ten ways for schools to nurture excellence - challenging approaches to fit to the school context...

Ten ways for schools to nurture excellence - challenging approaches to fit to the school context whilst remaining realistic in what is done

Define success, high standards and appropriate levels of progress in English

Investigate gaps to understanding what the appropriate level of challenge might be for our learners in terms of the work we set and accept. What does it look like for the learner, and how do we transmit that awareness? What are the indicators of excellence, and who generates them? How are they specifically taught?

Develop resources that offer students real stretch on the most challenging texts to support their deconstruction of unseen texts (combined with past AEA exam papers and the use of ELAT papers and Pre U Global Perspectives all accessible online). Choose challenging texts as they necessitate a depth of thought and set high standards as well as force students to have to confront difficulty and develop understanding the hard way. Select Paradise Lost rather than Carol Ann Duffy to try to achieve an A* as opposed to very securely achieving an A by tick-boxing all requirements.

Apply and communicate the language of high expectations and aspirations in English

Normalise academic excellence through the school culture and model and encourage an intellectual curiosity and bravery that never sets academic learning as beyond anyone’s reach

Shift the deficit model and encourage students to be more ambitious in their learning and in the critical reading choices they make. Particularly with students who are often good orally but much weaker on paper, as they often don't know what is being demanded of them and what their real potential might be. Improve their understanding that A* requires more flair and criticality and that this only comes through discussion, reading and sensitivity to more subtle or ambiguous arguments/ideas. Improve students’ critical writing skills at KS5 for the exam, to develop students able to write enough, to a consistently high standard, and under timed conditions.

Celebrate expertise and mastery and normalise intellectual debate in English

Ensure students are routinely expected to give extended, reasoned answers or are at least given that opportunity. Don’t protect students from grappling with difficult tasks as they won’t develop what psychologists call ‘mastery experiences.’

Develop approaches and resources that encourage scholarship, controversial ideas and alternative interpretations and that develop their skills to ‘take hold’ of a question, and also help them to look ‘Oxbridge plausible.’ Set a structured agenda for wider reading so they acquire a deepening familiarity with the full range of literary forms and genres, and with a variety of cultural, literary and historical reference points allowing them to interpret texts with increasingly well-informed sensitivity. Students may be missing substantial cultural capital but we can teach them how to decode - to understand the words and syntax required for breaking down a text.

Deliberately set up productive failure by continually raising the bar in English

Build the capacity to resist the temptation to quit when the practice task looks like being beyond a learners current ability level is critical to long term achievement. Make the high level most challenging demands to understand whether our students would have been capable of reaching the highest standards.

Teach texts that are in themselves ‘high challenge’ resources necessitating problem solving/enquiry - texts that will genuinely stretch the top students is essential as is studying them in great depth. Set the highest possible standards and show students what they need to do to get A*s, primarily by not setting insufficiently challenging work on simpler texts. Improve their sensitivity to new ideas and develop tact in negotiating unfamiliar material (rather than subject knowledge) to give them a shot with Oxbridge interviewers.

Teach students about the role that effort, ambition and personal responsibility plays in success in English

Teach students that self esteem cannot be given to them before they embark on a task, that it comes as the result of tasks being mastered. Too many students think effort is only for the inept.

Encourage students to question and challenge their own answers, forcing them to use the text rigorously to support their interpretations and to see that alternative interpretations of texts are to be encouraged and explored. Showing what can be done to get students to write analytically and evaluatively rather than descriptively and instilling students with a confidence to take risks in examinations / interviews. A* responses require a personal enthusiastic engagement with ideas and texts so students’ ambition can help them avoid the temptation to ‘play it safe’ rather than display the flair that the examiners are looking for.

Talk explicitly about subject mastery in English

Make the high level most challenging demands ‘the norm’ and ensure support for students who need it. Try not to gloss over the ‘Big Issues and Complex Concepts’ so that students genuinely understand what excellence might look like.

Explain and demonstrate that A* requires more flair and that this comes through discussion and sensitivity to more subtle arguments/ideas. Give students a structured agenda for reading in order to acquire a deepening familiarity with the full range of literary forms and genres, and with a variety of cultural, literary and historical reference points which will allow them to interpret texts with an increasingly well-informed sensitivity. This agenda must extend substantially beyond the range of texts covered by the course specification.

Rigorously reinforce scholarship in English

The point of learners as ‘experts in development’ is that students need to grasp the subject essentials but also to understand how difficult and frustrating gaining scholarship can be. Make explicit what skills and behaviours are required of your learners to achieve beyond the top grades. Are students encouraged to go ‘off piste’? Is it clear to everyone why this is important?

Encourage students who want to take the subject at university to research and write essays independently – perhaps setting a summer essay prize for this and encouraging students to enter various external competitions. As a department and school, offer extra-curricular activities that allow students to explore aspects of the subject beyond the syllabus. These might include reading groups, drama productions, creative writing groups, debating society, public speaking competitions and student journalism.

Establish clear expectations regarding precision in the use of

high level subject specific language in English

Make the use of technical language a high priority when evaluating the quality of teaching and learning and make it clear that precision is expected. Attack work from as many angles as possible and unpack/pull apart concepts and ideas through language.

Ruthlessly assess and interrogate meaning and test and probe discourse and consistently challenge students to improve their quality of expression. Establish a continual feedback loop of writing and improvement – students only achieve at the top end if they are continually engaging with texts through the medium of written, academic argument, and in order to improve they need specific feedback on that writing so that they can implement generic improvements in subsequent arguments (not in corrections to existing pieces). Develop students’ ability to write with a wide-ranging and suitable vocabulary, as well as their ability to reproduce argumentative genres and to achieve stylistic density and precision.

Offer the opportunity for students to embrace ambiguity, doubt

and uncertainty in English

Challenge students to go far beyond the specification and focus them on the ‘where next?’ horizon. Offer the opportunity to students to make disparate connections and to apply existing knowledge to new challenges. Encourage risk taking and academic rigour and normalise mistakes by ensuring they happen often.

Ensure students are exposed to thinking beyond the boundaries and are focused on the most difficult texts. It is vital to encourage students to question and challenge their answers, and to act like detectives forcing them to use the text rigorously to support their interpretations and to see that alternative interpretations are to be encouraged and explored. It’s important with the new linear A levels to focus on the unseen and to give students practice on practical criticism through the Pre U Cambridge Lit Paper and to give them experience of sensitively interpreting texts in the light of other texts.

Teach to the top through deliberately and explicitly demanding work in English

Let students know that the aim is for them to really discover their intellectual limits. Embed excellence into every day lessons through resources and tasks pitched to challenge the most able based on an assumption that the most able students will be able to attain the top grades.

A clear focus needs to be on iterative development, a dialogical focus talking about the writing process itself and how they are writing. Show what effective notes look like to secure the top grade and how to explain texts clearly so weaker students have access to all they need to know so that a focus on style will then be possible. Students require very thorough feedback on their essays so how to mark work with targeted feedback to edit and redraft work is essential. Resources are currently too tightly based around ‘what you need to do to get an A’, rather than developing the skills that would allow pupils to achieve these grades anyway.

What are the barriers to A* in Science?

some of the greatest problems are the students inability to fully understand the requirements of the question and to not simply write everything they knows about the topic, the inability to use their taught knowledge to explain unknown and unfamiliar facts and the inability to form synoptic links between topics.

the students can arrive with low expectations, low motivation and a preconceived idea that Science is difficult. They need to be able to apply their existing knowledge to explain unknown concepts but they find this difficult.

expecting a high degree of literacy is also a real problem. They need to be taught all the keywords to extend their scientific terminology and literacy.

What are the barriers to A* in Science?

Many of our students are not independent learners and would like to be merely ‘told’ the answers.

Teachers are strong when it comes to teaching exam technique but sometimes weaker delivering any lessons beyond specification points. Change will not occur in one exam group. It will take a number of years and must be a school inclusive policy, not restricted to the Science department.

There is a lack of lesson time to properly build up their study skills. A lot of the stretch & challenge work is set through independent learning, which they do complete in their own time.

What are the barriers to A* in science?

a real problem can be the lack of cumulative understanding. science very much builds on basic principles which, if understanding is lacking/missing entirely, makes further study not only challenging but frustrating and leads to disengagement. Instead teach a narrative arc of lessons.

GCSE gives students the false idea that they can cram science at the last minute and still obtain a high mark, therefore trying to instil a culture of self driven learning early in AS is important.

adding more content to the GCSE exam would be beneficial so that students enter the AS course fully prepared without denting their confidence

What would help students in science?

enabling students to answer questions in sufficient detail, using the appropriate technical terminology, especially when presented with novel or synoptic questions

employing preparatory materials in bridging the knowledge gap between GCSE and A level, so that a greater proportion of lesson time becomes dedicated to tackling the more challenging aspects of the topic and stretching the more able students

sparking the interests of students both within and outside of the classroom in the bigger concepts of science

What would help teachers in science?

attending science conferences and annual science day to listen to current developments in Science from researchers in a range of fields helps to build teacher confidence and expertise.

ways to understand what the examiner is wanting from the question and to know what to include and what not to include.

teachers demonstrating they’re interested and excited about talks and other events going on in school - makes a difference to level of attendance by students

What’s needed in Physics?

ways to help able students to address low literacy levels – over 40% of the papers in Physics are now explanation based rather than calculation - and too often students do not appreciate what the question is asking and what it expects; being able to translate keywords in an exam context is vital; being able to write in a classical mode - students don’t know what to write or sometimes what to assume the examiner knows

ways to give students experiences that go beyond syllabus and require students to engage more deeply with material such as relativity, Gauss’s law etc

ways to understand what the examiner is wanting from the question and to know what to include and what not to include. Sometimes it is still an issue of not including enough explanation in the written answer to clarify their methods to the examiner.

Teach to the top through deliberately and explicitly demanding work in Physics

Improving their skill set to include: Problem solving – the more exposure to challenging, off the

syllabus questions the better Estimation – what’s the mass of an elephant? How big is this

room? Mathematical aptitude – pupils studying Physics without Maths A

level less likely to achieve a top Physics grade Resilience – problems in physics can be very challenging and it

requires perseverance and self-confidence to see a problem through to the end without asking for help along the way.

Teach to the top through deliberately and explicitly demanding work in Science

Encourage students to thoroughly question the material that is put to them and to synthesise synoptic links between subjects.

Encourage students to use their syllabus as a guideline for revision, in addition to their notes and practice questions.

Ensure students can verbally explain their ideas clearly. Ensuring that the students have revised and answered in sufficient detail, remembering to always use the relevant terminology where appropriate.

Students are also sometimes surprised by the level of specificity required in their answers, compared to GCSE. They critically need to express ideas with accurate and technical terminology and have misconceptions in language - how the meaning of words changes from KS4 to KS5

Teach to the top through deliberately and explicitly demanding work in Science

Students at A* having been offered a broad and deep understanding is of huge benefit to them. This is because it enhances their enjoyment of the subject (which is the key to motivation) and also prepares them for questions which require them to suggest completely new ideas or process new information which is only partially covered in the syllabus.

It also gives students the confidence to know that they will be able to tackle even the most challenging of questions which are put to them in the exam or by interviewers. They need to broaden their subject with reference to current research and articles.

Teach to the top through deliberately and explicitly demanding work in Biology

regularly give pupils articles from Biological Sciences review or Nature to read.

teach a topic to a substantially higher than necessary level for the specification.

As a department offer a Biology Society, which is a discussion group for talking about recent Biological issues in the news.

Establish library access to a number of online biology publications which can be e-mailed to staff – a quick and easy way to stay on top of breaking news.

Teach to the top through deliberately and explicitly demanding work in Maths

going beyond the syllabus and running Enrichment activities incorporating involving advanced level topics in mathematics and on higher order problem solving which are outside the syllabus. In particular preparing students for STEP, AEA and MAT papers, which require problem solving beyond A Level.

include stretch and challenge activities in every lesson and providing advice to students on what is expected in interviews at Russell Group universities. Visits and extracurricular trips should be taken by these students ie Maths Inspiration, Institute of Education.


improving the confidence of students to tackle problems alone. We need to guide students to ‘make connections’ between the various branches of maths and see how it all fits together. Weaknesses not being identified damage student confidence which in turn obviates the possibility of giving then practice on the topics they need and damages their self belief.

improving students understanding about the impact of hard work and practice (A* needs some ability too). The students’ must work hard and do a great deal of work outside of the classroom, ON PAPER not MyMaths self-marking tasks. Accuracy is key and much of that comes from practice.


improving students understanding that a highly coached ‘spoon-fed’ GCSE Maths cannot continue at AS/A2 and that they need to make the transition to independent learning early in AS. Also students needing to understand that the requirements of a Maths degree are very different to A Level (understanding of proofs).

making clear to any gifted students that they will under-achieve if they compare themselves to the weaker students in the class.

improving students with weak algebra and number skills quickly so they can process and assimilate new Mathematical ideas as thoroughly, confidently (or quickly) as those who are more able.

How do we close the gap between GCSE to A Level and A level to university in Physics?

Vocabulary/Definition/Scientific language. Subject-specific academic literacy for Science.

How does the precision of the language used in A level science differ from GCSE. How to bridge that gap?

Classroom approach to support students in understanding and using precise language.

Unit specific vocabulary (Are some units more dependent on vocabulary/definitions then others?)

How to tackle long and wordy questions (appreciating what the question is asking and what it expects)

The development of resources that offered students real stretch on the most challenging concepts rather than ‘just knowledge’ which can kill understanding, e.g. textbooks from the exam board

What is needed in Physics?

improving the ability of students to develop sound mathematical technical competence (particularly algebra)

improving their ability to apply their existing knowledge to explain unknown concepts and understand other situations and also being able to observe with insight, usually offering perceptive interpretations and extrapolations are important as well as the ability to convey the key ideas in an intelligible way.

What is needed in Chemistry?

the development of resources that offer students real stretch on the most challenging big ideas for Chemistry

maths skills and being able to balance equations understanding what a chemical reaction is and the maths behind

it being able to link ‘smaller’ concepts to the bigger picture to widen

understanding

Teach to the top through deliberately and explicitly demanding work in Chemistry

Run a science society solely by the pupils. They choose speakers to talk about things that interest them - from the chemistry of the stars to looking for a cure for Malaria to the science of black holes. The students can run their own discussions on medical ethics.

Science enrichment lessons, RSC starter questions, Lectures at RI/ UCL/ Imperial, Chemical Analysis competition held at Queen Mary College, Chemistry Olympiad, science society and the opportunity to edit and write for the school science magazine all help the high achievers to do better.