ProgressTeaching

What better way to belatedly celebrate?International Women’s Day than to visit the wonderful Mulberry School for Girls in Shadwell, East London! Thank you to Dorothy Asare, Deputy Headteacher, for hosting myself and Emma McCrea, Head of Marketing from SIMS and talking us through how you have successfully changed the culture around teacher feedback in your school. ?? Frequency of feedback At Mulberry School for Girls, teachers receive feedback little and often, mostly once per week, but at least once every two weeks. At Mulberry, teachers look forward to hearing the positives about their practice, find the questions they receive to develop their practice very helpful, and are used to leaders dropping in and out of lessons, so don’t see it as a threat. I was wondering if some teachers might find it stressful for 3 people to go into their classrooms, but nobody even flinched! ?? Making learning walks positive? Every Wednesday, Mulberry’s staff CPD session begins with the ‘Learning Boost’, where there are shout-outs about the great practice seen that week. Leaders at the school have given learning walks a positive feel by openly looking for and celebrating teachers’ strengths. ? ? ?? Empowering Middle Leaders? ? Mulberry School for Girls took the view that increasing the regularity of feedback was a priority, so backed this up with Middle Leaders by allocating an additional period of protected time per week for them to see their teams teach. At times when Middle Leaders can’t conduct learning walks, other team members step in to give peer feedback so this culture permeates the whole teaching staff. I think it was symbolic that one of the Middle Leaders took us on a learning walk today, rather than a member of SLT. ? ? Half-way through the year, the school has already given over 600 pieces of feedback to?teachers, a strategy that is clearly having the desired effect?when you look at their most recent academic outcomes and Ofsted inspection. #mulberryschoolforgirls #feedback #teacherdevelopment #learningwalks

It was great to end the week visiting Southchurch High School in sunny Southend today! Assistant Head Teacher Jo Adams, Data Manager Helen Stone and I had some really thought-provoking discussions around current teaching trends, in particular around the pitfalls of the standard Power Point Presentation for lessons. There are of course benefits to sharing Power Points across a team, but Jo made the absolutely valid point that the Power Point is only one part of the planning process, a complex process that teachers need to carefully craft over time. ?? Wonderful questioning in Geography ?? This was then beautifully exemplified in a geography lesson, where the resource was the video with an accompanying question on the Power Point slide, but the rest of the planning was reflected in all the teaching steps that followed and were so skilfully delivered: ?? An initial show of hands up to check who had the correct answer, then some follow up on incorrect answers ?? An embedded no hands up policy ?? Oracy focus: an insistence on answers in full sentences ?? Examples, including statistics, requested from pupils to back up their points ?? When pupils were stuck, the teacher asked “X, can you help out?” ?? The non-negotiable that pupils wrote down missing parts of answers in their books Jo was very keen to share this practice as soon as she had seen it, so the teacher was asked to deliver a mock Geography lesson to the whole staff in a CPD session. While it was happening, another team member kept a tally chart and staff had to guess what it was. It was examples of formative assessment used in the lesson and the count went up to 26! It's these kind of strategies that are contributing to Southchurch High’s really positive journey right now. Thanks so much to Jo, Helen and Head Teacher Tracy Airoll for hosting another hugely worthwhile visit to a Partnership Learning School. #feedback #questioning #cpd #teacherdevelopment

I had the pleasure of meeting Assistant Headteacher Bryony Paul at Queensbury Academy yesterday, whose passion for teaching and learning and deep thinking has led to an engaging range of coaching strategies to drive forward the quality of teaching. ??My current coaching focus is… In every classroom we visited, Bryony was able to pick up a folder in which there was a laminated piece of A4 card with the teacher’s current coaching focus. Examples we saw were ‘assessment for learning red pen’ and ‘live feedback’. This shaped the focus of the lesson drop-in and therefore Bryony’s feedback. ?? Live coaching The academy has developed a ‘live coaching’ strategy, where coaches give immediate feedback to teachers during lessons. Flashcards have been created with clear symbols, where coaches subtly indicate from the back of the classroom which teaching technique to use. These can also be written onto mini whiteboards. Some teachers have found this a more challenging strategy to take on board, but leaders have adapted by limiting the number of signals given, usually to one per drop-in only, in order not to exceed cognitive load. Because of the more sensitive nature of the strategy, scripts and video content have also been produced to thoroughly train coaches before they start giving this type of feedback. In the comments below this post, I’ve attached images of the ‘My current coaching focus’ laminate as well as a sample of the flashcards that coaches use for live coaching from the back of the classroom during lesson drop-ins. ?? Resources to maximise feedback opportunities Wherever possible, leaders at Queensbury take the opportunity to support the feedback they are giving with resources for their teachers: ??Links to guides are included in their teaching and learning rubric to assist teachers’ planning. ??Resources are uploaded to feedback forms, for example, I saw a Spanish lesson feedback form with a ‘Microscripting’ guide attached to help the teacher achieve their action step. This is part of a broader drive led by Laura Grainger, Head of Pedagogy, Curriculum and Assessment across Anthem Schools Trust to make feedback as impactful as possible. A big thank you to Bryony and Headteacher Helen Palmer for hosting a fantastic visit and sharing the detailed work you have done on coaching strategies. If you would like to find out more about my school visits generally or any of the specific themes above, please feel free to DM me. #queensburyacademy #anthemschoolstrust #sharingbestpractice #teachingandlearning #feedback #coaching #cpd