If Heineken made assemblies? Getting grit across.

GRIT assembly Jan 2016 from David Rogers

I love giving assemblies. It's a real privilege. At Patcham, we believe that grit is an important area to talk about and develop if our students are to do well. We've distilled character down to this one trait. We have research evidence that is showing signs that we are doing the right thing too, but that's for another time. Although Carlsburg may make the best stuff, only Heineken reaches the parts that others can't.

What follows is my assembly, the slides are above.

Our assemblies at Patcham are very special. Each one has three features:

A piece of music, dance or theatrical performance by our students
The Patcham News - our way of ensuring that our messages get across:

A reading from a book to support our culture of reading for pleasure and our aspiration to have every student reading at their chronological reading age.

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking to my House - a quarter of our school with two tutor groups from each year group. We also invite the support staff who are also attached to a house. The topic was grit, however I felt that the school has had plenty of theoretical assemblies on this topic. I wanted to share a story. I asked the staff for help and one of the team suggested the following video.

Learning to walk reminded me of this photograph. I first discovered this in a National Geographic editorial Walk to paradise garden. I urge you to read the editorial. You see, Eugene Smith was having a tough time of it and seeing his children walking through the woods with a sense of wonder reminded him that life was worth living.

Imagine if his children has given up trying to walk?

This in turn made me think of what I do when I feel like giving up. You see, I have a copy of the photo in my office at school and I used it during my interview for the job I have. I remember a colleague giving me a proper grilling that day. I often feel like giving up. I didn't that day at the start of the interview.

One thing I do is listen to my leadership playlist:

It's the playlist that I listen to when I feel like giving up. I played a little of each (thanks to our awesome IT tech team) and said a little. The great thing about music is that it says different things to different people. It doesn't matter if others disagree.

Johnny Cash HURT - To me, I don't want to be looking back and have major regrets. If I give up I may let down my family, friends and loved ones.
D.L.i.d Colour in your hands - This speaks to me. I'll never give up, never give slack. I'll stay on the side of justice and, like Will Smith, if I'm on the treadmill I'll win.
Amy McDonald The furthest star - There's no point in having GRIT if your principles are wrong. I won't sell my should to achieve my goal and would giving up mean that the dark forces win? (Ofsted and stuff)
George Ezra Blame it on me - Most of the time, when I'm in a pants situation whether personally or in the classroom, it's my fault. It's not the governments fault, or Ofsted or Ofqual. It certainly isn't the child. Life is about making choices and taking the consequences.
Manic Street Preachers A design for Life - I'll never forget where I've come from. I'm Welsh and grew up in deprivation. My father was a violent abusive man. What's the point of giving up now when I've come so far?
Florence and the Machine Shake it out - I felt like giving up at Patcham early on and I remember being t the back of our hall, listening to one of our students belt this out. I used to play a lot of rugby, when we were knocked back we got up and played on. Whatever your demons, shake them off. I also used the image of Steve Jobs in the Jungle.
David Bowie Space Oddity - to me, he's isolating himself from the world and rescinding control of his destination. I plan to stay in touch with those that can help me and I am in control of where I go.
The Killers All of these things that I've done - If you can hold on. If you can hold on. Hold on. Damn right.

Assemblies: all I can do is tell stories. Grit is important and we are developing it in our schools, but let's step away from the rhetoric and figure out what does stop you from giving up?

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

Search This Blog