MILE CROSS PRIMARY SCHOOLMr. Stuart Allen

Head Teacher

My enemy is the food in your stomachs that’s demanding your attention!

WHY ARE WE HERE?What brings you to the conference?

a) Knowledge building

b) Networking opportunities

c) My boss made me attend

d) On a jolly

On your new table talk about something from this morning that you are going to take back to school and implement.

TAKE YOUR WORK SERIOUSLY

Don’t take yourself too seriously! There is always someone else who will do your job!

OUR HISTORYAmalgamation of three schools - September 2007. Well before the Academies Act was passed in July 2010.

New school opened - September 2008. Ofsted 11th and 12th September 2008. We still had boxes to unpack! (Satisfactory or RI in new money)

Ofsted HMI visit December 2009. (Satisfactory or RI in new money)

Ofsted (Subject specific inspection of PE)18th and 19th June 2012 -. (Satisfactory or RI in new money)

Ofsted (Section 5) 5th and 6th February 2014. (Good)

Ofsted (Section 5) - 15th and 16th November 2017.(Outstanding in every area)

EVERY DAY WE...• Focus on improving teaching• Focus on improving attendance• Ditch marginal issues – not getting ourselves involved in trivia!

Everything we do has to be…• Impact led – proven to have impact in schools• Evidence informed – using latest research• Practice based – repeat, feedback, improve, repeat• Sustained – recursive yearly• Collaborative – mixture of stakeholders

IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY

Effective professional development provides teachers with improved teaching tools. Most teachers strive to improve every day and every year.

IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY

Effective professional development -• is continuous• includes direct support

Only by this means do we -• maximize the effectiveness of the training • enable trainees successfully to utilize what they have learned in their

classroom

IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY

Every teacher's situation is different. Professional development must resonate with a teacher for it to be effective.

Before they ‘jump on board’, teachers need to -• believe that what they are being told will help children’s learning • be able to see how.

IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY

One of the biggest mistakes of professional development is that it is not personalized enough.

Professional development delivery should be:-• intimate enough that teachers can ask questions when they do not

understand something.• geared to them individually moving forward when they already understand

what is being taught.

IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY

Teachers do struggle. As a teacher, a new problem arises almost daily. Professional development must provide teachers with a solution to solve some of their most difficult challenges.

AT MILE CROSS WE…

Developed a shared language to cover the ingredients and recipes for effective teaching e.g planning backwards

This in turn developed deeper collaborative dialogue between staff regarding planning and reflection on impact of their teaching.

AT MILE CROSS WE…

Created a structure of training that 'forces' teachers to prioritise the change process, (For example two weeks after training they are videoed). For many different reasons, CPD without structured follow-up and implementation in the classroom will lead to uneven impact in classrooms across a school. This could potentially widen the gap between the quality of teaching in different classrooms in the same year group, and not close it!

AT MILE CROSS WE…Reduced gaps in perception … self-reflect, comparing their perception of what goes on in their lesson with the reality (video). Through analysis of different key aspects of their craft, teachers have spotted further opportunities for development.

Change is hard for busy teachers, and it's made incredibly difficult for some, if they aren't given clear step-change advice and practical tools/strategies to achieve it.

AT MILE CROSS WE…

Guaranteed that the professional development of staff was differentiated.

Provided an opportunity for risk-free R&D for teachers that enhances their learning. The national context of low-trust/high-accountability towards schools, their leaders and therefore teachers, means that teachers hold the same fear of failure as do some of their children.

AT MILE CROSS WE…Enabled greater shared clarity about what makes a growth mindsetlearner and how to prompt learner autonomy through more effective routines/norms.

The process therefore developed the occupants of our staffroom into learners too –Learners about teaching and Learners about their impact on children's learning.

‘The term 'he/she is getting us now' is a term I hear a lot at Mile Cross. It refers to the high expectations culture that you've developed, and can be a shock for some staff coming from other schools. Some schools I've worked with have tried to create the same culture, but haven't been successful because, whilst leadership have set the bar high, they've failed to provide the opportunities for staff to develop the capacity to meet the higher expectations.’

Mark Burns (MALIT Author and trainer)

SOMETHING FROM JOHN HATTIE

School leaders have a central role in building school ethos and on focusing on the quality and impact of teaching in the school. The climate of the school should be one of trust, respect and integrity.

Time spent learning about the learning process and developing a shared language of learning is considered essential.

It therefore follows that the primary role of a teacher is to evaluate their effect on learning.

Inspired and passionate teachers are evaluators who ‘collect evidence about their success as change agents, about their levels of inspiration, and about sharing their passion with students’.

OUR SCHOOL…

‘Leaders have also invested heavily in high-quality professional development, ensuring that every teacher attends a course on becoming outstanding.’

‘Support for those new to teaching is excellent. Newly qualified teachers learn very quickly and soon become as effective as much more experienced teachers. They lap up the school’s positive culture and ‘can-do’ attitudes to improving learning.’

Ofsted 15th -16th November 2017

AND FINALLY…

‘The school’s curriculum is vibrant and dynamic and enriched by visits and visitors. Pupils make the same very strong progress in other subjects as they do in English and mathematics.’

‘Pupils are a delight. They are friendly and extremely enthusiastic about learning. While many have faced challenges of various kinds, they are successful in overcoming the barriers they have encountered.’

‘Pupils greatly enjoy coming to school.’

‘The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.’Ofsted 15th -16th November 2017