Woodrush Acorn Easter 2018

Woodrush Acorn Easter 2018

Woodrush Teaching School Alliance

‘Fostering Excellence through teacher training and lifelong learning for all staff within our schools.’

Welcome to this Spring edition of The Acorn. This year has seen the Alliance grow and our capacity to impact on students’ achievement, increase. We always welcome our Partner schools’ contributions within The Acorn, as this is a publication to celebrate and share great ideas and practice between colleagues- from all key stages and phases in Education. Therefore, I am especially delighted to welcome articles from many of our Alliance schools and from some of our SLEs, as this reflects our desire to widen the collaboration and positive contribution of our partnership schools and members.

In a slightly different format to previous editions, this Easter Acorn has a ‘theme’ in its focus on ‘Raising Achievement for Disadvantaged Students’. Alliance schools were asked to contribute to create a publication which would support the achievement of our disadvantaged students and ‘close the gap’. Indeed, the first article by Sasha Taylor, sets out the ‘why’ of the need to support our most vulnerable students. Yet, many of the strategies explored could be used to support the progress of all students in our care, highlighting how we aim for achievement for all our students. I do hope you enjoy this edition of The Acorn and that it can help offer our staff a chance to celebrate the work we do by sharing good practice and highlighting some of the incredible students and their journeys to success which we are a part of in our schools.

Finally, thank you to all those schools who have contributed to this edition and whose work offers us such fantastic snap shot into the daily work which takes place in our schools. If you would like to write for the Acorn next time, please let us knowyour contributions would be extremely welcome.

I look forward to meeting you soon at Woodrush TSA. Elizabeth Lawson Assistant Headteacher at Woodrush High School

Senior Leaders of Education

Building positive and trusted relationships from the outset

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Adam Slack Amy Stafford Andrew Mainwaring Andrew Raistrick Dave Monk Elizabeth Lawson Emma Fairyn Faye Parker Gavin Leaver Jay Barber Jenny Elvins Jennifer Wakelam Jill Stanley Julia Husband Katie Donaldson Mark Harris Melissa Holtom-Brown Natasha Rancins Samantha Bullivant Sarah Emson Scott Smith Sophie Rowan Steve Baker Sue Taylor

Leadership of Curriculum, Maths & ITT Special Educational Needs (SEN) History, Most Able & ITT Science Leadership of Assessment English Maths, Science & DT School Business Management Art Leadership of Curriculum Maths English Leadership of Curriculum & Assessment Special Educational Needs (SEN) English, Phonics & ITT Teaching and Learning, Geography PE Leadership of Curriculum & Narrowing the Gap ITT Maths Leadership of Curriculum & Narrowing the Gap Early Years & PE Leadership of Behaviour & Attendance Leadership of Curriculum

Secondary Secondary Secondary Secondary Secondary Secondary Primary Secondary Secondary Secondary Primary Primary Primary Secondary Primary Secondary Secondary Secondary Secondary Secondary Primary Primary Secondary Secondary

Economic Impact of Disparity in Academic Attainment Sasha Taylor sets out why raising achievement for our disadvantaged students is so crucial The difference in academic attainment between socio-economic groups is probably one of the most debated issues in UK education (Sutherland, Ilie and Vignoles, 2015). Although it is a disparity, which is just as contested in other countries, linkages between socio-economic background and academic attainment is higher in the UK than in virtually any other developed country (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2012; TeachFirst, 2017).

Contextually, Ofsted (2016) confirms the attainment between students eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their more affluent peers was widening. Statistics show the attainment difference in 2014/15 was 17 per cent compared with 13 per cent in 2010/11 (Ofsted 2016a). Students from wealthier families achieved one grade better across seven GCSEs and two grades across eight GCSEs in comparison to students eligible for FSM (Sutherland, Ilie and Vignoles, 2015). It is an imbalance, which is stark and substantial (ibid, 2015).

Tackling the variance in academic attainment will benefit both society and individuals’ economic growth and social development (OECD, 2012). Moreover, students will be provided with a better chance of employment and healthier sustainable outcomes that are less vulnerable to economic downturns (ibid, 2012). Having poor qualifications often leads to young people being marginalised in the labour market and more generally in society (Howieson and Iannelli, 2008).

Disparity in academic attainment has been historically documented as having long term impact on students’ career, economic stability and life trajectories (Carey, 2014). Moreover, studies have shown that there is a detrimental link between poverty and a deficient education (Pirrie and Hockings, 2012). Disadvantaged students are more likely to become NEET (not in education employment or training) and are unlikely to progress to higher education (Pirrie and Hockings, 2012). Furthermore, a young person, who experiences a period of NEET, is estimated to cost the UK economy around £50,000 over the course of their lifetime (Impetus Private Equity Foundation, 2014). When measured against a university graduate, who has never been NEET, the cost increases to £225,000 (ibid, 2014).

Advantages of narrowing the attainment gap include better health and wellbeing, greater political interest, higher social trust and increased economic contributions (Economic and Social Research Council, 2014). Educational attainment has also been strongly linked with increased employment and higher earnings, lowering the risk of poverty (Serafino and Tonkin, 2014). Additionally, increased equality in educational attainment may lead to a reduction in welfare support, better social cohesion and enhance economic efficiency (ibid, 2014). Similarly, Blanden and Macmillan (2016) argues that narrowing the academic attainment gap can lead to relative social mobility and improve life chances, as well as improve upward mobility and stop the cycle of intergenerational poverty (Zhao, 2016). Conclusively, there is substantial economic future benefit in relation to GDP per capital, due to increased employment of a skilled workforce contributing to the economy (OECD, 2010).

Sasha Taylor Teacher of Business at Woodrush High School Sasha is currently studying for a Doctorate in Education

If you would like to join our TSA as a partner, or simply wish to contact someone to talk through CPD or support you could offer or need, please contact me via our Marketing & Communications Manager Abi Zaman at: teachingschool@woodrushhigh.worcs.sch.uk You can also follow us on twitter @woodrushTSA, and if you frequently look on our website woodrushtsa.co.uk you will find adverts for our CPD- which will update throughout the year- both will help you to follow the work of our Alliance and partner schools. If you would like to receive email updates from us, please let us know.

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Raising Achievement through effective Teaching and Learning strategies Chunk, Chew, Check: a teaching and learning strategy to raise achievement It is crucial that students have the chance to make sense of new information and avoids students being overcome with a large amount of information coming at too quick a pace. Chunk, Chew, Check is a three-part strategy to provide students with time to process information and then demonstrate their learning. This strategy allows students to link up new information with that in their long-term memory.

The first stage is to chunk up the information. This is where the new information is broken down into smaller chunks. This should be a maximum of a 10minute block in which students will listen and taken notes as they would normally do say by a teacher exposition.

The second stage is for the students to chew over the information. There are a range of different processing strategies that could used here. It could be a 30 seconds reflection on how the information is relevant in the world around them to a longer 5 minute activities writing or sketching the information out. Below are some examples of different chew strategies that have been attempted at ATSA: The final stage is the check. This is where you complete you check for understanding tasks, examination questions, mini-whiteboard tasks etc.

Possible Chunk-Chew-Checks

Chunk

Chew

Check

• • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • •

Teacher input Model or Demonstration Video Input Reading Direct instruction – lecture Cold Call

ABC summary Art of the Sentence MWBs Draw it Out! T/P/S Turn and Talk Analogies Summary The Most Important Thing Compare and Contrast The Last Word List-Sort-Label

Raised hands Circulate and Observe MWBs Show Call T/P/S Cold Call 4 Corners Exit Slips 3-2-1

Reading: Marzano, R. (2009). The art and science of teaching: Helping students process information. Educational Leadership.

Vol 67(2), pp. 86-87.

Mather, E. (2015). Road Tested / Chunk-Challenge-Chew-Chat-Check. Education Update. Vol 57(6), p.7.

Samuel George Ark St Albans

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The importance of Design and Technology in schools The UK’s Engineering Industry is facing a major skills shortage and it is predicted that 1.8million people will need to be trained in an Engineering discipline by 2025 (according to the telegraph).

Despite this major skills shortage, Design and Technology and related subjects continue to fall down the ranks of ‘important subjects’. The reason that the importance of Design and Technology in schools has diminished over recent years is a compound issue of many factors including: Teacher shortage, lack of funding, change in GCSE specifications and introduction of the EBacc. Lindsley Ruth, Ceo of RS components recently said in an interview: “We have to start with promoting technology and engineering as an exciting and rewarding career to schoolaged children. All kids are interested in, and familiar with technology today, be it mobile phones, the internet, social media or electronic games. That all branches of engineering are now impacted by technology is a point to emphasise. Thus, directly, and through teaching staff we need to encourage more pupils to choose STEM subjects. It is critical that pupils stick with some of them at least to GCSE level, giving them the option of a career in engineering and technology.”

Creative subjects such as Art, Media, Music, Drama and Technology are starting to disappear from schools and no one can really predict what impact this will have on the UK in the future. Practical skills such as woodwork and metalwork are key skills for someone that wants to access an apprenticeship or progress to study Engineering or Design at University. These are skills that need to be built up over a number of years. How many students would want to go into a career in Design if they haven’t studied it at school? How many students at age 16 would choose to go into carpentry if they have no experience in a workshop? How many students would go into Architecture if they were never taught how to draw?

Technology can be a very challenging subject for students as it encourages creativity, problem solving, innovative thinking and independent learning. These are skills that are transferrable to other curriculum areas and are skills that students will need once they complete their education. I think that, as long as we need Engineers, Architects, Product Designers and Carpenters; Technology will remain a relevant subject.

Design and Technology is a subject we will strive to save. As practitioners we are all too aware of the national issues that surround the subject however we are confident by taking a positive and global outlook and incorporating the necessary changes to bring the subject in line with the requirements of academia and industry that Design and Technology will not only remain a key part of the curriculum but will also be launch pad for the next generation of designers.

Jay Borg Second in DT Woodrush High School Jay has attended our Olevi Outstanding Teaching Programme this term. If you would like to find out more about it, please contact Woodrush TSA.

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Raising Achievement through effective Teaching and Learning strategies Lifting the Barriers to Learning in Mathematics Sarah Emson is a Maths SLE for Woodrush TSA and is based at Hanley Castle High School and owner of Multisensory Matters, a maths resources company to help students who can’t learn key maths concepts. She has 17 years teaching experience and during that time has been interested in learning about the barriers to grasping maths and how they present themselves in the classroom. Here she sets out some of her findings.

Steps to Learning Maths When we learn mathematics, we go through various stages and if teachers understand these steps we can easily see how to help are students who are stuck. In fact, if you don’t want to read the whole article then just read this first section because it can be applied to any maths concept, across the key stages.

“We learn mathematics at various stages, it is important that each stage is understood before the next is tackled.”

Professor M. Sharma (Berkshire Mathematics) As mathematicians we love the abstract but when students don’t understand, take a step back down and present it in a diagrammatic way or use manipulatives or relate it to something they are more familiar with. Even better if we present the new concept like this in the first place and then step up.

How do Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) Affect Maths?

There is a great deal of understanding about how Specific Learning Difficulties (an umbrella term for dyslexia, dyspraxia, Austistic Spectrum Disorders etc) affect literacy but less so about how they affect the learning of mathematics. In working towards a post graduate diploma in SpLD, I discovered that anything written by Steve Chinn, an expert in the field of maths and dyslexia/dyscalculia, is a very worthwhile read. A good starting point is “What to Do When You Can’t Learn the Times Tables.” (S.J. Chinn, 1997).

Year 10 higher students investigating the surface area of a sphere with orange peel.

Year 7 intervention students; one is seeing equivalent multiplication facts the other visualising square numbers.

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“It is likely that dyslexia will create difficulties in at least some aspects of mathematics, most particularly in numeracy.”

(Chinn, 2002) Whilst maths is generally considered to be a regular discipline it does have many inconsistencies. Consider the number fifteen: It says fifteen, it means five ten but is it written 15. It is these irregularities that often cause problems for the dyslexic learner.

Learning Tables

the

Times

Problems Dyslexic people often have problems with rapid recall of facts or names so learning times tables to recite quickly or publicly will often cause them stress and give them a reason to dislike maths.

Possible Solutions Use arrays to help visualise times tables (as the cards in the photo show), sing/chant them. Allow strategies to calculate such as double, double and double again for multiplying by eight.

Allow counting or drawing to help get to the answer. Students should use a ‘Multi-Sensory’ approach; they use visual, auditory and kinaesthetic pathways to the brain to help reinforce facts.

Sequencing Problems “The ability to sequence can be a weakness for those with a specific learning difficulty…It is often the fifth and tenth items in the list which are forgotten or omitted.” (Alexander, [n.d.] cited in Hornsby Module 2, p.68) Almost all mathematical calculations require some form of sequencing ability. Students could be required to count forwards or backwards or they may be required to carry out the sequence of steps necessary to complete a long multiplication or division question.

As well as the sequencing itself the order of the words in the language used by mathematicians causes problems. For example: ‘42 minus 12’ is different from ‘take 12 away from 42’ and the dyslexic student is likely to get confused.

“The sequence of negative numbers can be confusing as in negative coordinates (-3, -6). This example can also illustrate the disproportionate effect of what might be considered to be a minor increase in difficulty. Going from coordinates which are positive to coordinates which are negative can create a surprisingly high anxiety level or comprehension problem for some learners.” (Chinn, 2002) Possible Solutions Allow whiteboards for informal jottings.

Over-teach the skill of picking out key words from the question. Practise lots of different styles of question. Always have predrawn co-ordinate grids and spend plenty of time practising using them.

Spatial Awareness

Visual Difficulties

Problems Many students cannot visualise threedimensional objectives when they were represented in two dimensions.

Consequently, they cannot not draw using isometric paper nor access any work with diagrams of solids to help with volume or surface area.

This is not uncommon for dyslexic mathematicians. Spatial awareness affects the organisation of work on paper too so the student who seems to disregard the squares or lines on the paper and whose work appears to be untidy may well be dyslexic. This particular area of difficulty will affect a student’s ability to set out maths calculations correctly. For example, they may not line up the place values correctly when adding numbers in a column. Spatial awareness difficulties will often mean a learner cannot copy questions from the board or a book because he tends to lose his place.

This means he will mix up parts of questions or write number two but actually do number three.

Problems The symbols + and  are easy to confuse and this is especially the case for the dyslexic mathematician who may mix up any of + - x and . When you consider that dyslexic students often transpose letters such as ‘b’ and ‘d’ or ‘p’ and ‘b’ it is easy to see that numbers such as 4 and 9, 6 and 9, and 2 and 5 can be easily muddled too.

Students with dyslexia often have unstable vision that causes symptoms such as blurriness on the page, the numbers appearing to float across each other and eye pain from looking at the page for too long. This is only made worse by being asked to work from an overcrowded worksheet with too much information or too many questions on it.

Possible Solutions Use actual solid shapes, allow students to make nets rather than just draw them. Provide model solutions, using squares for them to copy. Student mini-whiteboards should have square grids. Provide write-on sheets so students don’t have to copy.

Directional Issues Problems “When asked to add 24 and 8, the pupil may orally give the correct answer as 32 but write it down as 23.”

(Ott, 1997, p.153). Not only does the dyslexic student often transpose the digits in a number but they also write their digits backwards. Problems with directionality are worsened by the fact that the various algorithms in maths often start at the right and work left which is the complete opposite to what they are used to in reading and writing. To make matters worse the traditional method of division starts at the left and works to the right again confusing the dyslexic mathematician.

Possible Solutions Use the number-line methods for the four operations or move to the grid method for multiplication and chunking for division. Only move to the formal written methods once the concepts are fully understood. Then over-practise these methods so that they become automatic.

Possible Solutions A simple font such as Century Gothic will improve the readability of a worksheet. Write digits very clearly and distinctly, using a line through the 7 for example. Powerpoint slides should always be on a pastel background and using Century Gothic. Slides and sheets should be clear with at least 12-point font.

Time Problems Chinn and Ashcroft (1993) reported that being unable to tell the time is a classic weakness for dyslexics.

This comes about because of inconsistencies between the way time is written and spoken. For example ‘12.10’ is said as ‘ten past twelve’. Also reading the analogue clock requires knowledge of fractions, counting in fives and a circular number line so relying on several skills at once for the dyslexic student. The digital clock has enabled many dyslexic students to read the time however, as Chinn and Ashcroft (1993) point out, “…has not necessarily enabled them to have a concept of time.”

Possible Solutions Use teaching clocks with moving hands. Get students to play games like ‘Clock Patience’ where they have to remember and lay out the clock face.

Over-use the language of fractions on a clock. Have lots of visual-aids for students to see the position of the hands, associated with the words and the digital format. Discuss times of the day and what is happening at those times to get an understanding in context.

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Working Memory Problems Thomson (2001) describes working memory as the ‘desktop’ of the brain (p. 113). It is a way of conceptualising the short-term memory and keeping track of our activities as we do them. The dyslexic student tends to have a severe working memory problem. As Chinn and Ashcroft (1998) suggest, “When asked to work out 47 plus 78 mentally he has to hold the sum in his memory, probably work out 7 plus 8 (poor memory for basic facts), remember 5, carry 1, remember that he has to add 4 and 7 (and the carried 1), work out 4 + 7 +1, recall the 5 and put them all together in the right sequence, 125.”

It is clear that any part of this large amount of information may be lost from memory as the student tries to search for a vital number fact or if he is even slightly distracted by the events in a busy classroom.

Possible Solutions Use mini-whiteboards as a matter of routine so students can remove the load from their working memory.

Mathematical Communication

Anxiety and Self Esteem

Problems Learning maths can be like learning a foreign language.

The subject-specific vocabulary, the unusual conventions such as working from right to left and the inverted naming of the teen numbers all present further obstacles for the dyslexic mathematician. This is made worse by the fact that the operations of add, subtract, multiply and divide have their own symbols and several different words are associated with each one. A student who is successful with the numeracy aspect of the subject will still be hampered by the fact that examination questions are often wrapped up in complex language: the problem at the very heart of dyslexic difficulties.

Problems “Anxiety is a cumulative and cyclic problem – more failure, more anxiety, poorer self image, more failure, more anxiety, etc.” (Chinn and

Ashcroft, 1998, p.13) Over testing vastly contributes to the failure and therefore poor self-image of students. Every maths teacher encounters the students who will not attempt the work: they get defensive and often find excuses for not trying but in reality they are protecting themselves from failure. In many schools maths is taught in groups that are organised by ability (or at least the outcome of a test). If a dyslexic mathematician is finds himself in set four out of four then this does nothing for his self-image and often results in further resentment of the subject. This is exacerbated if he is actually a good mathematician but cannot express it due to undiagnosed specific learning difficulties and a teacher who does not recognise the symptoms.

Possible Solutions Use key word posters. Spend time with exam questions card sorts, categorising them into ‘what is the same?’ ‘what is different?’ To help students recognise patterns of language.

Speed of Working Problems Many children with dyslexia have comorbidity with ‘dyspraxia’. This refers to problems with motor skills and movement, articulation or speech caused by motor function deficits. As well as this, other factors such as the visual difficulties, directional issues and spatial awareness mentioned above can result in writing speed being an issue for many dyslexic students. They take much longer to complete tasks and therefore the skills they are practising do not become routine. This is particularly detrimental in mathematics where speed and accuracy are often assessed. Ackerman and Dykman (1996, cited in Chinn and Aschroft 1998, p.10) suggest that slowness impedes automisation in reading, spelling and arithmetic.

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Possible Solutions Give realistic tasks. Circle the questions you want students to do ensuring challenge and variety. Give extra time when required. Praise quality not quantity.

Possible Solutions Give students plenty of chances to succeed; verbally, in a group situation as well as in their written work. Only test when absolutely necessary.

Consider creating tests which are to show what students know not what they don’t. Teach them how to revise by practising, using a revision list, so they can see the value of it when they get the answers correct. Consider parallel groups rather than strictly linear sets. At the very least be more considerate with the naming of these groups; H1, H2, H3 and F1, F2, F3 is better than sets 1 to 6.

Final Thoughts Over-teaching, lots of practice with variety and depth and explicitly using subject specific vocabulary and notation in peerdiscussions will allow processes to become automatic and will build confidence and reduce anxiety. A mathematical diet for students which is rich in concrete materials, learning in context and uses plenty of visual aids in classrooms will not only help students with specific learning difficulties but will help all students to climb the stairs to mathematical success.

Sarah Emson Hanley Castle High School

Raising Achievement through the use of intervention specialists Crestwood students are very lucky to receive specialist intervention in both English and Maths, in order to support their progress. This intervention primarily targets pupil premium students who may be underachieving in either or both core subjects and we are proud to say that these interventions have proved very successful in raising the achievements of these groups of students. As well as supporting the students, Crestwood are also providing opportunity for aspiring teachers who are seeking alternative routes in to the profession to gain experience, both in working with students and making significant impacts on pupil progress.

Sherise Round = Maths “After getting my degree in pure and applied maths from Keele University, my first choice of a career wasn’t really teaching. I began working as admin in companies to then progress into data analysis. However I soon found out that wasn’t as fulfilling as I had hoped. I then looked into teaching and through an agency found Crestwood and haven’t looked back since. It is much more challenging day to day but the reward at the end is far greater.

This has confirmed by decision to pursue teaching full time and my short term goals are to go back to university to get my PGCE to aid my long term goals of perhaps one day leading a maths department into success.”

Pupil Impact: This pupil has received intervention in Maths. She began with little confidence in the subject and is now predicted to exceed her target grade of a Grade 4 to a Grade 5.

Below are a few examples of her scores on practice papers to show how her understanding of many areas and topics in maths has greatly improved to produce such progress.

Figure 1 and Figure 2 above show the student’s low scores and grades on practice papers from the start of the Autumn A term where she was under performing and failing to reach her expected target grade. These can then be compared to Figure 3 and Figure 4, which show that at the end of the Autumn B term, she was already exceeding her target grade and consistently able to achieve above 70% on practice papers.

Richard Johnson = English “Having completed a Masters in English, I wanted to apply my enthusiastic subject knowledge to focus and inspire students. I began working at Crestwood as a graduate teaching assistant in English, through Edustaff West Midlands. The prospect of becoming a full time teacher, following the Teach First Leadership Development Programme excites me because it will help me to empower young people to achieve fantastic results, whilst asserting a greater sense of autonomy and agency over their lives.”

English case study: Student A has received academic mentoring throughout Year 11. She has had mentoring on resilience, not giving up during the exam, and maintaining a positive attitude by managing exam pressure with time efficient revision strategies. As a result, this student’s analysis has become more succinct and more detailed, use of key subject terminology and relevant quotation has improved, and the depth and detail of her critical analysis displays significant progress. Her predicted target grade has risen from a 4 to a 5 since the start of her intervention during Year 11.

Katie Boerm The Crestwood School

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Raising Achievement through effective Teaching and Learning strategies Supporting disadvantaged Students in History Intended Impact: Better understanding of simple and effective techniques for ensuring success in History exams.

Historians at Moseley have some interesting professional challenges: more than half our cohort is Pupil Premium; nearly one-fifth are defined as SEND; and a third of the, mostly male, cohort are students who have English as an Additional Language. In September, many of these students were underachieving by four grades.

We therefore have had some significant hurdles to clear.

Nationwide, this is a challenging year for history: The new GCSE specifications are very content heavy; there is an emphasis on skills that require significant confidence and mastery to employ; and ever more complex exam language means we need to expect more from our students’ academic literacy.

To meet these challenges we reflected on our school values of endeavour, respect and compassion. We had to work harder than in previous years: the old revision packs and booster sessions would not get us where we needed to be. We had to challenge each other’s subject knowledge, recognising where we were strong and what we need to develop in more depth. We also needed to ensure that our students were not going to be under undue personal pressure because of the increased content.

We turned to the support of both evidence-enriched practice and PIXL to determine the nature of our interventions.

Here we will share some strategies that we have found successful: Metacognition (The Walking Talking Mock): For me this has been by far and away the single most effective piece of intervention. For those unfamiliar with this strategy we lead students through the exam in real time. All that is needed is a visualizer and a big screen. They think about their thinking. They adhere to our timing. We decode and define the language of the questions; and we scaffold structure any extended writing task.

Previously, mock exams in the new format were a huge frustration for the majority of our students: they wrote little and avoided more complex questions completely. There was a clear fear of failure.

Through showing students the thought processes required to access the papers we have ensured that all students can now respond independently and are also aware of the planning requirements that the papers place on them.

Students have provided positive feedback for this intervention: they feel more confident; they appreciate the supportive nature of the student-teacher relationship more; they have all understood the benefit of planning responses at the start of an exam rather than panicking at the prospect of extended writing.

For our more hard-to-reach students we have also been through this process with parents present in the room.

This modelling shows parents the demands of the course and gives them leverage when ensuring students revise at home.

Our feedback is also able to be more responsive now as we have removed many of the barriers to students’ performance and can focus in on the weaker areas of subject knowledge that require further development.

Literacy (Differentiating target language) Frequently occurring command words have been defined in English and then translated into Romanian, Urdu and Arabic in order to support our students. The impact of this is increased confidence and an ability to use nominalised forms of this language in extended writing thus ensuring a more sophisticated authorial voice.

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Literacy (The Primacy of Narrative) We have recalibrated our expectations: all students are expected to have a grasp of the narrative of key events and are constantly tested on these. We have developed 10 point narratives that we regularly encourage them to recall and retrieve from long term memory. Not only is this efficient in terms of staff planning time, it also ensures that students experience a high success rate in every lesson. This has obvious benefits for attitudes to learning.

Chronological understanding of events is increasingly secure.

To the right is an example: Literacy (Word of the Day) School-wide we have a focus on Tier 2 Language. Evidence suggests that students from less affluent households are less likely to acquire language that is not part of their everyday lexis (Tier 1) or which is not part of deliberate teaching (Tier 3). We use dictionaries, thesauri and expect students to put these words into context to ensure that they become more familiar with the vocabulary they might be expected to know to be successful.

This is a moral imperative and expectation in every lesson every day across the school.

Recall and Retrieval Practice We have developed a ‘Guess Who’ set of revision resources looking at key historical figures. These can be used to ensure that students commit their knowledge of these figures to their long term memory as well as providing a fun and engaging means of revision.

This simple and effective technique is demonstratedto the right:

Marginal Gains If students gain two extra marks per question they could go up two grades.

In most cases, we have been advised that this is simply an extra paragraph that ties thoughts back to the question and task. Models of these are given to students for them to learn.

What has been the impact of these strategies on our practice?

In our most recent round of assessment, most students had reduced their distance to target by two grades. It is worth noting that these interventions took half a term to plan and half a term to embed. There is still therefore time for you to adopt them in your own settings and for us to deliberately practice them. We are not complacent and there is still more to do. However, we have more confidence and engagement from pupils and renewed enthusiasm from staff.

We are making a genuine difference to some of our most disadvantaged.

If you would like to discuss these ideas further or collaborate on their future development please contact Nicky Cooper Burrows at coi@moseley.bham.sch.uk or through the Woodrush TSA.

Nicky Cooper Burrows Moseley School and Sixth Form

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Raising Achievement through effective Teaching and Learning strategies Enabling all Pupils to Shine We started with a hypothesis; “If we fundamentally change the way we deliver the curriculum from Primary School (Year 6) to Secondary School (Year 13) in DT we can greatly affect the life chances of our pupils - Now let’s prove it!”

In Design and Technology we firmly believe that all pupils can achieve – as teachers we must learn to translate and transfer our love of the subject to our pupils. Teaching can be difficult when the role models and experiences that some of the pupils come to school with are quite negative towards education and educators based on their experiences.

A firmly held view that permeates throughout our lessons in DT is that every child deserves to succeed regardless of their starting points and their backgrounds.

we make a difference on a day to day level?

As a department we have been working incredibly hard to address the balance between pupils who come from families which have daily struggles. These struggles maybe to feed, clothe their children or struggle to buy them the resources they need to make progress in the subject. When it comes to the education of children living in poverty there has been a great deal of talk about grit, resilience and the drive for social mobility [1]. How as classroom teachers how do

In DT we are challenging the often destructive stigma of the PP/DA ‘label’ and are adopting a more enlightened, empathetic and practical approach to support and teach all of our disadvantaged children. This has meant a rethink of the way we have previously approached our day to day practice.

Design and Technology curriculum – Adequate is not good enough!

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Fraught with challenges – An honest approach

Crucially we are concentrating on the core areas of literacy and numeracy to break down the main barriers to accessing the full curriculum. Oracy is a primary focus in the words of many including Phil Beadle and Ross Wilson “If the children can’t talk it, they can’t write it”. We never confuse eligibility for the Pupil Premium with low ability, and we are always focused on supporting our disadvantaged pupils to achieve the highest levels in Design and Technology.

bottom making it more accessible – We are always questioning does the traditional ‘talk and chalk’ method of teaching work for our pupils?

Evidence from our work suggests not, which has led to a practical and ‘hands-on’ approach to delivering our lessons. Pupils learn through doing and fusing practical and theoretical lessons. We are in a privileged position to be able to do this in DT but our lessons can be translated to other areas of the curriculum.

We recognise that the transition to secondary school is a key point in a child’s education. We know that pupils who start secondary school working below grade 4 in English and mathematics often struggle to access the curriculum and as OFSTED have stated previously in their Pupil Premium study (The Pupil Premium 2013 [2]) “… they typically do not make as much progress as their peers. And we know that more disadvantaged pupils are in this group”.

We have fundamentally changed the way we deliver our curriculum top to

We have focused on the separate key stages of a child’s development in their school career and ensuring pupils make progress in all of these areas giving them the chances that they may not have already had. As educators we are in a position to give them these chances.

We understand the importance of ensuring that all day-to-day teaching meets the needs of each learner, rather than relying on interventions to compensate for teaching that is less than good.

Every lesson poses new challenges and fresh opportunities to make a difference. As a department we have taken an honest and reflective approach to our teaching. If what we are ‘teaching’ is not working we change it at the first instance, this is done on a lesson by lesson reflection basis. As practitioners this is important to our development and more importantly in supporting the pupils to move forward.

Each teacher is responsible for their classes – we take the ‘Know your Children’ approach. Key to any in the Department change was to ensure that class and subject teachers knew which pupils were eligible for the Pupil Premium so that they could take responsibility for accelerating their progress in their classes. Teachers are encouraged to used achievement data frequently to check whether interventions or techniques were working and made adjustments accordingly, rather than just using the data retrospectively to see if something had worked. Our support technicians made sure that support staff are trained to understand their role in helping pupils to achieve.

‘One hat does not fit all’ approach - Meeting individuals’ particular needs In addition to their broader strategies to improve academic achievement in class, as a department we spend smaller amounts of the funding on meeting the specific needs of individuals, to keep them on track, prevent them from underachieving or broaden their horizons for example providing ingredients for their food lessons or materials in textiles and product design.

We have considered how we could support the development of individuals’ particular talents and skills. Following the study by OFSTED (2013- DfE) we have listened and we too have focused on; 1. Using broad knowledge of pupils and their families to identify potential barriers to individual pupils attaining their goals and realised when talented pupils might not fulfil their potential in a particular subject or skill because of a lack of opportunities outside of school, or a lack of family finances and 2. Recognise when pupils are at risk of underachieving because of particular circumstances and carefully identify the gaps in the experiences that poorer pupils have compared to their more affluent peers, 3. We assess the impact that this might have on their future and consider how funding could be used to extend pupils’ experiences and skills beyond their academic gains.

We are now in a position to be able, through careful monitoring and evaluation, to demonstrate the impact of each aspect of their spending on the outcomes for all individual pupils.

In the words of OFSTED “It is vital that schools get this right. Every child who leaves school without the right qualifications faces a far more difficult path to fulfilling their potential and finding employment. We owe it to all our young people to ensure they are given every chance to succeed.”

Andrew Griffiths Head of Faculty Design and Technology at Woodrush High School Reference: • Gilbert et.al. The Working Class: Poverty, education and alternative voices. 2018 Independent Thinking Press. ISBN-13: 978-1781352786 • The Department for Education. 2013. The Pupil Premium: How schools are spending the funding successfully to maximise achievement. https://www.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/413197/The_Pupil_Premium_-_How_schools_are_spending_ the_funding.pdf

STEM Club We have recently launched a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) club in association with STEM clubs.

The purpose of the trial is to gather evidence that STEM based clubs can positively engage students with STEM subjects, improve their enjoyment, enhance their learning and understanding with a view to increasing their attainment levels.

The activity trial will allow teachers to collect evidence through surveys, anecdotal and observation, supported with photographs, videos and where possible statements from students, colleagues, parents etc. anyone who can offer a positive viewpoint on the effectiveness of STEM Clubs as a tool to assist student learning. As an added bonus the school will receive funding for participating in the trial to invest further into the running of the STEM club.

The club will run from March till June with the theme of Wizards and wizardry so our young scientists will investigate how you can use science to make things change colour and state, or even disappear with sessions on topics such as potions, levitation, alchemy and herbology.

Laura Hollingworth Second in Science at Woodrush and R+D Co-Ordinator for Woodrush TSA

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Raising Achievement through effective Teaching and Learning strategies Fairfield First School At Fairfield First School, we are trying to raise achievement through a variety of different methods. These are areas that we are currently working on in order to raise achievement in writing: To make sure that children get to write from personal experience; particularly in KS1. The children need to write about a variety of different experiences in order to make links within their writing and begin to consider their effect on the reader. At Fairfield, the children have thoroughly enjoyed writing about events that they did in the school holidays in Reception (picture 1) and Year 1 have written a recount based on the Christmas holidays (picture 2).

To ensure writing books to demonstrate cross-curricular writing; writing in a variety of different subjects. The children in Year 2 and 3 have been thoroughly enjoying writing in 1st person from the point of view of a historical figure. They wrote diary entries in the style of Samuel Pepys and really enjoyed transferring their historical knowledge into their writing (picture 3). Similarly, in Year 4 the children enjoyed writing letters back home in the style of an evacuee in 1915 (picture 4).

Evidence of reading into writing and the effect books and their writing choices have on the reader. At Fairfield, we are trying to promote ‘reading for pleasure’ and considering writing for the effect on the reader. We base our writing units around quality texts and do various reading into writing activities as part of the learning journey for writing (picture 5). In Year 3, the children thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The First Hippo on the Moon’ by David Walliams and then wrote their own version of the story through planning, drafting and re-drafting. The children produced some amazing writing based on the story and the G&T writers are beginning to establish their own writing style taken from the books we share in class an those they read at home (picture 6).

Demonstrating how children make progress in writing over time. As a new initiative, teachers at Fairfield now moderate collaboratively using several pieces of writing from different pupils over the course of a year using ‘How our books show progress’ (picture 7)’. The writing pieces are taken at, at least three different time periods over the course of the year and are then assessed against: Sentence Structure & Grammar/Accuracy, Punctuation, Spelling, Handwriting and Additional notes. Monitoring the writing in this way really allows the staff and Leadership team to identify areas of strength and development.

Raising achievement of disadvantaged students or students with SEN. We are using Pupil Premium funding to raise the achievement of disadvantaged students through the use of intervention sessions delivered by a teacher in the afternoons to close gaps in reading and writing and also to and consolidate learning for these pupils. Children are highlighted and carefully monitored in terms of learning walks, book trawls, teacher conversations and the SENDCO offers support by offering strategies, resources or by calling upon professional advice if necessary. We also careful scrutinise IEP’s to check targets are in line with needs. A key priority in writing is also to look carefully at the range of differentiation offered in lessons and evidenced in books; here a disadvantaged pupil with cognitive processing and fine motor difficulties types up her writing and then hand scribes part of it as a re-draft (picture 8).

Jennifer Wakelam Assistant Headteacher English Co-ordinator and SLE at Woodrush TSA

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Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 6.1

Picture 6.2

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 6.3

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Raising Achievement through the Professional Development of Staff Teaching and Learning @ Hanley Castle The teaching and learning CPD focus for this term at Hanley Castle is Explanations and Modelling. We have 3 weeks each half term highlighted on the calendar in which we all focus on a particular element of our practice. This also links to CPD sessions and gives teachers the opportunity to research strategies, attend training, trial, experiment, observe and request observations as well as share good practice and evaluations towards the end of the period within departments and in cross-faculty groups.

So why Explanations and Modelling? Well, this year, many of our focus areas have been selected from the excellent work on “Making Every Lesson Count” by Andy Tharby and Shaun Allison. They identify five principles that they consider lead to great teaching: Challenge, Explanation, Modelling, Questioning and Feedback. I was especially interested in the idea of creating some CPD sessions around Explanations and Modelling, because particularly the former rarely makes an appearance in training, yet I believe deserves more consideration. “Explanations are the bedrock on which all future learning is built.” (Andy Tharby, Shaun Allison “Making Every Lesson Count”.) Explanations also go hand-in-hand with modelling, can be enhanced by questioning, introduce content for students to practise and are planned and informed by the feedback we receive from students.

The training took the form of a carousel, delivered by three of the TSA SLEs as well as our KS3 English Co-ordinator.

Andy Mainwaring (History SLE) delivered a session on developing students’ understanding of explanations.

He explains: “The focus for my session was developing pupils’ understanding of explanations, how, in history, we make this stick so it’s a skill pupils can build on and develop through GCSE and into A-level. The principles are developed during Key Stage 3 but the process is formalised at GCSE to link to exam criteria.

The method shared is our so-called ‘cake lesson’ whereby cakes are substitutes for factors to help develop exam technique. Initially, pupils are asked to describe a cherry bakewell with a real focus on the nature of the cake. The aim is to get them thinking about the image they’ve been given and to pick out multiple aspects of it. This is then related to an exam question in which they have to apply the same technique to an aspect of the course already studied. For example, describing the boom in 1920s USA might be a worthwhile alternative to the cherry bakewell.

This is then developed into explanation and judgement forming as three additional cakes are added to the cherry bakewell with pupils having to decide which of the four is the tastiest. They will fairly swiftly realise that in order to decide, they will have to inspect each cake and taste each one to help make their decision. As this becomes

obvious with the cakes, the principle can then be applied to an exam question in which multiple factors must be considered towards a question. Pupils are shown that, similarly to the cakes, to determine if one factor is more significant, many of them must be considered through a number of paragraphs so that a conclusion can then be formed. Since almost all of the longer essay-style questions in the new GCSE specs are multi-factored questions, there is a wealth of potential questions which can be used as examples.

This simple approach to teaching explanations and judgement-forming can be referred to at any time and does make a considerable impression on the pupils. It generally takes what appears to be a tricky concept into something that can be considered in a more relevant way so that pupils can recall the correct principle and apply this in their exam answers. Whether the cakes are actually made available to the class is another matter but is one that can certainly add to the process!”

Gavin Leaver (Art and Design SLE) provided us with an excellent session on modelling to improve the quality of work, particularly looking at how this can be applied in practical subjects.

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Jess Millward (KS3 English Co-ordinator) shared her strategies for Live Marking and Modelling that the English department have been trialling with Y8 this year. They have invested in some visualizers and have been using live marking strategies to give whole group feedback following key pieces of work. Students are always in the process of creating products in school, it is important that as teachers, we show the students how to use their knowledge, gained from explanations, to form an end-product and ensure that this is of high quality.

Finally, my session looked at how we might encourage students to provide explanations themselves; not to replace or supplement expert teacher explanations, but as a process that occurs after this has happened to “stick” the explanation in the students’ memories. My chosen format for these is the use of “Common Craft” videos. This is a recognised technique for producing explanations and is very simple in its process, requiring students to break down the knowledge they’ve acquired into clear steps, which are then illustrated with simple diagrams and accompanied by a script. I use this format especially in more complex grammar teaching, encouraging students to create short videos to explain a grammar point. Working in groups, helps weaker students to revisit the content and have it re-explained by peers as well as giving more-able students the opportunity to lead the production and script development. There’s also a role for everyone and as you’ll see from examples, no one actually appears in the film, so they’re easily shared.

You can take a look at our MFL examples on our YouTube channel, along with the “training” clip I use to introduce the idea to students; http://bit.ly/2ubdzoO. I’ve also seen excellent examples in history to explain a timeline of events, in science to explain a complex process and in English to provide a “trailer” to a book review.

Jacqui Burrows Assistant Headteacher (Teaching and Learning/MFL & Closing the Gap SLE)

Networking: Working with our colleagues beyond Woodrush High School There are many advantages to collaborative working, and in this time of immense educational change, there has never been a greater need to work closely with our colleagues, both within our schools and beyond.

There have been far fewer opportunities to network since the collapse of our Local Authorities, so Woodrush TSA decided to revive these meetings by organising free events. The most recent of these dates was the MFL group.

There are now over 30 teachers in the MFL networking group, and this continues to grow. The group has moved from general meetings to share ideas and opinions, to specific events focusing on areas of MFL curriculum. See above photo for the writing moderation afternoon hosted by North Bromsgrove High School on 13th February.

As well as these events, we now have an MFL drop box to share resources, and in March, we will host an AQA exams advisor who will support us in the conduct of the new speaking exams. We have big plans afoot in this group; combined we have the ability to pool together and afford CPD we couldn’t access independently and there are group projects forming within the networking group.

The success of the MFL group is proof that together we are stronger. The relief we feel after talking to our colleagues who are having the same experiences, how more confident we feel after moderating our work with other schools is invaluable!

There are already well-established network groups in Maths, Science and History and new groups being created for other subjects as well as SENCOs. If you are interested in attending a network meeting or starting your own group, please contact Claire Croxall (CPD coordinator) ccroxall@woodrushhigh.worcs.sch.uk or Abi Zaman (TSA Administrator) tsa@woodrushhigh.worcs.sch.uk

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Raising Achievement through the Professional Development of Staff NPQML Project – Improving attainment and progress of lower ability and disadvantaged students by implementing specific teaching and learning strategies The aim of my project was to improve the attainment of low ability and disadvantaged students in years 10 and 11 through improved teaching and learning strategies. I compared data from progress 1 at the start of the academic year and compared it to the examination results of the students in their core and additional science exams in August to measure the success of this project with the aim of 50% of target students improving their attainment by at least one grade. The project focussed on 4 science sets; 10Sc/b4, 10Sc/b5, 11Sc/b4, 11Sc/b5. Implementation of this project was in January, running through the spring and summer terms.

The task objectives of my project were to; • • •

Improved teaching and learning of low ability/disadvantaged students with a particular focus on exam skill and recall of knowledge.

Closer monitoring of attainment of low ability/disadvantaged students in target groups.

Improved engagement in lessons of students and improved behaviour of students in lessons.

The expected outcomes of my project were: Improved pupil progress of low ability/ disadvantaged students in the target group.

Improved attainment of low ability/ disadvantaged students in the target group.

Specific Strategies Implemented The main strategies of my project focussed were devised using the Sutton trust/EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit (2012) with an aim to improve exam skill and recall of knowledge. The main strategies are listed below; • Focussed teaching and learning – strategies such as topping and tailing lessons with factual knowledge and weekly knowledge tests to improve recall of knowledge, modelling of answers (especially longer answer questions), use of online resources etc.

• Small group learning – class sizes were small and tasks were completed for the majority in pairs/ small groups • Effective feedback –more often feedback and more effective. Linked directly to exam skill.

Results When comparing the exam results compared to progress 1, in year 11 the target group improved their grades by 6 grades overall, with 38% of students improving their grade from core science In year 10 to additional science in year 11. Results in the year 10 target groups were even more successful with 69% of students improving their grade with an increase of 21 improved grades across the target groups.

Recommendations Based on the findings of this project, I recommend the following strategies should be implemented in teaching of low ability groups: • Focussed teaching and learning • Online resources e.g. Educake, BBC Bitesize were • Top and tailing of lessons with knowledge based really useful in engaging students and can be questions e.g. end a lesson with key summary used in ‘flipped learning’ questions and then recomplete the following • Small group learning – class sizes are small (≤12), lesson to improve recall of facts. Also complete emphasis on paired and small group learning synoptic style questions at least once a week to especially when completing exam questions recall previous knowledge.

• Effective feedback –more often feedback and more • Weekly knowledge question tests, results recorded effective. Linked directly to exam skill. Feedback to and shared to class (increase competition within be given at least fortnightly (ideally weekly). Peer class and therefore motivation of students). assessment was found to be effective also.

• Alternative end of unit tests to be completed • A collaborative approach to be taken when planning as walking talking mocks rather than exam T&L to low set groups (b4/5). A working party to be set conditions. Full walking talking mocks of whole up so that staff can share strengths within the science exam paper to be completed prior to mock and department and to be discussed in departmental final exams. meetings at least termly to ensure class teachers are • Focus on exam questions in every lesson fully focussed on these groups.

– students should be given a command • Closer monitoring and analysis work help sheet, 6 mk questions should be of these groups with appropriate completed at least once a week, teachers targeting and intervention of should model how to answer questions students making the least progress.

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Laura Hollingworth Second in Science and R+D Co-Ordinator for Woodrush TSA

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Raising Achievement through the Professional Development of Staff NPQML Project – Closing the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students within mathematics.

The specific task objective of my project;

The expected outcomes of my project were: The objective of my project was to look at the gap between pupil premium and non-pupil premium students in Year 9 and also at Closing the gap betwe en the pupil premium how to encourage students to improve their attitude to learning students and the non-pu pil premium students en betwe link proven a is there as , grade (A2L) within mathematics was the main outcome I expected. It started off started I s. school within ss progre a students’ A2L grade and their off with a gap of 0.2 level of progress and my by looking at progress data to identify the pupil premium students aim was to decrease this to below 0.1 levels of and I then tracked their progress throughout this project. My main progress. aim was to close the gap between the attainment data for the pupil I also wanted to achiev e a target of 90% of the premium students vs. non pupil premium students. I also wanted to non-pupil premium studen ts getting an A2L getting ts studen m premiu pil non-pu achieve a target of 90% of the grade of 2 or above by the end of Year 10 and the of 80% and 10 Year of end the an A2L grade of 2 or above by 80% of the pupil premium students getting pupil premium students getting A2L grade of 2 or above.

A2L grade of grade 2 or above. However, I expected this to be slightly lower because it Specific Strategies Implemented is very difficult getting students to improve their attitude to learning grades, especially if The strategies implemented were: they are being targeted in Year 9; Year 7 would • Modelling starters to be used in all Year 9 groups, as have been more beneficial to target, however modelling mathematics came up in some of the reading I the pupil premium gap doesn’t exist at that did and was shown to be a positive way of encouraging the stage. disadvantaged students. It had also already proven beneficial in Science.

• Modelling answers in books. This was something that a member of staff already did and I therefore brought this into the department so it was carried out in every class. This helps students to understand where they are going wrong and they have something they can easily refer to if needed.

• Motivational reports given to students who were pupil premium and had an A2L grade 3 or 4. From the reading I carried out I found that if we can increase motivation within lessons we usually see grades also increase.

• Parental contact with pupil premium students in maths regarding the motivational reports.

• Learning walks carried out within maths to share ideas and to ensure that new initiatives were being carried out.

• Book trawls carried out within maths again to share ideas and encourage all staff to mark in the style of modelling answers.

• Encouraged staff to observe each other and observe me teach. Constant dialogue between the teachers of Year 9 maths to encourage focus on the disadvantaged students.

Results emitted Students improved their attitude to learning grades. More specifically the pupil premium students we focused on; not only in the modelling of mathematics but also the motivational report they received and parental contact; improved.

At the start of this project I stated: ‘I will also track their A2L grades with the aim that over 90% of them have an A2L grade of 2 or above by the end of year 10 and 80% of the pupil premium students have an A2L grade of grade 2 or above by the end of year 10.’ By looking at Appendix 16 you will see that 79% of the pupil premium students are now on a grade 1 or 2 for their attitude to learning grade in comparison to 74% at the start of this project.

For Year 9 data feed 3 the levels of progress made by the pupil premium students on average was 0.8 and the levels of progress made by the non-pupil premium students on average was 1.0. This is a gap of 0.2.

For Year 9 data feed 5 the gap between the pupil premium and non-pupil premium students was 0.09 and therefore below the 0.1 I aimed for. Here we can see that the gap has closed, which is good evidence that my modelling is starting to work. It is now important that I keep working with these students until the end of Year 11.

Recommendations from the project This project started by looking at Year 9 pupil premium students; however the focus should always be on Year 7 as this usually has the best impact. It also puts focus on them as they enter the school and this focus then remains until they leave Year 11. I picked Year 9 because we could measure the gap also, however, for a longer project I could have looked at Year 7 and after 5 years looked at the impact that the modelling of mathematics had on their GCSE results and the pupil premium gap.

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I’d also like to go further and continue looking into the modelling of mathematics. In the future someone could look at the ways in which maths can be modelled and what has the biggest impact. We could also collaborate with Science and see whether their ideas match with ours and whether it could be something that eventually works school wide.

The motivational report is something which has been used at my school before. However, it was very brief and they were used with Year 11 only. I’d like the opportunity to trial these across the school again, because I really feel they worked in mathematics. The students enjoyed getting a -/=/+ instead of a grade, as they knew that they were being compared with the previous lesson and they just had to be better than that lesson.

I thoroughly enjoyed this NPQML and feel as though my leadership skills have improved.

Departmental learning walk feedback sheet- showing our embedded modelling!

Motivational report… filled in.

As you can see this has had a positive impact on the students’ effort within mathematics.

Samantha Carr Second in Maths at Woodrush High School Samantha took part in the NPQML at Woodrush TSA. If you would like more information about the NPQ qualifications, please contact Woodrush TSA.

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Raising Achievement through the Professional Development of Staff ‘Gap Project Year’: An Evidence-based approach to CPDL With the start of a new academic year 2017/18 came a renewed focus on greater personalisation of our programme of Continuous Professional Development and Learning (CPDL) at Woodrush. General staff feedback and recommendations from school leadership were that we needed more personalisation but a renewed focus on “What actually works in the classroom?”. So, we started to consider how we can improve student progress, using the wealth of sources in the educational networks, to enhance teaching and learning practice.

We reflected: We had to start with a greater consultation with staff which, based on a CPDL questionnaire, revealed that staff valued most highly CPD that was: 1) Appraisal-rooted 2) Rooted in sharing of practice 3) Linked to whole school priorities 4) Longer-term development 5) Individualised / Personalised This provided a platform for a mode of delivery and support for staff’s professional development.

We researched: Taking this feedback on board, we reviewed and used four main research sources to compose our approach to evidence-based CPD. Firstly, recommendations for highly effective CPD were considered, based on the Teacher Development Trust’s (TDT) report of effective professional development and the DfE’s ‘Evidence-informed teaching’ which was summarised and presented to all staff.

Some of the key recommendations from the TDT report include: 1. “To produce profound, lasting change, the most effective professional development lasted at least 2 terms - more usually a year.”

2. “A didactic model in which facilitators simply tell teachers what to do does not lead to positive outcomes for participants or students.”

3. Providing “opportunities for individual teachers both to reveal and discuss their beliefs and to engage in peer learning and support.”

We then explored with staff the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) website and strategy Toolkit into the impact and cost for learning interventions followed by a review of Profession John Hattie’s ‘Visible Learning’ meta-analysis and effect size calculation on strategies associated with acceleration of student progress.

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We personalised: Following the training on the EEF and Visible Learning, staff all selected an area or strategy that they felt would impact most on their students, having considered data, learning gaps and the needs of the learners themselves. Taking into consideration the initial staff request for longer-term developments of CPDL, and the evidence that supports this, to allow time for staff to reflect, collaborate and embed a strategy or approach into practice, it was decided that the individual ‘Gap Research Projects’ would span across two terms with a review as part of the mid-year Appraisal meetings in Spring – also requested by staff.

Once all staff had selected a teaching group they wished to focus their ‘Gap Project’ on, for many this was an appraisal focus teaching group, and they had identified an attainment or learning gap they wanted to close, their ‘Gap Year’ projects and chosen evidence-based strategy and its associated effect size were collated and displayed in the staff room for all to see; providing a useful reference point for teachers to partner and collaborate with any colleagues with similar ‘Gap Year’ project.

We supported:

We implemented:

We evaluated:

Given the diverse nature of the ‘Gap Year projects’, we supported staff through providing relevant research materials and EEF website links relevant to their chosen project. We hosted ‘opt-in’ strategy sessions for staff to go to that provided ideas and practical tips for teaching strategies and we facilitated collaborative planning sessions for staff to join others investigating the same aspect or approach.

Staff trialled, discussed, adapted and enhanced their implementation of their ‘Gap Year’ focus across the second half of Autumn term and the Academy’s Teaching & Learning forum helped to steer the direction of the projects through a review of the ‘Gap Year’ before Christmas – recommending that for the Spring, staff should bring share their ‘Project’ findings with their specialist teams so that more collaboration, specific to each subject, could flourish.

In March, as part of mid-year Appraisals, staff are reflecting on the impact of their chosen strategy on student engagement and progress and identifying next steps, if they are choosing to continue that focus or adopting a new one.

The impact of the ‘Gap Year’ has been: • • • •

The adoption of an ‘evidence-based’ approach to developing and reflecting on our pedagogy and practices; Promotion of cross-department learning Increased personalisation of the CPDL, specifically the ‘learning’ element; A more acute focus on how a strategy can complement Quality First Teaching

We will now: • Continue to embed evidence-based research into our CPDL programme • Regularly update staff on latest evidence-based findings on strategies and approaches that positive (and negative) impacts associated with them.

• Support staff interested in involvement in funded research opportunities.

Jay Barber Deputy Headteacher at Woodrush High School Sources - Department for Education (July 2017) Evidence-informed teaching: An evaluation of progress in England - Research report. Crown Copyright - Teacher Development Trust’s (TDT) Developing Great Teaching: Lessons from the international reviews into effective professional development - Visible Learning Effect size overall ranking (2016) https://visible-learning.org/nvd3/visualize/hattie-ranking-interactive-2009-2011-2015.html - Sutton Trust Education Endowment Fund (EEF), ‘EEF Toolkit’, https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/resources/teaching-learning-toolkit/

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Raising Achievement through the Support of Staff From Induction to Expert: CPD pathways for our Woodrush TSA As part of our work to create coherency between our work within the Woodrush TSA and the CPD of the main school, a pathway of the development and support for staff from their first years in teaching through to building leadership capacity and growth, has been mapped. Despite our successful growth of the Schools Direct training route and continued support of the PGDipEd training route, nationally during the last 5 years the Government has missed recruitment targets for teaching, serving to highlight how imperative it is that we react to nurture and grow staff within our schools. Evidently, there is a real need for teaching schools to facilitate collaborative training and create capacity for schools to access and invest in teacher CPD in order to proactively and optimistically tackle retention and recruitment issues.

Our CPD vision for Woodrush TSA is to ensure that staff are able access training which is effective, relevant and impactful for Primary and Secondary colleagues.

Current pathways and suggested opportunities for CPD within the Alliance include: Demonstrate interest to teach/ Schools Direct route into teaching

Advice and guidance at Train to Teach events Support to apply to teach Get into Teaching events held at various locations within the Alliance School Experience Application support Interview for places

NQTs

Package of support – weekly training/ personalised package of support

External NQTs *Woodrush TSA are accredited as an Three packages of support include face to face support and training sessions throughout the year Appropriate Body (See our packages of support) RQTs (See ITP advert for Woodrush TSA offer)

Olevi ‘Improving Teacher Programme’

RQT+ (See advert for programme for Woodrush TSA offer)

A three session training package

Main scale and UPS teachers (See OTP advert for Woodrush TSA offer) Aspiring Middle leaders (See NPQML advert)

Olevi ‘Outstanding Teacher Programme’ NPQML

Aspiring Senior leaders (See NPQSL advert)

NPQSL

Networking events (See the TSA website and twitter for info)

Free events for a range of subjects, including: Science, MFL, Maths, Humanities, Research and Development

Additional support (Contact Woodrush TSA)

Bespoke packages of support, dependent on need, through the support of our Alliance SLES and NLEs

Training updates: ITP / OTP Whilst facilitating the ITP and OTP this year I have been impressed by the energy and commitment delegates have had to reflect on their own practice and share with colleagues. Perhaps one of the most valued aspects of the course has been the learning walk, infamously named the ‘ward round’ by Olevi, as this provides the chance for delegates to find ‘golden nuggets’ from viewing small chunks of teaching from within the main school. We have been fortunate to offer our delegates the chance to complete ‘ward rounds’ at Coppice Primary School and this has been particularly valued by our Primary delegates from St Andrews. This partnership strengthens the offer of the ITP and OTP and may be of particular interest to our Primary colleagues.

NPQs

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We have celebrated the fantastic achievement of our 100% pass rate for the cohorts who have now completed the ‘old format’ NPQs. This year, our first cohorts of the newly developed NPQSL and NPQML qualifications similarly successfully begun and we have been delighted to welcome delegates from schools such as Ounsdale, Christopher Whitehead and Pedmore, Crestwood, Ridgeway Academy, The Jewellery Quarter Academy and the De Montford, some of whom have been new schools accessing training from the Alliance. Their engagement and ability to develop leadership actions has been impressive. It has been particularly interesting to observe clusters of delegates attending from the same school, as this has enabled strong debate and created an increased opportunity for delegates to make significant changes within their schools.

OTP delegates during the Power of Coaching module

NQT Accreditation The bronze, silver and gold packages of support have been implemented and our NQTs are valuing the opportunity to attend training at the Woodrush training rooms. Support visits and contact from Lead Teacher for NQT Accreditation, along with strong support from within their own schools has enabled all NQTs to demonstrate progress.

RQT The newly developed package of support for RQT/RQT+ teachers has been positively evaluated. We have partnered Studley High School RQT/ RQT+ teachers with Woodrush High staff members to build further collaboration and strengthen partnerships. During session 2 (of 3) delegates have had the chance to request a ‘shadow a leader’ opportunity in order to support their leadership journey and I look forward to continuing working with colleagues in the summer term and hearing about their shadow a leader experiences.

We welcome your feedback and reaction to the offer and work closely with our partner head teachers to ensure that the offer reflects an appropriate reaction to school needs and continually adapts to support the national and local need.

Elizabeth Lawson Assistant Headteacher at Woodrush High School

NPQSL delegates

Raising Achievement through the Professional Development of Staff #TLCWorcs18 Conference at Christopher Whitehead School Saturday 3rd February ‘TLC’ in this particular context stands for Teaching, Leadership, Confidence. The main message of the day held at Christopher Whitehead was that every teacher is a leader of learning within their own classroom, and the delegates who attended that day reflected this message from NQTs to Head teachers presenting, contributing and listening.

The day began with an inspiring presentation from Jill Berry, with decades of leadership experience. She is really worth following on Twitter @jillberry102. Jill talked about confident leadership. I loved her message that successful leadership meant focusing on the positives as well as what isn’t working, and most importantly, empowering those around us, whether that means the pupils we teach, our colleagues or the people we lead.

I left the day feeling invigorated, not just with ideas to take away and use in my practice, but also a pride in my profession and the professional dialogue and support we share in education.

There is another free event organised by the same group of schools and WomenEd on Wednesday 7th March 5pm-7:30pm at Malvern College, with micro presentations as well as key notes from some successful school leaders. You can register to attend or present on eventbrite, and I really recommend attending!

Claire Croxall CPD Coordinator Woodrush High School

Later on that day, we were able to choose 3 ‘break-out’ sessions to attend. There was so much choice and so many different types of speakers to listen to, it was tough trying to choose just 3!! I attended 3 very different workshops, from ‘Assessment and Progress’ (led by the CWLS MFL team) to ‘Why it’s perfectly OK not to be Perfect’ (presented by AHT Rachel Stevens @RCStevensYes) The balance between improving outcomes, professional development but also personal well-being and worklife balance was excellent, and much needed in our profession at this time of great change.

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Raising Achievement through the Support of Students Raising Achievement for Students with Special Educational Needs Julia Husband – SENCO at Hanley Castle, SLE for Woodrush TSA

Promoting high aspirations for students with Special Educational Needs as well as enabling them to feel challenged are both necessary when raising achievement. The SEN Code of Practice states that: ‘High aspirations are crucial to success – discussions about longer term goals should start early and ideally well before Year 9 (age 13-14) at school. They should focus on the child or young person’s strengths and capabilities and the outcomes they want to achieve.’ (2014:120) This in turn will motivate students and develop their independence as they overcome the challenges set in order to succeed and achieve their longer term goals.

Here are some strategies to challenge and promote aspiration for students with SEN in order to help them succeed and achieve: Develop your own knowledge and understanding of individual students •

Create and access Student Passports – these should be written entirely from the individual student’s point of view. It should outline their difficulties, strengths, what support they like to receive, what motivates them, their interests and their long term goals. This information can be then be used in teacher planning and to help build positive working relationships with students.

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Access Individual Provision Maps – these are written from the perspective of the professionals involved in supporting the student and outline more specific strategies for teachers to use. IPMs also outline which external agencies are involved with students and indicate which interventions the student is accessing. Keep asking your SENCO for more information - knowledge is power!

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Access Education Health and Care Plans – not all students on the SEN register have one of these. This is a statutory document which all teachers (not just the SENCO) are responsible for. An EHCP outlines the student’s longer term goals and the actions/ provision which needs to be in place in order to achieve these. All teachers are responsible for enabling students achieve their longer term goals and make appropriate levels of progress.

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Talk to the students regularly. This will enable you to gain a further understanding of how individual students are progressing in your lessons which will then better inform your future planning. Confidence is also barrier for achievement – regular reassurance and direct praise from the subject teacher can help students overcome this.

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Set personalised subject challenges and goals. These could be set to promote social, organisational and behavioural success as well as raise academic achievement.

Create Individual Challenge Cards

Positive Role Model and Achievement Letters

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Ask Learning Support Assistants to identify students who have been positive role models or who achieved something on a weekly basis.

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These can be monitored by the teacher or the LSA. Set challenges which enable students to become better learners and raise their achievement.

Use visual prompts that the students understand and set a reward which motivates them.

Create a generic proforma which will enable you to send a letter home with efficiency and ease (you’ll just need to personalise the name and reason).

Praise often has more impact as a motivation when it is reinforced at home.

Praise letters will also avoid students with SEN, and in particular students social and behavioural difficulties, being overlooked.

Mini Whiteboards Students with SEN often feel more confident when working on mini whiteboards. Their work is less definite as their errors can be easily wiped off and amended without having to cross out. Accept what they do on a mini whiteboard as a ‘real’ piece of work and photocopy the whiteboard or take a photo to enable the student to stick what they’ve done into their books.

Mini whiteboards can also be used a reassurance tool to allow students to write down any questions they might have, trial spellings and indicate discreetly to you how confident they are feeling through a number or emoji code. Confidence plays a key part in the journey to success and achievement.

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Raising Achievement through the Support of Students Old School Mentoring programme Our Old School Mentoring Programme is being set up for senior members of the community aged 60+ to partner with pupils in Woodrush school (pp / disadvantaged) to help raise attendance, achievement and connection within the community, improve social skills, empathy and confidence.

Research has shown improvements in purpose, hope for the future, less feelings of loneliness and more of a connection and purpose in the community can be gained if people have an opportunity to meet with others in a purposeful way. We are fortunate to have volunteer applications from a retired head teacher, a chartered engineer, a mountain walking leader and a music teacher, amongst others.

Our students will be skill swapping with the seniors e.g. pupils Our Woodrush ‘Old School Mentors’ having training over in to teach some IT / social media skills in exchange for a skill from the HUB – FLOURISH and SAFEGUARDING for mentors. their partner e.g. photography, gardening, craft, engineering skills, music, baking, sport, homework, and general chatting. Research from Oxford schools where the study has been run for a few years is showing encouraging results for raising achievement for disadvantaged children.

Table Plan and cooking together After Easter, I will be running a short project aimed at families working together with their child to help raise attendance and achievement.

This will involve: Family cooking workshops - involving maths, literacy, DT, and fun! I ran a pilot with new y7s a few years ago where 26 families took part.

The pupils from the group are now in Year 11 at Woodrush and still remember it as a fond introduction to Woodrush.

Table plan - eating around the table together as a family with a purpose / topic in mind - communication and connection. The table is the unofficial meeting place in the home, an opportunity to connect Intergenerational mentoring in full swing with each other, a pit stop amongst a very busy and stressful week. We as y10 George teaches Mentor Jo Chandler don’t need scientific research to show that positive and appropriate about social media skills. talking together as a family regularly throughout the week raises a child’s self-esteem, helps them to feel stable, loved and recognised, which, in turn, helps raise achievement in school. A pilot was run in 2014 at Woodrush which proved successful 9 families took part. A table (low cost) was purchased for 1 family in particular so that they could take part in the project.

The results were beneficial for this family in addressing social skills, diet and homework issues.

Sonny presents his speaker design to the mentors and gives them a quick lesson on electrical wiring.

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Son Parker Old school Mentor project co-ordinator at Woodrush High School

Raising Achievement through the Support of Students Raising achievement through the support of mental health and wellbeing.

St Andrews First School has been focusing for the last few years on the mental health and wellbeing of pupils and staff. Evidence has suggested that more and more children at an early age are suffering with anxiety and stress related illnesses. This is a target point on the school development plan. We decided to put a programme in place to target both the school as a whole and also individuals to help relieve these tensions and teach the children ways to deal with their stress. The desired outcome was to increase resilience levels for all children.

Stress Box was founded by a local entrepreneur Liam Blackwood and was focused primarily on adults. Liam worked alongside Mrs Sophie Rowan (PE Coordinator) and Mr Craig Nicholls (PE/TA) to adapt the concept to suit the needs of the children within school. This began with a training day for all staff so they could understand how we were going to implement the concept within school. The staff found the session very informative and straight away made them realise how Stress Box could impact the children. Stress Box uses a combination of physical fitness, boxing and mindfulness activities to help release tension, focus the mind and to support mental wellbeing and resilience within the school environment.

Our Mission • To create positive, mental habits e.g. discussing personal problems.

• To teach children the techniques to self-relax/self-regulate.

• To practise releasing negative emotional expression.

• To be a problem solver for children and schools.

• To use exercise for a healthy mind and healthy body.

Our first priority was to use observations of children/classes to allow us to understand what the triggers were for stress related concerns. We also observed breaks/lunchtimes as this is a time where social inclusion/exclusion could particularly impact on the atmosphere within the classroom environment. From that we created a scheme of work to impact different scenarios within the school. These were as follows: The stress monkeys triangle - 2 children+ Liam Blackwood. 30 minutes focusing on any aspect that has arisen from ourselves/teacher or parent.

Stress Monks - A full half term of PE for a particular class with Liam to enhance mental attributes as well as create a more supportive and relaxed class environment. This was instead of PE as it is based around the boxing strategy of the concept.

After Monks - An after school club that children could attend to allow them an extra opportunity to take part in a range of activities to help with their mental health and wellbeing.

Table Monks - Liam will spend a day within the classroom working with different tables and pupils and supporting the class teacher.

Breakfast Club - Craig Nicholls (sports teacher/TA) provides a calm and purposeful start to the school day for targeted children. We have made links with Tesco who now provide food donations each week. This club has improved the morning routine for these children and the positive impact on behaviour has been noted by staff.

Buster the bus - Buster is a new learning environment/space that has been created to give the children a quiet area to work or take time out to relax, re-focus and to relieve any anxiety. As this space is close to the field it is a great place for children to reflect, use imagination techniques, draw pictures as well use nature as a calming strategy.

The impact was measured in a variety of ways. We gained feedback from parents whose children were involved within the sessions. This was very informative and from that we have been delivering sessions now outside of the school day for certain pupils.

We invited a group of pupils from cluster schools to have the opportunity to experience the concept and take back what they learnt to their own schools. This was a fantastic day and teachers from our cluster school fed back details to Tracey Freer (Sports Partnership) with how successful it was. We also have 6 children who regularly attend the breakfast club which has seen a positive impact on their behaviour and confidence at school. All classes have embedded a focus on wellbeing with specific time in the day focused on a calming environment within the classroom. This has particularly worked well after lunchtime.

The Future As this project moves forward we are now looking at ways to engage children in further activities during lunchtime. We shall be holding a whole school wellbeing week where the children will participate in a wide range of activities from Yoga to baking. A ‘shine’ day will give the children the opportunity to dress up in way that reflects their talent.

Progress in the area of Health and Wellbeing will be closely monitored during this academic year and further plans will be developed.

Kay Cholmondeley Head of St Andrews School- a Strategic partner for Woodrush TSA

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Raising Achievement through the Support of Students Developing Oracy in Low Confidence Students “If You can’t say it...you can’t write it!”

In January we ran two communications whole day workshops, run by Talk the Talk.

Talk the Talk are an organisation that impart the importance of oracy as the key to literacy. They realise many young people find it tough to be confident. It can be awkward to speak out. But confident people are happy, socially mobile and turn their dreams into planS. They are supported in doing so by The Four Acre Trust, which is an educational charity supporting young people making the most in their lives.

They have developed a set of workshops and online resources to help students to become communicators for life.

Their sessions are specifically designed for all students of all abilities, however motivated (or not) they are to become better communicators.

We decided to run two full day workshops called ‘Talk about Communication’ and specifically targeted students with low literacy skills and low self-efficacy in years 7 & 8.

The workshops enabled students to speak from their heart, structure their thoughts and use body language to develop confidence. The coach helped support our students to plan and deliver a structured presentation to their peers through a planned series of activities.

By the end of the sessions students had: Created a personalised talk topic generator Talked about their own confidence levels when speaking in front of others • Delivered a structured talk about a peer using persuasive techniques • Studied and applied the different modes of human communication • Delivered impromptu talks on a variety of topics with a transferable structure • Identified their individual passions and opinions to then structure and deliver a presentation without notes to their peers

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We now hope this will give our students greater confidence: • • • • • •

Preparing for speaking and listening assessments Enabling them to find their unique voice To structure and deliver presentations, essays and gain confidence in class contributions To deliver presentations without notes Identifying and understanding the effect of persuasive devices and use them within presentations and essays To enable them to answer questions in a variety of situations with a clear and concise structure

At the end of the workshops, teachers have built upon the workshop outcomes by delivering a suite of video-based online follow-up lessons. This continues to boost communication opportunities and ensure that strong oracy skills are embedded within the mind-sets of the students involved.

Dave Monk Assistant Head teacher at Woodrush High School and Facilitator for the NPQML and NPQSL

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Raising Achievement through the Support of Students ‘Bond with Books’ - Intervention The ‘Bond with Books’ sessions, for struggling readers in years 7 and 8, are delivered in collaboration between the school library and the youth centre. They were originally devised to expose young people to exciting stories, with an aim to spark an interest in reading for pleasure whilst developing social skills and raising self-esteem.

Currently the sessions introduce students to texts which are both within the reading range of all group members, and relevant to their own lives and experiences. The most positive outcomes are achieved when reading books which provoke great debate around the issues that arise in the text. It has been interesting to observe the young people’s increasing participation, at times becoming rather vocal. On one occasion a passionate debate on fox hunting took place.

Each young person taking part in the programme now completes three Outcomes Stars: at the beginning, part way through and at the end of the programme. This computer based scheme, provided by Triangle Consulting Social Enterprise Ltd, allows the young person to consider their well-being in key areas such as aspiration, confidence and communication. Charting the changes over time provides the opportunity for discussions to take place with the youth worker.

Achievable targets may be set to address the young person’s concerns.

As a result of this, students may be paired up with a reading buddy or be encouraged to contribute more in the sessions or join an extracurricular club. The youth centre, being part of the school’s extracurricular activities, has seen over 90% of the catch up group now attending, with some students readily wanting to join the youth committee to be more involved in the decision making.

Parental engagement is the key to success for individuals taking part in the sessions. Celebration evenings, showcasing the young people’s achievements, are an ideal opportunity to open up a dialogue with the parents. This has resulted in us becoming aware of some of the issues parents are facing and has led to the decision to introduce positive parenting sessions. The first one to take place will be Anger in the Home.

Students’ dramatic interpretation of Pale by Chis Wooding

The ‘Bond with Books’ catch- up sessions have been evolving since the initial programme began in 2014. This year the sessions have expanded to include a greater number of students with varying reading ages, creating new challenges that are leading us to evaluate the content for given target groups. Following end of term Outcomes Star reviews and reading age tests, we plan to focus on smaller groups of students who are most likely to benefit from the current format during the summer term. At the same time we will be considering appropriate, more stimulating provision for the less vulnerable students, generally reluctant rather than weak readers, to be put in place for the next academic year.

Jenny Robertson and Kaye Parker Woodrush High School

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Welcome to Mark Harris We are pleased to announce that Mark Harris has joined the Specialist Leader in Education programme here at Woodrush. Mark is the Assistant Vice Principal for Teaching, Learning and Assessment at the Q3 Academy in Great Barr Birmingham. He is also author of two acclaimed books related to teaching practice.

How to Develop the Habits of Outstanding Teaching provides a step-by-step guide to the key components for creating outstanding lessons, the book includes a wealth of strategies and techniques that are easy to implement and have an immediate impact on teaching and students’ progress. With a wide range of examples and case studies taken from different subjects, the book covers all aspects of teaching including: • • • • • • •

how to create independence, resilience and creativity; tried and test techniques for differentiation and questioning; habits and hacks to manage your time effectively; ideas on how you can coach yourself to ‘outstanding’; Memory techniques for students; literacy in lessons; marking and homework.

This book is ideal for newly qualified teachers, as well as more experienced teachers who are looking for some fresh ideas for their lessons, this highly practical resource will instil the habits that will enable you to perform at an outstanding level consistently in the classroom.

Mark’s most recent book released early this year is entitled Becoming an Outstanding Geography Teacher which supports all geography teachers in offering a wide range of approaches to teaching and learning that will stimulate and engage students.

Providing a variety of techniques for planning inspiring geography lessons, the book shows teachers how they can use current resources in a more innovative way to produce outstanding results. Chapters include sample lesson plans which demonstrate each technique with a step-by-step discussion of the development of the lessons, and have a strong focus on activating learning and supporting pupils on their individual learning journeys. The book covers all aspects of geography teaching, including: • • • • • • •

designing programmes of study differentiation questioning literacy and numeracy teaching A Level enquiry geography feedback and assessment.

Packed full of strategies and activities that are easy to implement, Becoming an Outstanding Geography Teacher is essential reading for newly qualified and experienced geography teachers who want to ensure outstanding teaching and learning in their classrooms. Both books are available on the Amazon website. https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Develop-Habits-Outstanding-Teaching/dp/1138950475 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Becoming-Outstanding-Geography-Teacher/dp/1138697214/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_ encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=EMANGZAAXA0671CB4JAS If you would like to contact Mark with reference to any CPD opportunities or training requested then please contact him via Woodrush TSA.

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Sat 21st April

- INVITATION -

JOIN IN WITH OUR BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS . . .

INFLATABLE FUN

CHARACTER

ARTS & CRAFTS

SOFT PLAY

MEET ‘N’ GREET

COMPETITIONS

10:00am- 3:00pm

CELEBRATING OUR

2nd Year

Woodrush Community Hub

Wythall Library Beans & Steam Café Tours|FREE Library Membership| Craft Activities|Books and Bags Sale|Special Scavenger Hunt

Bookable KIDS Activities and Meet Activity Leaders between 10:00am-3:00pm for Info. and Offers Bounce and Ryhme| FREE 0-5yrs | 11:00am-11:30am The Creation Station £3.00 2-10yrs |12:00pm - 1:00pm

Singing Dancing Acting| FREE 4-6yrs |1:30pm - 2:30pm Face Painitng Workshops| £2.00 3+yrs |(30mins)11:30am 1:00pm

2:00pm Call T. 01564 820 099 for more details or to make a Booking on the above Activities

Special Guests

Wythall Community Choir 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Complimentary Celebration Drink &

Fresh Pastries on arrival Sample our Spring|Summer Cake Varieties Enjoy the range of Hot and Cold Food Selections Adult|Children - EXCLUSIVE -

NO JOINING*12month FEE Contracts

Tours | Complimentary Gym Access | Complimentary Classes Body Attack 10:00am | Body Step 11:00am |Body Pump 12:00 | GRIT 1:00pm | Body Balance 2:00pm

Prize Draw

WIN 6 Months FREE Gym Membership

Woodrush Community Hub T. 01564 820099 E. info@woodrushsportscentre.co.uk www.woodrushcommunityhub.co.uk Shawhurst Lane, Wythall, B47 5JW

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