Season's Greetings

Thank you, one and all, for your hard work during this long tern term. Imagine a long tern. A very long bird. Hilarious. Try googling it. Even funnier. 

We've been through the usual processes, with meetings, marking and more. Your contributions are superb, and highly appreciated both by me, and those above. SLT, not the angelic host to whom we will dedicate our offerings during Mithramas. 

We have got most of our pupils into a decent position. The year eleven picture is OK, and there is some healthy progress across all year groups. However, we can't have any complacency. One of the most positive aspects of you as a department is the focused willingness you bring to your daily grind. Don't lose that. 

Relax over the holiday, and come back ready to smash 2015 into next year!

Educational Occultism.

Education is not an occult practice. Drawing boxes around mystical acronyms does not enhance the power of the spell, as if we're some sort of latter-day John Dees conjuring hidden information from the depths of time and space.

It's an open and clear process. William (of) Occam, a razor sharp man, had a much better idea. He strips things down to their bare necessities. The essentials. The precious fluids which flow through all.

Keep it simple. Strip back the superfluous and retain that which achieves something.

Like, for once, this blog.

Pastiche

There are no new ideas. All sorts of French 'philosophers' have banged on about this. So have other allegedly clever people. I say allegedly because it's a pretty bloody obvious point, and they've all made it, one after the other, showing that there are no new ideas.

There is a point to this. Good teachers borrow, great teachers steal. You don't even have to get it right. The Guardian article I stole the quote from has misquoted it, according to the depths of Google, which is definitely a privately owned company, and not a CIA plot.

Hopefully, my pedagogical point is clear. Steal lessons. Adapt approaches. See something you like? Nick it. Make it work for you. Be subtle and creative with this approach.

And keep the end product in mind.

Make it count.

The title is not a reference to cross-curricular numeracy. Many of you will know my strategy pertaining to that - when a number is mentioned during your lesson, shout numeracy, and tick that box!

It's just a reminder that, despite the marking, planning, moderating, meeting, gossiping and caking that we do each week, we need to be highly effective, We get a limited amount of time, both in terms of school and our pupil's existences, to make a fundamental and profound difference. There's the higher purpose to this, of inspiring and nurturing a love for learning and ideas, as well as the mechanistic and (arguably) more important for many of our pupils goal of getting them somewhere in life, perhaps somewhere they might not be able to reach if we don't get them over some societal barriers.

They might not go on to rule the world, although I hope some will; they most certainly can make a massive difference to themselves, their families and their communities if we set them up to succeed.

So let's make it count. Let's avoid anything unnecessary, any weasel words or meaningless gibberish that sounds good. (I don't include all trendy, AFL, AST strategies in this. I'm lightening my ideological opposition to these, as long as they are there for the pupils and not observers.)

Let's simply make it count.

Effect / Affect

Why did you choose to be a teacher? How come you're a teacher of English? Destiny, or an accidental nightmare of history from which you're trying to awaken?

Or, more simply perhaps, because you love grammar.

Regardless, you will want to be effective. There are many ways to do this; positive relationships, AFL strategies, intelligent use of data and many more.

If you want to know how you can affect lots of learners, and become the most effective teacher you possibly can be, then this google search might help you to focus your energies. Some of you may remember looking at these in a meeting many moons ago; to others, it may be new. Either way, looking back over these recently has reminded me of what I like to achieve in the classroom - as much as possible.

0.40 is the magic number.

SOP

Standard Operating Procedure.

Structure Organisation Purpose.

Some Other Pish.

The second one. Becoming the first one. Structure, organisation, purpose. It could be the motto of some Neo-Nazis preying on an austerity stricken population in England, Hungary, Greece, France wherever, to raise hell against anyone who looks, prays or speaks differently, but it is really what we need to be doing, how we need to be being, day in, day out.

Structure, because weekly, lessonly, that clarity is paramount. We need to whittle down what we do to a core, a refined product which delivers maximum punch with minimum input. It's not quite an allegedly impossible perpetual motion machine, so much as a Tesla inspired piece of perfection and innovation I'm after.

Organisation, because for the same reason. Simplify those previously complicated, yet engaging, ideas. Keep them, modified. Save time in lessons. The ideas you came up with on Wednesday were great - I've already flipped a few classrooms. Not to mention some chairs and tables. Only joking. Does anyone remember Flipper? I hope they gave Tommy Norden some factor 1000. Poor lad.

Purpose, because without one you're lost. Without the first two, purpose is muted. With them, purpose is heightened, focused, attained. Be effective, be deliberate.

Make this week work for you and your pupils.

BE AFRAID!!!!!!!!!

Be afraid... it's nearly Halloween, or All Saint's Eve, or Samhain, when the souls of the departed who wander the earth in purgatory, or a meaningless political job, are prayed for. Or not.

Be afraid... of Ebola, a disease you're not going to get, which is causing misery, but no more so that malaria, dysentery, or HIV / AIDS, or even obesity, tobacco and alcohol, and we're not worrying about them, are we?

Be afraid... of bearded people, hooded teenagers, people with lots of consonants in their names who are here for your jobs, insecure gas supplies because of that naughty man Vladimir with the surname that's funny in French (almost), of Nigel and his half-baked idiots, just be afraid, OK?!

Don't. Don't fear the reaper. Even though he looks frightening, he's harmless; it's all harmless.

Have no fear of what you're doing, or where it will go. Boldly make decisions, boldly push rules to their very limits. Make what you do count, every day. Work with your classes and with your colleagues to make this next seven weeks the best it can be, despite the creeping cold and soft sodium street lights changing the backdrop of your everyday reality.

Have no fear; create what you want.

On a Teaching Tip.

Yes. The title was a cheap trick to get this track in. Unfortunately, it's taken me back to when I was a younger gentleman. Click the links if you dare.

Moving swiftly on. Teaching is the heart of what each of us do, regardless of other roles and responsibilities which we may take on. I'd like to medit8 upon this molten, ever shifting core business of ours, if you will indulge me. If you won't, I'll just say a quick thanks for your hard work during this long half-term, and you can click on the red X in the top right corner.

It's easy to say what we don't do.  We don't do child care. We don't do duvets. We don't do nonsense for the sake of it.

We don't always know what we look like when we're doing what we're doing, but it's not about that. It's about what we're doing when we're doing what we look like we're doing. And as long as we're expressing ourselves with our full capabilities, and not living in correctional facilities, it's all good.

You can be old school, new school, no school, AST school, whatever school. Just make it work. Be purposeful, and, most of all, be bold this week. Week eight of eight - never easy. Tiredness, autumnal afflictions and over-familiarity can take their toll. Don't allow that.

Just remember how we do it. Properly. Consistently. With a slinky worn as a necklace. With a smile on our chops and a spring in our steps. Or else... I'll spam you with ragga jungle breaks until you can't help but walk with an inane grin plastered on your face.

Enjoy this week - you'll enjoy the week after a lot more if you do.

Late Show

Planning. Some would say it's at the heart of what we do; I would disagree. Assessment is at heart of what we do. Assessment creates targets, creates lessons, creates purpose.

Planning gives shape to this. Merely doesn't fit in the previous sentence - it's too important for that. But it isn't the whole story. It's a narrative shape, a sense of movement from one place to another.

We need to think about planning in new ways. This isn't a new way, but it can be an effective way. Another way to change this is to to consider the shape and aim of a lesson.

Is the lesson a vortex, exploring into an idea or skill in great depth, taking the learning further and further?

Is it a journey, with regular stops and a variety of refreshments?

Does the lesson have a staccato rhythm, accentuating certain points?

Could the lesson be one of a trilogy, even part of a trilogy in five parts?

I'm intrigued to know how you picture your lessons. How do you vary things between period one and period seven, between a lesson where you introduce a text and a lesson where you recap a skill that, frustratingly, isn't as solidly embedded as it could be.

Haha. Here's our first meeting after half term. We all have to present a lesson in which we tried something, whether it worked or not, which was different from our usual approach. Something which we think might help others to change up their teaching, and secure that outstanding progress which we need. Should be fun.

The Day of the Heroic Guerilla.

Wednesday, the eighth of October - The Day of the Heroic Guerilla. One of these; not one of these. A day which Gove must want us to commemorate with drop down days, new qualifications and ceremonial marching in fancy uniforms. British Gas are sending a representative around to my house, to discuss their exceedingly attractive £400 boiler scrappage offer.

Life is bathos. Sublime ideals; ridiculous reality.

This, however, is what we live and work in. And I want to thank you for being heroic, everyday, in a fantastically mundane way. Your effort, your passion, has the ability to lift a person's life beyond the prosaic procession of inner-city life. The ear you lend to a colleague; the plan you share over lunch; the spread sheet you send; the email from a new colleague which you reply to; and the list goes on; the extra support you arrange for a pupil; the question about someone's child or family member that reminds them that people care; the room you swap with a harried, forgetful fool; there's more; the detailed analysis you produce; the ideas you offer.

The everyday grind; those tasks we undertake everyday. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. What you do each day, routinely, combines to create something truly special. Something powerful and transformative.

All I ask is that this continues - that you keep being yourselves, with style. Keep pushing, questioning, thinking, challenging, prompting and hoping.

Keep being mundanely heroic, and brilliantly so.

Blood, Sweat and Years.

Long view. A Green Day song about a self-absorbed lifestyle, as well as what we need to do to ensure we keep pushing on, and improving what we and our pupils do. I've said before, recently, that complacency is the enemy. That's still true.

This may seem like a contradiction, but we also need to be measured. Being non-complacent doesn't mean throwing everything at everything at all times and hoping something works. That is naive. We must work smart; if we work smart, working hard is worthwhile. If we don't work smart, it isn't. It's as simple as that.

We're still settling into some fundamental changes - the new timetable is firmly embedded, and we need to make sure we're using it to our advantage. That doesn't just mean how we teach in those shorter sessions; it includes how we plan, when we plan, the way we approach assessment and all of those other things that we do, which make our teaching effective.

On Wednesday, we are going to meet and discuss the way this new school day works, and ensure that we make it work for us. We have, as a team, with various comings and goings, being working steadily, improving sustainably, for several years. It might be worth, for all staff - old and new - revisiting some of the ideas we have looked at. Hattie's effect sizes and marginal gains theories seem pertinent to the situation we are in currently.

Think on these - how can we ensure that we are effective practitioners at all times?

The easy yards are behind us - remember, we're pushing for the details that will ensure that we are, without any doubt, anywhere, ever, an outstanding department. That's always been the aim.

Porpoise.

Sorry. I mean purpose. The inane burbling of Peppa Pig is beginning to drive me towards insanity. Bong bing boo. We live on a bizarre and often confusing planet. Our leaders arm people, then declare them evil, and want to attack them, and the people they're fighting, who are the people we armed them to fight in the first place, in some bizarre version of the Hegelian dialectic, which leaves us suffering from acute cognitive dissonance, as endless wars coagulate and clot, running into one, and the Scottish people do what their capitalist-imperialist bankster overlords tell them to...

Or something.

Which brings me to our purpose. Clarity of language, clarity of thought; a love of language. If we wish to continue improving, in all the meaningful ways as well as the ones which keep the governmental parasites away, we must inculcate and develop these characteristics in our pupils as early as possible. I don't think many of them learn to love words, and appreciate the power that language holds, at primary school. It's even less likely in the future, when many will have learnt to recognise the link between letters and sounds, without a natural affinity for meaning and subtlety. Newspeak writ large.

We are privileged to be able to help them explore poetry, in its various forms. Drama, music, novels, short stories, journalism, whatever; we teach this subject for a reason, so let's ensure we get that reason across to our young charges.

Purpose and relevance are paramount.

Eternal Challenges.

We are an ambitious department, an ambitious team, and that ambition has served us well. However, we must continue to harness this ambition; it must work for us, not against us. The Tao teaches much.

Know contentment and you will suffer no disgrace. 

It is the way alone that excels in bestowing and in accomplishing.

We have been following our way for some time now, through change of staff and change of pupil, through new schemes and new initiatives. Some of our opponents have fallen, though their legacy will live on. Whatever we have done before will be meaningless if we fail to keep to our way, if we fail to remain humble and work towards our goal. There are a million quotes on the internet which show that every problem contains an opportunity. To date, we have found the opportunity inside the questions posed, and we have met them.

This is at the heart of what we have done well. It must remain so. The challenges we face, we face as a team, as a unit. They are steps, on which we may fall, or else o'erleap. We will do this by remaining open, honest, reflective and hard working.

He who knows others is clever. He who knows himself has discernment. 

He who overcomes others has force. He who over comes himself is strong.

Finally, this is a video which claims that Michael Jackson was a time traveller. Enjoy.

Cracking on.

Thank you all for such a positive new beginning. It seemed like a seamless transition into the new academic year. You all took on your classes like you'd never been away / been here forever - the response of the pupils to our high expectations has been excellent.

We've set a standard now - and that's just base camp. There is no summit to reach, there never could be, but we're going to keep heading further up, doing more and more, seeking to improve in every way we can. We'll start this in the coming weeks with LSt and LSm running some meetings, with the way that we integrate our new member of staff into the team, and in how we share our excellent practice to become even better.

 We're well placed. But many  have been - England in 1990, Gordon Brown in 2007 and Hale Bopp in 1997 - and it didn't always end well. Your job is to keep it going, keep it improving and ensure that we come as close to fulfilling the massive potential that our department and pupils hold as we can.

No pressure.

A New Dawn.

Welcome back, or, indeed, welcome. Summer has gone, winter has settled in remarkably early and the world is much the same. There is war, rumours of war, laughable politicians masquerading as outsiders and we're back at work, expected to work our magic all over again.

And we will.

Our priorities remain the same, because they are right. Engaging lessons, effective differentiation, accurate and regular assessment, a team ethos and patience. We need patience to keep building, keep adding to the successes we have had. Year eleven are primed to succeed, if we work hard, focusing on what we know we need to do. We need to be patient with them, as they face a new challenge, with a tumult of exams at the end of the year. We need to be patient with each other, and work together - there will be changes this year (more to follow on Monday, but don't worry, it's all good) which we can use to our advantage, to kick onto the next level. We are now within touching distance of national average. We can smash through this and maintain this, if we work as we have done previously - honestly, openly and with trust.

Each year group needs close attention; our pupils deserve the very best from this and we have to make sure that we give them exactly that. Permanent revolution will help us to do this - always look for ways to improve. Hopefully, this year will see, at last, us dropping into lessons, a greater spread of the drop in load, allowing the sharing of our excellent work to be made more effective. Last term, you sent ideas for meetings through to me - this year, I want to see you coming to me and suggesting what we will explore in meetings, what we need to do. This is your department, and you have proven, through hard work, inspections, observations and results, that you know what you're doing. The time for dictatorship is over. Full communism or anarcho-syndicalism. It's your choice. Kind of. Regardless, it's time to fully take control of our future.

It's a new dawn, it's a new day... seize it.

Summer is coming.

Summer is coming. Or, perhaps, it's already been and gone. Regardless, after a few more days of toil, we will be free to get colds, fail to sleep in past nine and to be a passenger for a while.

In short, we can live again, free from the tyranny of timetables, top set and terrible weekly blogs.

It's been quite a year. We've been through it all together, and we've had our ups and downs... through it all, you've worked hard, remained professional, and you've focused on the most important thing of all. That, as I may have mentioned, is not personal advancement, or repeating stock phrases to sound like you're doing what you should be, or trying to make yourself look good when observed. It's teaching as well as we can, as often as we can. It's making sure pupils are engaged, and working hard, and seeing the purpose of their studies. It's working as a team, sharing ideas, supporting each other, being honest and sincere with each other, and all those other things you do so well.

We're not quite perfect yet. We can share more good (or better) practice. We can still, always, neverendingly, improve our differentiation and the way pupils engage with feedback. Perfection is, to be honest, a ludicrous but noble aim. Progress, over time, is what matters, and what makes a difference.

Thank you for your efforts this year, for going the extra mile, for dealing with every demand made of you. Enjoy your summer. Rest. Read, that rarest of recreations for English teachers. Do some exercise. And then, like some absurd Sisyphus, be ready to do it all again, except next time, this time, we really are going to roll that boulder all the way up the slope, and it will stay there this time...

On the march...

Blink and you'll miss it. Not t'tour; the last two weeks of the year / end of the first half term of next year. Let's make these days count. Who knows? That little bit of progress, that smidgen of enjoyment, that sudden realisation that, hey, this subject is all right, might really count for something, at some point, somehow.

Time marches on relentlessly, striking all equally. You can either be a passenger, or you can be crew. Either, way, you're coming along for the journey. Like the peloton, which many of us will have seen cycling through Yorkshire yesterday, it's easier together - we're geese flying in formation through a clichéd assembly. A shoal of fish, flickering silver in the blue depths, guided by a collective mind.

You might protest, or raise a red flag, but, ultimately, you know it makes sense. We're stronger together - we have worked hard this year to improve specific areas of our practice, and have, by and large, succeeded. Ensure, through consistent hard work, resilience and determination, that we're set up for next September, to keep making the little breakthroughs that add together to create success.

Intensity.

Three weeks out of Jehovah knows how many left. It's been quite a year so far, with more twists and turns to come.

It started with a push on differentiation, had a brief Ofsted scare before Christmas, saw the gestation of the spawn of Dermot throughout, then saw the death-eaters pop in to spend two days wearing Doc Marten's and asking oddly phrased questions, before moving on to a focus on developing some bottle and making the pupils do the hard work so we can write questions in their books more often. It seems to have lasted about as long as that last sentence.

In short, it's been intense. Intensity in ten cities. Can we keep that going for the next few weeks? It's vital that we do. Personally, I think the change to 'next year' has been positive so far. But we have to capitalise on this. We have to ensure that the feeling of maturity and of having stepped up is maintained.

Let's make the most of this. No excuses. Those lessons won't teach themselves.

Long View

Regular victims readers of this blog may remember this edition from just over a year ago. Apart from being based on some memorable staff training, it was some gibberish about using a range of tools to achieve a goal. 

Today, on this longest day of the year, birthday of our once and future King, William the last, I'm sitting in the sun, enjoying the fruits of that labour. The turf is green and even, there's a little wall with plants on; what is now proved was once imagined. 

Aside from laziness, the reason I'm on about this is because we're not doing things the easy way. I've taken the long view over the last few years. Arguably, we could have done more at times to secure flashy, short term progress which drops away like leaves in autumn when the wind turns cold. But that's not how we roll. 

The proof of the pudding, they say, is in its existence. Last week, I took over a few new classes, as we all did; many of my new pupils were ones I knew by reputation or from meeting them on the corridor. What I've learnt, however, is just how good you lot are. These pupils have been well taught. The fact that you've worried and mentioned their lack of work or progress reassures me. It shows how high your standards are. These pupils know more than you might have though they did - you've done a great job with these pupils, despite the challenges they often present. 

Nice one. Keep the faith. The slow burn works.

Happy New Year!

It's next year! Time, obviously, does not exist, so fear not about this bizarro leap into the near future. Not much will change. Just the school day, your timetable, and the Earth's magnetic field.

The main change, really, will be that we are now promoting British Values (Copyright the Union of British Fascists  Tory party) above all else. Differentiation? Forget it. Progress? No more an issue. EAL? What are you? Some pinko hippy commie? As such, I have planned and taught a lesson in preparation about these esteemed values, which Johnny Foreigner could never share; it ends with this quintessentially British song. Feel free to use this to indoctrinate educate our pupils as to how a true young Brit should act.

On a serious note, this is an excellent opportunity. We can teach punchy, sharp lessons - trim the excess, keep then lean and mean, like a low-fat grill popularised by a legendary boxer cashing in on years of being punched in the head. We get opportunities like Extended Reading, where we can cover Literature texts, or just read for the sake of it - more to follow on these.

Most importantly, we can cash in on the feeling of progression the pupils will have. They're a year older now. Or so we have to make them believe. Create this - create a sense that they're stepping up, intellectually and emotionally. Push them.

Have a great new year!

Gove Tell It On The Mountain

Awful pun. No apologies. Here's the predictable link to the song, but it's not the Dolly Parton version, which is reprehensible. More importantly, it allows me to link to Mr Gove's wonderful week, in which he annoyed the Home Secretary and his ham-faced boss with his prejudice (ban all faith schools, say I) and announced a hilarious policy which displays his gnat-like insight into humanity. The neo-conservative fool.

Cheer up - I won't rock the boat any more. Only joking, you'll be waiting in vain for that to happen. It would take some sort of ambush in the night to stop me stirring it up. I'll stop that train now, even though I could have continued burnin' and lootin' the great man's inexhaustibly brilliant body of work for a while longer.

Perseverance. A quality that links many people - from the Gove to the good. My parents have been married forty years today, which must have taken some stick-ability, a growth mind-set and a lot of tolerance. These are the qualities we need to model, and expect, and value.

With these, it only takes a small axe to chop down a big tree, we can conquer any duppy.

Let's have a good last week of the year (!) and make sure that we're ready to make the most of the rest of this term.

Meandering Nonsense.

This weeks's blog will be a stream of meandering nonsense, vaguely linked by the themes of expectations.

Firstly, I'd like to quickly thank you all for your work in preparing year 11 for their recent examinations. There are many things I could say. You worked brilliantly, with a real team ethos. The greater consistency this cohort (challenging, as we know) have received in terms of their teaching over the time they've spent with us is reflected in their excellent attitudes towards the whole process. I've never seen a year group work so hard, regardless of their start levels, targets, FFT profiles and all that nonsense. So thank you. Your work is appreciated.

Work like this is the ideal way to combat a nonsensical system which some may say has a deeper agenda beyond Gove's theatrical, attention seeking political games. Don't give up.

We're always told what to expect, and what expectations we should have. Sometimes, expectations can be confounded. Footballers, some of them at least, can read. Proper books, too. Sometimes, expectations are engineered to confirm and reassert the useful prejudices we're meant to have. I'll leave you to consider who exactly they are useful to. Nothing to see here. Look over there.

In short, what I am not really saying despite wanting to, is that we need to continually set our own expectations. Your expectations of me, mine of you, ours of our pupils. Let's keep them high (the expectations) and keep them focused (both the expectations and the pupils).

The Great Work is just beginning...

The Great Work is, before all things, the creation of man by himself, that is to say, the full and entire conquest of his faculties and his future; it is especially the perfect emancipation of his will.

Surprises...

Firstly, here's a link to an article about the first (and, hopefully, only) free school to be judged outstanding. Ignore the nonsense about lollipop sticks - that's far too AST-look-at-me for me to force on everyone. Do it if you want; I won't judge. Its the no hands up policy I like. Give it a go - force them all to think.

Who knows? Some of them might find they like thinking.

I'd also ignore the four year old 'Head of School'. However, I quite like the 'family dining' ethos - that could be nice. I'm not even being sarcastic.

Secondly, in the Tomlinson assembly this week we were spoken too about kindness. I'm not sure what's happened, but I didn't vomit. Actually, I decided to try and be kind to people, for no other reason than to be kind. It's really hard. I'm no good at it. I'll have to keep working at it. Anyway.

This week, in amongst your reports, the exams and wondering if you will win the sweepstake (pay up if you haven't), let's be kind to each other, for no other reason than to be kind.

If you're feeling really bold, extend that kindness to pupils. They're not amoral state school pupils at all. They're quite nice overall.

Le Grand Depart

Two months before the Pythonesque conceit of the most French event in the world starting with a meander through Last of the Summer Wine territory, it's increasingly clear we live in a crazy world. These men still jobs, for example. This man is taken seriously. The great Alice Walker appears to share my Weltanschauung.

I'm not sure which of these is most surprising.

However, some things are constant. Exam season is upon us. Last week's revision was excellent. Well attended and well delivered, it shows the commitment and high quality of our work. This year eleven are well supported, and, I believe, they are responding in style. Let's keep going with them.

With one week of lessons to go - which I believe will certainly be a full week - it can be hard, at times, to keep lessons fresh. Hopefully, google will lead me to a few good sites. I'll link to them if it does. My personal advice would be to keep standards high, expectations steady, heads clear and focus on the key tasks; mix up some exam practise with revision of key skills. Build their confidence. Smile.

Yes, the system is daft, the pressure we are under from above (way above, that's not a sly dig at SLT!) is ludicrous, and, I reckon, contributing to a range of stresses and pressures on the young people we work with; however, the aims that we have, and the extent to which our young people deserve the best, makes any sacrifice and every effort worthwhile.

So smile, and, remember, we refuse to lose.

Slow Burn

During last Monday's staff INSET, the boss mentioned his idea of the slow burn - that instantaneous change is not expected, or perhaps desired; long-term growth, which can be maintained, is preferable. Obviously, I'd agree. This subject has been banged on about enough by me, for long enough. However, it's always nice to be reminded of it, especially by el jefe.

That need to succeed, to maintain excellent progress, is real, but it is not without context.

The phrase itself leads me down multitudinous metaphorical alleys. The slow burn, which sounds painful in some ways, is the opposite to thermite, which burns explosively through even the toughest steel, for example in a controlled demolition, unlike, for example, burning jet fuel. It may be tempting to take a short term approach, which gets spectacular results, and there are elements of that approach which we can and will adopt. Nevertheless, we must ensure that the whole picture remains in focus - a challenging job.

The slow burn also reminds me of the clichéd cartoon fuse on a soon-to-explode bomb. The initial process may be slow, but the effects are dramatic. Like a good lesson, it allows time for ideas to develop, to stew, for understanding to grow, before the fire erupts, learning exploding into life.

Quite by coincidence, today I was reading The Amber Spyglass, the third of Pullman's Northern Lights trilogy. Each chapter has a quote, from either a great poet, or the Bible. Funnily enough, one chapter had the following quote. I'll leave you to guess who... and how it can link to what it is we do. A Memorable Fancy, perhaps, leading to some hellish proverbs...

As I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of genius.

Rise and Shine.

As the mornings become brighter, and April begins to fade, it gets a little easier to get up in the morning. Rise and shine. The thought of sunlight before and after work is a great one. It might not be beach weather, but windows are open, bees are repeatedly bumping into windows and hay-fever is again an excuse for not doing any work in lessons.

Some things, however, are constant; a hilarious article in the Times last week, which I won't link to, claimed a new union for middle managers, frustrated at the 'militancy' of the unions was being set up. It's now militant to want to protect your rights as a worker. May Day is surely only one Tory led coalition government away from becoming Thatcher day. Any semblance of sense in society seems to be rapidly diminishing. Chasing ridiculous rainbows is the order of the day; it seems we must play their game. And, of course, we will - because their game skilfully co-opts our aim - educating and making a success of the young people we work with.

In spite of this slippage into strawberry fields, where living is only possible with eyes closed, we need to keep plugging away. Onto football quickly, where my idea of using a manager's philosophy as a metaphor for good practice buggers up their title charge again, and Brendan Rogers' displays a strong focus on sustainable development, aiming to build something that lasts, and is strong enough to withstand stuff, nonsense and ill-informed change, saying "I think it is more satisfying to put a sustainable structure in place and develop your own players," before his side lost two nil to Chelsea. I'm sure we can take something from that, despite the fact that we work in a mildly different environment.

The fonts gone funny. I don't know how to change that. Anyway. I do know how to change what we face. And it's simple. We teach our backsides off. Literally.

Juggling

Can anyone juggle? I can't. I've never seen the point in circus skills. They're about as useful as English degrees and the current opposition.

However, you are all experts at a much more important type of juggling, and this next half-term will see that skill come to the fore. As such, we will need to show our usual range of skills and attributes. If we were a Top Trumps card, we'd have top ranking scores on teamwork, positivity, selflessness, focus, planning... and much, much more.

As we're not a Top Trumps card, we just have to reflect on what we do, and make sure that, after what has hopefully been a restful and enjoyable holiday, we are able to head back out and do it all over again. You all know what to do. Last half-term was excellent, and this one will be even better.

It's not just the exam classes, although they're vital; it's the year sevens getting a great end to the year, tens engaged and enthused ahead of next year, nines focused and ready for the step up to KS4 and eights more than just that year that gets neglected in the general milieu of targets and progress and all the other gubbins that get in the way of our real job - educating young people.

Like this.

Culture and Anarchy

Don't panic, as Douglas Adams ensured was emblazoned upon the cover of the Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy. The title is not leading us down the route of a rant about what it may seem. I'm simply reading a book that I barely understand - it's far too clever and allusional for a pleb like me - but which seems to contain some gems; wonderful quotes and sound ideas.

Apart from being a poet - the third best of the Victorian era, apparently - Matthew Arnold was a progressive, for his day, Educationalist, which is a bit like a junglist. It even has a movement. But not a massive. He was a bit god-loving for my liking, but it seems that his ideas were very ahead of his time, and that they were later adopted, as a means of stopping violent proletarian revolution (mild sarcasm).

Anyhoo. Here are some delectable selectables from google the book:

One has often wondered whether upon the whole earth there is anything so unintelligent, so unapt to perceive how the world is really going, as an ordinary young Englishman of our upper class.

Less about education that our current government. Sorry.

Culture, then, is a study of perfection, and perfection which insists on becoming something rather than in having something, in an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of circumstances.

Let's strive for perfection, unattainable excellence. Why not?

New Day

Much exciting and interesting news this week. The main thrust of the blog was going to be homage to Arsene Wenger, in honour of his consistency and longevity, the way he has stuck to his footballing values, playing the game the right way. A mildly unfortunate, yet amusing, result yesterday has put paid to that riff, however. It would have been predictable - sustainability, building for the future and keeping the ball on the floor are much more important than flashy short term fixes, spending millions on identikit midfielder players or hoofing the ball into the box endlessly.

Yes, I'm talking about the team you support, if you support one. And, yes, it's what I say every week, just a different metaphor.

However, we have an exciting and potentially productive new start this week. You're all sacked, and we've hired some robots.  We have, much less frighteningly, two members of the LSW team joining us, to be used creatively, and to hopefully have a powerful impact across the ability ranges and year groups. I'm really looking forward to this - details will be following on email, and in discussions over the next week or two as we work out how to make this new day a bright and happy one. (Apologies, that was a tenuous metaphor entirely to work in this song.)

We can now move on, creating a new culture, and I'm really pleased we're getting some new faces in to provide dedicated support. For all the technology in the world, I'd much rather have people.

Let's make sure we think out side of the box of cliché with this opportunity. A flexible and thoughtful (that's alliterative when you speak like me) approach to this staffing change will allow us to make the most of what we already do well, and what we need to do to move on further.

Lastly,  let's keep pushing revision on a Wednesday, promoting revision on the anthology texts, and ensuring that we teach to the best of our ability at all times. Everything else is meaningless if we don't do that.

A Powerful Weapon

Not a nudge-nudge wink-wink title. Honest guv. It's a quote from early in this video.

And it is. What we do is powerful - transformative. Life-changing, life-affirming. 

It should never be like this. It sounds like hell. We need to track, to be accountable, to know where our students are, and where they could be, with a little more. If you feel that we're going too far that way, tell me. Instantly and bluntly. Please.

There is a telling comment from a student below that article. She talks about the pressures on students, how teachers pass, unwittingly (mostly) their pressures to students, pressing them to make statistically meaningful progress. Look at our pupils. Consider the pressure they're placed under. 

Frankly, I think it's unfair. We have a duty to ameliorate the effects of this pressurised system, to diffuse, somehow, the pressure which filters down through the system. If, at every level - SLT, Middle Management, teachers - we take off some of these rough edges, we'll be doing ourselves and our pupils a massive service.

Let's keep things simple, straightforward, tight and well-structured. Speak openly with each other, and with me, about the pressures, about backlogs of work or marking; if we do this, we can deal with it. If we don't, we can't. 

It's the business end of the year now, so let's get to it. Be creative - take the lead, act autonomously in how you approach lessons, pupils, specific bands. Don't be afraid to book the LSC and lecture some whilst doing focused work with others. Don't even feel you have to ask for permission. Just do it. 

Progress or Process?

We had some very pleasant results this week, but, personally, I've been more encouraged by the burgeoning attendance at revision, with so many sets represented. Let's keep pushing this. When we look back, steps along the way, however impressive they may sound statistically, will count for little if we can't say we did everything we could to achieve the best.

How we get there is at least as important as the destination. I'd rather arrive late, in style, knowing I did things properly, than make a loud entrance, screaming look at me, only to discover I'd neglected to dress the lower half of my body. At all. If you know what I mean.

We've got where we are with consistency, focus, team work, a lack of ego. We haven't taught to the test. We've engaged, challenged and pushed. This is what needs to continue. There's a higher mission to teaching; it's easily lost in this Babylon system of percentages and accountability.

As a wise man once said, we need to make everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be.

House of Cards

The title is just an excuse to point you in the direction of House of Cards, which is an amazing political drama set in Washington, featuring Kevin Spacey as a Machiavellian politico at the centre of an intriguing plot. Watch it.

Also, it makes me think about where we stand now, as a team (and as a school, I suppose, but that's slightly outside my remit!). I won't waste my time exploring the metaphor of the House of Cards. It's pretty clear, and reminds me of the biblical story of the man building his house on sand, or modern tales such as building mass dwellings on flood plains or land that was reclaimed from the sea in the Middle Ages (see the Somerset Levels and most of Holland). 

We've made great progress - steady and sustained - over the last few years; looking at the recent work on schemes, tracking, differentiation and marking, this will continue. However, I wish to warn against complacency, and against doing things which aren't sustainable, undertaking endeavours which seem to have an immediate impact, but leave no lasting legacy. Such actions would be short-termist and selfish. Our actions, whether aimed at each other or at pupils, must be focused on selflessness and long-term gain. Sure, we can work for short-term goals, as we are with revision and intervention, but our long term priorities must be the ultimate focus.

The long-term priorities are what will ensure that the current year seven are going to achieve their potential, that any teachers joining us, in September this year or a year later, are able to hit the ground running. 

We live in a culture of immediacy. I fundamentally disagree with this culture, seeing its pernicious influence all around. Many of the behaviours which challenge us are, I believe, a result of this culture. The only way to fight a hegemonic culture is to refuse compliance, to play your own game - we make the rules.

The run in...

After a quiet half-term to begin 2014, we reach the run in. The important part of the year, to some. A part of the year when the work put in over months and terms previously pays off. Some Scottish bloke with a red nose who used to work in Manchester called it 'squeaky bum time'.

It doesn't, however, need to be. It's a time when we step up, and perform to our best, but it doesn't need to be a time of stress or worry. Good habits allow us to push on when needed, as shown recently, and we need that consistency and quality to ensure that we have given every child the best chance this year. Obviously, I'm talking to a large extent about year eleven, but every child matters  no child left behind you know what I mean. They're all important, and it's the hard yards now that make the hard yards later easier. If you know what I mean.

What I mean, I suppose, is keep on keeping on... (the Curtis Mayfield version. Not Tech N9ne.)

Half-time

Oranges? Water that someone else has drank from, carelessly leaving semi-hydrated saliva hanging mysteriously within the bottle? Or a glass of overpriced red on an uncomfortable seat, if you're lucky, surrounded by braying toffs lauding the brave production of whatever it is at the theatre?

Yes, I'm talking about us passing the halfway point of the year. No, we're not playing Sunday league football or watching some play at a former slaughterhouse turned trendy theatre.

We're teachers. And we're halfway through the academic year which, of course, is the only year that matters. As such, we get long lasting low-grade colds, sleepless nights and visions of exams being bizarrely different from before when our pupils sit them in the summer.

After that meandering nonsense, I'd just like to thank you for your hard work and excellent teaching so far, for the marking and feeding back, for the good humour and kindness. We know what we're aiming to do, so let's keep doing it.

"I can't revise English"

Anybody else heard this classic recently? To be honest, I think that I sometimes encourage views like this with careless language. "It's not revision, it's more preparing or practising, because it's about the skills.' Put yourself in those year 11 trainers.

It probably doesn't help, does it?

We need to help. That, clearly, is our job. We need to make sure that we're promoting and pushing our subject, and the fact that our revision sessions will clearly be by far the best, with our range of interesting texts and whatnot, and that all pupils need to be coming along. There is so much we can do - more than simply working through questions. Sessions on planning, analysing language, linking ideas, and more.

And I'd like to see more. We must maintain the focus on differentiation and all that - recent drop in suggest some nice progress there, which needs to be built on - but in the short term we must get around this English revision block. After half-term, Wednesdays will be freed up for this. There will be an expectation that all are involved - small, focused groups, a carousel, lots of energy.

However, I think it is key that we remain cool and calm. I sometimes worry that the pressure on schools to perform is, ultimately, passed down to the children. I don't think this is deliberate, but neither do I think this is necessary. We're moving towards, yet again, an uncertain summer, with all of those shifting sands and worries and external pressures.

Very simply, we need to support the pupils as they move towards a heavy and challenging summer. Good humour, a little and often approach, reassuring words and honesty will do the trick. Let's focus on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, let's focus on ensuring that each of us can look our pupils in the eye, and that we all, staff and student, know that we have done all we can.

Delivery

In our last few meetings, we have looked at how to improve on a few areas of classroom practice. To knit these areas together, we should consider our delivery. Do we fall back on the same patterns and routines? If we do, is this a good thing? If it is, does it need changing or considering differently regardless?

If you switch it up, change it round, develop a new approach, it only strengthens you, and can only help to keep your charges on their toes. It's not change for the sake of it, or reinventing wheels under a flash new name; it's simply seeking improvement. It's not necessarily radical or something you'll turn into a worksheet and flog online.

I'd wager it's always worth reflecting on how we do things. More than one way to skin a horse; cats for courses. Or something.

Enjoy Sunday, and let's have a focused, reflective and positive week.

The Mind Drinks.

“More sports for everyone, group spirit, fun, and you don’t have to think, eh?  Organize and organize and superorganize super-super sports.  More cartoons in books.  More pictures.  The mind drinks less and less.”

This nightmare vision of the future has not, yet, quite, happened. But it will, and it threatens all of the time. Our culture aims to engender stupidity and ignorance in the masses, creating an acquiescent population of consumers. We do our bit, jamming them through an increasingly narrow set of doors to adulthood. 

Of course, I'm only joking. However, the underlying point has the ring of truth about it. The mind drinks less and less. In a world of techno-frippery and ever-connected self-importance, we can nourish the mind. Well chosen journalism, poetry, novels, extracts, topics for debate will make the thirsty mind drink, will at least bring the proverbial horse to the metaphorical water. 

We make the mind drink. 

Create that sense of awe, that sense of joy and curiosity and wonder, make clear that English takes one mind to another, one world to another. Create that climate of thirst.

Examine what?

What should we examine? A pertinent question in education at the moment, amongst the shifting sands of policy and amid the near constant changes to curriculum and exam processes. There are many viewpoints on this. The traditionalist school is strong at the moment, with progressive ideas taking a regular battering.

However, I think this chatter and debate misses the key point. We should, simply, examine what we do and how we do it. This is, simply, all I ask of you this term. Be honest and constructive with yourself, don't beat yourself up without reason.

Simply questions such as 'Why was that successful?' or 'When did that lesson lose its focus?' or even 'What was I thinking?!?!?' could be simple ways to maintain your improvement. Ask others. Look back at some of the notes we have made.

What have you tried to develop this year? How's it going? Let's push through to the half-term break knowing that the next five weeks can make a significant difference. Record that progress. Assess cannily.

Enjoy your job.

WHITEBOARDS...

Sorry for the shouty title. But WHITEBOARDS. Use them. We've got enough pens and boards for a set in each room, and they're great for encouraging real progress, as well as showing that other, phantom type of progress that isn't real but which people (like me) might wish to see when they stumble into your classroom because they're bored of marking / left the classroom / wanted an easy life roaming about schools judging people.

DIFFERENTIATE. Obviously and clearly. Tasks. Timings. Other Ts. Some of them are easy to do, don't require a dozen different lesson plans, and I'm still not seeing them clearly enough when I pop in. Make it bleeding obvious, flick back to the key slide, or come and tell me that you've done some dope differentiation and I'll write it up! Evidence needed, of course - I'm not the right dishonourable Anthony Charles Lynton Blair and these aren't fake WMDs in an oil rich Middle Eastern country. Oh no.

That's the shouting done. Let's keep ensuring we teach well, evidence progress and keep a careful track of it. We'll be stepping up the monitoring and looking for areas where progress is less than great - don't be shy about coming forward with any problems in terms of pupils making progress. We need to work together to ensure that we get the most out of our valuable young charges - for both them and our performance management. But mostly them, of course.

Hopefully, you have all had a relaxing and spiritually fulfilling break, storming stores on various days when instructed by the media, and over-indulging in food and drink that you wouldn't normally go near, whilst watching derivative nonsense on the box. Or something. maybe spending time with people you care about.

Come Monday, we'll be putting on (un)ironed shirts, and chasing ignorance out of the classroom. Once more, we can make a real difference, enact meaningful change in people's lives. We have a common purpose, a common goal, and we need to keep working hard to achieve this.

It's worth it.

Finally, please read this. It will hopefully give you the belief to stick to your (metaphorical, I hope) pedagogical guns.