I’ve spent the morning travelling back in time to my childhood in 1986 via the BBC Domesday Project!

This picture has me intrigued as it’s taken near my school and must be children within about a year of me at school – how quickly the memories fade, I can’t recognise any of them!

The Story of the Domesday Project

In 1986, 900 years after William the Conqueror’s original Domesday Book, the BBC published the Domesday Project. The project was probably the most ambitious attempt ever to capture the essence of life in the United Kingdom. Over a million people contributed to this digital snapshot of the country.

People were asked to record what they thought would be of interest in another 1000 years.

The whole of the UK – including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man – was divided into 23,000 4x3km areas called Domesday Squares or “D-Blocks”.

Schools and community groups surveyed over 108,000 square km of the UK and submitted more than 147,819 pages of text articles and 23,225 amateur photos, cataloguing what it was like to live, work and play in their community.

This was about documenting everyday life – the ordinary rather than the extraordinary.

The project used the cutting edge technology of the day, and the data was eventually presented on a special type of Laser-Disc, read by a BBC master computer and navigated using an innovative tracker-ball pointing system.

But the technology didn’t catch on and the computers became very expensive for schools and libraries to buy. Very few people ever got to see the fruits of all of their hard work.

As time went on there were fears that the discs would become unreadable, as computers capable of reading the format had become rare and drives capable of accessing the discs even rarer.

Now 25 years later in our age of the world wide web, digital photography, email and social networking, its time to have a look at those entries again, to bring the project up to date, and perhaps to lay down another layer of local history.

Here you can rediscover and explore images and articles from the original project to find out how life in Britain has changed… and how some things have stayed the same. In addition, you will be able to update the project by re-photographing the images today and updating text entries.

With the help of The National Archives this unique record will be preserved for future generations.

This is obviously a rich teaching resource for delving back 25 years into life near your school, and also a great chance to record for posterity life in 2011 in your little corner of the UK.

On a geeky level how interesting it is to see how this information had to be pretty much rescued from the laser discs it was stored on as the technology quickly became obsolete. In this age where everything is stored digitally it’ll be interesting to see if we hit similar problems in the future.

No related posts.

The silence that has descended on this blog has partly been down to another little change in direction for me as I have taken over leadership of our ICT & Business Studies department.  As a Mathematician by nature this has been an interesting few weeks!

Out top priority is to try and deliver an ICT curriculum that is fit for the year 2011.  Something that enthuses our pupils with the subject of ICT and offers them valuable qualifications that will stand them in good stead for their futures.

This seemed a simple task – how wrong I was!

Current ICT Curriculum:

We have traditionally put all our students through the OCR Nationals in Year 9, picking up the equivalent of 1 GCSE for each of them (well most of them).  I’m no great fan of this qualification, in particular Unit 1′s trudge through Office products and folder structures.  ICT is an optional subject at our school, those pupils who choose to continue it at KS4 complete the full OCR Nationals Level 2 course picking up the ‘equivalent’ of 4 GCSEs.  I know there are some good units in there, but we’re increasingly finding that students are then having issues with our local colleges who do not value the OCR Nationals.

Essential Reading:

I must have read every specification out there for ICT based qualifications at Level 2 – not the most exciting of tasks I can assure you!

Other key reading this week has included two new reports:

The Next Gen report from Nesta “sets out how the UK can be transformed into the world’s leading talent hub for video games and visual effects”.  Written by key players from both industries it’s a wide ranging review of the educations system from Secondary School through to University.  It’s quite critical that our education system is not providing these industries with people with the required skill sets, and that this runs all the way back down to the skills we are providing pupils with at school.

Some key excerpts in relation to school based ICT:

“Primary and secondary schools should provide young people with the knowledge that can be developed into industry-relevant skills later in life.14 We must ensure that young people are taught the essential Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) knowledge, including computer science, that they need to work in the high-tech industries of the 21st century including video games and visual effects. We need to set in motion a virtuous circle where video games and visual effects help draw young people into maths, physics and computer science, and improve their learning outcomes, in turn enlarging the talent pool for these industries in the future. Schools should do more to encourage cross-curricular learning. Careers guidance needs to reflect the growing employment opportunities in high-tech creative industries like video games and visual effects.”

“Although in theory one might expect ‘Information and Communication Technology’ (ICT) instruction to provide young people with the essential knowledge required for high-tech industries like video games and visual effects, in practice, as currently taught this subject is not teaching the knowledge and skills these industries need.”

“Recommendation 1: Bring computer science into the National Curriculum as an essential discipline:

A growing number of voices including the British Computer Society, Computing at School, Institute of Physics and the Royal Academy of Engineering argue that ICT, as it is currently taught, fails to prepare young people for those demanding programming-intensive courses from which high-tech industries like video games and visual effects recruit.

ICT literacy is of course an important skill, but there is an excessive focus in ICT lessons on the use of everyday office applications with which most young people are already familiar. This wastes valuable time that would be more fruitfully applied to the teaching of rigorous computer science knowledge.”

An interesting and timely read, I think this reinforces some key facts that many staff in Secondary Schools have been well aware of but avoiding:

• GCSE ICT, OCR Nationals, DiDa et al are not fit for purpose, not fit for the students wanting to move into the ICT industry.
• These qualifications have too much focus on soft skills such as Office, where our more able pupils already have sufficient skills.  These are ‘Basic Skills’ not real ICT skills.
• There has been too much chasing league tables points, and not enough thinking about the future of our students.

Next on the reading list was the Wolf Review of Vocational Education:

This was nowhere near as damning as I thought  it may be on Vocational Education in general, which is promising in the days of Mr Gove’s push towards Latin for all.

But again there were some snippets to form my thinking on our ICT provision:

“First, our system has no business tracking and steering 14 year olds, or 16 year olds, into programmes which are effectively dead-end. Any young person’s programme of study, whether ‘academic’ or ‘vocational’, should provide for labour market and educational progress on a wide front, whether immediately or later in life.”

“Second, we should tell citizens the truth. That means providing people with accurate and useful information, so that they can make decisions accordingly. Good information becomes more critical the more important the decisions. For young people, which vocational course, qualification or institution they choose really can be life- determining. 14-19 education is funded and provided for their sakes, not for the sake of the institutions who provide it. This may be a truism; but it is one which policy too often seems to ignore.”

“young people change jobs very frequently, within a labour market which is also in constant flux. So students need general skills; and the educational system needs to respond quickly and flexibly to change.”

“Only those qualifications – both vocational and academic – that meet stringent quality criteria should form part of the performance management regime for schools.”

“However, schools should also be free to offer whatever other qualifications they wish from regulated awarding bodies. Performance measures should also reinforce the commitment to a common core of study at Key Stage 4″

“The DfE should distinguish clearly between those qualifications, both vocational and academic, which can contribute to performance indicators at Key Stage 4, and those which cannot.”

I think there are some key messages here for the other end of our provision, not those pupils who will be aspiring to lead the UK in the special effects industry, but those who will need core ICT skills throughout their working lives.

• All pupils need basic ICT literacy skills, to be able to use any Office type product, use the Internet safely and effectively, have transferable skills for the many careers they may have and for the technologies that don’t exist today but may be key to their job 10 years down the line.
• They need qualifications that hold weight not just at College, but with employers too.
• They don’t need to be driven away from the subject by ‘evidencing’ their skills.
• OCR Nationals, BTECs etc will have their ‘worth’ reviewed, I suspect this will remove much of the league table value that has made them so tempting to Head teachers.  This will also lower their value yet further to our pupils in the future.

ICT Curriculum 2011:

So where does this leave us?  I’ve identified three qualifications that I would like some of our students to leave with over the next two years.

The Microsoft Office Specialist certification is an industry recognised qualification at around Level 2.  Students would complete an online assessment to show their proficiency in Word, Excel & Powerpoint.  Now I’m all for Open Source, but lets get real, these are key skills for working in any business and I believe our lower end pupils will find these genuinely useful on their CVs when they leave our school.

These are not accredited on the national qualifications framework as they stand, but can be converted to the equivalent of 1 GCSE Grade C by way of the OCR ITQ qualification with the aid of an additional piece of work.  I think we will probably end up doing this for some of the students – the league tables will bite me one way or another!

I’m envisaging working through this over the course of Year 8 / 9, interspersed with the more interesting bits out our subject.

The OCR Creative iMedia course stands out in the middle of the field of available qualifications as one that looks genuinely interesting.  100% coursework/evidence based like the OCR National, but this has some much more enjoyable looking units, and none of the Office work that we can cover above with MOS.  This has been reviewed this year and I’m particularly looking forward to teaching a unit on Game Design Concepts.

We also have  a strong Media department within our school and it will be good to develop some stronger links across the school with this qualification.  We are also fortunate to have Media City being built 1/2 a mile down the road, there should be great possibilities for collaborating with industry.

This will be offered as a Key Stage 4 option and we will aim to get pupils through to Level 2 Diploma level.

GCSE Computing, again by OCR, has been in pilot nationally this year.  I’ve been talking to a number of leaders of ICT who have been teaching it this year and they have all been unanimous in their praise:

@mrstucke I can honestly say that Computing is like a breath of fresh air, and the Creative iMedia specs look great

March 5, 2011 1:23 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@mwclarkson

Mark Clarkson

We’ll be offering this as another KS4 option to any pupils who have an interest in moving into the industry in the future.  The programming aspects look challenging, but great.  We have plenty of time available as things stand on the timetable, so we’ll be able to ease in with something like Scratch, before moving onto a traditional language.

What do you think?

I’m keen for feedback.  I realise I’m a Mathematician moonlighting as the leader of a new subject here, even if it’s one I’m fairly knowledgeable about.  I’d be really interested to hear about people working in FE & HE, we often work in isolation from colleagues at other levels.

What are you planning to offer your students next year? Have you experience of the qualifications I’ve mentioned?

No related posts.

Government view: avoiding double dip recession and encouraging growth.

Education view, needs to be a commercial relationship.  Infrastructure needs to be in place.  Content is key.  How do we use these things and how do we blend them into the learning environment that we know.  Not changing pedagogy, enhance with rich digital content.  Overlay a web-based area on top of a VLE. Free content, sponsored content, museum content.  PURCHASED content, allowing revenue such as textbooks now.

A can of worms.  Who is responsible?  Who are the stakeholders – all of us!  Funding?

We need value for money, there is a STEM agenda (not well understood), deflated after cuts, relevant content to engage.

How can Sony help?

Private & Public partnership.  Integrate games & interactive media into curriculum.  Promote digital content creation as a career choice.  Bring textbooks to life.

National Digital Curriculum needed.  Broadcast great practice.  Create practice based

Sony will:

Develop Second Sight PSP – great but there are cheaper free version of VR Codes out there now?  Teacher packs for LBP.  Eyepet PS3 AR. LBP best game creation tool?  Sony will collect evidence? Vital for getting government engagement. www.interactivelx.com (iLX) – sponsored by Sony to collate evidence. Also running courses and supporting teaching ideas.

Summary: Time is right now. Can’t wait. Collaboration required. Needs high level endorsement. Needs budget.

Not sure how engaging and interesting this talk was on reflection.  Was a considerable plug for Sony.  But at least a call for more collaboration between the industry and the education sector and an acknowledgement that the government needs to help.

No related posts.

The SSAT National Conference took place last week at the ICC in Birmingham (a venue rightly compared to Escher’s Relativity!).  I was fortunate to be able to attend as a punter on the Wednesday and as a presenter on the Thursday as we launched the SSAT National Digital Leaders programme!

The theme of the conference was ‘Excellence for All’, and I have to say that the SSAT delivered , each aspect of the conference itself was excellent.

Wednesday started for me with Dylan Wiliam extolling the importance of assessment being the key to good teaching.  He was as inspiring a speaker as ever, as those of you who watched his recent TV program would know.  In particular I was impressed with Dylan’s ability to demonstrate his techniques within a ‘classroom’ of 400 educators, and also his incredible use of research evidence to support his teachings.

Wednesday Keynotes came from David Hemery, former 400m Hurdles Gold medal winning Olympian, he was telling his story and promoting www.21stcenturylegacy.com , part of London 2012′s legacy programme for schools.  He was followed by Sugata Mitra, telling his engaging tale of children teaching themselves using the Internet, from his hole-in-the-wall Mumbai slums experiment to his recent work in Gateshead.  This was an engaging tale that at first seemed to question the need for teachers at all!  As with all the speakers, more to follow in a future blog-post.  I would add that I was fortunate enough to chat to Sugata over coffee following his talk, a charming man.

Wednesday at the conference ended for me with Mark Dawes and Paul Hynes discussing how to use existing buildings to support 21st century learning.

Wednesday evening was spent at Shimla Pinks for a curry with friends and colleagues that have been involved with the Digital Leaders programme, including Kristian Still, Bob Harrison, Len Daniels. Great stuff!

The Conservatives released their White Paper “The Importance of Teaching” on the Wednesday, Thursday began with the Minister for Schools Nick Gibb (Michael Gove was somewhat busy and did not attend as planned).  Interesting to hear first hand some of the rationale from Mr Gibb, but I have to say he was somewhat clinical about it all, and was given a specific grilling on the plans to scrap funding for Sports Partnerships in school.

The drab Mr Gibb was followed by the sparkling Tanya Byron, who had many a delegate slightly smitten by the end of her passionate talk about bringing schools up-to-date in this digital era.  She set things up perfectly for our Digital Leaders launch later that day, telling us all to “Embrace the technologies that pupils use e.g. Phones, or shut up shop and go home.”

Final morning keynote came from the excellent Dan Pink, former speech writer to Al Gore.  Dan gave an insightful talk about giving staff and students time for autonomy so as to foster engagement.  Dan offered the presentation advice of brevity, levity and repetition, so I’ll stop talking there!

At lunch I got a great demonstration of RealSmartCloud, the Google Apps / WordPress / Realsmart based VLE.  Thanks to Si Brown for the demo, it was great to see learning at the heart of a VLE, definitely something I’ll be investigating further.

After lunch I saw a presentation about raising achievement at KS4, it was good to see that we have been doing many of the tips for years!  This was followed by Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham.  Andy gave a fairly passionate speech about his education beliefs and his thoughts on the White Paper.  But he was noticeably lacking in policy, whilst this is understandable at such an early stage in this parliament, it is still important that Labour get into the habit of being in opposition, before the Conservatives pass through many wide-ranging reforms with little or no resistance.  Spontaneous applause rang round the hall as he questioned the sports funding decision.

Final task of the conference was the nerve wracking job of helping to launch the Digital Leaders programme nationally.  My eternal thanks to Kristian Still, Bob Harrison, Len Daniels & Paul Hynes for pushing this project to the point where we can invite schools from across the country to take part.  I look forward excitedly to seeing it flourish.

The aim of the conference was to look towards providing ‘excellence for all’ by investigating what & how students should learn and how to push down the barriers to learning.  From David Hemery’s question of “what it would take to take the first step” to the work of Dylan Wiliam & Sugata Mitra & Tany Byron pushing my thoughts about the role of a teacher in the 21st century it was a great few days.

I will delve into my thoughts in greater detail in a series of posts this week relating to each speaker / session that I attended.  If you’re interested in any of the above now then many of the keynote sessions are available to watch online.

EDIT:

Post 2: Dylan Wiliam

Post 3: David Hemery

Post 4: Sugata Mitra

No related posts.

The latest software update for the iPad is almost upon us, bringing multi-tasking, folders, air printing, game centre, unified inbox and more to the iPad.  It is currently in ‘Gold Master’ stage which is basically the final version that is released to developers a few weeks before the public.

You can download it from the links on this website – you will also need to download iTunes 10.1 Beta, again from the links on that site.

I’ve been running 4.2GM for most of the last week and it’s great – the iPad is finally more like the machine we knew it could be.

Most of the apps need to be updated by their developers to multi-task properly, but many already do and it makes content creation and manipulation much easier being able to flick from the Mail app to Safari to Twitter and on to Air Sketch for example.

Multi Task App Switching

Just like the iPhone you can now access music controls and the screen lock from the app-switching menu, just slide over to the right.  You can also change the volume and handily the screen brightness from this menu.

App Switching Options Menu

Folders are now available and can contain up to 20 Applications, this is a godsend, all my apps are now neatly organised on one page, rather than spread across 6 as they were before.

iPad Application Folders

The unified inbox is here which makes reading and organising emails far easier.  And as part of this you can have as many Exchange accounts synced to your iPad as you like.  I find this most useful for my calendars.  I can now setup my personal Google account and my school Google Apps accounts as Exchange connections and hence import all of their calendars.  Previously I could only sync one calendar from each account.  I now have calendars galore:

Calendars Galore

This is a great update, hopefully the official version will be out soon and developers will update their apps promptly.

No related posts.

Facebook recently updated their Groups feature.  Allowing finer control over groups which you set up, who can join, who can post, who can share etc..   Their are also improvements to how you are notified about group updates and a new feature called ‘docs’ that provides a Google Docs-esque shared notepad / document. Group chat is also built in allowing you to talk to everyone in that group at once. For a demonstration head over to Mashable or watch this video:

Our school has had some success in this area, the PE Department have a group for discussing after school teams and clubs and it is slowly growing, with news and sensible moderated discussion. I can see a Year 7 experiment here…..  Big VLE decisions are on the horizon at our school and part of me thinks a mix of free services like this and Google Docs and self hosted blogs may be the way forward.  Whatever decision is made, ease of use and extremely low barriers to entry are vital and Facebook ticks these boxes strongly. Opinions?

No related posts.

Parliament Sunset by G4EGK on Flickr

First of a two part reflection on my Easter events.  I recently blogged about the Progressive Education Network after they invited me to an event at the House of Commons.  They subsequently invited me to a seminar led by Dylan Wiliam at the Institute of Education in London, conveniently the evening before Becta-X (see part 2 of these posts) I was pleased to be able to attend.

Dylan Wiliam is Deputy Director and Professor of Educational Assessment at the Institute of Education, University of London.  Formerly of King’s College London, Dylan was a co-author of Inside the Black Box - a seminal publication on the role of assessment as a formative element in learning.

Dylan Wiliam: Improving Education, why it is a national economic priority:

Dylan spoke passionately about improving education, why it is a national economic priority.  He argued that in the current economic climate the only effective way for us to continue improving the standard of education is to improve the quality of the teaching.

His seminar was backed up with high quality data, data that is available to all of our politicians.  He showed that low skilled jobs continue to vanish at an increasing pace (especially in times of recession).  He showed that investment in education was money well spent, public money spent on education is efficiently translated into improved economic output.

Looking at three generations of school effectiveness research he said:

• Raw results approaches
  • Different schools get different results
  • Conclusion: Schools make a difference
• Demographic-based approaches
  • Demographic factors account for most of the variation
  • Conclusion: Schools don’t make a difference
• Value-added approaches
  • School-level differences in value-added are relatively small
  • Classroom-level differences in value-added are large
  • Conclusion: An effective school is a school full of effective classrooms

Delving more deeply into the variance of the data he showed that it doesn’t matter very much which school you go to, but it matters very much which classroom you are in.  More specifically it matters which teacher you have.

One particular area of interest for me was when comparing private and state schools around the World.  I had often heard that when you factor out the socio-economic differences between these schools that state schools are more often than not shown to have better teaching and better results.  This often show up in Contextually Value Added scores in the UK and interests me as I work in Trafford, one of the last remaining LAs that has a Grammar School system.

Comparing State & Private Education

This slide from Dylan’s presentation compares the two after socio-economic factors have been factored in (like using CVA in the UK).  I forget the exact x-axis units, forgive me.  A pink bar stretching farther to the right than a purple bar shows state education out-performing private schools.  Notice that the Conservative’s favourite school system in Sweden doesn’t come out too favourably here.

After concluding that the most cost-effective and time-effective way to improve our education was to improve our teaching staff we discussed CPD.  CPD of the current workforce (changing entry requirements etc to the profession take a generation to filter through and have little proven effect).  I asked if Dylan thought that there was time in a teacher’s year to improve their CPD.  We know what a busy life filled with paperwork the average teacher has already.  Dylan replied that there was time, but it is the responsibility of school leaders to make that time available.  This may mean asking staff to stop doing good and effective work in order to make time for training in turn making their work even better.  Something that is difficult and courageous for leadership to do.  It was also argued that CPD should be directed to some degree by research findings.

Discussing CPD, Dylan stated that improving practice involves changing habits, not adding knowledge.  That’s why it’s hard and takes time!  We also discussed Performance Management and how we could start to divorce some of the CPD from this.  Effective CPD needs to be something tailored to an individual that they have chosen to work on, not something inflicted upon them to tick a box.  Dylan suggested asking every member of staff “Do you want to improve as a practitioner?” and suggested 95% would honestly answer yes, and that the rest probably need removing from post asap!

To quote his final slide:

• What is needed from teachers:
  • A commitment to the continuous improvement of practice; and
  • A focus on those things that make a difference to students

• What is needed from leaders:
  • A commitment to engineer effective learning environments for teachers :
    • creating expectations for the continuous improvement of practice
    • keeping the focus on the things that make a difference to students
    • providing the time, space, dispensation and support for innovation
    • supporting risk-taking

I think these are salient points for all teachers and leaders.  Also for those of us who have a habit of using technology for technology’s sake – the learning has to come first.

Progressive Education Network – Influencing Policy:

I was interested to meet some of the PEN and to get a better feel for their objectives.  To quote them again:

Generating clear messages that build, nurture and give a real voice to a coalition of school leaders, teachers and governors is core to how Progressive Education Network will be different and distinct in its approach and work.

We believe that education and our childrens’ futures demand that we place the partnership of our frontline school leaders with government at the heart of policy making. We cannot afford a retreat to the old style politics of division and the domination of the ‘expert’ and the powerful.

There are influential figures involved with PEN who do have the ears of policy makers at Whitehall.  This then had me wondering about my involvement, the words politics and policy are a little alien to me.  I was not sure if it’s my place to influence these things.  Well, why not?  I’m not going to be out campaigning for this and that, but I do feel that future education policy needs to be considered and based on solid research and data.

PEN – Engaging online:

I was asked towards the end how I thought PEN could engage more effectively on-line with the various communities.  They are keen to have more involvement from staff on the front line and I guess a blog and Twitter network of 600+ makes me something of an ‘expert’?!

Thinking about this I’d say it’s relatively simple:

Engage with educators on Twitter: There is a PEN Twitter account, either via this, or possibly with individual members accounts, get involved in conversation – @reply people.  Set up some Twitter searches on the key topics you want to discuss and get involved in those conversations.  Twitter networks build quickly when you give valuable opinions back.

Encourage discussion on the PEN website.  Get those survey results out and enable comments somewhere no the website.  Again, encourage the conversation.

I don’t think there is any easy way for a group or company to ‘buy/promote’ there way into social media, you need to add value to people’s networks.

No related posts.

Scrolling through things I had starred for holiday reading, I noticed that Gapminder.org has been updated.  I have blogged previously about Gapminder and the fantastic Hans Rosling, it is a fantastic tool for visualising a wealth of World data on lovely scatter graphs that animate changes through the years.

Watch one of Hans Rosling’s classic TED talks to see what it’s capable of:

There have been a number of great updates which can be seen in this diagram I’ve borrowed from Gapminder.org:

You can see the blog post detailing these on Gapminder, but to summarise:

• More data;
• Downloadable data – each set is available as a Google Spreadsheet ;
• Data displayed as scatter graph or plotted on a map;
• News & videos. (Bookmark their RSS feed in your Google Reader!)
• For Teachers section that is soon to be updated with teaching ideas & resources.

How have you used Gapminder in your classroom? I’d be fascinated to hear.

PS: I also note that Google (who bought our Gapminder a few years ago) have a little strangely brought out a very similar tool: Google Public Data Explorer.  This has some nice alternative data sets to investigate.

PPS: Another short Hans Rosling video – just because he’s great

No related posts.

I was surprised and honoured to receive an email on Friday inviting me to the House of Commons for the Progressive Education Network Spring Reception this Monday afternoon.

I’m bitterly disappointed that the short notice means I will not be able to attend.

I came across the PEN via a tweet last month.  Chaired by Mike Gibbons and supported by The Co-operative Group the PEN’s aims are:

Progressive Education Network aims to engage with and challenge policy makers of every political hue by bringing the voice of experience and the wisdom of leading education professionals and school leaders to the debate. How do we best build on what’s working now to develop the education system that maximises the opportunities for the success of every child?

The PEN launched last month with the release of Please no year zero, a ‘report card’ on recent reform commissioned for the launch event that argues that there is much to celebrate in the reforms and their intent since 1997 but that the next phase of continuing change needs to be driven by practitioners, government and local communities in partnership.

I agree with the vast majority of that document, it is time that education is divorced at least some way from politics.  Michael Gove‘s recent policy statements worry me greatly about the future of education should the Government change this Spring.  The 6 years so far of my teaching career have seen an incredible number of Government initiatives (too many for sure), some successful, some not, but it is time to evaluate these properly using the skills and knowledge of the practitioners and the pupils themselves.  All of the major parties are happy to play for votes with populist sounding promises in education, few of which seem to be rooted in experience or evidence.

So as I cannot attend in person I will at least add my voice, yours is wanted to, PEN have a questionnaire for anyone involved in education to have their say.  Here are my responses:

What do you think has made the greatest contribution to improving standards in SCHOOLS GENERALLY in the last 10 years?

Investment pure and simple. In wages, buildings, ICT etc..

What has had the greatest impact on improving standards in YOUR OWN school or federation?

Only been there 6 months, but School Specialisms have been incredibly positive.  We are a Language College and a RAPP (Raising Attainment Partnership Programme) School.  The school has developed positively through both of these specialisms.  We have a thriving Languages Department and foster great links working on languages with our feeder primary schools.  The RAPP specialism has enabled us to share best practice with schools across the country, and farther afield, we had a visitor from New Zealand this week.

What has the investment in education in recent years enabled your school or federation to do which has contributed to raising standards?

Keep talented and ambitious outstanding teachers & support staff at the school.  Develop a site, most of which is over 80 years old, into a positive learning environment.

What strategies should be priorities for practitioners to promote to continue to improve schools and federations?

Collaboration and time to share.  Through official channels such as RAPP and the SSAT to unofficial channels such as this blog and Twitter.  But to do this on a large and positive scale teachers need time.  Imagine the possibilities if we could give all teaching staff 20% time like Google allows it’s developers!  We could see Teachmeet style teacher led CPD transform teaching & learning.  I realise that 20% is wishful thinking, but some reduction in new Government led initiatives would help free up teacher time.

What one piece of constructive advice would you like to give to the Government’s education team after the next election?

Reduce the influence of 5A*-C with English & Maths league tables.  They have been put on a pedestal by Government and by the Press and as such they are the single biggest driving force in schools and the single biggest hinderance to innovation and progress.

What is the greatest concern you have for the future development of your OWN school or federation?

It’s an exciting time for us as we look to the future with a potential merger and new Academy so I’m full of hope.  However as I’ve alluded to earlier: too much change, too much legislation, too much paperwork are my biggest concerns.

What are your thoughts on the best ways to give practitioners a real voice in education policy debates and to encourage mass participation? In your experience, what works well and what doesn’t work?

A tough one, as I don’t feel I have ever had a voice in policy debates, my invitation to this event and to BectaX next week are the first time I feel my voice could have a real say.  Both of these invites I think come down to this blog and to Twitter, not something the majority of educators have.  Perhaps we need a more considered approach to policy driven by research into teaching & learning.  Although notoriously difficult to arrange in education, evidenced based research could directly involve those on the front line.

What do you think Progressive Education Network should focus on and prioritise?

Research into what has improved teaching & learning over the last decade.  Representing the real classroom leaders on the ground, giving them a voice that is heard by Government.  Celebrating front line teaching & learning success stories.

No related posts.

I have just completed the second edition of the SHS E-Learning Newsletter.  This issue’s focus was:

1. Google Maps/Earth Special!
2. MFL – Street View
3. History – Historical Imagery
4. Science – Tours of the World
5. Maths – Collaborative Maps
6. Further Reading / Ideas

Check it out here, or sign up for the next edition over on the right in the sidebar

No related posts.