C.H.

S Technology Faculty Year 2010

Vision statement
To develop Confident, Happy, Successful
students. Who can creatively apply knowledge,
skills and understanding to design and make good
quality products.
To move any dept/faculty forward it is important to carry out
a self-review of whats being achieved within the faculty
already and highlight areas for improvement. The best place to
start any self-review was to look at the recent OFSTED
report; from this I was able to identify the Technology
Facultys strength and weaknesses. Which started the stages
of development to achieve my vision.
The OFSTED report stated.

Strengths- well established in faculty

Good quality teaching.
GCSE results above average in all subjects except Systems.
Rooms provide supportive environments for T&L
Good team approach.
Good industrial & Community links in Food and Textiles.
KS4 assessment thorough
Behaviour in lessons is good

Partially established
CAD/CAM needs developing to help raise achievement further.
Assessment for KS3 needs developing.
SoW to include literacy, numeracy, citizenship and gifted
strategies.

Weaknesses not yet established

School intranet needs developing.
KS2-KS3 transition needs improving to aid planning of KS3
SoW.
What next?
To prioritise which areas I would firstly develop I would refer
to the whole school development plan to see whether any of
the Faculties weaknesses were also highlighted as whole school
priority. In this case gifted and talented, assessment and
higher achievement were the areas I would prioritise. My
presentation will be based on these 3 areas although including
consideration for pupils achievement, developing a faculty
team, teaching and learning.
Firstly I am going to address how as Head Of Technology I
would change the assessment arrangements and therefore
raise achievement across the Key stages.

Raising achievement through Assessment

KS3
As each pupil entered CHS in year 7 I would use prior
attainment data from the KS2 SATS to give each pupil an
Technology level. This level would be split into a,b,c. E.G 4a,
4b, 4c. I would also like each area of Technology to have a
booklet, which would have the current level (e.g. 4a) and target
level (e.g. 4c). The aim is for pupils to move up a level per
year, so by the end of the KS3 pupils should have moved up 1
levels.
The Tech levels descriptors would be converted into pupil
speak and as each pupil moved around the 5 Tech areas, self
assessment would be carried out by the pupils so they could
see what they had achieved in each area using the simplified
descriptors. The idea is that the pupils shade in the level they
think they have achieved on a self-evaluation sheet. In fact I
am trialling this method in Food Technology during the next
term. I have also asked all the Tech staff to convert the levels
into pupil speak specific to their expertise. The deadline being
INSET July 2nd. The level descriptors would be placed on the
inside of each booklet specific to the area.
I am also involved in the assessment for learning program and
have been working with Barbara Dutton (AFL consultant For
LEA), and have volunteered to use some of the strategies in my
current Year 8 SoW, whereby pupils are given different levels
of work as examples and asked to evaluate the differences in
their piece of work compared to the good example. They will
also be encouraged to use peer and self assessment to identify
strengths of each others work and identify areas for
improvement. Which has been shown to be a good tool for
learning.

To monitor this across the 5 areas of Technology, the grade

levels will be recorded on SIMS at the end of each completed
module. This would enable the Faculty to highlight under
achievers and also those pupils who are particularly gifted. I
would also introduce a yearly award system for KS3, whereby
pupils who have achieved their target level (e.g. moved up 1 1/2
grades) would achieve a certificate by post to congratulate
their efforts. Which should encourage the pupils to try harder
in the next year and raise achievement further.

KS4
This method is currently being used in Year 11 in conjunction
with c/w. Pupils are told their predicted grade at the beginning
of the year and then given a target grade for each completed
section, pupils are allowed to re write aspects of the c/w to
improve their grades further. The c/w is expected to take 25
hours and pupils are instructed to complete the task using ICT,
which again builds in the activities for G&T and helps to raise
the achievement of the lower ability pupils. I would also
encourage the Faculty to share good practice when completing
the C/W project, so we had a uniform approach. The Food dept
produces a C/W project pack which the pupils use for guidance.
This leads on to addressing the needs of the gifted and
talented. An area highlighted as a weakness.

To improve the provision of G&T, SoW need to include

extension activities which are supported by the good
resources, especially ICT provision which give gifted pupils the
chance to work independently in lessons, free time or at home.
In SoW pupils should have planned activities that allow for the
use of CD ROMs for enrichment/extension work, internet to
research topics, computer programs such as CAD, spread
sheets and databases, to develop and extend their work and
enhance presentation. Currently At KS4 we are offering pupils
the opportunity to develop all these skills as part of the GCSE
course.

How would I monitor this?

Firstly I would familiarise myself with the CHS KS3
Technology curriculum. I would collect in all SoW for Gp, Sc,
Rm and Tx to ensure we were all using the same approach and
including provision for gifted, numeracy, literacy and
citizenship. In areas which needed improving I would offer
support and show examples of SoW which include the provision,
I would also give staff the time to complete the task by
setting achievable deadlines and dividing the task between
Faculty members.

The third area highlighted to improve would be pupil

achievement, which I have addressed earlier on in the
presentation. However I feel as a dept that good cross-
curricular planning would aid and greatly improve learning. I
would firstly carry out a curriculum audit at KS3 to make sure
all the PoS were being covered by each Tech area and may be
high light areas that were being repeated.
I would also contact feeder primaries to ensure the transition
from KS2-3 was smooth and the curriculum met their past
experiences in Technology. I would also suggest the school to
get involved with National Technology competitions where
gifted pupils are given the opportunities to work in teams. E.G
Young Electronic Designer Awards and Creda challenge Task.

The links with industry and the community would be developed

further and outside speakers being used in classes to support
pupils learning. Which we have used in Food ( M&S, Leigh
College, Waterfields and ASDA). I would also pursue the
possibility of a theme approach to the KS3 curriculum so the
Tech faculty across each year group has a common theme, e.g.
Multi cultural travel and each subject area designing a specific
product associated with the theme. To support this I would
organise specialist speakers to address the year group in Sept
to set/launch the theme, this then would motivate the pupils
and also ensure they see Tech as 1 subject and not 5 separate
areas.
I would also organise extra curricular Technology events which
would be cross curricular and would enable the pupils to display
their Technology skills e.g. a fashion show to display Textile
products, with refreshments provided by Food, graphics
preparing the advertising materials, resistant materials
providing jewellery and electronics.
I would also re introduce the Tech exhibition, which would give
pupils the opportunity to display outstanding pieces of work to
peers, staff and families, which would be a celebration of their
achievements in both KS3/4/5. Pupils would be selected to
display their work and parents invited formally to an after
school exhibition.
I would also consider the 14-19 curriculums to maybe develop a
vocational course within Technology, the possibility of
manufacturing or construction/catering.
I would develop the Faculties web site and encourage pupils to
use the site as a learning tool, e.g. revision guides, and self test
sheets, display different levels of work.

Finally how would I monitor and implement the developments?

Good Communication
I would ensure that new developments were introduced at
Faculty meetings and given identified slots on INSET days.
Support
I would check and agree with the CPD coordinator that
opportunities were given for relevant training to support staff.
Time
I would ensure that time is provided following the introduction
of a new development, and cross dept planning was made
available.
Review
I would carry out regular monitoring by lesson observations (1
per year for all faculty members), a termly review of pupil
work ( 1 year group, focus from school dev. Plan) and staff
teacher planning. I would support the performance management
of faculty staff.
Finally I would just like to say, in support of my application,
when I first arrived at CHS 6 years ago I was given the
challenge of raising the profile of Food Technology in the
school. I feel I have achieved this as the no.s opting for Food
has gone from 15 pupils to 80 in year 11 and 74 in Year 10. The
exam results have been consistently above both national and
school average with a residual last year of 0.5. All the staff
Teachers/Technicians in my dept are committed, hardworking
and work together as team. All SoW are reviewed and planned
as a dept on an annual basis and inputs from all staff are
supported. Any new initiatives are backed up with INSET. But
most of all we are positive in our outlook and set high
standards for our pupils so they eventually achieve their
academic potential.
Thankyou.