Schools of Our Dreams.....

Having participated in the weekly #Ukedchat last night I thought it would be interesting to see if there were enough variety in the ideas to create a forward looking school. I certainly felt uplifted by the conversation and one thing remains very clear, the network which is in place on twitter is of the highest calibre and we certainly feel privileged to be part of it.

The title of the conversation was to design the school of your dreams. The first interesting thing to come out of this was that all of the ideas were very student centred and involved dedication, innovation and above all else a whole lot of hard work. There wasn't one mention of a return to the traditions of the 20th century, nor was there one mention of a need to improve discipline in our schools, in fact behaviour in the negative sense didn't even enter the conversation. Just to make that clear, the two ideas being put forward by the GOVErnment at the moment didn't even enter the thoughts of those who work and love education!!

In terms of building design, there were strong feelings towards modern open plan learning environments and a move away from individual classrooms. Furniture to be fit for learning and not because it agrees with the bursars purse. This would certainly give a greater freedom of movement and create a much more dynamic environment. If this is then tied into the calls for smaller class sizes at certain times but also much larger groupings at others, this type of building design would make this more possible. I reiterate at this stage that those calling for returns to "traditional" behaviours (and by traditional we really mean autocratic do as I say behaviour) would struggle to imagine how this is possible. Yet for those in education the only thoughts and emotions are excitement and how this would create greater opportunities for learning.

As is often the case, independence towards learning figured highly on the agenda but this time there was the start of some real exploration towards achieving this. A great variety of curriculum with less emphasis on working towards exams would be the model used giving teachers and learners great autonomy towards their education. There was a strong feeling that technology could play a big part to achieving this. iPads and tablets would allow for information to be accessed as and when needed rather than a prescriptive lesson in a computer room. Learning has to model the way we work and live and our young people are used to having access to email, google and social networks. The working hours would also be more flexible to fit it with the learning needs of the young people in the hope that this would encourage learning as a part of life and not just something which they have to do at school. 

Other aspects of this school would be centred around outdoor learning, quality written feedback to aid progress, target grades and levels would be a thing of the past and the community would be much more involved in the school itself. One idea being that the learning resources and library would be the ones used by those who live in the area. 


The exciting thing for me is that this practice is going on in our schools all around the country, however it is vital that the networks which came together to generate these ideas go from being web chatter into something which actually makes a difference. It needs to be the start of a movement across all schools and one which must not be drowned by political education policy which is being based on one man's thoughts. A man who only has his own time at school to base them on. The voices of many experts must be able to be heard in order for this dream school to become the norm, because lets be honest, we all know that given truly greater freedom, it should be very possible.

A Motivational Climate.......Part Three

The third addition to our Motivational Climate Setting series looks at the Reward Systems which are used in your classroom and asks you to questions whether they serve the purpose they are intended for. 


A lot of what follows expands on an earlier post we wrote entitled Punished by Rewards - please read this if you haven't done already. Having written about the use of rewards in schools and asked the questions about why we have to bribe our young people into conforming to learn, we thought we should at least begin to look at alternative ways of setting a climate where the young people learn because they want to, because they have their own reasons and not ones which we have forced onto them.

Before we move on to looking at solutions, I just want to give another example of the mindset which widely exists in educational circles and to throw out some further questions. I was in a conversation the other day surrounding Year 10 and 11 students and how they always become less and less interested in commendations for their work. The fact that this came up excited me as it allows for all sorts of exploratory questions as to why. Instead, however, the questions being asked were ......... how can we get them to like commendations? ..... there must be a way we can get them to like receiving commendations...... can we get a competition going? ......... should we have a prize draw? ...... is it because they are not cool? etc. Have we got so entrenched into this mindset that we now have to incentivise the incentives!!!! The bottom line is that receiving commendations through Years 7, 8 and 9 hasn't served any purpose to these young people and as a result they do not value them. We need to take the hint.


Once again the findings on the ground are supported by what the research is telling us; incentives generally only work when the task is repetitive and mundane as it can act as a light at the end of a dark tunnel. It has also found that even with incentives, through time, the thought of not doing the mundane task becomes more appealing then any incentive on offer and a person may opt to not do the task. Learning should never be repetitive or mundane and therefore it should not require incentives in order to make it happen.


To move forward on this do we simply remove the brown envelopes containing any strategy which acts as a bribe from our schools and watch what happens? Or do we need to consider further what is left once such systems are removed? Does it create a void which will do further damage? Will our young people feel undervalued? Will they switch off further? Will behaviour get worse?


Maybe ask yourself these questions and think about your classroom or school depending on your current position of influence and can you start to trial examples and comment on any of the above? Have you already got examples to put forward? Simply is there a better way?

A Motivational Climate.......Part II

To continue on the thread about setting a motivational climate from the start I thought I would concentrate on our second important factor which is Challenge.

At the start of any year it is important that the young people in your classes know they are going to be challenged over the next year. Educational research from Prof. John Hattie on what influences student learning includes challenge as one of the 3 most important influences.

Prof Philip Adey, 2008, states "what the research shows consistently is that if you face children with intellectual challenges and then help them talk through the problems towards a solution, then you almost literally stretch their minds" 

If we tie this into what we know about motivation then an increase in cleverness will kick start their internal drive and get them seeking to know more. As educators we can not therefore starve our young people of opportunities to be challenged. 

There are many ideas out there about how to create challenge within your teaching and I would encourage you to find which ones work best in your setting. For now though, we wanted to put something a little different forward to fit into our focus on the start of the year.

The issuing of Target Grades - Include Solutions has written before about how target grades could possibly constrict a young persons internal drive and restrict their intrinsic motivation and to be rid of them would create an interesting study. However, in most schools this is not going to be possible, not yet anyway, unless you are a headteacher reading this, so we have looked into making this more fluid for our young people. Instead of just giving the target grade to them which has probably been given to you by a data manager ask for the Chance Table from which it has been generated and use that to allow the young person, through a 1:1 discussion, to be part of choosing their target for that Year. If you look at these for a given student, it will show you their percentage chance of getting each grade compared to similar students from similar backgrounds, KS2 results, Gender etc. Traditionally what schools do is take the one with the largest percentage and make that their target grade. So if under the B Grade column lies a percentage of 38% and that is the highest, then that will be their target. However, under the A and A* Grades may be percentages of 25% and 15% respectively. This tells us that 40% of students actually go on to achieve greater then a B. Should we not be allowing our students to be aspirational and at the very least believe that anything is possible.

This of course is supported by further research studies which have found that with time, and a lot of it a person can master almost any task and that includes subjects taught at our schools. Encourage this, find examples of success and share them with your young people as this will help with their belief.

It is this conversation which will help set the early climate, all you need to do is make sure you maintain it from one lesson to the next through your teaching.

A Motivational Climate.....

Motivation flourishes when the climate of the classroom is right and it is the teacher who controls the settings. Getting it right can take time and a lot of thought but by taking a few important steps can begin to offer an environment which allows students to grow. Over the next week we will be sharing with you some ideas which you can use as the new term begins

The first is the Ice Breaker which is a tactic aimed at getting to know your classes and to allow them to get to know just a little bit about you. It works in the very same way that any ice breaker works, in that they share something with you about them and you do the same back. However the success of this comes from what you get them to share with you and vice versa.

I use the homework of the first lesson to set them the task of preparing something which shows me who they are. It is vital that you get them to search their abilities/interests/ambitions as this can then be used throughout the year in your general conversations with them. You are much more likely to be able to challenge and push them if you know who they are. The information they share with you is priceless and must be treated sensitively but used in the correct way it can help set a positive tone from the beginning.


If you are going to get your students to open up, you have to be prepared to do the same and this is where what you share with them comes into play. For this to have any lasting impact you should consider the following:

• It shows you in a different light
• Has a element of challenge
• Something exciting
• Interesting to them

One teacher I know uses the video of her sky diving to break the ice, another shows clips from their past musical career. I have lined up for this September a video of me crossing a wire bridge 200m off the ground with an expression which clearly shows my anxiety. 

We like this strategy as it begins to tap into the greater reasons for learning which we feel should be part of the everyday learning conversations which take place in schools. It is also a very light hearted way to start the year and helps to get relationships growing within your classroom. It is very different to the no smiles approach we are told at University and with some classes it may not be appropriate, but I am sure there is a place and a class where you can try it out.