Year Six Teacher is dead... Long live Year Three Teacher!!

It is a sad day for me (not just because it's the last day of the summer holidays) because as from today I will no longer be Year Six Teacher. From tomorrow I will be teaching Year Three!


This change is an exciting one, but one that also fills me with nerves!


I am moving from Year Six for one reason only - to gain more experience. I have taught Year Six since I qualified as a teacher back in 2001 and I love it! Each year I have seen our curriculum evolve and become exciting and interesting for the children and for the teachers! It really is a brilliant year group to teach and I will miss it terribly. Amongst other things, I will miss the humour of the children, the visits (especially the trip to France), the ability of the children, the way that the children approach their responsibilities so professionally, the indepenence of the children and the curriculum that we teach. However, after nine years in Year Six (and in the same classroom), it is more than time for a change.


Year Three promises to be really exciting and I'm looking forward to teaching a new curriculum, moving to a new classroom, new situations, new visits and the opportunity to help shape the Year Group into something I am very proud of. However, I am not afraid to admit that the move makes me really nervous. For the first time in nine years I'm not really clear about what I'm teaching from day to day. I'm worried that I'll pitch the lessons all wrong until I adjust. It will be a challenge to tackle situations with children with needs that I'm unfamiliar with. I will miss my old classroom too!


Over the last few years this blog has evolved into a place for me to share ideas and thoughts about issues that affect Year Six, management, technology and education in general. I wish to continue with this but there will also be an opportunity to reflect on my experiences as I move year group.


Thank you to all Year Six teachers who have supported the blog over the years and I hope that they find my thoughts as a Year Three teacher interesting. This blog will remain live for the time being, but all my new posts will be at the new blog. My Twitter username will change to @y3teacher


The new blog url is: www.y3teacher.blogspot.com

Weeknote 6

This week I have...

Been on holiday
We've enjoyed a great week in North Devon. We booked a holiday apartment for a week in Ilfracombe. We had two days of glorious sunshine and we spent these two days at the beach in Woolacombe. From the Tuesday onwards it rained... and rained... and rained. It was torrential at times! We managed to visit various places: Combe Martin, Clovelly, Croyde, Barnstaple, Bideford, Great Torrington, Westward Ho! and Appledore. We had a good day at Exmoor Zoo and watched a stunt show on the Tuesday evening. It was great to be sent some recommendations about where to eat using Twitter!

Realised that I need a Twitter cull
I have read lots of tweets using Tweetdeck during the week and I've realised that I follow so many people that it's hard to find usefulness and meaning from all those tweets. I need to look more carefully at the profiles of the people I follow.

Weeknote 6

I'm writing this from our holiday in Devon!

This week I have...

Blogged
I've caught up on blogging during the week. I wrote a review of a book by Terry Freedman which he has linked to from his website at www.ictineducation.com.

Painted
I've been painting the fence in an effort to keep up with the targets I set in my monthly review.

Set up my classroom
The drawers and cupboards are now labelled and the room is set out how I want it.

Been to a wedding
We had a fabulous day at a wedding in Whitchurch.

Driven
The journey to Ilfracombe was a nightmare thanks to an overturned caravan which held up up for two hours. Still, we are here now, and looking forward to a great week!!

Engaging with families

 A couple of months ago I raided the Becta website for publications in the fear that they might suddenly disappear. Fortunately the government's cost cutting initiatives haven't included cutting bandwidth to the Becta website just yet, so the document I refer to hasn't disappeared yet. (Incidentally, I wonder what will happen to the publications when Becta does fold?)

Messages from the evidence: Engaging with Families talks about how technology can be used to engage with  parents more effectively. It is based on research from a 2009 survey and is intended to help schools to use what technology has to offer to improve parental engagement. There is an expectation for all primary schools to offer secure online access for parents to information about their child's learning and school life (assuming this expectation still exists).

Now I am well aware that many schools are miles in advance of our school, but here are some things that our school does to use technology to engage with families and what I would like the school to do in the not too distant future.

• Text messages - we subscribed to a school texting system around 18 months ago and it has proved to be a massive hit! Staff love it because it is simple to use and it is an effective way to contact parents. the feedback from parents has been fantastic. I'm not sure how it will work, but next year I want to enable to function where parents can reply to the texts. I don't know if it will become over-complicated for our office staff to manage.
• Emails - the same texting system now offers an email package. We mainly use the system to send newsletters home, reducing the number of printed letters by 75% in the process. In the next year I want to extend this to other letters (e.g. trip letters and after school club letters). This will save time and paper.
• Twitter - although it's hard to tell how effective our Twitter feed is unless people start to follow, I'm sure the fact that our tweets are displayed at the very top of our website means that people must take some note of the news items that pop up daily. I only wish that the Local Authority would unblock it so it can be shared with the children in school.
• Blogs - the Year Six blog that my colleague and I ran has been extremely popular amongst our pupils. Next year it's time to extend this throughout the school and one of my challenges for the learning platform is to demonstrate to staff how to use the blogging tool and get them using it! A blog about our visit to France and a visit in another year group proved to be very well received! It will be important to demonstrate to parents how and where to leave comments.
• The school website (learning platform) - we are just scratching on the surface of the possibilities this offers. During the summer I will be redesigning the school's homepage to make it easier for parents to find essential information like holiday dates, diary dates and news. (I'm sure that I found a statistic somewhere about how many clicks within a website that a visitor will make before they get frustrated and leave. I want to reduce the number of clicks in order to find these items.)
• 'Enable parents to book appointments and consultations online' - blimey! The document recommends this and it would be really cool. I just haven't got a clue how to do it!
• Links on the school website - our Delicious bookmarks feed into our website (using RSS feeds) but I need to add links for parents like local council websites.
• Homework - A survey of parents in 2009 showed that 97% had internet access. I wonder if I could set staff the challenge to distribute some homework to be completed online only?
• Sessions for parents - I would like to offer sessions for parents to demonstrate how to use the school website and the different technologies we offer.
• Online reports - Next year we will be revamping our reporting process. I wonder if we can make the reports available online?

Of course, the document reminds us that,

"No one-size fits all. Good communication includes a range of options to fit around parents' different needs and circumstances, including technology strategies and non-technology strategies."

I guess you can't beat face-to-face interaction in the end! But I'd love to hear from people about how they engage with parents using technology.

Teachers Pet

In the process of setting up my brand new Year Three classroom I looked around for some classroom labels that would be good for labelling drawers, pegs and a few other bits and pieces like a visual timetable.

I was delighted to find some fantastic items on the Teachers Pet website (www.tpet.co.uk) which is completely free! I loved the animal labels in particular which I have used to create drawer labels, and the visual timetable will be perfect to use on the wall. It was good to find resources which are editable too!

If you have any labels needed for your classroom, I cannot recommend this site enough.

Go On, Bore 'Em by Terry Freedman

I wanted to write a quick review of this book by Terry Freedman which is available here which talks about why some ICT lessons can be excruciatingly dull.

Whilst very much aimed at secondary ICT teachers, I actually think a lot of his ideas can be transferred to primary school teachers, and not just for ICT.

The starter activity
The logical and scientific way that he explains the need for a starter activity is superb. When I work with trainee teachers I will pass them the book so that they can read this chapter to help them to understand the need to plan an engaging starter activity.

"In one lesson I observed, as part of an ICT inspection I was undertaking, it was 8 minutes between the first student entering the room and the last one entereing the room... The first student to enter had 8 minutes in which he was expected to sit down and say and do nothing. The second student had slightly less than 8 minutes for the same thing, and so on. In other words, by the time the last student entered the room, most of the students already in the room were now virtually unmanageable."

Doesn't that make sense? I think it really highlights the importance of planning a starter activity.

The myth of students' superior technical knowledge
I thought that this chapter would help me to get through to teachers who plan activities in ICT without planning a purpose for the challenge. It will help to show the need for the need to plan a task where pupils can apply their skills and knowledge and show real understanding of ICT.

The chapter on too much talking by the teacher will also be invaluable advice for students. I guess we all have lessons where we 'go on a bit', but again the logical reasons he uses to justify his advice are spot on!

Moving to Year Three next year is something that's on my mind. I'm not quite clear yet what the homework routine will be in this year group, but the advice about homework in this book will be useful. He argues that homework is not a bolt-on, but should be an integral part of the lesson. He writes that homework, "Should help ensure that what goes on in the lesson itself is useful and meaningful and that the time in the lesson is well-spent." This is great justifucation for making greater use of our learning platform and its forums and wikis at home to form part of the homework routine.

There's more great advice which I will offer to trainee teachers about good plenaries, but I also found the chapter on data to be very interesting, particularly after my work on data in my Leadership Pathways course.

Go On, Bore 'Em by Terry Freedman is a worthwhile read. It can be purchased here.

Weeknote 5

I knew that 'Weeknote' was over-ambitious. I know I've said it before, but I've just been so busy. There's literally been something on every weekend since the end of May and unfortunately blogging didn't get done.

Time to get back on track...

This week I have...

Sorted my iTunes
Music is so important to me that I enjoy spending time editing the information about each an every tune. When I started to use iTunes in February I didn't think the process of making sure all of the song details are up-to-date would take as long as it has, but the end is now in sight - I've finished all of the songs beginning by artists from M to Z which means that I've don't over half of the alphabet. M took forever (due to hundreds of Michael Jackson, Michael Buble etc. songs)

Watched films
It's been nice to relax with my wife and watch a few films. We watched Toy Story 3 the other day (enjoyable film). A while ago I bought the Two and a Half Men series one boxset and we've enjoyed watching these too!

Been ill
I felt really poorly from Tuesday night to Thursday morning. On Wednesday I went to bed at 6 and was in bed until 10 on Thursday morning. It's not like me to do that. Still I'm better now.

Caught up on jobs in my office
All of the pictures taken at school and home over the last few months have been uploaded to the relevant Flickr collection. I've sorted various things that needed doing in the office.

Begun to prepare for my new class
Moving to Year Three promises to be very exciting and I can't wait, but I don't mind admitting that I'm very nervous about it. So it was a relief this week to meet up with my colleague and begin to plan the year.

Monthly Review August 2010

Well, I have to say that my monthly review process has been an absolute waste of time. Of the targets I set, I have achieved very few, in particular my personal targets. I have learned a lesson which I need to try to address next year, that basically my life has been devoted to school for the last two months. The last half-term at school has been so busy that when I came home each evening I didn't really feel like doing much. But with loads of social events (I know I shouldn't complain, but there were so many) I found fitting in anything productive at home very difficult.

Review:

Personal:

Go running eight times - Disaster! Just after writing my monthly review I injured my ankle whilst running and could barely walk for a week. It meant that I didn't go running for two months! I am back on track now though.
Start playing squash again - Disaster! I didn't play at all - with many evening events with school and various social events over the last couple of months I just didn't get chance.
Begin to tidy up the garage - Disaster! I can only blame my lack on enthusiasm and lack of time for this one.


Professional:
Organise the school's 'university' project - Done! Read my blog post here.
Write my school reports - Done! Arrrgghhh! I need to write much less next year! 
Collate the pupil questionnaires - Done, although quite late. Unfortunately I had other priorities during the last few weeks at school that these sort of fell by the wayside.

New Targets:

Personal:
Go running eight times - I must do this!!

Start playing squash again - I'm looking forward to doing this
Begin to tidy up the garage - I need to do this.
Paint the garden fence - (I just need motivation and good weather)


'Professional':
Tidy up my office at home - That means complete all of the work that I've piled up in there!
Set up my brand new classroom - I'm moving to Year Three - more on this soon!
Move in to my office at school properly!
Plan my first lessons for Year Three
Revamp my blog and Twitter - Year3Teacher!
 
I plan for August to be a more productive month!! (I promise!)

Tanzanian visitors

For a year or so now our school has been involved in Tanzed's charity work by becoming a partner school with a school in Tanzania. In October, staff from our school travelled to Africa to meet the teachers from our partner school and spent a week decorating a classroom, sharing resources and learning about the Tanzanian way of life.

During a week in June two teachers from our partner school came to England to spend some time in our school. I have to say that it made me do a lot of thinking about how I take so many things for granted.

The teachers spent much of the week in school visiting classes and working with the children. They came to watch a lesson I taught, working on frisbee skills and playing ultimate frisbee with the class. Our visitors' faces began to smile as they could see the simplicity of the game and the possibility of creating new games with the frisbees. The children insisted that we gave them some frisbees to take home with them.

We had various old laptops in school which are no longer used by staff as they are too slow. We arranged for our technician to strip two of them down until the basics (an office package) and a few educational programs were on there. The school bought two digital cameras for our partner school. It was wonderful to think our visitors would be returning home with two laptops and two digital cameras - I try to imagine what a difference this would make in their school.

A local company made a significant donation by purchasing a full football kit for the children to wear in Africa! Our own school kit was purchased in 2007 and various pieces have gone missing over the years. I'm confident that in three years time the African kit will be completed and cared for.

We had an evening to celebrate our visitors when all local schools who have taken part in the scheme met together. One of our visitors made a speech and he said how privileged he was to come to our country and said how much he had learned! I don't think he realised how much we have learned from their appreciation of everything and their desire to make education better for their students!

Over the week I learned how lucky I am to work in a school which is resourced and is able to offer the children an excellent education. But I also realised how important it is to not always rely on these resources - an enthusiastic and engaging teacher is what really makes the difference.

Leavers

No one could say we allow our Year Sixes to leave quietly! A leavers' prom (organised by our network of schools) a presentation evening, a leavers' disco and a leavers' assembly all take place in the last few weeks of school!

It was really sad to see such a wonderful year group leave the school, and for my last Year Six they have been an absolute delight to teach!!

World Cup competition

Something else that has kept me busy - particularly at lunchtimes - during the last term is our World Cup competition.

The idea is simple - the children are asked to form teams and then they play against each other. In the infants the teams are picked from within their own year group and they must include at least one boy and at least one girl. In the juniors the children can pick their own teams, but they must include at least one boy and one girl and must also have a player from a different year group. This team picking process can take a bit of time, but it helps the children to develop thinking skills and social skills.

The infants and juniors do not play together (our school council said, "How can Foundation play against Year Six?") but their competitions run in more or less the same way (although with some relaxing of the rules for the infants).

The culmination of each competition is the final which is played in front of the whole school. A proper carnival atmosphere is enjoyed with classes all cheering for both teams.

22 teams played in each competition, so during the last term, six solid weeks of lunchtimes were taken up with refereeing matches! Great fun, but quite tiring too! Thank heavens I get a year off next year before the competition returns for Euro 2012!!

University

One of the reasons I have been so busy recently is because I have organised our annual 'university and college' for the whole school. Let me explain...

College
Our 'College' is for our Foundation and Key Stage One pupils. The children are all mixed into groups. The teachers and teaching assistants all choose an activity they would like to deliver to the children. The activities include things like games, outdoor pursuits and team games, cake decorating, science, floristry, drama, yoga and lots of craft activities. Over three Friday afternoons the children attend a course each week. The children love it because they are in mixed groups and are trying something different. Although it can get a bit chaotic, the staff enjoy the fact that they can choose what to offer to the children. Many parents come in to volunteer too.

University
Our fourth 'university' was a phenomenal success this year. The idea of the university is that the school offers courses in a skill that could be used in a working career, and not necessarily something normally offered in the curriculum. The children are given the option of what they would like to attend (in fact they choose their top five courses and they will be allocated one). They attend this course for three Friday afternoons (at the same time as the college took place). This year we had 25 courses - our highest number ever. The courses offered included being a librarian, team building, sports coaching, cookery, musical theatre, website design, cross-stitch, gardening, woodwork, running a supermarket and being a magistrate. The courses were run by teachers, teaching assistants, governors, parents and grandparents and members of the community. One of our local high school has become very involved in the university and they not only bring ten students to the school to assist with the courses each week, but they also took a number of pupils to the high school to take part in a music studio course. Various trips took place this year - to a local library, a local farm, a local restaurant, a local supermarket and to local allotments. It's such a team effort - over 50 adults helped to make it a success (in addition to high school students) and the university is becoming well known in the community.

After the college and university have been completed graduation assemblies are held where the pupils are awarded certificates to celebrate their achievements in their course

All of this takes a mammoth amount of time to organise but it is very much worth it.

A researcher from National Strategies came in to school to talk about the college and university with a view to including it in a publication about parental involvement (due before the end of 2010). I'm quite excited by this and I hope it can inspire others to try something similar.

River Study

Our summer topic is rivers and mountains and one of my favourite parts of the topic is our visit to a local scout camp for a river study.

Scout Camps are likely to be very busy at weekends but perhaps not during the week. This means that they are ideal for use by schools and it's worth getting in touch with a local scout camp if you'd like to arrange something similar.

We organise the day into three parts - water activities, dry activities and a barbecue.

I'll start in reverse order: the barbecue is a fantastic social event. Transport back to school is not arranged. Instead we ask parents to come to collect their child and to stay for a barbecue. Our school cooks kindly give up their time to prepare the food whilst the children play football and a dads vs children cricket game. Other parents bring chairs to have a sit down and chat. Although it is quite a way before the end of the year, it is almost like the first of our leavers' events as it is a great way for everyone to come together.

The dry activities are orienteering and team games, photography and a river walk (the children are given a list of river-related features to photograph) and a tree study (finding the age and height of a sample of trees).

The water activities are to measure the speed of flow (using a tape measure, stop watch and lots of dog biscuits!) and the depth of the river using rope and a metre stick.

All of the data collected is used in school to form photo collages, comparisons of speed on bends and on straights and graphs to show the depth of the river.

Tell Us Your Story

Please show your support for this fundraising inititative:

Tell Us Your Story is an online charity project. It aims to raise money for the Street to School Programme that will help 500,000 children get off the streets and into education.



Tell Us Your Story is giving people the opportunity to recognise and reward others who have made a positive impact on their lives or in their community over the past year.


The project is supported by Aviva, will donate £1 for every entry received to the Street to School Programme - a global initiative with the aim of reaching 500,000 children worldwide, helping them get off the streets and back into education.


A weekly prize of £1000 will also be awarded to the local hero that captures the hearts of visitors to the site and receives the most votes. One overall winner will be chosen by a celebrity judging panel for a prize worth £10,000.


Railway Children is the UK charity partner for the Street to School programme. Railway Children is the only charity working across the UK with vulnerable children. Every year in the UK, 100,000 children run away because they’re unwanted, unloved or abused and many are never reported missing.

Careers Day

In June Year Six hosted its annual Careers Day.
 The idea behind Careers Day is that children are encouraged to ask a parent (or grandparent) to come in to school to talk about their career. It is a fascinating day and once again we had a variety of careers to hear about. A police inspector, army sergeant, football scout, human resources manager and district nurse proved to be very popular.


The brief for our visitors is to give a 15-20 minute talk about their career to inspire the children. Each person presented slightly differently - many used PowerPoints this year, others preferred to bring in work-related items to share.


The purpose of the day was to give the children a taster of the possible careers available and to encourage them to think about the future (although not necessarily to make their mind up about a career).


The day was a valuable addition to our money and careers topic.

Weeknote 4

This week I have...

• Socialised far too much!

Between football matches, parties and christenings I haven't got much at all done this week!

• Refereed football matches

Our world cup competition is now in its junior phase. It's keeping me busy every lunchtime, and for a little while during the evenings whilst I update the information on the school website

• Realised how lucky we are

We have had visitors from our partner school in Tanzania working in school this week. It was a delight to meet such enthusiastic, teachers who are desperate to do the best for their pupils. I have been choked up a few times this week to hear how lucky they think they are to come to our country to learn. It was amazing to learn how they teach enormous classes with no equipment. The work that Tanzed are doing out there is amazing. I'll write a quick post about this when I get chance.

• Organised our university project

I'll write more about this when we finish, but our University and College had their first week on Friday. Staff, parents, grandparents and members of the community come in to school to run courses on something 'different'. Week One ran smoothly, but there's still much organising to be done for Week Two!

Weeknote 3

This week I have:

Visited Alton Towers
Blimey this place is expensive, but at least we had 2 for 1 vouchers. Alton Towers is amazing. I loved all of the rides - Th13teen is brilliant and Rita and Nemesis remain my favourites (Air was closed when we went over). It's just hard to not be amazed by the way the park has developed over the years. I'd love to see the way they go about Improvement Planning. It would be interesting to compare their process with the process used in schools. They too have to constantly improve, be innovative and meet the needs of an ever changing world.

Procrastinated
I tried everything to avoid starting writing my reports, but I had to in the end. So far Maths and English comments are written.

Cheered on the England team
Last night's howler by Robert Green was a disaster, but I think he will take the blame for what was overall a very average performance. I love the atmosphere when our friends get together to watch the game. But I think I might arrange for the Wednesday afternoon game to be screened at school - I'd never be home in time!

The new curriculum is no more...

On Monday, the government made a significant announcement regarding the new curriculum:

"Along with today’s significant qualifications announcements, ministers also confirmed that they will not proceed with the last Government’s proposed new primary curriculum, which was based on a review led by Sir Jim Rose. The new curriculum was due to be taught in schools from September 2011, but the relevant clause in the Children, Schools and Families Bill did not successfully pass through the last Parliament.



Nick Gibb said:
'A move away from teaching traditional subjects like history and geography could have led to an unacceptable erosion of standards in our primary schools.


Instead, teachers need a curriculum which helps them ensure that every child has a firm grasp of the basics and a good grounding in general knowledge, free from unnecessary prescription and bureaucracy.


It is vital that we return our curriculum to its intended purpose – a minimum national entitlement organised around subject disciplines.


Ministers have always made clear their intentions to make changes to the National Curriculum, to ensure a relentless focus on the basics and to give teachers more flexibility than the proposed primary curriculum offered. They will shortly announce their next steps.'


In the meantime, the Department has advised schools that the existing primary curriculum will continue to be in force in 2011/12 and primary schools should plan on that basis." http://www.education.gov.uk/news/press-notices-new/nationalcurriculum

This announcement has disappointed myself and teachers all over the country. It seemed as if teachers were finally being listened to regarding what is taught in school. The creative curriculum, as it was dubbed, was the answer to many problems - it streamlined the curriculum, it allowed schools some freedom for how to teach and it meant that teachers, and pupils, could be creative - to do something different rather than the 'same old'.

Now we are told that after large amounts of money being spent in its creation and many schools already working on its principles we are told that it has simply been abandoned. It seems the government want to continue with discrete subject teaching.

I am really frustrated by this news - the creative curriculum was to be our focus for next year - mainly because David Cameron talked so frequently about his dislike of waste. How can he justify this wastage? (It's not just taxpayers' money spent on research and developing the curriculum, but also the wastage in time and effort in schools in introducing a new curriculum which we are now told is incorrect).

(Update:
A report in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/07/primary-curriculum-academic-diplomas-axed?CMP=twt_iph says that dropping the new curriculum will save £7million. However, I'm assuming this figure refers to planned expense, not what has already been spent - a figure which, as far as I know, hasn't been published.)

I hope that the government have a better plan up their sleeves and introduce a curriculum which combines the positives of discrete subject teaching and the creativity of areas of learning. I hope that they work with schools on this, not for schools. I hope that they will give further justification for why they have taken this decision, not just in a short press release. But most of all I hope they sort something out quickly - the curriculum which is currently law is outdated and drastically needs revamping.

Pop Maths Questions

I don't know about you but I enjoyed The Chris Moyles Quiz Night which finished its second series a while ago. My favourite part was the Maths Questions - I always thought they would be great to share with my class.

Well, here they are, on the shows producer's website. Perfect for a mental maths warm up!

I recall a few other artists being featured on the programme which aren't featured here. I hope they will eventually be found somewhere on the internet eventually!

iPhone School & Prof Development Apps

I wanted to share a few iPhone apps that I have downloaded which could be used to support work in the classroom and to help with professional development:

• Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck is my preferred Twitter client. However, the new Twitter app is looking very useful...

• MobileRSS

I use this feed reader to keep up-to-date with education blogs. I have only ever used this RSS reader app so I have no frame of reference, but I find it hard to imagine a better app for this purpose.

• Tumblr

I'm using this app to share ideas which feed into a widget in this blog. I love its simplicity.

• ColorSplash

With this app you can take a photo and make it black and white. You can then highlight a feature in colour to make it stand out. It's incredible easy to get started but needs real concentration to master it, but you can produce some great results. You could use it to inspire a piece of writing, or to introduce a historical artefact.

• Teaching UK

The Teaching UK was created by Mark Warner for his Teaching websites. This brilliantly simple app delivers education news and competitions, teaching and ideas and also the latest tweets. Excellent for professional development. You can download the app here.

• Comic Twist

I like the fun of this app. You can add thought bubbles and speech bubbles to a photo. I'm not teaching Science at the moment (this is my management time) but I think this could be used to create concept cartoons with the children - to encourage them to discuss concepts and work through misconceptions.

• Tiltshift

I have used this app to take photos of the school grounds. Again, it is so simple to use and it produces brilliant results. Tiltshift blurs parts of photographs to focus on a particular feaure. The effect makes the picture look a bit like a model village.

• PhotoStamp

When visiting other schools, I frequently use my iPhone to take a quick photo of a display or resource that I like. I use the app to add a watermark to say where the picture was taken.

• Mathemagics

I love maths (I know, I'm sad). For a bit of fun (hmm...) I downloaded this app which teaches you mathematical tricks, like squaring a number ending in 5, multiplying in the 90s and multiplying if the 1s sum is 10. I love the app, and I know my class will too after half-term!

• StoryCubes

Rory's Story Cubes is brilliant! I found this app at the Education Show in March. Rory's Story Cubes are nine dice with pictures on them. You roll them all to reveal nine pictures. You can then use the pictures to create discussion or for story telling. I found that it helps the children to develop their verbal storytelling and also to improve creativity. The iPhone app recreates this on the iPhone. The one problem with this is that I can't display my iPhone screen on the IWB, but I can use my visualiser to display the screen. Alternatively I can save the picture produced by the app and email it and share it on the screen. You can download the app here. You can follow Storycubes on Twitter. Read more about Story Cubes at the website.

• RAG

"The Random Activity Generator is an iPhone application. You give the iPhone a shake, the cards spin and you are given a random activity to do. Hundreds of carefully crafted activities will keep you busy for hours."

I love the idea of this app, but I'm not convinced of its worth in a primary classroom just yet. Put simply, I think some if the 'random activities' are beyond the children. There are many which would work, but when using it with the children, I would be frustrated if the activity was too hard for them. I would love to see a primary version of the app which is based on the knowledge and skills of the primary curriculum. In its current form, I feel the app is more for secondary schools or for staff use. I would use the app with staff to be an icebreaker activity or for team building work on an INSET day. You can find out more here and download the app here.

You can read more about education apps available at Mark Warner's Teaching News website here.

Do you use any iPhone apps in the classroom or for professional development?

Weeknote 2

This week I have...

Become barbecued out
In the last seven days I have eaten at four barbecues, cooking at two of them. I've become an expert at cooking sausages and burgers. Now I love barbecues but I think I've probably had enough for a while. Anything to avoid writing reports...

Sorted my iTunes
Since getting my iPhone in January I have started to use iTunes to organise my music. I wasn't keen at first, but now I'm hooked! I love thie idea of setting up smart playlists much easier than the way I organised my music before. The one problem with iTunes is that I am a little bit OCD when it comes to my music. I need to know the year it was released and the album it was taken from. Therefore, it is taking me ages to update this information for every track I have! Using Wikipedia, Everyhit and Discogs I am gradually piecing the information together. Working backwards through the alphabet I am now working on artists beginning with 'S' - I think I've got more songs by artists starting with that letter than any other!!

Completing some long-standing jobs
Half-term has given me the opportunity to catch up on a few jobs that I've not been getting around to. I have updated my Linked In profile, listed some items on Ebay, sorted my clothes, installed our energy meter (from N:Power) and started to tidy our garage. I really must make more time for myself and do the things I enjoy during term time.

Monthly Review

The more I read #uppingyourgame by Doug Belshaw, the more I like his tips for productivity. One of the ideas that intrigues me, and one that he uses on his own blog, is 'calling yourself into the office.' Doug writes:

"Instead, as recommended by Dan [Pink], why not ‘call yourself into the office’ at the end of each month after having made some commitments at the start of it? These don’t have to be work-related. In fact, far from decreasing your work-related productivity, having projects over-and-beyond what you do in education often leads to productivity gains.

It’s natural to want to keep these commitments and targets quiet and to yourself. But they’ll be a much more powerful motivating force if you share them. I’ve found sharing these online via my blog or social networks such as Twitter much more powerful. People can hold you to account; you’re much more likely to stick to them!" Purchase your copy of Doug's book here.

I think a monthly review would be useful and would make me more focused, so I plan to give this a try. Although there may be personal targets I'd rather not share, I will have three personal targets and three 'professional' targets. As this is my first one, I have nothing to review, only to set targets for the month.

Personal:

1. Go running eight times (This will be a big achievement for me, and it will put me well on the way to completing a 10K run in Tatton Park in September.)
2. Start playing squash again - play three times (This is a game I love but haven't played at all in 2010.)
3. Begin to tidy up the garage - make two trips to the recycling centre (Two trips is probably only touching the surface! At least it's a start.)

'Professional':

1. Organise the school's 'university' project (I will spend time in the half-term and my entire first week back preparing for this. Then plenty of time will be spent during the three weeks that it runs. I need to make sure that I stay on top of this.)
2. Write my school reports (I hate writing reports. I find every excuse possible not to write them. But I need to.)
3. Collate the pupil questionnaires (The results need to be collated and shared with all stakeholders.)

Here goes nothing...

Money topic

Over the last couple of weeks we have delivered a short unit on money.

Our main focus was our Grow A Pound Week. This exciting week begins when the Friends of the school give the children a pound each to form a business. They team up into teams of up to four and decide on a service they would like to provide. They put together a business plan and carry out market research to find out prices and try to estimate the popularity of their idea. They then spend their pounds and prepare their business for opening.

The children run their stalls at lunch time. The businesses this year vary - from games to shoe shining, from caricature drawing to jewellery making. The children in the rest of the school are able to visit the stalls and purchase items/services. Parents are also invited to attend.

During the week each business keeps accounts which are used to prepare graphs.

What is interesting about the week is the way their ideas evolve during the week, aiming to meet the demands of their customers. I like how the children work well as a team and interact with their customers, changing their sales pitches for older pupils and for the children in Foundation.

In the end £57 was grown into nearly £500 - each pound given out was grown into over £9! The money will be used to pay for a leavers' treat to go bowling, and also to buy something for the school (at the moment they are thinking about buying head microphones).

It was also interesting to see the lack of awareness of how much money is worth. Prices were sometimes plucked out of thin air and the unrealistic ideas of what they can buy with their money revealed a naivety which needed to be addressed. Lots of guidance was needed with this and the children's understanding improved during the week.

During the project we also completed a classroom project on money. We used the Bank of England's resource 'Pounds and Pence' to do this. This is a very child (and teacher) friendly package which enabled the children to meet with concepts such as what money actually is, interest, savings, loans and inflation.

This resource is available to download here. There are videos included, but these can also be found on YouTube.

The topic certainly engaged the children after their SATs.

New Timetable

Thos of you that follow me on Twitter may remember that I was asking for samples of school timetables a while back. The reason for this is that I was given the role of revamping our school day timings.

This process is not as simple as you might think and these documents came in very handy:
Management of the School Day Circular 7/90
Designing and Timetabling the Primary Curriculum

The reason for the revamp is that we realised that our time table was too short. Whilst there is no legal minimum number of hours, the suggested minimum is 21 hours for Key Stage One and 23.5 hours for Key Stage Two per week. The number of hours does not include registration, breaks, assemblies or collective worship. Both Key Stages were short and it was clear that we needed to increase the number of hours. But after scrutinising the samples of timetables that I collected (from local schools and via Twitter) it became clear that most schools did not just work to this recommended minimum number of hours but that they had MORE than the suggested minimum. Most schools had a minimum of 24 hours teaching time.

We had to act quickly to make any changes to the timings at the beginning and end of the school day. Governors and parents must be consulted (2 weeks notice needed to be given to parents about a meeting) and three months notice must be given to parents and the local authority before a change can be introduced at the start of a school year. This meant that the whole process had to be completed by the Whit half-term (the end of May).

After researching timetables and the legalities, I worked with our newly formed change team to put together new timetables. We were pleased with the timings that we had put together. These ideas were then presented to the whole staff who gave their thoughts.

Then, we had to discuss the proposed new timings with the parents. This seemed to go surprisingly smoothly (I was expecting more of a debate). The school council were asked for their thoughts before myself and a member of the Change Team presented our proposed new timetable to the governors. The governors were in support of the change and so finally myself and the Senior Management Team confirmed the new timings.

The new timetable will begin in September and it gives significantly more teaching time than before and it also allows time for registration, breaks, lunch and assemblies. We will start school at 8.45am in September and finish at 3.25pm. We will have a third lesson in the morning (to be a guaranteed slot for guided reading, mental maths, handwriting, spelling and grammar amongst other things). Years Three and Four will continue to have a ten minute break in the afternoon whilst Years Five and Six will not (that should be an interesting experiment!)

So now we have to wait until September to see how the new timetable works in practice, but I can't wait to see the benefits that the new timetable will have.

Weeknote 1

After reading Doug Belshaw's post about weeknotes, I felt inspired to begin my own weeknotes series.

According to Weeknotes.com are:
"...Updates about what your business has been doing over the past seven days or so.

They're about reflecting on your work, your achievements, and what's on deck."

This notion of reflecting on my practice is something I have tried to do more since completing my Leadersip Pathways course in March. Therefore, weeknotes seem like a great way to do this. However, knowing the irregularity of my blog posts, maybe 'fortnightnotes' or 'everysooftennotes' would be a more appropriate name. In fact, to prove my point, my first weeknote is late - I refer to the week ending Sunday 30th May.

This week I have..
Helped to organise our school's talent show
It would appear that I have become a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. I guess all teachers do! I never realised that my teaching career would give me experience in using audio equipment. My main role in organising the talent show this year was to organise the music side of things - creating iTunes playlists for the acts, setting up microphones, balancing the audio and providing music for before and after the show.

Completed the process of revising our school hours
Over the last few weeks I have led the process of revamping the timings of our school day. This process involved consulting with staff, pupils, parents and governors before finally announcing to the parents and local authority this week that our new day will start at 8.45am and end at 3.25pm for juniors (infants starting at 8.55 and 3.15). It was a relief to finally get this sorted.

Learned the value of INSET days
When I am a headteacher, I will value the importance of INSET days as a day to promote teamwork, develop the curriculum, explore teaching strategies (that use technology and that don't) and for building skills for teachers. All of these will benefit the children.

iPhone Apps

Since I upgraded to an iPhone in January my whole life has benefitted from the functionality of this fantastic gadget. My first instinct was to go app-crazy and download as many as I could. But after filling my phone with apps in a couple of weeks, I had to slim them down.


The following is a list of apps that have proved to have made the most difference in my lifestyle:

CalenGoo
For some reason I could never quite take to the Google Calendar app on ths iPhone, but I have found this app to be much easier to use.


Facebook
I never check Facebook on my laptop anymore, just on my phone.


Tweetdeck
My preferred Twitter client.


Notes
I know this one is free with the phone, but it is so convenient to just record quick reminders about things, school football match scores and other short messages. It's good that you can email the notes.


Spendometer
A really simple app that allows me to record my spending and to see my average daily expenditure. I wish that the app would be upgraded to show graphs of my spending, and the ability to set the expenditure to match with the dates that I am paid.


Toodledo
I adore this. It syncs with the website and is a great way to manage my tasks and to do list.


ShopShop
A basic, but handy, shopping list.


Dropbox
Quite possibly one of the best apps. It's hard to imagine an easier to use and more effective app for syncing files with different computers and your iPhone.


Evernote
I like the way that I can add information on the computer and then access it on my iPhone. Brilliant!


Shazam
I have always used Shazam to identify new tunes, but the iPhone app is simple to use and does it's job incredibly well. I also like the way that I can see where I was when I tagged the tune!


Amazon
It's great to have full access to the Amazon store from my phone.

MobileRSS
This great app works with Google Reader so I can read all of the blogs I subscribe to on my phone.

Memiary
I use this app to record five things that I'm proud of each day.

Flickr
I can view photos at my Flickr account, and my contacts using the Flickr app.

Tumblr
I'm experimenting with Tumblr at the moment. I think I want to use it to share resources and links. But I love the simplicity of the app.

Momento
This is a diary which also adds in my Flickr photos, and Facebook and Twitter updates.

Color Splash
In this app you can edit photos in a really clever way. You can turn the picture black and white and then colourise something you want to highlight.

Run Keeper
Perfect for recording the details of my running and cycling.

Love Flim
Used to choose the films we order.

Comic Twist
Add speech bubbles to your pictures!

2010 SATs

Given the number of schools that have boycotted this year's SATs, this experiment may not prove to be very popular, but here is a PrimaryPad where you can give you thoughts on this year's papers.

SATs boycott

One of the biggest issues in our school over the last few weeks (and probably most others as well) has been whether or not to boycott the Year Six SATs. Rightly or wrongly, after much debate our school has decided to enter the pupils for the SATs. Now, I don't want to offend anyone who passionately believes that SATs should be boycotted, but I just wanted to record my thoughts.


Personally I felt that we should take part in the SATs this year. Now this is not at all because I agree with the idea of testing in the current format, I just felt that it was too late in the year for the school and the children to not take part. I realise that this is mainly our fault in not preparing suitable assessment alternatives. Had we had the foresight to plan ahead at the start of the year, we could have arranged something to happen in its place.


I am a member of a union, mainly as advice throughout my career has encouraged me to, but I am really not in favour of 'being told what to do' by a collective of teachers. Just because three-quarters of less than 50% of the teachers who voted decided they wanted to boycott, there is an expectation that everyone should follow suit. I appreciate that being in a 'union' implies that we should all do the same thing, but I dislike the idea that my own decisions do not count.


Of the many main arguments against SATs, I am sympathetic to all, but not all of them apply to our school.

• Teaching to the test - this may be true to a degree, in that we use SATs questions as a plenary activity, or set a few questions as a homework based on what has been taught during the week. But in our school we aim to develop the children's skills for the future, not for the tests.
• Narrowing the curriculum - our SATs revision this year has consisted of a week and a half of revision in Maths (revising the topics that the children requested) and in English we developed two units based on our visit to Liverpool in March, and our PSHCE study of alcohol where we explored several styles of writing (which the children have enjoyed). We have attempted two past reading comprehension papers and one spelling paper and no others. Therefore, we have spent around three weeks 'revising'. Throughout the year the children have taken part in three days of first aid training, a book day, an Africa day, an Eco day, been on two visit and attended a five day residential in France. There has never been more than one Maths and one English lesson each day. Now I really don't believe that our curriculum has been narrowed as a result of the SATs.
• Pressure on the children - our message to the children throughout the year has been consistent - all we want is for the children to do their best. Levels are nice to achieve, but in the end we don't really care as long as the children are satisfied that they have done their best. We try to avoid the using the word 'tests' and prefer 'opportunities' as they are an opportunity to show what the children have achieved. Admittedly, some of the children are nervous, but we do our best to play the SATs down. The weeks before and during the SATs have been spent preparing for our 'Grow A Pound Week' which takes place the week after SATs. The atmosphere during the papers is relaxed and we try to be as encouraging as possible.
• Pressure on schools - now all of the above has to be put into context. I am fortunate to work in a school where children traditionally perform very well in the SATs. We have been lucky enough to do fairly well in the school league tables. Parents are supportive and we are in a town suburb, with families (on average) with few socio-economic difficulties. I don't think we feel as much pressure on us to perform as with some schools in the country (in fact, probably within our own town.) I realise that the boycott is about making a stand on behalf of such schools, but in the end we have to do what we and our parents believe is right for our own pupils.

The decision to enter the pupils for the 2010 SATs was based on discussions with staff, governors, pupils (38 for, 16 against) and the results of an open forum with parents. However, the feeling from everybody was that we should not participate in the 2011 SATs, and measures will be implemented next year to ensure that, if SATs are still in existence, we will not be taking part, but will be creating our own assessment methods.


Despite not taking part, I completely support the decisions of others' to boycott the SATs and I wish every pupil and school the greatest success in their assessments in Year Six.

It's a laughing matter...

During the inset day before Easter we enjoyed an introduction to Laughology workshop.

At Laughology, we are serious about humour. We want to put something positive into people’s lives in business, health and education. How? With a unique programme of tried and tested laughter and humour techniques. They improve everyone’s performance and productivity, health and well-being.
The Laughology model gives each individual a ‘tool-box’ of methods and models they can use to help them think and act positively. The tool box is transferable -- anyone can use it, anywhere! -- and it's sustainable, because it just goes on working. We work with public and private-sector organisations to enrich best practice.


The workshop really was funny and it made me think about the science behind laughter - what makes us laugh and why and what happens when we laugh.
 
I learned an interesting facts - babies and toddlers laugh up to 300 times a day. As adults we laugh up to 17 times a day (on average). When we laugh, the body releases endorphins. When they are released into the body, they cause a sense of well-being. They also act as analgesics - they can fight pain and make us feel better!
 
We also learned that we can increase our happiness if we follow the rules of FLIP:
Fake it - if you are feeling down, fake the body language used when we laugh;
Language - use positive language - be aware of the language you use;
Imagination - if you imagine something it will happen;
Pattern breaking - be aware of yours and other people's patterns.
 
"Life is too serious to be taken seriously"
Oscar Wilde
I guess this quote is easy to forget at times, but it reminds me how important it is to be happy and to enjoy life. Above all - laugh!

Leadership Pathways learning mindmap

This mind map (created using Bubbl.us) shows my main learning from my Leadership Pathways course.

Spelling City

I've finally taken the plunge and had a go at using Spelling City. This is a great website which is designed to help children to practise their spellings.

Inspired by http://www.spellingcity.com/mrbarberturnham/ I created an account for our school and uploaded the spellings for the SATs spelling tests from 1996 to 2009.

The process was very easy to do - literally, as easy as typing in the words. The site then creates a sentence which uses the word to put it in context.

The children can go to the site and practice the spellings. Words are read out for them to spell! Simple, yet brilliant!
You can find our SATs Spelling lists at www.spellingcity.com/churchlane.

Shakespeare

A few weeks ago we studied two of Shakespeare's plays, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.

Here are some resources that I have discovered. I hope they may be of use to others:


It was a joy to find the BBC Animated Tales on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/shakespeareanimated#p/u







We bumped into the Classical Comics stall at the Education Show and purchased copies of the quick read versions of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. We also bought a copy of the teacher's guides which are excellent resources. http://www.classicalcomics.com/


Dawn wrote in her blog about her excellent work on Macbeth raps, inspired by this video:


This would be a great addition to our work for another time.

During the work we produced comic strips, retellings, newspaper reports, play scripts and newspaper reports. The children thoroughly enjoyed the project. Later this year perhaps we'll take a look at Hamlet too!

Does anyone else take Shakespeare in Year Six? Does anyone have any other good resources to share?

Leadership Pathways: Final Thoughts

The final day of Leadership Pathways was my favourite, and when I finally began to realise the message of 'reflection' that the course has tried to foster throughout.


I have never felt like much of a reflective practitioner. Being reflective requires time and time is something I haven't got enough of. But by the end of the LP course, I was becoming more and more reflective and continuing to do this after the course is over is something I am looking forward to. I need to make time to be reflective. I guess this blog is becoming the perfect place to do that! (Actually, looking back, I have used the blog less and less as an outlet to report news affecting Year Six, but more as a place to reflect on and to share my school-based experiences.)


Core Day 3 of the programme is subtitled 'celebrating success'. It was the day to share learning with each other and our coaches. We were asked to share a presentation about our 'whole-school change project' that we had been working on. I had been worried about this, but some good advice from @deputymitchell, @dawnhallybone and @primarypete_ on Twitter calmed me down. As a result of their advice, I decided not to use any ICT in my presentation. This was definitely the right decision. It was actually great to be free of the constraints of a PowerPoint presentation. I did, however, use PowerPoint to prepare and structure what I wanted to say.

LP Presentaion

View more presentations from guest6a9520.

A lot of this, I understand, won't make sense without some context. So this is what my project was all about:
Through the process of taking the online units, I realised that the school is good at informing, collaborating with and involving the community in its work. We weren't, however, as good at consulting and empowering the community. I decided to set up a questionnaire to learn more about the community and their thoughts about our school. At the moment we are part way through this process. The surveys have been distributed and returned and the analysis process is underway right now. The project is enabling me to gain experience in using data, using influencing strategies and work with the community.

Overall, I believe that I have developed as a leader through the Pathways course and I am looking forward to seeing my learning have an impact throughout my work in school.

Leadership Pathways: Creative Resource Management

This online unit was suggested as part of my routemap analysis. With hindsight, I wish I'd chosen a different unit. C'est la vie...

The most important idea that I took away from this unit was that continuing professional development is important to keep a vibrant, happy workplace that is able to change and adapt.

I liked the idea of asking staff to 'bid' for resources - to encourage them to consider the value of their ideas, and the impact on the children and the school.

CPD should be integral to everybody's role - it should form part of job descriptions. This unit suggests that CPD should include developing skills as a teacher, but also different non-classroom related skills too. Provide a range of learning experiences for staff as well as pupils to promote creativity and a positive atmosphere.

Develop an ethos of learning - encourage people to 'have a go'. Find ways around a problem by exploring and inventing. Create an environment that is safe, comfortable and yet challenging so that creativity can develop.

Leadership Pathways: Data & Beyond

My final online unit was entitled 'Data & Beyond', reminding me of Buzz's catchphrase in Toy Story. However, that word 'data' made this unit just about as far removed from fantasy as possible! Actually, everything about this unit is to do with facts and evidence and using it to instigate changes. This is what I learned from the unit.

There are ten tips for making a difference with data. These are taken from the NCSL website:

1. It's your data - use it internally to improve standards.
2. Prior attainment - assemble as wide a range of data as you can.
3. Follow through on the data - collecting data is only as useful as the use that is made of it.
4. Review how your school uses data - does your school's use of data have a clear set of purposes or is it more of what we have always done?
5. Take the evidence seriously - examining the evidence can shed new light on things schools take for granted.
6. Use significant data - carefully identify the data items that your school needs to collect and analyse to inform its vision and strategy and to have impact.
7. Look beneath the data - looking beneath the data to understand the individual experiences of the children it represents is a key part of validating its usefulness.
8. Involve parents - parents can be essential allies in helping their children develop - if they have good information about how their children are developing and what targets they are working towards/
9. Involve pupils - if data is being used to improve individual pupils' performance, it's all the more effective if the pupils themselves are involved and given awareness and ownership of their own learning.
10. You're in charge - being familiar with your data and using it in a regular, planned way, within the context of your overall school's development, will ensure that the data serves you.

Data collection and analysis does not really form part of my role (my colleague leads this process) but reading this got me thinking that maybe it should be! We are constantly told that Ofsted want 'evidence, evidence, evidence' yet this doesn't seem to be something I have been gaining experience in using. From the very beginning of the unit I realised that data is a process that I need to find opportunities to develop my own practice.

I learned some practical advice for data collection:

• Look for the right type of data - will it help you to show what you want?
• Often, the data produced for external reasons is not the data you need. It might be more effective to produce your own data.
• Data can be quantitative - in lists, tables, charts or numbers.
• But data can also be qualitative - opinions, feelings, pictoral, words. It must be rich in value.
• Find the right bits of information which will help us to teach better and, more importantly, the right kind of data to help my pupils learn better.
• A representative sample can be identified.
• Sensitivity must be used when monitoring practice.
• Surveys must be planned and organised thoroughly.
• Note the current model so that the impact of changes can be compared.

Practical advice for data analysis:

• Evaluate the impact of changes regularly.
• Data hasn't got to show what has gone wrong - try to discover what works best, or what will work better.

Advice for acting on the data:

• Data should be acted on in a positive way - make changes which are for the better which will benefit the pupils, the staff and the wider community.

When giving feedback regarding data:

• When giving feedback about data explain why you are saying things - be specific.
• Use data to support anything difficult that you want to say.
• Don't just deliver a monologue - create a dialogue.
• Empathise, but don't sympathise. Don't back down - make it clear that support will be given to help people move forward.
• Make sure your message is clear.
• Consider how you want to open the feedback, and also the effect of how you want them to be at the end.

Learning to collect, analyse and act on data must form part of my next steps in my career.