in this issue >>>
Teaching School Decoded
Utter Brilliance: TES on Oracy
Triple Impact Marking
THS Action Research shared
And more….
Tarporley High School & Sixth Form College: Teaching and Learning Bulletin
Issue 1, July 2014
Aspire, LEARN, Achieve
“If you’re not
prepared to be
wrong, you’ll
never come up
with anything
original.” —
Ken Robinson
So, what’s a Teaching School? >>>
T

Better results for pupils

Fewer poorly performing schools

More good and outstanding schools

A self-improving and sustainable system
The ‘big 6’ focus areas of Teaching Schools include:
Teaching schools are outstanding schools that work with
others to provide high-quality training and development to
new and experienced school staff. They are part of the government’s plan to give schools a central role in raising
standards by developing a self-improving and sustainable
school-led system.
1. School-led initial teacher training
2.
Continuing Professional Development
3.
Supporting Other Schools
4.
Identifying and Developing leadership potential
5.
Specialist leaders in Education
6.
Research and Development
Teaching schools identify, develop and co-ordinate expertise for the benefit of pupils across a network of schools,
resulting in:
Marking and Assessment >>>
The Power of Three: Triple
Impact Marking in trial
Many thanks to Helen Nutton
who has been leading our new
marking pilot. The pilot group
have been trialling ‘triple impact
marking’ where students are
given different colour pens and
dedicated lesson time to respond to written feedback. This
allows students to reflect on
their targets and to make progress based on direct feedback
from the teacher.
Watch this space for an update
in September!
For more examples, visit the marking
pilots’ padlet wall where you will find
uploaded examples at:
http://padlet.com/hnutton/
Ros French provides some hints and tips to support
Numeracy across the Curriculum >>>
Organising Data
When pupils have collected data from a survey or experiment and want to organise it in a table, it is best to use a tallying method.
Often pupils forget about this and go through their list of data several times,
looking for all the number fives for example, then all the number sixes etc, instead of taking each value in turn, and placing it in the table. Example
Shoe sizes of people in my class (this data is discrete- it can be counted)
5, 5, 4, 3, 7, 5, 4, 7, 6, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 3, 4, 6, 3, 4
Shoe size
Tally
Frequency
3
4
5
6
By crossing out each value in turn, the list is only gone through
once. Remember that the fifth tally mark goes across the other
four.
For wider ranging results, the data is often organised into class
intervals (groups). These should ideally be equal in size, and the
data should be split into 5 – 9 groups. Only the most able students
will be able to select their own class intervals.
7
8
Example
Table 1
Class Interval
Frequen-
(l is in mm)
30< l <35
35< l <40
40< l <45
45< l <50
50< l <55
55< l <60
cy
Record the length of the right hand thumb in millimetres of people in a class
The three tables below, show the same information, the data is continuous (a measurement)
2
2
4
9
10
2
Table 2
Length (mm)
303540455055-60
This means all the numbers between 55, up to
Table 3
Length (mm)
Frequency
but NOT including 60
f
2
2
4
9
10
2
30-
35-
40-
45-
50-
55-60
2
2
4
9
10
2
Pupils working at level 5 should
understand this notation, but may
arrive from primary school without being clear about what table 1
means.
Next edition: Displaying
Data: Bar Charts and Fre
quency Diagrams
Spotlight on Oracy >>>
Thank you to Richard Gillard who spotted
this topical article in the TES on Oracy.
Whilst it’s not online yet, here’s an extract
which might get us thinking… (more to follow on this in September….)
Peter Hyman is fuming about the recent removal of the speaking and listening assessment from the English Language GCSE.
*…+ “Why is it fine to do an oral in Spanish but not in English?”
Hyman, who worked as a speech-writer for former Labour
prime minister Tony Blair before taking to the classroom, hit
the headlines earlier this year when he told TES of his plans to
make oral communication a key concern in his new school.
“For too many people, it’s about having a debate club after
school,” he says now. “What we’re about is putting oracy
dent, then you’re going to speak well and you’re going to articulate your ideas, so the two are linked.” *…+
Ancient Wisdom
The process has echoes of the historic teaching of rhetoric,
which goes back to the ancient Greeks. For example, the four
areas of Mercer’s diagnostic oracy tool are similar in scope to
the five parts of classical rhetoric: invention, arrangement,
style, memory and delivery.
at the heart of our learning. In this school, lessons are filled For the ancients, there was a great deal more to rhetoric than
with talk, discussion and debate. Our students are confident
and articulate. We want oracy to be up there with reading and
writing.” Hyman is at the vanguard of an increasingly vocal
group of teachers and educationalists who believe that oracy
should be part of the curriculum—not just because it helps pupils to progress in life but for deeper, philosophical reasons. *…+
“Oracy and well-being come together because if you’re confi-
simply delivering a decent speech in the marketplace. Greeks
and Romans alike believed that it was the art form that
most reached our to the world. As for Hyman, his idea is to
have oracy taught in every school. “It is about changing the
world, it is about doing good in the world,” he explains.
Martin Robinson @SurrealAnarchy
Article taken from...
Spotlight on Oracy continued >>>
Explore this further by reading...
to express their ideas in academic language we can have a
surprising impact on pupils’ ability to write in academic language, and therefore to be academically successful. I’d like
to state confidently that rigorously conducted classroom disWe have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may
cussions in which participation is required and contributions
hear more and speak less.
are expected to ‘sound like an essay’ have phenomenal reDiogenes
sults on attainment. However, this contention depends
Pupils are asked to discuss stuff in class all the time. As, from mainly on my personal experience and the anecdotes of
time to time, are teachers. Think back to the last discussion those who’ve trod a similar path. So I’ll just suggest it inyou took part in. No matter how civilised they are, it tends to stead. *…+
be an exercise in patience; we spend a lot of time waiting for
everyone else to shut up so we can have our say. Inevitably, Another way to promote listening is to allow pupils to
this de facto approach allows discussion to be dominated by struggle. If we always give reminders of our instructions or
the loudest, most confident participants. As John Wayne put questions we may inadvertently encourage pupils to be less
it, we are often “short on ears and long on mouth.” This
attentive. By not just simply bailing them out, we will activebegs two questions:
ly teach pupils that they need to be more attentive. If instead of simply offering redirections we make pupils search
1. Is it worth spending classroom time on having discustheir memories and grope for answers, the reverse might be
sions?
true. As teachers, we should recognise that when we jump
in, or paraphrase pupils’ answers, we prevent them from
2. And if so, how can we improve their quality?
having to struggle. Frustrating as it might be, learning is most
I’m a great believer in the proposition that talk is a powerful likely to occur when pupils are not given easy certainties and
lever for cognitive change. (For a more extensive discussion constant hints and reminders. That said, struggling and failof the power of dialogic teaching to improve education out- ing doesn’t result in learning. If pupils, despite their best
comes read IMPROVING ORACY AND CLASSROOM TALK IN
efforts, cannot recall instructions then we will need to reENGLISH SCHOOLS: ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES by
state them. But not too quickly. *…+
Robin Alexander (University of Cambridge.) Arguably, all
teaching is about changing the way pupils think, but the only It may also be worth our while to insist on behaviours which
way we can ever hope to see their thoughts is through ask- are more likely to demonstrate that listening is taking place.
Technique 32 from Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion is
ing them questions and getting them to write stuff down.
SLANT: Sit up straight, Listen, Ask and answer questions, Nod
Writing is essentially private and is unlikely to help develop a
your head (to show you understand and are listening), Track the
class’s thinking, whereas talk is, well, audible. It is, by its very speaker.
nature shared with everyone within earshot. As such it has
These behaviours are not a panacea. But they are, if nothing
the capacity to affect everyone who hears it.
else, good habits to develop in our pupils; what we practise,
But more importantly perhaps, talk can be used not to we get good at.
see what pupils think, but to change it. By asking them Read this in full at http://www.learningspy.co.uk/learning/listen-
Listen up: Improving the quality of
classroom discussion
improving-quality-classroom-discussion/
Action Research shared >>>
Katie Smith asks... How are teaching assistants implemented effectively in the classroom?
The support and consideration of Special Educational
Needs and Disabilities (SEND) pupils is a topical issue
within most 21st Century main stream secondary
schools. The purpose of this research was to develop
highly effective collaboration with teaching assistants
(TA) in my KS3 classes, in order to ensure the progress
of pupils with special educational needs and to allow
the overall improvement of their attitude to learning.
Reading Included….
Department for Education and Skills. Removing barriers for achievement: The government’s strategies for SEN. https://www.gov.uk/
government/publications/teaching-pupils-with-special-educationalneeds-and-disabilities-send/training-modules-and-resources-forteaching-send-pupils (accessed 7th May 2014).
Heydrich, J., Weinert, S., Nusser, L., Artelt, C & Carstensen, C. H., (2013). Including students with special educational needs into large – scale assessments of competencies: Challenges and approaches with the German
National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Journal of Educational Research Online. 5, No 2, pp 217 – 240.
Methods Included….
Wider Research/ Rationale Created
Teaching Assistants (TA)
Teacher Questionnaire
Classroom Reflections
Analysis of questionnaires and smaller tar-
Strategies trialled out with target group and
Final report written and next steps
Findings included...
Giangreco, et al., (1997) states *...+ that the use of teaching assistants has become a primary mechanism to implement more inclusive schooling practice and a way to ensure SEND pupils can access the curriculum. However, it
also raised concerns that current approaches to providing teaching assistant support might cause 1) interference
with the ownership and responsibility of learning by the general teacher, 2) separation from class mates, 3) dependence on adults, 4) loss of personal control and 5) interference of instruction of other students, amongst other findings.
Action Research continued…. >>>
In light of the research, I trialled three new strategies with the TA/ chosen SEND pupil in my KS3 class, aimed at promoting independence and
inclusion in group work activities. This included 1)setting a small written
task with structured support sentences and key words for the SEND pupils to complete and asking the TA to move around the classroom to
help other specific pupils within the group. 2)Allowing and asking for TA
input on lesson planning for the next lesson to see how I could best support the pupil through activities, based on her knowledge of the pupil in
other lessons. 3) Providing clear instructions to the TA before the lesson
regarding how much information they should provide the students
about the content of the lesson.
Impact on learning...

The SEND pupil took more ownership for their learning during these lessons, although remained dependant on
TA instructions, for example the pupil still looks for TA on a regular basis when the TA was not working directly
with them in the classroom, as if reliant on her return to check and extend work.

I feel the pupil was able to construct a paragraph of information in more detail than their usual attempt on their
own, when they would stop the task and become dependent on the TA to scribe for them.

Providing clear instructions to the TA and explaining to the SEND pupil at the start of the lesson that the TA
would be also helping other pupils ensured that the responsibility for learning and subject knowledge remained
with teacher, rather than SEND pupils asking the TA about the content of the lesson.

The distribution of TA’s time and responsibility was more effective when benefitting a variety of students, both
with and without additional needs.

The engagement of the SEND pupil in lesson increased during these lessons, but there was no overall change in
their attitude to learning grade, as this would need to be assessed over a longer time period.
Conclusions…..
In conclusion, there is a need for consistency in the TA that supports different pupils
in the classroom, as the TA and teachers needs to be able to understand how the additional support is to be distributed during the lesson. This needs to be discussed at
the start of every lesson, although having a consistent TA with a class allows this relationship and understanding to build up more effectively.
If I was to set any recommendations from this, they would be to provide a time that
staff can reflect on/ and build awareness the negative impacts that can occur if too
much assistance is given to SEND pupils. One suggestion is that this could be through
a relative informal SBP session, where TA’s and teachers could discuss this and create
a list of strategies for teachers to use to ensure that the TA feels valued and effective
in their role.
Action Research shared >>>
Ben Jones asks... What is the impact
of independent strategies in mathematics lessons in helping pupils to
develop skills that will benefit them in
the transition to KS5?
Reading Included….
My background reading primarily used The Teacher’s Toolkit by Paul Ginnis. This contains sections related to learning and then offers strategies to use in lessons.
Ginnis states that there are four main similarities between learners:
1)
Everyone needs to work things out for themselves
2)
Experiences that are multi-sensory, dramatic, unusual or emotionally strong are remembered for
longer and in more detail than ordinary, routine experiences
3)
Everyone needs to feel emotionally secure and psychologically safe
4)
Learners are more motivated, engaged and open when they have some control over their learning.
Obviously, all four of these characteristics are important, but in this study I will be focusing primarily on
the first of these – pupils working things out for themselves.
Methods Included….
The research took place in January 2014, and involved two year 11 maths
classes. Pupils from both of these classes had already obtained either an
A or A* grade in their GCSE mathematics exam and were now studying for
a further qualification in mathematics. *…+ Before the lessons took part,
pupils were asked to complete a short questionnaire looking at their attitudes towards mathematics lessons and the other lessons that they experience in school. It is worth noting that these pupils were the highest
achievers in Mathematics in their year group who had recently received
their GCSE Mathematics grade, and this may have influenced their attitude towards the subject.
Action Research continued…. >>>
Pupils were asked a series of questions, with many responses being a
numerical scale from 1 to 4. When asked about their enjoyment of
maths, pupils were generally positive. With 1 being not at all, 4 being
really enjoy it, the average for the 49 questionnaires was 2.89. Since these pupils are in the top sets this may not be a surprise, and when asked
to justify their scoring, many said because they found maths ‘easy’. This
was interesting for me to observe and raised a few questions – why did
they find the subject easy? Did they currently feel they were being challenged? Did they have to learn anything independently? Some of these
questions were asked later in the questionnaire.
For the remaining responses, the scale remained 1 to 4 but this 1 represented strongly agree and 4 strongly
disagree. Despite many finding maths easy, when asked if they were being challenged regularly, the average score was 1.86, again a promising result. However, the next question was perhaps the most useful –
does maths require independent work (such as research)? I wanted to include research in brackets as I
wanted to differentiate between pupils working through problems on their opposed to pupils discovering
things for themselves. The average for this response was 2.73. This highlighted the assumption that I had
made that pupils felt that they did not do much independent learning in their current maths lessons. This
was further reinforced when pupils were asked if maths lessons allowed them to discover things for themselves. This average was 2.69, slightly lower but again implying that pupils believe that Maths is a subject
where they are told what to do, rather than work out what they need to do themselves.
The final two lessons of the research took a slightly different approach to independent learning and looked at the ‘Marketplace’
activity taken from ‘The Teacher’s Toolkit’ (Ginnis). The lesson was
initially structured similarly to the previous activity – pupils were
split into small groups and given resources to do their own research. The goal was for each group to take an application of
differentiation (each topic had two groups) and pupils then had to
prepare materials to help them explain what their topic was and how they can complete questions related to it.
The following lesson pupils would then allocate two members of their group to go around to different ‘market
stalls’ and collect information from other groups. These two lessons were more successful than the previous
one – These lessons also required more of the core skills, particularly the reflective and help seeking skills. If pupils had not understood a certain concept, they were then encouraged to go to a different group with the same
topic to help improve their understanding. Problems occurred with the final assessments – I decided to give the
groups a test to complete. In hindsight it would have been much more effective to give independent tests since
this would have allowed pupils to self-reflect on what they had understood rather than having the option of relying on others to answer a question they may not have been able to.
Conclusions/Next Steps... Following my action research, it was apparent that some pupils
lacked the independent skills required at A Level. It was useful for me to see how pupils responded to the tasks since it allowed me to observe who was comfortable with learning new
concepts without my input, and who needed more structure and support. Next year, I would
like to continue with the idea of independent learning but link it in with problem solving. This
will form a large part of both KS3 and KS4, and pupils will need to use their independent thinking skills to tackle problems they may not have seen before.
Food for educational consumption from across the web >>>
Build a lesson around any TED-Ed Original, TED Talk or YouTube video
TED-Ed Original lessons feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Go to http://ed.ted.com/ for short videos on an array of topics that may ignite a spark….
Featured this month …
Inside a cartoonist’s world - Liza Donnelly
From cave drawings to the Sunday paper, artists have been
visualizing ideas -- cartoons -- for centuries. New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly walks us through the many stages every cartoon goes through, starting with an idea and turning
into something that connects us on a deeply human level.
Other videos that may inspire an interesting lesson or two...
Teaching and Learning Reviews Overview—Take a peek at Teaching and
Learning focus areas from across the Curriculum this year >>>
COMMS: What does learning look like in the
Communications Faculty across the key stages
ENGLISH: How is the new KS3 curriculum balancing the teaching of skills with the exploration of thematic ideas? Is there enough challenge within mixed ability Y7 English classes?
MATHS: KS3 holistic lessons - developing the
maths vision for outstanding teaching
HUMSS: How effective is the teaching and
learning of students across the Humanities/SS
subjects in Key Stage 4?
SCIENCE: Student challenge at KS4 - with emphasis on Separate Science (Y9 and 10)
Jane Woodward on getting Started with digital titles from the library >>>
Cheshire Libraries have at last entered the 21st Century by providing free digital titles to borrow from our libraries. All you need to
borrow these is an internet connection and a Cheshire library
card. This is our “soft launch” to trial the system which will gradually be developed and increased. The titles can be downloaded to
tablets, smartphones and most eReaders. Kindles are not compatible as Amazon want their customers to buy their books, but
the Kindle Fire works well.
These titles can be borrowed for 3 weeks after which you no longer have access to them unless they are renewed. Titles in use by
another reader can be “booked” for you to read when free. You
will be notified when this happens. There are no fines and no reservation fees. All is free of charge.
If you are interested in this check out the Cheshire West and
Chester library webpages or pop down to the library for further
information. http://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/
residents/libraries
Krissy Garnett shares literacy tips
from the Science Department
Here are some strategies that particularly
support students’ speaking skills which we
feel have worked and would like to share
with colleagues, if only as a reminder:
- use a range of questioning strategies e.g.
closed, open, whole class, 1:1, pupil-topupil, brainstorming
- Allow pupils “thinking” time
- Offer pupils challenge.
- Use games to encourage meaningful peer
group talk and embed new word and
concepts.
Gifted and Talented Update from Nicola Cook >>>
Supporting and Challenging Our
Gifted Students
Over the course of the year Tarporley GT Students have been engaged
in a number of exciting activities
with the support of intervention
tutors (JMorrey, RRowlands,
GStone, PBrand, VWagstaff) during
GT Pastoral Intervention.
Year 7 GT Students:

Engaged in an ‘invention’ challenge were they had
to work in small teams to invent, pitch and review
their product.

Supported WWI week working alongside Year 9 GT
students in small mixed teams to produce a varied
collection of resources ranging from televised examination into the use of WWI interrogation methods and challenging tutor quizzes about The Great
War.’
Year 8 GT Students:

Interviewed Sarah Lee, The Head Boy and Girl and
reported their findings in the school newsletter.

Meet with current university students to find out
what life was like at University.

Successfully completed an NHS Challenge Competition which they delivered during an assembly.
Year 9 GT Students:

Joined an online social platform (IGGY) which con-
nects gifted students around the world through
weekly competitions and provides them with opportunities to access supportive academic material
that is takes them beyond the curriculum.

Visited Warwick University to experience life at
University.
Year 10 GT Students:

Attended a series of lectures at Manchester University which engaged them in various philosophical discussions and provided them with an opportunity to meet other gifted students.

Entered the ‘Tenner Challenge’ competition which
required them to set up their own business with a
£10 cash injection.
Year 11 GT Students:

Focused on various coping strategies to successfully deal with exam pressures and high expectations.

Worked with Year 12 Shooting Stars as part of the
‘DRIVE Mentoring Programme’ to support their
GCSE preparations in addition to offering advice on
A Level options.
Analysing our recent student voice (June 2014), GT Students value these experiences and in the main are proud
to be part of this cohort. Next year we hope to embed
these pastoral activities further and build on the fabulous
GT provision that is taking place inside your lessons.
On behalf of the literacy steering committee, Nicola Cook
feeds back from our Literacy Focus Day (2nd July 2014)
Thank you to all those teachers who were observed in the twenty-six learning walks which took
place and those thirty-two members of staff who completed the online Teacher Survey. Whilst
the official internal report will be published until September, here are a few highlights:
Literacy across the Curriculum – Focus Day Highlights

Teachers consistently promote accurate spelling of key terms and words.

Teachers often provide opportunities for students to draft answers and edit their work.

Teachers promote and encourage students to write with confidence, fluency and understanding.

Teachers consistently set high expectations for students to present their written work accurately and with
pride.

Students use and value the classroom dictionary and thesauruses.

Students acknowledged that classrooms that display clear terminology are valued and aid their learning.