CPD Reflections: Be your school’s resident Ofsted inspector training

 By Jaya Carrier & Ruhina Cockar

On Monday 6th June during T6 INSET, Ruhina and I attended a training run by B11 entitled ‘Be your school’s resident Ofsted inspector’. Ofsted readiness is something that we need to be mindful of, both in terms of a likely inspection, but also because it enables us to look at ways of improving our school more generally. As such, this course provided us with some really useful insights into how Ofsted use their revised 2019 framework to conduct inspections and how these can support our ongoing work. Here are some of the key things we’ve taken away:

• Curriculum - what are we learning?: The Ofsted 2019 framework takes seriously the ‘what’ of the curriculum and asks educators to make very deliberate and considered decisions around curriculum rationale, sequencing, breadth, depth, and also what students need to know in order to have a successful future life.

• Curriculum - quality assurance: As a stand-alone Academy, questions of quality assurance in our curriculum will also be important - how do we benchmark and what do we use to do this? How can we show that we are offering something even better than the National Curriculum at KS3 and KS4 (where relevant)?

• Teaching and Learning - linked to the curriculum: Ofsted’s view is that decisions about teaching and learning should first and foremost reflect the curriculum. Choices of activities and pedagogies should directly reflect the ‘what’ of the curriculum.

• ‘Knowing more and remembering more’: A large proportion of the evidence base for an inspector is likely to be speaking to students themselves. They will want to know what students can remember, and how students can link this to what they are currently learning. They have routinely stated that they want students ‘knowing more and remembering more’.
  

Having attended this training, Ruhina and I felt strongly that our current work and goals are really going to put us in a good position for an Ofsted inspection. We came away feeling proud and excited about our school, particularly the changes that are coming next year!

Bitesize Research: Impact Of Exam Anxiety On Exam Performance

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone had a good week so far! As this is the final week of our YR11s being with us, I was interested to read a summary of some recent research into exam anxiety and exam performance by the Institute of Education. Objectives: To understand the links between exam anxiety and exam performance for YR11s.

Summary:

• The study revealed no clear relationship between those students with high levels of exam anxiety and exam performance
• A maximum difference of one-fifth was found between the most and least anxious groups.
• There were no meaningful differences in subgroups - including prior attainment groupings and deprivation indexes.
• This is contrary to other literature which suggests a negative impact of anxiety on test performance. The authors conclude two possible reasons for this: 1) It is possible that the motivating elements of anxiety outweigh the negative impacts 2) It is possible that structures to alleviate anxiety, such as separate rooms or extra time, are already in place.
• This study highlights the need for more in-depth research into the impact of mental health on GCSE exam performance. It also proposes a more detailed examination of the long-term impacts of exam anxiety.

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• How have I supported students who have exam anxiety? How can I encourage exam anxiety as a motivating factor?
• What understanding or support do I need to be able to help students who suffer from exam anxiety? Here are Paul Mulvihill’s tips for students with exam anxiety: 1. Prepare them well in advance - for example, talk them through the smaller details 2. Normalise anxious feelings or worries - e.g. if you are worried about an exam it shows you care about doing well! 3. Encourage students not to compare themselves to others and remember that exams are a tool to identify areas of development
• How might the ‘I don’t care’ attitude act as a proxy for exam anxiety? How might we deal with this?

If you would like to discuss this further with me please get in touch! I’d be delighted to hear from you!

Bitesize Research: Careers Education Provision For Young People

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone had a good week so far! I’ve been looking at some themes we’ll be touching upon in September INSET, one of which is careers. We also had a really interesting Wednesday briefing from Alex James looking at destinations and UCAS a few weeks ago, and we’ve got work experience for YR10 and YR12 coming up in July. As such, this week, I was interested in a recent report from March 2022 by the Sutton Trust on Careers education. Objectives:

To understand the current provision available to young people about their careers and the barriers to improving careers education and guidance. Summary:

• The report suggests that there are two divisions in the current provision for young people across the UK. Firstly between state schools in different areas of affluence, and secondly between the state and private sector.
• The research suggests that 32% of teachers in the state sector believe they don’t have enough funding to deliver good careers education, compared to 6% of private school teachers.
• The research suggests that 51% of teachers in state schools believe that there isn’t enough staff time for good careers education, whereas this is 33% in private schools.
• One-third of secondary pupils felt that they were not confident in taking their next steps after leaving school, and a similar proportion said that had not received any work experience whilst at secondary school.
• The Sutton Trust therefore is recommending the following:
• Better access to careers advisers - including having a dedicated careers lead in school
• Time in the curriculum - suggesting that schools need to protect and include ringfenced time for careers education
• Apprenticeship support - currently, pupils are four times less likely to receive substantial guidance on apprenticeship routes than on traditional university ones

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• How do I support my students’ and tutees’ in their understanding of careers and the world of work currently?
• How does my curriculum support careers information, advice and guidance on entry to, and be more effective workers within, a wide range of careers in my subject’s industry?
• How do I provide encounters with organisations and employers that compliment my curriculum offer?
• What support do I need further to help with this?
• How much knowledge and understanding do I have of apprenticeship routes?

If you would like to discuss this further with me please get in touch! I’d be delighted to hear from you!

How To Integrate TOK Into Lessons

By Charlotte Nicholas

It was really great to have the opportunity on INSET Day to speak a little more about TOK and critical thinking in our subjects. More often than not we are ‘doing TOK’ in our lessons but it would be fantastic if we were more explicit in our practice. This blog post aims to give you some suggestions on how to bring TOK into your teaching; from Year 7, all the way through to Year 13.

In order to ensure that our inclusion of TOK is consistent, It is crucial for us to have a shared knowledge of what TOK is. Below is a screenshot of the TOK specification. One suggestion of how to fit TOK into your lessons could be to use the It knowledge framework as a way of framing questions, for instance; which perspectives are involved in the arts? Are some perspectives more valid than others? Why? What methods do mathematicians use to make mathematical claims? What is the scope of language, can it be independent of knowledge?

One misconception with TOK is that it is the same as philosophy or ethics as this is included in the knowledge framework. It is important not to fall into the TOK trap of conflating these different subjects (although they are closely related). An ethical question may consider what is right or wrong or attempt to make moral judgements whereas TOK would consider which approaches might exist towards an ethical dilemma, what knowledge has informed these approaches and the role that knowledge plays in people’s perspectives and actions towards ethical issues E.g. As knowers, do we have a moral duty to examine our own biases and assumptions? Are there situations where ignorance/lack of knowledge is an excuse for unethical behaviour? It would be great to see more of us bringing TOK into our classrooms. Below are some suggestions of what you could do to include it more explicitly and meaningfully. I look forward to hearing from you about how this goes and how students respond!

• Apply Michael’s idea of bringing in a current affairs / news article into your lesson and getting students to approach it from a TOK lens. Please see Michael’s slides here.

• Apply Michael’s idea of starting with a misconception / finding out what students already know. E.g. What moral values do you think scientists have?

• Ask students provoking questions using the TOK concepts; certainty, truth, explanation, culture, evidence, justification, power, perspective, values, objectivity, responsibility and interpretation. How has your culture affected your perspective? Do you think the fact we have discussed is objective? Is religion the only place that faith plays a role?

• Use objects in your teaching (students use objects in their TOK exhibition). For instance, get students to consider how objects link to your specific discipline and the knowledge within it. What can this phrenological skull tell you about historical knowledge and scientific knowledge?

• Consider the content you are teaching from a different perspective -- How about if we asked the same question to an indigenous community? How about if we asked this question to a religious / non-religious group?

• Encourage students to consider themselves as ‘knowers’ and use phrases like ‘experts’ ‘ ‘community of knowers’ etc.

• Subscribe to Michael’s newsletter at Theoryofknowledge.net and frame your thinking in a TOK way more frequently.

• Mention TOK or critical thinking explicitly and use the TOK logo whenever you are doing some TOK thinking to get students to think explicitly about it.

• Discuss the methodology in your subjects with students to help them understand how knowledge is formed in your area. E.g. Why do historians’ views change over time? How do scientists ensure their work is accurate? Is only the artist's intended interpretation of their art the only valid view?

• Stay up to date with the yearly TOK essay titles (see below) -- discuss with students how you would approach them from your perspective / with your expertise.

Finally, it would be excellent to welcome staff to the TOK Exhibition event on Wednesday 22nd June 5pm-7pm. This will be a fantastic opportunity to learn more about what students have been doing in TOK and in order to probe their thinking further with your expertise. Thanks for reading and happy TOK’ing!

Bitesize Research: Student Perceptions Of School

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone had a good week so far! This week, I was interested in the reporting of a recent piece of Australian research that looked at students’ likes and dislikes about school. Objectives:

To understand student perceptions of school, including their specific likes and dislikes about it. Summary:

• Previous research shows that feeling positive about school is associated with better attendance and also better outcomes for students. Conversely, strong feelings of dislike about school lead to greater amounts of exclusions and risk of NEET (not in education, employment or training).
• This study surveyed over 1,000 Australian students to look at their feelings and perceptions about school in further depth.
• In a general sense, roughly two-thirds of the students surveyed said they liked school, and one-third said they did not.
• Many of the disliker students suggested that their dislike started when they transitioned into secondary, and this appeared worsened over time, with older students disliking school more.
• School likers and dislikers tended to both prize ‘friends’ in particular. However, school likers tended to like ‘learning’ whereas dislikers tended not to.
• One of the largest disparities between the likers and dislikers was in their rating of ‘my teacher listens to me’ - likers rated this highly, and dislikers rated this at a low level.
• The study suggests that teacher-pupil relationships are a really important part of school experience for both the liker and disliker groups and that this should be an area of focus for future action research.

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• What do I know about my students’ and tutees’ likes and dislikes about school? What might be important to know about them?
• How do I ensure that students feel that I listen to them?
• How can I ensure ongoing positive relationships with all students?

If you would like to discuss this further with me please get in touch! I’d be delighted to hear from you!

Bitesize Research: Teacher Influence On Student Attainment

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone had a great half term, and that you’re having a good week so far. Given that we are in the thick of GCSE exams, this week, I was interested to see the TES reporting of the findings of research by the Nuffield Foundation about teacher influences on student attainment (specifically GCSE results). Objectives: To understand the influences that teachers have on student attainment. Summary:

• The data for this study was from 14,000 students, in 32 secondary schools
• The study confirms that the classroom practices of teachers do matter and do influence student results. It also shows that the classroom practices vary from subject to subject in terms of their impact.
• For example, in English lessons - facilitating interactions and discussions between students appear to be important to raising test scores
• In Maths lessons - making time for students to practice individually appears to be important in raising test scores
• Teacher ratings were also examined, and the teachers ranked most highly by peers appeared to have the biggest impact on GCSE scores
• The report authors suggest that peer observations of these highly ranked teachers are likely to be helpful in both professional learning and in improving student outcomes

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• What do I notice about my planned classroom activities and their relationship to student attainment? What evidence do I have?
• When was the last time I observed a colleague who is highly rated by students? What did I learn?
• How can I factor in time for observation in T6 of a highly rated colleague?

If you would like to discuss this further with me please get in touch! I’d be delighted to hear from you!