Back in February HFL Education hosted their EdTech Showcase, a fantastic event where schools and settings came together to share and learn about the great ways in which they were using technology to support learning. I was asked to be part of a panel to discuss and debate technology, from an Early Years perspective. Now, as I’m sure you’ve read in the media and through various sources, screen time in early years is a hot topic. There is much debate about the pros and cons of using technology with children under 5 years old, but the reoccurring theme is the amount of screen time our children are having.

As we find ourselves embracing new ways of working, the provision of home learning for parents and carers is a tricky one. For those of us who have spent our careers teaching young children we know the very best learning experiences happen through play – but how do we communicate this to parents and carers? What happens when they ask us for work, or apps, or websites?

There are many companies offering free subscriptions, additional learning materials and some great online resources. The Department for Education has recently released a list of approved websites to support home learning. We have spent time reviewing these to find out which ones are most suitable for Early Years and how you can use them with your families to support home learning. 

However, I think we need to be mindful of the amount of time our Early Years children are spending on screens. Last April the World Health Organisation published its first ever guidelines on screen time for children under 5 as part of their Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep Guidelines. They stated that children under 2 years old should have zero hours of screen time (this includes television and films) and children aged between 2 and 5 years old should only have one hour per day of screen time (including television and films). Although, practitioners, parents and carers may feel conflicted as other organisations such as the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the NHS do not advise specific limits, but do advise that screens should not be accessed one hour before sleep.

It is worth bearing in mind the advice of Professor Andrew Przybylski of the Oxford Internet Institute, a department of the University of Oxford. He says, that what matters is not the screen, but what is happening in front of it and that what might potentially cause harm is the content that children consume and not the amount of time that they spend.1 This is a clear message to us as practitioners and to parents and carers to make sure that we are fully involved in the digital world of our children, so that we can understand it, keep them safe and support them in making healthy choices when it comes to technology use.

So what does that really mean for us in practical terms?

It’s all about the balance

We need to provide a balance of activities for parents and carers that supports their understanding of how children learn through play and how certain apps and websites can complement their learning (rather than being the main part of their learning). We need to consider how we can support parents and carers to interact with their children when using technology, to promote talk and understand their role in guiding learning.

Think about the quality

Let’s think about the quality of the apps and websites we are signposting families to. Have we tested them ourselves? Have we checked the content to see if there is lots of ‘learning by rote’? Are we encouraging parents and carers to be fully involved in the activities we are recommending, again, promoting lots of talk and supporting children’s communication and language development?

What else can we send home?

Are we inadvertently driving a digital divide for those children that don’t have access to computers, laptops or tablets? In line with our early years ethos we want to ensure we are sending home activities that don’t always produce an end product, but allow children to have experiential activities, ‘have a go’ and ‘be creative’. Follow our partner EPIC Early Years on Facebook, providing daily activities to support home learning using items parents and carers already have at home

Underpinning all of this we need to ensure that we are all using technology safely. Don’t forget to continue to share online safety messages with parents and carers through regular newsletters, emails, texts and workshops to ensure their children are using technology safely.

Some key questions you might want to think about with parents and carers with regards to eSafety:

• be mindful of games older children are playing that younger children may be able to see or hear
• do you have parental controls on your devices to ensure children cannot access inappropriate content?
• at times when your children are using technology alone do you have clear boundaries and rules that you all follow as a family?

When our children return to our settings and schools, we need to think about the key skills they will need. A screen will not teach them how to dress themselves, pour their own drinks, use scissors, or interact with others. Whilst technology is going to play a really important part in their lives, we should be mindful of how our communication with parents and carers during this time continues to promote the key skills we need our children to practise, remembering to give great suggestions about how to support the development of these too.  

Let’s not forget technology is a wonderful thing. After all, every one of you reading this will be doing so through the power of technology! How we communicate home learning opportunities with our families is through the power of technology, and how we check in with our loved ones is through the power of technology. It absolutely has a rightful place in our lives and in those of our children, but, especially during these times, be mindful of the amount of time both our children and we ourselves are spending on screens.

Good intentions are not enough to keep children safe in schools. A robust safeguarding culture is one in which safeguarding is embedded into every aspect of school life with school leaders key to ensuring it’s front and centre of everyone’s thinking. Across England we are seeing a flurry of schools rated ‘Inadequate’ by Ofsted after failing to demonstrate effective safeguarding practice. Governors are part of the leadership and management team and therefore have a key role to play in ensuring that safeguarding is effective in their school. 

The document that has long underpinned safeguarding in schools is Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) and the latest consultation is underway for the 2022 version which closes on March 8th KCSIE consultation. It’s essential that all governors should at minimum read the condensed version of Part 1 (annex A) and ideally Part 2 The Management of Safeguarding where specific reference is made to governors’ responsibilities – given the whole board responsibility it could be argued that governors should read all of KCSIE. The following are some of the proposed changes, these could form a very useful discussion on safeguarding at an FGB meeting: 

• one proposed change is to take the standalone DfE guidance on sexual violence and harassment and merge it into Part 5 of KCSIE – does this simplify things or lose sight of a key document?  
• the phrase ‘peer-on-peer abuse’ has been replaced with ‘child-on-child abuse’, this clarification brings into sharper focus what is being referred to and the language that needs to be used when discussions take place – how has your boards understanding of child-on-child abuse evolved over the past 6 months during which the awful scale of this problem has been emerging?  
• more detail on the impact of domestic violence on children - the impact of lockdowns, working from home and the periods of learning at home have all contributed to the growth in child victims of domestic violence. What is your school doing to train staff to recognise signs of abuse and what systems are in place for easy and effective reporting of concerns?  
• further guidance on Prevent and preventing radicalisation - are you up to date with your training, does your board still have regard to this important, but sometimes overlooked, area of safeguarding? 

The following are some of the other key proposed changes looked at in more detail: 

Safeguarding training 

There is a common misconception that there is a statutory requirement to be safeguarding trained as a governor, the fact is that this has only ever been ‘recommended’ including the advice to refresh your training every 2-3 years. It is clearly desirable that all governors be safeguarding trained given the boards overall responsibility for this area and more so to enable governors to understand their responsibilities and be able to challenge effectively. KCSIE 2022 has strengthened the guidance on training to "Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that all governors and trustees receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training at induction. The training should be regularly updated." This is still not a firm ‘must do’ but is a clarion call to governors and boards to receive governor specific training, will this be an action at your next FGB meeting? 

Social media checks for job applicants/ safer recruitment  

Schools have spent many years warning their pupils that what they post on social media can have career limiting consequences down the road so it’s not surprising that KCSIE is now consulting on schools considering carrying out online searches, including social media, as part of their due diligence on short listed candidates. This will prompt a debate as to what online activity would be viewed as a reason to not progress with a candidate as opposed to that which, with hindsight, may look ill-judged but have no relevance as to the candidate’s suitability. When you combine this with governor training on safer recruitment you are adding a very complex new angle to school staff recruitment. A clear set of parameters will need setting as to what online activity will be looked at, what types of posted content will be considered, what will be the historic limit to the search, what are the red flags and what can be discounted – consistency will be the watch word to avoid potential discrimination or other challenges to the process. 

Attendance 

This is now viewed as a key safeguarding battle ground with new and compounding issues caused by the pandemic, children ‘missing from education’ are a child protection and safeguarding priority for all schools.  In a dramatic intervention Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, has stated that between 80 and 100,000 children are completely missing from school rolls (that’s an average of 4 pupils per school) whilst nationally attendance is languishing at about 87% as opposed to an average for January of 95% BBC article. Setting these startling claims to one side how as governors are you receiving attendance data? Is it clearly laid out with commentary and actions to tackle trends and persistent absenteeism? Do you have a link governor for attendance who can monitor this throughout the year rather than just snapshots at FGB meetings? Can governors articulate the challenges and what is in place to improve attendance?  

Having a positive safeguarding culture is often referred to but sometimes not fully understood. It literally starts at the school gate with site security and access key to creating a safe and secure boundary from within which education can be delivered. How is the culture visualised? Are the DSL and their team clearly signposted around the school and how easy is it for staff and pupils to report their concerns in person or anonymously? Are school policies on child protection, behaviour, safeguarding and online safety clearly communicated to staff, pupils and parents and are the current versions on your website and easy to locate? (Your website is the school’s window to the world and will be one of the first things Ofsted will look at prior to an inspection) Do staff, governors and visitors have clearly identified lanyards so that pupils can identify adults that should be accompanied and how visitors can be challenged? Are there clear safeguarding protocols for visitors, do they receive/ and or sign to agree to them? Do the board receive termly safeguarding updates at meetings? Is safeguarding a standing item on your FGB agenda?  

A small example of how basic things we take for granted when denied can have damaging consequences, in this case Bed Poverty. This moving article explains bed poverty Guardian article, the following item from 2018 stands out for the fact that Hertfordshire is listed amongst Local Authorities distributing beds BBC article. I mention this in the wider context of safeguarding beyond the school gate and is a small example of where staff training can help to identify those hard-to-reach vulnerable students and provide life changing support, in this case a child simply having their own bed to sleep in. 

There is little doubt that safeguarding can become overwhelming for governors, having a safeguarding link governor is a starting point but by no means the end of the matter. A link governor cannot take on the safeguarding brief alone, remembering that safeguarding is something we all have a collective responsibility for. When you visit your school, whether during the daytime or evening, have your eyes open to safeguarding concerns, if you see something that doesn’t feel right don’t wait to report it, speak to the Head or DSL whilst you’re there or as soon as reasonably possible after. Governors must have the view that ‘it can happen in our school’, this is no way a criticism of the safeguarding culture in your school, but without this mindset then you collectively enable those that are predisposed to find and exploit weaknesses with all the devasting consequences that follow. Be trained, be aware, and be prepared to report any concerns for the sake of the children whose care and safety we are entrusted with. 

To contact us please use the following: 

Governance Helpdesk – 01438 544487  

Governance Training – 01438 544478 

Or email as before - governance@hertsforlearning.co.uk 

“Risky play can be defined as a thrilling and exciting activity, that involves a risk of physical injury, and play that provides opportunities for challenge, testing limits, exploring boundaries and learning about risk”
Sandester 2007

In a world where some say ‘health and safety has gone mad’ and ‘in my day we … and it did us no harm’, risky play is always a hot topic in Early Years. Here are some things that have been banned from schools in the UK in recent years - in the name of health and safety:

• children unable to play with cardboard boxes (they were a fire risk!)
• children not allowed to touch each other on the playground (in case it led to a fight!)
• children not allowed to dig in the Nursery garden (because of the risk of e-coli!)

Some of them sound quite unbelievable – right? And I’m sure you’ve heard many, many more.  Yet, it is so important for children to take risks – because if they don’t, they don’t learn how to manage or make decisions about risk, which in turn means they can’t take responsibility for their decisions.

That ‘what if’

When we speak to older generations, they often talk about some of the things they did ‘in their day’ and they question why children today don’t have the same experiences. The answer to this is often - fear. Not fear from the children, but fear from the adults. Children climbing trees don’t experience the same fear as the adults who are watching them – in case ‘something might happen’. This fear of ‘what if’ can become a thought in our minds that the ‘what if’ may turn into a reality. 

A hazard or a risk?

Whilst it is important to keep children safe in the environments we provide for them, we must also consider the differences between ‘hazards’ and risks’ and not get these two things confused.

• a hazard is something a child does not see, it is usually dangerous and it is within our role as practitioners to identify hazards to children, talk to them about why they are dangerous and remove them
• a risk is a challenge that a child can see and chooses whether or not they want to engage in that challenge. It is when a child pushes their own boundaries and learns through firsthand experiences. If we eliminate risk it can lead to our children’s inability to assess danger

Children take risks all the time, when they ‘nearly’ fall off the climbing frame or ‘nearly’ crash the scooter into the garden gate. That ‘nearly’ part is actually children pushing their own boundaries, challenging themselves and taking risks in their play. By ‘nearly’ falling off the climbing frame they are engaging in a risk that makes part of their play enjoyable but also supports them to make decisions about how far they can go next time. It is actually a really fascinating part of their brain developing and beginning to understand managing risks for themselves.

Some things to remember

• risky play is different for all children
• part of physical development is for children to engage in play they find challenging – this usually happens when they are secure in their PSED
• lots of learning is taking place about actions & consequences and cause and effect when children engage in risky play
• if children are allowed to take risks, they learn how to manage those risks
• adult restrictions can leave children never building the confidence to try or they can lead them to creating situations where they look elsewhere for risks, away from adults, which is potentially dangerous
• ALL children are different and NOT ALL children seek out risky play, some never leave their comfort zone whereas others seek the thrill of challenging themselves more. Every child will attempt a risk they feel comfortable with and they don’t always require extensive adult supervision

The adult role in risky play

• risk assess (either visually in that moment, or written risk assessments)
• interactions – how do your interactions support risk taking?  Asking questions like: ‘what might happen?’ ‘How can we tell this is safe?’ ‘Do you feel safe?’ will indicate a child’s understanding of the risk they are taking. Also, if our interactions are too negative e.g. ‘we don’t do that’, ‘stop doing that’, ‘get down’ - we are limiting opportunities for children based on our own ideas of risky play. That ‘what if’. Remember a child will usually only attempt a risk they feel comfortable with and are generally highly engaged with this activity
• modelling – showing children, playing alongside and talking to them about how to use resources safely as well as suggesting possibilities
• trust – our knowledge of our children gives us the advantage of being able to trust them. If we show we can trust them and we have modelled how to risk assess for themselves they will begin to manage their own risks
• communicating with parents – ensuring parents are aware of risk and challenge in your setting and how you are teaching children to challenge themselves but also keep themselves safe

What does this look like in practice?

• building tall structures, balancing objects that may fall
• climbing up self-built structures or climbing equipment, sometimes to a height that adults feel is “too high”
• climbing other structures such as trees or monkey bars
• rolling – either inside barrels or tyres or rolling large objects
• woodwork and toolkits
• stick play
• messy play
• knives for food preparation
• fire

Finally

We need to remember that there is a balance between a child’s need to play (even if that does involve risk) and that there is a possibility that accidents can happen when children take risks.

The word ‘risk’ appears several times throughout Development Matters, and in the Characteristics of Effective Learning. There are also many articles available on the benefits of children feeling secure to take risks in their play.  

Once we begin to embrace risky play, we begin to see the benefits. We can step back and observe all the skills children are learning, such as cooperation, curiosity, confidence, decision making, resilience, independence to name a few – which begins to look very much like the Characteristics of Effective Learning.

Great leadership in schools is about balancing investment to ensure continuous improvement in the quality of education with sound financial management to ensure that the trajectory of improvement is sustainable. I have always questioned why more investment is not made in building the financial and business skills of school leaders. We rightly invest significantly in the pedagogical knowledge of leaders in schools, yet many heads start their careers with little or no budget management or finance training. It is easy to forget that schools are unique environments, where unless you have a specific responsibility for school business management, you simply aren’t exposed to it. This is unlike most other organisations where budget management goes hand in glove with managers rising through the organisation. A head can reach headship without ever having had responsibility for a budget beyond their personal finances. A core responsibility of the Governing Board is overseeing the financial management of the school and ensuring that money is well spent. The day-to-day operational responsibility is passed down to the head, for a new head this could mean with no training or prior experience. “Ah, but many schools have School Business Managers”, I hear you say and they manage the finances of the school. That may be true, but Boards of organisations beyond education wouldn’t dream of appointing a Managing Director or CEO with no financial training and these organisations all have Finance Directors. The head of an organisation needs a holistic understanding of all elements of the organisation. A sound understanding of finances is key to steering the organisation and pulling the right levers at the right time to maximise performance. In education, this is about optimising and sustaining outcomes for every pupil in your care. All too often we underestimate the importance of finance in achieving this goal.

In my current and previous role, I have had to sit around many a table with school leaders supporting them to make unpalatable decisions about reducing staff numbers. When a school hits absolute deficit, this is often the only choice to balance the books. This is the absolute worst position to be in; exceeding the allocated resource envelope today, to have to reduce it tomorrow. Too often heads have confessed that they didn’t understand the finances, they hadn’t appreciated the need to set a safety cushion for unexpected costs and that they wished they had acquired the skills to make earlier interventions that would have meant such drastic choices could have been avoided. The impact of failing to manage finances within the allocated envelope in an environment where funding is tight can be long-lasting and damaging to future cohorts of pupils. Ensuring effective school business management is so important, supporting heads to acquire the skills to oversee the financial performance of the school is key. This is particularly true of smaller schools where a School Business Manager is likely to be a luxury that cannot be afforded.

The HFL Great Schools Framework recognises that to be great a school must be designed and resourced for long-term exceptional outcomes. At HfL we have both a Finance and School Business Management team to support schools to manage the business of education. Recognising the need to support newer heads with skills in Business Management we have launched a “Business Improvement Partner” service. The service is designed to partner Heads with a Business Management Professional who supports, guides and mentors them through an annual cycle to develop the strategic skills required to successfully run the business elements of a school. Moreover, through partnership working the head can be assured that key business areas are robust, compliant and that they have the relevant information for effective management. Schools tend to invest each and every year in school improvement services. It never ceases to amaze me that little to no investment is made in the business skills of a Head, often an area where they lack confidence.

Ultimately it is a Governing Board that is accountable for the financial performance of the school. With this accountability comes the responsibility to ensure that the person you have appointed to run the school has the requisite skills to deliver in all areas of their role. Responsible Governance is about probing potential headship candidates’ knowledge and understanding of school finance and budgeting at the interview stage. Responsible Governance includes a conversation with a newly appointed Head about their training needs to ensure confidence and competence in sound business management practice. Responsible Governance means investing in these skills where experience and skills are lacking. Responsible Governance also means having a really firm and validated grip on the finances when a head leaves so that the Board is really clear on the financial position that is to be inherited by a new head. If I had a pound for each new head who inherits a far worse financial position that the Governing Board realise, I could pay off most deficits! Responsible Governance means that that your school is designed and resourced for long-term exceptional outcomes. After all, ensuring every child reaches their potential and that a school achieves consistently great outcomes for all is why we all come into Governance in the first place.

Please get in touch to find out more about the service, email bms@hfleducation.org or call 01438 544484. Ideally we would start our partnerships with a school in September or April annually but we are more than happy to discuss beginning to work with a setting at any time to support depending on their circumstances.

Puppets are a great way of injecting fun and learning in the classroom. They can tell stories, promote positive behaviour and help with teaching phonics.

It's a puppet!

We have Brian Conley to thank for this heading – I’m showing my age!  Over the years, puppets have become an integral part of my teaching practice.  As a student teacher, many years ago, I remember my mentor creating a persona for a puppet and watching as the children were enthralled by this new member of our class.  Since then, I have used the power of puppets to support children both emotionally and academically.

The magic of puppets

Using puppets with young children is a great way to inject some fun into the classroom.  I have several puppets with their own personalities and back stories.  My family of puppets sometimes behave badly or do silly things. White Mouse is a small hand puppet who only appears during Phonics sessions.  He ‘lives’ in a string bag, and I ask the children to wake him by chorusing ‘Wakey, wakey White Mouse!’.  He pops out and says ‘Hello’ to the children. When we are learning about initial sounds, White Mouse hides in his bag, and after rummaging around for a while, he appears holding a toy. The children tell White Mouse if the toy begins with the initial sound that we are learning. Otto is a puppet with hands that I can use to sign with Makaton. Rather disgustingly, he sometimes picks his nose, and the children love to tell him to get a tissue and wash his hands.  He makes counting errors, and the children give him advice on how to improve this skill.  Chester, a large, furry chimpanzee, often joins us for circle times to promote discussions about emotions and feelings. 

Believe in the magic

When I am using the puppet, I believe him to be real. If you believe that the puppet is real, the children will believe it too and this is where the magic happens!  I never tell the children that the puppet is a real animal.  If a child asks, I cover the puppet’s ears and say ‘No, he’s a puppet, but he doesn’t know he is a puppet.’  The children like the idea that we have a shared understanding (we are playing) and they are being kind to the puppet by not telling him.  I don’t let the children touch the puppet and when I’m not using the puppet to teach, they are sleeping in a string bag or sitting on a chair.  It’s important to model care and respect and the more you treat your puppets like a living thing, the more the children will believe the magic. 

The best way to be comfortable using a puppet is to ‘have a go’.   Remember to keep your puppet moving when it is in your hand, flick its tail, nod its head, or sway the puppet gently from side to side.  My puppets don’t speak aloud, they only whisper to me and I tell the class what they are saying. If you do want your puppet to talk, you may want to consider which voice you use. I’ve found that relaying the puppet’s questions to the children has worked the best.

Meet and greet

I like to start the year by introducing my puppets to the children during transition visits to school.  Introducing your puppet to the class should be planned. The puppet needs to make a memorable entrance into your room, so that children are excited to have it return day after day.

My last bit of advice for using a puppet in the classroom is to consider the character of your puppets because children like to ask questions and find out information.  What do they like to eat?  Where do they like to play?  Who do they live with?  This is a great opportunity to introduce equality and diversity into your classroom.

There are lots of opportunities through the year for our puppet friends to support learning:

• introduce different topics.  Chester has helped me talk to the children about the NSPCC Underpants Rule and sing the Pantasaurus song – loudly!
• send and receive messages, letters, pictures, and cards – my puppets always write back
• promote positive behaviours like checking the class are comfortable, calm, and ready for a story
• set challenges and problems for individual children or groups to solve – Otto was wondering what material would be best to build a bridge for a troll…

The joy of using puppets, who are part of the classroom and have their own persona, is clear when I meet pupils that I taught some years ago.  Frequently, pupils and their parents/carers ask about White Mouse and Chester and remember what they were learning at the time – that’s the power of puppets.

Relationships

Have you ever thought about the relationships we have with people around us and how they impact on our lives? Just consider for a moment how we are juggling a huge range of relationships every day…family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, hairdressers, barbers, the person delivering the post, the traffic warden, our doctor. When you pause to think about it we are interacting with a huge quantity of people each day and most of these interactions pass without us giving any thought to them at all. It’s fascinating when you begin to think about the differences between these interactions because interacting, speaking, making eye contact, making gestures and possibly touching all constitute the relationship you have with another human being. And then, of course these interactions or relationships aren’t limited to other humans. What about the relationships we have with animals or pets?!

Fortunately for us, the majority of interactions or relationships we have on a daily basis are polite, good-natured and positive! But I wonder if we ever put any thought into what makes these relationships positive? What do they all have in common? Is it a sense of politeness drummed into us through the expectations of the society we live in? Of course, I’m not suggesting for a moment that there aren’t elements of conflict in any of these relationships! We are all human (apart from our pets of course) and we are emotional beings. We’re meant to feel a broad range of emotions and that’s as it should be, but fortunately, for the most part, we manage to keep these emotions in check. We self-regulate. What a society we would live in if we didn’t!

In the Early Years

Our ability to interact with others and have positive relationships are, of course founded in our early years of development. As early years practitioners we understand about the importance of self-regulation and the multitude of factors that sadly, for some children, are missing in their early childhood experiences. The need for positive relationships is one of the key elements that underpins all of the work that we do as practitioners in the early years and is a key part of children’s personal, social and emotional development. Take some time to look again at the Development Matters document. Within that, for every age band and area of learning are ideas to prompt the ways in which adults can support children with learning how to develop positive relationships. And of course these aren’t limited to the areas of learning, they also run through the Characteristics of Effective Learning with ideas to support adults working with children to establish and strengthen positive relationships.

By definition…

So what exactly is a ’positive relationship’? In the dictionary ‘positive’ is described with words such as ‘optimistic’, ‘constructive’ or ‘confident’ whilst relationship is described in terms of ‘the way in which two or more things or people are connected’. So we could say a positive relationship is a confident connection? I wonder if it is enough to be not ‘rock the boat’, to simply ‘go with the flow’? I think not. I think the key word mentioned to describe ‘positive’ is ‘constructive’. That, in my mind, implies a naturally thoughtful approach to the relationship, especially the professional relationships that we engage with daily. It gives a suggestion of the effort that needs to be put in for the relationship to be strong and fulfilling. Isn’t that what we’d like from a positive relationship? Of course, there’s a difference between the positive relationship we might have with the person checking our ticket on the train and the child we are nurturing in our care. Clearly, to smile, nod, make eye-contact and a polite ‘thank you’ would suffice on a train, but what more do we need to provide for a small child? Yes! A smile for everyone!! Every day! It is a privilege for us to spend each day with a group of small children! To be engaged in supporting them to learn and develop through positive and purposeful interactions. So each and every one of them needs to know that! Easily done with a broad smile and eye contact – for all.

• Getting down to the child’s level, gaining eye contact, smiling and where relevant nodding are essential non-verbal ways to demonstrate that you are keen to actively listen and positively interact
• Gesture can be be used to help support communication, modelling particular signs for words along with speech can provide less verbal children with ways to express themselves.
• Facing the children as you speak to them and not being distracted ensures you are demonstrating the value you place on the interaction and relationship (harder to achieve, I know, in a busy classroom!!).

Many of the above points are instinctive ways to make a connection, to forge a relationship but we should never underestimate how some of these behaviours can be overlooked in our busy settings, yet we are the role models. It is vital we demonstrate these positive interaction skills consistently remembering combining these with good manners to gain mutual respect. We need to ensure our relationships with children are respectful to model how we would expect them to behave, remember - respect begets respect.

In the Development Matters document, ‘positive relationships’ in an early years setting are described as ones which are:

• ‘Warm and loving, and foster a sense of belonging’ – for the children to know that they are cared about, not just in a practical manner but that they really matter as part of an important group. This is necessary for a society to function well. Whether we are part of a neighbourhood, a club, a sports team. We need to model that sense of belonging to demonstrate to children how they need to behave towards others
• ‘Sensitive and responsive to the children’s needs, feelings and interests’ – Again, in a functional way, if they are hurt or hungry but also on an emotional level. We can’t expect children to respond to others in this way if they are not. The old adage, treat others as you would wish to be treated. Children will learn well if they are settled and confident
• ‘Supportive of the children’s own efforts and independence’ – We all perform well if we know our efforts are valued! Of course children are the same. A wonderful quote from Quortrup Children are beings not becomings. Children are little grownups! Remember they’re the adults of the future. What kind of adults would we like them to be?
• ‘Consistent in setting clear boundaries’ - We all feel secure when we know where we stand. As a society we work well with boundaries – that queue in the supermarket!
• ‘Stimulating’ – encouraging and interesting. Not wall-to-wall noisy entertainment but stimulating the unique child’s interests

A final thought…

Whilst pondering the need for positive relationships in society as a whole, I’m being drawn to our British Values. Treating everyone as an equal, respecting all, surely this embodies how we would like to see our children behave as they grow and forge many more relationships with the hundreds of people they will encounter during their educational career and in different aspects of their future lives?

Well I’ll continue to ponder…whilst attempting to make eye-contact with my cat who’s got his eyes on my fish supper! There’s one positive relationship which is about to become very emotional…!

Feedback and marking is something that comes up time and time again in enquires from schools and during cluster meetings. It’s clear that many schools are investigating different ways of feedback supporting pupils’ progress while also being mindful of how this may impact on teacher workload. Effective feedback strategies are an efficient use of our ever-stretched time – it is good for pupils and good for teachers. Our time is the most precious gift we can give to our pupils, so let’s make sure it delivers the most bang for its buck.

What we want to achieve from feedback is for pupils to make progress. We need feedback to help them identify where they need to make improvements or develop their work. Effective feedback fits within the ‘learning culture’ of the classroom and enables pupils to develop a greater independent awareness of tendencies and strategies for improving, which is instrumental in the building of their self-efficacy and the avoidance of a learned helplessness when it comes to making progress.

So, the pupil participation part of feedback is essential. Dylan William says that ‘to be effective, feedback should cause thinking to take place’. I see a lot of marking where there is limited ‘work’ required on the part of the pupil, and as a result, the time invested by the teacher in marking the book has less impact on the progress of the pupil. This is particularly noticeable where the pupil response to the marking is in subsequent lessons when the pupil is feeling less invested in that piece of work or has no chance to immediately make use of the learning point.

We want our feedback to empower pupils. In order to do this, we want to encourage pupils to take ownership of their work wherever possible. Ron Berger (the Austin’s Butterfly bloke) talks about this at length in his fantastic (and, given how time-poor teachers are, fabulously short) book An Ethic of Excellence. Approaches to feedback that encourage self-reflection and pupil improvement opportunities are helpful for building this ownership.

We also know that when feedback and the opportunity to act on it happens quickly, it has more of an effect. Making alterations and seeing the positive outcomes and where we haven’t made the same mistakes again, is hugely satisfying and taps into the internal reward system in our brain, making it also very motivating. Pupils self-motivated to improve and learn..? Um, yes please!

Let’s split some ideas into the feedback that can be given during lessons and, for those times when it isn’t possible to give feedback in the lesson, some ways of making post-lesson feedback effective.

During the lesson

Shirley Clarke and many others suggest that this should be where the lion’s share of feedback should be given since it is where it can have the most impact. It is effective in supporting pupil progress because it makes the feedback loop shorter – pupil gets feedback, acts on it, practices using it – and within the context of the learning at hand. It allows for the dopamine hit of satisfaction (the internal reward system) when, in continued practice, the error isn’t made again – and that in itself is hugely motivating when we are learning. 

During a lesson teachers are always engaged in ‘in the moment’ feedback. We’re always on the move, often with pen in hand, offering advice, identifying and clearing up misconceptions or errors as we go. This sort of over-the-shoulder feedback is part and parcel of the formative assessment woven into our daily teaching practice.

For those of you who have been on our courses, you’ll know how much we love a ‘Stop Gap’/’Mini-break’ mid lesson: stopping pupils after they’ve been working for a bit and asking them to check what they’ve done so far against the success criteria (SC) or a particular focus (full stops or spelling of key words etc), perhaps independently or with their talk partner, make edits/corrections, then getting them to carry on. This is great for picking up secretarial errors or refocussing on the SC, and also for that dopamine hit if the next time you stop them you ask them to see whether they have managed to not repeat the error from earlier. As a development of this, the ‘Stop Gap’ can incorporate use of the visualiser and the opportunity to collectively offer feedback (on randomly selected work), compare back with the model and so on. 

Instead of ‘peer assessment/feedback’ being a case of swapping books, a far more effective approach is to aim for ‘Collaborative Improvement’. Here the pupils retain control and ownership of their work at all times. They read their work to their talk partner (or have it read to them) and verbally receive advice/feedback that they then can choose to implement (or not… it IS their work after all!). When doing this, a quick little tip is to get the pupils to place the work they are looking at on top of their partner’s so that there is no temptation for the partner to be distracted by their own work.

Another way of giving feedback during the lesson could be a ‘live’ version of ‘conferencing’ (see next section). This would be where the teacher/adult spends some time with groups within the lesson to have feedback discussions. This is a little like the way we work in ‘guided reading’, but could be how we work in all subjects. It would involve the rest of the class having activities to be getting on with, and where the teacher rotates the group they work with over the course of a week.

After the lesson

With the best will in the world, not all feedback can be given during the lesson. So let’s think about what we do to shake up the marking we are doing after the lesson for pupils to act on when the work is returned.

There can be times when it may be necessary for ‘marking’ to be done outside of class, and the feedback being delivered and acted upon the next day/lesson. However, we must always ensure that the last part is happening – otherwise all our effort is for nothing. If the feedback isn’t being addressed by the pupil, then it has been a waste of the teacher’s time.

When doing written feedback in books, we can aim to keep it simple. Pupils don’t tend to really engage with lengthy comments so a ‘seek and destroy’ type approach for errors can be a useful strategy (indicate that there is an error – spelling or punctuation etc -  in a section and pupils have to seek it out, independently or with the help of talk partner and correct it). Perhaps adopt the ‘yellow-box’ approach where you draw a yellow box around an area you’d like the pupil to revisit for particular improvements. Editing a whole piece of work can be quite demotivating for some pupils, so maybe just asking them to focus on one part can make it more manageable. After the time given for improvements or corrections, have an opportunity for pupils to feedback to the class, maybe involving the visualiser, regarding what they found or changed or improved so that there is a sharing of improvement stories and a learning point to the making of changes. A great opportunity for reinforcing growth mindset messages.

A ‘conferencing’ approach can be an alternative to writing feedback in books. This is something that can be done in many ways, but basically allows for the feedback to be delivered in person to pupils either individually or in small groups. So much more can be said between teacher and pupil in a short time than could be written (and read) in books. Short 5 minute discussions over a piece of work seem to have a far greater impact on the progress pupils then make with a piece of work rather than lengthy written comments without the interaction with the teacher. In schools where they have moved towards this approach, they have timetabled in opportunities where the class can be getting on with something or led by the TA and the teacher can work through a number of pupils and aim to cover all pupils over a two week period.

Another alternative to writing feedback in individual books could be by giving ‘whole-class feedback’. Instead of writing the same things in many books, feedback on common areas can be given directly to the class (perhaps on the board or under the visualiser) so that pupils can individually or with talk partners, make improvements, edits and developments. It would be worth including the positive practice you’ve seen as well as the key areas for improvement and editing, so that pupils can find their own successes as well as hunt out the parts they need to change or improve. 

Tweaking what we already do

Sometimes we are not in a place to overhaul the marking policies or systems that are already in place. In which case, a few small tweaks can be a first step towards changing how marking/feedback is done in our school.

A key tweak can be just allowing more pupil participation in what we already do. A lot of schools still use a variation on the stars and a wish or pink/green marking where the teacher indicates or writes what has been done well in relation to the SC and what the next steps/errors are. How about we just let the pupils do this first once they’ve had some edit/improve time? They can find the best examples of items from the SC and draw the attention of the teacher to the areas they felt stuck on or think they didn’t achieve quite as well (they could stick a yellow box around particular areas or indicate on the SC). It’s more empowering than waiting for a teacher to offer validation. The teacher then can agree with the self-validation of successes or add to them, and deal with the areas where the pupil has suggested they need support or feedback, adding other next steps if necessary (but that could be done verbally in a conferencing way). 

If school policy is that key spelling corrections are given and copied out a few times (and for whatever reason it feels less appropriate for pupils to find the correct spelling from a dictionary or word mat), how about just adding an extra cognitive step in for the pupil by writing the word out three times – once correctly and twice incorrectly – so the pupil has to identify the correct spelling prior to copying it out? Note for Y2 and 6 teachers – as we get further into the spring term, we really would want to move away from directly indicating incorrect spellings to more of a ‘there’s a spelling mistake in this section/on this page’ independent approach for age-appropriate words to be in line with STA guidance on spelling (see our blog - Declaration of Independence).

So there we have it - some ways we could change or rejig our approach to feedback. There is so much discussion out there in schools and the edu-sphere generally, that some idle googling and twitter searching will throw up a whole host of ideas I haven’t even touched on here. It is an exciting time in the world of formative assessment and feedback.

We recently had the good fortune to attend AfL-guru and long-time friend of the Assessment Team, Shirley Clarke’s latest course on feedback. I cannot recommend enough her new book Visible Learning: Feedback written with John Hattie – so much inspiration for rethinking how we approach feedback in our schools. Shirley is also definitely worth a follow on Twitter – not a day passes by where she doesn’t post or retweet a great idea.

Throughout the Autumn term, we run a number of courses on feedback and marking, but if you’d be interested in us coming to work with SLT or training in school, please drop us a line for further information.

And finally, it is always good to hear from schools who are experimenting with feedback as part of their formative assessment. I’d like to get some blogs reflecting the practice that’s going on out there and the effects that it’s having – get in touch and share your stories.

With the move to more online working and collaborations, it is becoming more apparent that this style of working has helped the introverts excel. I have been reading articles about how the ‘working from home world’ has helped the introverts shine, which got me thinking about how this might affect those children who are introverts.

Looking at the traits of extrovert and introvert personalities might make it easier for us as EY practitioners to be more aware of the ‘quiet’ children who just get on with things and to reflect on how we provide support so these children can have a voice.

In a face-to-face situation, the extroverts can take over and always have their voice and their opinions heard. Introverts would withdraw and maybe even disengage. Extroverts have a tendency to talk more often and in louder voices. They tend to take up more physical space and use many big gestures. They initiate more conversations than introverts do. Extroverts show a preference for engaging in and enjoying social interactions, whereas introverts tend to be reserved and withdrawn in social situations. Noise distractions are trickier for introverts, causing them concentration problems, whereas extroverts will choose to take part in high noise activities. Extroverts are more confident and accurate when interpreting non-verbal communications (body language). Introverts may seem hesitant about joining in. It is not because they are afraid, but because they are naturally more cautious and assess situations. They observe first and act later. Introverts are likely to make decisions based on their own values and ideals rather than just following the crowd. Extroverts make snap decisions, introverts avoid impulsive decisions. It is easy to praise those who are outgoing and assertive over quiet reflection and careful decision-making.

If you would like to find out your personality trait, please take the quiz.

So it is easy to see that those introvert children are easily lost in the crowd and more often than not, do not get the same attention as the extroverts. Spending time in a large group can be challenging for introverts. We need to think about how we can support our introvert children to have a voice, have an opinion, join play, lead play and participate in discussions. We need to think about different learning styles and the children we work with. It is too easy for the extroverts to take over. They have the best conversations and interactions because they demand it of adults. Introverts need opportunities to become comfortable speaking to others, but they will not get to this point if someone is always doing it for them. Extrovert children lead play. They are often chosen to answer questions at group times because the staff know they will get a response. They are often the ones to choose what equipment is out, because staff listen to the loudest voice. They are often the ones who will win an argument over a toy, because when dealing with conflict, the extrovert and introvert have very different approaches. Introverts tend to be less assertive, less willing to compete and avoid conflict altogether. At a young age, introverted children have the ability to reflect on their own behaviour – something an extrovert child will probably struggle with. Introvert children can surprise you with their creativity and problem solving.

However, it is important to recognise that it is more than just giving children an opportunity to speak. You must not fall into the trap of setting the children up to fail. Given the opportunity to speak, an introvert child will probably not want to participate and become highly anxious. Being one of these, you would probably just want Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak to wear when anticipating it might be your turn to speak. Introverted children will be quiet and reserved when they first meet new people. Introverted children are usually good listeners, they may speak softly, and they may look away when speaking but make eye contact when listening. It is about knowing your children. Going back to sequential learning, small steps to gain confidence, ranging from just responding to an adult’s question on a one-to-one basis, moving to a small group and increasing. It is important to recognise that there is nothing wrong with being an introvert. It is not a weakness. It is just a different personality trait. You cannot change an introvert into an extrovert. But, you can give them appropriate learning opportunities.

One important point to acknowledge is that introverted children are not always shy. Being shy and being introverted are not the same thing, although they may look the same. An introvert enjoys time alone and becomes emotionally drained after spending a lot of time with others. A shy person does not necessarily want to be alone but is afraid to interact with others.

If we really want to engage with the ‘lost in the crowd’ children who attend our settings, we must identify them. What does this mean in practice? 

• it means ensuring that you have quality interactions with all the children in the setting
• it means noticing when they feel awkward in the setting
• it means finding an opportunity for praise and taking it, perhaps even sharing with parents

The bottom line is to make your setting a comfortable, safe space for introverts, extroverts and all the others in between. By making some basic adjustments and an effort to understand your children’s’ personalities, you can create an inclusive environment where all your children can learn in the way that is best for them.

All young children learn through meaningful hands-on experiences—through touching, doing, and moving. Children learn through seeing and hearing. As you observe your child, you will begin to identify strengths and preferences that tell you something about your child’s preferred learning style.

I am sure all early years staff can relate to this, both as an adult and when thinking about the children in their care. We need to recognise these traits, know our children, supporting them all to build their confidence and have the opportunities to participate in a way that suits their learning styles.

Some top tips for supporting your introvert children:

Never:

• force them to have discussions with others
• put them on the spot in front of others
• ask them to perform in front of other people
• talk for them (unless they do not want you to)
• set targets that focus on urging them to speak

Provide:

• opportunities for them to communicate on a one-to-one basis
• opportunities for them to actively listen
• places in the environment for them to seek solitude, to chill and reflect away from the crowd

Be aware of:

• giving them time to ponder questions before expecting an answer
• not pressuring them to share their emotions
• allowing them the chance to observe in order to learn
• accepting they will be quiet in large groups

If you have never considered this definition of an introvert before, take a moment to think about whom it applies to in your setting.

Once you are aware of the introverts in your cohort, you can start to plan your curriculum to ensure they are getting meaningful, tailor-made learning experiences.

With the sun out and the summer term ahead, possibly the first term in 2 years not to be framed by the cloud of Covid restrictions, can governors, trustees and their boards finally look forward again with some positivity and certainty? One certainty is that tests and exams are returning for our pupils and, whatever the merits or otherwise of their contextualised full return, we can finally get some externally verified data to compare where we stand against our 2019 results and put a benchmark in the sand for the years ahead. It was lovely seeing schools share highlights on social media of school trips in the UK and abroad which thankfully resumed at the spring half term and Easter, and it won’t be long before the fun and games, sights and sounds, fun and laughter of school fetes, sports days and summer sports create new and special memories. Governors and boards are now settling into their own ‘new normal’ of how they choose to meet and train with most choosing a blended approach to ensure opportunity of access to, and engagement with, meetings, school visits and training. Meanwhile school clerks and governance professionals have adapted and honed their skills to support individual governors, trustees and their boards online and in-person.

White paper

The much-anticipated white paper has landed and much has been said and done by way of analysis, dissection and challenge to its main themes, proposed initiatives and lofty ambitions. At 60 pages long it’s a surprisingly easy read and I think the first action for any board is to link a governor to it, ask them to read it, and ensure that it’s an item for discussion on your FGB agendas – at the very least the paper is a roadmap to the DfE’s thinking which will inevitably impact our schools over the coming months and years. Some of the headlines within its four main chapters that have flown a bit below the radar include: no changes to the national Curriculum for the remainder of this parliament, changes to be made to the statutory exclusions guidance, an expanded Supporting Families programme, reconfiguration of the RSC’s and their regions, the Oak National Academy to produce free resources to help teachers deliver an evidence-based, high-quality curriculum and finally the very welcome news that the Education Endowment Foundation will be put on a firm financial footing to ensure its future.

Of the more eye-catching suggestions was a minimum expectation on the length of the school week of 32.5 hours. It’s important to note that this is the average length of week for maintained schools now but where for instance schools have decided to reduce breaktimes to manage behaviour then some rethinking will need to be done. All that being said it is an ‘expectation’ rather than mandatory, but you can assume that Ofsted will be asking the question once this white paper becomes law!

The one main headline though was the expectation that by 2030 all children will be taught within a strong multi academy trust or in a school that plans to join or form one. Nationally 44% of maintained schools are in MATs with 52% of pupils taught in one. Put this ambition and the above facts together and it’s hard to deny the direction of travel on this, and please be assured at HfL we are not advocating for any side of the argument but when you consider that 2030 is only two full 3-year budget/ planning cycles away some consideration needs to be given to this. If this is now an unstoppable direction of travel, then at the very least it needs to be discussed at committee level even if it’s to park the idea but where it will be revisited on say an annual basis. Whatever your position is now, and for many it’s a very firm no, this is not really a sustainable position – discussing, understanding, researching the academy sector within your area, looking at the national picture on larger MATs and perhaps arranging to speak with or visit a MAT to gain better understanding would seem to be a pragmatic approach. There is no saying that the government will not in the medium term accelerate their thinking and ambitions in this area, the larger MATs will have increased in number and established themselves as substantial families of schools in that time, Local Authorities are not guaranteed to rush and set up MATs with their new found powers to do so – your board needs to be across the development and understanding of all this so that if and when the time comes the board is on the front foot on deciding your schools future. A reassuring footnote to this academisation drive is the expectation that local governance arrangements at individual school level to be responsive to stakeholders within a MAT are seen as key.

A couple of quick things to mention, with the Homes for Ukraine scheme underway and schools now receiving applications for places from displaced families, the DfE have updated their admissions advice in April. The DfE are encouraging Local Authorities to share this information with schools and parents, we wanted to ensure you were aware as well.

Secondly the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) has rarely been out of the news but now schools are being encouraged to make best use of this resource. With 40% of schools not signed up to the programme the DfE are considering publishing data on schools’ engagement with the programme with Ofsted being looped into how best deal with this information. Most of the NTP funding is now going directly to schools which means that boards will be able to monitor how this is spent and what the impact will be on your wider catch-up programme, for governors the following DfE update explains in more detail the latest developments with the NTP.

Safeguarding

Following on from recent blogs we will look at an area of safeguarding each half term. This is an interesting one that has recently been highlighted by a BBC investigation which looks into safeguarding complaints at after school clubs. This clearly highlights how governors and trustees need to be considering all aspects of life at their school, how many of us just assume that after school activity is staffed correctly with all the necessary policies and safeguarding in place. Schools are quite different places before and after the ‘normal’ school day i.e accessing the school grounds is often less controlled at these times, the presence of unknown faces is less likely to be noticed or challenged, senior leaders may not be present, pupils may be with staff members they aren’t familiar with and in unfamiliar parts of the school. The safeguarding link governor may want to look at this provision and report back to the board as part of their safeguarding report.

The white paper raises many questions and has caused much hand wringing by the profession. How can those ambitions be realised and delivered by individual schools without the requisite funding and support? Ensure you have your say where possible in the various consultations. In announcing the white paper, the Secretary of State says he wants ‘to spread the DNA of grammar schools throughout the education system’. Not entirely sure how this will manifest itself and what it means, the suggestion being that grammar schools alone enjoy the elixir of success rather than by virtue of the fact that they are able to select their intake. Clearly the white paper was just the start, and we await the outcomes of many consultations from the DfE. So much must be waited upon, and much must and will have to change otherwise, just as some sense of normality is beginning to pervade our schools, it will be all change again as so often happens with the political football that is education. As governors and trustees, we need to be mindful of its content as well as all the other myriad demands on our time and continue to support our schools and academies during this critical term. Test, exam and transition worries will be all consuming for many of our pupils this term but hopefully with the resumption of the usual summer term activities there will be a sense that schools are returning to normal and importantly remain that special, inspiring and safe place for the pupils in our care.

To contact us please use the following:

Governance Helpdesk: 01438 544487 

Governance Training: 01438 544478

Or email as before: governance@hertsforlearning.co.uk

It’s that time of the year again (comes around quickly doesn’t it!) – the time for thinking about what counts as independent work for the sake of statutory teacher assessment, and debating whether our current practice with our classes needs amending – so let’s recap on the key messages.

The STA state in their guidance that writing used for teacher assessment must be produced independently but through discussion with teachers and peers.

In essence, it can be broken down into two areas: marking/feedback and success criteria/modelling. It is worth noting, as STA do, that there is no expectation that every piece of writing will demonstrate independence for every single ‘pupil can’ statement. It may be the case that the spelling has been assisted by direct, specific intervention from the teacher, yet the rest of the writing could be good independent evidence for other statements within a standard.

Marking and feedback

All our pupils will be at different points in their developing independence, but what we want to be able to say when it comes down to making assessment judgements and presenting evidence in a moderation, is whether a pupil would be able to spot an error and correct it without it being specifically pointed out. It isn’t about whether a pupil gets something correct first time (goodness knows, we all need a chance to proofread and check our spellings/punctuation/coherence and so on), but rather whether they can see where they’ve made a mistake and use resources to address it. Those resources can be word mats, dictionaries, things on the working wall/displays, ‘every time we write’ prompts on desks or around the room. It is worth noting that the STA do draw the line at electronic spelling aids, so if a pupil is typing a piece of work, it is advisable for the spelling and grammar check to be disabled.

So in terms of what we could be doing from this point in the year, it’s really a case of gradually stepping back, where appropriate, so that pupils can begin to develop their self-awareness and patterns of errors and thus their independence.

So, where to start? Jumping straight into asking pupils to seek and destroy errors in a whole piece is pretty daunting (and not entirely effective). For many of our pupils, they will benefit from a far more gradual process or for the volume of writing that they need to check to be limited.

Let’s take the example of spelling -

If we currently identify a specific spelling that a child has got wrong, and then perhaps ask them to copy it out correctly a few times, how about we just tweak that so that we write the word correctly, but also incorrectly a couple of ways, so that they have to choose the correct one and then copy it out. This could be a first step in building up to being more independent by adding in an extra cognitive step rather than just copying letter for letter and not considering the whole word.

Then, over the next half term, perhaps try to move to indicating an error on a line, and allowing the pupil ‘seek and destroy’ time with their talk-partner, referring to the resources available. Another nice way to help pupils find spelling errors (especially for Year 2) is to get pupils to put a tick or dot over every word on a line they know is spelled correctly. Then they get the excitement of using the ‘purple pen’ (or whatever they use for edits) and can narrow down the field of words they need to check.

As a next step, as we get into the summer term, we could aim to indicate that a section/piece contains errors and pupils work with talk-partners to review and make corrections where they spot them.

It may also be worth thinking about focussing attention on just one pattern of spelling mistake at a time rather than a mixture. So if a pupil really struggles with ‘ed’ endings but also a number of other patterns, just focus on the ‘ed’ endings for a few days or a week. This should help the pupil become focused on the pattern and more likely to recognise and internalise it. This can also work for other patterns of error/misconception too.

What would really help is for pupils to be in the habit of proofreading/reviewing/editing as they write. This could be supported with the use of more stop-gaps/mini-breaks during the writing process. So, after ten minutes or so, stopping the class and asking pupils to check the sentence(s) they have just written by reading them to talk-partners and making changes to spelling or punctuation or composition where needed. To speed up the process, each ‘stop’ could have a particular focus. Pupils are more likely to develop that self-awareness of their writing if they are getting to implement the changes and not make the same mistake in the next line. It also makes it less daunting than to go back and try to edit a whole piece (especially when there seem to be lots of errors).

Other things that could be helpful in developing the self-awareness and independence could be getting pupils to use a different colour for particular elements of grammar or punctuation - for example, green for capital letters and red for full-stops. In the mini-break or end-of-piece editing, it can then become immediately apparent to them if things are noticeably absent, but also, during the writing, it again adds a conscious step in picking up a different colour that may assist in the securing of that element.

Success criteria, modelling and scaffolding

Success criteria absolutely SHOULD be used. They are an important part of good teaching and we don’t want to see them be thrown out in the pursuit of ensuring independence. Writing can indeed still be independent where success criteria are used as long as the success criteria aren’t overly detailed.

One key thing that can be done is to just remove the examples given on some success criteria/writing checklists. So, if we are in the habit of saying ‘include conjunctions’, that’s fine, but maybe just don’t put examples of what conjunctions are. Obviously in teaching or on the working wall there would be reference to examples, and pupils could confer and plan ideas as to what may fulfil the success criteria. We may also want to think about taking out some of the ‘every time we write’ elements of success criteria sometimes so that the criteria focus instead on the text type or are specific to that activity.

Modelling and scaffolding writing is enormously important, and certainly using the mini-breaks to collaboratively improve a sentence or section of work can be really effective. Modelling good writing during the teaching shouldn’t be shied away from, but we may need to accept that work produced following heavy modelling is not necessarily independent. Ensuring independence really comes from getting a sense of whether, in the writing process, a pupil can recall good examples and refer back to the teaching input without copying it. A good litmus test for this is reading a few pieces from the class – do they all sound the same or are they quite different?

We often get asked about how this works for the pupils who are not quite ready to have the teacher start to back away, or the scaffolding removed. We need to make sure we are responding to the needs of the pupil, and for those pupils who we aren’t expecting to get to the expected or greater depth standard, there may be fewer examples of where they have independently corrected their spellings or whatever. It is worth noting that under the 2018 TAF, a pupil can still be awarded a standard if there is a ‘particular weakness’ that can be explained and supported in the moderation professional dialogue. There will be a blog post coming soon to further explore this ‘particular weakness’ element of the TAF.

The long and short of it is quite simple really: take steps back where you want to show that a pupil can demonstrate that they are secure with the ‘pupil can’ statements, but don’t whip away all of the support that they need to get to that point.