The Institute for Public Policy Research suggests that we live in a multi-dimensional world whist having a one- dimensional education system.

It recognises that while there is huge uncertainty about the future, the sorts of skills and attributes that are going to be in ever-greater demand are becoming clearer. Such as:

• communication and interpersonal skills,
• problem-solving and idea generation,
• collaboration and networking,
• analysis and synthesis,
• creativity and agility

It argues that the foundation of these skills should be built on:

• a strong moral compass in situations of greater complexity and ambiguity
• high levels of literacy and numeracy
• expertise in science, maths, computing and design
• greater flexibility within the UK schools system
• a broader curriculum
• a new vision of a 21st century teacher whose focus is on the growth of the whole child through a much broader curriculum

There will be a lot of teachers who say this is nothing new. But it will be for some.

The report is here:

Success In The 21st Century: The Education Of Head, Heart And Hand

The cross-party Education Select Committee published this report at the end of April.

Here are some direct quotes from the report (my bold edit):

CHANGES TO ASSESSMENT (removing levels)

“The Government must introduce longer lead in times for future changes to assessment or standards to mitigate the negative impacts of constant change, and the process of communication must be improved. The time allocated for design and delivery should enable schools to be given thorough information about changes at least a year before they will be implemented, without incremental changes throughout the year.”

HIGH STAKE TESTING

“Many teachers reported ‘teaching to the test’, narrowing of the curriculum and increased pressure and workload as a result of statutory assessment and accountability. Although Ofsted is required to monitor whether schools are teaching a broad and balanced curriculum, reports suggest there is often too strong a focus on English and maths teaching.”

“Ofsted should ensure that it reports on a broad and balanced curriculum in every primary school report.”

The whole document is here

Whether schools are following the advice/ should follow it is for you to think about. What reasons do they have for not?

 

This DfE report points out ten key areas that are found in these schools. It is not a list of strategies, but more an identification of important approaches.

The case studies range across different types of schools.

The ten areas:

• Policies and Practice
• Structures
• General Behaviour Management
• Practices and Approaches
• Positive Praise and Rewards
• Managing Disruptive Behaviour and Sanctions
• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
• Data
• Parents and Other Agencies
• Culture and Ethos Consistency

The report is keen to point out that these are about the overall approach to behaviour management, not specific strategies. In fact not all schools were using the same strategies in the same way.

Senior leaders were clear that any strategies employed had to be adapted to fit the school, teachers and local population.

Strategies needed to be reviewed, refined and updated over time.

Common across schools was the overarching approach to behaviour management: balancing positive reinforcement and modelling of good behaviours for learning with clearly communicated approaches for dealing with poorer behaviour.

There was a supportive culture and ethos within the school, led by senior leaders and  underpinned by high quality class teaching.

They all had a curriculum tailored to the needs of the school context.

Look at the case studies in the full report here

There are some very useful examples. Well worth reading.

It is an inescapable fact that the well-being of the young people in our classes is at the front of our minds, so when we read that “almost two-thirds of children worry all the time”, it makes us stop and think.

According to a survey by mental-health charity Place2Be the main concerns children have are:

• Family well-being – 54%
• Well-being of friends – 48%
• School work – 41%
• Worries got in the way of school work-  40%
• Those saying that once they started worrying they could not stop –  nearly 30%
• Those saying they did not know what to do when worried – 21%

The complete fact sheet is here.  Whether you think this is the sort of thing we need to be considering or not is up to you to decide, but being informed about these issues will widen your professional understanding.

This is the Teach First charity’s analysis of Ofsted  data. They found that over 85% of the top 500 schools took a smaller proportion of disadvantaged pupils than lived in their immediate areas.

Other headline findings include:

• By age 11 only 35% of pupils from low-income backgrounds achieve the expected standards in reading, writing and maths, whereas 57% of their better-off peers hit the target
• The gap gets wider during secondary school, culminating with…
• Almost one in three 17-year-olds who are eligible for free school meals not getting to Year 13, so they’re no longer participating in education.

It is worth noting that half a million children are failing to be school-ready by age five, with a disproportionately high level coming from from low-income backgrounds.

And so it goes on:

• Those who’ve succeeded against the odds and made it to university find things don’t get a lot better. One in 12 freshers from a low income background drops out each year whereas it is nearer one in 20 from better off families
• When a student from a low-income background graduates, they tend to earn 10% less than their wealthier peers, even when accounting for subject area and institution
• Privately-educated graduates earn £4,500 more than their state school counterparts employed in top jobs three years after graduation.

The whole report is here for extra comments regarding barriers to social mobility.

 

Oxford University publish these findings about how effective this way of delivering Maths has been so far.

This is taken directly from the report:

The evaluation aimed to establish the effects of Inspire Maths using the ‘gold standard’ technique for demonstrating cause and effect: a (clustered) Randomised Controlled Trial. Twelve schools took part in the evaluation, comprising four single-form and eight two-form entry schools. This resulted in a sample of 20 Year 1 classrooms, consisting of 19 exclusively Year 1 classrooms and one classroom that mixed pupils in Years 1 and 2. These 20 classrooms included a total of 576 Year 1 pupils (aged 5-6 years).

You need to consider the rigour of the research for yourself.

Its headlines:

• A small but significant amount of extra progress;  twice the size of the gap found between boys and girls at the start of the year
• Pupils’ attitudes towards mathematics remained largely positive throughout Year 1
• After one term, the teachers who had been using Inspire Maths since September showed further improvements in the effectiveness of their classroom practice

Benefits to teachers include:  boosted enthusiasm and confidence

Benefits to pupils include: boosted engagement and confidence oalong with greater depth and security of understanding

Challenges for teachers include:  Coverage of learning objectives , management of resources, time, pupils and materials, difficulty demonstrating evidence of pupil progress 

Challenges for pupils include: sufficient reading skills to access content and frustration levels for “low ability” pupils

Some teachers found that pupils who struggled disengaged during lessons involving more complex topics

Difficulty working both independently and with partners 

The full report is here along with interesting background and additional comments

You will notice that Inspire Maths is published by Oxford University Press

The Learning Spy blog often comes up with some very interesting discussions. Showing up at the moment

• lesson observation
• feedback to students in your class
• learning transfer

As usual, the comments are worth looking at especially when several have responded putting a range of views.

Go to TE@CHERToolkit for a range of snappy lists and advice as well as well as resources. Make your own mind up about any of the content. We don’t endorse or otherwise.

The Learning Policy Institute’s research review paper:

Does Teaching Experience Improve Teacher Effectiveness? confirms and adds to commonly held assumptions about the impact that longer serving teachers can have.  The work is based on a review of 30 studies published within the last 15 years. Very substantial.

Here are some of the headline points:

• Teaching experience is positively associated with student achievement gains
• Gains in teacher effectiveness associated with experience are most steep in teachers’ initial years, but continue to be significant as teachers reach the second, and often third, decades of their careers.
• As teachers gain experience, their students not only learn more, as measured by standardised tests, they are also more likely to do better on other measures of success, such as school attendance.
• Teachers’ effectiveness increases at a greater rate when they teach in a supportive and collegial working environment, and when they accumulate experience in the same grade level, subject, or
  district.

Two of their recommendations:

• Increase stability in teacher job assignments [allocation].
  Teachers who have repeated experience teaching the same grade level or subject area  improve more rapidly than those who are often moved around year groups or subject areas.
• Create conditions for strong collegial relationships among school staff and a positive and professional working environment.

The Education Development Trust report considers the views of some identified as inspiring teachers on what it actually means.  What is an inspiring teacher?

Some examples of features of inspiring practice are provided. These come  from a series of qualitative observations conducted in classes taught by the teachers.
Pupils’ perspectives and views about their teachers were noted.

The results seem to confirm that the  teachers studied here show  the features of effective practice.

• Here are the main attributes:

-positive relationships
-good classroom/behaviour management
-positive and supportive climate
-formative feedback
-high quality learning experiences
-enjoyment

These teachers show:

• a high degree of engagement with their students;
• they are effective, organised and knowledgeable practitioners
• exhibit a continued passion for teaching  promoting the well-being of students
• They are highly professional, confident and reflective practitioners
• Despite external challenges, nearly all want to continue in their teaching careers,
• they genuinely like students and enjoy teaching,
•  show resilience in the stressful and fast-changing educational environment.

Some key words/ phrases: learning enjoyable, engaging,

typically varied,  imaginative and ‘fun’.

These inspiring teachers:

• value the support they receive from leaders and colleagues in their schools.
• They are keen to work with and support colleagues, often through their particular leadership roles in their schools.
• Overall, they are committed professionals who continue to learn and improve their own practice and seek out opportunities and networks for professional development aligned to their needs and interests.

The report is called:

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING: SKILLS
FOR LIFE AND WORK

As usual, I suggest you look at the whole publication if you have time.

I’ve picked out some key points:

•  Self-control and self-regulation matter most consistently for adult outcomes, e.g. better self-regulation is strongly
  associated with mental well-being; good physical health and health behaviours; and socio-economic and labour market outcomes.
• Self-perceptions and self-awareness, such as self-esteem and the belief that one’s own actions can make a difference are also found to be important for many adult outcomes.
• Social skills, related to peer relationships, sociability and social functioning in childhood, also matter. 
• Good emotional health in childhood matters for mental well-being as an adult.

In a very contemporary context:

Compared with cognitive ability assessed at the same age (10 years), social and emotional skills:

• matter more for general mental well-being (such as greater life satisfaction, mental health and well-being);
• matter similarly for health and health related outcomes (such as lower likelihood of obesity, smoking and drinking, and better self-rated health);
• matter similarly for some socio-economic and labour market outcomes (such as higher income and wealth, being employed, and not being in social housing);
• matter less for other socio-economic and labour market outcomes such as obtaining a degree, having higher wages and being employed in a top job (although there is nonetheless
  a relationship to these outcomes).
•  Differences in these skills accounted for almost 10% of the higher likelihood of being in a top job enjoyed by children with parents from professional backgrounds. Importantly, this effect is on top of the role played by cognitive ability, which accounted for roughly 20% of increased likelihood.
• It suggests that interventions to improve these skills are likely to improve access to a competitive top job if they can help children to achieve better qualifications in school.

But what about our input?

• New teachers were described as sometimes under-prepared in this area which led to suggestions to include child psychology and social and emotional learning in both initial teacher training (ITT) and  continuing professional development (CPD).
• Recognising the achievements children and young people make in social and emotional learning was described as being really important.