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.

One of the overarching principles in the statutory framework for the EYFS is that, “every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured” (Department for Education, 2020). From the pioneers of early childhood traditions to the present day, early years practitioners have considered children holistically and have used children’s strengths and interests as their starting points when planning provision that will meet their needs most effectively. In other words, practitioners must begin with what children know and can do rather than concern themselves with what they cannot do (yet).

Sometimes, for varying reasons, it is more challenging to ascertain a child’s interests and to create provision that really engages and motivates them. Therefore it is essential that practitioners go out of their way to work out what is really going to ignite a child’s curiosity and enable them to demonstrate high levels of involvement in their play. Children’s interests, fascinations and curiosity motivate learning and when children are immersed in exploration and learning they are more likely to sustain practise, and leaning is more likely to ‘stick’.

Every child deserves their chance to shine. For children who are not yet able to engage in deep-level learning and who may be at risk of falling behind, settings really must consider the activity zones and range of resources that they have on offer so that they are truly accessible to all. Another principle of the statutory framework for EYFS is enabling environments where it is explicit that “the environment plays a key-role in supporting and extending children’s learning and development” (Department for Education, 2020). Periodically, practitioners should stand back and observe how the learning environment is being used. Try getting down to child height and notice what it is that can be seen. It might help to consider the following questions:

• are the activity zones engaging and inviting?
• are the resources carefully selected to meet children’s developmental needs, high-quality and open ended?
• are they visible and organised so that they are truly accessible to the children?
• have children been taught how to access the materials and equipment? Are they given sufficient time to play & explore them and to reset the activity zone once they have finished playing there?

Places to Play Every Day, which is now available to purchase as an app, is an invaluable resource that will help practitioners to effectively audit and organise their Early Years environment so that it invites learning across a range of contexts, indoors and outdoors.

There are many ways of enhancing the activity zones within your EY settings with resources linked to children’s interests or things that we want to entice children to engage with to learn new skills and knowledge. The positive, nurturing relationships with children help them to explore the provision and model ways in which they might like to use it.

However, if it is still proving difficult to get children interested in what’s currently on offer, it’s time to think about introducing some more novel provision to the setting…

In postulating his theory of multiple intelligences, Gardner (2021) suggests that people have a unique blend of intelligences and that our challenge as educators is to ensure that provision is “individualized and personalized” (p.72). So, let’s check that the activity zones we have on offer match with the unique blends of interests and ‘intelligences’ within each cohort of children that we are given the privilege to work with.

Some of the activity zones that are really going to motivate children who are harder to reach are overlooked or deliberately ignored because they may require a greater amount of planning and preparation, or they are sometimes perceived to carry a greater risk of danger to children. However, this shouldn’t be a barrier to setting up something that could make all the difference between a child either flourishing or failing to thrive. We’ve got to go the extra mile and work out a solution to potential barriers so that we get it right for every child.

Woodworking

Benefits:

• opportunities for children to problem-solve, experiment, persevere, concentrate and think critically
• opportunities for controlled risk, self-assess and make judgements
• increase self-esteem and confidence by being trusted to use real tools and gain pride and a sense of achievement in mastering them and accomplishing tasks

Risks to consider (a full risk assessment should be carried out and understood by all practitioners):

• can the zone be seen at all times?
• is their protective clothing e.g. goggles/gloves available? Are resources appropriate?
• have children been taught how to use the tools safely? Are there agreed rules in place?

Gardening

Benefits:

• opportunities to engage senses such as sight, smell and touch
• promotes healthy eating by seeing where food produce comes from
• teaches responsibility and patience as well as curiosity and fascination

Risks to consider (full risk assessment should be carried out and understood by all practitioners):

• have you recorded the type of plants/seeds accessible to children?
• have children been taught how to use the tools safely? Are there agreed rules in place?
• is there access to clean water for hand washing?

Cooking

Benefits:

• opportunities for children to be involved in preparing food encourages them to try new flavours and textures
• promotes hand-eye coordination and strengthens fingers and hands
• allows children to feel a sense of pride at achieving something complex

Risks to consider (full risk assessment should be carried out and understood by all practitioners):

• are you aware of children/adults with allergies in the provision?
• are hygiene procedures in place?
• is time planned to teach children to learn how to use equipment appropriately and safely?

Caring for animals

Benefits:

• allows children to develop control of their movements such as applying pressure
• helps children gain self-confidence and understand responsibility
• supports transition as they find comfort from caring for the animal

Risks to consider (full risk assessment should be carried out and understood by all practitioners):

• are you aware of children/adults with allergies in the provision?
• are appropriate hygiene procedures taught?
• have children been taught how to care for the animal(s) safely? Is there a shared understanding of the agreed rules by all staff? Is there time planned for these to be taught?

A huge benefit to introducing some of these activity zones into EYFS provision is the promotion of communication and language development. Consider the breadth of new vocabulary children will be exposed to as they engage in exciting hands-on experiences. There are numerous opportunities for purposeful mark-making, mathematical skill application and scientific investigation to enhance such activity zones so that children will be easily immersed in learning.

Whilst practitioners may be apprehensive about introducing a higher level of risk into their provision, where they have high expectations of their children it will raise aspirations and allow all children to progress and succeed.

References

Department for Education. 2020. Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage. Setting the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. [Online]. Available from: 

Gov.UK: Early Years Foundation Stage Framework

Gardner, H. (2021), The Disciplined Mind: What All Students Should Understand, Simon and Schuster (New York)

Blog authored by Jennie Ferguson and Andrew Boyes

Childcare providers have a moral and legal duty to safeguard children from infections and illnesses. In England, hygiene is covered under Section 3: The Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework, updated in March 2017.

Section 3.54 requires providers to ensure that their premises are “fit for purpose” and comply with the requirements of relevant health and safety legislation. The framework specifies compliance with hygiene requirements.

So it goes without saying that correct and proper hygiene practises are very important when running a Nursery or pre-school. Unlike at home, a nursery or pre-school can be very susceptible to infections or illnesses. Proper hygiene control affects everyone at a nursery, Parents, Staff and the Children.

Promoting good hygiene also helps to educate children on hygiene practises.

Below are 5 simple ways to help stop the spread of infection in your reception class, nursery or pre-school.

1. Hand washing

It is vital to teach and consistently promote proper hand washing in your nursery or pre-school. It is important for both for staff and children alike. There should be enough suitable facilities to allow for thorough hand washing. This includes: a suitable wash basin with hot and cold taps, soap (not bars of soap), disposable hand towels and/or a hand dryer.

2. Identify germ-harbouring "hot spots," and clean them every day

Around 80% of all transferable diseases spread by touching. Frequently touched surfaces, like door handles, flushes on toilets, and cot rails provide an excellent breeding ground for germs and bacteria increasing the risk of infection spreading.

A wipe-down with a disinfectant cloth can help to eliminate germs before they have a chance to spread around your setting. This is important in high use areas or with places that are shared by many children.

3. Cleaning

Your nursery should have a cleaning schedule, which points out what should be clean, and how often as well as who is responsible for undertaking this duty. Certain areas will need more frequent cleaning than others. Proper detergent and disinfectant must be available, but caution should apply if children will be using items very shortly after being cleaning with chemicals. Carpets and rugs need to be included in your cleaning schedule. Don’t forget a process for sterilising toys that babies put into their mouth, these should be monitored closely and cleaned promptly before they are inadvertently shared!

4. Responding to infection outbreaks

Parents should be made aware that children who are unwell should be kept at home; this should be noted in induction materials and cited in relevant policies. Refer to guidance from Public Health, England and guidance from the DfE, when developing your policies and procedures.

• Health protection in schools and other childcare facilities

Those with a temperature and other specific signs and symptoms should be excluded until they are better (48 hours from the last episode in the case of diarrhoea or vomiting). Please refer to the exclusion guidance provided from Public Health

During any infection outbreak, increase environmental cleaning (especially toilets and door/flush handles) Reinforce good hand hygiene with children, especially after going to the toilet and before eating and drinking. Ensure toys are cleaned and dried after use. Exclude children with symptoms and advise staff members with symptoms to refrain from work until they have been symptom-free for 48 hours. Sand/Water and or play dough may have to be replaced as necessary.

5. Changing Children’s Bedding

If children are sleeping at your setting everyone should have their own set of bedding that should be laundered at least once a week. The frequency of washing should be increased if there has been an outbreak of an infectious illness or the child has been poorly bedding should be washed at a temperature of 60 degrees to ensure all bacteria is killed during the cleaning process.

The framework for teacher assessment of writing has changed. The ‘ITAF’ of yore is now the less catchy ‘TAF’ having lost its interim status and has a few notable changes to the ‘pupil can’ statements for each of the standards. Key highlights include handwriting being very much back on the agenda (rather than only being considered for judgements relating to Greater Depth) and a shift away from the ‘grammar/punctuation bingo’ checklist approach towards a more holistic composition and effect one.

One of the biggest changes you will have noticed is the addition of guidance relating to allowance for a pupil to a have a ‘particular weakness’ in their writing. Now, before we get too excited, the STA are quick and keen to point out that this is not a return to a ‘best fit’ approach at all. The model of assessing against the ‘pupil can’ statements is still very much a ‘secure fit’ approach (where pupils have to satisfy all of the statements), but just with some wiggle room – perhaps a ‘wobbly secure fit’, if you will.

Now what may feel slightly odd about this is that the regular ‘secure fit’ of the ITAF did always feel like it had some room for wiggling anyway. The qualifiers ‘some’, ‘many’, and ‘most’ already meant that it wasn’t quite an all-or-nothing approach, and those qualifiers remain. But nonetheless, there is now this further ‘wiggle’ in the form of the STA saying that, on occasion, one element of weakness shouldn’t prevent a pupil being awarded a standard where they meet all of the other ‘pupil can’ statements (see below for direct from the horse’s mouth)

• A pupil's writing should meet all the statements within the standard at which they are judged. However, teachers can user their discretion to ensure that, on occasion, a particular weakness does not prevent an accurate judgement being made of a pupil's attainment overall. A teacher's professional judgement about whether the pupil has met the standard overall takes precedence. This approach applies to English writing only.
• A particular weakness could relate to a part or the whole of a statement (or statements), if there is good reason to judge that it would prevent an accurate judgement being made.

So what does this mean? Well, in the training the STA rolled out to LA lead moderators just before Christmas, they emphasised that this is to allow the teacher judgement of a pupil’s achievement of a standard to overrule the meeting of every ‘pupil can’ statement in very particular cases where the teacher has good reason to believe that the standard awarded is the correct one and provided they can justify it in a moderation dialogue.

The examples STA gave, where one element or weakness should not interfere with the achievement of a standard, were always something very specific. It wasn’t the case of just writing off a whole ‘pupil can’ statement, but rather where a pupil just didn’t demonstrate a part of one or had a weakness that could potentially affect parts of a couple of statements.

It feels, initially, like this amendment may be addressing the issues we encountered for pupils who may have dyslexia/dyspraxia (or potential tendencies to those from a KS1 angle) and previously then lost out on the achievement of standards. But the STA did not state that as such, and in their examples they dealt with a range of possible ‘particular’ weaknesses, for example, a KS2 girl whose home language is German and so has an issue with the use of the possessive apostrophe (which is not generally used in her home language) still being able to achieve Greater Depth, or a KS1 boy whose writing was clearly meeting the Expected Standard but had a small issue with tense consistency.

It is worth mentioning that the materials we were given as part of the STA training for LA moderators are available on NCA Tools in the Teacher Assessment area.

It certainly does seem that this could be helpful for our pupils who have an issue specific to them that may otherwise be a barrier to their achieving what feels like the most appropriate standard. I can see how this could be useful for those children who perhaps have issues with tense or syntactical elements due to EAL, or patterns of spelling error due to dyslexia/dyslexic tendencies or indeed handwriting/motor skills.

What this doesn’t mean is that a whole class could have a particular weakness with spelling, for example. In the STA guidance it is clear that this isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. The STA used a helpful phrase to explain the ‘particular weakness’ – that it means a weakness in the achievement of the ‘pupil can’ statements, rather than a weakness in the child. It needs to be something very specific to that child’s writing and able to be justified with good reason during the moderation discussion. Also, this doesn’t change anything for children with physical disabilities. As in previous teacher assessment frameworks, allowances should still be made so that a disability that affects writing does not become a barrier for a child achieving the standard that fairly reflects their achievement.

In discussions with teachers at our recent Years1&2 moderation clusters, this alteration to how the ‘secure fit’ is to be executed certainly seemed to be welcomed. As much as it doesn’t allow as much flexibility as previously may have existed in the ‘best fit’ of NC levels, it does allow a more holistic view of a pupil’s writing to be taken into account by stepping away from a requiring a slavish adherence to ticking off everything in order to achieve a standard.

Writers can be great even with a particular weakness, and that is a message I am sure we can all get behind.

When thinking about the environment for our two year olds to play and learn we need to remember a few key factors. Two year olds need small spaces to be quiet and cosy as well as large spaces to use all their physical skills. They need to have many opportunities to engage in sensory activities; this encourages their natural curiosity and helps them to understand some of the possibilities of what they can do. They respond well to simple open-ended resources; and activities that focus on building concentration, problem solving language and skill building. It’s good to start by building on what they already know, what they need and what will hold their attention and imagination. Well placed supportive adults also play a huge role in getting the environment right for two year olds.

So definitely not as easy as it sounds.

If, in the last week or so, you stood back and watched a room full of children and adults all engaged in purposeful play, then chances are you understand what a good environment needs to have. If however, you have seen some children wandering around the room appearing unsure of what to do or play with; then reviewing your environment should be a priority.

A two year-old needs to see what is on offer at the beginning of play. The first thing to do is to make sure you are not confusing continuous provision with storage.

Look at these two photos of Maths provision for two year olds. Both are offered as part as an enabling environment for children to use. One is ready to play and one is not, so one is storage and one is continuous provision.

Storage: Many full boxes packed into a unit, often with a rug in front of it. When offering this type of provision, practitioners often say ‘the children can get out what they want’ but for a two year old this may mean lifting down a heavy box and then either tipping it all out or simply playing from what is in the top of the box. Offering resources in this way is not the most appropriate way to engage children in a rich learning experience as often, by the time they have the resources they want and got to a point of deep play, it is tidy up time or time for a story. It also relies on children being able to build a meaningful play experience out of a box of resources. Not a skill all two year olds have.

Continuous provision: accessible resources ready to play. Set up individually so that children can see what there is and what the starting point to play might be. Continuous provision allows children to select resources that are ready to use and set up to complement the area they are playing in. For example, this picture is of a small world continuous provision in a Hertfordshire nursery.

Notice how the resources are set up to complement the play. Therefore, if a child would like to add people to the train play, then they know where they are. Notice also that there is not a huge amount of resources on the shelf. No storage here. Just a select amount of resources. This way, both the children and the adults can focus on language and extending play.

It gets better!

Many of our Hertfordshire settings are moving away from offering predominately plastic to children. Instead, providing children with resources and objects from the real world.

Natural materials provide children with more tactile stimulation than plastic. They have different textures and smells. They also have a place in the real world, allowing children to make sense of their environment and link their own experiences through their play.

This quote from Margaret McMillan, a pioneer of nursery education, is over 100 years old, but is as true today as it was then.

‘Most of the best opportunities for children’s achievement lie in the domain of free play, with access to varied materials’. Margaret McMillan 1914

This means offering a variety, not just of resources but also of textures, possibilities, problems to be solved, excitement, motivation, curiosity, familiarity and challenge through real objects and natural materials.

So maybe it’s time to review your environment, tidy up and sort out your continuous provision to ensure all your two year olds are motivated to engage and learn.

Some of the photos used in this blog and many more can be found in the HFL Education publication ‘Places to Play for 2 year olds’.

This exciting resource complements ‘Places to Play for 3-5 year olds’ and shares good practice in several areas including the adult’s role, vocabulary, children's voice as well as many ideas for enhancing your places to play for 2 year olds, covering 20 areas of provision.