Views & Opinion


Spontaneity makes learning meaningful Comment by ALICIA BLANCO-BAYO, Early Years teacher, Kirkham Grammar School


The era of innovation is here, and a new generation of teachers are entering the classroom with complex expectations of what the learning environment should look like. This thought comes to mind often as I am invited to explore settings and to learn about the different styles practitioners use to set up attractive areas to motivate children. There are some truly skilled artists working in Early Years creating eye- catching displays. What I wonder is why they feel the need - who are we trying to impress when the learning environment shows the practitioner’s own artistic talent? Of course, it is important to value those skills because when you work with young children they are very important. However, it is crucial to understand that the environment needs to give the children a voice and be set up to awake children’s curiosity and sense of discovery.


When children become stars


I have discussed ideas on how to set up Early Years classrooms with many practitioners but one of the most rewarding experiences occurred during my time in India in a mission school. Bethel Baptist Academy is a small school in a village called Kachamaranahalli outside


Bangalore, where just over one hundred pupils make one of the most vibrant environments I have ever come across. I have seen many wonderful classrooms with innovative resources 3 and 4-year olds could use better than me, and although BBA was nothing like that, it had something that made me realise how what was happening there was all about the children. If anyone had told me I was going to learn this much from a group of children who live the humblest lives I have ever seen I would have certainly frowned. This little school is different from any of the schools I have been asked to work with. It has two leaders who give their heart and soul to every child, parent and teacher, very basic learning spaces, truly caring teachers and a group of children who are excited about learning. As for resources, needless to say there were few. This might make one think it is a hard task to bring learning to life, but what I witnessed over the time I spent in the school was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had the fortune to be part of.


Since all the essential tools were already there I did what I always do - let the children guide me. In no time small stones, leaves, flowers and old banana crates were turned into meaningful


resources and the children created the most amazing designs. We got the parents engaged in their children’s learning as they interacted with them and together brought joy to the learning environment. The banana crates turned into a bus that went on a journey to the zoo where thinking and problem solving took place, while children interacted with each other and made up their own story as they acted it out on what had become a real bus for them. Parent-child interaction became a powerful learning tool when other natural resources found outside were used to make incredible creations and children experienced the magic of interaction with their parents through play.


Maintaining staff morale when money is tight


by setting differentiated objectives Comment by DENISE INWOOD, managing director of BlueSky


Schools are collaborative organisations and all teachers join the profession with expectations that they will make a difference. However, we are all familiar with the business principle that generally 80 per cent of an organisation’s work is completed by just 20 per cent of its staff. Put that into the context of a school and it can mean that new professionals who arrive in school full of energy and enthusiasm are leant on too heavily and may burn out if not appropriately supported. This is bound to affect morale.


So it’s self-evident that in order to retain highly motivated and effective teachers in our schools we need to nurture them and support them. This doesn’t mean we don’t offer and encourage challenge, but that such challenge is within the context of their job description and their responsibilities.


In the current education environment where money is tight and schools have limited opportunities to reward their staff financially, it is critical that reward is earned and seen to be so by all staff in the organisation. The process is very simple, if not challenging. It involves senior


November 2017


leaders setting fair and appropriate professional objectives which reflect the responsibilities of individual members of staff across the board, so that teachers rewarded with a position on the upper pay scale are accountable for more challenge and have a more demanding set of objectives than their more junior colleagues. This means that objectives need to be differentiated. If I am a teacher at the top of the upper pay scale then my objectives should have a different level of rigour and accountability than if I am a teacher in my third year of practice. For example a teacher at the top of the Upper Pay Scale (UPS) may have objectives which include coaching and mentoring less experienced staff, whereas the objectives for a third year teacher would be more likely linked to perfecting aspects of their own practice and be linked directly to outcomes in their own classrooms. We know that Ofsted will look very closely at the quality of teaching in schools and the UPS profile of staff. We are hearing frequent stories of Ofsted challenging Leadership and Management in schools when they have witnessed poor Quality


of Teaching but the school has a significant number of teachers on UPS.


Therefore it’s essential that head teachers grasp this nettle and ensure that staff have objectives that are fair and appropriate, that reflect their levels of responsibility and ensure that they recognise their accountabilities to deliver to these.


Part of the Performance Management cycle should include head teachers reviewing the agreed professional objectives of their staff. Whilst part of a formal process, it does provide a head teacher with two very powerful insights into staff engagement, reviewing the professional objectives set for staff, heads will find an amazingly useful way of taking the collective pulse of their organisation, reflecting on the direction of travel and the commitment staff are making to the journey as part of the organisation. But as well as that it will also help to ensure potential under-performance resulting from a lack of challenge is being addressed at the outset and help to maintain staff effort, morale and commitment.


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