FREE - Issue 2, December 2011

Innovate My School -Innovation and Inspirationwww.innovatemyschool.com

The Lost Art Of ListeningHow life experience can shape the future of pupils in schools

How to put creativity back into writing

Managing ipadsin the classroom

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WELCOME...Welcome to the December edition of the Innovate My School Magazine.

After a great response to our launch issue, we’re back with more innovative educational insights and ideas for schools, teachers and educators across the country.

In this month’s magazine, Jane Jackson offers some practical tips on how to ignite imaginations and turn even the most reluctant young writers into aspiring investigative journalists.

Our Interview with a School column features Deputy Headteacher Joel Marshall, who explains how a national award scheme and an innovative curriculum helped to transform a school once publicly labelled the worst in the country.

Chemistry teacher Ed Whittaker offers some no-nonsense advice on minimising and addressing bad behaviour in the classroom.

On a lighter note, Brian Madigan takes us on a nostalgic journey across the contours of sound, explaining why, in an age of ubiquitous background music, pupils should be encouraged to learn how to listen actively.

Rachel Johnson describes how even a cash-strapped school can harness teachers’ previous work and life experience to spark pupils’ interest in life after school and set them in hot pursuit of an inspiring career.

Maybe your school has recently splashed out on a set of iPads or is considering making such an investment. If so, Vicki Cole provides some timely advice on how best to keep the popular tablets primed and secure.

All that, plus the latest news, products and services from the Innovate My School website. If you have any comments or questions on the latest edition, please don’t hesitate to contact us at magazine@innovatemyschool.com – we’d love to hear from you.

Tim MilesEditor, Innovate My School Magazine

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If you would like to appear in this magazine, please email magazine@innovatemyschool.com, phone 0845 034 6690 or visit www.innovatemyschool.com/magazine

Innovation update 4

How to put creativity 6 back into writing

The lost art of listening 8

Going for greatness 12

The basics of good 14 classroom management

How life experience can 20 shape the future of pupils in schools

Managing iPads in 22the classroom

Other expert articles on the Innovate My School website:

How to engage parents in a cashless school

The importance of communicating with your alumni

Keeping mobile ICT safe and damage free

The ‘noughties’ aftermath and values awareness

What every parent should know about computers and the Internet

How can PSHE be used to reduce the chances of more riots?

www.innovatemyschool.com 3

WELCOME

Innovatemyschool4

innovation update

Former World Champion Garry Kasparov and British Grandmaster Nigel Short were among several famous chess players who recently attended a Westminster reception for Chess in Communities and Schools - a charity that has introduced thousands of primary school children to the game and would like to see chess on the curriculum.

Kasparov’s own foundation aims to bring the game of kings to schools across the world, using the internet and computer software to organise tournaments, track results and maintain league tables.

One need not be a Grandmaster to see the kind of qualities and transferable skills the game could help to instil. Apart from teaching children to spot logical patterns and possibilities, chess encourages them to think before they act (the more of their opponents’ moves they can anticipate, the better their own will be), and to analyse and solve problems as they arise. To win requires the creative coordination of different resources. The most obvious path to victory can turn out to be a trap, and position can confer more power than pieces.

Chess also demonstrates the important relationship between knowledge and skills. A detailed grasp of opening gambits is powerful, but the player must

be able to think on his feet and adapt this knowledge to his opponent’s moves. On the other hand, it is little use skilfully manoeuvring an enemy into a weak endgame position but then lacking the

Timed matches can be a particularly exciting way to teach pupils to remain cool under pressure. They also provide an opportunity for sportsmanship: reminding a forgetful opponent to stop his clock after making a move, for instance.

Despite the need for concentration and clear thinking, chess is an extremely social game. Junior chess clubs are rarely quiet, and competitive matches between schools are team games in which pupils

can observe and discuss the merits of their colleagues’ moves.

With a 1500-year pedigree, chess is an international language that can engender a healthy, logical mindset in youngsters and, with the aid of the internet, unite children from completely different cultures and continents in an experience that is at once challenging, enjoyable and educational.

Pawn to Key Stage 4?

SuccessStoriesLooking for an excuse to get a Kindle for Christmas? The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has suggested that bedtime stories can

PISA - an international study that evaluates education systems in participating countries - found that regardless of socio-economic background, children whose parents reported reading to them at least once or twice a week in their early school years tended, at the age of 15, to outperform peers who did not hear stories often.

Unfortunately, the same PISA report suggests that of 65 nations surveyed, the United Kingdom ranks 47th in terms of the number of teenagers who read for pleasure outside school, with boys considerably less likely to do so than girls.

NB Boys frequently turn out to be reluctant writers, too. For some tips on to how inspire them, see How to put creativity back

into writing on page 6.

Online BuzzwordsWith news that GCSE students are soon to be marked down for spelling errors, and

literacy tests, online spelling and grammar tools could be in greater demand than ever.

Fortunately, November saw the launch of Spellathon - which enables learners of all levels to practise and improve their spelling while raising money for Mencap - and the popular Times Spelling Bee website is expected to return in 2012.

www.innovatemyschool.com 5

News written by: Tim Miles, Innovate My School

How to put Creativity Back into Writing

6 Innovatemyschool

It’s well known that many school children fear the “blank sheet of paper” when asked to write about a particular topic. How to start? What tone to use? Who is the audience? What purpose does this writing serve? The result is trepidation about writing - and more often than not, boys are the more reluctant writers.

How do we help children to feel more positively about writing and how can we provide interesting and inspiring stimulus for writing? One effective way is to create a major event that affects the whole school. Perhaps an alien has landed in the school grounds, or the World Cup has been found hidden behind a tree in the

school by asking all pupils to spend the day investigating the discovery and writing about it. Asking the children to write newspaper articles is a good way of providing an instant audience for their writing, and having the discovery made in school makes the piece of writing incredibly relevant.

Another successful way of igniting pupils’ imaginations is to provide a special audience for their writing. Whether it’s tiny insects or mythical beasts, an interesting audience can encourage and inspire children to write creatively. Setting the scene beforehand will help to prepare the children. Write a message from the beasts in the grounds of the school and ask the children to respond, or ask pupils to write postcards to the ladybirds and then get teachers and parents to write letters back to the children.

Curriculum pressures mean that the fun, creative element of writing is often overlooked. Moving beyond the curriculum on occasions and allowing pupils the time and space to explore writing creatively will inspire a love of writing amongst many pupils and provide spectacular results.

Expert Article written by: Jane Jackson, Book Space for Schools

bookspaceforschools.co.uk

www.innovatemyschool.com 7

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THE LOST ART OF LISTENING

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In your work as a teacher, how often do you come into contact with music? Maybe you are a music specialist, in which case the answer might be ‘‘all the time’’. Perhaps you work in dance or drama and see music as integral to your work there. You might incorporate songs within your teaching to help students better understand an entirely different subject. Or perhaps you run an art department and have music in the background to engender a mood or atmosphere. Whichever might be the case, can you say that you actively listen to the music you are using? What does it mean to listen actively?

We have become ever more accustomed to hearing music in our daily lives, more or less as environmental noise, whether it be accompanying breakfast-time news bulletins, underscoring urgent advertising messages, or simply from a radio left on to provide ambience at home or in the workplace. In

gaming, music has become an essential ingredient, sometimes at a frightening rate of decibels. It’s rare to encounter a public space where music is not present in some form or other and many websites also use music to underpin a message or signpost a particular sensibility.

In spite of - or perhaps because of - all this exposure to musical sound, it seems that we are spending less time actively listening to music - engaging with its content and exploring its contours. There is a danger that we are failing to pass on both the habit of listening and the appreciation of how to do this effectively to our children. Therefore,

a whole generation may be missing out

experiencing music on a conscious level. Let’s take a moment to indulge in a little

have been missing.

It’s possible that I’m a little older than one or two of you who are reading this article. But perhaps some readers have, like me, a distant memory of the thrill of encountering a new album release. My own recollections stretch back to the days of vinyl, when the packaging itself was something to behold. As a child and into my teens, I would scour the artwork for hidden messages or hints of a deep artistic statement. I would then listen

often reading lyrics at the same time as listening, sometimes gazing at the artwork, but always focusing on the sound.

one and generally quite a heightened experience, as it would serve to determine how thrilled or otherwise I was with my new acquisition. I’d note the impact and mood, make mental comparison with previously held expectation (especially where this was a follow-up from a known artist) and begin to build a mental reference library of highlights. Usually a second listening would follow immediately, during which I would consolidate my opinions and perhaps start to listen more deeply to the structural elements and/or lyrics within

Music has become an essential ingredient

Innovatemyschool10

the music. Then on the third listen, I would generally be able to sit back and enjoy the album, having assured myself that it was OK/good/great (or not).

Ring any bells? Was that just me? Well, I have to confess that over time, I too have lost the habit of really listening to music, particularly albums. It’s certainly much rarer for me to take the time to listen to anything more than once in a single sitting. I suspect this will be the case for many of us and it has to do with a number of things. Clearly, as one gets older and accumulates different responsibilities, it becomes harder to justify such seemingly passive use of our time. Culturally, the album as an art form has arguably been displaced by individual downloads, playlists and a general thirst for ‘choice’. And most of us will default to a form of recreation that is provided via a screen of some sort, so that even where music is present, it is not our primary focus.

So here’s something you can try out for yourself and could also set as a task for your pupils. Next time you sit down at the end of a hard day at school and reach for the remote/keypad/power-switch of your preferred entertainment medium, just pause and take a deep breath. Think to yourself, “No: today I’m going to unwind with some music – now what haven’t I listened to for a while?...”. Dim the lights, perhaps light a candle or two (maybe not for younger

block out any extraneous sound sources and really listen. I think you’ll be surprised. You may even rekindle a passion for music you thought had gone for ever, and you might awaken something in your pupils they never knew was there. Why not set this as a homework task and get your pupils to report back to the class afterwards? Perhaps they could bring in examples of anything they found particularly inspiring (maybe they’ll discover some rare vinyl in the attic!).

Happy listening!

THE LOST ART OF LISTENING

I too have lost the habit of really listening to music

Expert Article written by: Brian Madigan,Madmusik

www.dancenotes.co.uk

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12 Innovatemyschool

Going ForGreatnessJoel Marshall, Deputy Headteacher of St Mary’s CofE Primary School in Kidderminster, explains how a national award scheme promoting innovation helped the school to rocket out of special measures.

There can be few things more demoralising than being publicly labelled the worst school in the UK. Yet this was the ominous distinction St Mary’s had earned when I joined as Deputy Headteacher two years ago.

As a leadership team, we faced many challenges. The school was in special measures; only seven percent of Y6 children achieved national expectations; attendance

(2008); pupils had high levels of special needs; behaviour

Change had to happen, and Go4it, a national award scheme created by education charity HTI, was the catalyst.

Go4it recognises and rewards schools which dare to do things differently, inspirationally, and with a sense of adventure. It had helped to turn around my previous school and we hoped it would support a similar transformation at St Mary’s.

Go4it gave us a framework to innovate: a licence to take risks. A major area of innovation was in rewriting the

INTERVIEW with a school

Article written by: Joel Marshall, Deputy Headteacher.St. Mary’s CofE Primary School, Kidderminster

www.stmaryscevaprimary.co.uk

13www.innovatemyschool.com

curriculum. We realised that a “traditional”

community we serve. The curriculum diet the children were receiving wasn’t relevant to their lives: it did not enhance their achievement or enjoyment of school.

Part of our curriculum development centred on our “Do Something Different” (DSD) scheme, which aims to instil in children a love of learning, raise their aspirations, and give them exciting opportunities.

DSD takes over the timetable for three mornings each half term. Children choose an activity and focus on that for the three sessions. The list of activities is extensive, including project managing the School Fayre, a Glee club, a PR group that produced a promotional video, a community computing

and relaxation classes.

As a channel for innovation, DSD has

children, but also our school and community. DSD is run not only by teachers, but by teaching assistants, pupils, parents, school governors and community members. It has mobilised an entire community, including the local Women’s Institute, to enable quality learning at St Mary’s.

DSD is the impetus for many initiatives we have used to bring about change at St Mary’s. We created an award-winning nurture class to support children most at risk of exclusion or struggling to integrate into mainstream lessons. We re-branded our parent-teacher association as St Mary’s Angels to engage more parents in fundraising, and set up sessions to encourage more parents to read with their children. We introduced a number of

family-focused activities such as cookery workshops targeting low-attending families, and well-being sessions for families where relationships were strained. We now use peer coaching and peer massage for children and are currently looking at activities that

in class.

Our local Sainsbury’s is a strong supporter, providing milk for our breakfast club, prizes for attendance and helping to transform our old caretaker’s bungalow into a community learning base.

As a result of all these initiatives, attendance

high, overall achievement has increased dramatically. Parental engagement (lack of which presented a huge problem in the past) is so high that we have had to turn parent helpers away. The school has soared out of special measures. We were the most improved school in Worcestershire in 2010.

This would not have been possible without Go4it. Go4it gave us the “oomph” to change our curriculum, to take a risk by steering away from the ‘‘tried and tested’’, and to innovate in order to achieve bigger and better goals.

We were the most improved school in Worcestershire in 2010

Innovatemyschool14

The basics of good class room management

Everyone knows the old adage “prevention is better than cure”. This is as true of classroom management as it is of anything else. Preventing disruption from

better than struggling to regain control when things have all gone pear-shaped.

As staff mentor, I was once asked by a

and observe one of my lessons. He wanted, he said, to see “How you deal with confrontation”. I told him that he was welcome to come and see my lesson, but he was unlikely to see any confrontation because I tried hard to make sure it didn’t happen. Of course, the question he should have asked is “How do I avoid confrontation

So how do you prevent misbehaviour from

thing to say is that you can’t always prevent it. Children misbehave: it’s part of their job description. The trick is to reduce the occurrence and degree of misbehaviour and to know how to deal with it effectively

when it does arise. Unless you are one of those born teachers with an intuitive skill for managing youngsters, good classroom management comes with experience; but there are some useful tips and hints to get you started.

Be at your room on time - before the students arrive, if possible. Don’t leave them standing in the corridor. By arriving on time, you send a subliminal message to your class that they are important to you. You will have time to supervise an orderly entry into the room, rather than there being a rushed effort to get them out of the corridor.

Have clear, established routinesfor putting bags and coats away, and having

The basics of good classroom management

prevention

Arriving on time, you send a subliminal message to your class that they are important to you

www.innovatemyschool.com 15

books out ready to start. Try to have something on the board for them to do or look at as they come in. The key objective is to reduce the amount of idle time during the initial settling-down period at the start of the lesson. Make sure you have everyone’s attention before you start talking. Don’t be one of those teachers who sprays instructions around the room at the top of his voice while the class is in chaos. To gain attention, address individuals by name rather than the whole class: it is much more effective.

Recap on the last lesson: Good classroom management and good teaching are two sides of the same coin. You can rarely have the one without the other. Put the day’s lesson in to context by relating it to what has gone before. What seems an obvious connection to you may not be so evident to the students.

Learning objectives: Some schools require teachers to put the learning objectives on the board. Though I agree that it is essential to put the lesson in to context, this practice can be rather like starting a joke with the punchline. Try to phrase your objectives in a way that leaves something to be discovered: “Today we’re

more engaging than “To be able to state the role of chlorophyll in photosynthesis”.

Be prepared: You know - you absolutely know - that there will be at least one student in your class with no pen. Don’t waste time creating a fuss, just have a tray with spare pens, rubbers, rulers, fresh exercise books, lined paper for those who’ve forgotten their books, etc. Of course, it would be nice if every pupil turned up to every lesson fully equipped; but - unless you teach in one of the newly fashionable “Zero Tolerance” schools - this isn’t going to happen; so be prepared for the foreseeable eventualities. Try to avoid rushing out to the stock cupboard to get equipment: you’ll end up having to re-establish order when you get back.

Lesson preparation: There are those who will tell you that if you make your lessons engaging and entertaining, there will be no misbehaviour. This, of course, is complete nonsense and can lead to inexperienced teachers planning their lessons in greater and greater detail in the belief that lesson presentation and content are the only things that dictate pupil behaviour. They aren’t. Clearly, a lesson presented in a boring and dull manner is likely to make

a pupil intends to misbehave, it might be that no amount of lesson planning will stop him. Prepare your lessons well and make them as interesting as you can, but do not rely on that as a panacea for classroom misbehaviour. You need a behaviour plan as well.

Create a positive classroom climate: Is your classroom a place of dread for your students, or is it a place where they want to be, where they feel safe and secure? Is it a place of uncertainty where a detention could spring out of nowhere depending on your mood? Or is it a place where the rules are clear, known, understood and applied

Try to phrase your objectives in a way that leaves something to be discovered

Innovatemyschool16

consistently and fairly? Make no mistake: what you do, what you say and how you say it can have a profound effect on pupil behaviour – for good or bad. As Haim Ginott said, “It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous”. One of the fundamental prerequisites for effective classroom management is the creation of a positive climate in your classroom.

Catch them being good:As teachers we are very good at catching kids misbehaving, but not so good at catching them being good. Don’t turn your lessons into moaning sessions: go out of your way to catch pupils being good. Try to average at least three positive comments to every negative one. Look at it this way: an animal trainer does not teach a dog a new trick by beating it every time it gets it wrong, but by rewarding it when it does the right thing.

Punishment can produce short term compliance, but encouraging and rewarding positive behaviour is more effective in producing a lasting improvement.

Start each lesson with a clean slate: I knew a teacher who would go in to a lesson

for the earliest opportunity to remove a particular pupil. Needless to say, that teacher

did not have a particularly constructive relationship with his pupils. Sometimes it can

mayhem caused in the previous lesson; but unless we give each pupil a fresh start each week, we risk turning misbehaviour into a

past mistakes does not make for a positive and constructive relationship.

Rules: Classroom rules regarding communication, interaction with others, movement, safety and learning are essential for managing behaviour.

Effective rules are few in number, positive in intent, discussed with the class, clearly displayed in the room, and taught to the students. The consequences for transgressions must be clear. Most importantly of all, the rules must be consistently applied. Consistency is a key component in the creation of a positive classroom environment. Children feel aggrieved if they are punished for something that was ignored in a previous lesson. When it comes to the effectiveness of sanctions, the certainty of a sanction is more important than its severity. Consistent and fair application of rules and consequences is a major factor in avoiding confrontation. Another major factor in creating a calm classroom is the use of positive correction and the least intrusive methods for dealing with off-task behaviour.

Go out of your way to catch pupils being good. Try to average at least three positive comments to every negative one

Effective rules are few in number

The basics of good class room management

www.innovatemyschool.com 17

Expert Article written by: Ed Whittaker,Teacher and Managing Director of Schools Data Services

www.sds.ac

LATEST REVIEWSWe never pay anyone to review anything on the site, ensuring that all recommendations and reviews are authentic, enabling teachers to make informed choices and to shop

and services are subject to being reviewed by our community.

EXPERT ARTICLESIndustry experts from a diverse range of education companies regularly share their inside knowledge and innovative approaches with our school community. Each expert contributes exclusive articles to help you understand and learn more about their area of expertise, why it is important, and how it can be used to aid teaching and learning.

SUPPLIER NEWSWe publish the latest supplier press releases as and when they are released to the media, keeping you up to date with anything new to the education marketplace plus any important service changes that you need to know about.

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How life experience can shape the future of pupils in schools

20 Innovatemyschool

Inspiring young people is not a new concept, but in a world of recession, job cuts and fewer opportunities in work, motivating pupils and getting them to be excited about their prospects after school is more important than ever.

According to recent news, unemployment is

of National Statistics show that the jobless rate of 16-24 year olds reached 21.3% in the previous quarter. Nearly a million young

to work hard and achieve in order to live their dreams is a must in the classroom.

Unlocking the experience of teachersThe piles of paperwork, inspections and daily tasks of life as a teacher can sometimes mean that skills and experience which can’t be used

in lesson plans are overlooked. But it is this expertise that could actually hold the key to pupils’ success. Schools across the country are

invaluable life experience, and these attributes should be used in lessons. Many teachers have had previous careers in industry and are able to offer valuable and interesting insights into careers, training and what it’s like to work. Opening pupils’ eyes to the wider world can plant the seeds of possibility and inspire children to pursue a certain career path.

Finding InspirationSo how can teachers do this? The simple answer is that there’s a whole world of possible ways to engage youngsters; one top tip is to talk about exciting, risky or unusual stories from a previous job. Many young people see teachers as authoritative and stern characters, and are rarely let into their

How life experience can shape the future of pupils in schools

www.innovatemyschool.com 21

of a teacher can be an excellent way to encourage them to think about career choices - barriers will often come down and the dynamics in the room will be different from those of a normal lesson. This works especially well if teachers can tell pupils about things they’ve done in the past that are really impressive, such as working with celebrities, doing a skydive or fundraising for charity.

Tips for teachersBe honest, but be careful: do not overstep the mark by using inappropriate stories or language. Have a group discussion rather than giving a lecture from the front of the class. Sit at the same level as pupils to break down traditional teacher-pupil barriers.Offer advice, but don’t tell them what they should be doing for a career. Be helpful and if students take an interest in the topic, offer

in touch with a careers service. Encourage them to do work experience: it will give them a real sense of what the world of work is like.

My school doesn’t have the time

Don’t worry. There are plenty of external providers in the United Kingdom that can provide inspiring experts to give talks or run interactive workshops. Some schools like industry experts to come into the classroom and get young people to think about what they’re going to do when they leave school; others prefer their pupils to be learning through industry workshops.

The main thing to remember is that no matter what budgets schools are working to, there are always opportunities to expand pupils’ horizons - even if there’s no funding available at all.

Expert Article written by: Rachel Johnson, Industry Insiders

www.industryinsiders.co.uk

Managing iPads in the classroom

Innovatemyschool22

Managing iPads in the classroom

From laptops to netbooks, MP3 players to games consoles and mobile phones, the role of technology in education is constantly increasing and evolving. Of the many developments, few - if any - have been as heavily debated as the iPad.

Small, light and interactive, the iPad has been hailed by many as a perfect tool for education. Using iPads in the classroom can be both fun and educational. However, managing these extra resources can prove problematic. Here are a few ways to help keep your new tablets safe, secure and ready to use when needed.

Unless you are lucky enough to be able to invest in an iPad for every pupil within your

to share however many you have between classrooms. It is a good idea to create a rota or booking form to ensure that each class has a fair opportunity to use the tablets. However, I would advise against posting this rota on your school’s public website: although this would make it easily accessible to staff, it would also be readily available to thieves.

In addition to planning when pupils will be able to use tablets, you’ll also need to consider how to make sure that the iPads are actually ready for them to use. This includes making sure they are charged

and ensuring that they have the correct applications installed. Additionally, the devices must be kept safe and secure. These issues can be addressed by a combination of an iPad trolley, carry cases, and a desktop synchronisation solution. There are, however, selected iPad charging trolleys that can provide an all-in-one solution for securing, charging and synchronise your iPads.

Purchasing iPads for a school is usually a considerable investment, and the devices are often a target for thieves. Storing iPads in a purpose-built trolley can provide added security to keep the valuable tablets safe. It is, however, important to carefully consider the features of any trolley before purchasing it: not all offer the same functionality.

Expert Article written by: Vicki Cole,LapSafe® Products

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