Innovative School Design

Inside-out solution

When approached to extend a dated 1960s school building, Jonathan Clark Architects found a solution utilising a practice never attempted before in the UK.

Brief and design approach

The brief called for a two-storey extension and partial conversion of an existing 1960s constructed building at Longford Community School (now Rivers Academy). The new build needed to be able to accommodate a library (with an auditorium for 50 people) on its first floor, along with two classrooms and a fitness centre on the ground floor.

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Creative Teaching & Learning

Breakthrough to Learning Fast-track Course

8 May 2014

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Creative Teaching & Learning

Breakthrough to Learning Book 3: Writing for Learning

23 Feb 2012

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      string(5617) "social learning tools like forumsand chatrooms. These can help with mentoring programs and peer-led learning, encouraging the more senior teachers to share theirexperiences with junior staff. The ability to easily share informationonline creates a more specific, cultivated space to discuss methods orideas that pertain to your school in particular, rather than relying onthe unwieldy online hunt for information. Totara also has tools to helpbook and arrange face-to-face training, which can be great for drop-in training sessions and mentoring.One of the most useful features of Totara for the managementteam is the reporting tools on offer. There is a flexible report builderbuilt into the LMS that allows reports to be generated on a numberof different data sources in the system. These are easy to set up,even if you don’t have a technical background. As well as creatingreports, a view of the report (and the ability to filter the data) can bedelegated to any member of staff, making it easy to share informationwith middle managers. These can also help with the drive towardscompliance within an organisation, the biggest help being the abilityto subscribe to a report and get it emailed to you on a weekly basis.Totara is also ideal for deploying different learning techniques,for example you can use the “flipped classroom” approach with yourINSET days. The teachers can do the “absorption” of learning in thenormal work week, and then use the INSET day to discuss and digestthe information. The system also suits mobile learning, making sure thatstaff have access from anywhere and have no barriers to their training.ProsExtensive feature set, relatively low cost.ConsThe key is to finding the right business partner associated with Totara.Moodle VLE (moodle.org/)Moodle is a free, online Learning Management systemenabling educators to create their own private websitefilled with dynamic courses that extend learning,anytime, anywhere.Moodle is an open-source VLE, which has been developed byteachers and enables the best aspects of their classroom practice tobe transferred into a home teaching and learning environment.Moodle has many features and is also highly configurable andextensible, allowing it to be customised to meet the individual needsof schools. As Moodle is open source, there are no licence feesto pay, but this also means there is no external support, which hasthe downside of needing significant setup time and some technicalexpertise to configure and personalise plugins etc. In addition, youwill need to include hosting, either internally on a server or externallyon the Web.Moodle now includes the ePortfolio App, which gives pupils asafe online space to save and display their work in. It can be usedto create a digital story of learning – with students uploading text,images, documents and video of their achievements. Portfolios can beshared both inside and outside your school, engaging parents andthe local community. The app encourages children to be expressiveand provides a map of learning, allowing children to see theirprogress from month to month and year to year. Importantly, it allowsteachers to comment on any page and give students feedback onwhat they’ve done well.http://www.teachingtimes.comhttps://moodle.org/‹‹ PREVIOUS PAGE n  NEXT PAGE ››This month’sfeaturese-learning UPDATE n www.teachingtimes.comProsFree and open source. Modular, plugin-based design enablesadministrators to add or create features as needed. Supports myriadactivities, including peer assessment workshops, real-time messaging,and wiki forums. Generous progress tracking and reporting options.Unparalleled language support.ConsSetup is by no means turnkey. UI lacks the visual finesse of paidcompetitors. As we all know, nothing is ever really free, so if you goopen source make sure you have the resources to invest to make itrobust. Moodle is great in secondary schools, however it doesn’tgeneral gel well with Primary schools.Frog (www.frogeducation.com/)Frog is a one-stop-shop solution which can be rolled out ain one go. Frog’s easy-to-use system allows students andteachers to search for almost anything on the internet(videos, images, educational resources) and build itinto a sleek-looking site, without needing any technicalexpertise. The Frog VLE is also a gateway to educationalresources and apps from around the web, all accessiblewithin a safe, filtered environment. All students have aunique User ID and password allowing them to accesslearning and information outside of lesson time. Frogcontains homework tasks, resources used in lessons,timetable and achievement information.The Frog Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a web-based learningsystem that replicates real-world learning by integrating virtualequivalents of conventional concepts of education. For example,teachers can assign lessons, tests, and marks virtually, while studentscan submit homework and view their marks through the VLE. Parentscan view school news and important documents while schooladministrators can organise their school calendars and disseminateschool notices via the Internet.Teachers can assign and keep track of students’ work andmarks, create teaching resources, and connect with other educators.Students can explore videos, games, and posts, personalisetheir home page, upload and save files on the cloud, completeassignments anytime, anywhere, and share ideas with classmatesand teachers. Meanwhile, parents can keep track of school events,PTA reports and school notices with the calendar and school noticeboard, find contact"
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Digital Learning

VLE comparison update

1 Feb 2016

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      string(5624) "Back in the day when I worked as a School Improvement Advisor, I could offer Heads and senior leaders an independent critical friendship and coaching service which gave them an opportunity to voice concerns and challenges without feeling judged.In this role, I worked with a Headteacher who was garrulous, well-loved, and who led a thriving school, popular with parents and staff. One day we went on a long car journey to attend some training and he revealed his sleepless nights of worry about the job and doubt about an upcoming Ofsted inspection. I sympathised and shared with him my own experience as a Head of anxiety and impending doom on many days when I drove to school during an unexpected crisis.We talked about how difficult it is during challenging times to lead a school – to be the person who must act as if in full control. To be the well-rehearsed confident, decisive voice of authority, reassuring everyone that everything is all going to turn out okay. And doing all this whilst inside our head is a quaking, vulnerable soul, searching for the solution to save the day.This incongruence can take its toll on our wellbeing. You can’t let your persona falter or let your guard down, so your temper becomes shorter at home and you lie awake at 3am with the tyrant in your head telling you what you already know – you just can’t do it any more… But you wake up and you go in again, heart pounding. You used to love your job – what happened?In my follow up meetings with this particular Head I asked him how he was, but his ‘brave’ front was up and all he said was “Absolutely fine”. But it wasn’t. The tragic end to this story is that some weeks later, my colleague was found dead in his office. He had committed suicide.Nobody could understand why this highly successful, popular family man would do such a thing. His school was ‘outstanding’ – a judgment confirmed by Ofsted some months later. His suffering must have been unbearable and, as far as I know unspoken, apart from on that car journey.There is nothing more dangerous, I concluded, than a leader hiding his or her doubts and failures and allowing those thoughts to erode their resilience until they believe the world would be better off without them.This was when I decided to become a coach.There are many school leaders who are suffering from the huge pressures Covid has relentlessly put upon them and their schools. But they still must make life-changing decisions for their children and their staff every day. School leaders have been immensely flexible and resilient throughout this crisis, putting the safety and education of their students at the forefront of their thinking whilst also balancing the health and wellbeing of their staff.How can we ensure that our leaders have the support for their own wellbeing that they need through these times? No-one could doubt that a personal physical fitness trainer to motivate us to get physically fit and stronger would be a help for any leader. Even more important – especially today – would be a mental fitness trainer to help us understand how to manage our minds, to intercept negative thinking and grow our own mental muscles of empathy, resilience and self-regulation.A good coach is a mental fitness trainer. He or she will listen, challenge your inner critic and show you how to create and maintain helpful habits of thinking. A coach will show that you are far more likely to react to negative experiences, that this is part of your instinctive flight- fight instincts and that there are good reasons our brain works this way.Humanity has survived because we are acutely sensitive to threats to our survival. This is why one small safeguarding error, one critical parent or impending grievance procedure can outweigh all the positive things that happen on a daily basis. So much of our state of mind is dictated by our unconscious bias that attempting to apply pure willpower to solve the everyday challenges of school leadership will not be enough.A coach will also help you challenge the imposter syndrome that haunts so many of us and makes it so hard to enjoy the success we have longed for, despite all the evidence that we are doing a great job.This is a good reason to deliberately focus on the good things you have done today by keeping a gratitude journal. The inner commentary we have that dwells on the negative is powerful and personal. Understanding why that happens and how to get a peaceful, clear mind despite the turmoil surrounding you is the gift that a coach can give you.A coach holds up a mirror to your thinking and helps you reflect on your limiting beliefs to uncover the lies your brain sometimes tells you. A coach absolutely knows that you have all the innate capacity to deal with everything this tough job throws at you – but not while you are getting in your own way with insecure thinking.Becoming conscious of our thinking helps us be calm and less reactive to our own and others mistakes and so gives us more space in our head to become the outstanding leader we can be. Every school leader needs a coach. For me it was transformational.The extra bonus of being coached is that we can then see the potential benefit and power of using peer coaching as a staff development tool and then, over time, as a student development tool. Self and peer coaching are levers which can help propel us out of present difficulties into a better future. Coaching helps us be the very best we can be because ithelps us leave behind the often-negative thinking in our heads and move into the reality"
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A Headteacher’s Suicide That Should Never Have Happened

15 Jan 2021

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