Hornets, Slugs, Bees and Butterflies: the workload relief revolution
🐌a let-go-of list of 20 slugs
💥a not-to-do list of 18 hornets
🐝a keep-doing list of 10 honeybees
🦋a start-doing-list of 12 butterflies
✊ join the revolution
“In schools where behaviour standards are high, disadvantaged children do disproportionately well.
In schools where behaviour standards are weak, disadvantaged children do disproportionately badly.”
A cognitive science crash course
⚙️ 1-hour CPD
⚙️ 21 articles (~3 mins each) by 10 teachers
⚙️ 56-min video
⚙️ 4 vital questions every teacher & TA needs to know
Anatomy of a School Improvement Plan
🎲A plan
🎲Strengths
🎲Limitations
🎲Questions
Feedback and critique welcome and appreciated.
Looking for blind spots and better bets!
*Staff culture in schools*: I’ve been writing online about this since 2012 (). Here’s a thread of blogposts from edu-thinkers that I keep finding myself returning to; seminal articles that reward revisiting, summarised in a single sentence.
Overstretch: why and how to say no.
15 ways to say no decisively
4 things to say when gently declining
3 mantras from
@SaysMiss
@MaryMyatt
& Vivian Robinson
Less change, more improvement.
Fewer things, greater depth.
Do less, better.
What's the point in schools?
🏫 what makes for a great education?
🏫 what do great schools do?
🏫 untold story of the century
Teachers are freedom fighters.
Schools are the great liberators of humankind.
Schools change lives.
Go upstream
🏞️Parable of the stream
🏞️Reacting vs Preventing
🏞️12 downstream areas
🏞️12 areas further upstream
🏞️ 3 nopes - don't see it, not my problem, not my job
🏞️ 7 question sets upstream leaders ask
Turn difficulties into opportunities.
Golden needles in a haystack: Assessment CPD trove
#4
🪡 13 articles: a 1-hour assessment starter pack
🪡 17 blogposts: a further 1-hour crash-course
🪡 4 core insights from a decade of studying research
🪡 a hope and a dream for the teaching profession
No More Meetings
⏳5 insights from science
⏳5 feelings from experience
⏳Mistakes I keep making
⏳5 problems with meetings
⏳5 enjoyable get-togethers
⏳5 keys to valued get-togethers
⏳Checklist for great conversations
Time to treasure our time!
Problem-solving in school improvement: Viviane Robinson and the Shoulders of Giants
⛰️ 40 years of research
⛰️ 10 insights
⛰️ 10 mistakes I keep making
⛰️ 10 questions to ask
What can we see from the vantage point of giants' shoulders?
How Athena sees the world
❤️ Athena's dreams
❤️ Athena's heroes & adversaries
❤️ Athena's beliefs
❤️ Athena's struggles & inner demons
❤️ No nonsense, no burnout
❤️ High ownership, high support
❤️ Always learning together!
Treasure Troves in the Golden Age of CPD.
#1
: Staff Culture
💎 6 stats that suggest we're creating a golden age
💎 10 treasure troves of precious hidden gems
💎 12 free, short blogposts in a collection of sixty
💎 first in a series of three treasure maps
How to write & get more out of a school development plan
by
@Ianfrost28
5 weaknesses of school development plans
1 - too long
2 - unclear
3 - too many priorities
4 - underusing it after
5- underinvesting in staff
concise, clear & convincing Ian!
Taking feedback well
4 examples of being given feedback
5 things to keep in mind to receive it well
5 questions for giving ourselves a 'second score'
what to do if feedback gets overloading
Feedback is a gift; but some gifts you take to Oxfam!
What do students in English Literature most need to know? Amy overcomes the empathy gap with those children who struggle most, with least time left at school -
@amycoombe3011
’s booklets are amazing!
School leadership and emotion: values, passion, empathy, connection, imperfections, vulnerability, fears, self-doubts, bravery.
One of the best blogposts I've ever read on school leadership. Thank you for writing and sharing it
@CarlyWaterman21
!
Flawed School Improvement Plans: Black Swans and Gray Rhinos
💥 4 lessons from 10+ school improvement plans
💥 5 pressures on school leaders
💥 1,000s of stakeholders
💥 1 mistake I keep making every fortnight
💥 3 strong feelings
24 hidden gems and the golden thread of CPD
#3
: Curriculum
✨ 6 reasons for optimism
✨ 3 sets of collections so far
✨ 24+ treasure troves of curriculum thinking
✨ 24+ 1-sentence article summaries
Would collections on assessment & cogsci be useful?
We can't action-step our way to great subject teaching.
Knowing history is different to knowing science.
Science experiments. Historians interpret.
Teaching history is not teaching science.
Generics distort subjects.
@jonniegrande
@Counsell_C
I'm writing to think hard and learn more about the question: how can we as school leaders succeed in leading on curriculum teaching, student culture and staff culture in schools? Here's a thread of recent blogposts.
Four upstream strategies for 100% student attention
*Whole-school* routines hold greatest power
*Consistency is key* for forging culture
*A united school is formidable*
Culture is strongest when *all staff row together*
@Mr_Raichura
's super insights!
How can school leaders create great staff culture?
brief summary of school research
brief reflections on studying in great schools
six question sets for school leaders to ask
They aren't listening
@adamboxer1
channels
@Doug_Lemov
: 'No matter how great the teaching, if students aren’t listening then it’s like pouring water into a leaky bucket.'
Achieving 100% Student Attention: Why?
100% of students bringing their attention 100% of the time.
‘Believing anything else is to expect less of students, and for them to miss out on learning.’
Sky-high standards
@Mr_Raichura
!
An epic series opener!
Strategy: a 2,500 year-old history
Three pitfalls of school improvement plans
Two critical readings of the EEF, NAHT & ASCL approaches
… and one example of my many mistakes!
A talk I gave at
#rEd21
@ResearchEd1
School maintenance
by
@head_teach
A must-read counter-narrative to school improvement zeal.
Matthew is so good at helping us keep perspective, and keep in mind the limitations of our solutions. Love too that he shares a high volume of in-depth examples.
Seeing blind spots: how can we know our school well?
📌ways to get to know the many schools in one
📌questions to keep asking
📌what's upstream vs downstream
📌parent-school dynamics 1960-2020
Explaining why we’re doing what we’re doing in lessons
"Everyone takes part so I know we’re all learning as a team"
"I can see all your thinking at once & if you’ve understood or not. I can then do something about it to help you!"
👏
@stoneman_claire
!
Honest upward feedback
• Beliefs I’m trying to live up to
• Messages to share with teammates
• Habits I’m trying to practise
• Questions I’m asking myself
• Questions I’m asking others
• Practices I’m trying out
• Dragonfly-eye!
Thinking deeply: Matthew Evans and the Shoulders of Jedi
💭 5 well-holes to avoid falling in
💭 5 rabbit holes to explore
💭 10 of my blunders & bungles
💭 One example: consequences in schools
💭 Cameo from Matthew as Obi-Wan
Learning to read is really hard in English.
We have:
26 letters
46 sounds
200 ways of spelling our 46 sounds
5 vowel sounds
12+ vowel spellings
Multiple ways of sounding the same spellings
@TheReadingApe
Developing school leaders: Tom & Jen vs traits & skills traps
✅ 4 deep insights from Jen Barker & Tom Rees
✅ 4 of my struggles & battles
✅ 4 question sets for developing CPD
Thanks to
@TomRees_77
&
@Barker_J
for the inspiring clarity & thinking!
@PaulGarvey4
@AnthonyRadice1
By taking care of teachers we serve our pupils,providing them with teachers who feel they can (and want to) be there for the kids long-term.
Highly selective and highly specific curriculum planning helps us make better decisions in the classroom & leaves nothing to chance.
Highly collaborative curriculum development helps us build our knowledge together.
exciting thinking by
@amycoombe3011
!
Eyewitness testimony: what can we learn from supply teachers and new teachers in some of the most challenging conditions over the past 10 years?
Voices from the frontlines.
🧵
Snowball Uplands: where do we want to get to in our student and staff experience?
❄️2 before-and-after maps
❄️5 pitfalls to watch out for
❄️7 limits to keep in mind
❄️8 fast-improving schools
In 43 conversations between education leaders and staff studied, 'leaders tended to avoid discussion of problem causes, advocate more than inquire, bypass disagreements, and rarely explore logic between solutions and problem causes.'
Thousands of teachers and middle leaders all over England are struggling with similar difficulties over behaviour and disruption in schools.
Lots to do to ensure all teachers and staff can go to work free from defiance and disruptions.
Three great brain battles in learning
⚔️ distraction
⚔️ overload
⚔️ forgetting
Four diagrams to explore their interactions
Countless scientific research studies over decades
Formative school improvement by
@MrNickHart
'Reduce all unnecessary workload to create time to think and reflect. Find out what colleagues can stop doing that will enable them to dedicate the time and capacity to tackle the problems.'
Implementation as learning: 24 or so questions to ask
🕸️ 2 research papers
🕸️ 2 disciplines to challenge mechanistic views
🕸️ example of a *causal web*
🕸️ chart of the implementation dip
🕸️ what to ask in preparing,planning & reviewing
Feedback welcome!
The infinite game: warding off warped fears
⏳️ 6 distorting fears
⏳ 6 perverse incentives
♾ ️ 5 ways to face our fears
⏳ 6 ways out of the prisoners' dilemma
♾ 3 tactics for infinite games
How can we become infinite game-players?
@adamboxer1
@smithsmm
50% of teacher respondents - over 4,500 - say they’d like SLT to make behaviour their number one school improvement priority. Nothing else came close.
Twelve treasure chests in the golden age of CPD.
#2
: *Student Culture*
🔱17 facts to suggest we're into a golden era
🔱12 treasure troves of precious hidden gems
🔱12 free, short blogposts in a collection of 60
🔱2nd in a series of 3 treasure maps
Bolder: Choices All School Leaders Can Make
love this! by
@JonnyUttley
Remove every barrier to good teaching
Stop asking staff to choose between being a good teacher and a good parent
Support the young people in the school down the road
Checks for Listening: 100% Participation
love this from
@Mr_Raichura
!
Series an instant classic- I've added to the Seminal Articles by Teachers Collection. Also-
@adamboxer1
's They Aren't Listening.
Free, fast CPD reads
@MissF_Lowe
@Team_English1
Literature texts chronologically sequenced; no flightpaths or grades; the curriculum is the progression model (knowing & remembering more). what we want students to know for the long-term? from
@TLPMrsL
The Kindness of Leaders by
@Ianfrost28
'We underestimate the influence that we have... we may not appreciate what we have to give.' Kindness deserves more attention in our leadership repertoire.
A call for contributions, from
@jo_facer
curriculum | behaviour | teaching | operations
'thousands of inspirational school leaders across the country are doing great work'