Thursday 3 December Closing the Gaps
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Thursday 3 December Closing the Gaps Breakout session 1 13.45-14.30 STRAND KEYNOTE Tackling homo, bi and transphobic bullying in schools Ruth Hunt, Stonewall Ruth Hunt will be discussing what Stonewall has learnt from working with schools over the last ten years. She will reflect on how some of the best schools have worked to close the gap experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and how this work has had a positive impact on all pupils and teachers. Room: Auditorium Breakout session 2 14.40-15.25 Closing the pupil premium gap through entrepreneurial education Brendan Loughran, Darwen Aldridge Community College Darwen Aldridge Community Academy opened in 2008 as an academy sponsored by the Aldridge Foundation, replacing a previous provision that had been in special measures for several years. The academy has seen year on year improvements in outcomes for students in the main academy and sixth form. In 2013, Ofsted judged the Academy to be good in every aspect of the framework, opening the report with ‘The academy is increasingly effective in making a difference to students’ aspirations and life chances’. Since then, outcomes have continued to improve, and remain above national averages. 38% of the students are classed as pupil premium. In terms of student progress, the gaps for pupil premium students have been significantly narrowed in 2015 to -1% and -5% respectively for progress in English and mathematics. Room: Charter 4 The forensic use of data to raise achievement, close gaps and demonstrate success Charlene Ponteen, Kingsford Community College The session will focus on how middle leaders have been coached and developed to engage effectively with whole school data to impact upon pupil progress. We will look at the use of whole school data analysis tools and our shifting expectations of how all staff interact with data. Target setting and accuracy of predictions has been recognised by SSAT as an area of strength and the session will investigate how staff interactions with data has impacted upon this. Finally the session will cover the effective use of Raising Standards meetings and the impact of distributed leadership to maximise pupil progress. Room: Charter 3 Effective use of the pupil premium and measuring impact Ian Critchely, Wade Deacon School The workshop will look at the different ways the pupil premium can be spent and the ways impact can be measured. It will also look at the different ways you can evaluate the pupil premium spend and report to key stakeholders. Room: Charter 2 Breakout session 3 15.55-16.40 Support staff impact on teaching and learning – a joined up approach Adele Hawksworth, Bay House School and Sixth Form The aim is to emphasise how schools can embrace the specialist expertise of support staff in schools. Using the Lead Practitioner model and Adele’s experience of working through the accreditation process, the workshop will focus on how a collaborative approach between teaching staff and support staff can help deliver, as a collective responsibility, the school improvement plan. Support staff can play a valuable role in teaching and learning and often provide opportunities for raising standards, which Adele will address through evidence of her work leading on raising reading standards and the impact this has had in her school. Room: Charter 2 Data at the heart of the classroom Peter Atherton and Mark Gilmore, Minsthorpe Community College Recently, the college embarked upon a fresh whole school data strategy that put classroom practitioners at the forefront of data analysis, meaning that the college consulted with teachers to find exactly what information they required in order to help them effectively on a day-to-day basis. The outcome of this was to create easy-to-use and effective data analysis that was fair and equitable to all staff. The data analysis places student progression at its core. The Class Profile revolutionised the planning process at the start of the school year and the other side of the coin was to create systems that provided strong opportunity for review of data and accountability. Ofsted inspectors were impressed with the data analysis systems they saw at Minsthorpe Community College, stating that they were 'the best example of a data system with widespread classroom use we have ever seen'. Room: Exchange 9 Cross-phase Inset: developing practice through collaboration Bethan Owen, Carolyn Tipler and Mel Wilcox, Olympus Academy Trust In this workshop, we will share some of the ways our schools have worked in collaboration to improve teaching and learning. The main focus will be on how we used two INSET days to strengthen relationships between primary and secondary colleagues; looking at curriculum transition, expectations and teaching and learning, from EYFS right up to Post16. Feedback from staff at all four of the schools that took part was overwhelmingly positive; they found the experience inspiring, thought provoking and challenging and are now keen to engage in much more cross-phase work, to find ways to improve the learning experiences and outcomes of our students. Room: Exchange 11 Raising the Bar Breakout session 1 13.45-14.30 Raising the bar - embedding excellence by placing learning characteristics at the centre of school development Nick Wergan and Andrew Wood, Steyning Grammar School Steyning Grammar School is committed to using positive psychology research to embed the characteristics students need to be life-long, highly successful learners, raising their own bar and driving our journey to excellence. Our action research evidence has convinced us to put character education at the centre of our school ethos, with major implications for school macro-structures and teachers’ micro-moments. What are the barriers to further achievement in a high performing secondary? What skills and characteristics do students need to perform better? Can you measure learning characteristics? How are learning characteristics related to school performance? How did action research prove the Seligman model was our answer? How do you adjust school structures to focus on learning characteristics? How do you consistently change the learning conversation to embed grit, growth mindset and zest? Room: Charter 2 Reach for the stars: Ensuring your most able achieve at the highest level Sue Hargadon, Farlingaye High School A practical workshop with many strategies schools and individual teachers can use to ensure their most able can achieve their potential. This would include monitoring and tracking but also practical ideas that work. It will include how to ensure your most able disadvantaged students achieve their full potential - a group that can otherwise be sidelined. Room: Charter 1 Challenge-based learning the NICER© way Andrew Morrish, Victoria Park Primary Academy Victoria Park Academy is an Ashoka Changemaker School and has an innovative approach to curriculum design built around the creation of real, immersive and purposeful challenge-based learning experiences. At the heart of this is its unique NICER© curriculum that focuses on creativity, enterprise and 21st century skills. In particular, pupils are taught to become entrepreneurs and run their own successful school business that is integrated throughout the NICER framework. By teaching children to become independent and critical thinkers, with a strong focus on digital technology and speaking ‘Learnish’, the school has transformed itself from special measures to outstanding in exactly one thousand days. Room: Charter 4 Breakout session 2 14.40-15.25 STRAND KEYNOTE Teachers of character Dr Tom Harrison, Jubilee Centre for Characters and Virtues Character is an important concept in modern society. In both theory and practice, having a good character matters to people, as does the kinds of character our schools, communities and culture promote. Character cannot be fully understood without some reference at least to the ethical domain and we must, as a society, decide what values to favour in education. We must also seek to develop an acceptable language, both for the teaching of character education, morals and virtues in schools, and also for political discussions on this topic. Any attempt to define character and personal values as simply enabling young people to better understand and function in their immediate surroundings is insufficient. Character and values are deeper than this. If virtues are considered to be good human qualities then the acquisition of these virtues ought to be a goal of education. There is no curriculum or method that will produce character by magic. Rather, I believe that every experience in the home, in the school and in the neighbourhood presents us with opportunities for character development. Room: Auditorium Breakout session 3 15.55-16.40 (Leading learning) Approaches to building confidence and resilience - the self-reflective student Alexandra Tomlinson and Laura Pettett, St Catherine’s Catholic School for Girls When our SSAT assessor, Tony Smith, visited he observed that a strength of our school was the support given to developing our students’ internal lives. He was referring principally to the ways in which we support and build the whole student in order to furnish them with inner awareness which they need for key higher order skills - analysis, evaluation and the confidence to create. Students cannot achieve or indeed, aspire without these skills. To truly create, students need a reflective and controlled inner awareness. The learning tools which are needed for success cannot come from teaching knowledge alone, there must be an added dimension to their character, their resilience, the way they look at the world and feel about themselves, before true, deep and wide learning takes place. It is only through connecting with themselves and understanding their own spirit that young people can connect with learning. Room: Charter 1 How to develop a creative curriculum to secure progress Peter Williams, Weston Favell Academy We have the opportunity to make a difference to our learners’ educational experience through how we choose to implement the curriculum.