North West Gifted and Talented

Had a very enjoyable and productive afternoon at the Last Drop Mercure Inn near Bolton.

The sessions were expertly led by Jacqui Price and Christina Brettle, of the National Strategies.

The main purpose of the meeting was to examine the latest National Strategies materials for Gifted and Talented children.

The focus was the impact of the 'Narrowing the Gaps' agenda for Gifted and Talented education.

Of the 10% of pupils on the average school G+T register, children on free school meals (which is a key indicator of being disadvantaged) are significantly under-represented. In fact, secondary school children on FSM are only half as likely to be identified as eligible for inclusion in the register. We need to identify this 'invisible' group and then implement action.

Once the pupils are identified, one way to begin to ensure their needs are met is to pursue 'mainstreaming' of G+T education.


Far too many schools still see 'gifted and talented' education as an optional add on. The temptation is to consider that running an event for G+T pupils once or twice a year is meeting their needs. Some parents, too, need to understand what should be happening if their child is in the register. Many parents contact G+T coordinators asking what trips or clubs are being arranged for the G+T pupils.

What we have to do is to change the mindset of teachers (and parents) so that they see that G+T children need to be provided for in every lesson on a daily basis. Planning for the G+T pupil in your class should just be a normal, accepted part of planning, just as it would be for a child, say, who had additional needs to help them with their reading.

Gifted and Talented in the North West

Had a fantastic afternoon at Altrincham Girls' Grammar School, where they were hosting a Gifted and Talented day for children in the North West. I ran a poetry workshop.

We started by establishing my ground rules for poetry workshops:

1. No rhyming

2. You have to keep writing. If you can’t think what to write then just write, ‘I don’t know what to write.’

After a few warm up activities where the children had a great deal of freedom over the form they chose, we switched to more controlled form using first diamond poems and then I introduced them to cinquains. That section finished with the pupils writing cycles of cinquains based on the perspectives of characters from a story they liked (e.g. The Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, Grandma, The Woodcutter).

The final stage of the afternoon was spent using the old Dadaist cutup technique. The pupils wrote a piece of descriptive writing, cut up the words individually and then reformed them into poems. A low tech version of fridge magnets.

As usual, the children were the star of the show. However, they were run a close second by the staffroom at AGS. This looked like a suite from an expensive hotel and even had its own baby grand piano.

EAL Toolkit Launch

I was the Metropole in Leeds for the launch of the new Strategy resources for raising the achievement of higher ability pupils with English as an additional language. All part of the wider agenda to 'Narrow the Gap'.

After our introduction it was heads straight into some practical workshops introducing the new materials.

I really enjoyed the workshop that looked at analysing pupils' writing to identify how they could be helped to make progress.

We looked at a piece History writing. We had a checklist and used this to asssess features ranging from word level to content and organization. For each statement we had to decide to what extent the skill was being demonstrated (three choices).

Then we discussed which areas needed help and then looked at which of the areas would be most important for the pupils to improve in order to raise their grade.

This last activity highlighted the improtance of not focusing too much on spelling . Of course, spelling is important but it isn't always the case that this is main the issue holding back the child with English as an Additional language.

In the sample we looked at, for instance, the pupils really needed to understand more about the appropriate tone for a piece of academic writing.

The new resources then give a range of suggestions for how you might address the needs you have identified.

Really practical stuff that I will be introducing to the schools I am working with asap. Of course, it will be a very useful tool for first language speakers, too.

My colleague, Annette, attended the workshop on using talking to prepare for writing. She tells me it was excellent.

In the afternoon I attended another workshop. This one was on how to help the pupils improve their extended writing.

We finished off with a plenary led by Martin Pendegrast, who is leading the project.

A great day, full of practical ideas and resources.

Pre-Standardising

As well as being a Teaching and Learning Consultant for Trafford, I am a senior examiner for AQA English Paper One (foundation).

Being an examiner gives you tremendous insight into the examination process. You learn about the key features that divide, say, grade D form C. You also become very confident at assessing your pupils' work for the paper you mark.

I recommend all teachers to try it at least once and Heads of Department should encourage their team to apply for a post. By spreading themselves across the different papers a many new skills can be gained.



Mary is delighted to be told that she's got the marks spot on.

Subject Leaders' Meeting at Sale West

Spent the day at Sale West Development Centre.

The first part of the day was spent delivering the Functional Skills Modules 3 & 4.

As the news filtered through of yet another Cabinet resignation, I couldn't help but see a parallel between Gordon Brown and the Functional Skills. Now that the GCSE/FS link has been broken, FS (like Mr, Brown) seemed to have lost its authority and respect.



This was followed by a presentation from Chris Sykes (left), who works for Oxford Publishing. Sorry about the rather dark picture, Chris. She introduced several new resources, including their new OxBox series. There was a lot of interest in this. Lots of contemporary resources to use and the facility to upload your own to add to those provided on the CD.







The main part of the day was spent working through the Subject Leader Development Materials. These mainly focused on AfL, concentrating on how teachers can enable the pupils to take ownership of their own learning. Lots of useful resources to draw on. As usual, more to be done than any Subject Leader can be expected to do. We discussed the need to identify priorities and use the resources to improve the areas that would have most impact on raising pupil achievement.

Thanks to everybody for positive feedback. Your good humour and patience made my job a lot easier.

English Subject Leaders Development Materials Summer 2009

School holidays mean I can go into work in my civvies.

Today I've been preparing the Subject Leaders' Development Meeting that I'm leading next Wednesday.

I've also been preparing a lesson reading Shakespeare. I'm going to be teaching that to some year 7's after the break.

BPAP

I spent the morning at Sale West Development Centre where we were discussing the National Strategies materials for raising the achievement of Black and Caribbean pupils. The session was led by my colleague Annette Nelson from the School Improvement Service and Elizabeth Agbettoh who works for the National Strategies. Also present were Pat Baldwinson, who is Maths Consultant for Trafford, and Liz Stanley who is Director of Learning at one one of our secondary schools.

The strategies have produced some excellent materials for schools and departments to audit their provision for Black children. For any progress to be made, be it with our professional or personal goals, it is vital that we start with an accurate picture of the present situation: if you want to lose weight you have to get out the scales and be straight with yourself about just exactly what you weigh.

So self-assessment is the basis form which we begin. However, audits aren’t enough. Once you have gathered the data and established your position, then the question is: what are you going to do? And, the often harder question: How are you going to do it?

The strategy doesn’t shirk from answering that question and providing resources to help schools and departments begin to narrow the gap between the achievers and the underachievers.

Even more significantly, it opens up four areas that all need to be addressed in order for the success to be embedded into school practice. It is only be embedding it that we can avoid the ‘sticking plaster’ approach whereby a problem is addressed for as long as somebody is interested enough in it and then is left to fester again when/if the member of staff leaves or the next initiative comes along.

Our meeting provided us with a sense that we were looking at strategy and not just a set of fire fighting measures.

The other feeling that came out of the meeting was that so much of what is contained in the resource pack could be easily adapted to suit other groups that may be falling behind. For example, white working class boys. Or it could be used to form a strategy for helping the Gifted and Talented at a school.

Fundamentally, it is personalized learning that is structured around sound principles of teaching and learning.

The final section of the meeting was a chance for us to find out about the excellent work that Liz Stanley has been doing since joining one of Trafford’s schools in January. One of the most interesting aspects of her work has been the positive effects of her decision to ‘walk the talk’ and introduce some student voice to disaffected pupils, listen to what she was being told and acting on it. It was inspiring to hear of one intelligent, but disengaged boy, overcoming some of his difficulties and then raising his aspirations as a result. This was a boy who was seriously in danger of underachieving at school and limiting his life chances.

It felt great to be part of a group of people who were all, in their different ways, working to provide an improved school service in Trafford.