04.30.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged continuous provision, engagemet, Headteacher, heathfieldcps, life cycles, primary, tadpoles at 8:30 pm by headteacher
EYFS have been learning about Life Cycles this term. The caterpillars are safe in their cocoons, the tadpoles are getting bigger day by day and the stick insects are loving their privet and bramble leaves. If only the Year 6 curriculum could look a little bit more like this then I believe that nationally our standards and our levels of pupil excitement and engagement would both be so much higher.
The continuous provision allows the children to become fully immersed in their learning and to apply their knowledge to all areas of the curriculum. The children are learning independently via closely planned activities that are designed to challenge their thinking.
The learning takes place both indoors and outdoors is a multi sensory learning experience. We try to facilitate all of the different intelligences, ensure that where possible learning is connected and seamless. Our next challenge is to develop this model of learning and teaching into Years 1 and 2 and beyond!
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04.29.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged heathfieldcps.net, magic dust, pupils, teacher at 9:26 pm by headteacher
There’s usually one in every school. Sometimes it’s a teacher, sometimes a teaching assistant, in some schools it is one of the office or kitchen staff. But it is that person who brightens the room with their presence, always has a smile on their face, time to help, time to share and acts out their strongly held principles in their everyday actions. And pupils, parents and staff are sensitive to this and feel safe and valued to be with such a person.
At Heathfield we are really lucky because we have more than one person sprinkling magic dust as they float through the school. I wonder if it it infectious? Just as children in school pick up poor habits or good habits by imitating others, so do we, as adults subconsciously fall into accepted behaviour patterns. In the right environment can we train ourselves to sprinkle that little bit of magic dust as we float through school, create that moment of happiness and well being?
A few ideas that I am consciously going to try to develop because I know that only when children feel safe and happy are they ready to learn, this also holds true with adults at all stages of their adult life.
- Give out quality praise where due, make sure the reason for the praise is very clear and notice the detail;
- Be honest and accept praise where it is due;
- Be unconditional in your acceptance of all, forget the incident from yesterday, forget the problem from last week;
- Assess your listening skills, practise real listening, notice the body language and take time to listen;
- Find time to notice the quiet children and the quiet staff, encourage their views;
- Recognise, acknowledge, appreciate, and make use of the skills of others.
More than anything else SMILE, smiles are infectious and they really do change our mood! You could be the person who sprinkles the Magic Dust in someone else’s day!
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04.27.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged aims, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, leadership skills, principles at 7:09 pm by headteacher
I’ve been teaching now for over 20 years, in that time I have been a senior leader, Assistant Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher. I have been a Headteacher for the last 2 years and here are some very brief thoughts about key leadership skills.
- Share your principles and aims every day in everything you do.
- Appreciate the skills and passions of others. If a member of your staff has a passion then it is possible that they can connect with the children in different ways. Making connections is the key to passionate learning. Celebrate staff who are diverse and individual – a school which includes diverse and individual staff will be a school with a strong and honest identity.
- Be honest with yourself, know your own weaknesses and strengths. None of us can be perfect. We cannot possibly be amazing at every aspect of school leadership. Seek out and develop the diverse skills of your staff. Give staff the opportunity and the trust to make BIG decisions and then let them run with their decisions. If they make a mistake, support them through the process and help them to learn from mistakes. A mistake is only really a mistake if we don’t learn from it.
- Learn to be humble and let others have the glory. I don’t care whether or not I become *famous* in my Local Authority. What I care about is my school becoming *famous* for improving life-long learning opportunities for children. I want to facilitate my staff so that they can shine and share their enthusiasm, dedication and professionalism and so that they can help other schools to do the same thing. When I see my staff develop and grow in confidence then I feel that I am doing a worthy job. And if, on the journey, other professionals are able to recognise and share the celebration of my staff then I’m more than happy!
- Try to understand separate realities. Don’t get me wrong. I get things wrong all the time but I do try to imagine what it must be like living someone else’s reality. When I try to understand other people’s realities then I remember how lucky I am. Teachers, despite the red tape, have more autonomy in their roles than many other people. We can help a child to flourish emotionally, socially and academically and we can influence their self perceptions for life. How lucky are teachers!
There are so many skills that senior leaders need to develop! I shall be thinking of a few more over the next few days!
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04.25.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged aims, Cambridge Review, principles, Rose Report, SATs, Sir Robin Alexander at 4:43 pm by headteacher
Following the debacle surrounding the Rose Report over the Easter holiday I decided that it was time to look in more detail at The Cambridge Primary Review which was published towards the end of 2009.
The Cambridge Primary Review is described as, “an independent enquiry into the condition and future of primary education in England,” directed by Sir Robin Alexander, research was based, unsurprisingly at the University of Cambridge and supported by Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
The full report is massive, hundreds of pages of dense reading material. However the summary document is only 42 pages long and can be downloaded from http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/Downloads/Finalreport/CPR-booklet_low-res.pdf
In brief the Review investigated three main perspectives:
- Children and childhood today;
- The society and the world in which children are growing up;
- The condition and future of primary education.
The ten educational themes were:
- Purposes and values;
- Learning and teaching;
- Curriculum and assessment;
- Quality and standards;
- Diversity and inclusion;
- Settings and professionals;
- Parenting, caring and educating;
- Children’s lives beyond the school;
- Structures and phases;
- Funding, governance and policy.
These research principles are directly linked to the 12 educational aims.
In my opinion the Cambridge Review is independent and has been able to review assessment procedures in a way that Rose was never able to and defines the possible future of English education in a way that Rose never could. The Cambridge Review also advocates literacy and numeracy being reintegrated with the rest of the curriculum and a rebalance of the roles of government, local authorities and schools.
The Cambridge Review defines the 12 aims that should, “drive the curriculum, teaching, assessment, schools and policy.” The aims and principles proposed by the Review, “reflect values and moral purposes, for that it was education is about.” The Cambridge Review, in my opinion is explicitly responding to the changing and diverse needs of our culture and the continuing desire to adhere to and promote high moral values.
The summary document describes how these aims are interdependent but questions whether such aims can be made statutory. I’m not really sure how the aims/ principles below can actually be measured! Do they even need to be measured?
Please read the 12 Cambridge Review aims below or alternatively follow the link http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/Downloads/Finalreport/CPR-booklet_low-res.pdf
and tell me what you think:
The Individual
- Well being;
- Engagement;
- Autonomy;
Self, Others and The Wider World
- Encouraging respect and reciprocity;
- Promoting interdependence and sustainability;
- Empowering local, national and global leadership;
- Celebrating culture and community;
Learning, Knowing and Doing
- Exploring, knowing, understanding and making sense;
- Fostering skill;
- Exciting imagination;
- Enacting dialogue.
I will be reading the Review in more detail and updating the blog about it, so if you are interested in the Cambridge recommendations for EYFS watch this space!
For a comparison of Rose and Cambridge please follow the link: http://bit.ly/bNe6ww
Thanks to @andreacarr1 for sending me the link via Twitter!
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04.20.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged blossom, heathfieldcps.net, life cycles, Reception Class, tadpoles at 11:55 am by headteacher
Summer blossom!
Reception Class are learning about Life Cycles!
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04.19.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged Egyptians, enquiry, heathfieldcps.net, investigation, Reception Class, Vikings, voicethread, wallwisher, wordle, Year 1, Year 2, Year 6 at 8:22 pm by headteacher
It’s the second week of summer term and what a pleasure to see the children really enjoying themselves outside in the sun! We have made so much progress in so many ways since September 2009 and I could never have imagined how motivated and purposeful the staff and the children could be.
In Reception Class we are beginning to invest heavily in ICT equipment, bee bots, audio, microphones, cameras and similar. We have taken advice from our twitter colleagues who have been very helpful and informative about up to date equipment. I believe that the EYFS children should be able to digitally record their own work (visual and audio). No big deal, you might say, but they then should take personal responsibility for saving work into their own evidence folders which they can then share with any adults or other pupils. We all know that our children can use phones and cameras, let’s use and develop this acquired skill.
Reception class are also having a great time with their worm cocoons and also with their little tadpoles (photos to follow!) We also have a wonderful outside learning environment in which the children love to learn. I have been informed that the tadpoles can’t actually talk but they do like to see what work the children have completed- we have many a photo of pupils showing the tadpoles their best work!
Year 1 are getting quite experienced with their class blog. Having received a postcard from Barnaby Bear (currently stranded on holiday in Egypt and having a smashing time), they are using a wallwisher to investigate and ask questions about Egypt. This is a really effective way of encouraging the children to learn through enquiry and investigation.
Year 2 are our newest class in terms of blogging! They are sharing ideas about Vikings and invasions! I cannot believe how excited Y2 are to be blogging. Judging from the current buzz in Y2 I don’t believe it will be difficult to keep up the momentum! Our “Blogging Class of the Week” Trophy might be the perfect carrot to keep Y2 busily blogging!
Our Year 6 class (now blog diehards!) have been using voicethread this week and are now contributing their happiest memories of Heathfield to make a wordle.
PHEW! That’s a lot of learning! Please visit our various blogs and leave your comments! The children get so excited when they realise that they really do have a worldwide audience, the capacity to communicate with others is thrilling and highly rewarding!
Just think- the first blog training Heathfield CPS had was in December 2009 - what amazing progress we have made!
http://heathfieldcps.net
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04.13.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:25 pm by headteacher
Click on the image to view it in supersize!
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04.09.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged creativity, David Mitchell, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, Ian Addison, learning, SEF, wordle at 9:37 pm by headteacher
Heathfield Primary School SEF 2010
I have been encouraged by my twitter PLN (mainly Ian Addison and David Mitchell) to convert the latest school SEF into a wordle. This was quite a big job for me as I’m not particularly ICT minded. However it was great fun and I did enjoy completing it. How many professions can boast of a PLN that is available for advice and encouragement at 10.pm on a Friday evening? Thanks everybody for your much appreciated help! This used to be a 90 page document! What do you think?
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