Blog

As the summer holidays draw to a close, many of us will be thinking about the start of the new school year. Whether you are a teacher, a pupil or a parent, the start of a new academic year can feel somewhat daunting, as well as exciting.

Phrases that I commonly hear about the beginning of term are ‘we need to hit the ground running’, ‘start as we mean to go on’, or ‘we need everything up and running’. Personally, I feel slightly exhausted by this kind of rhetoric, and I don’t want to start my year like that.  There is a kind of forced energy behind it, and a kind of ‘grit your teeth and get on with it’ mentality.  This is a short-term attitude and cannot be sustained until July, Christmas, or even October half term come to that.

So, I’d like to offer an alternative.  How about we take things a little slower? We have about 10 months with our classes.  That’s 10 months to get to know them, to support them to make progress, to help them to grow as individuals, to grow and learn together. 10 months of days getting darker, festivals, snow, birthdays, rain, new life, lighter days, warmer days, upsets, injuries, disappointments, joys, highs, lows, successes, failures, illnesses, loads of energy, losses, friendships, and much, much more. With so much going on in the life of a school, and our own lives, it is easy to become exhausted and drained.

If we have 10 months, why do we try to pack it all in the first few weeks of September and think that we have to have everything sorted right from the start?  That isn’t how anything ever starts.  If we wait until everything is perfect, we’d never get started.  So, let’s give ourselves a break, take a breath and start a bit slower, in a way that is sustainable.

How about you just concentrate on two things during September? 

Relationships and routines.

Relationships are at the heart of everything we do.  As human beings we long for connection with, and recognition from, each other.  As teachers, we know that children will be much happier, feel safer, and learn more if they have strong connections with us.  To quote the rather marvellous Rita Pearson, ‘human connection is the key.  Children don’t learn from people they don’t like’.  Or James Comer: ‘no significant learning can occur without a significant relationship.’ 

One simple way to connect with our children is to find out what makes them tick.  What are they interested in?  What do they do in their spare time? What do they do outside of school?  Find out. 

Once you’ve done that, talk to them about the things that make them tick. Put books about these things in the reading area (if possible). Use them for guided reading sessions, or to write about, or as a stimulus in geography etc. I’ve had many conversations about football, trains, or sewing that are brilliant for just engaging with children outside of the curriculum and seeing them as people. This relationship then makes my job far easier, and children feel valued – a win-win situation.

Routines might sound boring, but they are really important.  They create structure and can anchor us in our daily lives, making it more manageable and allowing us to cope better with unpredictable changes. Routines also reduce our stress levels by limiting the number of decisions we need to make on a daily basis, thereby reducing our cognitive load. Routines also help us to prioritize those things which are important to us, which in turn helps us to achieve our goals. Put simply, routines support us to feel safe.

Without routines we can often feel confused, overwhelmed, and stressed.  When we feel like this, we are not effective learners, teachers, or parents.

Some tips for creating routines

• Make a list of the things that need doing (thus reducing your cognitive load) and then order it
• Keep it simple – focus on the things that you value and that will give the most benefit
• Create a visual reminder (this will reduce cognitive load and help to remind you)
• Schedule breaks and flexible time (avoid over-stuffing your timetable as things often take longer than we think)
• Lay stuff out the night before – clothes, packed lunches, bags, resources etc.  (you’ll get a better night’s sleep knowing these things are done)
• Be kind and patient with yourself and others – it takes time to establish a new routine
• Celebrate your wins
• Try out your new routine for a while, then assess and adjust – what worked well?  How could you adjust it so it is even better?

Remember to sprinkle your routines with fun, creativity, and spontaneity to avoid dullness, drudgery, and boredom.

Finding the essence of teaching

So whatever the start of the new academic year brings for you, why not slow things down and focus on the two simple concepts of relationships and routines? In doing so, you might well achieve simplicity, serenity and success, and not at the expense of your energy and focus.

I’ve updated my visual guide to the OfSTED grade descriptors in line with the September 2021 publication. You can download them below free of charge, but if you would have been prepared to pay for this unique resource, please consider making a small donation to The David Nott Foundation (via my Just Giving page) to add a little bit more humanity to the world.

---

Back in 2019 when the new OfSTED framework came out, I produced some visual versions of the grade descriptors, for the following reasons:

1. For those of us who like documents to be more visual, and who use shapes and colours to help us take in information, you should find these grade descriptors much easier to read than the way they are currently laid out in the OfSTED handbook.
2. This “mind map” style representation would make a really great display in the staff room/training room as part of CPD. It would even be possible to add Post-it notes, documents and photos to it, to build up a picture of how your school meets the criteria (both formal and non-formal observations). Used in this way, I would encourage anybody to add to it – teaching staff, lunchtime staff, governors, visitors – as well as SLT.
3. It’s a really useful tool for when you are doing a book scrutiny or learning walk, or as a quick reference guide for leadership conversations.

To find out more about how the Visual Guide is designed to work, please read this post.

Click here to download the Primary version of the Visual Guide to the New OFSTED Framework

As we approach half term, now might be a good time to reflect on your remote learning offer. Here are a few simple yet powerful questions to help you do just that.

Anybody who has ever worked with me will know that I am a big fan of Simon Sinek’s ‘Golden Circle’ model.  It is a very simple model, that looks like this:

The main message behind Sinek’s golden circle is that we need to start from the inside and work our way outwards.  We need to start with WHY.

I have applied the golden circle model to remote learning, and created a set of questions to help you reflect on your offer. 

Answer each question with two or three bullet points.

Why

• What is the purpose of remote learning for our school community? 
• What did we want to get from it in the wider sense?
• What is important about remote learning for us? 

The answers you give should be based on the needs of your unique community.

How / Implementation

• How do we deliver our remote learning? 
• What is the structure of our remote learning package? 
• What is the flow of our remote learning?

Here you might include some commentary about the physical act of delivering your remote learning, but also you might like to consider the style of learning you are offering e.g., open-ended projects, problems to solve, practical activities, workbooks etc.

You might also want to consider the range of subjects that you are offering:

• Is our remote learning offering our children a broad range of curriculum subjects? 
• Does our remote learning look the same every week, or is there variety to keep children engaged?

What / Impact

• What difference do we want our remote learning to make?
• What do we want our children to learn?
• What it is important for our children to maintain while they are at home?

Be specific here about what you want your children to achieve.

Think about the key things that you would like your children to be able to do, know or say at the end of the remote learning period, the project, or the learning session. 

The answers you give here should reflect your WHY.

---

Need more help? I offer 90-minute online sessions where we can dive deeper into these questions and work on any school specific issues.  I have 10 discounted slots available during March – £150 per session. If this sounds like it would benefit you, contact me to find out more:

The Art of Noticing – a simple, effective way to get your young scientists observing.

• The Art of Noticing is simply about noticing the things that catch your eye, and talking/writing about them.
• You can do it anytime, anyplace, anywhere – it’s free and doesn’t need any resources other than a piece of paper and a pen.
• You can do it with a collection of objects, a view from a window, a picture in a magazine, a video clip, on a stroll etc.
• You can use one or all of your senses
• List the things that you notice in a descriptive way and it will read like a poem!  Don’t tell them it’s a poem otherwise they try to make it rhyme!

Here’s one that I wrote whilst sitting on my friend’s sofa.

Peg doll leaning drunkenly on the mantelpiece
Elephants marching slowly across a plastic bag
Leveret cradled lovingly by its mother
Silent piano keys gathering dust
Rows of books waiting to be read
Pirate ship abandoned for the day, waiting for tomorrow’s marauders

Here’s another from a Y2 child after watching a trailer for BBC Dynasties https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWI1eCbksdE – if you’re using a video clip, watch it once, watch it again and take notes, watch it a final time and add detail.

Dynasties
Walking wildebeest in the sunlight.
Hyenas running across the hot sandy land.
Proud painted wolves leaping across the desert.
Scared hyenas stepping away from their enemy.
Small chimp playing in the soft dry sand.
Cold and frosty iceberg shining in the daylight.
Growling tiger stalking through the bamboo.
Staring orange tiger eyes glimmering in the light.
Cold Emperor penguins huddled together against the icy wind.
Wafting wildebeest tails moving from front to hind.
Fighting lions with hyenas by their side.
Screaming chimps getting ready to fight.
Blazing fires spreading across the land.
Cuddling tiger cubs keeping warm beside their mother.
Snapping crocodile attacking every animal he sees.
Watery land shining in the sun.
Proud lions climbing on tumbled down trees.

So get out into your garden, or look out of your window, and notice everything you can see – I’d love to hear what your young scientists observe.

Young teachers often ask me how I know so much stuff.  I tell them that I’ve been working in education for a pretty long time now.  Whilst this is true, anyone who has sat in a room with me for more than half an hour, will also know that I love BBC Radio 4 and it’s one of the main sources of my information.

I love programmes that tell me more about people, so here are 4 of my favourites:

1. Desert Island Discs– my absolute favourite.  I never miss this programme and listen to lots of the archive editions too.  Two episodes have really stuck with me – Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, former test pilot; and vascular and war surgeon David Nott.  Eric Brown amazes me, and David Nott makes me cry every time I hear it.
2. Last Word – Radio 4’s weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently.  A fascinating mix of people I know of and those I don’t.  I learn loads from listening to this.  A good 30 minutes on the way home on a Friday.
3. I also love a bit of nature and history, and Open Country, the countryside magazine, gives me lots of information about the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of the British Isles.
4. Finally, for a bit of silliness and far too much innuendo, you can’t beat I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, the long-running, self-styled antidote to panel games.  Hilarious programme that will have you laughing out loud.

Oh yeah, and I’m also addicted to the Archers!

UPDATE: Due to popular demand, I have created my visual guides to OfSTED for Outstanding and Good in Primary, and Outstanding and Good in Secondary.

For those of you who are expecting OfSTED, or who just want to get your heads around the new OfSTED framework, I’ve produced a visual guide of the ‘Good’ grade descriptors. I did this for three reasons:

1. For those of us who like documents to be more visual, and who use shapes and colours to help us take in information, you should find these grade descriptors much easier to read than the way they are currently laid out in the OfSTED handbook.
2. This “mind map” style representation would make a really great display in the staff room/training room as part of CPD. It would even be possible to add Post-it notes, documents and photos to it, to build up a picture of how your school meets the criteria (both formal and non-formal observations). Used in this way, I would encourage anybody to add to it – teaching staff, lunchtime staff, governors, visitors – as well as SLT.
3. It’s a really useful tool for when you are doing a book scrutiny or learning walk, or as a quick reference guide for leadership conversations.

Some things to note:

1. I have written this as the Primary version, and as such haven’t included references about Secondary schools UPDATE: A Visual Guide to the New OfSTED Framework has been updated to include Primary, Secondary and Outstanding
2. Some of the OfSTED handbook statements have been shortened to capture their essence, so please always make sure to refer back to the original for the full picture
3. I have numbered each box to make it easier to facilitate conversations around the document, and to make it easier to collect and label evidence following a book scrutiny, learning walk etc

I hope you find this useful – I have had positive feedback from schools that I have trialled this with, and would love to hear from you too if you implement it in your school. And if you want any support with reviewing, revamping or re-energising your curriculum, please do get in touch.

Click here to download the Primary version of the Visual Guide to the New OFSTED Framework

Click here to download the Secondary version of the Visual Guide to the New OFSTED Framework

Earlier on this term I had the pleasure of attending a conference to listen to the rather marvellous Mary Myatt.  Not only does she have concise, pertinent and incisive things to say about education, she is easy to listen to and has a fab style.  Oh, and lest I forget, she loves the Archers…we did manage to have a quick chat about it over coffee 🙂

As a big fan of simplicity, here is a list of 11 things I learnt that day from Mary.  (I learnt a lot more too!)

1. People and kindness come first. Your school should respect the humanity, dignity and integrity of everyone who enters it.
2. “Writing floats on a sea of talk” – James Britton (1970).  Therefore, we need to get the children doing lots of talking, especially before they write, and we need to teach oracy.
3. Children want more demanding work. We need to make them think – prioritise thinking over the completion of a task?
4. Stories are powerful.  Enough said!
5. We need to do fewer things in greater depth.  And we need to recognise that we can’t do everything.  We should encourage our colleagues to ask ‘So what are we going to stop doing?’
6. Activities must not be proxies for learning. Ask “I have taught it. Have the children got it, how do I know?”
7. Ask “What gifts do these people bring?” Beware of falling into a deficit model.
8. Be grateful. Say to yourself, your children and your colleagues “How lucky I am to work with you.”
9. Big ideas act as holding baskets for knowledge. E.g. Big ideas in Science → What are the big ideas in other subjects?
10. Etymology is really useful – teaching children the origin of words helps them to understand things and apply that understanding.
11. Progress is not linear! “Every data conversation should be a curriculum  conversation”. Progress or mastery develop over time – not in single lessons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The primary science National Curriculum says that children should ‘develop their understanding of scientific ideas by using different types of scientific enquiry to answer their own questions, including observing changes over a period of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out simple comparative tests, and finding things out using secondary sources of information.’

Most teachers are very familiar with the notion of carrying out fair tests, but I wonder how many of them plan for observing over time, or do it anyway without realising it.  In their very helpful book ‘It’s not fair – or is it? a guide to developing children’s ideas through primary science enquiry’, Turner et al, share the following pointers for observing over time:

• Observing over time helps us identify and measure events and changes in living things, materials and physical processes and events.
• Observations may take place over time spans from minutes or hours, to several weeks or months.
• Observing over time provides opportunities for children to be actively involved in making decisions about what and how to observe and measure, and the best ways to record the changes that occur.
• These types of enquiries provide rich contexts for children to learn about the importance of cycles, systems, growth and decay, and other types of changes.

As the signs of spring are getting stronger everyday, and because I do love a daffodil, I thought I’d take the opportunity to do a little bit of observing over time with a 99p bunch of daffodils from the local supermarket.  We watched these little beauties changing over a period of 12 days, taking 1 photo a day, and using PicCollage to put our timeline together.  I think the result is great!  It really shows how the daffodils have changed over time.  It would be interesting to continue to watch what happens after day 12 if they were placed on the compost heap.

As science week draws ever closer and teachers are rushing to find things to do, why not suggest this simple little activity?  It provides for a multitude of scientific skills e.g. observing, describing, comparing, measuring (if you want to), predicting, explaining and communicating, all for the price of 99p, and the effort of buying some daffodils and sticking them in a jam jar at the front of the class.  Take one picture a day, get the children to tell you what they notice, write it on the IWB alongside the photo, and make a class big book at the end of the week/fortnight.

Why not make a whole school project of it and show progression in science across school?  It would make a great display to have pupil paintings of daffodils, alongside photos, comments, predictions, descriptions and explanations.  For a bit of secondary research, why not find out more about daffodil growing in the UK?

And don’t forget, a bit of Wordsworth is always good…