admired, so I’ve started there. I’m keen to improve my assembly delivery and I’m even thinking of getting his Doric Pillars painted on the Sports Hall walls.
His most famous device is the old Ciceronian technique, the ‘tricolon’ which is using a series of three for emphasis. Why not copy the master? Should I begin my next assembly with an adaptation of: ‘I came; I saw; I conquered’ as a way of silencing the masses? Much clearing of throat and Obama-style cool delivery for: ‘I’m waiting; I’m still waiting; right… I’m going off on one!’ Would it sound more dignified in Latin, I wonder?
Then there’s ‘periphrasis’, the use of a roundabout phrase, ‘a young preacher from Georgia’, rather than the name itself - Martin Luther King. But I use this all the time: ‘I want to know the name of the student who vandalised bus 17 last night,’ I declaim, hoping that someone will heed my message and dob the culprit in. ‘Yes, I’m talking to you,’ is also powerfully rhetorical, if half the school think you are looking at them. But Obama never has trouble keeping the attention of his audience.
I’ve also tried his use of ‘praeteritio’, where you draw attention to a subject by saying you’re not going to talk about it. But the groans, glazed eyes and knowing looks (did you spot the tricolon?) are a giveaway to an adolescent audience: ‘I’m not going to mention litter, sloppy uniform or poor attendance.’ The looks on their faces send the echoing response, ‘Oh yes you are!’
I’m still trying to match the lyrical, soaring flow of rhetoric that is Obama’s trademark: ‘I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas,’ but, ‘I am the son of an unemployed Irish wool sorter and a Bradford dinner lady,’ doesn’t have the same mystique.
Perhaps a bit of ‘anaphora’ is the answer, an Obama stock in trade, where a phrase is repeated at the start of successive sentences. There’s some inspiration - admit it - in this Obamaesque flight of fancy, as I muse on ways to improve examination performance, in preparation for the next staff meeting:
‘It’s the answer told by teachers in classrooms from school to shining school; it’s the answer spoken in staff rooms across the land from coast to gleaming coast; it’s the answer to the GCSE Maths problem that will get all students, from the backyards of Buckfastleigh to the front porches of Plymouth five high grade GCSEs.’ Lovely rhetoric! We may not have the solution, but it sounds as if we do. Even my Governors might fall for this one.
Or what about this, modelled on his 2004 Convention speech: ‘We’re entering a new post- SATs age in which there will be no Key Stage Three students or Key Stage Four students- only South Dartmoor students.’ That should wow them.
The new president has shown he can transform the attitudes of young people. My hope is that he will influence the young in this country and help us to encourage and lead in a new age of optimism. I’ll keep learning from the rhetoric, even though I know it can’t be matched. The best I can hope for is a well painted Doric column and an encouraging email from the United States.
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