Anna Collins Court MoorGeorge Knights Court MoorNeil Chance BrookfieldRoger Hutchin Brookfield

Embedding Best Practice through Professional

Development

LAS Conference – July 18th 2011Court Moor School / Brookfield Community

School

• Where are you now?• The Court Moor and Brookfield models• Examining and discussing some of the ideas • What can you take away from this session?

How do you mainly share best practice?

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1. INSET Days2. Twilight sessions3. Departmental meetings4. Other

Who decides the content for the INSET in your school?

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1. Senior Leadership Team2. Subject Leaders3. External trainers4. Staff consensus5. Students6. Others

Who generally leads the Learning & Teaching INSET in your school?

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1. Senior Leadership Team2. Subject Leaders3. External trainers4. A mix of the above5. Others

Do you know who the best teachers are in your school?

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1. Yes2. No3. Unsure

Who are the best teachers in your school?

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1. Senior Leaders2. Subject Leaders3. Others

Are you making best use of your best teachers for professional

development?

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1. Yes2. No3. Unsure

LTG @ Brookfield

Learning & Teaching GroupOutcomes

•Consistency across and within departments;

•student use & understanding of target

language – nature of progression;

•spreading practice: innovators–core–

foundation

Process (1)• Identify weaknesses through Staff Skills

Audit (now Blue Sky) – Action Research Groups

• Provide L&T workshops – department requests & visits

• Lead school INSET – ‘Good to Outstanding’, ‘G&T’, ‘Differentiation’, ‘Learning to Learn’….

Learning & Teaching Group

Process (2)• Participation in Whole School Observations -

support offered to staff/departments• Identify best practice across the school:

- central collection of ideas (Teachers Pool)- ‘best practice’ videos recorded in-house- ‘bring ‘n’ buy- regular sharing of ‘best practice’ ideas

(‘Gems’) via email (=‘Gemails’!)

Learning & Teaching Group

Reasoning behind Court Moor’s focus on AfL:

What does the school need to do to improve further?

Ofsted 2009Reduce further the proportion of teaching that is satisfactory through more explicit and focused use of the outstanding teaching in the school to model best practice. In particular, to improve:•the engagement of students through directed questioning and targeted learning activities•the feedback to students on their current work• the level of challenge for the most able students.

Implementing AfL requires changing teacher habits:•Teachers “know” most of this already•The problem is not a lack of knowledge•That’s why telling teachers what to do doesn’t work•Experience alone is not enough - if it were, then the most experienced teachers would be the best teachers—we know that’s not true (Hanushek, 2005) •People need to reflect on their experiences in systematic ways that build their accessible knowledge base, learn from mistakes, etc. (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999

The Court Moor CPD model = Research & Developments groups

•Historically worked in collaborative Research groups

•Emphasis is on collaboration across the school, as well as within departments

•What are the benefits of engaging in cross- c curricular dialogue?

That’s what R&D Groups are for:•R&D Groups contradict teacher isolation

•R&D Groups offer a steady source of support for teachers

•They grow expertise by providing a regular space, time, and structure for that kind of systematic reflecting on practice

•They facilitate sharing of untapped expertise residing in individual teachers

•They build the collective knowledge base in a school

Structure for R&D Group meetings:

•Every month R&D Group meetings should follow the same structure and sequence of activities:

Activity 1: Introduction & housekeeping (5 mins)

Activity 2: How’s it going (25 minutes)

Activity 3: New learning about AfL (30 minutes)

Activity 4: Personal action planning (25 minutes)

Activity 5: Summary of learning (5 minutes)

Key Aspects of each meeting:

1. Personal Action Plan

2. Peer Observation

(Records of the meetings and/or action taken are useful for forming evidence for performance management).

Two Year Programme

Learning & Teaching Fortnight:

Purpose: To engage in a dialogue about the learning that occurs within your classroom

Aim: Every teacher is observed twice and carries out a minimum of four observations over two weeks

L & T Fortnight Logistics:

•All meetings cancelled for a fortnight – this is the priority•Not an official observation – no records kept•Not Ofsted graded•All observations carried out in pairs•Pairs observe two 20 mins sections of different lessons •All meet immediately after school in staffroom for discussion about findings•Focus is on Learning and opening up discussion •Pairs allocated randomly – mixture of experience & subjects

OVERWHELMINGLY SUCCESSFUL!OVERWHELMINGLY SUCCESSFUL!

•All meetings cancelled for a fortnight – this is the priority•Not an official observation – no records kept•Not Ofsted graded•All observations carried out in pairs•Pairs observe two 20 mins sections of different lessons •All meet immediately after school in staffroom for discussion about findings•Focus is on Learning and opening up discussion •Pairs allocated randomly – mixture of experience & subjects

OVERWHELMINGLY SUCCESSFUL!OVERWHELMINGLY SUCCESSFUL!

Embedding good practice:Planning Placemat•The planning placemat encourages you to react according to your learners needs

•It forces you to check/assess for learning

•Teachers need to be brave enough to leave the SoW

•Could be used specifically for a target student

Topic ______________ Focus ____ Group ___

KS3 Planning Placemat

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NEXT STEPS:

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NEXT STEPS:

Student Feedback, key points:•Majority of lessons have learning intentions –either written or verbally.•Students felt strongly that they wanted the objectives explained so that they knew what to do and how to achieve them. Refer back to them in lesson. (Tasks are explained) •Modelling used in more subjects, particularly DT, ICT, MFL, Science, Geography, Art. •Some like Music, DT and English use level descriptors or criteria (but these are not always easy to understand) •Students much more aware of the purpose of techniques such as wait time, no hands up and whiteboards. Random name generators still work!•Other techniques such as thumbs up/traffic lights only useful if the information is being used in a formative way•APP impact clearer when discussed•Many liked verbal feedback in lesson where points/criteria explicit, whilst walking round class. This was also evident in fact that some commented on the fact that they wanted time to focus on comments when books marked. (Even discussion!)

PROS: CONS:•Everyone has been involved •Doesn’t take into account realistic

differing levels of expertise

•Everyone has trialled a range of techniques

•SMT-led - are they the best ‘experts’ in the school?

•Allocated time for meetings and lesson observations

•Year 2 has not felt as purposeful and lost some momentum over time

•Truly collaborative – cross-curricular & departmental

•T&L observation fortnight was an overwhelming success and enjoyed by all (doing again next year)

•Students aware, without being explicitly told that all staff ‘doing’ something!

Where does Court Moor go from here?

•Growing Powerful LearnersAfL/PLTs/4 Rs etc.

•Continued through R&D groups next year

Have you found anything today you can take away with you?

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1. Yes2. No