Boosting Effectiveness and Confidence at GCSE

Students are challenging themselves and improving their career and life-related skills with ASDAN’s new Certificate of Personal Effectiveness course. Martina Veale shows how it has made a difference for students at Hockerill Anglo-European College.

ASDAN is an education charity and awarding organisation that’s focused on giving all learners the opportunity and tools to discover, develop and make full use of their potential. This ethos inspired the creation of our Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE) course, which was designed to allow schools to deliver an engaging and effective complement to GCSE that boosts confidence, engagement and motivation.

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      string(5635) "skills.With initiatives like this, speaking and listening becomes genuinely highlightedas a whole-school priority – something that many schools have been workingon for years. It can only strengthen English studies if other subjects are alsohighlighting the importance of fluent and effective speech, and it is worthreminding all staff that speaking and listening is, of course, a key aspect ofliteracy, which any inspection team would want to assess as part of the school’scommitment to whole-school literacy.The importance of metalanguageUsing metalanguage – familiarising students with the kind of language that theywill need to use in order to analyse texts – is often seen as a formidable barrier,but it is one of the elements that the new curriculum highlights, with goodreason. Language is profoundly enabling, but the language with which to describethe analysis of English is often not something that has been specifically taughtto students under the old curriculum, with students and teachers notoriouslyunable to identify parts of speech.The new curriculum suggests that by Year 2, students should be able touse terminology which includes ‘noun, noun phrase, statement, question,exclamation, command, compound, suffix, adjective, adverb, verb tense (past,present), apostrophe, comma’, and be confident about terms such as ‘frontedadverbials’ by Year 4 – something which worries secondary teachers whoregularly deal with Year 11 students unable to confidently use these terms, andmay be unable to use them themselves.447Volume5.3nCreativeTeaching&LearningCreativeApproachesComplex language use can indeed seem to be at best, challenging and atworst, an irrelevance for many students. To deal with this creatively, you willneed to, in some ways, change the whole culture of the school. To start with, itis key that teachers should know metalanguage themselves. It is hard to teachterms to students that you are not confident about using yourself. However,after leaving university, many teachers will not have had the need or opportunityto use complex critical terminology, and lack of use will inevitably bring with ita lack of confidence.Boosting confidence in using complex languageTo facilitate confidence recovery, discuss terminology in department meetingsand create ‘buddies’ who can share concerns and questions. The Englishdepartment can go through a new Key Stage 2 SATs grammar paper withteachers and discuss the terminology that the new Year 7 students will befamiliar with, talking through the possible answers. Use primary textbooks tohelp clarify key points.Also, make sure that you have the terms and definitions up on displayaround the department. 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Have a list of keywords and definitions inyour planner and on your wall for those blank moments.Thinking of easy ways to link language with meaning can often lead into theworld of images and puns – something most students find accessible. Forinstance, I tend to teach students that metonymy sounds like metaphor-naming,which helps them to make both the connection and the distinction betweenmetaphor and metonymy. Similarly, when we discuss synecdoche, I remindthem of the pronunciation and the meaning by linking it to the word ‘neck’,pointing out that synecdoche is present in all those ways in which we reduce aperson to a body part, such as calling someone a ‘heel’ (and less polite uses).Pointing out that to be called a ‘foot’ is a Shakespearean insult can provokeinteresting discussion! 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Creative Teaching & Learning

A creative response to the new English GCSE

27 Mar 2015

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      string(5631) "becomes genuinely highlightedas a whole-school, rather than an English department priority – something that manyschools have been working on for years. It can only strengthen English studies if othersubjects are also highlighting the importance of fluent and effective speech, andit is worth reminding all staff that speaking and listening is, of course, a key aspectof literacy, which any inspection team would want to assess as part of the school’scommitment to whole-school literacy.The importance of metalanguageUsing metalanguage – familiarising students with the kind of language that they willneed to use in order to analyse texts – is often seen as a formidable barrier, but it is oneof the elements that the new curriculum highlights, with good reason. 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To deal with this creatively, you will need to, in someways, change the whole culture of the school. To start with, it is key that teachers shouldknow metalanguage themselves. It is hard to teach terms to students that you are notconfident about using yourself. However, after leaving university, many teachers will nothave had the need or opportunity to use complex critical terminology, and lack of usewill inevitably bring with it a lack of confidence.Boosting confidence in using complex languageTo facilitate confidence recovery, discuss terminology in department meetings andcreate ‘buddies’ who can share concerns and questions. The English department cango through a new Key Stage 2 SATs grammar paper with teachers and discuss theterminology that the new Year 7 students will be familiar with, talking through thepossible answers. Use primary textbooks to help clarify key points.Also, make sure that you have the terms and definitions up on display around thedepartment. 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Leadership

Responding creatively to the new English curriculum

29 Sep 2014

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Leadership Briefing issue 7.10 (82)"
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      string(5830) "ResourcePERCEPTIONS OF A LEVELS, GCSES AND OTHER QUALIFICATIONSOriginal DocumentPerceptions of A levels, GCSEs and Other Qualifications. New research by Ofqual into perceptions of secondary school exams in England suggests many teachers, heads and parents lack confidence in GCSE grades. A detailed survey of 4,686 people for exams regulator Ofqual suggests less than two-thirds felt that at least 75% of GCSE students were graded correctly. Overall faith in GCSE exams appears to have been significantly affected by last year’s English GCSE grading row.KeywordsOfqual, perceptions, secondary school, exams, GCSE grades, A level system, universities, employersConfidence in the quality and accuracy of marking of GCSEs is perceived to have declined since last year; lower confidence was prevalent among teachers and headteachers and is consistent with their decline in confidence in the marking of A level papers.· Over half of the general public considered that other academic qualifications, vocational qualifications and mixed qualifications are of equal value to traditional academic qualifications, such as A levels and GCSEs, although this was not the case among headteachers and teachers.· Results suggest that, at least to some extent, confidence in GCSEs has been affected by the concerns raised around the summer 2012 grading of GCSE English. However, the impact of these concerns was higher among the teaching profession than for any other group.Perceptions of A levels:· Confidence in the A level system was high among all respondents. Those with direct access to and/or experience of the qualification, such as teachers, headteachers, students and higher education institutions, had more confidence in the qualification than other respondents.· Most respondents – with the exception of teachers and headteachers – had no concerns with A levels; if mentioned by respondents, incorrect marking and/or grading of A levels was the greatest area of concern for teachers, headteachers and students, employers and the general public. For higher education institutions, the top concern was too many resits.· Perceptions of A level marking affected overall confidence in the system for higher education institutions and the teaching profession but had no impact on levels of confidence reported by employers.· Most respondents agreed that the purpose of the A* grade was to help universities to select the top students; however, only 63per cent of higher education institutions found the A* grade useful when making decisions about offering a place to prospective candidates at their institution.· For employers and higher education institutions, levels of motivation and attitude (for the role or place for which they are being recruited) are more important than the qualifications attained by prospective candidates.Perceptions of GCSEs:· Confidence in the GCSE system was lower than for the A level system and particularly low among teachers (55 per cent) and smaller employers (54 per cent). Despite this, most respondents still consider the GCSE a good qualification for students to obtain for their future.· When prompted, a large proportion of teachers (77 per cent), headteachers (89 per cent) and higher education institutions (61 per cent) expressed at least one concern about the GCSE system. Incorrect marking and grading were the main reasons for concern among headteachers, teachers, general public, parents and students.· Confidence in the quality and accuracy of GCSE marking is perceived to have declined since last year; lower confidence was prevalent among teachers and headteachers and is consistent with the decline in their confidence in A level marking. Confidence in GCSE marking was particularly low among English teachers; this finding suggests that the summer 2012 concerns around the grading of GCSE English had some impact on perceptions of this qualification.· Results suggest that, to some extent, confidence in GCSEs has been affected by the concerns arising from the grading of GCSE English summer 2012. However, the impact of these concerns was higher among the teaching profession than for any other group.Perceptions of vocational qualifications:· Over half of the general public considered that other academic qualifications, vocational qualifications and mixed qualifications are of equal value to traditional academic qualifications, such as A levels and GCSEs, although this was not the case among headteachers and teachers.· Overall, there seems to be a good understanding of what the “level” of vocational qualifications means across all groups.Perceptions of Ofqual as a regulator:· Awareness of the regulator is growing slowly among respondents; however, familiarity among the general public and employers is low.· Generally there was a positive relationship between awareness of Ofqual and perceived effectiveness of the regulator. Respondents who said they knew “a lot” or “a fair amount” about Ofqual were more likely to believe Ofqual is effective at maintaining qualification standards. This finding is consistent with previous results obtained by studies around perceptions of trust conducted by Ofqual, which suggest that students, teachers and employers are more likely to trust organisations if they have experience of them4. The exception to this finding were teachers and headteachers, who reported to know more about Ofqual but were less inclined to rate the regulator as “effective” or “very effective”.· When asked whether Ofqual was effective at maintaining the standard of"
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Leadership

Perceptions of A levels, GCSEs and Other Qualifications

8 May 2013

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      string(5618) "Eventually, in July 2000,just less than £250, 000 was secured from theGovernment’s Single Regeneration Budget (SRB5) viaOne North East – with an expectation that an equalamount of money, in kind, would be given by theBerwick Schools’ Partnership.By September 2000 two Teaching and LearningConsultants were appointed –  Michael Henry andJames Nottingham. Before then Mike had been theHeadteacher of Belford Middle School where a trialproject to develop young people’s self-esteem hadbeen based. James was working as a thinking skillsconsultant introducing teachers across the UK tomany of the Thinking for Learning initiatives such asThinking Through Humanities, and Philosophy forChildren.The Key Outcomes of the RAIS Project, which isfunded initially for three years, are intended to be:1. Raised Aspirations of Young People in theBerwick AreaAs evidenced by an increased further educationand training stay-on rate at 162. Raised Standards in Educational AchievementAs evidenced in National Standard AttainmentTasks (SATs) and GCSE results3. Healthier LifestylesAs evidenced by a reduction in the use ofemergency contraception, improved mentalhealth and child health statistics4. A Decrease in Reported Drug UsageAs evidenced by fewer cautions amongst childrenof school age34 Teaching Thinking  Autumn 2001www.teachthinking.comThinking skills in NorthumberlandThinking skills in NorthumberlandThinking skills in NorthumberlandThinking skills in NorthumberlandThinking skills in NorthumberlandThough the Berwick RAIS Project has been in operation forjust a year now it is already developing into a successfulinitiative: more than half of the 200 teachers in the area haveattended extended training courses, more often than notin their own time, to develop thinking skills in schools;almost all of the teaching assistants and nursery nurses haveattended similar courses; 500 children and young peoplehave had direct contact with the Project; and many parentsare beginning to attend recently-developed workshops tolearn new ways of boosting their youngsters’ confidence andself-esteem. As a result, terms such as Thinking Skills, Enquiry,and Debriefing are fast becoming a part of everydayteaching in the Berwick schools.The thinking skills that are being developed in Berwickcome from a mix of the national and local initiatives in whichthe two consultants have experience. Much of the workoriginates from ideas developed by a group of teachersknown as the Northumberland Thinking Skills Network, ledstrongly by a Senior Adviser in the County, Mel Rockett.Together with support from Newcastle University, this grouphas been developing thinking skills in the humanities(history, geography, and RE) since 1995. Additionally, someof the ideas from the Accelerated Learning series, principallywritten by Alistair Smith, are being used. Perhaps, though,the biggest influence on the RAIS Project comes from thePhilosophy for Children programme, initially developed byProfessor Matthew Lipman in the USA in the 1970s anddeveloped further in the UK by a small educational charityknown as SAPERE (Society for Advancing PhilosophicalEnquiry and Reflection in Education) chaired by RogerSutcliffe.Much has been written about Philosophy for Children(P4C) in this magazine but, very briefly, it is a method ofteaching that involves children in whole-class discussion onphilosophical issues, based on the idea that childrenconstruct knowledge and reasoning capabilities within aCommunity of Enquiry. Children set the agenda for thediscussions by asking questions that appeal to them,ensuring that what is discussed is appropriate to their needsand abilities and that student questions are valued. RecentOfsted reports on two schools using P4C as a whole-schoolapproach noted the impact on children’s moral and socialdevelopment and on their speaking and listening skills, aswell as their capacity to become independent thinkers.The Berwick RAIS Project has made philosophy a keyfocus in the belief that not only does it develop students’critical and creative thinking but that, arguably more thanmany of the other thinking skills initiatives, it developscaring thinking and deals with the affective side of learning.This affective development often results in, for example, adecrease in bullying and an improvement in pupil-pupil andpupil-teacher relationships, as well as noticeable gains inpersonal self-esteem.On a day-to-day basis the two teaching and learningconsultants split their time between working in schoolsalongside teachers; running evening training sessions forschool staff; providing parent workshops and parent’sevenings; offering an education perspective to local businessand community committees; developing new initiatives andcommunity courses; strengthening the links between thecounty council’s education directorate and local schools;working with the local borough council to provide newopportunities for the young people of Berwick; and exploringpossibilities for further fund-raising so that the RAIS Projectmight be extended beyond the initial three years.Some of the higher-profile initiatives that the RAIS Projecthas started include: developing the use of Philosophy forChildren with three- and four-year-olds in a local nursery;Multiple IntelligencesHoward Gardner (Harvard University) conductedresearch which suggested that we are all intelligentin different ways. These intelligences might belabelled as: Interpersonal (relationships with others);Intrapersonal (understanding oneself ); Linguistic(use of language); Mathematical/Logical (ability tosolve"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Raising Aspirations by teaching thinking?

30 Dec 2010

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