Issue 2: Spring Term 2015

In this issue: Creativity and learning

Mindsets and Pupil Premium
Vertical Tutoring

the in-house journal reflecting action research practice

at Impington Village College

Editorial

Contributors

Welcome to the second issue of our in house

research journal at Impington Village College.

Kathryn Aybak is Teacher of Art at Impington

Village College who currently studying for an MEd
through this SUPER partnership with the Faculty
at the University of Cambridge. Kathryn shares a
review of the key literature around the impact of
out of school visits to inspire creativity, focussing
on wider ideas of what motivates learning and
flow. We look forward to a fuller article in a
future issue when her MEd is complete.

It has been pleasing to see how much the first

volume received critical reading and positive
attention, both within our College and across the
wider education community. We very much hope
to be engaged in a continued reflective dialogue
with both audiences. There is an obvious need
for staff to quickly share great ideas based on
genuine evidence of what works, whilst not
stinting the rigour and critique of robust research.
In this issue we focus on how research is
impacting on our current practice within the
College: through the closing the gap whole school
research, the move into vertical tutoring, the
sharing of practical teaching techniques from
each other (top teaching tips), and from Ginnus,
Lemov and Wiliam (in our recommended reads
and links). We also share some new ideas for
reflection, such as those on flow and creativity
with a small c, as a taster for wider engagement
in the future.

Mike Murray is Assistant Principal for Staff

Development at IVC, included in this role are
research links with the Faculty as the Teacher
Research Co-ordinator. Mike is one of the editors
and creators of the impact journal. His piece
outlines the journey so far towards making
mindset theory relevant and impactful in our staff
and student practice.
Rob Campbell is Principal of Impington Village
College, and has recently completed an MEd in
Leadership in Education. Rob shares how he has
been influenced by Bearnards thinking in
implementing vertical tutoring.
Suzanne Culshaw is Teacher of Business
Studies, an MEd student and a twitter fan who
has contributed our review and links to Wiliam.
Simon Warburton is the new Vice Principal at
Impington Village College, and has contributed
both the review on Lemov and brief guide on use
of Google apps/docs.

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Impact Journal. Issue 2: Spring Term 2015

Reviewing research literature on creativity and learning

Kathryn Aybak

Key research questions:

Can Art and Design teaching in

secondary schools enhance skills
and employability through creative
practice and partnership?
Does our focus on grades shut
down creativity?
How can we support and measure
playfulness and creativity?
Can we achieve flow?

Art and Design after secondary school. The

reasons given for many, seem to be because of
the risks associated with not being able to find a
job. This is of particular concern in todays
economic climate. That pupils are averse to risktaking, Holt (1984) Pollard (1985), could suggest
they are narrowing their options away from
riskier arts and creative subjects. Yet the
Creative Industries embrace a wide range of
career routes, as well as being one of the most
rapidly growing sectors of the world economy.

Defining Creativity

Rationale for Masters Study

I have chosen to study this area firstly because,
over 12 years of teaching secondary Art, Design
and Textiles, I often feel there is a discrepancy
between the art education we, as teachers,
deliver and its relevance to the creative vocations
and career choices students make. As Wigfield
and Eccles (2000) claim, student perceptions
about the value of what they are learning, is a key
motivation factor.
Secondly the lack of emphasis on creativity and
the arts by the current government, with the
Department for Educations key focus being on
traditionalism, knowledge and discipline, makes it
more important for creativity to be kept at the
forefront of educational debate and thought. As
Turner-Bisset (2007) argues the performativity
discourse in this country is hijacking the creativity
discourse (p201).

Crafts little c creativity model is a particularly

useful one when applied to education and one I
wish to explore later in my own research. In
particular because it democratises the term
creativity to include everyday notions such as
problem solving and opens up work achievable
by school students. She argues that a lack of
experience of little c creativity could inhibit
peoples ability to cope with lifes challenges
(2001:52). Also Csikszentmihalyis (1996) belief
is that creative thinking has a transformative and
empowering effect. As young people are vessels
of change and transition, (p28) creativity is a
useful tool for enabling this transformation to take
place.

Thirdly, I have found that a number of students,

particularly those from either a lower socioeconomic background, or those who are high
achievers across the board, do not continue with
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Impact Journal. Issue 2: Spring Term 2015

Creativity and the Arts

Key findings:

Tickle (2012) argues that the arts can provide a

substantial contribution to developing creative
thought and action and therefore should be well
represented at all levels of the school curriculum.
Further to this, Halpern (2005) and Deasy (2002)
suggest there are strong correlations between
participating in the arts and increased motivation.
Catteralls longitudinal study (2009) demonstrated
that where students have had an arts rich
education, it has benefitted their academic
success, in particular, for those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

Creativity could be argued to be a collaborative

activity. The Creative Partnerships programmes
(2002-2011) objective was to establish
sustainable links between schools and creative
individuals. This has now had its funding
withdrawn. Most of the findings from these
partnerships have shown a positive correlation
between collaborations and student success.
Galton (2010) claims that partnerships were able
to motivate students, some of whom had antilearning dispositions (p355). Artists, he says,
employed different questioning strategies,
encouraged risk-taking and related to students
more. Sinker and Sefton Green (2000) suggest
that a social model of creativity has greater
vocational relevance as collaborative working is
the kind of contemporary labour skills allegedly in
short supply (p225). Mc Gill, NGuessan and
Rosen, (2007) cite the tension between the artist
and teachers different approaches and
philosophy when they work together in schools,
concluding it is productive and essential to
broadening the learning experience. Burnard
(2006) emphasises the importance of reflective
practice to overcome any issues. The fact that
reflective practice is inherent in art, makes it all
the more important to keep it at the forefront of
educational debates.

Creativity is transformative and

empowering
Arts can impact on academic
success and poorer students
Creative thinking is vital for
education and our future economy

The Importance of Creative Thinking

Craft (2001) argues for the importance of creative
thinkers to the growth of a creative economy,
which needs to start in schools, both as a
response to what she terms the weightless
economy (one based on electronic and virtual
products) and for personal development and
fulfilment. A report published by UNESCO (2013)
confirms the creative economy as one of the most
rapidly growing sectors of the world economy and
a highly transformative one in terms of income
generation, job creation and export earnings.
Data to support this for Britain can be found in
Labour Market Statistics Bulletin, (2010), total
creative employment, 2,278,500 (7.8% of all
employment).
With nearly one million 16-24 year olds
unemployed and the NEET (not in education or
employment or training) rate rising fast (DFE,
2011), how can we, as teachers, better engage
with our students and offer them more relevant
teaching and life skills to support them in this
uncertain economic climate? Jeffrey (2006)
argues for closer links and collaboration between
colleges and work related learning. Supporting
this is research demonstrating that young people
who experience multiple contacts with employers
go on to experience employment benefits later,
on average up to 20% less likely to be NEET at
the time of the survey (Mann and Percy, 2013).

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Impact Journal. Issue 2: Spring Term 2015

References
Craft, A, Jeffrey, B and Leibling, M (2001). Creativity in Education, London:Continuum.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity, Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper
Collins.
Fleming M. (2010). Arts in education and creativity: a literature review. 2nd Edition. Newcastle: Creativity, Culture and
Education.
Galton, M. (2010). Going with the flow or back to normal: The impact of creative practitioners in schools and
classrooms. Research Papers in Education, 25(4), 355-375
Sefton-Green, J and Sinker, R (2000).Evaluating Creativity. London:Routledge.
Tickle, L. (2012). The Arts in Education. London:Routledge.

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Editors note: Csikszentmihalyi argues that student creativity is at its height when relaxed yet challenged;
most learning occurs in any lesson achieving flow.

Anxiety the mental state that results from a difficult

challenge for which the subject has insufficient coping skills.
Arousal A response to a difficult challenge for which the
subject has moderate skills.
Flow The mental state of operation in which a person
performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of
energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the
process of the activity.
Control Ones skill level is higher than the challenge level
for that task.
Relaxation The emotional state of low tension, in which
there is an absence of arousal that could come from sources
such as anger, anxiety, or fear.
Boredom A response to a moderate challenge for which the
subject has more than enough skill.
Apathy A result of the individuals feeling that they dont
possess the level of skills required to confront a challenge.
Worry A response to a moderate challenge for which the
subject has inadequate skills.

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Impact Journal. Issue 2: Spring Term 2015

Mind the Gap: can we fix Year 8?

Mike Murray

This article outlines what we have found out so from our whole school closing the gap research project
and the possible implications for teachers and students.

Key research questions:

Do the Pupil Premium students in

Year 8 at IVC have a more fixed
mindset than the non-Pupil Premium
students?
If they do, why are some students
more fixed in their views of learning
than others?
How can we encourage and embed a
more growth mindset in all our
students?
Will this raise attainment and help
close the gap between Pupil
Premium and non-Pupil Premium
attainment?

we were sceptical that we would necessarily

maintain or improve these gains, purely through
intervention strategies. As educators committed to
the ideal of comprehensive education, addressing
this gap in an effective way was a moral
imperative. Then, of course, there is also
OFSTED.
Like many schools we were keen to try out and
explore the interesting psychological work of
Carole Dweck on Mindset, particularly as
approaches to pedagogy based on mastery are
one of the strategies identified by John Hattie in
his meta-analysis of what works to bring about
greatest impact on student attainment (Dweck
2007; Hattie 2008). The power of learning without
limits visible progress philosophy could impact
significantly on our staff and students (Peacock et
al 2012).

Reading Critically

Purpose of the research

As a College that is part of the SUPER (Schools
University Partnership in Educational Research)
partnership with the University of Cambridge, at
Impington we have been engaged in the spring
term in research into the questions stated above.
Like all schools and Colleges in the partnership
we have decided to look at closing the gap and
in particular the gap between Pupil Premium and
non-Pupil Premium students. Despite the fact we
have somewhat closed the gap (between PP and
non PP attainment) in results in recent years, it
remains prominent on entry and persistent over
time. This narrowing of the gap has most likely
been the result of lots of intervention programmes
in Key Stage 4 rather than tackling the cultural
and material divide at the heart of the issue. As
school leaders (on the College Executive Team)

However, when a group of staff met to discuss

this we agreed that there was little point in just
pursuing growth mindset thinking in a superficial
way. Many schools have sought to question
students about this, put in a short term fix (for
example, a tutor time programme) and measured,
they hope, the short term gain. All that we know
from other psychological labelling theories, for
example, Rosenthal and Jacobsons famous
experiment into creating differences in teacher
expectation, shows that such effects can create a
positive or negative, self-fulfilling prophecy but
that these effects can be also short lived, are
difficult to repeat in all social contexts and all
likely to have the least impact on those hardest to
reach (Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968).

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Impact Journal. Issue 2: Spring Term 2015

Growth mindset could just be the educational

We agreed to questionnaire all tutor groups in
equivalent of Obamas inspirational, Yes, we
Year 8 during tutor time using a mindset
can speech. It speaks to all teachers who wish to
questionnaire piloted by many other schools. This
make a difference to the lives of their students.
questionnaire allowed us to compare pupil
The power of not yet fits perfectly with American
premium and non- pupil premium students using
optimism about psychological self-improvement
a wide and full sample, using a structured
and individual personal growth (Dweck 2014). But
positivist method which generated robust
is it any surprise to find that students with the
quantitative data. This would tell us who had
most positive mindset achieve the most positive
more or less fixed mind-sets and in what ways
results? The difficulty surely, is to know how to
mindset were most fixed or growth in outlook.
generate classrooms in which the ancient model
In order to interpret and understand what lay
of novice achieving mastery through effort, failure
behind the findings of the questionnaire, we met
and persistence is promoted by staff; this
for a longer learning tea (Monday after school) to
simultaneously
discuss the patterns
accepted and
tudents
with
the
most
positive
which emerged. At this
embraced by all
tea, the group agreed
mindset achieve the most positive
students no matter what
to interview the 15
barriers stand in their
results The difficulty surely, is to
most fixed students
way. Growth mindset in
because they were the
know how to generate classrooms
the wrong hands may
ones we most wanted
become just another
in which the ancient model of novice to move
way of labelling
psychologically
achieving mastery through
students as fixed while
towards a growth
not addressing the
ethos and needed to
social, relational and
understand if we were
structural roots of these
to close the gap. I had
issues.
generated a schedule
of semi-structured questions which the group
peer reviewed and adjusted for this purpose. We
Methodology
agreed also to be pragmatic in use of this
method: I got 3 trainee teachers to deploy this
We started by familiarising all the staff involved
questionnaire with individual students, take notes
with Dweck and Hattie at one of our fortnightly
and discuss this with each other as an additional
Learning Lunches (30 minutes, refreshments
professional studies session. We used Dr Bethan
provided). We agreed to look at Year 8 because,
Morgan, our SUPER link, to interview 5 students
Roland Lewis, their pastoral leader, had already
and record these conversations. Others fitted in a
pursued some Mindset research and strategies
single interview and took notes. As a result we
with this year group in Year 7 within maths and a
were able to balance elements of greater
tutor group with some positive qualitative and
robustness brought by experience and objectivity
quantitative findings. It was also, an opportunity to
with involvement of teachers and trainees gaining
develop some in depth work towards
experience of the value of pupil voice/interview as
understanding closing the gap well in advance of
a method.
last minute interventions within the year group

effort,
failure and persistence is
promoted.

which had the highest number of pupil premium

students in KS3: to shift or ethos and culture.
Finally it was an opportunity to discuss wellgrounded research and deploy research methods
to see if it was applicable to our students within
our context.

Having a process which triangulated theory,

quantitative and qualitative methods, we then
meet in a further learning tea to review our
findings and scope how to make research impact
on practice.

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Impact Journal. Issue 2: Spring Term 2015

Questionnaire Findings:

Key findings: Questionnaire

The average (mean, median and mode) for both

PP and non PP was mildly growth mindset.
However, PP students had more negative
average profile than the whole cohort and non PP
students.
81% of non PP students had a broadly or very
growth mindset compared to 74% of PP students.
26% of PP students had a partially or very fixed
mindset compared to 19% of non PP students.
So there was a greater likelihood of holding a
fixed mindset if you were a PP student.
Question Level Analysis
More interesting than the broad findings were the
question level findings: a far higher proportion of
students (PP and non PP) felt fixed, helpless and
feared mistakes than the general findings
suggested. This suggested that students found
making mistakes and losing face in front of
adolescent peers far harder than it first appeared.
Accepting mistakes as part of learning seemed
likely to meet most resistance for fear of
humiliation and embarrassment. This pattern was
even more extreme for the Pupil Premium
students than in general.
On the other hand, when asked to meet a new
challenge or seek mastery, the anxiety in
approaching new learning seemed reduced for
both groups. This implies that positively framing
learning difficult new ideas, methods and
approaches could have more impact.
Recognising and framing learning intentions as
challenging was clearly more helpful than
emphasising likely mistakes. Recognising that
anything worth learning required practice, small
steps towards ultimate mastery helped students
feel more secure.
High expectations, challenging objectives when
supported by positive frames seem likely to
address the needs of both PP and non PP
groups. Pupil Premium students may well be
more likely to feel negatively both about making
mistakes and meeting even positively framed
challenges.

All students

PP students

Non PP

18% strong
growth

12%

21%

37% growth

35%

42%

24% mildly
growth

20%

25%

13% fixed

16%

11%

9% most fixed

10%

8%

Type of response

Non PP

PP

Fixed learner

45%

64%

Helpless

28%

44%

Avoids challenges

16%

24%

Doesnt seek
mastery

12%

27%

Fears mistakes

29%

64%

Interview Findings:
Interviewing the most fixed students brought
further insights. Students were not fixed in
learning in all contexts: they could often provide
an example of a sport, skill or hobby in which they
understood effort, practice and learning from
mistakes brought about increase in knowledge,
understanding and skill. They were not able as
easily to connect how they learnt in these
contexts and enjoyed mastery for its own sake to
how they might learn better at school. Fixed
students were very aware of the hierarchies within
the classroom: where they had been graded and
assessed. Many were only motivated to try where
their ratings were higher. They expressed, at
least, initially a preference for grades/ level not
comments and that they would work harder were
it counted. One wrote off KS3 on this basis as
GCSE was when it got important. Only with

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Impact Journal. Issue 2: Spring Term 2015

teasing out did they recognise that comments on

how to improve had value: many saw these as
negative and critical. They felt staff sometimes
focused on what they had not done more than
what they had.
Staff relationship, how they felt listened to, valued
or inspired made a great difference to how far
they felt motivated to make the effort in different
subjects, sometimes even the same subject from
year to year (Hattie). Many students reflected
that the IMP stamp had improved the amount of
knowledge they had of what they were doing well
and how they needed to improve, i.e. gain
mastery. Students often identified a skill they
needed to improve: practice, listening, resilience,
but did not yet know how they would be able to do
this. Students did feel that generally staff made
students aware that it was alright to make
mistakes; however, they still did not always have
confidence to make them.

Recommendations
Staff need further practice in mastering
consistently the language of effort, persistence,
challenge and mastery rather than grade,
judgement or label. This poses most challenge
when explaining summative as well as formative
assessment. The power of not yet is a good
phrase here. Directed Improvement and
Reflection Time where students see their success
grow visibly through amending and improving
work models the growth mindset. Staff need also
to be self-aware of the multiple terms we use
(most, less and middle ability) to label students
modelling where possible no barriers or limits to
learning and challenging lack of confidence in
students. Pupil Premium students are likely to be
most in need of such building of positive selfconcept.
This could feed most easily into the work we do
on professional learning of how we communicate

high expectation and challenge within the

Impington Experience (our model of the
outstanding learning experience). Staff need time
to plan carefully. Mastery lessons involve
changing differentiation to focus on everyone
mastering challenges. Lessons which group
students too quickly by previously measured
outcomes, or plan based on all, most and some
will tend to reinforce the differences in the way
students label themselves and thus hidden
curriculum hierarchies within the classroom.
Where students face poverty as an additional
barrier and are often painfully aware of social and
cultural labels support to meet the challenge
needs to be carefully planned. There needs to
over teaching to reinforce and practice with no
excuses for not getting to a challenging outcome.
This could feed into ICE planning and
professional learning on differentiation and
progress within the Impington Experience.
Students need explicit challenge of fixed attitudes
and ideas: within lessons and in how we guide
and support them. They need to be taught to
confidently grow to meet the challenges placed in
front of them. This could feed into the planning of
leadership activities within the house system:
students as growth mindset coaches of each
other? With a combination of mastery language,
removal of labels and limits and promotion of
growth we could powerfully transform a culture
heavily based on measurement, judgement and
fixed plans.
I remain sceptical as to how far wishing that we all
can master this task will bring it about and how far
those already carrying the politically charged
Pupil Premium label in our data will join us by not
feeling many of their options have already been
fixed. But so far as framing any threat as an
opportunity and any difficulty as a challenge helps
bridge the gap we are bound to try. Who would
have believed we could see a Black US
President? It does no harm to act without limits, to
work towards, Yes, we can! Before we know it,
we may just have.

References
Carol Dweck: Mindsets; the Psychology of Success 2007; John Hattie: Visible Learning 2008
Alison Peacock et al: Creating Learning Without Limits 2012
Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson: Pygmalion in the Classroom 1968
Carol Dweck 2014 www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?language=en
Barack Obamas Victory Speech 2008 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7710038.stm

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Impact Journal. Issue 2: Spring Term 2015

Why Vertical Tutoring?

Rob Campbell

This article outlines the research evidence and thinking behind the Colleges planned move to vertical
tutoring from September 2015.

Evidence for Vertical Tutoring

Students have to relate to each

other across age group
mitigating negative peer
influence
It has a long successful history
and fits with the all age vision
and history of IVC and Henry
Morris
It aids peer to peer leadership
It forces a rethink of tutor
student systems

Context for the change

In September 2014, Impington Village College reintroduced a House system to the way it
organises students pastorally. This system is one
where children from different ages are allocated
to one of four Houses. The actual background
for this is boarding schools where children would
be living in, literally, houses comprising those
of different ages. Since then, it has been
adapted and used as the basis for children and
young people in non-boarding environments to
work and learn together. Its main principle is a
very sound one that in getting young people
of different ages together, schools can
enhance relationships between those students
who would not normally relate to one another.
In some cases, schools have Houses for
(competitive) events and assemblies whilst
other schools go further and organise their
tutorial system along House principles, with
students from different age groups over overseen
by a tutor. However, does it make any difference?

A pioneering history
IVC used to have a House system (certainly
more than two decades ago) and according to
those who worked or attended the College then, it
was very successful. In March 2014, the College
Executive Team (CET) and Governors debated its
return. It elected at that stage to progress to a
halfway House system, where students
remained in their horizontal tutor groups (Year 7,
Year 8 etc.) whilst being overseen by a Head of
House and attending assemblies. During the
Autumn Term the views of students, staff and
parents were sought about a move to a full
House system (aka Vertical Tutoring), where
tutor groups will comprise children of mixed ages.
Feedback was mixed and it seemed to be the
case that a majority of students would have voted
against the change if given the opportunity.
Deciding what to do for the best, in every sense,
was difficult. Ultimately it was decided to progress
to Vertical Tutoring because of its potential impact
on the quality of learning relationships both in the
immediate and in the more distant future.

Vertical Tutoring starts a domino

effect that improves behaviour,
communication, assessment for
learning, reports, aspiration,
outcomes, and management. It is a
learning culture built on mixed-age
groups and the central role of the
tutor

Central to our thinking of why we should return to

Vertical Tutoring was the vision of the village
college devised by Henry Morris. In his
memorandum (1925), Morris wrote that:
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Impact Journal. Issue 2: Spring Term 2015

It would not be divorced from the normal

environment of those who would frequent it
from day to day, or from that great educational
institution, the family The village college could
lie athwart the daily lives of the community it
served; and in it the conditions would be
realised under which education would not be an
escape from reality, but an enrichment and
transformation of it. For education is committed
to the view that the ideal order and the actual
order can ultimately be made one.

Barnard (2015) is clear about the difference

Vertical Tutoring can make to a school:

In our thinking, vertical tutor groups replicate

more closely the familial within the college,
promoting and developing mixed-age
relationships, as well as preparing students for
the groups or teams they will join as adults where
the artificiality of only working with people of your
exact same age rarely exists.

Since making the decision, we have been busy

developing plans for September 2015 when
Vertical Tutoring is introduced. In our journey, we
have been supported and influence by Peter
Barnard, the former headteacher at Sharnbrook
Upper in Bedfordshire, one of the state school
pioneers of a House system. He now spends his
time working with schools on their progression to
Vertical Tutoring, something he is passionate
about to the extent he has his own website,
www.verticaltutoring.org, and has written a book,
The Systems Thinking School: Redesigning
schools from the inside-out (2013). He challenged
our initial plans and we have re-drawn them to
reduce radically the size of tutor groups from their
current 30 to below 20 for September. Such a
reduction will mean students receive unparalleled
levels of academic support and guidance and the
engagement between tutors and families will rise.
All of this will lead to an even stronger College.
We are very excited about the plans and their
intended impact.

Vertical Tutoring is not just a change to the

school's pastoral system. When understood, it
starts a domino effect that improves behaviour,
communication, assessment for learning,
reports, aspiration, outcomes, and management.
It is a learning culture built on mixed-age groups
and the central role of the tutor. It has three
main goals:

To improve learning and learning outcomes

To personalise learning relationships
between students, staff and parents
To impact on learning behaviour and attitude
and so raise aspiration.

This has provided us with a potent case for

making the change. Of course, it is no guarantee.
There are schools with great vertical systems as
well as those who are equally passionate about
their horizontal systems. Similarly there will be
duff vertical and dodgy horizontal systems in
others. Case studies can be helpful. We read
articles in the TES (14 July 2014) and Leader (the
magazine of the Association of School and
College Leaders) (February 2012) which spoke
positively about the impact of Vertical Tutoring in
schools which had made the change. However,
the applicability of case studies into another
context is always going to be limited. Bassey
(1999) reminds us that case study work will draw
generalisations that are, at best, what he calls
fuzzy.
Ultimately, the success of the move to Vertical
Tutoring will be attributable to its alignment to our
vision and to the rigour and vigour that we
manage its implementation. Perhaps this will be
an area for future research and study.

References
Barnard, P. A. (2013), The Systems Thinking School: Re-designing schools from the inside-out, Plymouth: Rowman &
Littlefield Education.
Barnard, P. A. (2015), Vertical Tutoring Introduction, retrieved from www.verticaltutoring.org
Bassey, M. (1999), Case Study Research in Educational Settings (Doing Qualitative Research in Educational
Settings), Buckingham: Open University Press.
Lepkowska, D. (2012, February), Vertigo. Leader - the magazine for school and college leaders.
Morris, H. (1925) The Village College. Being a Memorandum on the Provision of Educations and Social Facilities for
the Countryside, with Special Reference to Cambridgeshire.
Morrison, N. (2014, 14 July), Vertical tutor groups - radical remix, Times Educational Supplement.

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Recommended reads

Paul Ginnis: Teacher Toolkit 2001

Many of us were sad to hear of Pauls untimely recent death. This classic text of
student centred learning is a mine of practical advice on inventive active and cooperative strategies. If you want to rethink how you do group work, ways to reengage an apathetic or disaffected group or how to develop skills, there is likely to
be an answer within. Like Lemov, and Wiliam this is full of techniques mainly for
ensuring your classroom encourages purposeful activity, includes all voices in the
room and develops engagement, enjoyment and co-operation. Often seen as a
bible for the novice practitioner, his constructivist and Piagetian learning theory is
worn lightly. We learn from a master.
Rating

Doug Lemov: Teach like a Champion 2010

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In Teach Like a Champion Lemov compares teaching to the masterpieces of

Michelangelo. He states that when you look at the tools of the great artists trade,
the chisel, the mallet and file they seem totally incapable of contributing to works of
wonder such as David. Great teaching is dependent on the mastery and
application of fundamental skills that are perfected with time, not the flashes of
occasional brilliance we might associate with outstanding teaching. Expert
teaching is all about the perfection and relentless application of fundamental
techniques that support effective learning and he describes 49 of them in this book.
What I want as a teacher is a resource I can turn to occasionally when I know I
need to try something new to stay ahead of the students. Lemovs books are
based on proven techniques deployed by the very best teachers in schools in
America who get the very best results. There are some nuggets of gold for each
and every one of us. I could not recommend these books more strongly.

Dylan Wiliam: Embedding Formative Assessment 2015

The best teachers benefit students for years after they stop teaching them
Dylan Wiliam, February 2015.

Rating

I have recommended this book to numerous trainee teachers, NQTs and others
more established in their teaching careers. As Dylan Wiliam himself says, teachers
need to be the best they can be. We used it successfully to develop a teaching and
learning community where we each sought to embed these techniques. Many of the
techniques advocated by Wiliam, may be familiar, for example traffic lights, wait
time and no-hands-up. One very important message coming out of this book is that
techniques are less important than the process of how to change as a teacher.
Wiliam emphasises the need to focus on a few small changes in teacher behaviour,
possibly even just one element of our teaching practice which we want to improve,
allowing it to become truly embedded in our practice before moving on to improving
the next thing; Wiliam speaks of the need for things to become second nature and
for teachers to choose what to focus on that will make the biggest impact on their
students, as Teaching happens in the moment, learning happens over time.

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Recommended links
https://twitter.com/teachertoolkit
Strong link for sharing resources, research and practical techniques including re-tweeting the first impact
journal!

www.dylanwiliamcenter.com/webinar-embedding-formative-assessment/
In which Wiliam outlines more advice on what works in assessment for learning

http://goo.gl/vg0OoN
It was no surprise to see Doug Lemov feature in the Guardian last week. Rob shared the article - but
here is the link for quick reference.

http://goo.gl/HmM5Ww
Tutorial recommended by Simon Warburton on google docs

Some Highlights from our Top Teaching Tips this term

1. Liz Moran via Hannah Bailey: use bouncing balls as
noise control
2. Leanne Gibbons likes silent writing over desks!
3. Sammy Abbott showed us how useful 4 matrix is in
analysing group performance and more tutors
4. Andy Baldwin emphasised the need to step outside
occasionally but remember clear timings and
instruction
5. Paul Roberts reminded us of the importance of over teaching until students had mastered a
concept rather than moving on too quickly
6. Tim Pegler and Simon Warburton evangelise on: The Benefits of Google Apps/Docs

Research bar -Open up a Google Doc in Drive - click Tools - Research and then search to your
hearts content in the word processor - then, when you have found the image, quote or scholar
article - simply drag the image or text into the document. Google will even create the footnote
for you.
Class presentations - Create a template for a presentation on any topic. Then share the
document with the class - just by clicking the blue share button. This way students work on
their slide but can see what everyone else is working on so they get a full class set of notes in
return for their one slide.
Revision history - What if someone deletes someone elses work? Just press File - See
revision history and restore.done.
Google Drive - this is a little bit of cloud storage for each user.
Google forms - Ive saved the best till last. With this tool you can set multiple choice
assessments, run surveys and collate the information at the click of a button.

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