Teacher reference group. Are you listening?

Earlier this year the DFE invited teachers to apply for the new teacher reference group.

My initial reaction was "Fantastic, a real chance to have our voices heard."

I duly filled in the  application form and waited ( and waited) to see what would happen.

Well, I was interviewed and joined the 20 other new members at a meeting last month.

A fabulous group of teachers all keen to share what is and isn't working in schools at the moment. Ms Morgan made a (brief) appearance , Nick Gibb stayed a lot longer and genuinely seemed to be interested in what we had to say .

Now what?!

The answer seems somewhat elusive .

I think the idea behind the TRG is excellent...for far too long education ministers and civil servants with a range of backgrounds ( few from education ) come up with ideas that have enormous impact on the teachers in our country . And the teachers have little or no say . Could this be a step in the right direction? I really hope so.

Here are some ideas that I think will help move things in the right direction. I am a primary school teacher and fully appreciate that there are issues regarding curriculum and assessment changes for GCSE and A levels and apologise for not including these, but they are of course enormously important and must be addressed.

1) The DFE should take time to respond fully to the NAHT letter regarding this year's KS2 SATs.  http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/news-and-media/key-topics/assessment/naht-writes-open-letter-to-nicky-morgan-on-assessment/
2) The DFE should respond fully to the questions raised about the proposed resits for Y7 children.
3) A promise to gve schools far more notice about changes. More importantly, adequate time to implement.

I have just been invited to a meeting with the headteacher reference group to discuss KS2 assessments. I tweeted about this to invite opinions that I could take along. Crikey, hundreds of responses flooded my timeline. Such enormous strength of feeling must be fed back to the DFE and I will do my best to do so.

Will they listen? Will it make a difference?

I hope so.

Watch this space.

Meeting on June 27th...

Assessment without levels- what do the children think?

So much talk about the impact of the new ‘assessment beyond levels’ .  So much confusion over the new expectations and interim assessment guidelines.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the constant stream of news updates/myths/scaremongering. 

What about the children?

In particular, the ones who are going to be taking the SATs in a few short weeks? How do they feel about all of this?

 I decided that to directly ask my class would not be the most useful way to go about this- and it is my job to protect them from all the changes and concentrate on the job in hand- teaching them! Helping them to improve and be the best they can be.

Instead I have talked to some Year 6 children about what they enjoy about being in Year 6, how they feel about the tests and the changes from levels to the new system.

This is a summary of their main points.

***

NOTE:  CHILDREN SPOKEN TO WERE HAPPY TO HAVE THEIR VIEWS SHARED AS ARE THEIR PARENTS. THEY ARE FROM A VARIETY OF SCHOOLS AROUND ENGLAND. THIS IS PURELY TO SHARE A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON THE CURRENT SITUATION IN SCHOOLS. NONE OF THESE CHILDREN ARE AT THE SCHOOL I TEACH IN .

What is good about being in Year 6?

Trips

Being the oldest

Having more responsibilities

The tests

Getting to spend time at the secondary school to find out what it is like

Reading

Maths

Lessons

The teachers

What isn’t so good about Year 6?

More homework

Worried about secondary school

Having lots of jobs to do

Last year at my school

Harder work

The tests

How do you feel about the changes?

I like the work being harder

I was in a year 5/6 class last year and we are doing more than last year 6 did

Too many spellings

I don’t like all the SPaG work

I used to know what level I was and what I needed to do to get the next one. I had a list of the things I had to work on. Now there aren’t levels (but some of the teachers still use them) I don’t really know how well I am doing. I know how many marks I get, and I try to get more next time, but I don’t know if that will be enough.

It’s annoying because the teachers don’t really know if we are doing well or not.

Well last year my friends knew what level they were and what level they were going to try to get to. This year none of us know what level we are. I know what I can and can’t do well. I’ve got a list of things to do to help me improve, but I don’t know how well I’m doing compared to my friends who have gone up to secondary school.

***

So, what has this told me? That levels were used to let children know how they were doing and where they needed to go next, that the children actually quite liked them. 

Has it told me anything I wasn’t expecting? Not really, but it has further highlighted the enormous impact that constant interference from ministers has on our education system. As a teacher, it is my job to teach my class to make progress, to build and develop existing skills, to learn new ones, to become independent thinkers, to question, to be curious, to have a thirst for knowledge and learning, to have the tools they need in order to be ready and resilient when taking on challenges.  (There are of course lots more , but these are the ones that spring most readily to mind). Not forgetting time to have a bit of fun in between all that too !

And that it is unsettling for the children who , despite the very best intentions of their teachers, are anxious about how well they are doing. I’m doing all I can to reassure my class about their progress, where they are , what they can /can’t do, what they need to do to make progress- all the things that teachers have always and will always do. But, it’s tough on this first group of Y6 children in particular. 

So, what is the answer? Say that everyone has met A.R.E (whatever that ends up looking like?)

Saying that no one has?

Thinking of a number and saying that a random % has? 

Exactly- none of these are satisfactory solutions.

 Chucking the whole lot in the bin?

 No!

Honesty and consistency is what is needed. The new A.R.E is NOT (despite what some have said) ‘roughly equivalent to a 4B’. They are more like a level 5.

One clear message needs to be given to ALL schools to clarify this. Teacher assessments are fairly/completely (select preferred option) meaningless with no idea of thresholds and are a guess at best.

I would like to think that things will get better. In the meantime, like every other year 6 teacher I shall carry on helping my class to be the best that they can be and keeping it real.  There is so much more to life than SATs. :-)

Drama and Science

Since moving into Year 6 I have been determined to give the children plenty of opportunities for creativity. This has always been high on the agenda, but with new curriculum and assessments it has become even more important.

These are some of the most successful activities I have carried out so far this year.
Please try them out and feedback. I will endeavour to take photos next time so that I can include them. We were too carried away with what we were doing to remember to take photos!

1) The circulatory system.

I did this with my whole class as I am lucky to have a very small group of 20. With a larger class I would split it as follows:

2 children- lungs. Holding a container with red counters (or similar)

2 children heart- could make a 'bridge'

2 children- body. Holding a container with blue counters (or similar)


Rest of group- blood cells, start off at body with blue counters.

Children process round the body, through the heart, to the lungs where the counter is swapped to show the exchange of gases, back to the heart, round the body where the blood becomes de- oxygenated, back to the heart and so on.

Could have a couple of children beating out a rhythm on drums, or play a suitable tune to keep in time too (I especially like Mr Parr's heart song which you can find  here   or  for lots of others click here )

2) Pollination 

Again this can be done with the whole class or groups. No fancy equipment needed, just some space.

Some children- flowers- they need yellow counters/stickers etc. to act as pollen

Fewer children- bees/butterflies (or bats if you have been looking at a range of pollinators!)

Pollinators move from flower to flower, collecting and depositing the 'pollen' as they travel. This demonstrates how pollination occurs.

3) Electrical circuits

All you need is a group of children and a piece of thick cord long enough for everyone to hold when it is in a loop.

The loop is held gently by all (health and safety not to grip too tight to avoid burns)
One (or more) act as the cell and gently pull the cord to demonstrate the flow of electrons in a circuit. The more cells, the more energy . The fewer cells, the lesser the amount of energy.
The others can demonstrate resistance by holding onto the cord more tightly; this makes it harder to move the cord round the circle. If the cord is cut, the circuit is broken and the energy cannot flow all the way around.

4) Not so much drama as freeze framing . Light

Groups of children use string/wool to show the path of light from source to eye . For example one child acts as light source, string goes to object (child two) and then to observer (child 3) . This can help to show how light travels in one continuous line that is reflected from the object to the eye.
 Other groups can then narrate the path of the light.

Teaching evolution to Year 6

This half term I have been teaching one of the new curriculum areas to my year 6 class.

Evolution.

Goodness, that is an area that challenges! Determined to make it accessible to the children I have used ideas from a brilliant session I attended with Stuart Naylor to give them an idea of the huge timescales.

( here's a link to the book written in collaboration with Jo Moules http://www.nsta.org/recommends/ViewProduct.aspx?ProductID=22411 )

Last week the children , for home learning, took a moth outline home and coloured it with the remit of colouring so they could hide it in school. When we had a dry day, they hid them and we then pretended to be birds hunting moths.  This really helped to understand the process of natural selection. 

This afternoon we were thinking about variation within species and inheritance. I had drawn a simple pattern ( first of the photos) the children came to a screened off part of the room or at a time to copy the picture the previous child had copied.

The results are here:

They were astonished to see how the pictures changed...tiny changes, over time, leading to something altered.

They have been buzzing with questions ( favourite today, "So, could humans evolve horns at some point?"

We rounded the afternoon with coming up with the offspring of Little Misses and Mr Men and had a lot of chuckles discussing characteristics that could be inherited.

I was quite apprehensive about tackling such a challenging scientific area, but it's been huge fun and the children have been so eager to ask questions. 

Good grief, having fun!? Yes, it IS possible. 

Learning in science

I thought I would try something new with my class this year. Well, there are lots of new things: new room, new year, new class, new assessment... the list goes on.

Specifically, I am trying out a 'reporters' book' . The plan is that in each science lesson, one group is responsible for recording the learning that is happening. The group has a camera and the children are not expected to double up on their work, but to record what's been learnt.

Next step maybe to try in other subjects, maths would be my next move.

The point? A record, a revision tool, a discussion point, a way for me to assess understanding .

Will it be useful? Raise standards? Improve understanding? I hope so. Watch this space...

New term begins ...

So, that is the first week back with the new class of children. Year 6 :)

I am so looking forward to the year ahead- apprehensive about the new assessment procedures but it is the same for everyone so just going to take it as it comes!

Here are my five good things about the new school year:
1) Enthusiastic children
2) Preparing the children to be ready for secondary school
3) Having a lovely big classroom to work in
4) Working with a fabulous team of people
5)Having lots of new challenges

I have written this so I can come back and look at it every time something doesn't quite go to plan.

I am trying out a slightly different approach to my maths teaching which I will blog about once a few weeks have passed.

And relax...

I was going to have a rant about negativity in the way our profession is all too often portrayed by the media but deleted partway through as that in itself was negative.

So, as the summer holiday reaches its halfway point and the list of things I need to complete to be ready for the start of term grows by  the day, here's to positivity.

As a teacher, being positive is essential , regardless of how I may be feeling that morning, the children deserve to have a teacher who is full of enthusiasm about the day ahead. (We can all recall INSET sessions/ staff meetings where the presenter has been lacking in enthusiasm and how it makes us feel!)  Conversely, being like a Duracell bunny (other brands of battery are available as are other types of small furry mammal ;P) would be somewhat wearing as well. Somewhere in between is where I'd like to be (erring towards the bunny!)

Where is this post going? To act as a reminder that teaching really is a fabulous profession. I am looking forward to the challenges of the year ahead. (There will be many as I will be with Y6 - first time with the new SATs !)  Sure, there will be ups and downs and times when I will want to bang my head on the wall or table, but being positive, modelling that to my class when things are hard so that they see a challenge as something to overcome, not to be afraid of. Life is full of challenges; it is how we deal with them that ultimately shapes us into the people we become.

And I will continue to beat my positivity drum loud and long; perhaps if more of this was portrayed there would be fewer teachers leaving, more joining?  Teaching is not easy, but where would the challenge be in that!