FE

Have you read your Milburn?

 Information, Policy  No Responses »
Jan 252013
 

What do schools, teachers, students and parents want from universities to support kids to get to University?

Milburn expresses clearly, as the social- mobility guru, that there is much Universities can do targeted at students from under-represented groups such as disabled students, students from areas where there is traditional low participation in higher education, ethnic  minority students and students from families where no one has been to university. While Universities are digesting Milburn’s report, OFFA has set out its vision and expectations for widening participation in its annual guidance for the HE sector and a page devoted to sanctions if a HEI fails to meet its HE access agreement. Now that many HEIs are charging the maximum fees they are increasingly accountable to ensure that their widen participation and access agenda is robust and takes on board the strong steers from external influencers especially OFFA.

The OFFA guidance quotes Milburn several times in a 40 page document, so the pieces of the jigsaw are coming together. What should HEIs do to widen participation and help the social mobility agenda? After all the research, including the Leach Report (remember Leach?), shows that a degree is a passport to better economic stability for the individual and supports the national skills requirements to successful participate in a global economy. Universities need to form strong links with schools, provide after school homework support facilities, set up subject study days, provide IAG on admissions processes, use contextualised data to inform admissions processes, run summer schools, provide mentors and in the main raise aspiration and attainment at KS 2, KS 3, KS4 and KS 5 and try to do this in collaboration with other HEIs. All of these activities targeted at students and schools that at the moment are under-represented in the undergraduate population – otherwise it is unaccountable by OFFA.

What do schools think about this? The independent school sector has strong links with selective universities and often these go back hundreds of years, if not more. They have a head-start, but now is the opportunity for state schools to say, in the absence of a national careers service, universities can provide my students with… Your voice needs to be heard?

Four things…

 Ideas  No Responses »
Nov 132012
 

So what are the four curriculum ‘things’ we need government education departments to be clear on?

1 – The Functional stuff.  How to add up, communicate, operate a computer, calculate the size of a carpet and balance your cheque book… er.. online bank account.

2 – The Social Stuff. The stuff that defines the Englishness, Welshness, Scottishness, Britishness of our society.  This would be Citizenship, Civics, PSHE, Shakespeare, RE and the like.

3 – The Stuff employers want.  This is a little harder but it is the essential stuff that makes learners employable.  It’s more likely to be the likes of project management, customer satisfaction, creativity, attention to detail and problem solving, but might also include some subjects like English, Maths, Science, MFL and so on.  Maybe there are two routes here?

4 – The stuff learners want.  This might be the stuff to get them to FE or HE as well as the stuff that burns their interest and focusses their passion. It might be subjects, maths, physics, chemistry, music and art.  But it might also be engineering, robotics, computer gaming/programming/hacking, agriculture, plumbing or tap dancing.

So what proportion of each and in what school and when?

Saying “no”

 Ideas, Information, Personal Productivity  No Responses »
Oct 242012
 

I heard yet another tail of woe yesterday, a headteacher on the sick 2 weeks before an inspection, deputy and assistant heads in the dark, teaching staff demoralised. Rather sadly, it is a very common story which I hear far too regularly.

To follow the stereotype through I would expect the head to have had a leadership problem, not delegated sufficiently well and not managed the staff.  If this was baseball that would be her error, a stolen base and potential RBIs (hey, its the world series on Wednesday, Detroit versus San Francisco…). But in an organisation like a school the error is often not that easily attributed and I would look at the governors and the deputies as having let the school down as well.

Somewhere along the line someone didn’t say “no” when they should have.

Saying no is one of the hardest things to do in any workplace and something which is accentuated when the management structure is fractured or wobbly.  You should be able to say no without fear of retribution or ridicule.  You should be able to say no with a clear conscience and mutual respect. You should be able to say no, but I bet you can’t.

We are almost hard wired to not be able to do it.  It might be something we were trained out of in our youth, saying no to your parents, for example was not allowed and saying no to your own teacher was also something which would have led to a punishment of some sort.  You can check if you can say no, by doing the “sending food back in a restaurant” test… If the food is slightly cold what do you do?  Put up with it or send it back?  If you can send it back then you have most of the ‘saying no’ tools in your briefcase, if you struggle and would probably choose not to “cause a scene” then we need to do a little more work and go and look at assertiveness, one of my favourite topics.

Assertiveness is the cornerstone of being able to say no and we’ll come back to it in other posts.  You can find quite a lot of excellent material on line already.  It is also one of the best one day training courses you can go on. Crack assertiveness and saying no will follow…

The Straight

 Inspiration, Personal Productivity  No Responses »
Oct 122012
 

This video was used to provoke debate in staff development sessions.  It asks a very simple question about learning, school, examinations and life.  Do you ever step off the straight?  The film always provokes some good discussion, and a lot of comment, particularly about the cyclists breathing!

Please feel free to use the film in your own staff development sessions, here are some questions and prompts to get things going.

1) In this school, what is the straight?  Just how much is set down and formally required?  Just how flexible is the curriculum?

2) The cyclist clearly has a sense of adventure as a lot of risks are taken and there is a lot of potential danger.  What are the risks in stepping off the straight in this school?  Is there really, truly, any danger?

3) Who would you need to speak to about stepping off the straight?  Is it right that you have autonomy in your classroom and the freedom to do what you want without clearing it with anyone?  Head of year?  Head of department?  Headteacher?  What would the headteacher say anyway?

4) Why do you think the film is called “The Straight” and not “The Straight and Narrow”?

5) How do you measure it?  Everything is measured in school so how do you measure a journey where you are not sure where you are going?  What would OFSTED say? How do you show the value of using your own initiative?

6) You may know of some alternative approaches to education that value ‘the journey’ more than ‘the destination’.  Why do we not value these approaches more in this country?

Briefing – Episode 59. Six Steps for Change

 Information, Policy  No Responses »
Sep 262012
 

You may be interested to see that Sir Kenneth Baker is the Chair of the Edge Foundation, there are lots of pics of him at the Six Steps for Change launch on their flickr feed http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgefoundation/ Yes, that Kenneth Baker, tory minister under Thatch, he who gave us “Baker Days”, the National Curriculum and SATs.  Having said that though he also deeply understands the vocational world and is doing a great job at Edge.  Some Conservatives do understand the real world, I was sorry to see John Hays go from his post in charge of FE and Skills in the last re-shuffle and worry deeply about his replacement.

He’s not my favourite Ken Baker though, that is Kenny Baker, the actor who was inside the R2-D2 costume in Star Wars.

On a similar line to Edge’s initiative is Free Education, http://free-education.org who are trying to wrestle education from the hands of the politicians and are currently fund raising and mobilising.  As long as education is in the hands of people who don’t understand it we will never really make any true progress.

All good stuff.

Equivalent

 Ideas  No Responses »
Sep 242012
 

There is one word that has really damaged education over the last few years.  You might think that “rigour” is what I’m talking about, after all no one really understands what it is and can define it. But no, I think it is the word “equivalent”.

I see it all the time. There is a music business course being advertised at the moment which is “equivalent to a degree”.  There are courses being advertised leading to vocational qualifications which are “equivalent to 3 A levels”.  It is a word which is so misused and so misunderstood that we are currently butchering about in the school league tables like Sweeney Todd on the piss. Equivalent has ruined it for everybody.

In the world of business there is a clear understanding of words like “price”, “value”, worth” and “cost”.  We know that a Mars bar is a certain price in a shop, but a different price in a supermarket and a different price to the retailer who bought a big box of them from the cash-and-carry.  We also know that when you really, really want one you might be happy to pay twice the normal price for it.  This is basic economics and its understood and accepted. What is also clear is that Mars Bars have a very close competitor at Lidl that looks the same and tastes the same but is cheaper and called something else.  This product is an “equivalent”.  It looks like a Mars Bar, tastes like a Mars Bar and quacks like a Mars Bar. Equivalent.

Not so straightforward in education.  Is a Media Degree equivalent to a Politics degree? Are 3 Alevels equivalent to an apprenticeship? Is 1 GCSE in Maths equivalent to a Vocational qualification in carpentry? When you are building a house, of course, a carpentry qualification is far more valuable than a politics degree.  So does that make them equivalent, or is it that we just don’t understand ”price”, “value”, worth” and “cost”? I don’t think the answer is to get rid of everything because we cant express it as an equivalent of something else.

In English secondary schools at the moment, they are defining equivalent in terms of “Headline Measures” where large qualifications which might take days and years to complete are only valued as “1″ because the equivalence can’t be defined.

To me it seems straightforward.  Vocational qualifications are as valuable as academic ones. It is worth getting this qualification, it will benefit you in your career. The price of studying this subject is you will have less time to study that subject. Let’s stop talking about equivalent and start talking about value.

 

Why the Apple event on Wednesday matters to teachers…

 Ideas, Information, Technology  1 Response »
Sep 102012
 

Not a fanboy.  Please try to keep that in the back of your mind.  Yes, I’m typing this on a Mac, yes I have an iPod.  BUT I have an android phone, several windows PCs and a healthy understanding of the real world.  So please, don’t think this is just a fanboy rant, it’s not.  What it is, is an attempt to point out that we’re at a tipping point in education technology and that the next step, probably made by Apple at their product launch in San Francisco on Wednesday, could change everything.

We’ve had the iPad since the Summer of 2010, an incredibly thin device which uses a touch screen and can fit in an A4 envelope. It can access the web, seamlessly handle your email, manage your media content and a host of other tasks through a wealth of apps. As Steve Jobs used to say it’s “insanely great”. The iPad launched an industry wide rethink of what IT is, what it’s for and who should have it.  Now just about every IT manufacturer has a tablet device, there are a variety of operating systems, and app development is a major growth industry. If you still think IT is sitting behind a massive grey box and a 15 inch CRT monitor or that Microsoft Word and spreadsheets is what the IT curriculum should teach you have missed this revolution completely.

Many schools have ridden the crest of this wave and already brought tablet computers into the classroom.  Schools which issue their learners with their own iPads do exist. Units are being written as we speak allowing you to use tablet computers and mobile devices in art, music and media exams. Companies are already writing apps for classroom teaching, classroom management, assessment and support. The education tablet revolution has started but it it is, at the moment, in the hands of the enthusiast.

It is widely expected that Apple will launch a smaller version of their iPad on Wednesday (I’m not an Apple pundit myself, but Engadget and Macrumors will back me up here) as well as a larger phone, refreshed iMacs and iPods. It could be quite a day. The smaller iPad is a very interesting idea as it comes hot on the heals of the Kindle Fire and a host of other Android based tablet devices.  A smaller screen would bring limitations but it would also bring a cheaper price and perhaps a price so compelling that buying a class set, or indeed one for every learner is financially wise. In the UK you can get an iPad for £329 from the apple store, it’s not the latest model but it’s cheaper than a typical PC laptop. The kindle Fire is £129, just how much would a smaller iPad cost?

The Apple argument will be that the iPad is the only real tablet proposition for schools as there are apps in place, robust app quality control and apps in every subject and for every use. Guaranteed learner engagement in a sleek, brushed aluminium case. Android and the new Windows operating system (which is just around the corner) might argue with that, but the condition is clear.  If Wednesday goes the way the pundits are telling us, we may well be seeing the argument crashing on our desks this week.

If you are not going in this direction, parents will want to know why.

New (academic) year resolutions

 Ideas, Personal Productivity  No Responses »
Sep 022012
 

Here we go.  If not tomorrow, certainly this week. If in Scotland, probably last week. More than likely though, it is time to get back to work and start the new term, and for some of you it is your first day at work, teaching a proper class of your own.  Good luck.

It has not been a particularly quiet Summer.  It’s not been a Summer which has recharged batteries and prepared us to deliver an inspiring and dynamic education experience.  It’s been full of stuff.  Stuff which we could have done without.  It’s been a political Summer (and a wet one) where I’ve had to stop myself from posting angry articles almost everyday (new term resolution No. 1 – no angry posts). Not only have we had GCSE issues, we’ve had free school problems, governor problems, University problems, employment figures problems, NEET problems, A4E problems, G4S problems, funding problems and my guttering gave out in all the rain.  Not a great Summer at all.

What we have to do in times like these is focus on the task in hand which is being great teachers and taking our enthusiasm into the classroom. In this spirit I want to talk about what you are going to change this year, your new term resolutions.

You probably realise that new year resolutions, traditionally made in the first week of January are doomed to fail.  We stop going to the gym, we do have a glass of wine, we do loose our resolve and revert to the old comfy ways.  It’s just human nature.  We still make resolutions because we know that we are not perfect and can identify some steps to make things better.  We just don’t keep them.

New term resolutions are the same.  We probably wont keep them, but it is great to analyse the work flow, identify the areas where we could improve and have a go at coming up with some solutions. Do the paperwork on time, have some more time for year 9, give better feedback, be a better mentor, be a better coach – that sort of thing. But you can make these thoughts more effective, even if you do fully realise that you are not going to keep them after half term.  Tell someone, and ask for their support and assistance, share.

Once you have someone with you on the journey you gain extra support and extra perspective and have a better chance of coming up with a work flow which is sustainable and might survive a term or two. It might be your colleague in the department, or just a friend in the staffroom.  In an ideal world it would be your line manager, but we all know that is not going to happen. Discuss your thoughts with your team and get them to do the same.

If only AQA had talked to OCR and Edexcel it might have been a different Summer for everybody.

Briefing – Episode 58, The JamHub

 Ideas, Personal Productivity, Technology  No Responses »
Aug 142012
 

My experience of rehearsal rooms when I was young was that the equipment would be ropey, your ears bled afterwards and would ring for days, and that you shouted so much that your throat was ruined for at least a week.  Oh, and there was always a disgusting old sofa in the room somewhere.

I think those days might thankfully be over.  This means you can rehearse with headphones on and control the mix you get without ruining everyone else’s experience.  And no shouting, talk through the microphones at all times.  That way you need never take them off while you rehearse.

The secret is “headphone busses”, normal mixing desks will provide you with one, maybe two or three headphone outs, which have their own controllable mixing sections.  This device designs that feature up front.  Each headphone out, has it’s own mini-mixer section allowing individuals to set exactly what they want to hear. without changing anyone else’s mix.  These individual busses, yes, that is the word, give the JamHub its USP.  Each feature is colour coded as well, meaning that if you are plugged into green, your sound will be on green right the way through the unit.  Once you see the colour coding, it speaks for itself, not that the manual isn’t pretty good as well.

I’m guessing that cheaper versions will crop up soon, but I would council against trying to save money on these devices and urge you to teach how to use them safely and carefully before you let anyone rip them to shreds. They are solidly built, but tape two of them together any you’ve got a frisbee.  As I’ve said elsewhere before, run a little course that trains people how to use them and rewards the right to have access to the equipment in lessons, breaks and lunchtimes.  Having clued up and trained learners in the classroom will repay itself in no time.

Have a look at the JamHub website here for ideas on how they can be used in the classroom and experiment yourself. I much preferred using the JamHub to my Behringer mixer for practicing and I would be very interested to hear how you do use these in the classroom.

No money has changed hands and no promises made to JamHub or its distributors, but I would  like to thank Steve, Andrew and Tony for the loan of the equipment.

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