Newsletters

From the Head

This week we have been talking about the things we might do as part of the final push to get some students to achieve what they are capable of. There are lots of great things going on at whole school and department level. Thank you all for these initiatives; we are sure that they will have a significant impact. However, as we all know, the three most important things we can do between now and the exams, are to deliver outstanding teaching and learning, provide clear direction to students on how to self-study and to emanate our collective, strong ‘belief’ that students can and will do it.

In briefing last week, Kelly shared the importance of providing both revision materials and also supporting students in lessons with how to revise. There are some further tips on this below. Can I ask that when producing revision materials, we all think about how we might differentiate these as some of our students do struggle to self-start. Any revision pack that forces students to work through activities will be better for our weaker (or less motivated) students than a list of topics that students have to organise their own revision tasks around. We have a small pot of money to buy CGP or AQA /Edexcel workbooks or similar if these resources are not already in place. Please request these through Adam Bush.

In terms of emanating self belief, I have had the privilege of witnessing the effect that extreme positive psychology can have on some of our most hard to reach students over the last many years. Sometimes we have to convey positive messages about how well ‘we know students can do’ through gritted teeth; often we have to outright lie! Obviously, there is a lot more to getting great results than just making students believe they can do it but don’t underestimate the power of simply telling students over and over again that we believe in them. If they know that we are invested, it’s amazing how much more invested the students start to become themselves.

Thank you for such hard work and focus during this final push. I know that it doesn’t get any easier year after year and it really is truly appreciated.

Have a great week everybody!

Mia

Learning and Teaching

Spotted!

A round up of some of the great learning and teaching strategies we’ve noticed being used around school recently…

> David Clare using Ariana Grande to impress upon his Year 9 students the importance of using subordinate clauses in sentences in German and getting students to practise on MWBs (right). 

> Neha Palta giving lots of time for students to practise new and old skills. When students had “got it,” she moved them on to more challenging work: they didn’t have to plough through all of ‘section A’ to do ‘section B.’ 

> Clare Secombe using lots of behaviour strategies (suggested by Mark and Jo over the last few weeks) to avoid employing the Caution/Yellow Card system too soon with a challenging year 9 class!

Learning & Teaching: Revision Materials

Just a reminder this week that once you have produced and provided students with revision materials and tasks, many of them will still need the process of revising to be modelled for them.

Christine Gada has reported back that the students who used flashcards effectively to revise content taught last year did much better in their recent Geography PPE that students who did not make use of this strategy.  

If your students are making flashcards to revise, could you offer 5-10 minutes of your lesson for students to quiz themselves or others?

Don’t forget Post-16! Do they need to be reminded how to create concept maps or knowledge organisers of key information needed for their upcoming PPEs?

If you are interested in more reading around the effective use of flashcards as a revision method, Peter has found a good article from the Learning Scientists.

More great reads like this available on ‘Leadership Matters’ which we have a subscription too. See Peter Mather for more details. 

Kelly McCarthy

In focus: Life before 'yellow'

This week, we will continue to focus on the ‘life before yellow card’ strategies’ we discussed at the staff meeting. This week’s focus is on No Why Questions.

No Why Questions is probably the easiest strategy to apply - yet, the hardest to remember as we naturally ask “why” before we do anything else. In short - don’t ask why questions. Why would you do that? Why is your homework not here? Why did you throw that? This type of questioning opens up a conversation that is often long-winded and irrelevant. The aim is to have a quick comment to realign the student’s behaviour so that they remain on task and focussed. When you ask a question - try to use one that focuses directly upon the behaviour. For example - What are you doing? What should you be doing? Do that please? Or Instead of saying Why did you do that? Try: What were you thinking when you did that? 

The example from Bill Rogers is below:

Imagine a student doesn’t have his pen. It’s easier, quicker and less disruptive to ask him if he needs a pen than it is to delve into why he hasn’t got one. Remember, I’m only talking about on-the-spot reactions. For persistent offenders you may need to delve deeper at the end of the lesson. 

This is not an easy strategy to master and will take practice - but, please give it a go over the forthcoming week and let me know how you get on.

Mark Harvey

Coming up...

Tuesday 28 January: Tuesday meetings (one hour)

Department time: 3.15pm - 4.15pm

Thursday 30 January: Year 10 Parents' Evening 4.30pm - 7pm