Priory Geography Action Plan

I work with a great team of people. And I like to plan. In fact, I consider the annual action plan to be a vital document. That’s providing that it becomes a living document and not filed away somewhere and forgotten. The Wordle.net image above shows what our priorities over the next twelve months are. I’m not going to share the full detail of the plan, but the main aims and objectives are at the bottom of the post.

I would offer a handful of tips for completing an action plan:

ensure that as many points as possible link to the Headteacher’s vision and whole school plan;
base actions upon measurable outcomes and data from last year (including lesson observations, pupil option numbers, GCSE results etc)
Write the plan with the team, make sure they are happy with what they are responsible for (or at least let them look at it and agree before you stich them up )
Share the load. It’s apart of the teaching standards to take a team view of the curriculum, for example. Personally, I don’t think it’s acceptable for anyone not to be involved in making learning better and leading projects.
Keep it simple and short. It’s just not possible to hit a billion targets
Include some stuff that you have already done. Some stuff that you need to do, but maybe mundane. Most importantly, include some really wacky cool stuff (appropriately linked to the school development plan)
Cost it all up, including CPD opportunities (such as curriculum development away days for example)

I won’t give away all the secrets – my Head may be reading this Winking smile

Geography @ Priory Plan 2011-2012 (Headlines)

A strategy to make Geography a leading department at Priory School by:

Aims

1. Leading Learning

· Creating Inspiring Lessons and an inspiring environment.

2. Leading Improvement

· Focus on progress for all pupils

3. Leading Innovation

· Developing Independent learners.

4. Leading Enrichment

· Creating actively engaged pupils in an actively engaged school.

5. Leading Support

· Socially and emotionally aware staff and pupils

Objectives

Geography @ Priory should:

1. Further developing a co-constructed curriculum that motivates and inspires pupils.

2. Improve the quality of teacher interventions linked to progress and attainment data.

3. Develop a pedagogy that supports the use of mobile devices in learning.

4. Provide opportunities for young people to engage with curriculum and whole school change.

5. Embedding the language of Rights, Respects and Responsibilities

Comments

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

Banned Word Board

Today I want to share some simple ideas that I have found to be very effective in the classroom. I can't say that they are my own original ideas, although I have played around with them. The first is the Banned word Board. This is a simple display in the classroom that lists a number of words that are not allowed to be used by pupils in their written or oral answers. The effect has been an increase in the quality of written work, and I have almost made comments such as 'Sir it's simple, the stuff just affects the thing and causes people problems'. Pupils are now more able to use specific language, something that is vital especially at GCSE. I have had to make a few modifications, such as the introduction of 'Heavenly Words' This is an additional display placed on the ceiling. I found this necessary as pupils needed some stimulus in finding replacement words. After advice received after posting the idea on the SLN forum , I have also introduced semi-banned words

David Rogers

Search This Blog