Developing School Leadership of Teaching and Learning

This is a copy of the hand-out distributed on 27 January 2014 at Madingley Hall, Cambridge where I spoke to the Prince's Teaching Institute Headteachers' Residential on the topic of 'Developing School Leadership of Teaching and Learning

Introduction

Raising the status of teachers and the quality of learning in our schools is a priority that enjoys consensus from the vast majority of the profession, political parties, trade unions and other interest groups. While debates continue to rage outside of schools about the best approach for the future of the profession, those of us faced with the honour of educating young people on a daily basis are entrusted with making decisions which will affect the quality of educational experiences today. Teaching and learning has been at the heart of improvements we have witnessed at The John Warner School in terms of provision and outcomes over recent years and I hope to share some of the ways in which we have undertaken this worthy challenge.

Put teaching and learning at the HEART of effective leadership

Leaders should model the behaviour and qualities that they expect from others and if there is any intention of creating an institution whose core purpose revolves around teaching and learning then this should be evident in the leadership structures and activities undertaken by SLT to ensure that capacity is built across the school.

At The John Warner School we have an SLT that includes a Deputy Headteacher with oversight of teaching and learning who works directly with two Assistant Headteachers with significant roles within this area. Clearly, everybody associated with the school has an element of responsibility that relates to improving the quality of teaching and learning but having senior staff with named responsibilities in this area shows the value that the organisation places on the never-ending quest for finding what practice works best. These senior leaders are responsible for organising Continuing Professional Development which, as a result, has a strong focus on teaching and learning. They are responsible for the organisation and delivery of the Faculty Review Process. They encourage the use of innovative methods and share the best practice of the school on a local and national basis.

Put teaching and learning at the HEART of personalised CPD

Continuing Professional Development is an essential aspect of teaching as a profession. Teaching is a complicated profession which often falls prey to the whims of policy makers, the patronising critique of academics and the ill-judged comments of the media. It is time that the profession took itself more seriously and the training of teaching staff, both as they enter the profession and as they journey through it, should be a matter of upmost importance to school leaders. All Continuing Professional Development opportunities should, in some way, be related to teaching and learning in the assumption that we are always striving to improve the quality of educational experiences for young people.

Much has been written about[1] the belief that CPD should be focused on developing either mastery or innovation. Teachers of all ages and experiences have an array of skills and techniques which they use to encourage young people to learn new skills and knowledge of their own. There is however, no magic formula for perfect teaching, dependent as it is on ever-changing factors which make the job so exhilarating and exhausting. Teachers, therefore, should be continuously striving to master their role, to refine their classroom practice, to reflect on how effectively they employ core elements such as behaviour management and questioning on a daily basis. The profession has always slightly struggled with the concept of mastery as so many of the best teachers are coaxed into management positions and encouraged to divert their attentions away from the core business. School leaders need to model an acceptance that we don’t suddenly become expert classroom practitioners when we are handed a new title and kingdom to govern and should focus a reasonable amount of their time on improving their own classroom practice.

The profession also has a duty to adjust to the changing world, to experiment and test the boundaries of what goes on in and around the classroom. It may well be true that there is no need to fix something if ‘it ain’t broke’ but we should also seek opportunities to improve what we do by looking at ways of innovating and exploiting new ideas and technologies. Innovation is not about making use of technology for the sake of it – buying an iPad for every student in the school will only benefit their educational experience if they and their teachers can be extensively trained on how to get the best out of the equipment. Innovation needs to side-step the gimmicks which companies hungry for profit will aim at a profession which traditionally is seen as being technologically naïve. Teachers should, however, be encouraged to trial ideas using the guiding principles of action research.

At The John Warner School we feel we have travelled a long way in terms of putting teaching and learning at the heart of personalised CPD. Professional development is best conducted in association with others and with this in mind coaching provides a strong model. The concept of coaching within the school was first opened up to a small working party of interested colleagues in 2006-7. Today coaching is an intrinsic part of all of our in-house CPD as well as one-to-one support we offer from external coaches. Coaching encourages teachers to realise solutions for themselves within the areas they wish to develop. It acknowledges that what works in one classroom with one teacher may not be easily duplicated elsewhere. It encourages collaboration and an understanding that regardless of position or experience, what happens within the ‘black box’ of the classroom remains a complicated process with varying degrees of success.

Building on the success of creating a more collaborative culture in the school we have, over the last three years, introduced Teacher Learning Communities (TLCs) as a key part of our CPD provision. These communities find ways to enquire on their practice and are given INSET time to discuss new or better approaches that they have worked on in the classroom. There is a strong suggestion[2] that facilitating collaborative professional development experiences has a profound effect on the quality of teacher learning.

Teachers require a framework upon which they can structure the areas that they wish to develop through their TLCs. Awareness of best practice or emerging ideas has often been dependent on the availability of time, the motivation of individual teachers or on the top down approach of government initiatives. This is clearly an area which a College of Teaching would add lustre to the profession, but in the meantime there are some excellent models which can be used as a framework for effective CPD. Building Learning Power[3] is one such framework which importantly focuses attention on the function of teaching in relation to improving learning; not necessarily encouraging us to become better teachers but how we can help our students become better learners. A framework established by The Teacher Development Trust is The National Teacher Enquiry Network (NTEN)[4] which has similar aspirations of sharpening the impact of professional learning. The Prince’s Teaching Institute[5] also offers professional development opportunities that have a sound academic grounding and focus on challenging teachers and leaders to think beyond the test.

One aspect of the NTEN model that is particularly attractive is the recognition given through the award of gold, silver and bronze status following an audit of the quality of a school’s CPD provision. External accreditation, carried out with the right intentions, can be a wonderful driving force behind school improvement. We have been involved with Investors in People (IIP)[6] for many years and achieved the Gold Award with Champion Status in 2010. In 2013 we completed the CPD Mark[7] which ratified our focused approach to moulding professional development around teaching and learning initiatives and encouraging collaboration and innovation. We have found both of these awards to be exceptionally valuable in validated the way we have invested in our staff as well as a useful tool for identifying areas for further development.

Put teaching and learning at the HEART of intelligent accountability

Intelligent accountability is managing both internal and external accountability pressures effectively at a strategic level to ensure the school focus is on improving outcomes for students[8]. While schools should be encouraged to offer personalised opportunities for staff to engage with their professional development they also need to implement effective self-evaluation measures so that there is a clear awareness of what is going on. Teaching and learning should be at the centre of any soul searching that a school might carry out.

Lesson observations are a frequent and fundamental part of internal accountability and school leaders need to be intelligent in the way in which these potentially charged encounters take place. There are all sorts of dynamics at play with any kind of observation. A bad lesson observation is one thing; a badly conducted lesson observation is something else. Confidence and self-esteem are hugely under-rated facets of good teaching and the manner in which lesson observations are carried out can cause immense damage. How much time as a school do we spend on training people to carry out effective lesson observations? Not enough, I would guess. There are different approaches to lesson observations but some kind of strategy is clearly required. Are lesson observations formally judged using Ofsted criteria? Who carries out lesson observations; SLT, all members of teaching staff, students? What are the expectations of the observer and the teacher in the process? What training opportunities exist in relation to lesson observation? How are lesson observations organised and evaluated?

At The John Warner School we seek to formally observe all teaching staff three times a year using Ofsted criteria. Lesson observations are carried out by a wide range of teaching staff, but primarily by SLT and those with responsibility for significant areas of the school. Detailed guidance is given to the observers who are encouraged to meet with the teacher before and after the observation to foster stronger coaching relationships. SLT discuss lesson observations that have taken place across the school on a weekly basis and it is a frequent feature of staff training events within the school.

Lesson observations are also a key feature of our Faculty Review process, run by our Assistant Headteachers with responsibility for teaching and learning. Although the school was rated as outstanding by Ofsted in 2011 we received a good judgement for teaching. The Faculty Review process which has evolved from this time has kept teaching and learning at the heart of our internal accountability. The review will begin with a series of learning walks which give a sense of what is happening in the faculty area. This will result in a faculty meeting where potential areas of strengths and development are discussed, agreed and then shared with the members of staff conducting the lesson observations. Each member of the faculty is observed following the usual school procedures. During this process all students are asked to complete an online questionnaire about their learning experiences within that faculty which lead to Pupil Perception Discussions where trained student facilitators gather further views from groups of students. A scrutiny of work in the faculty takes place following analysis of the student questionnaires. This large body of quantitative and qualitative evidence is written up in an extensive document which forms the outcome of the review. Students receive a letter explaining to them what we have found and the faculty meet to decide on an action plan in light of recommendations. All staff are then invited to a learning lunch where the faculty are given the opportunity to showcase some of the most positive aspects of the review.

Put teaching and learning at the HEART of pragmatic innovation

Schools should be concerned about innovating the methods and resources that are employed to optimize teaching and learning opportunities. This does not mean that schools should buy every student an iPad. This does not mean that every lesson should make use of PowerPoint. Any use of new technology or experimental teaching ideas should be properly researched and trialed in line with the recommendations outlined above in relation to CPD. Technology does not hold all the answers, and when used for the sake of it can cause more damage than it is worth. But there are undoubted ways in which schools can exploit new forms of communication and ever-developing electronic devices to serve the needs of teaching and learning. At The John Warner School we have explored a few of these areas in some depth.

The emergence of social media have had a dramatic effect on the way in which we communicate with one another and schools are starting to undercover ways of using them as a force for good. Social media are a great way on engaging students in their learning, especially outside of the classroom. The Flipped Classroom model is a concept that many of our teachers are exploring as a way of enticing students into more effective independent learning. School leaders need to judge the extent to which staff are trusted to trial innovative ideas linking very closely with the personalisation of CPD and the intelligence of accountability.

We have invested large amounts of money into establishing and maintaining new technologies in the school that are fit for purpose. This does not mean over-spending significant proportions of the budget on equipment that will soon go out of date and which doesn’t necessarily improve the quality of teaching and learning. How many lessons over the last 15 years have been damaged by an over-reliance of PowerPoint slides? Technology needs to work for learning and costs need to be justified in terms of broader budgets and identified priorities. We have recently purchased one class set of affordable Android tablets to complement the 450 PCs and laptops in the school. If this resource works well for our students and staff, we may well consider expanding this provision but only if we are convinced that they have a genuinely positive impact on learning outcomes.

Put teaching and learning at the HEART of authentic partnerships

The extension of school networks has been a feature of many recent education initiatives and it is widely accepted that schools need to work in partnership to share best practice in the not unrealistic ambition of ensuring that every school could become good. Unfortunately as soon as a worthy idea becomes an instruction there is a risk that action is taken for the sake of it rather than for any discernable advantage. Schools should seek partnerships from near and far, from educational institutions and from business, for the purposes of support, collaboration and exploration. The commonality of partnerships should be that school leaders establish them with a view to improving the quality of teaching and learning rather than responding to an instruction.

Working in partnership with other local schools can be incredibly useful. A shared context and local knowledge can create some very fruitful discussions and points of learning. At The John Warner School we have very strong links with our local primary schools that go beyond the necessary aspects of primary liaison. Primary students use our sporting and science facilities, our language teachers teach and support in the primary schools and senior leaders give talks to primary parents on issues such as cyberbullying, for example. At secondary level there is a deputy headteachers’ network group as well as a headteachers’ forum. We have shared teaching and learning ideas with staff from a local school and given specific support to schools in challenging circumstances. All of these partnerships provide opportunities for student or institutional learning.

We also seek partnerships with schools across the world, for example in Chennai, India. We have links with universities for the development of post-graduate qualifications or to help raise student aspirations. We have strong links with business and commerce to engage our students in learning about finance education and potential future careers.

Conclusion

Developing effective school leadership of teaching and learning requires vision, time and energy. By putting teaching and learning at the heart of effective leadership, personalised CPD, intelligent accountability, pragmatic innovation and authentic partnerships leaders will go a long way to creating the conditions for sustained and meaningful school improvement.

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[1] Matt Bromley (http://mjbromleyblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/improving-cpd-part-one/) and Tom Sherrington (http://headguruteacher.com/2013/12/15/taking-stock-of-the-education-agenda-part-1/) for example

[2] For example Dylan William http://www.ssatuk.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dylan-Wiliam_breakout.pdf

[3] http://www.buildinglearningpower.co.uk/

[4] http://www.teacherdevelopmenttrust.org/teacher-enquiry-network/

[5] http://www.princes-ti.org.uk/

[6] http://www.investorsinpeople.co.uk/

[7] http://www.cpdmark.co.uk/

[8] Hopkins, D. Every School a Great School: Realizing the Potential of System Leadership (2007)

On Social Mobility

At a recent governors conference I suggested that one way of focusing on how to improve the school was to try and close the achievement gap between private and state schools. I had recently challenged our students in years 11 to 13 to not settle in life with the current status quo and highlighted that our top politicians, bankers and chief executives disproportionately come from a private education background. I suggested that the difference between our school's facilities and the quality of teaching was not significant enough to justify the gap. The gap, I proposed, exists because of what the students do out of the class. What happens between the hours of 4 and 10 in the life of a privately educated student and a state educated student?

I spent a week at Eton College as a sixth former, an eye-opening experience that added much to my fledgling views on social mobility. I was intrigued by their school day with formal lessons ending at 13.15 (12.25 on a Saturday). The afternoon and evening were far from free with activities and clubs running until supper at 19.40. The school absolutely consumed your every waking hour. Students were expected to focus on study in their time out of class with virtually all recreational activities planned, structured and supervised. Completion of prep (homework) was non-negotiable with expectations of both quality and quantity being high.

Privately educated students - study and sleep give them a foot up

What about state school children? Clearly there are vast differences between the out of class experiences of children across the country and these observations are based on my own experience which maybe clouded by dealing with the more problematic cases. I think it is quite common for my students to 'go out' as soon as they finish school. I sense this is a pastime that starts early in life, often before they start secondary school and that they often won't return home until 7 or 8 o'clock. When they get home they may hastily consume a meal that has been left for them or maybe they'll cook themselves some toast. Access to new technologies could mean that students have vast opportunities to study, but I propose this actually means that time is dominated by social media activity or game playing. I frequently hear students saying that they have been playing on their X Box until the early hours. Lights out at Eton is at 21.30.

My hunch is that a student at private school is engaged in between 2 to 4 hours worth of additional study per day compared to a state educated student between the hours of 16:00 and 21:00. Privately educated students are also receiving more sleep, perhaps an additional two hours per night. This additional study and additional sleep is going to add up in terms of their readiness to learn and ultimately their educational achievement. 

I have no doubt that this comes at some kind of social cost but would propose that action should be taken to redress the balance. Age-old attempts to engage students in independent learning should be accelerated through a combination of exploiting opportunities arising from new technology and initiating a greater engagement with parents, especially those that are the hardest to reach. 

Eek, watch out for Keek!

My kids love ‘You’ve Been Framed’ or as they call it, ‘Funny People Falling Over’ and they’re not alone. The show has been running since 1991 and still occupies some of ITV’s prime viewing points with repeats seemingly on a loop on ITV2. It seems that however many times we see someone falling off a bike/trampoline/roof or a cat getting spooked or a dog going mad or a baby just kind of existing we just don’t get tired of the format. The success of YBF is replicated across many countries and seems to tap into a fairly primitive human instinct to laugh at other people. Of course YBF, and especially with the narrating genius of Harry Hill, is harmless fun. We can all have a laugh, no-one gets hurt and the contributor pockets £250 (although I think this should go to whomever or whatever was the butt of the joke, cats included).

Beadle - he'd have loved Keek

Since 2005 YouTube has, to some extent, fed off the popularity of this genre of TV show. Many of the most popular YouTube clips fit into the YBF model, the most viewed clip being ‘Charlie bit my finger, again’ with more than 528 million hits at the time of writing. But, because YouTube is not edited or censored in the same way as a mainstream TV programme it also leaks in the obscure, the surreal, the avant-garde, the magnificent, the abusive, the vile and the violent kind of clips that would never be seen on YBF. ‘Happy-slapping’ started to become a problem around 2004-5 (see Guardian article) when mobile phones were introduced with video capability and sites like YouTube emerged where these acts could be shared with the masses.

For many schools their experience of social media has moved from the early horror of not knowing how to control the technology which only ever seemed to promote negative behaviour to an understanding that both uses and abuses have been opened up by the opportunity to share so easily. Most schools now have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc, and many are seeking to incorporate social media into the daily learning experiences of their students. We still have to contend with friendship issues being played out on BBM and are still surprised at the language used by teenagers when communicating on Twitter, but on the whole we’re are starting to feel that we understand the phenomena and can engage with our students on a relatively level playing field.

But it seems the industry is intent on introducing new sites which seek to exploit the negative aspects of social media and ensure that teachers and parents remain one step behind. Ask.fm is a Latvian-based social networking site that allows users to remain anonymous in their interactions with each other. This essentially leads to the most awful, uncensored teenage communications imaginable and has been linked in the press to a number of suicides. Last week, while investigating an incident of bullying at my school that resulted in an inappropriate video being posted online, I came across the video sharing site, ‘Keek’.

Keek allows users to “Share 36-second video updates via webcam, iPhone, Android or Blackberry. Posting keeks is a fun way to meet new people, stay up to date with friends and tell the world what you're up to in real time.” That’s right, ‘keeks’ have a 36 second limit. Now I’m a big fan of using video to engage and educate and I’m happy to embrace new ideas that I can see may have some practical use, but what can you capture in a 36 second video ... ? Exactly. The most popular keek at the time of writing is Kim Kardashian filming her sister sun-bathing – I don’t recommend wasting these precious seconds in your life watching it. In fact, the Kardashians seem to be all over Keek which might be reason enough to steer clear. But it seems the 36 second limit provides a great opportunity for people to either abuse others, physically or verbally, or to promote their sexual assets to vast audience of shallow consumers who have been raised on a diet of pornography and reality TV. It is, I’m afraid, the ideal hunting ground of teenage abusers and narcissists.

Keek, and the even more abbreviated video sharing app, Vine, which restricts you to 6 seconds, are tapping into the Twitterisation of communication. Brevity is king in the modern age.  Now, 6 seconds potentially creates the same issues as 36 seconds, but it also introduces an element of genuine challenge for film makers. Could you set students the task of creating a video of 6 seconds to help explain/illustrate something? Schools should be aware of Keek and Vine but maybe like Facebook and Twitter before, the answer is for educators to occupy these places so that the benefits can be exploited at the same time as having to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong.

On Cliques, Critiques and Anonymous Tweets

I’ve always been a little slow on the uptake. You could accuse me of many things, but bandwagon jumping probably isn’t one. I took up smoking in my late teens having previously never touched a cigarette and gave it up in my mid twenties because it was unhealthy and anti-social. I had my first mobile phone in my mid twenties, long after others had embraced the new technology, and have kept one ever since because they’re really useful and an essential piece of today’s life kit. I’ve now been using Twitter for 6 months (again, not quite on-trend) and am considering whether it goes the way of the cigarette or the mobile phone. Would I encourage someone to take up smoking? No. Would I recommend having a mobile phone? Well yes. Would I encourage teachers to get involved with Twitter? Hmmm...

Time is a precious commodity for all of us, and as professionals we need to prioritise carefully to ensure that we are making the best use of the time available to us, both in terms of our work and our ‘other’ lives. Twitter, and by extension, blogging, can be very time-consuming. Very few people would have ‘engaging with social media’ as part of their job description so such activities tend to be on top of or at the expense of other responsibilities. I have been amazed over the last few months at the frequency of Twitter activity amongst some educators. This doesn’t just include tweets but also the abundance of blogs and other related on-line activity that is promoted on Twitter. Many of these blogs, often written by English teachers, are excellent and contribute valuable thoughts and ideas. I have shared many with colleagues at school and used them to stimulate discussions and CPD opportunities. But where do they get the time?!

Parents often voice their concerns to me about how much time teenagers spend using social media and we discuss the pressure that they are often put under to maintain high-frequency communications and the paranoia that is often associated with this media – ‘have I missed anything?’, ‘are people talking about me?’, ‘I need to post comments or people might stop following me’, ‘I need to have more friends/followers otherwise people might think I’m not cool/interesting/popular/attractive.’ I sense that these are not feelings which are limited to teenagers. The accumulation of followers on Twitter seems to become a preoccupation for many, a form of competition for some and the basis of gloating for others. How many followers do you need? The British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, suggested that the limit to the number of people whom one can maintain stable social relationships is between 100 and 230 (150 is often cited as the value known as Dunbar’s number). For many Twitter and blogging in its wider sense is a great way to reflect on practice and to develop networks and share ideas – this is a good use of time. But if it becomes an obsession eating away at time that could be spent more productively, whether on professional or personal relationships, then I would certainly advise caution.

Twitter is a magnificent breeding ground for cliques. Again, this is something that I often discuss with students and parents, warning them how easy it is for groups to be set up which can isolate others. And while on the one hand we might advise young people about the dangers of on-line cliques, especially with people that we don’t personally know, on the other it seems that teachers on Twitter (tweachers?!) often encourage the formation of groups which can make others feel isolated. I can see how PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) work and how Twitter can be a great way for people to communicate with like-minded professionals. However, unlike a conference call or a face-to-face meeting these Twitter networks are acted out on a very public stage. What does this say about those not included in the shout-outs or the professional back-slapping? While Twitter offers wonderful opportunities to share practice and engage in educational debate outside of your own institution, it can also trap people in the same issues of belonging and sycophancy that are associated with adolescent cliques.

I started blogging shortly before I started to use Twitter (about 6 months ago). This was largely to collect my ideas on the topic of social media in education which I have been speaking about in various forums over the last few years. For me blogging is very different from the more formal writing that I might do for academic research or other contributions to education. Primarily blogging is more of an aide-memoir, an opportunity to get ideas and thoughts down so they are not lost. But blogging is also a form of social media and my Blogger site can be accessed by anyone – this introduces an element of professionalism and responsibility which would be absent from private scribbling. I am more than happy to have my work critiqued, especially if I have chosen to make it public. Fortunately not many people read my blogs and as a result I haven’t received much critique, but to be honest this is not what I’m after. What I want is discussion about issued raised, not criticism of my writing style or structure. If this were an article for an academic journal or part of a Masters submission then I’d spend more time and effort on the structure, but blogging should be about the substance. Some of the critics who populate Twitter with their bile should consider what negative feedback can do, especially if they’re employed in education.

One of the key pieces of advice that we offer to young people using social media is to not give up too much personal information. Particularly young children are told to not use their real names, something that is generally not considered to be applicable by the time they reach their teenage years. Ask FM, an awful but popular social network, allows users to post anonymous comments about each other, leading to some pretty horrific and hurtful comments. I can understand that educators are sensitive about sharing personal details, including names, on social media sites, and as a result many teachers on Twitter use a pseudonym. The problem with anonymity and social media, as shown by sites like Ask FM, is that people get braver when their identity is concealed, and there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity. Some of the personal attacks I have read on Twitter between fellow educators in recent weeks has been really disappointing and masks the vastly positive and warm communications that have been more prevalent during my Twitter time. We tend to call such people trolls but maybe we need to start identifying them as misogynists, homophobes, racists or whatever the sad contributing fact is that lies behind their insecurity and malicious intent.

So will I ditch Twitter with my Malboro Lights or continue to embrace it like my Samsung Galaxy? Despite my misgivings which have been somewhat over-amplified above, the positivity which surrounds most of the activity I have either witnessed or participated in on Twitter over the last few months far outweighs the negativity. It’s great to know how many wonderful educators are out there at a time when our profession is under attack from many areas. We need to defend our position as teachers and together we are most definitely stronger. It can be a great use of time as long as it doesn’t become obsessive, groups are generally more open than closed with people willing to engage with newcomers and the critics and abusers are more of a nuisance than a substantial detraction. Twitter is not great CPD but it can act as a wonderful stimulus for exploration and innovation. I have and will continue to warmly recommend it to colleagues with a few caveats and words of caution. Let’s all try and make it a little bit better.

Religion for Secular Schools: Part 2

Alain de Botton in Religion for Atheists talks about how secular society often assumes it is best to leave people to live how they chose without being pestered, whereas religions give very clear instruction on how we should behave and encourages virtues through the veneration of saints, gods and societal role models. In the Catholic Church, for example, numerous saints are revered and followed throughout the year to celebrate and be inspired by their devotion and sacrifice. This is something that de Botton feels secular society can easily replicate in order to promote virtues such as kindness that we may feel are crucial in any thriving community.

Secular society is very good at promoting certain messages

Schools have a duty to offer young people moral instruction. For faith schools this is largely a case of following the lives of saints, prophets, gods etc who teach the virtues of love, honesty, kindness, generosity, temperance as well as the spiritual elements so central to religious tenets. Secular schools also need to promote these virtues but can perhaps afford to be a little more selective and objective in their veneration of other people. Religions as well as the media often fall into the trap of portraying people as sinners or saints and behaviour as good or evil or right or wrong. This accentuates a rather simplistic attitude towards people which somewhat ignores the issue of causation and interpretation. Schools can celebrate and promote amazing achievements and feats but can also challenge simplistic profiles and assumptions.

The Catholic Church uses the lives of saints to promote moral behaviour

Last year at The John Warner School we asked students to identify who their role models were. The list included pop stars, Hollywood actors, footballers and reality TV ‘stars’ – the usual array of what might be dismissed as over-paid, over-hyped role models who only promote greed and the desperate search for fame. Our view was not to tell the students that they should not be inspired by One Direction or Lady Gaga but to find the most positive aspects of their lives to promote. Did you know, for example, that Kim Kardashian promotes awareness of the Armenian Genocide of 1915?

On a recent trip to New York my attention was caught by small billboards on the side of public telephone stands which promoted ‘values’. The billboards celebrate the achievements of Americans, both the famous and the not-famous linking to values such as fitness, encouragement, passion, drive, with the instruction to ‘pass it on’. Schools could easily replicate this by mixing achievements of famous people and students/staff/members of the community to promote values.

US billboards promote moral values

Religion is well-placed to inspire the spiritual message of awe and wonder. The existence of gods, miracles, the afterlife and other un-worldly concepts generates inexhaustible levels of mysticism and majesty. But human history is littered with great achievements and inspiring individuals and the story of the earth and universe gives us all the opportunity to inspire a sense of perspective. Do schools give enough opportunity for those ‘star-gazing’ moments which can offer us the best kind of reality-check? Churches adorn their walls and windows with images of saints and stories from the scriptures, people are encouraged to forget their personal woes for a few moments and to consider the plight of others and the grander forces at play. This instils a reverence for the wonder of the world and an appreciation of our place in the bigger picture. We have science and maths classrooms named after great scientists and mathematicians and inspiring passages from history and literature are hung from corridor walls. However, I still feel there are more opportunities to allow students to pause and consider, creating spaces for contemplation and inspiring a sense of majesty.

Zen garden at William Farr School in Welton - space for contemplation

Schools should not shy away from the opportunity we have to instil a sense of morality in our students as well as servicing their spiritual needs. If young people grow up in a fully secular society that is bereft of all moral guidance and spiritual experience then we are all likely to be worse off for it.

Religion for Secular Schools: Part 1

Let me start this off by making it clear what this post is NOT about. Religious education is compulsory (and has been since 1944) through locally agreed syllabi until the age of 16 and all schools are still accountable for collective acts of worship; that religious education may have been marginalised in recent years in most state schools, coinciding with the increased secularisation of society, is not a topic I intent to engage with here. Nor is this post either an attack or a defence of religious education in state schools or faith schools in general; I do not seek to impart any of my own views on these issues. In fact, this is not really about religion at all, not in the sense of religions being faith systems based on spirituality and the concepts of deities and the supernatural.

This post is unashamedly influenced by Alain de Botton’s recent book, Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion (2012), which seeks to use the most positive aspects of religious practice that have developed over hundreds of years to improve the lives of individuals and communities in our increasingly secular world. De Botton raises interesting and challenging issues for secular society which are, in many instances, directly applicable to schools which do not have an overtly religious connection. While de Botton rejects the supernatural claims of religion he suggests that we are all seeking meaning in our lives and that religions have some good ideas about how we should live and behave which secular society would do well to adopt. The book gives prompts for action which, I think, can largely be translated into the school environment.

Last year we have a visit from a delegation of teachers and educators from Nigeria. I met with them to discuss pastoral care at our school and left them aghast when explaining the context of the school told them the proportion of students who were declared as having ‘no religion’. They immediately seized on the wider implications of this suggesting that without religion we were likely to lose the moral fabric of our community and that we were clearly on the brink of decadence. While I was a long way from agreeing with them it did start me thinking what gaps are left in a community when the social aspects of religion are removed. While many might be comfortable with people choosing not to follow a god or ancient scriptures, what is sometimes forgotten is that with religion came more than just meaning to life, and in this country, whether we believe in the tenets of Christianity or not, the church has had, and continues to have, a huge influence on our art, culture, relationships, work and behaviour. Our secular society is perhaps rather quick to reject religion per se, rather than acknowledging the impact it has had on how we live, love and communicate. To an extent I agreed with my Nigerian guests, not because I thought that young people need God or Jesus in their lives, but because they do need guidance, structure and instruction. De Botton argues that we all need these elements in our lives and that libertarian ideology has wrongly assumed that any attempts to influence our views and behaviours should be avoided – if this is right for society in general, and I believe there is great merit in this view, then it is surely even more relevant for those of us who deal with young people who are most in need of guidance and structure.

Community

The first theme that de Botton tackles is that of ‘community’. He asks us to consider the physical environment of churches and other places of worship. They have been specifically designed to welcome large numbers of people and are often lavish and inspiring in their architecture and decoration. Some may find them cold and dark, but even the starkest of chapels can seem like a palace compared to most secular community centres. Religious buildings are also one of the few places in modern society where it is acceptable to greet a stranger, where people are encouraged to mix regardless of background and where those congregated are encouraged to treat each other as equals. De Botton describes how the Catholic Mass guides people on how to treat others through carefully choreographed activities. He points to the Jewish Passover meal where food brings people together from different generations in an organised and structured process which encourages communication and sharing. The annual Jewish Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) where believers are encouraged to reflect on their actions over the previous year and to seek forgiveness from those whom they may have wronged is seen by de Botton as a practice that could be adopted by secular society. Finally, de Botton points to religious celebrations that encourage normal customs and behaviours to be thrown out of the window, such as the Medieval Feast of Fools, where people were encouraged to behave in ways which brought out the more destructive and chaotic side of nature.

How can secular schools adopt theses religious practices which encourage a sense of community? Schools are perfectly placed to design community experiences because we have a captive audience for a significant proportion of the time. We may not be able to influence the architectural shell of our buildings but we can affect the warmth, appeal and usage of both our internal and external spaces. School halls can learn from religious buildings in the sense of them being welcoming and inspiring, school canteens can learn from religious feasts by encouraging members of the school community to sit, eat and talk together – do staff sit with students, do members of the community, such as the elderly come in to share a meal with students? Schools can create a sense of communal fun on collapsed timetable days, but these need to be carefully choreographed, more than just asking students to come in wearing non-uniform. Should we embrace the spirit of the Medieval Festival of Fools and turn the school world on its head every now and then? Do we allow enough time for reflection and atonement, not just in relation to academic learning, but personal growth and mastery?

Young people are not all fortunate enough to attend schools with majestic, historic buildings with domed assembly halls and wooden-clad dining rooms. Faith schools can fall back on the practices of their religion that create the structures for communal experiences and guidance. But we can all improve the physical environment that our staff and students inhabit and we all have an obligation to provide this structure and guidance for our community so they may learn the importance of living and sharing with others. We may give a nod to Community Cohesion and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Aspects of Learning but maybe we need to start from a fresh angle and adopt some of the approaches that have worked so effectively in religious institutions for hundreds of years.

Today I'm gonna teach you like it's 1999: Part 2

The problem is schools were not designed with learning in mind. As the likes of Sir Ken Robinson have so eloquently explained the school system is a product of the industrial period and is built on the industrial concepts of mass production, efficient use of resources and management of time. I am neither a technophobe nor am I a purveyor of the dystopian views which some extol but I am painfully conscious of the limitations that using technology for its own sake can bring to a learning environment. I would love to redesign my school on the Google working model, where students would be free to access learning in flexible ways from flexible spaces – where innovation and creativity were rewarded more than punctuality and appearance. But the tenacious factory approach to schools is a result of the practical need to educate hundreds of young people every weekday between the hours of 9 and 3.30 in buildings which are mostly outdated and rooms that can barely hold 33 people, let alone allow flexible usage.

The reality of the sometimes uneasy relationship between technology and education is that the two are not always mutually beneficial. As I ranted about in Part 1, I think the use of technology is sometimes something that reduces the quality of teaching and learning. The ideas which I put forward as a potential rebalancing are by no means new and when I say teach like it’s 1999 I don’t mean it in a backward looking, modern life is rubbish kind of way. My proposal is that teachers actually need to do two things: 1. Embrace technologies and social media and use them to reinvent home learning 2. Consider how, or indeed if, they are needed in class at all (i.e. teach like it’s 1999).

Home learning largely consists of preparation (or frontloading as they say in the USA), consolidation (usually some kind of assessment) or applying the skill or knowledge in a different context. All of these lend themselves to the exploitation of social media and technologies. The Flipped Classroom concept essentially focuses on preparing students for deeper and more creative learning experiences in class by asking them to engage with video content before the lesson. Done well (teacher generates their own content with resources for interaction) this method frees up the lesson time for more creative and collaborative development or teacher-led explanation or demonstration. Increasingly students are able to access online content on phones and other mobile devices so why not allow them to engage with the content anytime, anywhere? 

Consolidating learning also lends itself to social media. Asking students to write blogs, a wonderful way of reflecting or encouraging them to collaborate on document creation using Google Docs or SkyDrive are much more engaging and relevant activities than ‘complete this worksheet’.

Why not give consideration to a series of lessons which might exploit this idea of engaging students in learning outside of the classroom? A four lesson series of lessons could have the following:

• Frontloaded home learning using a 10 minute video and associated question sheet to introduce a new topic/concept
• Lesson 1
• Use of social media channels to respond to any needs for clarification/further exploration of ideas
• Lesson 2
• Consolidation home learning task such as a blog entry or collaborative document
• Lesson 3
• Use of social media channels for further discussions
• Lesson 4
• Frontloaded home learning task for next topic/concept

So what happens in the lessons if the content is delivered outside of class? Deeper learning, that’s what. Learning is a complex concept, but it is generally unanimously felt that being the passive recipient of someone else’s knowledge is not the most effective form of learning. So what is the most frequently used ICT tool in classrooms? PowerPoint: A presentation tool with its bullet points, crappy clip art and dreadful sound effects which has consumed teachers’ planning time for over a decade. Gradgrind would have loved it! But haven’t many moved on from this rather fin de siècle approach? BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and the proliferation of iPads, Chrome Books and Smartphones surely means that students and teachers can now be constantly connected, exploiting the opportunities of new technology in the 21^st century classroom. The truth is there are some really innovative and experimental teachers out there who are testing the boundaries of pedagogy. There are forward-thinking and well-funded schools who are equipping their classrooms with the latest gadgetry to entice their learners and motivate their staff. But most people are still using PowerPoint.

Maybe we just get caught up in what we think the classroom of the present/future should be like and assume that it is a replica of Google HQ. We assume that it should be filled with amazing technology. But for what purpose? Technology in itself is not the answer for education, in the same way that it is not to blame for all of society’s ills. The reality of most classrooms will continue to be centred on the human relationships that exist between one teacher and 30 students. Activities, therefore, during that period of time need to be tailored towards optimising the engagement and opportunities for deep learning. New technologies can be best exploited, for most of us, outside of the classroom. Let’s remember why we got into this game in the first place. Let’s remember how we used to engage them in 1999.