TeachMeet Midlands 2016

Booking is open for the Spring TeachMeet

Midlands in 2016. The free event will be

held at The National College, Learning &

Conference Centre in Nottingham (NG7

2TU), on Thursday 4th February from

6:00pm till 9:00pm.

TeachMeets are an informal way for teachers

and other people in education to get together

and share ideas from the classroom. With

short presentations of either 2 or 5 minutes

that anyone can sign up to present, and a

wide variety of ideas to share.

The keynote speaker has been announced

as Shonette Bason-Wood and the event is an

excellent CPD opportunity and chance to network

with educators from across the region.

There will be free parking and free food at the

event, with a cash bar open all evening. As with

previous events, tickets need to be bought

separately under the name of each attendee.

More information and tickets can be found at:

http://goo.gl/0AJYD1

Tried and Tested

FormTimeIdeas.com was designed and developed by Jonathan Hall, a secondary school maths

teacher in Leeds, and provides form tutors with an engaging and simple to use selection of

activities to use during tutor time.

You can refresh the page for a brand new set of randomly selected activities. Alternatively get

specific new ideas using the buttons provided.

The home page has a variety of activities, news and jokes, and there are separate pages for just

Literacy, Numeracy, News and ‘Name That Flag!’.

Pages can be displayed on the board for all pupils or printed as an A4 sheet. When tutor time is

over, click to reveal the answers!

Edited by Beth Greville-Giddings

Relay Issue 5,

December 2015

Westbury School Learning and Development Bulletin

Research

Focus:

“Effective

intervention for

school refusal

behaviour”

Blog Spotlight:

John Tomsett on

“The merits of

copying from the

board”

Tried and

Tested:

A selection of

engaging and

simple to use

activities for tutor

time

The concept of a ‘growth mindset’ was developed by Carol

Dweck in the 1960s from her research into motivation. This

centres on the idea that how people attribute the cause of

their success or failure, influences how much effort they apply

in the future.

Dweck theorised that that people have either a fixed mindset which

is set in performance goals – ability is static and inflexible; or a

growth mindset which is associated with learning goals –

something can be increased with effort and time .

Changing Mindsets

Have high

expectations - of all

pupils

Create a risk-tolerant

environment - value

effort, strategy and

progress

Praise wisely - focus

feedback on process,

not intellect or talent

A fixed mindset is reported to limit

achievement. Pupils will avoid challenges

and cheat rather than study. In addition

to this is a need for validation. By

promoting growth mindset in pupils they

can understand abilities can be improved

and see setbacks as opportunities.

The concept of mindsets has been

introduced in many schools, but how

strong is the evidence base ?

(continued inside)

INS

IDE

Mindsets continued... There are challenges in scaling up mindset

interventions as whole-school initiatives. There

has been a lot of research in this area in the

US, and earlier this year, the Education

Endowment Foundation (EEF) published the

results of its ’Changing Mindsets’ trial, the first

rigorous trial assessing the impact of the

growth mindset approach in the UK.

They reported positive progress in pupils who

had received training in mindset themselves,

however their results were non-significant. The

EEF are currently recruiting for a second trial

’Changing Mindset 2015’ .

The impact of feedback can be different for

different groups of pupils. There is evidence

that process praise has a positive impact on

pupils that are struggling; whereas those that

are succeeding respond well to all types of praise.

There are also indications that gender may have a

impact on the efficacy of different types of feedback.

Developing a ‘Growth Mindset’ can have a

significant impact in schools but there needs to be a

deeper understanding of the theory behind it, rather

than ‘one-off INSET’ training. Changing the way

teachers think about work can be difficult and

training is key.

The approach needs to be subtle rather than overt

and staff need to be careful not to over praise. There

may also be ethical and practical issues to consider

around the use of psychological interventions in

schools.

Whilst the scaling up of ‘growth mindset

interventions’ has proven difficult, on a local level,

with proper consideration, there is a lot of potential.

The EEF’s ‘Changing Mindset’ report (pdf) can be

found here: https://goo.gl/7evjpP

EdResearch Focus “Effective intervention for school refusal

behaviour”

Clare Nuttall & Kevin Woods (2013)

In this paper, Nuttall and Woods evaluate

successful professional interventions for two

case studies of adolescents’ school refusal

behaviour. Data gathered from the young

person, professionals and parents were

synthesised to propose a multi-level,

’Ecological Model of Successful Reintegration’.

Primary causes of school refusal that are cited

include: bullying/other threats to safety;

separation anxiety; coping ability; difficulties

with classroom routine; difficulties with peer/

teacher relationships; low academic self

concept; and exam pressure. These can be

influenced, or compounded by, secondary

causes that are included in the evaluation.

Key recommendations include promoting a

feeling of safety and belonging to increase

motivation and aspiration; provide

opportunities of responsibility to increase self-

esteem and motivation. Maintain a flexible

approach, recognising where pupils have

made a positive contribution to the community.

Family support is central to breaking the cycle of

school refusal and the authors note that comparison

with family members and previous experiences with

supporting agencies can have a negative impact, as

can talking about potential prosecution of parents. A

multi-agency role is vital, as is the presence of a key

adult. The study highlights the value of persistence

and resilience of professionals and their role in

adapting interventions to pupil needs.

The paper recognises the need for further research

in helping define areas to support successful

reintegration of pupils exhibiting school refusal

behaviour.

The article is available as Free Access until the end

of 2015 and can be downloaded here:

http://goo.gl/Xdq38w

Decoding the

Diary Sheet

Edu-Blog Spotlight

John Tomsett is Headteacher of Huntington School in

York. He blogs at http://johntomsett.com and he

tweets as @johntomsett

John Tomsett has recently written about the merits of

copying from the board. He suggests that 'writing and

thinking at speed is a skill which needs modelling' -

especially when it comes to preparing students, who may

not be used to writing for long periods of time under

pressure, for exams.

He describes using a visualiser to talk through writing a

model answer to an AS essay question, in the precise time

– 35 minutes – allowed in the examination. He spoke out

loud what he was thinking as well as what he was writing,

almost simultaneously. The students had the same

examination paper and they had to copy down from the

projector screen, in real time, exactly what he was writing.

The students had unique access to what was happening

in his brain as he was writing.

When comparing his students examination performance

against OCR’s Question Level Analysis data it suggested

that the visualiser/board copying lessons had a positive

impact. There was a clear difference between how pupils

performed on the shorter, un-modelled questions and the

longer, modelled questions.

Tomsett says it’s about 'teacher learning'. This year, as

they prepare for mock examinations, he will model how he

writes and thinks when attempting shorter questions too.

He reflects that, ‘people of a certain age have a lump of

hard skin on the top/side of the middle finger on their

writing hand, the result of writing intensely over hundreds

and hundreds of hours. When I wrote non-stop for 35

minutes and my students followed suit, they complained –

a lot – amidst a great deal of hand-shaking and grimacing.

The thing is, we might be onto something if we can get our

students to cultivate their own middle-finger writer’s

bump…’

Full post, with comments at: http://goo.gl/Szv6TM

You’ve been asked for some

information or a pupil report for a

meeting, but what do all those

letters mean?

PEP

A PEP, or Personal Education Plan, is

compulsory for all looked after children

of compulsory school age. Whether or

not they are currently in education.

It provides essential information to

ensure that appropriate support is in

place to enable the child to achieve the

targets set. It is also a record of the

child’s leisure interests and educational

achievement.

The first PEP should be in place within

the first 20 days of a child becoming

Looked After.

A PEP sets clear objectives and targets

for a child, covering:

Chronology of education and

progress;

Existing arrangements for

education and training, including

details of any special educational

provision;

Any planned changes to existing

arrangements and provision to

minimise disruption

The child’s leisure interests;

Role of the appropriate person and

any other person who cares for the

child in promoting the child’s

educational achievements and

leisure interests.