When Tim Rylands came to call part 2

This text is stolen from Tim's Blog!
Thanks for a great days learning for staff and pupils.

A return trip to Normanby Primary School, in Middlesbrough, for more investigating of fascination, and learning.

Our last trip saw us experimenting with digital, and analog, ways of creating experiences. We went on a virtual rollercoaster alongside some of the brave mums and dads; we made fire pits and cooked food; we did lots that deserved a ripple.

Today, we ventured back in to some virtual domains, and became even more analytical about the tools, and techniques, we use as teachers.

Alongside the analog methods of recording ideas, the teachers kept running observations, using Padlet while working with the Year 6 pupils in the morning and the Year 2 pupils in the afternoon.

They were looking out for all of the little techniques, and methods, we all used, to encourage children to develop their ideas further, and take off and fly.

The children of Normanby are up for challenges, and really did incredibly well. A credit to the inventive teaching, and learning, experiences the school provides.

When @TimRylands came to visit

We had a visitor to school (@Normanby Primary) a few weeks ago.

A perfectly nice young teacher, not an Inspector, HMI or broker; just a nice young teacher.

After sipping hot coffee and talking in my office for a while, we wandered over to the class he wanted to observe.  Like all Head Teachers, we wandered to the correct room.  We didn’t walk straight there.  There is much too much to see in a Primary School to ignore the joy of the journey as you walk around.

The Year 2 classroom sealed with ‘Crime Scene’ tape (apparently a giant had broken in last night and messed things up whilst hunting for chocolate.  The giant, I am told by my pupils as I pass, doesn’t like broccoli.)  The Year 3’s were eating grapes and olives wearing togas (bed sheets!) debating the rights and wrongs of some particular issue.

I left our nice young teacher to observe the lesson and wandered back to my office wondering why do people come to observe and not participate….

Some time later, our perfectly nice young teacher returns, carefully shepherded by some pupils.  I wonder if they will wander or walk back to their class.

More coffee… and, what’s the first question I am asked?

It wasn’t why is making a classroom a crime scene helping to motivate seven year olds.  It wasn’t why does feeding children olives help them to empathise with Ancient Romans.

The first question was ‘What APS will the children make this year?’  Followed by ‘Which of the National Strategies do we follow and what scheme do we follow for spelling, grammar and punctuation?’

All good questions but, for me at least, deeply worrying.

I want new professionals to join my school, any school, with enthusiasm and innovation close to their hearts.  Not a desire to seek and follow a scheme of work or programme of study.  I would never argue that structure and organisation don’t matter: of course they do.  Children thrive on them, perhaps especially so for those in our school communities from the most challenging backgrounds.

I asked Tim and Sarah to work with us today because I wanted to give my staff and guests a chance to catch their breath, reflect on some of the strategies they and Tim use to engage and listen to our pupils.  Tim gave us a chance to smile and learn alongside our wonderful pupils today.  He created a magical space at our busy school today where we could stretch both our minds and use of language.  As ever, an inspiration.  We enjoyed learning alongside our pupils.

We have based our school improvement planning this year on some of the work of Stephen Hepell.  Have a look at the 3rd Millenium ABC’s.   Every member of staff has the first ‘A’ as their shared target Performance Management for this year.  It is ‘A’ for Astonish.  I would love my own three children to go to schools where the staff set out to astonish the pupils and the pupils in turn astonished their peers or teachers or parents or carers.

Headteacher, parent, inspector, I think it’s time we took back control of the curriculum.  Innovation is good, ending enforced change isn’t.  It’s our duty to give our staff and pupils chance to breathe and grow our curriculum, lets allow our pupils to inspire our staff to be brave, creating opportunities to learn that are fit for the world we live in now.  Let’s use our skills as headteachers to build strong staff teams and schools that work collaboratively to embrace change.

Let’s be brave.

Staff Development

Very proud of how our children are leading the staff both in my school and in the region in the devleopment of their teaching and the curriculum.

Merlin Johns excellent website decribes some of their work.

Mobile Learning in action

A chance to see some amazing learning....

What will your pupils say about how they were taught in 2011?

When we lead a Keynote session with Andrew Stogdale at the Northern Grid for Learning Conference we asked the children to prep their own script, based on how they might look back on their school years...details of their stunning thinking here

ICT for Education Conference in Newcastle

Just found out I follow the amazing Tim Rylands on stage at this event...eeek!

ICT Live


The ICT for Education Conference in Newcastle presents a great line-up of speakers, including inspirational education experts, teachers from award winning schools, leaders of education bodies and representatives of government organisations. The conference sessions are complemented by an exhibition showcasing the latest educational products and services and ICT Reviews Live!, which will put selected products through their paces.

New School Website

Its been a long time in the making but thanks to some expert help from the Local Authority the new school website is up and running:

here it is!

House of Commons and Links to Core Education

House of Commons

On Monday 9th May Core Education organised an afternoon tea reception in the Members Dining Room at the House of Commons. The purpose of the event, attended by MPs, Lords and other special guests, was to demonstrate how teaching and learning is enhanced using mobile technologies.

Five schools, specially selected because of their innovation and enthusiasm for using hand held devices to expand learning in and out of the classroom, sent around 5 students and 2 teachers per school to attend. The students ages ranged between 6 and 16 and while each child had a unique take on the equipment all of them were able to clearly prove just how engaging, valuable and essential they find mobile technologies in the modern classroom.

To get a glimpse of the day, please take a look at the photos HERE

This is taken from the CORE ED website...take a look!

Carl

Report date: May, 2011

Presentation= check
Train ticket= check
Conference Pass= check
School sorted for my absence= check

LWF (Learning Without Frontiers) awaits, Ill blog or tweet #LWF11 updates when I can!

Carl

Snowy rescue

The team were filmed again, we think by the same person in my previous post, on a recent call-out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pcdg9m7Dao&feature=related its snowy and its saltburn Carl

Someone is watching you...

Last week we used ropes, man power and even crampons to help evacuate a woman from Saltburn Woods. Hard packed snow and ice made even standing up straight a challenge! A Team Member found this video on You Tube showing a rescue from earlier this year from a similar location. Good team work and multi agency working on both call-outs.

The recent rescue was filmed by the Police, from their helicopter.

We don't know who posted this You Tube clip.

Or why.

Questions, questions:

Did anyone ask me if I was happy to be filmed, and the footage shown?

What about the casualty, their relatives, their friends?

What happens in a school when a camera is used? Do children know to ask permission before they film? How do they decide here to post a film, who do they share an image with?

I tell my Governors if I leave work to attend a call-out. What if I forgot, and the first they knew about it was this?

What if the first time I saw my bald spot was on You Tube without warning!

How can pupils observe learning?

What happens when you want to get the children involved in observing learning, so they can help design the curriculum in school?

We used the collective wisdom of the school council to produce a list of verbs they would hope to see in action in a happy classroom that was full of learning; this is what they produced:

This can be quickly coloured in to record what they have seen.

How do we do that?

I received this response to a previous post

Steve Philp said...

I'd love to hear more details about how you allocate your resources. I'm deputy at a primary in Birmingham and have led on curriculum change for 3 years, but staff don't have complete freedom in resource use - so how do you do that?

November 22, 2010 2:24 PM

We have tried to balance staff freedom with accountability.

We constantly repeat: "If we keep doing the same then we will only get the same, or worse, results"

This is one way we have encouraged staff freedom to innovate...

Each term we have a Standards Meeting; each year group present for around 7 minutes on how well (or otherwise) their year group are doing to the rest of the staff. Each year group make notes (for subject leaders this is their curriculum monitoring) and importantly highlight opportunities they think a given year group could take to develop their work.

As the staff share their strengths we all develop our practice- good ideas spread quickly- and, whilst its hard to believe staff share resources as well; last year Y6 gained use of a teaching assisstant in the Spring Term. This was offered by a different year  group and accepted. ICT and curriculum resources move quickly as well.

Each year group has a budget- this year just short of £2k. School provides some essential or day to day resources but the rest is used where staff prioritise.

Got an issue with boys writing? Spend more on nice pens, or post its, or e-books, or a visiting author.

Spend it where you see fit by all means; but staff know that the accountability for its wise deployment rests with them!

Looking back part 2

Last year we spent a great day with Chris Nash, he was kind enough to write this after his visit to the North East;

I was delighted recently to be invited to spend a day at Normanby Primary School in Middlesbrough seeing how they teach and learn with mobile technology. The first thing that struck me was the passion for developing teaching and learning that was evident throughout the staff, pupils and parents in the school. This was clearly far more than just a class pilot project; there was evidence of systemic embedding of the technology wherever I looked and pleasingly this included much of the beautifully developed outdoor spaces in the school to support extended learning opportunities.

What was really striking though was a rare recognition by the Head, Carl Faulkner of the power of portable, handheld technology to develop truly independent and personalised learning whereby the balance of control in child’s learning journey is gradually tipped towards the learner.

A personal access model to ICT is only really relevant if the students are given choice to develop their learning at a pace and style which benefits their individual learning needs. Normanby School is still in the early stages of this process where the pupils are very much in control of their technology, from assisting in the device of choice to managing charging, software installations, maintenance and resources. The long term vision from the Head and staff at the school is to see this responsibility develop a greater involvement from the pupils in their own learning development. This might start with them having more independence in choosing appropriate tools to capture, create and share their ideas and moving onto them identifying when they are confident they have mastered particular skills and what needs to be acquired next.

It is clear that the school is not looking for quick fixes – no rush to buy the latest gadget because boys are failing in Literacy etc.  Normanby, under the guidance of their dedicated Head, are looking at making a long term difference by embedding technology relevant to their pupils lives and embracing a shift towards creating passionate 24/7 learners who are not only aware of, but in control of their education.

Chris Nash 2009

Looking back I can really see how our curriculum, and its delivery went through a massive change in 2009. We recently looked at some old planning; the difference in just 18 months is immense. The school is now also organised differently, with resoucres allocated to staff to spend/ deploy/ save as they see fit.

In many ways it has made my life as Head easier. The challenge is now not starting the innovation, its keeping up with it!

Learning Without Frontiers

Learning Without Frontiers have asked me to present at this years Conference.

This is an outline of my talk:

Digital glue: helping to change your School through the careful use of technology.

I am firm believer that technology should be a lot more than the 'stuff' that doesn't work properly yet; although with over 200 handheld 'PDA' devices owned by students, and numerous Wiis, DS handhelds and SMARTboards in use everyday at Normanby making it work- and produce results- is a challenge. A big one!

I will talk about how innovation can be initiated and maintained in a school environment, and share my pupils views. I will draw upon my experiences both in school and on a windy rainswept Moor in the middle of the night!

This is the bio I had to write, how strange is it to describe yourself for others to read?

"Working as a Head teacher in the North East of England, Carl has developed his schools use of a range of technologies that support learners, their families and teachers.

The impact of his work with staff has been recognised through the presentation of several awards, including from the Guardian Newspaper, Hand Held Learning and the Northern Grid for Learning. Previously in his first Headship Carl led his school to be 'one of the top 12 most improved' schools in the country.

Carl has served as Team Leader in a Mountain Rescue Team, helping to coordinate and lead the response to a wide range of emergency situations."

One year on

Last year I was lucky enough to be nominated for, and then win, a Hand Held Learning Award: this is the website we produced.


Carls nomination