Refinement Dub

Some people are naturally refined, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about making those subtle changes and developments which can take you from aV2 rocket, via Operation Paperclip, to firing people into space in the relative blink of an eye. Except it's applied to education, and we don't need to spirit any Nazi scientists away under assumed names.

We started to look at this work on Wednesday in our meeting, and the sessions on Friday were part of the same push. We're sowing the life seeds of justice for the people and we need to keep them moving on up if we're going to achieve our goals.

Those marginal gains, which have been mentioned many times, are vital. How do we need to adapt our assessments? I thought we made a good start to that on Wednesday, but that needs to become real now. Similarly, we need to be considering the depth and content of our schemes. Is what has worked for our current year eleven, who are doing fairly well, going to even be adequate for year eight? What about year seven? We know that there are hills and valleys in the data, and we need to flatten that profile.

As the people who teach these classes, who mark their work, you're the ones who need to make that judgement in this time - and pro-actively; we should be aiming to make these calls before the data we create shouts at us.

Whether you're motivated by personal success and advancement, or by a calling within your soul, or just by your pay slip, or all three, you need to have this in your mind.

This is what will make a difference, in the long term, maybe after you've gone, maybe after you've taught them for five years, when that year seven pupil is applying for college, or dodging the draft for the fourth Iraqi War, or whatever insanity we're living through after five years of a UKIP / Conservative coalition.

On it.

You could be on it like Sonic. Although, honestly, I've never seen it with the connotations suggested by that particular Urban Dictionary user. After a recent farewell speech, I'm sure there's someone we could all ask, though. You could be on a revolution ting, which sounds rather exciting, and hopefully, one day, we will be. Abolishing the Queen could be enjoyable, and worth the extreme effort and persistence that a great man talks about in the first few minutes of this video.

You could even be on it or not, like Mr Gove was or wasn't when his phone range in a cabinet meeting. Which would have been OK as long as his ring tone wasn't the Red Flag or the Internationale. Or even D-Ream.

Or, you could just be on 'it', generically. It changes this week, for year eleven, post-Literature. It changes every week, as we respond to marking and plan for our pupils to make progress. It changes as we plan relevant and engaging lessons, and as we learn more about the people we work with.

However, there is more if, as Lowkey says in the of those songs above, your mind hasn't been closed like Guantanamo Bay. We serve, and I use that word deliberately, a diverse and interesting group of young people. By and large, these pupils have not been granted the privileges and powers that some of us take for granted. They could be denied these because of their race, their social class, their religious beliefs, their gender or any number of factors.

This makes 'it', that thing we do, even more vital. We can, and should, and must, play a vital role in redressing the racist, sexist, classist barriers which downpress so many of those we teach. Education, and especially the advantages that both basic literacy and more advanced analytical and communicative skills confer on an individual with the corrupt, unequal system we inhabit, is paramount in confronting this.

Get on it.

Headspace.

An interesting first week, with a calm and focused atmosphere on the corridor, and a well prepared year eleven sitting their first exam, has now passed into the ether. We've now entered the quicker time of year; if before Christmas was the marathon, this is the snickers time for running painfully repetitive 400 metre sprints, interval training.

Six weeks. Six weeks. Six weeks. Six weeks. Done. Pretty much.

It requires as much resilience and focus as the longer terms, as much energy, even though the days grow longer. We have to keep pushing, keep being honest and real with ourselves. Are we doing everything we can to ensure that we achieve our goals? Are we ensuring that we can work to the best of our ability at all times?

It's hectic and non-stop. Precious non-contacts disappear, that time before school shortens mysteriously after a brief conversation, evenings disappear even as they grow longer.

Find the right headspace, Allow yourself to maintain clarity and focus in the midst of that crazy week, in the middle of those books, notebooks and spread sheets.

Now is the time to dig in, show stamina, and make sure that we keep developing, making those marginal (and non-marginal) gains that will make us more successful than either.  And, for the 152nd time, that means more of our pupils getting better life chances, breaking engrained cycles, and changing the world, in however a little way.

40%

A quick google of 40% takes me to Miami based climate change websites, student discounts and lifestyle based cancer warnings, not to mention a range of rums and whiskeys to turn Alex Ferguson's nose even redder.

However, I don't mention that number for any of those reasons. Nor, indeed, do I mention it because a 60/40 split would allow us to teach even more skilfully and brilliantly than we already do. Imagine a standard 40% PPA time... imagine the cutting and sticking, displaying and marking and notebook making!

No. I mention it for a far more sober and simple reason. Before I give that reason, let me just mention that I am fully aware that, for some, a D or even F grade is a momentous achievement, which we should (and I believe do) celebrate with all of the glee which which we celebrate an A*. I hope we never lose that - one thing I most look forward to this year is seeing some pupils attain G or F grades when they could have been utterly left behind and written off.

If you haven't guessed, 40% is the number of our pupils, roughly, who left without what is (arbitrarily, I know) considered to be a 'good' GCSE in English. Without going into the flaws of the system we work within, we must acknowledge that we can do better. We can push them further. We can make a bigger difference to more people's lives (their families, their unborn children!).

We can, and must, do better. With less. With more challenging cohorts. With two subjects, not just one.

That's my challenge for you in 2015. Do more. Do better. Push and challenge and inspire and make our pupils, the year sevens as much as the elevens, more successful, hungrier and harder working than we can even conceive right now.