QUESTION: I loved your ideas for getting school teams to follow simple systems and principles to keeps professionalism at the heart of the school. How can we set the bar for all our teaching staff in a user-friendly way, but which still ensures that all the team know what our expectations are?
ANSWER: Try rounding up an INSET day each year by drawing together the key concerns/new innovations/expectations into a loose acrostic. Ask if they wish to add anything as class practitioners or co-ordinators. This helps to focus the mind and you can bring them back to it if they “forget” something that is critical. I ask them to keep this at the front of their portfolios each year and I change it each year to keep it fresh and relevant. Here are my ideas for the acrostic: “Effective Schooling for the 21st Century”
- Every teacher an actor and every child the audience. Your “performance” in the class will excite learning and keep your pupils motivated.
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Forward thinking and forward planning is essential
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Formative and ongoing assessment allows you to personalise the curriculum for every child.
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Every child has a voice and every child should be involved in creating their learning.
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Care must be taken to ensure that parents are genuinely “partners” and involved in learning with their children. Real-time reporting through the virtual learning environment must be maintained efficiently.
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Take the time to be certain you are meeting the learning objectives set for each lesson.
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ICT should be embedded within the learning environment, but if you can deliver it quicker/better without it then don’t use it!
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Very often you will find online materials which are freely available to use. Beware! When downloading resources from a website, adapt and improve them.
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Environment is a critical stimulant for all. Displays help to create your culture and ethos and say a lot about how you relate to pupils (celebrating the work done) and how you stimulate and motivate them.
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Spend time with individual or small groups of children to promote their learning outside normal class times.
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Confidentiality is crucial. We all need to let off steam sometimes but please remember that every family you deal with is entitled to the same respect that you would demand.
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Homework needs to be well-thought-out, well-planned and well-marked.
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Our vision needs to be to continue to maintain an environment where no one is prepared to give or to accept second-best. What are you doing to ensure this?
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On a personal level we should at all times attempt to role-model all that we demand from children in our care. This could be dress, behaviour, attitude, punctuality…
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Learn with and from each other. No teacher can afford to be an island. The learning must go on and on!
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If you need more support, acknowledge this. No-one can be an expert in every field.
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Never rely on ICT. Remember it does not drive you, you are the teacher, and you must be in the driving seat, ensuring it is “fit-for-purpose”.
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Give time to ensure that teaching assistants are totally prepared and can be professional partners working with the children.
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Formative and summative assessment allows us to plan appropriately to meet the needs of the individual child. Please follow the assessment/recording/reporting schedules for the year so that you know what the child’s achievement and attainment is in every subject area.
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Our goal needs to be to offer breadth and balance and a variety of approaches to learning in order to “reach” every child, remembering the child needs to work with us to drive their own learning.
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Recording of pupils’ progress is essential to help to inform and formulate future planning.
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The safety, personal, social, health and emotional wellbeing of all within the community must be a primary concern.
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Have you ensured that you are up-to-date with statutory changes for your subject and for your year band? Where does this fit in the bigger picture?
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Emails are a major form of communication. Please check these daily.
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Communication is essential at all times to keep each other informed but please never send messages to colleagues in classrooms during their working day.
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Education needs to be nurtured and developed so that it is sustainable for the individual allowing it to be a lifelong experience
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Never forget to update your section of the website and the resources on the virtual learning environment.
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Take some time to overview your subject as a co-ordinator ensuring that staff know that they can come to you to gain support, resources etc. If you need more time for specific follow-ups please make sure that you communicate this.
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Unless there is a very sound reason for absence, all staff should be in school in plenty of time to be “well-prepared” for their working day.
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Remember there is a wider world than the small world we work within and the need to recognise and work within the global perspective is critical.
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You should always try to look on the bright side of life. If you enjoy the job you will be an inspirational teacher. A joy of learning which you role-model is critical to pupil achievement.
- Brenda Bigland CBE is an education consultant, trainer and coach and a former primary school headteacher. For more information, visit www.askbrenda.co.uk
DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION FOR BRENDA?
Brenda will be offering her advice and answering your questions in this regular column. If you have a query that you’d like Brenda to investigate, email the editor of Headteacher Update, Pete Henshaw, at pete.henshaw@markallengroup.com