Being a reflective teacher: making it work for you

Being a truly reflective teacher is hard. Skills of reflection are difficult to acquire and seemingly not frequently demonstrated (when asked to reflect, many simply describe). Elizabeth Holmes outlines the benefits and offers tips for effective reflection. 

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Søren Kierkegaard

I’ve read a few blogs and emails this week by people who have decided to take a break from social media. The reasons stem from a desire to spend more time on meaningful reflection rather than the knee-jerk reactions that social media platforms tend to encourage within us. There’s no doubt that the quality of education debate on social media can, at times, fall victim to point-scorers making it a poor space in which to express reflections, so perhaps a break to focus can be fruitful.

Steps to effective reflection

The younger we are encouraged to reflect the better, so that the skill grows with us and by the time we are in adults reflection is second nature.

I’ll stick my neck out and say that being a reflective teacher just might help us to derive greater satisfaction from our jobs and may even make us better teachers. No, I haven’t seen anything that categorically proves that for each and every practitioner, but experience tells me that the benefits to be had from true reflection can be great. There are, however, just a few points to keep in mind:

• It’s best not to look to blogs for inspiration. Many offer well considered opinions on various topics but there are very few that demonstrate reflection of the kind discussed here.

• It can be helpful to approach your time for reflection with the aim of understanding your experience of work more clearly, and perhaps even with the aim of moving forward in your professional and personal development.

• Reflection is about critical thinking, being analytical, posing questions (and perhaps answering them), reaching conclusions, identifying paths ahead. It’s quite a sophisticated and private process so you may not wish to share your reflections.

• Don’t fall into the trap of considering only your development needs. It can be very useful to reflect on your particular skills and talents at work and life generally. This can help you to determine what you might want do more of – an often overlooked idea in the world of professional learning.

• It’s useful if reflection becomes second nature; an important part of your daily routine, complementing and supporting your work, rather than adding to it.

• Be open to the range of tools out there to support reflection, from simple notebook and pen to a whole range of apps, from digital recordings to mind maps and other such diagrams. You’re not restricted in any way; just do what works for you.

There are various cycles of reflection that you may find useful; several are variations around analysing a particular experience and developing an action plan for the future. This can be helpful in that you are integrating future change in your reflection. Being able to use reflection for this purpose is highly likely to be fruitful. It’s not just about self-knowledge, but change when needed, too.

Whatever approach you take, reflection will be helpful to you if it enables you to view your work with some distance so that you can gain clarity on what is important for you at any time. If your habit of reflection ever becomes burdensome, it is time to make some changes rather than give up altogether. Enjoy!

By Elizabeth Holmes

More on reflection (Optimus members)

• How self-reflection can boost your professional learning
• Five ways to… develop skills of reflection
• The value of reflective practice in ongoing professional development

Great teaching, great learning: supporting new teachers to develop their craft

The first years of teaching are a time where the foundation should be laid for developing into a confident and inspiring classroom practitioner. However, under the weight of new responsibilities and learning experiences, time for CPD can be difficult to come by. Katie Renton looks at how new teachers should be supported to achieve their goals

“Excellence is a continuous process and not an accident.” – A.P.J Abdul Kalam

Every teacher must have a different idea of what they most want to achieve in their role as an educator. To be an inspiration to their pupils, to achieve the best results, to encourage pupils to join their passion of their subject… all of these and many more could be the original trigger for our classroom teachers that propels them into their teaching career. In fact, an Association of Teachers and Learners survey found that almost 75% of those asked considered making a difference as a teacher to be the most important aspect to them.

However, all of these goals are part of a much larger responsibility that our classroom teachers uphold. Last year, the Guardian ran an article which asked a 16-year-old pupil to summarise what they would characterise as the ‘perfect teacher’. The list included showing a deep understanding of their pupils, not shouting, showing their personality and remembering that pupils appreciate them. This is all understandable, but is ultimately in addition to the huge amount of requirements set by the school standards and Ofsted – a continuously changing and growing list of responsibilities to be held by an individual, all while trying to be fun and engaging!

There is no doubt that great learning requires great teaching. Discussing what makes a perfect teacher will always be subjective, but there is one thing we know for sure: great teaching requires continuous development and improvement. To achieve the positive learning environment and pupil progress that schools and pupils need, teachers must strive to develop their core skills as a classroom practitioner, particularly in the early stages of their career.

Supporting the new practitioners

For new teachers (and for this I mean teachers up to 3 years qualified), the importance of striking this balance of personal achievement and career development is crucial. As many teachers and senior leaders will know, the first few years can be hugely overwhelming – potentially hundreds of new pupils, masses of new administrative responsibilities and being the new fish in the established pond.

In writing about the essential skills for new teachers, H. Jerome Freiberg noted that the necessary repertoire of teaching strategies were largely developed through trial and error, stating that a haphazard process “may take several years – by which time many struggling, unprepared new teachers have already left the classroom.” Taking on new challenges as a teacher is certainly part of the remit, but the fact of the matter is that those new to the profession must be supported in making their initial steps to success in the classroom.

Allowing new teachers the opportunity to continue their training in the midst of the madness is something that need not be time-consuming or mind-numbing, and this is where our new Teacher Development Programme is here to help.

Teacher Development Programme

In his Pragmatic Education blog, Joe Kirby made a number of interesting points about the nature of professional development in schools. The list that struck us the most was that of the key features of effective CPD:

• targeted
• evidence-based
• collaborative
• sustained
• evaluated.

Never is this more relevant than when we are discussing the development of newer teachers. Our Teacher Development Programme (TDP) was created with two things in mind – to adhere to these key features of effective CPD, and to support newer classroom practitioners in developing their core skills in the most engaging and sustained structure possible.

As the task of being a new teacher can be enough to exhaust the most alert of people. For this reason, training opportunities should be manageable in size and clear in their intentions. The 7 units in the TDP need not be delivered in sequence and take up the already stretched time of new practitioners. Rather, each unit can be delivered individually in response to an area of skill that is most in need of support and development.

The seven units of the Teacher Development Programme.

In addition to this, each unit comes equipped with self-evaluative resources for teachers to take away, and a list of recommended reading which allows them to deepen their learning of the discussed concepts should they want to develop further.

Ultimately, the goal of the TDP is to support both your school and your teachers to achieve the level of great teaching that pupils deserve. If pupils want their teachers to show their personality and passion for their subject, then new teachers must be supported to gain the confidence in their core teaching skills which allow them to inspire and engage better than ever.

Further resources for supporting new staff

• Take a look at Elizabeth Holmes’ top tips to a great start for NQTs.
• Read up on these 8 ways to bring your teaching up to date with the latest research, important for new and established teachers alike.

What we’re missing when we talk about teaching

We love to debate the rights and wrongs of progressive and traditional approaches to teaching. But if we want to influence practice we really need detail.

The progressive versus traditional approach to teaching is one of those debates that’s here to stay. Sometimes, it gets stirred up. This inflammatory article by Graham Brown-Martin seems to have done the trick again.

Certainly it’s clear that almost all teachers will have preconceptions about what makes good practice. Here’s some common assumptions that one might have on both sides of the spectrum:

• children learn better when discovering ideas for themselves
• children learn better when the teacher guides them through new knowledge
• orderly behaviour is a prerequisite to learning
• group work engages children better than independent working
• you should plan engaging activities to help children learn
• lessons should revolve around knowledge rather than skills
• lessons should prioritise skills rather than knowledge.

Nick Rose’s fascinating survey of attitudes to pedagogy showed some interesting patterns among tweeting teachers.

In essence, there seemed to be a clear split between progressive and traditional attitudes to teaching on a number of questions – answers tended to cluster towards either pole, rather than giving a consensus in the middle.

It doesn’t take long on educational Twitter to make you think that this difference is a pretty firm one.

We’re missing something

According to this survey at least, beliefs among UK teachers are fairly polarised. I’ve talked to a fair few teachers who see themselves as isolated ‘progs’ or ‘trads’ swimming against the current of their school.

But I wonder how common this divide actually is, and whether those beliefs about what works necessarily translate into practice?

I struggled to find any sufficiently sizeable evidence from the UK about what teachers’ practice looks like in most classrooms. But studies from America show some interesting trends.

It’s generally taken for granted that mainstream class teaching has its origins in fairly prescriptive methods of teaching and gradually became more progressive in nature. In How Teachers Taught, however, Larry Cuban found some changes over time in teaching practice in American from 1890-2005, but that in most classrooms pure traditional or progressive theories never emerged. The hybrid was the dominant form of teaching.

Cuban’s later study, Hugging the Middle, found that the hybrid classroom had become even more common. In 2000, a study conducted across Ohio found that most schools report a mix of practices. And David Labaree makes the point that the vocabulary inherited in schools tends to be progressive while practice is often more traditional in nature.

The important point from this is that what people believe about education need not necessarily match their actual classroom practice.

How do teachers actually teach?

Lesson planning is the bane of many a teacher’s life – but the methods that have become popular can tell us a little about people’s approach to teaching.

Let’s take some popular lesson plans and see what practice they imply. (These are all ones I’ve seen used in schools, some of which have been spread very widely through social media).

The 5 minute lesson plan – Teacher Toolkit

The 7 E’s of planning – Hayley Thompson

Daily lesson plan template – Lesson Plans For Teachers

Lesson plan – Skills Workshop

EYFS lesson plan – _noaddedsugar (TES Resources)

All these plans seem to follow a pretty similar structure. Objectives or aims are identified, then some form of instruction takes place, with the bulk of the lesson revolving around an activity. Assessment occurs at different places, as does differentiation and cross-curricular linking (in some of them).

Some of them also show the influence of the National Strategy model of planning i.e. starter, introduction, independent work and plenary.

A few common assumptions underlie these structures.

1. It is important for the aims of lessons to be clearly identified.
2. Pupils need to do some form of activity in the lesson.
3. Assessment (knowing what pupils do and don’t understand) is important.

Of course, you can argue against these ideas (learning objectives in particular have come under fire).

But I’m not sure that the sorts of lessons implied by these plans fit neatly into the traditional or progressive camp. They are teacher centred. But they also leave space for, say, group work and some of them explicitly focus on engagement.

Probably any teacher could take these plans and, dependent on their preferred methods of instruction, classroom manner and assessment techniques, design a fairly traditional lesson or a fairly progressive one. I suspect that their popularity is precisely because of this adaptability – you can mix methods if you want to.

The same goes for Shaun Allison and Andy Tharby’s wonderful graphic of expert teaching – these are qualities that could fit into an instruction or an inquiry oriented classroom (though probably tilting more towards the former).

Context matters

I don’t think that this means the trad-prog debate is a useless one. Anything that gets teachers thinking about pedagogy and questioning their own ideas is probably useful. But sometimes detail that matters gets lost.

Debates on traditional-progressive education tend to cover both philosophy (‘what is education for?) and pedagogy (‘how can we teach to achieve this?’). What gets lost in this sort of all-encompassing debate is that education is highly context-specific. Pupils’ background, prior attainment, relationships with each other and with the teacher, geographical location: all these can affect ‘what works’. So sometimes labels can prove a bit of a distraction – and widen the conversation when it should remain specific.

Sir Kevan Collins of the EEF has argued for data from research that allows us to identify patterns from schools with similar contexts. This could end up usefully informing such arguments  (the families of school data is a useful first step here).

It still seems unlikely, whatever this data ends up telling us, that either side has a monopoly on truth. That’s why I think Tom Sherrington’s description of the progressive-traditional tree, a fruitful hybrid, is probably the most useful model.

Of course, it’s tempting to pick a side. And I think that can be useful when animating discussions. But that clash of ideas might not reflect what goes on in the classroom. If we want to influence practice, the questions probably need to get more specific. I’d rather see people discussing one of Doug Lemov’s 62 techniques than attacking or endorsing them all.

A lot of the ideas for this blog came from our recent paper on the role of evidence in education, Making the Link. You can download it for free here.

 

Wellbeing for the year ahead: 12 tips

Study after study tells us that teacher wellbeing is in danger of hitting rock bottom and a visit to any staffroom is likely to confirm those findings. What to do?

‘Getting down to the gym a couple of days a week and having low-fat milk in your latte isn’t going to make much of a dent in a system or lifestyle that is essentially, well, unwell.’

Darrell Calkins

The triggers for negative stress taking hold in teachers are typically either workload or money-related pressures. Julian Stanley, CEO of Education Support Partnership, knows too well the extent of the problem in education. The organisation’s most recent health survey revealed that a massive 88% of all staff working in education had suffered from stress, 72% from anxiety and 45% from depression. This makes for deeply unhappy reading. How could we let things get so bad?

Evidently the profession needs help, but in the absence of an adequately funded and resourced programme of wellbeing for teachers that goes beyond the lip service of an acknowledgment that wellbeing matters, finding our own path to greater happiness and balance in schools is crucial.

12 wellbeing strategies

Here are twelve possible tools that might give your wellbeing a well-earned boost in these darkest days of the year.

1. Learn what your triggers are and acknowledge when you are moving from a healthy state of stimulation to potentially harmful negative stress. This is essentially about self-knowledge and yet many of us can be taken by surprise of the intensity of stress when it hits. Know your warning signs.

2. Take positive action sooner rather later. The natural instinct of teachers is to carry on regardless. This is counter-productive and not good for you or your pupils.

3. Consider developing mindfulness skills. As the Education Support Partnership explains, with techniques such as breathing-focused meditation, mindfulness is closer to mainstream than ever before: many UK schools are using the Mindfulness in Schools Project.

4. Explore some of the research on well-being that exists out there. The New Economics Foundation’s Five Ways to Wellbeing remain a great tool for teachers to adopt. The five ways are to connect with others, to be active, to take notice of the world around you, to keep learning, and to give.

5. Get outside every day. Walk, cycle, run – whatever makes you feel good. And if you can get out into the countryside or coast, even better. Mounting evidence suggests that nature can have a positive impact on wellbeing.

6. Talk to trusted family, friends or colleagues. Don’t allow concerns to mount. Others can offer valuable perspective at times of stress but may not know you are struggling unless you open up. If you are happier speaking to someone anonymously, try the Education Support Partnership (08000 562 561) or the Samaritans (116 123).

7. Work in collaboration with a colleague on an area of your work that you would like to improve. Continuing professional and personal development and the sense of improvement that may ensue can greatly contribute to wellbeing at work, and collaborations can lead to a greater sense of camaraderie amongst colleagues.

8. Allow yourself some quiet time each day. Meditate if you can, otherwise, just allow yourself the peace to switch off from immediate demands. Not always easy, but just a few minutes can help. The Education Support Partnership suggests that simple breathing techniques can help. For example, to relax you might breathe in for a count of 4 and breathe out for a count of 4; to become more energised you should breathe in for a count of 7 and out for a count of 3. Repeat each of these activities as often as possible taking care to maintain steady, connected breaths.

9. Move a little more during the course of the working day. A colleague I had many years ago taught me tap dancing in the corridor outside our adjacent rooms. Every lunchtime we would learn a new step. It would never pass the critical eyes of the Strictly judges, but it was fun.

10. Look at your diet. This doesn’t mean eliminating everything you consider to be a treat, but some foods can leave us feeling sluggish so it’s worth considering whether anything you are currently consuming might be having that effect on you. A general rule of thumb is to increase fruits and vegetables if at all possible.

11. Consider journaling. Keeping a learning journal might help us to gain a greater sense of wellbeing at work, if only through the opportunity such activity gives us for determining what’s not working for us right now.

12. Don’t forget to pursue what makes you feel happy. Find the time to listen to your favourite music, see your favourite people, go to the gigs you want to go to, see that show, read that book and so on.

I hope that at least some of these ideas lead to a happier, healthier New Year for you. And if you would like some more nurturing, The Education Support Partnership are well worth checking out.

With warm wishes for a very happy New Year!

More ways to support wellbeing

• Check out our interview with Natasha Devon, the government’s mental health champion – part one and part two.
• Help create a culture of mental health awareness in your school with our In-House Training course on prioritising staff wellbeing.

Staff wellbeing: avoiding burnout in the run-up to Christmas

The festive season is upon us, and whether you celebrate Christmas or not, there’s no doubt that reaching this point in the school year can be an exhausting experience. Elizabeth Holmes outlines research from City University on the importance of taking a break over the holidays, to ensure staff return to work refreshed and stress free.

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama

The pressures at work and at home can be crushing if we’re run down and in need of a break. According to research led by Dr Paul Flaxman and Sonja Carmichael at City University, and conducted in close collaboration with the Education Support Partnership (formerly the Teacher Support Network), the Christmas break is vital ‘to allow teachers’ emotional energy resources and psychological health to be restored’.

The prevention of burnout

The research saw 90 teachers from across the UK complete surveys at the end of eight consecutive weeks which captured the period before, during and after the two week Christmas break in 2013. The study was replicated with teachers in Quebec, Canada.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, those teachers who were not able to switch off from work over the Christmas break did not emerge refreshed and ready to go in the New Year. We might conclude that having work to complete over the Christmas period, whether that’s general catching up, marking or preparation for the new term, just might be entirely counter-productive.

The research also points to the need for teachers to be able to satisfy three ‘basic psychological needs’ over the Christmas break:

• a sense of competence
• autonomy
• feeling close and connected with other people.

Those who experienced the above had higher levels of psychological health, the benefits of which were felt into January. This isn’t just about recovery but about the prevention of burnout too.

Make the most of the Christmas break

Dr Paul Flaxman, senior lecturer in Organisational Psychology at City University, feels that this study is helpful for teachers. He said: ‘Our work shows that breaks for teachers, especially at times like half-term and Christmas, are incredibly important for their psychological health. In my opinion, it is vital that these regular breaks in the school calendar are conserved.’

Emerging from this study come several recommendations to help teachers make the most of the Christmas break, in particular taking even small steps to give a sense of autonomy, effectiveness and connectedness during our leisure time once term has ended. Unsurprisingly, too, mindfulness training, which has been researched extensively for various purposes, has been shown to be effective in helping people to switch off from work anxieties.

While other aspects of education such as pedagogy and behaviour quite rightly receive attention, it’s good to see the wellbeing of teachers the focus of research, especially when it offers strategies for improving mental health.

Enjoy a well-deserved and restorative break

Julian Stanley, CEO of the Education Support Partnership, knows too well, many teachers are struggling with the ill effects of negative stress. He said: ‘We are the only UK charity providing counselling and support services for individuals and organisations in education and almost half of the calls we receive are related to common mental health conditions including stress, anxiety and depression. Given this we are only too aware of the stresses and strains of the job and hope that findings of the City University research will help encourage teachers to make sure they enjoy a well-deserved and restorative break over the festive season, coming back refreshed and ready to face the new school term in January.’

If teachers are to avoid the negative impact on their health of a term too packed with demands and pressures, it’s essential to focus on quality relaxation once the holiday arrives. And if we’re really serious about helping teachers to be as well as they can be, personal development will be central to professional development.

Develop a healthy school environment

Create a culture of wellbeing at your school with the Optimus Education In-House Training course Staff Wellbeing. Help your school colleagues to:

• manage stress
• build resilience
• improve working environments
• prioritise wellbeing across the whole school.

Find out more on staff wellbeing

• The Mental Health Foundation is a good place to find local mindfulness groups, or to experience an on-line version of a typical mindfulness-based training programme.
• Education Support Partnership is a charity dedicated to all those working in education in schools, FE and HE. It provides a 24/7 helpline, telephone counselling, coaching, money management, grants, information and signposting. Get support by calling 08000 562 561.

NASBM awards celebrate SBM transformation

The recent NASBM awards ceremony showed how dramatically the role of the SBM has changed. But there is still more to be done to promote understanding.

The education landscape is in a constant state of flux: from policy change and academy growth to MATs expansion and LA contraction. These changes have, inevitably, placed a heightened focus on the school business manager.

With greater recognition comes greater responsibility: the SBM role is more complex and varied than ever; they are becoming more integrated into the SLT (and rightly so); they face burgeoning financial challenges; and many are working across a number of schools.

This year’s NASBM awards were a fantastic way to show our growing understanding and appreciation of the SBM’s role. The atmosphere was electric and it was a prime opportunity for networking and sharing best practice, new ideas and concerns.

But what really stood out was the overwhelming modesty of the winners. As each came up to collect their award, they were self-effacing and determined to stress that they couldn’t achieve anything without the support from other staff members. ‘Without the team at school and at home we’d be nothing,’ Hazel Wade, SBM at Sir John Lawes school, said as she collected her award for Strategy, efficiency and governance.

Collaboration

And this gets to the crux of what success looks like, not just for SBMs but for any job role or organisation: collaboration. From working in a small team to joining a MAT, it doesn’t take long to realise that working together is infinitely more effective than working alone. As the saying goes: ‘Competition makes us faster; collaboration makes us better.’

But this is still a work in progress: there are many staff members who still lack understanding of their SBM’s role; financial burdens are piling on the pressure and SBMs are having to think of more creative ideas; and we’ve heard many stories of how SBMs are still struggling to be heard by their senior leadership team.

The solution? We need more ceremonies like the NASBM awards to celebrate; we need more opportunities to network and share ideas; and we need to promote understanding of the role as wide as possible.

Further resources

• SBMs working in multi academy trusts
• Working with the SLT: 9 top tips
• How collaboration can be the key to outstanding
• The Spending Review: 10 things SBMs need to know

The College of Teaching and the Big Staff Meeting

As we move closer to the creation of a College of Teaching there is still much to be finalised about the finer details, not least the decisions over who will qualify for membership. To find out the very latest on progress so far, Elizabeth Holmes caught up with Professor Angela McFarlane, CEO of the College of Teachers and Founding Trustee of the College of Teaching to pose some of the questions that repeatedly get asked.

‘Study the past if you would define the future.’

Confucius

Elizabeth Holmes: The idea of a College of Teaching is going from strength to strength. Looking at social media and speaking to teachers from early years to higher education, there really does seem to be great interest in the College. Would you give an overview on current thinking about membership of the College please?

Angela McFarlane: The College of Teaching is the new chartered professional body for the teaching profession. The proposal put forward by the Claim Your College coalition in February 2015 based the College on a paid for membership model for teachers across different educational settings with different tiers of membership. These proposals outlined that full (i.e. chartered) membership would be achieved, as in any chartered body, through demonstrating exemplary practice, learning, knowledge and professional development as a teacher.

Full membership confers voting and decision-making rights on all those achieving the standards and maintaining good professional status and standing. Increasing the expectation of professional training, development and support in the early years of a teacher’s career is a core part of these proposals.

A major membership consultation, The Big Staff Meeting, is inviting schools, colleges and early years settings around the country to put aside half an hour to change the profession.

Nationally, schools and colleges can take part in The Big Staff Meeting on January 6^th, when a majority of schools will have an inset day and plan to include an info session before the lunch break. However, if this doesn’t suit, the meeting can take part whenever is best for them in the lead up to February half term.

Who will the College of teaching represent?

EH: Arguably, it is crucial for an institution like the College of Teaching to be comprehensively representative of the entire teaching profession, from early years right through to higher education. Are teaching colleagues in further education and higher education to be fully included?

AM: It is not yet known whether the level of membership will be the same for teachers across all settings, or what the College’s definition of a ‘teacher’ will be. The proposals outlined by Claim Your College say that membership should be inclusive to all those in the teaching profession however it will not be compulsory to join. The College of Teaching is based on the principle that it should not occupy spaces where other bodies already exist.

In a recent Claim Your College survey undertaken by the Education Company of 13,000 respondents – 75% of whom were teachers and school leaders – two-thirds preferred a model where teachers lead but a wider community of education professionals can join a College. The definition of “teacher”, however, has not yet been established.

The scope of the Claim Your College proposal covers early years and compulsory age schooling. The proposals also state that teachers working in other sectors such as those in Further Education (FE) could achieve the standards ultimately set by the College in their settings.

The inclusion of teaching colleagues in FE and HE in the College of Teaching forms part of The Big Staff Meeting debate. The membership consultation will close at the end of February 2016, with Founding Trustees expected to make a final decision mid-2016.

EH: How will the College help members to develop more understanding about the work of teacher colleagues in all other phases of education?

AM: The College will support its members to be more effective in their professional practice and offer a career pathway based on excellence in teaching. Its object will be to support excellence in teaching to better serve children and young people.

The College will recognise the importance of continuous improvement in standards of professional practice and provide a community of practice where evidence of effective CPD is shared and collaboration facilitated whatever the teacher’s setting, practice or location may be.

How can you get involved?

EH: How will members be able to contribute to the College?

AM: The levels of membership and how the College will operate for members on a day-to-day basis is to be decided, however we would encourage schools and colleges to get involved in The Big Staff Meeting. This is about all teachers giving us their views across all phases and stages.

Another way of showing support at this time is by pledging to the College of Teaching’s crowdfunding and spreading the word. Good teachers know good teaching and we have an opportunity for the teaching profession to come together to set its own standards.

Teachers, educators and other individuals and organisations are being encouraged to give small, yet valuable, donations as part of an historic recognition scheme that gives them the opportunity to become a Founding Supporter of the College.

The College of Teaching is seeking to raise £250,000 directly from the profession as part of a five-month campaign. These pledges of support will match-fund contributions secured through charitable donation.

The money raised will be used to pay schools for teachers’ time to help shape the College. To be part of history and make a pledge today, visit https://claimyourcollege.hubbub.net/

The Big Staff Meeting

EH: Tell us more about The Big Staff Meeting and why teachers from all phases of education should be involved.

AM: How wide the membership of a College of Teaching reaches will ultimately be for the profession to decide. On the one hand, there are professional skills, independent of context that can increase the effectiveness of teaching:

• reflection on practice
• use of evidence to inform the management of learning
• evaluation of the impact for learners.

However the application of all of these must be tailored to age, phase, subject and context of the learning. On the matter of specialist subject knowledge and pedagogy, the College is forming close relationships with the subject associations and learned societies. The unique contribution a College can offer is a platform for teachers and those who support teachers and teaching to come together to work for the greatest benefit to learners. The Claim Your College coalition is an example of this.

There is an accumulating body of evidence on what works well to produce the best outcomes for learners. One in four schools is or has been involved with an Education Endowment Fund trial.  The challenge remains to mobilise this information and experience through a platform where teachers can come together to share experience and discuss the implications of evidence for their practice. The College can provide a reliable and trusted space in which that professional dialogue can take place; where the weight of evidence rather than unsupported opinion is what matters.

Find out more:

• The Big Staff Meeting is being supported by a number of organisations including ASCL, ATL and NAHT. Information obtained from this consultation will inform the formulation for membership requirements and grades that will be developed further by the Founding Trustees of the College of Teaching. To register to receive your pack, visit claimyourcollege.org
• Follow Claim Your College @CollOfTeaching #CollegeOfTeaching #ClaimYourCollege or like Claim Your College on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/claimyourcollege.

The Prevent duty – guidance and training for schools

What can schools do to help keep children and young people safe from radicalisation and extremism? Elizabeth Holmes provides a summary of essential guidance, documents and training resources.

later that night
I held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?

It answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.

From ‘What they did yesterday afternoon’ by Warsan Shire

Keeping children safe from radicalisation and extremism is now a top priority with important responsibilities under section 29 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 resting on schools and teachers. While this can seem utterly daunting, especially for those new to the profession (conversations with student teachers and NQTs are testament to that), much guidance exists that can be used in-house for professional development purposes. Although the Prevent duty is crucial, and recent atrocities in Paris, alone, demonstrate the urgency of this need, it won’t weigh heavily if time is given for effective professional development on the issue. This round up of existing advice and guidance may help in the planning of professional development for your school.

Prevent duty guidance

The government recently revised its statutory Prevent duty guidance for schools. There are new versions for schools in England and Wales and for schools in Scotland.This guidance gives a specific focus on schools and registered childcare providers (excluding further and higher education) and offers the reminder that all publicly funded schools in England are already required to provide a curriculum which is broad and balanced, promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life. Schools must also promote community cohesion. While schools’ responsibilities for preventing extremism and radicalisation are great, it is obvious that this brief sits well within the day to day work of schools. Keeping children safe is key.

The guidance states that specified authorities need to make sure that ‘staff have training that gives them the knowledge and confidence to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism, and to challenge extremist ideas which can be used to legitimise terrorism and are shared by terrorist groups. They should know where and how to refer children and young people for further help.’

In order to support schools in this work, the DfE has issued practical advice on the Prevent duty to complement the statutory guidance. This makes clear the importance of training to equip staff not only to identify children at risk of being dragged into terrorism but also to challenge extremist views that might be aired in school. There is a training product, Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP), developed by the Home Office, to help ensure that staff feel confident. Your local authority, police force, health service or further and higher education institutions may be able to deliver WRAP training by trained facilitators. Email WRAP@homeoffice.x.gsi.gov.uk for further information.

It is up to schools to assess their training needs based on an assessment of risk. The designated safeguarding lead should at least undertake Prevent awareness training and be able to support colleagues where required.

Colleagues at Optimus Education have developed several briefing documents to help ensure governors, senior leaders and staff understand their responsibilities. Find out more at Prevent: understanding your duty

The DfE and Home Office also issued a briefing note on how social media is used to encourage travel to Syria and Iraq. Being aware of the ways in which some users of social media may be influencing children and young people will help schools to be vigilant about the signs of radicalisation.

Channel guidance is also available for schools. It is a programme focusing on early stage support for people who are identified as being at risk of being drawn into terrorism and extremism. Channel also offers a general awareness training module, useful as an introduction to the topics and themes covered by the Duty. Of particular interest to schools will be ways of identifying factors which make people vulnerable to radicalisation. The case studies included here will also be useful.

What to do if you are concerned about extremism in your school

Government advice suggests that teachers with concerns about extremism and radicalisation in their schools should follow exactly the same internal procedures that they would follow for any other safeguarding issue. For example:

• pass the information to the safeguarding lead
• safeguarding lead contacts the local authority where appropriate
• if there is immediate risk of danger, contact the police.

Raising concerns about extremism to the Department for Education

There is a Department telephone helpline so that schools can raise concerns relating to extremism directly, as well as seeking advice on the Prevent Duty.

Helpline: 020 7340 7264

Email: counter.extremism@education.gsi.gov.uk

Further resources

• Prevent: understanding your duty
• Teaching resistance to radicalisation
• How can Prevent help you safeguard your pupils?

Championing wellbeing: part 2

With mental health problems affecting increasing numbers of children and young people, the government’s ‘mental health champion’ Natasha Devon explains how schools can best equip teachers for the rigours of supporting young people who are suffering.

In part one of this conversation we explored the prevalence of mental health distress in children and young people and how the teaching profession may respond to that.

What might a teachers’ toolkit contain to support teachers’ professional learning with regard to child mental health?

Natasha Devon MBE. Follow Natasha on Twitter.

I should say that the Teachers’ Toolkit is part of a separate campaign we are running at Self-Esteem Team (#letterstodave) and has not been agreed at government level.

The idea for the Teachers’ Toolkit came about simply because my team were listening to teachers’ concerns. Teachers told us that, from their perspective, for every new challenge that arises within a school environment, someone just ‘sticks a lesson plan on a website somewhere, expects us to deliver it with no training and adds to our already over-stretched schedule’.

With something as crucial and delicate as mental health, there is a responsibility to get it right. Some teachers will teach mental health lessons magnificently, while others won’t have the confidence or expertise.

As well as producing lesson plans on mental health and training for teachers who feel they want to take on the challenge (something the government is already exploring) the Self-Esteem Team want a PSHE budget reinstated so that outside speakers can be invited in to fill in any gaps.

We’d also like to see a ‘Teacher’s Toolkit’ – ten minute wellbeing exercises which can be practised in tutor time, break time or even as part of other lessons such as English, history, PE or psychology.

It really isn’t enough to assume that teachers will magically know exactly what wellbeing means and how best to encourage it in young people is it?

Mental Wellbeing needs to be constantly reinforced, taking a whole school approach – it’s not something that can be ‘ticked off’ in an hour long assembly.

Is there value in helping teachers to support the mental health of children if they are not supported in maintaining good mental health themselves?

After our Self-Esteem Team lessons teachers often tell us how much they needed to hear what we said. The strategies for maintaining good mental wellbeing are pretty universal – we’re not teaching our teenage pupils to do anything we don’t actively practice ourselves.

I would love to see more support for teachers. As someone with one foot in the media and the other in education I’m horrified by the way teachers are so often portrayed in the press. I’ve worked in more than 200 UK schools and have only met one teacher who I didn’t think was doing their job to the absolute best of their ability – which is a pretty good record.

Teachers routinely put in extra hours, go above and beyond for their pupils and they’re doing one of (if not the) hardest and most important jobs in our society. I hope as Champion I can be a voice for teachers and will be looking for any available opportunities to support them better, both personally and professionally.

So what is your vision for the future?

Ideally, I’d like to completely redesign the education system (with the help of Sir Ken Robinson and others) so that it allows more social mobility, more potential-reaching for all young people and puts wellbeing at the core of everything it does.

Realistically, I’d like to get everyone on the same page. I’ve had the privilege of travelling the UK working with thousands of teenagers, teachers and parents and it’s given me a unique insight into what’s going on in Britain right now. There is still work to be done around reducing stigma, most importantly we need to realise that mental health is relevant to absolutely everyone.

What can schools do right now to better support children and young people with mental health concerns?

Schools are doing everything they can with the resources they have available. I think we need to acknowledge that not every young person will feel comfortable talking to a teacher or parent, so we need to build a network of support including CAMHS, charities that provide web and phone information and helplines and outside experts like my team and the many other people who are visiting schools to share their expertise.

Cooperation is key. The government, teachers, parents, charities and other relevant organisations need to work together if we want build a solid safety net to catch the children and teenagers that are falling.

Natasha can be contacted by email at: getselfesteemteam@gmail.com

Find out more

• Guidance on preparing to teach about mental health and emotional well-being – a set of lesson plans spanning key stages 1-4
• Counselling in schools: a blueprint for the future – advice on delivering school-based counselling
• Mental health and behaviour in schools
• The Self-esteem Team

Optimus Education resources

• Pupil mental health: resources and training for schools
• Managing Self-Harm: downloadable training resources to ensure colleagues are trained to appropriately provide support for pupils.
• Webinar: Understanding and supporting self-harm

Having trouble accessing the resources above? Why not find out how Optimus supports schools with their CPD provision and request a demo of In-House Training and Knowledge Centre.

Using a range of activities to make CPD count

Do you tweet? Are you involved in peer networking? Are you a member of a working group? Do you include these activities under the broad definition of CPD? And indeed, should you?

What does – and what does not – constitute CPD (continuing professional development)? At a time when grass roots professional development is taking root, opinions vary on what counts.

Too restrictive a definition can lead to lost opportunities. And with limited funds available for CPD, can we afford this?

A broad range of activities

It’s essential to be realistic about what constitutes the kind of CPD that brings about real change in practice. Yet schools with a truly embedded culture of CPD encourage teachers to make the most of every available opportunity to enhance their professional learning.

CPD has been defined as covering a ‘broad range of activities designed to contribute to the learning of teachers, who have completed their initial training’*.

Included in this ‘broad range’ of methods for professional learning are:

• action research
• self-directed study
• teacher research linked to awards such as the education doctorate
• using distance-learning materials
• receiving or giving on-the-job coaching, mentoring or tutoring
• school-based and off-site courses of various lengths
• job shadowing or rotation
• peer networks
• membership of a working party or task group
• school cluster projects involving collaboration, development and sharing of experience or skills
• teacher placements, including those in business and in other schools
• personal reflection
• experiential ‘assignments’
• collaborative learning
• information technology-mediated learning, for example through email discussion groups, or self-study using multimedia resources.

But in this digital age, could we also add social networking sites such as Twitter? And what of TeachMeets, these grassroots events where teachers come together to share their ideas with teachers?

A blend of professional learning opportunities

Evidently no single approach to professional learning will be sufficient. Great CPD will involve a blend of professional learning opportunities and a strong commitment from the individual, too.

Everything that can be remotely linked with impacting professional development is worthy of consideration. We would be foolhardy to think that CPD is not triggered by, for example, an informal professional dialogue with a colleague in the corridor, or a cursory glance at Twitter during an education chat that leads to following up on tweeted research studies or relevant articles.

These activities may not be costly courses requiring time out of the classroom, but they do still offer practitioners the opportunity to stretch their learning through the synthesis of new ideas – and that, after all, is one of the indicators of a truly reflective practitioner.

A professional learning mindset

Fundamental to this broad approach to professional learning is the professional learning mindset.

This involves having the mentality that seeks to learn from every situation encountered during the school day. It functions on deep reflection, and enables teachers to make the most of all learning situations. It requires skills of contextualising, too, without which learning remains abstract and limited.

If a school has a strong infrastructure for professional learning, then teachers are unlikely to rely on a limited range of activities to constitute CPD. They are more likely to have a professional learning mindset and to see potential learning opportunities all around.

Find out more

• The website of the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education is a good place to start for information on the range of activities that are of interest to teachers seeking to broaden their approach to CPD.
• Follow our @OptimusEd account for our Twitter updates!
• Take a look at our In-House Training service to find out how our ready-made, expert-written training programmes can support your school’s professional learning.
• Watch the recording of our webinar Using Twitter as a teacher – a beginner’s guide

*Continuing Professional Development: A Practical Guide for Teachers and Schools (Routledge Falmer, 1996), Anna Craft

Note: this blog post is based on an article originally written by Elizabeth Holmes for the Knowledge Centre