James D
@jamesdyke21
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Lead on English and instruction @DixonsAcademies Views own
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Joined February 2009
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Very proud of the students and English team
@DixonsTC
as our students achieved a P8 in English of +1.28. A few things that we think made a difference for our students, as well as a call for simplicity:
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Due to a visualiser malfunction, Year 11 and I went whiteboard and pen. Our focus this term is writing through a conceptual lens.
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Feeling very fortunate and privileged to be able to work across
@DixonsAcademies
in West Yorks from next year as Trust Assistant Principal for English.
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4. Visualiser + exercise book. Very little powerpoint (offers little value). Live write. Live annotate. Responsive. Lots of talking about what is being written, lots of student accountability and dialogues in the room.
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10. Those who work with me closely know I like to use the word nonsense a lot. Zero nonsense, real simplicity in classrooms - recall, explanation, reading, question and answer, discussion, whiteboards, modelling, practice. That's mostly all we did!
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5. Feedback. Not marking. Didn't take a book home in 5 years. Every lesson would contain loads of feedback live because teachers had created well sequenced learning and built in enough practice to guide and feedback on. Whole class feedback alongside this.
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3. Direct instruction - loads of teacher explanation and front loading of important knowledge with passion - the year group bought in to this passion of the domain because we were so knowledgeable and passionate, constantly. Sell the wonder.
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6. Intellectual prep and tailoring. Curriculum was bookletised and centralised, not to stifle autonomy but to free up expertise. Teachers concentrated on their own subject knowledge, explanations, models and how to tailor for class need. No resource making nonsense.
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1. No narrowing. A broad and ambitious KS3 - loads of reading, high expectations of text choices, ambitious horizon-broadening experiences.
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Reflecting on having been lucky enough to be part of
@DixonsTC
journey as a middle leader these past few years. Principles as an English HoD I'm proud to have pioneered and seen have an impact on students and staff:
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9. Not obssessing over rubrics or paragraph structures. Stds need to focus on how to apply their knowledge really well without the extra load of whether it's a PEEL paragraph or not. Scaffold without reducing the content to nonsense acronyms.
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7. Lots of explicit phrase and vocab teaching to underpin the content, particularly in Lit. Writing an essay is overwhelmingly complex for students. Explicitly teach the building blocks again and again, and check their knowledge is secure underneath first.
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Here at
@DixonsTC
we are incredibly proud of our vanguard Year 10 year group who are undergoing their first mock exams, including some phenomenal literature responses in exam conditions.
@DtcEnglish
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8. Cold reading - read the Lit texts clearly and in full first: yes, no stopping to 'do work' until text understood in full (Shakespeare requires slightly difference approach).
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11.1 have been acting on their next steps of up levelling literature analysis by making it more tentative. We did this by:
- explicit phrase instruction
- modelling high level academic language such as 'insinuates, encapsulates, reinforces'
- always connecting to big ideas
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2. Rigour. As a team, we would work together on ensuring our examples and our modelling of responses to literature were university level. Of course the approach was tailored to students, but there was no 'dumbing downing', no lowering of what stds could achieve
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Really proud to be amongst this bunch
@DixonsTC
We’re among these amazing Eng deps with +40% FSM and +1 P8. Looking forward to doing even better for our students next year! We keep it simple with effective T+L: direct vocab instruction, codified + interleaved knowledge, centralised curric from
@VersatileVocab1
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Most importantly, what underpins all these principles is school culture. We wouldn't have been able to leverage these strategies quite so much without: consistent systems for behv, consistency across schl in terms of pedagogy, high expcs across building.
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My favourite ever results morning - superb set of results from a brilliant and unique vanguard cohort that I'll never forget!
We had a fantastic morning celebrating the immense hard work of students in our founding year group. We wish you every success in the next step on the journey to the top of your mountain.
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Something I realised years ago and was converted by the potential that booklets hold. They are not THE curriculum, but they serve as resourcing that eradicates nonsense often involved in planning and prep. Planning is intellectual prep of concept explanation, scaffolds, models
In school, students spend an inordinate amount of time cutting, pasting, coloring, gluing, and glittering. There’s a dismaying lack of reading, writing, and discussion.
There's just so much wasted time.
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The Year 11 essay homework is rolling in and they are working incredibly hard. One essay per week; live feedback in class; motivation levels increasing amongst all students.
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The happiest I've ever been working in a school. This is why: values driven, hard work has genuine impact, serve an incredible community and bunch of students. Come and join our all-through journey and support the English curriculum:
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Year 10 have produced some phenomenal responses to their first blind GCSE Literature assessment. Students from all groups have benefited from explicit phrase teaching, high expectations in terms of writing conceptually and academically.
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1. Centralised, bookleted curriculum. It always irked me that students could have a better deal in one classroom as opposed to the others due to planning in 'silos'.
@DixonsTC
this was something I was intent on changing.
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Lots in here that reaffirms but can empower our approaches to English teaching at
@DixonsAcademies
, particularly around retrieval practice and cog sci
@Tom_Needham_
👌
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A superb read on importance of clarity in departmental leadership but also on school improvement. 'Fewer things better' and a good 'curriculum taught badly' being worse than a bad c taught well really stands out.
Blog
#2
on life as a HOD in an 'inadequate' school on the Devon coast. Still working things out.
Thankyou to
@Caroline_Alice_
@Miss0Miss1
@jon_hutchinson_
@joe__kirby
&
@Adstratman
for sharing things - "on the shoulders of giants"
@Team_English1
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Two English vacancies - strong culture; ambitious, centralised all-through curriculum; feedback not marking. Make a true difference where it matters most.
THREAD: Our ‘Outstanding’ all-through school in Leeds is hiring. Here are some reasons why you might want to consider applying to join us at
@DixonsTC
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First time in 4 years not preparing my (now old) team for the new academic year
@DixonsTC
. Instead preparing for life more broadly
@DixonsTC
,
@DixonsUnity
and
@DixonsAcademies
.
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Not quite read to return to work-related thinking just yet but was recommended this by a trust colleague and it has enabled a bit of head space for long-term thinking.
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Come and join our growing English department: centralised, ambitious curriculum; feedback not marking; weekly instructional coaching.
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A great start to the term and lots of learning happening about school improvement in a new role for me. Teaching across to contexts,
@DixonsTC
and now
@DixonsUnity
.
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An awesome opportunity, something that I took up at
@DixonsTC
4 years ago. Since then built a curriculum and a culture. Have a chance to innovate and no doubt improve and develop the English curriculum I built!
Exciting job opportunity: founding teacher of English at
@DixonsNGA
☑️ craft an incredible culture with 140 Y7s in our first year
☑️ feedback not marking
☑️ deliver a rigorous,
challenging curriculum
Please RT if you can!
@FunkyPedagogy
@samlgibbs1
@DavidDidau
@AlexJQuigley
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2 English roles in our (still-growing) Outstanding all-through school. Come along to a recruitment event and see what DTC is all about!
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Come and join as we discuss
1. What do we mean by a 'routine' and why use them?
2. How might we use them and 'get them off the ground' when building school culture.
3. What happens when they are misinterpreted and how the need to evolve long term.
Join us next week for our webinar on the What and Why of Routines in School Culture. Read on for 3 blogs which summarise some of the key ideas...
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I'm interested in seeing examples of literacy 'strategy' or 'policy' that has been scaled up and aligned effectively across multiple schools or MAT-wide. Please share and or get in touch!
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We have two exciting roles in the English department at DTC - if you're interested in challenging educational and social disadvantage in the North through an ambitious and ever-debated curriculum, please see below!
THREAD: Our ‘Outstanding’ all-through school in Leeds is hiring. Here are some reasons why you might want to consider applying to join us at
@DixonsTC
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Middle leader of English wanting to take the next step? Located / relocating to the NW? Come and do the best job there is in education: Trust AP for English!
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Best of what I read in 2023 - fiction. Starting with the last read of the year, and probably the best new novel I've read in years:
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With 11.3 I have focused on shorter, more academic bursts of writing focused around concepts and textual constructs as this was a gap from their mock exams. Explicit phrase teaching paying dividends.
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Interested in discussing how best to leverage MAT-wide subject specific CPD. We currently offer voluntary pre-records and workshops 3 times a year for all staff.
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@DixonsTC
3. Feedback. Not marking. Staff time should always be focused on planning to progress student understanding based on what they'd seen in the classroom, not reactive written comments that derive little attention from students.
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If your values align with ours: hard work, trust and fairness, and you have a drive to challenge the status quo in education and transform life chances for students in the North, then take a look:
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Marking Lang 2 mocks - has anyone ever seen a top group completely mis-answer Q2 purely because they didn't focus on the concrete part of the question, in this case 'differences between trains'. They've written lovely stuff about experience which cannot be awarded.
#teamenglish
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@DixonsTC
Prioritising staff development and subject knowledge above admin. Department time used to practice, discuss curriculum and further staff. Better deal for students that way.
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We have several roles at our wonderful all-through school in the heart of Leeds. Come teach children how to be great scholars of English, just like this:
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Now come join the English team!
We are delighted to share the news that following our first Ofsted inspection, our all-through school in Chapeltown, Leeds, has been judged Outstanding in all areas. Read the full report here:
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We are also looking for someone to contribute to the ever-improving all-through curriculum! Be part of an opportunity to grow English from early years to Year 11.
@DixonsTC
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A great opportunity to join a warm and welcoming school and one of the most passionate English departments going!
We see the development of student literacy at the heart of everything we do to enable all to strive toward success, and are looking to appoint an enthusiastic English teacher to join our team. See here:
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Does anyone have any data around what students needed in Lit Paper 1 to achieve a specific grade on average? (AQA). I know this is crude but would like to know, even if it's just an intelligent guess. E.g. Grade 7 students tended to get 42 before SPAG etc.
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@S_Parkins1
@LauraLolder
@DixonsTC
The caveat here is that curriculum will only have true impact when paired with strong culture for learning, subject knowledge of staff as well as high leverage, consistent pedagogical approach. Otherwise, it can be superficially lovely looking with no substance or impact.
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I'm keen to learn how others facilitate this offer. For reference, we don't all follow the same curriculum, but I'd like to have more impact in upskilling staff in English trust-wide.
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@Mr_Crome
@danicquinn
@carnaby_mr
@samlgibbs1
@FunkyPedagogy
@richardtutt
#teamenglish
any and all ideas / experience welcomed. Doesn't have to be English.
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Priveliged to be part of this project. Come learn English with yours truly!
Hi world 👋 We've been created by 40 teachers. Want to know more about who we are and how we can support teachers? Our Principal
@matthewhood
and Head of English
@ramender10
tell you more...
#LearnWithOak
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Love seeing the identity poetry booklets in use!
Year 9 - You have been amazing!
What a wonderful response to poetry this week through their study of 'Hill Speak' by
@ZaffarKunial
@dixonsma_eng
@DixonsMA
@CJonesDixonsMA
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Can vouch for this fiercely brilliant department!
Come and join our highly professional and driven team whose mission is to ensure all students enjoy and are successful in Maths!
@DixonsTC
Follow the links below to see our current vacancies…
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@HaleDonal
@andie_teaches
@Team_English1
We use PH across our MAT including at DTC. Highly recommended.
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@DixonsTC
2. Having really academic expectations of what literature and language students deserve to be exposed to. Shakespeare read line by line. Greek myths as a foundation. I never got this education myself at school.
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@bennewmark
I'm often baffled when people question whether methods that create calm, consistent and well managed learning environments are appropriate for SEND... they benefit all... so yes they do... doesn't mean additional and different can't be factored in in nother ways
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@therealliz87
Cold watch RSC version so plot overview was secure. Then we would read in bursts (perhaps a scene at a time) and then go through and analyse the key moments.
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@carnaby_mr
@Mr_Crome
@danicquinn
@samlgibbs1
@FunkyPedagogy
@richardtutt
This is all music to my ears. I think where we don't have enough impact is around focusing in on specific people and specific domain content that might have been identified as a gap or high leverage.
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@samlgibbs1
@Miss_Goodyear
@Mr_Crome
@danicquinn
@carnaby_mr
@FunkyPedagogy
@richardtutt
This would be great.
@samlgibbs1
you most probably have my email still but feel free to DM to organise!
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Come work in our amazing growing school 🙌
We are looking to recruit a Teacher of English (Secondary) to join our fantastic team in Leeds. Find out more here:
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9.3 have made such a hard-working return to the building. Really proud of their Frankenstein analysis.
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@jdurran
Much of this came from years of structured teaching that involved front loading of important knowledge (un glamorous but necessary) and explicit guidance. In the long run, they broke away from this and flew. Some are now flying at A Level just like you describe.
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Are you an English specialist who has had impact at middle leadership and is ready for the next step? Become my counterpart in the North West! DM if you want more info.
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Come join a brilliant department in a school that is a really exciting place to work right now!
Are you a hard-working, passionate and driven
#EnglishTeacher
looking for your next role in
#Leeds
?
We’re
#hiring
someone to join our English department. Read the full job profile and apply via the
@DixonsAcademies
careers portal:
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Drawing on lots of evidence around cognitive load and working memory as well as thinking from
@PepsMccrea
,
@JamesClear
@HFletcherWood
!
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@andie_teaches
@HaleDonal
@Team_English1
Yes this used to always catch me by surprise each time (taught twice) but we found students called it out as strange in quite a mature way! Again, can always be pre-empted, discussed alongside wider personal development curriculum.
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This is underpinned by 'Cross cutting' where middle leaders meet around 6 times a year to discuss curriculum related priorities.
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@DixonsTC
Students leaving us taking English Literature at A Level. Passionate delivery, ambitious curriculum, simple, sensible approach in the classroom.
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And incredible collection of threads on everything education and featuring yours truly!
In the last 4 months I've read *loads* of twitter threads on teaching.
To ease you into the holidays, here're 40 of the finest:
↓
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@VersatileVocab1
This is exactly what I was after! Thanks Josie - sadly I am lacking your spreadsheet / proportion calculation skills today!
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@PepsMccrea
Pre-record of some form of input e.g. subject knowledge, some research or thinking behind an aspect of pedagogy etc. Usually 5-10 mins..
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@jdurran
Ultimately, structure and explicit teaching unlocked their potential that may not have emerged for all of them if left to chance. I'd never want to let go of the Eliot scenario here as a teacher, but in reality, for many, more direct approaches yield that 'ideal'.
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@Hayo_luke
@GeorgiaThornhi4
Again, a misconception is often that schools with high expecs can't handle this nuance. In my experience they do provide incredibly high levels of support, warmth, knowledge of pupils, relationships etc to make this work.
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@DixonsAcademies
Leveraging middle leader training
@DixonsUnity
focusing on running great department meetings alongside focusing on literacy instruction for all staff
@DixonsTC
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@BarbaraBleiman
@jdurran
Oh absolutely. Dream not the best term here - more an attainable, near perfect joy to English teaching.
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@carnaby_mr
@Mr_Crome
@danicquinn
@samlgibbs1
@FunkyPedagogy
@richardtutt
E.g. a focus on accelerating subject knowledge of ECTs or perhaps looking at feedback with middle leaders. I suppose it will always be contextual and responsive. I'm finding that leaving it too 'open' is leaving it to chance.
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Come and watch me try to be eloquent on zoom...
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@HaleDonal
@andie_teaches
@Team_English1
@MissBuryTeach
Feel free to drop me a line any time. We teach it from around November so very welcome to come see it in action (although it may be a bit late for you!)
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@DixonsTC
5. A 'house style' that is simple: lots of recall, lots of modelling, lots of independent practice, plenty of classroom talk. Delivered passionately and with high expectations, students have thrived and progressed more than I've ever seen. Leading to...
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@pippasadgrove
@jon_hutchinson_
We are just in the process of trying to nail that all through 6 into 7 part. Essentially, primary learns lessons on reading from Year 7 in approach, and secondary takes stock of writing approaches from Y6 and adapts from there.
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Great to see that reflected here through the idea of subsumers: broader concepts that precede certain details to ensure the cognitive architecture is more secure and likely to form a body of knowledge.
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Been sticking to whole-class feedback, peer/self editing for all pieces of formative work for a while now. I refuse to mark pointlessly. Where's the learning? Happily do a detailed mark once per half term on an assessment. No more needed.
#teamenglish
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Ironically, it's the misconception of the question that they were taught! They've gone and embodied it instead.
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@bridiemcpherson
@VersatileVocab1
Hi Bridie. Whereabouts is this data from? As we feature on there I'm keen to source it!
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@PepsMccrea
Workshop/seminar usually involves some exploration of the content e.g. reflection, discussion, action planning in response. Though we haven't necessarily codified this!
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@andie_teaches
@HaleDonal
@Team_English1
We didn't hold back and our students really rise to it. Lots of front loading around the sensitive issues and well planned discussion means all is fine.
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@S_Parkins1
@LauraLolder
@DixonsTC
Also super important it's responsive to school community and reflects diversity within. It's their curriculum, not ours. We chose Purple Hibsicus as a novel in Y9 as it was ambitious and horizon broadening, but also Adichie an incredible role model as a writer for our kids
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@jdurran
And I certainly entered the profession thinking this would be my life. Perhaps I never have worked in a school where that would work best for students.
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@andie_teaches
@HaleDonal
@Team_English1
Also nothing wrong with 'abridging' elements. Whilst I'm absolutely insistent on whole texts in a curriculum, there are instances where it could be sensible to abridge and summarise to support with delivery. Wouldn't take away from the experience/learning and could be tactical!
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@S_Parkins1
@LauraLolder
@DixonsTC
Like I said. Curriculum will always need work. We see errors every year! Can always criticise and critique but it works for our students. Will keep developing it.
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