Diary of an NQT The behaviour manager


THE SCHOOL, which is only small anyway, feels empty at the moment. Years 11, 12 and now 13 are all on study leave, consequently there’s only years 9 and 10 left in the building and the place is full of echoes. It reminds me of a ghost ship or one of those horror films when everyone stupidly enters the creepy empty school at night. Apparently this is the time


of year to “whip the year 9s into shape”, or so says the school’s behaviour manager. For the children, she is a scary figure. While only short in stature, she makes up for it by having a big and looming presence – the mere sound of her voice is enough to terrify the “hardest” of the kids into quiet submission. Earlier in the year, when


I was still enjoying the fact that I could shut my lab door if I wanted, she would often open the door, pop her head in, and survey some of my worst classes, just to check things were going okay. I seem to have passed her strictness test, as for months now she’s not been coming into my room. The naughty boys in my form are


terrified of her. She’s only ever once made an appearance at form time to drag one of them away. He went as white as a sheet. Recently she decided to pick on the two year 9


classes I teach because they are considered to be the worst behaved year 9 classes in the school. One is, on paper, a high achieving top set, but is


plagued with too many “personalities” clashing with one another and has to be carefully managed lest it


Teach it like Torno! No comment?


“My comments are reserved for reputable journalists.” Ward Churchill. Well, would you believe it? A study by Durham


University has concluded that quality feedback from teachers is more effective than giving grades. The report was published by the Sutton Trust and came about after an investigation into the best ways to help schools in deprived areas raise attainment. It advises that comments “should be specific, related to challenging tasks, given sparingly so they are meaningful, and encourage self-esteem by focusing on the positive”. Moreover, it suggests that other


attempts to ensure pupil success, including homework, the use of ICT, and performance-related pay all had low impact, and in many cases proved to be very expensive for little or no return. In fact the report also claimed that focusing on fast and effective feedback was 124 times more cost-effective than reducing class sizes. Now if that is not telling you I don’t know what is. Having said this, comments


rather than grades have been encouraged by the likes of Professor Dylan Wiliam for many years now. Moreover, though many would agree with the report, how many schools are actually going to allow their teachers to carry out a comments-only policy? Schools are so driven by market


forces that they need to be able to feedback to parents about what level their children have reached. In many cases this has got to the stage where pupils are Level 4.2 one week and 4.3 a fortnight later – progress just does not work in this way. The reality is that despite the research


carried out by Paul Black and Prof Wiliam some 13 years ago, thousands of teachers up and down the country are still ticking books and putting comments like “underline your title”. Furthermore, as many more schools become academies the demand for instant feedback in terms of grades will only increase. Teachers will be under pressure to regularly prove that “progress” is happening in terms of numerical data in order to satisfy the government’s drive to raise standards. In fact, the common sense approach of applying


comments only will move further and further into the distance as schools begin to behave more and more like companies and the ethos shifts away from changing lives to meeting the demands of the market. The type of research carried out by Durham University will continue to be extremely valuable, but sadly not acted upon. I am confident that we will still be reading about giving comments only in 20 years time, but the sad reality is that school leaders are not courageous enough to make this whole-school policy. They are too worried about what parents, or should I say clients, will say about it. Never mind what’s best for the students as long as we have something to measure. Yet, the long and short of it is that everything we do should have the students at the heart of it. Come to think of it I am not sure how much of a revelation this research really is. When athletes are training their coaches don’t give them a grade, they offer them advice on how to improve. What we need to do in the teaching profession is to encourage teachers to behave more like coaches and to reflect on the way advice is given. You would not say to a sprinter that they need to run faster you would give them an insight into how


to run faster. In short, we need a culture shift on the purpose of marking and assessment. However, as I indicated earlier the idea of Assessment for Learning is as old as the hills. It is not that teachers are unaware of the benefits of AfL,


but that many of them simply do not carry it out. Additionally it may sound patronising, but perhaps schools need to conduct INSET


reiterating the purpose of feedback. Teachers need to fully understand that when they are marking they are not doing it for the leadership team, head of department or indeed the parents – they are doing it to enable pupils to move on!


• David Torn is a professional tutor at St Edward’s School in Essex. He is a former Teacher of the Year for London and co-author of Brilliant Secondary School Teacher. He is passionate that the purpose of education is to change lives. He returns in two weeks.


explode. The other is the bottom set, where reading a simple sentence or writing their name can sometimes be a challenge too far for the students. But I really enjoy teaching them and there’s very little maliciousness – just laziness and an unfortunate ability to be easily distracted. In my lessons, we have a standing


rule; if you’ve forgotten a pen, or another piece equipment, you trade something of value to borrow mine. This works brilliantly and I always end up with my equipment back. However, unfortunately for


this class, recently we were visited by the behaviour manager, who was on the warpath. “Ballistic” is one word that could be used to describe her when she saw quite how many students


had forgotten pens. The other class has been ritually tortured by her for weeks. However, we finished a lesson early this week and I was chatting with them about why they have such a bad reputation and why, generally, they don’t mess about in my lessons. I was pleased to hear that they all like science and had realised they all have to do science while they’re at school, so no-one suffered from the “I’m not doing that subject next year, why should I bother” syndrome. But mainly the reason that


they behaved for me was because they thought I was a bit mad, in a slightly unhinged scary way. Perhaps I should become a behaviour manager too?


• Our NQT diarist this year writes anonymously and is a teacher of science from a secondary school in the East of England. He returns next week.


SCIENCE Controve


What is ‘Dramatic Enquiry’ and just how to you apply


it in science? Carrie Saint Freedman reports on one school’s unusual approach and the impact it has had ITH THE


curricular techniques. At Thistley Hough Media and Visual Arts College


in Stoke-on-Trent, year 9 students applied “Dramatic Enquiry” (a fusion of two teaching strategies – Philosophy for Children and Drama in Education) to GCSE science by exploring the science of genetic diseases and the moral and ethical dilemmas it provokes. The resulting drama, The Trial of Girl A, was


W


performed recently at a conference for teachers and other educational professionals entitled “Learning through Dramatic Enquiry” as an exemplary example of the genre. Neil Phillipson, head of science at Thistley Hough at the time and latterly secondary school science consultant at Stoke-on-Trent local authority spoke to SecEd about the project, its origins and its implications. He explained: “We want to enable students to


become scientifically literate citizens and be able to engage in debate about science-based issues whatever they choose to study later on. “We all have to confront and make decisions about


immediate personal concerns like vaccinations and mobile phone use, but we hope that students will also enter into wider public debate and controversy around issues crucial to society’s future such as nuclear power, renewable energy, recycling and nanotechnology.” The challenge is how to engage pupils in an


entertaining way and encourage them to think, to develop opinions and to express their ideas cogently and effectively. Thistley Hough’s solution was a project designed not only to equip students with new skills and knowledge, but also to raise teachers’ interest in the How Science Works agenda, both within the department and across the school as a whole. With support from Creative Partnerships, the


science department was able to call in Gordon Poad of Cap-a-Pie Associates, drama-in-learning specialists who had already explored the potential of combining two pedagogical approaches – Philosophy for Children and Drama/Theatre in Education. Mr Poad explained: “A theatre-based framework


offers a new context for learners who are challenged beyond the scope of more traditional channels of enquiry. With theatrical tools and devices they can experiment both intellectually and emotionally in new and exciting ways.” It was quickly apparent that this project was


going to push back the boundaries on several levels simultaneously. While neither Thistley Hough’s pupils nor its teachers had ever encountered the phenomenon of Dramatic Enquiry before, the concept had never been applied in a scientific context before either. It was going to be a steep learning curve all round. With the objective of ensuring a sustainable impact


on teaching practice in the long-term, the project was implemented as an introduction to GCSE science


While neither Thistley Hough’s pupils nor its teachers had ever encountered the phenomenon of Dramatic Enquiry before, the concept had never been applied in a scientific context before either. It was going to be a steep learning curve all round


‘ 8 ’ SecEd • June 16 2011


for year 9 and involved the participation of as many science teachers as possible. A two-day planning summit attended by year 9 tutors and the entire science department resulted in an inspirational and thought- provoking outline for the enquiry. We are transported to a future where the world is


in financial crisis. A World Council passes swingeing legislation resulting in the genetic screening of all 16-year-olds. Those who are carriers of diseases targeted for eradication are sterilised. A dissenter, known as Girl A, is brought to trial for evading the screening programme. It is a test case and will have far reaching implications... Each of the seven year 9 classes spent a day in


the “courtroom” as lawyers for both prosecution and defence and later as jurors, creating a trial with their science teacher as expert witness and Mr Poad as judge. They devised questions for the cross examination of additional witnesses including spokespeople from government, the church and the bioethics authority among others. Balancing the rights of individuals against the needs


of society was the pivotal debate and proved to be inspirational for the young people involved. Many of them were forced to reflect, perhaps for the first time, on the nature of fact and opinion; on the reliability of evidence and the crucial importance of applying critical thought to their reasoning.


national


curriculum placing increasing emphasis on “How Science Works”, science departments are seeking new ways to engage their students using cross-


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