School profile The keys to success


William Ransom School has won numerous national level awards and is seen as an excellent educational establishment in the South East of England. Steve Mills, assistant headteacher, and winner of Primary Teacher of the Year 2009, explains what he believes makes the Hertfordshire school so successful


W


hen Ofsted inspected William Ransom School in 2009 it stated: “This is an outstanding school. It


provides an excellent education, enabling all pupils to make exceptionally good progress in their learning.” The school has won numerous national level awards in sports and has been shortlisted for the TES awards for the past two years. I have been teaching at William Ransom


School for over 11 years now. I can honestly say there has not been one day where I have not enjoyed it; hard to believe for some I am sure. Making every lesson as good as you can make it through various methods and techniques is the mantra I like to live by. Each teacher is different and feels more comfortable using certain methods over


“Making every lesson


as good as you can make it through various


methods and techniques is the mantra I like to live by”


others. During my years of teaching I have found that when certain factors are in place children produce a higher standard of work and are more responsive to teachers and their general educational setting. Factors include, creating an exciting and stable environment for children, using the appropriate tools to enhance teaching and finally, creating strong partnerships with parents, involving them at all stages of their child’s academic career.


Create an exciting and stable


environment Creating lessons that engage children, making them enthusiastic about a range of subjects and wanting to progress and learn more is the key objective for teaching. A question I like to remind myself every day when I teach is would I find this interesting?


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Would I like to learn about the Romans from a textbook? Probably not. So, why would a class of nine-year-olds want to learn about the exciting times of Julius Caesar merely from words on a page? Bringing topics alive have proved extremely


successful in lessons. For example, recently when we were covering World War II in history, parents were asked to dress their child up in an evacuee costume and provide authentic packed lunches. The uptake on this was fantastic. Parents really got into the spirit of it all, baking homemade bread for jam sandwiches and a few even joined us on a school trip to visit the Imperial War Museum. We have found the pupils really enjoy days like this and absorb the information more when they can relate to the subject matter being taught. At the school we are always looking for new


ways to present the curriculum. We like to reinvent ourselves all the time, taking with us the methods that have proved successful in the past and incorporating them with innovative ways of teaching traditional subjects.


However, this is not to say every class


is unruly and running riot. The children know when they need to be quiet and apply themselves. It is all about a balanced approach. Stability of staff in the school is also a key


feature at William Ransom. The team work together to create a strong foundation for the school. We discuss our classes and what has worked for us and what needs to improve. We share ideas and suggestions and feedback as a whole group. Stability breeds confidence and all individuals, including children and staff, can relax and focus on what they need to do, such as lessons and coursework.


Using the right technology and


equipment There are so many products and gadgets on the market now for schools to invest in, and some initially appear novel and helpful. However, I have found that most get put to the back of the cupboard and abandoned until a teacher reads an article somewhere and we retrieve


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