On becoming an Academy, some messy musings.

At a consultation meeting this week concerning our conversion to academy status something that the visiting Headteacher, who was speaking, said struck a chord. What he said was along the lines of:

“My job as a Headteacher for the past 11 years has been to subvert schemes and national initiatives, and the money that comes with it, for good and good is better learning”

It resonated with me as for the past five years, I’ve subverted funding from projects to enable wider changes to take place. It’s amazing how much impact a small grant aimed at helping a select bunch of students can do for a whole department. For example:

The Olympic Geocaching project (250 students and on-going),
Blogging from a field (250 students and on-going),
Mobile @ Priory and it’s cookbook of teaching and learning ideas (1,250 students and on-going as well as other schools), and
Our BYOD mobile policy.

These projects all started with a narrow aim, but ended up having a school-wide impact.

My point? School leaders at all levels need to get real and get funding.

Of course, this creates a conflict of interests between our own personal, political values and those of our public personas that are focused on making teaching and learning better.

I’m not going to give away my own political thoughts about the Academy programme, although this post gives you a clue, but if:

choosing to become an Academy brings in much needed investment (I draw the distinction between being able to choose an Academy sponsor and being forced to convert), and
that investment in infrastructure, services and resources can improve learning for our students,

then why wouldn’t governing bodies choose to convert?

My main objection would be that that becoming an Academy can put the running of schools in the hands of those without teaching or educational experience. However, I don;t see any difference here between that and an LA councillor or for that matter a Secretary of State leading councils and the country.

In my, admittedly limited, experience of education, the demise of the LA is no big deal from the point of view of supporting teaching and learning. I have worked with one exceptional LA adviser in Jeff Stanfield, but most have been irritating. The best support has always come from the subject associations and other teachers. In the ‘old’ days this used to be SLN Geography, now it’s twitter and reading other teacher’s blogs. Networks such as Microsoft’s Partners in Learning; Google’s Certified Teacher Status and Apple’s Distinguished Educator programme all provide excellent support, as long as you remember to keep the focus on teaching and learning and be open with the fact that they are all trying to a) tie you in to something that makes them money and b) expose young people to their brand so that they can make more money. Come on, they are commercial, for-profit organisations.

But are they evil? Or can we, using our professional judgement, take the best bits to use in the classrooms?

Isn’t advocating Google products the same as arguing for the Academy programme?

My main point? Nothing new. I’m no politician, but I know how to create excellent teaching and learning. I’ll do that for the students and staff in my care regardless of the situation nationally. My personal and professional views are separate, and I’ll exercise my right to vote and protest using legal means, however in the meantime I’m going to carry on teaching.

High Impact, Low effort

This month is the start of the #29daysofwriting challenge. I enjoyed this last year and will be using my Staffrm account to post. I'll also be reporting here, both to give a little more detail and to keep a log of what I have written. The challenge developed a great sense of community last year, which is why I'm choosing to write on Staffrm. What I would say to those who are new to writing or don't want to run out of ideas is: Write for yourself. Clarify an idea, write something out loud. The process of distilling thoughts into writing is immensely beneficial to your practice. If other read, comment and respond, that's a bonus. Ignore the muppets who know nothing of your context, style or students. Mix it up - I like to read about real stuff from real classrooms and schools and also about other stuff. If we always write about school, how does that work for workload? If you've nothing nice to say, don't say it. So, the following has been

What makes a learning experience profound? Personal reflections and possible implications for classroom practice.

I have recently begun a Leadership Pathways journey. As part of the first core day, we were asked to reflect on a profound learning experience. This got me thinking about how many profound learning experiences I have both been involved in, and how many I have been able to give to others. Our group came up with a huge long list, but these are my five. Emotional Connected Demanding Reflective Collaborative As always, these are personal thoughts and quite mixed up. I put them here so that I can look back on them (plus they’d get lost inside my world-cup-free brain) 1. Emotional I can’t think of a time where deep learning hasn’t engaged my emotions. From being awe inspired to that tingle feeling when a student gets a light bulb moment. From this-is-the-happiest-day-ever, to I-think-I’m-about-to die. How often do we engage the emotions of those we teach? Here, I would argue that having a safe learning environment is not always conducive to profound

The danger of Teaching and Twitter conversations: poorly formed bipolar arguments.

Sometimes in life, there really are only two options. Get the wrong one and you can look like a muppet. Take this useful sign for the toilets in Morocco. I successfully navigated it, choosing the right option. The result? No egg on my face. As a mountain leader, there are many right or wrong decisions that I’ve faced, as there are all over life. It’s not a good idea to let inexperienced young people walk themselves down Snowdon. They may die or be seriously injured. If someone is showing the signs and symptoms of hyperthermia, you need to treat it fast in a specified way. There is no real arguing with this sign: Other options are less obvious. Take this sign recently spotted near to where I live: Now, I wouldn’t consider sleeping in a bin. However, faced with a sub-zero night, I could see the appeal. The danger? Being tipped into one of those huge lorries with a compactor. (by the way, I only really considered all of this thanks to questions from my four year old boy).

David Rogers

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