"I don't like worksheets - they're not beneficial"

FEATURES REAL SCHOOLS

School profile Name: Red Oak Primary dsen Headteacher: Heather Ma olk Suff , oft est Low on: Locati Ofsted rating: Good Size: 450+ pupils part of Extra info: the school is st the Active Learning Tru

Heather Madsen, Headteacher

“I don’t like worksheets – they’re not beneficial” Making lessons practical and active and focusing on sports has transformed this coastal school from chaotic to calm www.teachwire.net | 27

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hen headteacher Heather Madsen describes the behaviour she witnessed when she arrived at Red Oak Primary in the coastal town of Lowestoft in Suffolk five years ago as “quite unruly”, you get the feeling she may be playing things down somewhat. The school had churned through four headteachers in three years and was not viewed positively by the local community. Heather reports children climbing onto the roof during her first week in post, as well as throwing things and “using the foulest language you can possibly imagine.”

On her first day, Heather ran a whole staff training session but the atmosphere was less than welcoming. “Staff were sat there, arms folded, slouched in their chairs,” remembers Heather.

“They were looking at me as if to say, ‘Oh, you think you’ll last here, do you?’. There were queues of parents outside my office for days wanting to see me. One said, ‘How are you going to make a difference? No other bugger stays.’”

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Football mad

When Heather joined, there were many more boys than girls at the school. In a bid to swiftly improve pupils’ motivation and behaviour, Heather decided a focus on PE and sports was needed.

“Even though many of the children were mad about football, when I arrived the school didn’t have any goal posts or teams,” explains Heather. “One of the first things I did was look for a strong PE teacher to engage the children in sports. We set up lots of exciting after-school clubs, but made it clear to the children that if they wanted to attend, they had to be in school.” This approach is obviously paying dividends – a sense of calmness now pervades the corridors and classrooms and children are highly engaged, well behaved and obviously happy to be in school.

The school benefits from being based in an old middle school, so has a separate sports hall. It has also installed an all-weather surface and floodlights so that sports can take place well into the evening all year round. It now offers over 30 extra-curricular clubs, all run by staff and free of charge for children to attend.

“We’ve also started to offer activities associated with more affluent families,” explains Heather. For example, children can attend horse riding lessons at the local stables, with the school using pupil premium money to subsidise the cost to just £5 for parents. “Our children wouldn’t normally have an opportunity to do things like that,” says Heather.

Red Oak’s sports programme is now so successful that the school proudly displays 52 trophies from tournaments in its cabinet, up from a grand total of zero when Heather arrived. The school has also taken responsibility for organising and hosting

tournaments for other schools in the Active Learning Trust.

“We’ve made our sports events massive,” says Heather. “We sing the national anthem at the start and raise the flag. We don’t just give out stickers at sports day either – we give out proper medals for first, second and third place, with trophies too. The children and families are so proud.”

While children concentrate on English and maths in the morning, the sports centre is leased to parent and community groups. “It’s really helped to engage the community,” explains Heather. “It’s a way of encouraging in parents, who may be school-phobic because of their own experiences, in a non-threatening way. It’s really helped to improve those relationships and show them it’s OK to come into school. Then while they’re here, we can talk to them about other things too.”

As well as lunchtime and after-school clubs and afternoon PE lessons, this year Red Oak is focusing on making all lessons less sedentary. “We’re looking at every possible way to make sure our children are active while they learn,” says Heather. “They don’t

Pupil Voice

Charlie A few years ago we didn’t really have a proper sports day – we just did things like bean bag tossing. Now we have lots of after-school clubs and sports tournaments. The teachers train us well so we win trophies.

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Faye I’ve done horse riding for the first time here. We walk to the stables. The best thing about Red Oak is the fact that Mrs Madsen gives anyone a chance, even if you had to leave your old school. She treats everyone the same.

Louise Girls’ friendship society is an after-school club where we all meet around a big table and talk about lots of things. We also cook and make things. Girls can get into arguments sometimes so we talk about how to work things out.

Ruby Our teachers try and make lessons as fun as possible.

They trust us and they’re really nice.

The other day we looked at pig, ox and sheep hearts in science – it was disgusting!

FEATURES REAL SCHOOLS

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Exploring relationships

Alongside the push for improved physical health is Red Oak’s drive for improved mental health. The school community has suffered a number of tragedies in the recent past which have affected both staff and students – in 2013, three young children known to many at the school were killed by a family member. “That has an impact,” explains Heather. “The children hear what goes on in the community and talk about it and it has a knock-on effect.”

At first, staff focused on helping children deal with bereavement, but that soon moved on to thinking about children with other issues, such as anxiety or attachment disorder. “We’ve had children here who quite often appear to be very down,” explains Heather. “They are clearly depressed, or have been. We need to teach children from a very early age to recognise good mental health and the fact that we have a responsibility to look after ourselves. We now set aside time to actively teach the children the difference between feeling a little bit sad and depressed or anxious. We examine what those words actually mean, in a context that the children will understand, such as their pet passing away or having to move to a new school. We give them lots of scenarios and talk about them.”

The school has also introduced a mental health working group for families. “We’ve had a rise in the number of parents diagnosed with mental health issues, such as bipolar,” explains Heather. “As a teaching staff, we’ve got a duty to be aware of how that could impact our children.”

The school is focusing this year on teaching relationships. “We want our children to understand 5 IDEAS TO MAGPIE FROM that regardless of what type of relationship they are in, everyone has equal rights, whether they are hetrosexual, lesbian, gay, bi or l Begin staff meetings by asking a transgender. A lot of our children teacher to lead a mini CPD session already know how they feel about on a piece of research their bodies. We’ve got to help they’ve read recently. them understand those feelings.” l Set a timer to remind your class Last year, the school to stand up and stretch every 20 introduced an annual resilience minutes. Select a child to do a award. “We’d talked as a trust movement that everyone else about giving out sporting and copies. Stand up at regular times throughout academic awards, but we all felt the day such as during registration and that in every school there are partner talk. children that have managed l Introduce a girls’ friendship society to to persevere; children whose help girls learn how to express themselves experience has not been easy. and resolve disagreements positively.

They might have faced personal Sit around a large table and do crafts hardships, a tragedy or a health while introducing different topics condition.” The inaugural award for discussion. went to a pupil who had lost his l Hand out golden tickets father in a car accident. “He has for good behaviour, excellent attendance and was kindness, perseverance back in school the week after the and enthusiasm. Host a accident,” explains Heather. “He draw once a month and really perseveres with his subjects, give out prizes such attends after-school clubs and as bubbles, pencils always does his homework. He and DVDs. just keeps on going, despite all of l Introduce an annual the things he’s had to deal with.” resilience award A senior member of the trust and present it to a child that has presented the award during the persevered in the face of hardships. Invite in a Y6 leavers’ assembly. “It was special guest to hand out the award at the end lovely,” remembers Heather. of the year.

“The sweetest thing was that all of Y6 stood up and cheered.”

“We need to teach children from a very early age to recognise good mental health” need to sit at their desks if they’re discussing their learning with a partner. Instead, they can stand up and do it. It’s better for their health and they burn more calories.” Y5 teacher Rachael Earle explains that across the school, teachers are encouraged to get children out of their seats every 20 minutes. “We all have a little wriggle to get the blood flowing again,” she explains. “I have a timer that goes off so we don’t forget. It doesn’t take much time out of lessons and the children are so used to it now that they sit down again straight after and get on with their work.

It’s about encouraging the children out of their chairs a little bit more often and it’s working really well.”

A representative from Active Movement visited the school recently to help staff set up a marked school walk around the grounds. “We encourage teaching staff to take children around it at least once a day. In fact, if they can do it morning and afternoon that’s great,” Heather explains. “If the children do that walk once a day during term time, they’ll walk an extra 60 miles a year. The children love it and do it at lunch and breaktime too.”

Red Oak Primary

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Hands-on science

Red Oak has also been determined to improve its science offering over the last few years. “Rachael Earle, our science coordinator, took on the challenge last year of making our curriculum more hands-on and engaging,” says Heather. “Children often ask why they need to learn certain things, and I’m a great believer in doing things for a purpose, so we decided to invite in speakers from different companies who use science in their jobs.

Beforehand, when we asked the children to draw a scientist, they all drew a man with wacky hair, glasses and a white coat, but we were really lucky that many of the speakers that came in were female. That really surprised some of the children. We had talks about working with food, farming and the fishing industry. We looked at how food gets into superstores and also explored the medical profession.”

This hands-on approach has extended to everyday lessons too. Y6 children recently dissected hearts in class.

“Historically, science was taught via a Powerpoint, with children sat at their desks, but our new approach really brings it to life,” says Heather. “You can compare pictures of hearts, but it’s not the same as remembering JOHNNY LEE, HELEN LONG, what it felt like when you had Y3 TEACHER Y4 TEACHER to slice into one and felt it Every day, all our I’ve attended some excellent skid across the tile. I don’t like children from Y1-6 CPD with other NQTs from worksheets – they don’t provide go outside and walk our the trust. Rob Smith from any benefit. No one has ever left trail. It adds up to 60 The Literacy Shed and school saying, ‘I remember that miles over the course author Claire Gadsby were of a year. Any time we both great speakers. In maths worksheet.’” feel that concentration class we focus on a different To help staff improve their is slipping, we can aspect of wellbeing every subject knowledge, the school out children the take week. It could be as simple has teamed up with the science there for a bit of fresh as doing something nice for department at the local high air. They’re a lot more somebody without them school. “Whether you’ve been relaxed afterwards realising. We work hard teaching for a week, a year or a and you can get back on getting the children to decade you’ll never know it all. to learning. respect each other.

Things are changing all of the time,” says Heather. “We’ve created really good links with teachers that have a higher level of knowledge than us.” The trust also arranges development groups, allowing subject leaders to meet once a term to create action plans for their subjects.

Meet the staff

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Explore and play

Another way the school is bringing a more hands-on approach into the classroom is by working with training providers Early Excellence on its Transformation Project programme. This focuses on bringing principles from the Early Years curriculum into KS1. Whereas in Reception, children often have the

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ESME RICHARDSON, ASSISTANT HEAD & Y4 TEACHER

It’s easy to shy away from sex education and quickly cram it in during the summer term. We’re planning to bring it much further forward in the year so that the children have more time to get comfortable with the idea.

To squeeze in relationships education just before children go to high school is not very fair on them.

RACHAEL EARLE, Y5 TEACHER

We recently had Claire Birkenshaw, a transgender former headteacher, talk to us about the issues facing transgender children.

She helped us rethink our language surrounding boys and girls. When we talk about relationships, we’re going to say ‘loving people’, rather than ‘man and woman’. We’re learning to use language very carefully to make it more inclusive.

opportunity to choose what to explore and investigate through play, the school found that the transition to a more formal, desk-based approach in Y1 was a shock to the system for many pupils.

Esme Richardson, assistant head, says, “We’ve got a lot of children here that come into nursery academically and developmentally below where they should be. Although they make progress in Reception, when they enter Y1 it’s just too much for them. The Transformation Project is about trying to make that transition from Reception to Y1 seamless, to make it easier for the children. As the year goes on, things gradually get a bit more formal, so by the end of Y1 they’re ready for Y2 and those SATs pressures.”

Headteacher Heather adds, “We don’t want to do crush children’s interests or enthusiasm so we’re concentrating on how to give them those opportunities in Y1 and Y2 to continue that exploration. Everything is still very carefully planned and set up according to the needs of the children, but pupils have more opportunities to guide their own learning.”

For the rest of the year, Red Oak is continuing its focus on relationships and mental health and will also be looking at how to challenge its more able children across all subjects. The school is also hoping to add the RE quality mark to its list of achievements.

“We’re very good at teaching SMSC, PSHE and RE here and I think that should be recognised,” Heather explains. When the current Y6 cohort entered the school, only 37% achieved the expected level at the end of Reception, so the aim now is to get them all achieving this by the end of their time at their school. “That will be such a massive achievement,” Heather concludes. TP