LEADERSHIP


Kate Drysdale is a former SecEd NQT diarist, but is


now in her fourth year of teaching and has taken on the leadership of PE GCSE. She tells us how it is going


team leader in charge of GCse Pe, and I have very much got my hands full. It makes me laugh that some people still ask me


I


what my second subject is. spend a week in our Pe department and then tell me if you think we need a second subject. With GCse, BteC Levels 2 and 3, and A2, plus the usual core Pe, plus the highest number of extra-curricular clubs possible, you are welcome to try and find us the time! there is no question that I feel the pressure of


leading the GCse. However, I am extremely lucky that my predecessor left things in almost a model state so it has been fit to pick up and run with, with just the odd tweak here and there. despite this, knowing our previous two years have seen 98.5 and 98.6 per cent A* to Cs, I do not have a lot of room for improvement. Bring on the 100 per cent! on the new specification. With our first cohort through. With nothing to compare it to. With 98 students. Ho hum... I know we have got a great teaching team though.


I attended the sports College Conference recently and I was quizzed by a number of teachers as to why our results are so good. I found it difficult to tell them; I genuinely thought what we do is run of the mill. We work hard and we use as many interactive teaching methods as we can. students do not learn by being spoken at. they equally will not learn by having a text book thrust in front of them and being given a page number. I currently teach two year 11 groups, and they


have completely different learning styles (no chance of doubling up my planning there), but neither group learn from a command style of teaching. doing it is how they learn most effectively. I am not suggesting that we head for the sports hall every theory lesson and attempt to teach everything through practical, but why not teach the olympics through creating video footage? We had a lesson for research, then a lesson to record their news broadcast using the handheld Creative VAdos (an essential tool in every Pedepartment). they were constantly reinforcing the necessary theory in the numerous takes of their news broadcast and they were having fun while they were doing it. Which, at the end of the day, is what we aim to achieve. If a question on how the olympic Games has been


used as a political platform comes up on the paper, I guarantee that every student in my class will have it confidently answered. Compare that to a potential question on “environment” which I know I could have taught better, and the positives of interactive teaching methods ring true. engaging the students from the first moment you


start the lesson is essential. No longer is there “in this lesson you will learn about the physical differences between male and females” flashed up on the board, but instead let’s have “men are better than women”. similarly, using “people with disabilities are dependant and passive” to stimulate a discussion on disability in sport is far more effective than “by the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain how sports are adapted to cater for disabilities, and the legal requirements for sports facility provision”. I know which one I would rather have if I was walking into a lesson. these discussions can be whole-class or within


smaller groups. teachers are there for the students to learn from, but they learn so much from each other too. It is very rare for one of my GCse Pe lessons to have no group discussion in it. students know different things, have different


points of view from each other, and have different ways of explaining things to help each other understand. teachers may not like to admit it but sometimes a student can explain something more effectively than they can because the student is using language and a thought process that is more akin to their peer. Peer-teaching is something I find incredibly


valuable, and we have used that explicitly this year to extend our A*/A students and push our C/d borderline students. With our GCse Club running once a week at lunch and once a week after school, we have a


SecEd • June 16 2011


t does not seem that long ago that I was writing my NQt diary for SecEd! It is hard to believe that I am now in my fourth year of teaching – can someone please tell me where the time has gone? I am still teaching at south dartmoor Community College but I am now assistant


Leading GCSEs


team of A*/A candidates who are “on call” to teach any students who have been identified by their class teachers as struggling with particular theory or who did not achieve the required pass mark on a home learning task or mock exam. I think students can really learn effectively from


teaching something themselves. At the end of the day, teachers know their theory so well because we teach it regularly and we are used to explaining it. the same can be said for students in the same position. If they need to teach it to someone else, they are constantly reinforcing it to themselves also. Couple that with us targeting our C/d borderlines and we are on to a bit of a win-win. this is something that I want to do more of next


year. I piloted it with my current year 11s but it perhaps has not been pushed enough. As we all know, teaching is constant evaluation so I will tweak it and improve it for next year and hopefully it will create an impact. Creating a personal tutor programme is something I have also played about with this year, with two year 11 students providing weekly half-hour tutorial sessions for a year 10 boy who struggles with the course. their commitment has been admirable, and this is something that I will try and progress further in the future. the GCse post has been an enlightening challenge.


there is a lot of things I would like to do more effectively next year, but I think not having a year 11 class will ease pressure enough that I can put more energy into this. Am I supporting the other five GCse teachers enough? If not, what support do I need to offer teachers who actually all have more teaching experience than I do? Are we doing enough work on the scenario in preparation for the exam? How can we use our school intranet for learning tools such as podcasts? As ever, it is all a learning curve and I know I am


in a fortunate position to have some truly fantastic teachers around me so we can move forwards and upwards together. I remember writing in my NQt diary for SecEd


that learning and evaluating is key to progressing your teaching, and it remains very important. As one moves on in their teaching career, I guess the fundamentals remain the same. As you begin to take on more responsibility, the workload most definitely increases, so enjoyment becomes all the more key – for both staff and students. If you are enjoying something, and believe in its worth, everything else will start to fall into place.


SecEd


• Kate Drysdale is an assistant team leader in the PE department at South Dartmoor Community College in Devon. Kate was seced’s NQT diarist four years ago. You can still read her entries by searching for her name at www.sec-ed.co.uk


Organised by


In association with 5to7


five to seven educator www.fivetoseven.co.uk 8th national conference Autism Today Cavendish Conference Centre, London 11th & 12th July 2011 TOPICS WILL INCLUDE:


Assessment of autism: which approach should we use? Dr Helen Pearce


Complex presentations of autism Dr William Mandy


Parent’s experience post-diagnosis Jim Chapman


ASD in genetic syndromes: assessment and implications Dr Jo Moss


Feeding diffi culties in autism Dr Gillian Harris


Living with autism Dean Beadle


Reducing stress and easing transitions at school Mike Stanton


Forensic issues in autism Dr Helen Pearce


Role of speech and language therapy in intervention and management of ASD


Gina Davies


Helping adolescents with relationships and sexuality Angela Ward-Brown


Early behavioural interventions: role of PEACH Kirsty Hayhoe & Suzy Yardley


TEACCH Barbara Blyth


Motor skills in autism: pulling apart different motor processes Dr Emma Gowen


Effectiveness of pharmacotherapies in management of autism Dr Paramala Santosh


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40 YEARS OF MEDICAL EDUCATION 13


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