As a member of the HFL primary maths team, I spend most of my days in schools, thinking about and developing teaching and learning.  Particularly through supporting subject leaders with their monitoring, and teachers with their planning and delivery of lessons, I am lucky enough to get to see and talk about a lot of maths teaching and learning across many different schools.  It is through this experience and through reflection with the wider primary maths team, that common themes start to emerge, and the team can start to consider how to best support schools in their endeavours.  

So, what are we noticing in classrooms?  Where might we be able to make small changes to practice that can make a difference?  Our collective contemplation brought us this time to…

… sticky notes.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  Sticky notes – the next silver bullet?  Of course not… but stick with me (no pun intended). Here is my thinking…

How do you plan your maths lessons?

There are two areas that I am regularly noticing in schools where computer-based slides are causing problems.  The first of these occurs at the point of planning. 

Planning expectations can be very different across schools and the maths team have long been advocates for ensuring that the precious time that teachers have for planning is well spent - ensuring that lessons are well structured and focused on building success for all their pupils. 

In some schools, planning has become only about preparing presentations to support teachers with their lesson delivery and whilst this may not cause a problem, there are dangers.  This is probably most dangerous where schools are “sharing planning” rather than undertaking “shared planning”.  What I mean by that is where one person in a school is doing the thinking about planning and providing slides to their colleagues.

Now, I am all for teachers supporting each other and have never been one to “re-invent the wheel”, but one of the keys to successful teaching is thinking about the learning.

It is through this thinking that teachers consider their implementation, the possible misconceptions, the key questions, the points at which particular focus might be needed. 

It is through this thinking that teachers consider the needs of their pupils and what they might do differently to respond to these.  If teachers have not thought ahead about their lessons, it is less likely that their teaching will meet pupil needs.

It is clear in my mind that all teachers need to be drawn back to looking at the focus of teaching so that any provided resources and slides can be set in context – so that there is focus on learning rather than presentation of a slide deck and activities without real thought about the learning they are driving at. 

This is where the simple sticky note can come in.

Why use sticky notes for planning?

At the point of planning, sticky notes can be used to draw attention to key aspects of the planning such as key vocabulary, a hinge question and any likely misconceptions that will need to be exposed and addressed. 

The simple act of reviewing the teaching and identifying these key focus areas leads to teachers being clearer about the lesson focus. I have to admit that I often do this when planning and then take a sticky note with me while I am teaching, just to keep me on track.  I find that the act of distilling the teaching into its key elements makes me much more precise in my modelling and expectations of pupils’ responses.

Some examples:

This Year 5 teacher has used a sticky note to prepare key questions and activities for comparing fractions.

 

 

This Year 2 teacher has used a sticky note to identify resources and manipulatives required for the lesson. Handy for getting prepared beforehand.

 

 

Digital sticky notes are also an option. This teacher has used them to identify concrete resources (manipulatives) to prepare and model with, scaffolds for pupils to use and a guided group teaching plan.

 

 

Are your pupils making connections between models and abstract recording? How do you model that recording?

The second area where computer slides can be problematic, and could be swapped for sticky notes, is at the point of teaching. 

Firstly, I often now see teachers using slides which show representations on them and talking with confidence about what children can see on these slides.  The problem is that what is clear to the teacher, is not always clear to the novice learner. 

Particularly when a process is modelled, it is crucial that teachers draw attention to what is happening and explicitly make links between any models and their abstract equivalent. 

In my experience, this is best done through:

• using the models together alongside each other and through adding new information to the model or showing where the values come from while stepping through the process.

Or…

• starting with a worked example and then unpicking and modelling the steps that led to its development. 

Pre-prepared slides can present problems here, especially if there is not enough room to complete the abstract model alongside a visual representation; if the slide is unable to retain modelling while the next step in the process is animated and if the quality of the interactive writing tool makes it hard to annotate the model.

Why use sticky notes for modelling and making connections?

I am a huge fan of a visualiser to support with live modelling and connection building and the fact that a sticky note can be placed anywhere, removed, and moved around enables me to make repeated use of it to check that pupils are building understanding of what I am teaching.

For example, when modelling “think 10” as shown below, I find it really helpful to place the sticky note right next to the tens frame as we step through the process of regrouping the 9 into 3 and 6 more as shown below.  I can then reuse this sticky note at different points in the teaching sequence, with different pupils around the classroom.  For example, I can start from the sticky note and ask the child to build the calculation and move the counters to show what the model is representing, I can leave the concrete model and ask children to complete their own recording of the calculation and check it against the sticky note.

 

 

Removal of the sticky note also allows me to use the same calculation and to consider how this could be done differently, by regrouping the 7 into 1 and 6 in order to make 10 and 6 more.  And showing the sticky notes together enables discussion around calculation efficiency and choice making.

It may seem like a small change to practice, but being able to move the modelling, completed within a teaching input with manipulatives, to place it in front of a particular group or child, enables easy tracking and encourages much greater focus and pupil interaction with it. 

It is crucial that pupils are interacting with the maths to build their understanding and it is also imperative that I can hear and assess how the learning is developing and the use of a movable sticky-note model can support with this.

To read more about the Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract approach: The ‘CPA’ approach

How do you assess pupil understanding in the moment and recall further from the point of teaching?

My final shout out for sticky notes is to support assessment after teaching, either within independent practice or during whole class rehearsal.   

Why use sticky notes to model explanations within a speaking frame?

In the working wall shown below, you can see how the speaking frame, developed during teaching one day, can be returned to on a different occasion, with a new starting point to cause pupils to refocus on the model and apply what they have learnt. 

This application of learning to a familiar model enables retrieval practice connected to the concept and so supports remembering.  This is also a valuable assessment point, where you can check where pupils are in their learning. 

 

 

Of course, sticky notes are an excellent resource at this point to jot down the initials of pupils where further input may be needed and if you are lucky enough to have other adults in the room, you can make use of their eyes and ears to note down pupils across the classroom. 

Whiteboard work and talk activities are great opportunities for assessment, but it is vital that this assessment information is reviewed carefully and that no child is missed so that learning insecurities and gaps can be closed.

Why not use sticky notes to create an interactive working wall?

Here, Year 6 pupils have added their thoughts to an ‘always, sometimes, never’ question. Using the sticky notes allows them to review and respond to peer responses and provides some quick assessment information for the teacher about security of understanding.

 

 

For more ideas for enhancing your working wall: 4 ways to make your maths working wall work

Of course, it is not actually the sticky note itself that makes the difference, but if you are noticing similar issues across your school, it is probably time to consider the small changes to practice that will enable:

• teachers to think deeply about the learning in their lessons,
• pupils to clearly see the connections between models to deepen their understanding,
• rigorous formative assessment so that no child is missed.

 

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It feels like a while ago now but the Complete Mathematics conference for mathematics leaders and teachers in primary schools in London was only a few weeks ago.  On the day, I was struck by some recurring themes and mentioned in my workshop with Gill Shearsby-Fox, some of the words that I had jotted down that I felt connected them.  In the spirit of the generous collaboration that was so evident on the day, I thought I would share these, in case they help others to reflect too. I have highlighted my key word takeaways in bold below and tried to pull together these threads into wider themes.

 

 

When discussing the maths landscape and what we are noticing in our work with maths leaders, teachers and learners, I was particularly struck by 3 themes:

• relationships
• choices
• implementation

The theme of relationships was two-fold: the relationships that we have with pupils and our unwavering belief that all can be successful in mathematics and the importance of supporting pupils to see relationships within mathematics.  For me, pupil relationships are inextricably linked with implementation and so I will come back to that. 

Mathematical relationships

The first recurring theme of the day then, was the importance of mathematical relationships. Mathematical relationships were considered in terms of:

• building number knowledge
• considering conceptual arithmetic structure
• seeing relationships when we transfer between different CPA models
• development of calculation strategy and considered inherently within approaches to problem-solving.

Non-routine problem solving: 'I know that...I know how...I know when...'

Stephanie Taylor @TeacherTaylorS

I guess it should come as no surprise that relationships were a central theme on a day focused on mathematics education.  As Stephanie Taylor reminded us so well:

“Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline.”

(National Curriculum of England, 2013)

and so of course relationships are integral to understanding and applying mathematics. 

I was particularly struck in her session on problem-solving, with the relationship between fluency, reasoning and problem solving.

Her use of a play script to be explicit in exposing this relationship was genius and I loved how you could hear the voices of problem solving (PS), reasoning (R) and fluency (Fl) as they approached, first a practical problem, and then applied this strategy development to a mathematical NRICH problem.

 

 

To infinity and beyond! Teaching mental calculation strategies for understanding.

Siobhan King @siobhanjking

Gill Shearsby-Fox @FoxShearsby

Within the workshop that Gill and I led, we focused on developing fact recall within 20 and application of this to calculation strategy to build efficiency.  I guess this might have been why relationships were so firmly in my mind on the day. 

The most important message that we wanted to get out there was the importance of developing relationships when building number fact knowledge to enable learning to be secured and allow the application of this to calculation strategy development further along the mathematical journey. 

We noted the problems of pupils getting “stuck” at counting and the danger of pupils who move straight from counting to ‘mastery’ and rapid recall of facts, without truly considering relationships. It is only through an explicit focus on relationships that facts can be connected, and this is what enables learning to be built forward.  

 

 

Teaching and learning maths with real and virtual manipulatives

Bernie Westacott @berniewestacott

Bernie Westacott’s session screamed out relationships when he considered the importance of helping pupils to transfer between different CPA models to build their mathematical understanding. 

What resonated here was how crucial it is that manipulatives help children to make sense of the mathematics. 

Bernie was a font of knowledge and with the focus on the day being virtual manipulatives, he was not only able to signpost where to find these and show how they could be used, but also to draw attention to the fact that it is pupil interaction with manipulatives which enables deep thinking and connection building that is key to their successful use.  This is what enables pupils to make sense of the relationships between the manipulative and the abstract concept that they represent and so build a deeper mathematical understanding.

The next big thing in mathematics education?

Kieran Mackle @Kieran_M_Ed

The whole focus of Kieran Mackle’s session was arithmetic structure – the importance of understanding what the different structures are and how these can be built within curriculum sequences.  Relationships were implicit in this.  What really resonated here was the need to ensure that within teaching focus we explore how the structures are connected and to be explicit in exposing and using this.  For example, whilst building a map of the relationships within additive structures, Kieran was able to identify how augmentation within addition is intimately connected to reduction within subtraction.

 

 

Exploring the relationships between the structures of arithmetic, enables pupils to think deeply and therefore development of a richer mathematical understanding.  Importantly, explicit teaching focus on the structures also enables us to force pupils to make choices so that they think deeply about when different structures occur rather than blindly applying the operation of the day.  The importance of thinking deeply about the questions we choose to drive the teaching focus struck a chord.

Choices

Kieran’s session was not the only time where choices became a theme. 

Stephanie’s focus on problem-solving was underpinned by the desire to develop pupils who make choices as this is an inherent part in behaving mathematically.

In our workshop, we drew attention to the danger of pupils who do not make choices in their application of calculation strategies and who therefore do not develop efficiency in their strategy selection.

It was teacher choices that Bernie made me think about.  Absolutely, he gave us a wealth of options in terms of manipulatives to choose from.  But more importantly, he drew attention to the necessity to consider how the manipulatives under consideration related to the target concept so that they could do the intended job. 

The importance of teachers thinking deeply about the mathematics learning and making choices to enable it to be built securely is absolutely at the root of my final theme…implementation.

Implementation

For all the curriculum design and intentions that leaders have, this will only ever be as powerful as the way in which it is implemented.  Documents of intent and vision statements can only be measured in their success through the lived experiences of pupils and the impact of what happens in our classrooms. 

All the conference sessions were thoughtful and practical and had effective implementation at their heart. 

However, Matt Swain’s session stood out as being packed full of this focus on moving from intent to implementation.  

Mastery at primary

Matt Swain @mattswain36

Based on the belief that all children can become successful mathematicians, Matt shared how practice has been developed across five schools to enable every child to succeed.  My biggest takeaway from Matt’s session was his clarity of approach to closing gaps for every child and the systems and structure which have enabled this to be implemented relentlessly and with rigour.

What is needed to support teachers and to enable implementation to be successful?

A few things jumped out from references and connections between the various sessions:

• teachers who appreciate the beauty and power of mathematics and want to build a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about it
• teachers who understand mathematical ideas so that they can help make connections
• teaching that is well sequenced and builds new knowledge by enabling pupils to actively focus on it
• teachers who put pupils firmly at the centre of their learning, enabling them to embody the learning and see relationships to help them make sense of what they know, to secure it and build on it across the whole mathematical journey
• leaders who create the conditions and structure which enable all of this to happen.

Well that’s my thinking deeply about mathematics education that came from the conference. I hope that perhaps it has helped you to make some connections too.

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Further reading:

Why can’t Johnny remember the basic facts?

'It ain't what you intend, it's the way it is implemented, and that's what gets results'

How can we advantage the disadvantaged?

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Making Fluent and Flexible Calculators Project

 

Express an interest in joining the next round of the Making Fluent and Flexible Calculators Project.

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 The Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Early Years provision gives settings and schools a comprehensive external evaluation of their practice and provision. In the first of our guest blogs, Hayley Yendell, co-headteacher at Roots Federation, tells us what the EEEYP experience is like through the eyes of a school leader.

 

 

Describe your school: size, staff numbers and set up.

As the heads of a federation we have been part of not one, but four EEEYPS in the Autumn term of 2022! When we booked them, we did wonder if four was a good idea, but it really was such a worthwhile experience. Let us tell you more…

‘Roots Federation’ is a federation of three maintained Nursery Schools (including one daycare setting.) These are in various locations in Hertfordshire; Muriel Green Nursery in St Albans, Heath Lane Nursery School in Hemel Hempstead and Oxhey Nursery School in Oxhey. The Federation was formed in April 2022 and we now serve over 300 children from the ages of 3 months to 5 years old. Each school has a senior teacher in charge of the operational running of the day with the two heads in charge of the strategic running of all three. All school leaders were keen to identify the priorities for each school from which to build upon so we invested in the four EEEYPs: one in all three schools and one in the daycare in Muriel Green

What made you book the EEEYP service for your setting? What were you hoping to get out of it?

In the face of the current bleak financial picture in education the financial investment in these evaluations was considerable. However, the aim of Roots is to achieve aligned autonomy; a shared ambition across the federation to achieve excellent early years education with the flexibility to keep aspects that are unique to each school and the community it serves. With a staff team over 100 across the three schools with various experience and skill sets it was essential to get an external evaluation of the quality of education. For us, this was the key to identifying priorities across the federation as well as those unique to each school.

 

 

Can you give a description of your experience of the EEEYP in your setting, what day looks like, what your team felt about it etc?

There really is no preparation for an EEEYP; it is all about seeing the school/setting in action and observing usual practice. We explained to our staff teams that we wanted them to do what they usually do with no unusual practice. The staff were understandably nervous but eager to share what they were doing well and understand how to improve further.  

The team arrived at 8am and from that point until the end of the day they worked tirelessly to see as much as they could. There were regular checking in points, with us as leaders, to give incidental feedback and opportunities to share successes with the HFL Early Years team onsite.

During the day the team covered a wide range of scrutiny activities; parents were invited to discuss their thoughts with the team, leaders discussed provision and a few documents had been reviewed prior to arriving. The team were in regular conversation with staff and children and were in the sessions for most of the day; child initiated learning, tidy up time, lunchtime….whatever goes on in a day they will see!

What was most useful about having the EEEYP?

The EEEYP process was incredibly thorough and robust, and the team left no stone unturned. Tenacious scrutiny and uncompromising feedback at the end of the evaluation ensured that school leaders, including governors, had confidence in the strengths and areas for development for each school.

What have you developed since having the EEEYP in your setting?

We were active partners in the whole process; shared observations offered professional development for senior leaders. Since the evaluations our senior staff have developed greater confidence in conducting learning walks. Alongside this immediate impact we have been able to build on the strengths in all schools sharing expertise from school to school and implementing a network of teams.

The verbal feedback and the written report clearly outlined priority areas and gave clear recommendations on how to achieve these priorities. These provided a clear starting point for discussions with each school team and these discussions formed the basis for each school-based action plan. Senior teachers now have far greater clarity on the key actions needed to drive improvements in their own school.

At a Federation level we were able to look at themes across our three schools and these were the springboard for booking shared training, introducing targeted coaching and informing the termly performance appraisal target for the curriculum team.  

Would you recommend other settings have the EEEYP? Why?

The evaluations do require resilience; be prepared for honest feedback and challenge. However, If you want the very best for the children in your school/setting and want external validation of your self-assessment then we would highly recommend investing in an EEEYP.

 

 

If you are interested in booking an EEEYP or if you would like to find out more about the process, please contact us on 01438 544464 or email earlyyearsteam@hfleducation.org.

 

In this, the second of our guest blogs, Simona Kanani at Woodland Magic Pre-school tells us what the EEEYP experience is like through the eyes of the early years professional.

 

 

We are a pack-away PVI pre-school/nursery set in woodland.  We received our Ofsted registration in September 2020 and currently have 28 children on roll with 5 members of staff, 2 of whom are Level 3 apprentices.  I decided to book the EEEYP because I knew we would have an Ofsted inspection within 30 months of opening and, although my deputy and myself had been through numerous inspections my other staff members had no idea what to expect.  I wanted them to have the experience of an external evaluation of our provision and practice so that they would gain an understanding that it is a team effort.

The day started with staff introductions and then completed the learning walk.  After this the joint observation was carried out and all staff had the opportunity to talk with the consultants.  The consultants tracked children and spoke to their keyworker.  They then conducted an interview and looked at some documentation.  After observing in the outside area, they gave their feedback.  My staff were amazed at the thoroughness and the way their knowledge was ‘tested’.  However, it also gave them a sense of pride being able to demonstrate their knowledge.  I think for my staff it allowed them to see why all the staff meetings, training, CPD and supervisions where we share information and reflect is so important.  For myself it highlighted that although we still evidence a lot, (because it helps us), no one needs to see it because the evidence is in what you say and do.

 

 

The most useful part of the EEEYP was having the opportunity to find out what was and what wasn’t working.  We knew some things were not working and being able to talk this through with the auditors and come up with strategies together was so very helpful.  Sometimes you can over-think things when a simple solution is all that is needed.

Since our EEEYP we have developed a rolling snack and changed our daily routine.  This is working so much better, as the younger children have the freedom to explore/learn outside, which is age and stage appropriate;  and the older children have quality teaching on the carpet time and during adult-guided activities.  As these are new changes, we are constantly reflecting on them to ensure they continue to work or can be improved upon.

2 months after the EEEYP and embracing the outcomes it highlighted, we had our first Ofsted inspection.  If we had not had the EEEYP, we would not have been able to move our setting forward as well.  It allowed us to look at things from different angles and in a different light.  It pulled us together as a team and made us all realise the importance of sharing information and working together.  This is why I would recommend EEEYP and so do all my staff.

If you are interested in booking an EEEYP or if you would like to find out more about the process, please contact us on 01438 544464 or email earlyyearsteam@hfleducation.org

 

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Blog guest authored by Simona Kanani from the Woodland Magic Pre-school.

 

 Children start in early years settings at a variety of ages. Some as early as a few months old, and others a little later, at maybe 2 or 3 years old. However, despite the differing ages of when children start in settings, a strategy that many settings implement to help with the settling in process is asking for a family photograph for a family display board or book.

Parents are often asked to provide a photograph as part of the settling in process, or sometimes at those busy drop off and pick up times, and staff dutifully wait for the photographs to either be brought in or to be emailed across. Often, time ticks away and that family picture never arrives. Have we ever stopped to wonder why this is? It is doubtful that any parent is purposefully not providing a photograph.

 ‘Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry, it’s slipped my mind, I’ll bring one tomorrow’, is a phrase I have heard more times than I can count, but still, that photograph doesn’t come.  Although some might wonder why this is such a big of an ask, I think we really need to consider what are the barriers?

First and foremost, does that family have a photograph of them altogether? Not everyone can afford lovely professional photoshoots and therefore, lots of family pictures include a vital missing person - the one taking the photographs.

What about a selfie then? But selfies taken for social media posts with comedy filters, a little blurry and with someone cut out of the side are likely to be pushed aside by parents as ‘unsuitable’ for the setting family board.

A photograph to be displayed for all to see might cause anxiety for some parents.

Parents who are dropping off at 7.30 a.m. and picking up at 6.30 p.m. might not have the time, physically or mentally, to be carrying out additional tasks, particularly if they are navigating a return to work.

And some families just might not have the facilities to take photographs, or to print or email them to the setting.

 

 

So now we have thought about these barriers, what can we do? If you find that you are not receiving family photographs, could you take a quick photograph at drop off or pick up instead? Or could your board be about your setting family, as children and practitioners? If you are a setting that uses an online sharing platform, could you download a photograph from there and use that for the board?

Reflect on the importance of a child’s family and how underrepresentation can cause feelings of upset, anger and loneliness. All children should feel like they belong and should be represented in their environment. A child without a family picture on the family display is like a child not having a peg or drawer or being welcomed into the setting with a smile. It’s not conceivable that we would allow any of those things to happen.

It might also be helpful to consider how your family board is used with the children in the setting or class? What learning are you hoping to encourage? Is it effective in its current format?

Or are the photographs displayed for children to stumble across?

For younger children, family books are often more successful because children can hold them, look through them, carry them around and share with their practitioners, much like their favourite story book.

I have also seen some lovely examples where the children have drawn themselves and their family members, making a stick puppet or attaching to a wooden block, spoon or peg person. This allows the children to handle them and re-enact experiences and use language.

Families, no matter their make up or size, are integral to a child. If we are choosing to create displays or books depicting and celebrating all families, then all children must be involved. Let’s make sure that all children feel as though their family, and by association the child themselves, matter.

 

 

 

I am sure as Chairs, and governors, we have all been sat at a meeting that has gone to plan, no items have overrun, some great questions have been asked, the biscuits weren’t stale and the tea tasted almost like tea, then you arrive at the final item, AOB. The Chair politely enquires if anyone has anything they would like to raise, there’s a shuffling of papers, laptops are closed, chairs shuffle, coats are readied and then after a pause that’s just long enough to indicate that it’s time to pack up someone declares they have a few things they would like to raise – not for them to send their questions in advance or to declare them at the head of the meeting, just a series of curve balls that, with energy levels low and patience even lower, have to be given the respect and time to respond to and hopefully resolve! I say all this by way of illustration of the life of being a Chair – I remember the days before email when if you finished work without a call from your headteacher you could go home in the knowledge that all was well at your school. Now a Chair has little escape from being contacted by phone, email or social media at all hours of the day and so has little respite from the feeling of being ‘on call’ – even Ofsted are happy to call a Chair whilst they are on holiday to get their input into the school’s inspection! I will admit a few years ago I took my Ofsted crib sheet on holiday with me ‘just in case’ – not something I admitted to my family at the time!

If someone asks me what the day to day work of a Chair is my general response is how long have you got! In my opinion it boils down to the arts though – the art of diplomacy, the art of being inclusive and respecting many viewpoints, the art of chairing a meeting, the art of compassion, compromise, empathy and understanding, the art of communication and often the art of treading a careful line between opposing opinions and the art of respecting the collective decision. This is not to say that the above ‘artistry’ needs employing all of the time but for Chairs it’s the ability to pivot from one to another as situations arise – supporting the Headteacher, dealing with stakeholders, working with board members and dealing with those curve balls moments.  Furthermore, recognising your own strengths and weaknesses is key to being an effective, and respected leader – whatever your leadership style play to your strengths, recognise your limitations and don’t be shy of reaching out for help and support.

 My main intention in writing this blog has been not only to highlight the challenges that come with being a Chair but to draw governors’ attention to succession planning and also that of retention. In the best cases a Chair will indicate well in advance their intention to step down allowing for planned succession. However, it’s becoming far too common for Chairs to feel completely overwhelmed with the role and for understandable reasons reluctantly stepping down. Somewhere in-between lies the necessity to always have an eye on succession, this can simply be valuing the role of the Vice Chair who would be the natural successor or more far sighted to be looking for the necessary skills when recruiting new governors. In terms of retaining your valued Chair, who is tasked with monitoring their wellbeing and capacity to cope? This is most likely to be the Headteacher, but then that’s the role of the Chair to look out for them! For me the whole board has a responsibility to support the Chair, and this can be done in the main through being active recipients of delegated tasks – we all know that it’s all too easy for your Chair to assume too many key responsibilities, as we often say the job of being Chair is job enough. So, offer to take on link roles, Committee Chair positions, stepping up to become a supportive Vice Chair and engage with the relevant training to be able to support with the extra duties such as Complaints, Exclusions and Appeals panels. All these things together are incredibly supportive and will help you to retain your Chair by sharing the load.

Equally my intention hasn’t been to write an ode to Chairs, I really wanted to just pay a simple tribute to the tireless work of the hundreds of Chairs across Hertfordshire and the thousands beyond. As volunteers you are taking on at the very least a part-time leadership role, and at times of challenge a near full-time role. Can I on behalf of HFL Education, and I am sure all your governor colleagues as well, thank you for your commitment, hard work and dedication and ultimately the difference that makes to the life chances and opportunities for past, current and future generations of our pupils.

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The HFL Governance team stand ready to support you whether it be through our acclaimed training programme, our supportive Clerking and Chairs service or our fantastic helpdesk.

To contact us please use the following: 

Governance Helpdesk – 01438 544487  

Governance Training – 01438 544478 

Governance Clerking - 01438 544487 

Or email us at governance@hfleducation.org 

 

Achieving the best outcomes for your pupils is central to every school and academy trust, so your focus is on their education and wellbeing. But, like many organisations, it takes more to run a school: estate management, technology, human resources, financial management, catering etc. Your existing staff may not have expertise or the time to cover this wider operation alongside delivering excellence to pupils.

Our previous blog ‘Insourcing or outsourcing?’  considered some basic pros and cons of insourcing versus outsourcing. It also highlighted that while value for money should be your first consideration, it doesn’t necessarily mean the cheaper of the options.

As a standalone school, with the budget of one school, your support and ancillary teams are likely to have resembled those of many small organisations – many of their members will have covered multiple part-roles and few will have been specialists. External contractors could be called upon to provide specific expertise, expensive equipment or a comprehensive package of work if and only when needed.

As a Multi Academy Trust, the deciding factors on whether to insource or outsource are probably changing. You may have started finding the growth in the central workload and the larger estate makes it economically more viable to now employ in-house specialist services. The increasing complexity of the central workload may be requiring more dedicated focus. Consistency in processes across the schools will have become more important, so more and more of your support function will have been centralised; consolidating best practice and expertise is one of the benefits of being a MAT and this applies across central functions as well as teaching.

Benefits of bringing services in-house

It is often considered that bringing services in-house will lead to cost savings and greater efficiencies. With budgets tightening, trust will want to consider whether it is cheaper to employ staff directly to fulfil a role. Having internal staff can bring a greater degree of flexibility in how staff are deployed, supporting in a number of different areas across the trust as needed rather than having an outsourced function working on specific remits.

Bringing teams in house can also enable trusts to offer developmental opportunities for staff, with new opportunities and roles within the trust. As Trust teams grow and expand, the opportunities for more senior positions and advancement can provide good opportunities for CPD for current members of staff, supporting retention and avoiding trusts having to go out and recruit new members of staff.

Having roles fulfilled by central team members can provide a degree of control that may not be possible with outsourced contracts. The Trust can work with its internal members of staff to develop its trust vision and strategy, and ensure that as it grows it has created a strong culture and values for all staff.

Cost considerations

Whilst it is often seen that insourcing can lead to greater efficiencies and cost savings, there are a number of considerations and hidden costs to consider:

• Employer on-costs: national insurance, pension contributions, apprenticeship levy.
• Holiday pay.
• Any employee benefits and perks per your trust’s policies, e.g. professional subscriptions.
• Premises overheads to accommodate additional members of staff.
• The cost of time of existing staff to provide line management.
• The cost of time of existing staff to provide training. Different grades of recruits will, of course, require different levels of training. An apprentice or intern may mean attractive wage costs as well as the opportunity to help a young person on their career journey but do factor in the cost of your existing expert staff providing in-house training, e.g. in IT, finance or HR. And how much of your training will be learning about your trust/school’s systems and ways of working, in which case who would you rather invest that training time in?
• Subscriptions, payroll fees, insurance premiums etc which are based on number of personnel.
• Investment in equipment for your in-house function, e.g. grounds maintenance – not just how long it will take to recuperate the outlay, but ongoing maintenance, storage and insurance costs.

HR considerations

Using a contractor relieves your organisation of the employer responsibilities and application of employment rights that accompany employment, so these will be a big factor in deciding whether to insource or outsource. Do your existing staff have the capacity and an appropriate level of high-level subject knowledge in the area to line manage the new recruits, to schedule shifts, organise sickness cover quickly when needed, oversee retention, etc. as well as performance manage them, or will the recruitment need to include managers too? Additional staff will mean additional payroll processing resource – the additional cost of this and per capita insurances are mentioned above.

It will take time to advertise and recruit new members of staff, although there would also be time and management associated with researching and sourcing a new external contract. Similarly, there is a risk of unsatisfactory output with both employees and external contractors.

Why outsource?

The requirement for specialist and professional expertise may remain one of the main reasons for outsourcing certain functions. The technical requirements placed on academies in areas such as finance and governance are high and can be demanding. Filling the roles that will deliver on these fronts with the right level of skills is key. Your Board may include members who can bring high level ideas and guidance to the table in areas such as law, HR and finance, but you will still need suitably qualified people to plan and deliver the actual work.

Professionals working in the central office will need the expertise and skills to not just ‘do a job’ but to advise their extended teams across the schools on technical matters, be seen as leaders to these teams and design the processes that will deliver the necessary outputs.

So, will you be able to recruit the right expertise? It can be lonely being the sole professional for a particular function in an organisation, so is it an acceptable level of responsibility that would fall to that person if you can’t afford a qualified team around them? How (easily) could you cover a temporary vacancy in that role if they leave? Some things are time-sensitive, e.g. payroll. If you used in-house staff to fulfil a function, would they have the capacity to commit to delivering on such deadlines? Can confidentiality or data protection requirements be met in-house?

External suppliers deal with multiple customers and clients. By outsourcing to them, you benefit from their constantly broadening experience as well as their increased exposure to current issues and fixes. Finally, your growing negotiating power will apply to your outsource deal too.

With so much to consider, the message remains: the value of each option is in more than just its cost. 

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Blog authored by Louise Shaw and Genevieve Wilson.

 

Handwriting can be like a fingerprint – unique to its owner and an expression of identity. How long does it take us as teachers, at the start of a new academic year, to become able to distinguish the child belonging to that unnamed piece of work? Probably just a couple of weeks - days even - before we can identify the offenders based on their handwriting alone. With handwriting being a piece of us on a page, often for others to see, it’s understandable that some people feel their handwriting is a representation of their self.

Why is handwriting important?

Handwriting is given emphasis in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile and throughout the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 English National Curriculum. It is a requirement in the TAFs at the end of each key stage. Expectations around letter formation precede statements about consistency and quality. By Year 6, children are expected to ‘Write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed’, and to make choices about their handwriting.

Yet, handwriting splits opinion in terms of its purpose in the digital age. While some would suggest that it is not a skill worth pursuing these days, there are times when all of us use our handwriting skills for one purpose or another, be it a beautifully crafted letter, a scrawled to-do list, or planning the content for your upcoming blog about handwriting. Recent research suggests that writing by hand, rather than typing on a device, activates the brain, helping us to both learn and remember more effectively. As the demands of the curriculum increase, having fluent handwriting will allow note taking, expression of increasingly complex ideas, and will support writing stamina too.

Once fluent handwriting is achieved, our cognitive capacity can be freed up to concentrate on the higher-level skills of writing rather than worrying about formation of letters and whether writing is legible. Expending all energies on thinking about the strokes and shapes that represent the sounds needed to write, leaves little room for coming up with something interesting to say. Furthermore, research suggests that practising words in fluent handwriting over-and-over can help to the brain to spell the word using muscle memory. With increased automaticity in spelling too, further cognitive load is freed up. In other words, we can focus on composition – and on achieving the purpose of our writing - when transcription is no longer a chore.

Foundations for handwriting

Children who have had plenty of opportunities to develop gross and fine motor skills through play and exploration in their early years, are more likely to have developed firm foundations for writing. Activities which have supported the children to develop their arm and shoulder strength, core strength and flexibility – such as rolling, climbing and skipping – will also prepare children for using tools such as pencils more confidently. Threading, stirring, doing up buttons, using spray bottles and making models with clay, will all help to further refine their fine motor skills. This variety of motion lays the foundation for the directional movements necessary for letter formation. Additionally, children require the ability to cross their midline – can they paint/draw a long horizontal line across a large piece of paper/on the floor/wall from their left to right or vice versa without swapping hands? Can they use one hand to roll a car along a track from their right to their left? If not, developing the ability to cross their midline will be key: try playing hand clapping games, kicking a ball, rotating the upper body, or creating big art with large circular motions. How about getting out the gymnastics ribbons to trace large shapes and letters in the air?

Some older children will benefit from revisiting gross and fine motor activities to strengthen the muscles and develop the dexterity required for writing. Once ready to put pen to paper, mark making and pre-writing shapes can continue to build children’s fine motor skills and develop hand strength and co-ordination, alongside a rich diet of ‘busy fingers’ style activities. There are many resources available to support with building fine motor skills with the basic shapes required for letter formation, such as this Handwriting Patterns Playbook from the National Handwriting Association.

How do I teach handwriting?

With gross and fine motor skills developed, children will be better prepared for the demands of accurate and consistent letter formation. While it can be tempting to teach handwriting along with phonics as children learn each GPC, teaching children groups of letters based on their formation makes mastering letter formations easier. These groups, often referred to as letter families, are given different names, including ‘push letters’ and ‘pull letters’, ‘curly caterpillar/ladder letters’. Whatever you choose to call them, it makes sense that if a child has mastered formation of the letter ‘l’, working on the letters ‘i’, ‘u’, ‘t’, ‘j’ and ‘y’ will be easier: each starts with a vertical, downwards stroke. The same goes for ‘the c team’: forming ‘c’ correctly will greatly support writing ‘a’, ‘d’, ‘g’, and so on. Each letter formation should be modelled and taught (you might like to use a mnemonic to help remember how it is formed) before being practised by pupils. Encouraging self-assessment can help here too: “I really like the way you have the body of this ‘p’ sitting on the line with the long descender below the line. Which one you do you like? Why?”

The National Handwriting Association sets out great guidance in their ‘Good Practice for Handwriting’ toolkit. This fabulous, free resource explores the 4 ‘P’ Checks: posture, pencil, paper, pressure and the 8 ‘S’ Factors: shape, space, size, sitting, stringing, slant, speed, style required for the process and product of handwriting. Understanding each of the 4 Ps and the 8 Ss of handwriting will allow direct teaching of each aspect, to support children in ‘getting it right’ to begin with. Our handwriting audit (which can be found at the end of this blog) can be used to identify barriers and plan support pupils who find handwriting challenging. Diagnostically assessing pupils, using the 4 Ps and 8 Ss, will allow you to assess these factors of handwriting, to get under the skin of the barriers which children are facing. Set a short writing task for your class and take time to monitor each child – how are they sitting? What is their pencil grip like? Support offered can then be tailored based on your analysis: when we identify the ‘tricky bit’, it is easier to make specific interventions to address and overcome the challenge.

Struggling with handwriting can cause great frustration over time. Some find it embarrassing. Someone brimming with ideas but unable to record them legibly may become disengaged with writing as a whole. While using technology to support these pupils can be beneficial, handwriting cannot simply be ignored with much of our education system still reliant on the handwritten form. In the ‘Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2’ report, the EEF acknowledge that “Extensive practice, supported by effective feedback, is required to develop fluent transcription skills” and recommends that we “Monitor pupils’ handwriting to ensure accurate letter formation habits, providing effective feedback to promote efficient and fluent handwriting.”

Strategies for supporting and improving handwriting in the classroom

Below are some suggested strategies for supporting children with their handwriting, shared by Michelle Nicholson.

1. ‘The Gold Standard’

Work with a child to identify a piece of work they are proud of in terms of handwriting and presentation (not handwriting practice). Photocopy the piece of work and stick it into the cover of the child’s book as a pull-out flap which the child can open up whenever they start a new piece of work. This is their own ‘gold standard’ below which they would not wish to drop. When the child feels that they can consistently match or improve on this standard they may choose a new ‘gold standard’ to replace the original piece of writing and use the new piece as their personal benchmark. This process is repeated through the year and avoids inconsistencies of presentation.

2. Small steps pathway

Support the child to improving letter by letter. It may feel as if this would take 26 weeks, but it really does have a snowball effect. Identify one or two letters that the child is consistently writing incorrectly either in terms of form, sizing or placement on the line. Model the letter formation explaining what you are looking out for, e.g. ‘the ascender for the h needs to be nice and tall rather than the same size of the n, so that we can tell the difference’. Then, the child practises with teacher and is given feedback. Challenge the child to start each piece of work with a row of these letters. Which ones are they proud of?  Underline or circle them and then complete writing tasks with special attention to letters practised. Review writing and check letter formation of target letters- which need fixing, which ones match the expectation? Continue each week with a new letter, recording the previously addressed letters on a bookmark as a reminder for the child. The following week the child and teacher select another letter formation to work on, which again the child will self-monitor. Hopefully the previous week’s letter in embedded but they can check these from time to time to ensure old habits are not revisited. A book mark in the book could reference letters to check so far e.g. tall letters all have clear ascenders; lower case p sits with its body on the line and descender underneath; Letters c and s are correctly sized depending on whether they are upper or lower case etc. As the weeks go on, the worst letter formation will have been addressed and you may notice that the handwriting looks a lot better in general. Further individual attention on letters may not be needed at all, or could be addressed in groups e.g. ‘ensure descenders don’t loop down into the letters on the line below’.

3. Building stamina

If we’re honest, most of us will struggle to maintain beautiful handwriting over a sustained period of time, whether that be when given written feedback to the thirtieth book in the pile or taking notes for an hour. Children are no different. So this strategy is about building a fluid, neat handwriting over time and knowing when to use ‘publishing handwriting’ and when to use ‘everyday handwriting’. You may notice a mismatch between the script a pupil can produce in a handwriting practice book contrasted to writing a piece of independent narrative. That’s because when time and focus is given to handwriting, we can all give a concerted effort for a set period. Conversely, when we are juggling multiple disciplines within compositional as well as transcriptional skills, something will have to give. And that’s before we’ve even thought about the muscle strain caused by sustained control of handwriting. We need to consider whether we want quality of handwriting or quantity of content: we need to accept that we can’t always have both at first. Gradual stamina building is needed. Can the pupil give you one line of their ‘gold standard (possibly joined) handwriting today before they drop back to a more relaxed script? What about two great lines tomorrow? Can we aim for a short paragraph next week? Could the child choose a short section of a story or written activity that they would like to edit and publish in a polished form? This technique is particularly useful when you have children who can sustain a joined script when writing at speed- they can write in a joined hand for a while then revert to print if they find that easier or quicker until they have developed the skill.

4. Writing at speed

Linking to the above point, do you potentially need to introduce an element of writing at speed into handwriting practice? My own primary education equipped me with an enviable hand of italic script using the angled nib of a fountain pen. On entry to secondary school, I found that this skill was useless beyond writing captions or fancy labels- all the Y7 lessons required me to keep up with the geography teacher’s dictation or copy copious notes from a board. After a few weeks, my neatly joined handwriting descended into a chaotic scrawl. Set out the expectations for a lesson at the beginning e.g. ‘These notes are for you, so make sure you can read them at the end’ vs ‘This poem is going on display so do your best joined script today and take your time with presentation’.

5. A two-pronged approach

If children struggle with handwriting so much that it is a genuine barrier to their learning, take a two-pronged approach. Whilst some activities and lessons are dedicated to developing the skill of communicating in handwritten form, ensure others remove that barrier so the child can concentrate on the task at hand. Can the child use the speech to text function in word to dictate their ideas? Do you have any specific software such as Clicker that will allow them to compose a piece of writing without worrying about their transcription skills? Can you build the child’s typing skills? The final point again looks ahead to secondary and skills for life. In the past I have worked with children with literacy difficulties who have received a diagnosis recognising their learning needs sometimes only months before their GCSEs. Being allowed to type essays during an exam is only helpful if they are familiar with a qwerty keyboard, otherwise the extra time they are allowed is eaten up by painfully slow one-fingered typing.

Why not let us know your favourite strategies for supporting children with their handwriting? We’d love to see their progress so feel free to join our English Subject Leader VLE or share on Twitter @HertsEnglish.