Headlines By James Saunders 5th February 2021
100 Recording Lessons Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation I have recently been talking to staff about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and the difficulties in encouraging intrinsic motivation from a distance as well as using the carrot approach of extrinsic motivation when we do not have access to learners in school. However, some of my worries about intrinsic motivation were allayed this week when I received a bunch of emails from our learners. I had, over the previous week, emailed quite a few of them to congratulate them on the fantastic progress they were making. What I didn’t expect on the back of these emails, was to be inundated with kind, considerate, thoughtful and inspirational replies.
From these replies it was clear that there is no lack of intrinsic motivation in our learners. It takes a fair bit of time to send emails and I managed to get through about 350 learners over the course of the week - not quite everyone I know but I am confident that the rest of the Honywood team have also been following up with communications. Our aim remains to contact every learner weekly where possible. Now onto extrinsic motivation. It has struck me that so many learners are doing a fantastic job. To complement our learner of the week we are going to look to plan some kind of reward trip/experience to celebrate when we finally get back to normal. We will use learner of the week, house points, engagement levels and feedback from staff about overcoming challenge and adversity over the lockdown period to identify those who have done their best. If learners need some extrinsic motivation to keep on pushing then a reward will most certainly be at the end of the line. Parents, you can help us to develop motivation as well as cement the learning in our learners. Please spend time each day asking them what they have been up to; what lessons they had and what work they completed. Ask them what they struggled with and what new things they have learnt. I know that you will probably be doing this already but it really does help them to remain focused.
I have recently read some worrying reports in the media about children and parents filming lessons that are delivered remotely and putting them on social media. I have not heard of this happening in our community but I feel it is worth reminding all learners that they are not permitted to film lessons in this way. The privacy of both staff and learners should be respected at all times. If we come across incidents such as this there will be consequences for those involved and we may limit their access to our devices. 8th March and Mock exams You will have heard in the media the government’s desire to open schools from the 8th March. We have been informed that they will provide us with 2 weeks notice. The sceptic in me is taking this date with a pinch of salt and should we be opening further I expect it to be only to select year groups. I could be wrong. I have been wrong before. I just want to prepare you for the fact that we may still be working this way for longer than we would hope. I wrote to our C11 learners this week to reassure them, as best as I could in an uncertain world, about their upcoming mock exams and GCSE grades. Mock exams are scheduled to take place later this term - from Monday 8th March We have not looked to move them as we think that they could be back in school by then. Until we have clarity on this we will keep them as they are (there is no point in moving them to only have to move them again) - I expect to be confirming them after half term. They did a great job last year completing virtual mocks so we do have that option should there be a delay in their return, but I really don't think we will need to do that. Naturally we would prefer them to sit these mocks at school rather than home as this robustness will be able to provide more secure data for their final grades. It could be that we will delay them until later in the term or after Easter. All of these changes will be dependent on two things: when schools are able to open back up to C11s and what format the GCSE assessments will take.