Differentiation

Steps Towards A More Inclusive Physical Education

Rebecca Foster and Emma Richards offer a practical guide to support teachers working with students with impairments

Teachers face increasing pressures and expectations that expand far beyond normal teaching practice, but may have little formal training to facilitate the learning of disabled students, and may have very limited resources by which to do so [1]. Yet, teachers are still expected to create an inclusive space.

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      string(5604) "Making evidence accessible, accurate and actionableThis article provides an overview of the Toolkit the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) Teaching and Learning Toolkit and summarises what I see as the potential contribution it makes to research-informed teaching and to professional development and learning in schools. It focuses on the challenges of making evidence both accessible and accurate as well as in a way that is sufficiently actionable to ensure improvement. Publishing summaries of evidence doesn’t automatically translate into schools improving their teaching practices. Sometimes people misinterpret what you intended. I’ve heard accounts of schools devoting extra hours to marking pupils’ work under the impressions this would deliver effective feedback. Marking pupils’ work focuses on feedback delivered and the efforts of the teacher, but not whether the feedback was received, understood and acted upon by the learner. One local authority in Scotland attempted to use the information in the Toolkit as justification for increasing class sizes, ignoring the finding that pupils in larger classes tend to do a little bit less well, on average. The overall argument is that reducing class sizes is only moderately effective and very expensive, so it is not cost-effective as a strategy to help learners. Challenges like these are at the heart of research-informed teaching.The EEF’s Teaching and Learning ToolkitThe Toolkit was originally funded by the Sutton Trust to summarise evidence from educational research to challenge thinking about effective spending for what was then the new pupil premium policy in England. This policy aimed to increase spending in schools to benefit children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Toolkit was subsequently adopted by the EEF and is now in widespread use in England, with just under two thirds of headteachers saying they consult it. Similar approaches to evidence synthesis and translation, as well as adoption of evidence in policy-making, are growing in popularity, reflecting a global movement towards more effective engagement with research and evidence.In the Toolkit a number of educational approaches or programmes are listed, and categorised in terms of the evidence from research for their effectiveness, the cost and average impact. The aim was to create something like a ‘Which?’ consumer guide for education research, covering topics of interest and relevance to policy and practice. The UK Government has cited the Toolkit as an exemplar for its network of ‘What Works’ centres. This commitment to spend public money on the most effective practices is important and impressive, but the ‘What Works’ label can imply a certainty that I believe oversimplifies what the research actually means. Research can only tell us what has worked in the past, not what will work in the future. I argue further that it can only offer indications of what may work under certain conditions.The Toolkit website (see Figure 1) summarizes the messages across different areas of education research with the aim of helping education practitioners make decisions about supporting their pupils’ attainment in schools. It is designed to be accessible as a web-based resource for practitioners and other educational decision-makers. It combines quantitative comparisons of impact on educational attainment in an approach sometimes called ‘meta-synthesis’. This is where the findings from different meta-analyses are combined to give an overall effect. This is similar to, and was inspired by, John Hattie’s approach in Visible Learning. The aim of the synthesis is to provide information and guidance for practitioners who are often interested in the relative benefit of different educational approaches, as well as information from research about how to adopt or implement a specific approach. What distinguishes the Toolkit is the inclusion of cost estimates for the different approaches to guide spending decisions along with an indication of the robustness of the evidence in each area.Bananarama: it ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do itThe Bananarama principle is named after Bananarama and Fun Boy Three’s 1982 hit single ‘It Ain’t What You Do’. Most people smile at the joke, but even if they don’t the song is something of an earworm and tends to stick in your head. It can also be seen as an important principle for research-informed teaching when acting on the findings of research. The initial point was a simple one: it wouldn’t be what schools spent, but the way that they spent the pupil premium that would get resultsThe deployment of teaching assistants, reducing class sizes and ability grouping are all examples of the Bananarama.The principle underscores the power but also limitations of evidence in helping a teacher decide what to do in a classroom: how an approach is implemented is vital and just as important as its content. This principle reflects the spread of findings in each area of the Toolkit. In the meta-analyses there are examples of successful and unsuccessful approaches. The overall average gives you an indication of what typically happens when an approach is adopted. Evidence can be helpful, but it is never going to be enough. Put more formally Bananarama also reflects a statistical argument. The range of effects within a Toolkit strand is greater than the difference between neighbouring strands. 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Personalised CPD

How Can Schools Use Evidence To Improve Teaching?

21 Feb 2021

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      string(5623) "time enfolding teachers into the larger school learning group community.Student teachers’ initiatives and taking a leadI have ushered over 2000 PGCE students into the profession over the years and this last year, as ever, I observed that they have developed as highly skilled, robust and creative. Tested to their limits in unprecedented times, following intensive IT training from providers during lockdown one, they immediately set out to use their newly acquired skills to support colleagues and students in their school practice.As well as working to accumulate evidence for the award of QTS, they also had unexpected space and time to explore in depth topics of interest. Several teachers reported that they had learned a third language, German and Mandarin, for example, to be able to teach it. Inclusion and SEND issues were often selected from a choice of research topics by many trainees as in this case of an NQT researching a case with which she has been involved on school practice: ‘I was able to tune into many things which were happening in the classroom which the teacher could not focus on whilst teaching. I discovered the importance of careful revision of the Educational Health Care Plan, as the teacher seemed unaware of the complex set of physical, mental and emotional difficulties faced by the student and I believe his approach would have been significantly more helpful and encouraging to the student. This made me a better teacher-practitioner and determined to make time to read EHCPs of any students I teach in the future’.The confidence and assertion she makes in the final sentence reflect the priority these student teachers place in social justice issues and inclusion. I feel pride at how my students took two days of the summer of 2020 programme to explore ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ completely on their own initiative, with the aim of reflecting on disturbing events of the time and to think about their role as teachers in interpreting those events. This was a spontaneous undertaking and was deeply meaningful to the students. They also shared with trainee students in other institutions. This research evidenced the challenge and passion Price and Valli highlight indriving new teachers to become emergent researchers and agents of change precisely because of their experiences of change and their socio- political awareness.viThis current year 2020- 2021, student teachers have had a now familiar shunt from face to face teaching to online. Already highly computer-literate, they show themselves to be innovatively at the forefront in finding and creating innovative ways to teach and assess MFL. 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Leading Professional Development

New Vistas For Teacher Development Are Opening Up After Lockdown

2 May 2021

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      string(315) "and wellbeing, as children emerge from lockdown.The group cautioned that intensive “catch-up” plans could end up having a damaging effect on children’s mental health and wellbeing, and could have a negative effect on learning in the long term, pointing out that, ‘Social connection and play offer myriad ..."
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      string(1368) "and wellbeing, as children emerge from lockdown.The group cautioned that intensive “catch-up” plans could end up having a damaging effect on children’s mental health and wellbeing, and could have a negative effect on learning in the long term, pointing out that, ‘Social connection and play offer myriad learning opportunities and are positively associated with children’s academic attainment and literacy.’Lessons learnt from the Luminos FundChildren who attend the Second Chance program are more confident about their ability to learn than those who do not. This confidence is key as they are reintroduced to mainstream educationWhen part of a whole (not in isolation), peer-to-peer learning works well for maths, literacy and phonics in the early yearsEngaging young children as classroom leaders gives children a role as educators, to improve their own and their peers’ catch up learningFree school meals have proved to be very successful across Asia and Africa to ensure that once children are in the classroom, they are engaged in the learning processIn a post-pandemic world, classroom-level assessments are more important than ever for ensuring schools meet children where they are For more information on the Luminos Fund, please visit: https://luminosfund.org/Please find a link to a summary of the Luminos Fund’s Longitudinal Study HERE"
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Inclusion

Unlocking The Light In Every Child – The Luminos Fund

21 Mar 2021

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      string(5082) "digital learning updateA word bank to create sentences Industry NewsAnxious writers can present in so many ways. They may be quiet and hope to go unnoticed, or they can exhibit disruptive behaviour and appear defiant. There are many reasons why children behave in these ways, but if they struggle with writing anxiety, it may be because they are trying to avoid engaging with literacy tasks.The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened anxiety levels for many children. The challenges of working from home have highlighted how important the support structures at school are – and for many struggling writers, the gap between their writing and that of their peers has grown wider.In a few weeks’ time, we will be working with Carol Allen, an ICT and Inclusion expert, to present a special webinar about how our child-friendly word processor Clicker can be used to alleviate writing anxiety. The webinar will take place on Wednesday 10th March – 4:00pm to 4:30pm GMT. You can reserve your free place via our website.Carol has been working in education for over forty years and is widely recognised for her work on creative and engaging use of technology to support pupils with literacy barriers, so this should be a fantastic session. She has long been a fan of Clicker and has described it as: ‘the gold standard piece of software to support reading and writing for any age, primary, secondary, higher education.’One of the things she likes about Clicker is that it supports access to learning for students who do not have an IEP but who nevertheless struggle to produce text, keep up with others and document their learning in way that works for them and for their teacher.We’ll be exploring the question “how can we support the anxious learner?” more in the webinar, but here are just a few common concerns, and how Clicker can alleviate them.Worried about illegible handwriting?For children who worry that their work just doesn’t look good compared to their peers’, Clicker can be a great help. If a child can use a keyboard or touch screen, they can use Clicker to produce a nicely presented piece of writing that they feel confident handing in.“One of my Year 4 pupils used to hide his work with his hand and barely produced more than a paragraph. But now he uses Clicker, he is so excited about writing and is producing long, extended pieces of work…”Emma Gorton, Micklehurst All Saints Primary SchoolIllegible handwriting is a thing of the past with word processingWorried about getting started?Another hurdle that children with writing anxiety face is where to start with their writing. Using Clicker’s built-in mind mapping tool Clicker Board, children can plot and organise their ideas to prepare for writing.“Our students love using the Clicker Board mind-mapping tool, with their central character in the middle, so that they can plan and sketch out their story ideas… It’s just a lot friendlier, I think, and much more accessible for our learners.”Cheryl Gaughan, Talbot Specialist SchoolMaking a simple but effective mind mapWorried about their spelling?To support children who worry about their spelling, turn on Clicker’s intelligent word predictor, which will suggest context-sensitive words as they write, improving their productivity and fluency.“The Predictor really stood out to me – as soon as the children start typing there are options for them, giving them that extra bit of support.”Sheila Robertson, Wallacestone Primary SchoolSpelling support for non phonetic wordsWorried about writing in different styles?Perhaps you’ve tasked your learners to write a story using alternatives to common adjectives. Later that week, they’re asked to create a fact file on Ancient Egypt or write up their findings from a science experiment. For the anxious learner, it can be difficult to adapt to the different styles they are expected to write in at school.With LearningGrids – a bank of professionally-made curriculum resources available for free through Clicker – you have a wealth of supportive material at your fingertips. LearningGrids enables you to give your pupils instant access to sentence starters and key words for all kinds of topics to bolster their writing. Recording knowledge“I love the ready-made grids and how everything can be adapted to different ages and needs… It boosts pupils’ confidence and allows them to access the curriculum alongside their peers but at a level that suits them.”Primary teacher, ManchesterFind out more…There can be lots of reasons why children struggle with writing anxiety, but with Clicker to support them, many of their worries can be alleviated.This is just a handful of strategies to support the anxious writer with Clicker. If you would like to find out more, don’t hesitate to sign up for our webinar “The anxious learner, the reluctant writer”.If you have any questions about Clicker or the webinar itself, our friendly team is always available to help. You can contact us by sending an email to info@cricksoft.com or calling us on 01604 671691."
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Applications and Software

Putting An End To Writing Anxiety With Clicker Tools

13 Feb 2021

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      string(5342) "Sometimes the message is not what it seems – schools are closed but still supporting the community in many waysIndustry newsThe pandemic has impacted every aspect of society, fromschool closures to hospitality and event cancellations. For the team atFlashAcademy, the UK’s leading digital language learning platform for Englishas an Additional Language (EAL), this meant the cancellation of two major EALevents in both Birmingham and London. As an alternative tothese paid events, FlashAcademy have started to put on free CPD webinars foreducators supporting learners with EAL. Thousands of teachers, teaching assistants and support stafftuned in to learn about supporting the healthand wellbeing of EAL pupils, managingprovision in high-need schools, languageawareness, doublingattainment for EAL learners and so much more! As an exclusive for Digital Learning Club subscribers, we have cherry picked some of the key topics discussed across the webinars, hosted by both the FlashAcademy team and EAL Directors at primary and secondary schools.Supporting New ArrivalsLanguage is at the heart of the school, so for pupils arriving who don’t speak the language of the school, it is crucial that they’re made to feel welcome as soon as possible. Many new arrivals, especially those with lower levels of English proficiency, will feel as though they don’t belong, so it’s important we help them to feel reassured and comfortable. Developing an EAL vision, shared within the department and across the school, is a great way to emphasise the message. Use key words like ‘Welcome’, ‘Celebrate’ and ‘Encourage’ as a foundation for your ethos and display these visually around the school. Whole School ApproachesWhen considering the inclusion of learners with EAL, we shouldn’t limit this to inside the classroom but across the school campus. Visuals are key for language and learning development, so it’s worth asking teachers from every department to make at least one EAL-friendly display to help them engage with the subject lesson. Putting an EAL stamp on other incentives is a great way to help integrate learners within the school community. To help learners acquire curriculum vocabulary, reach out to departments and ask for a list of key subject vocabulary to not only ease your workload as the EAL leader/coordinator but to help the learner prepare for mainstream lessons. Health & wellbeingHealth has, and continues to be, at the forefront of all our minds as the pandemic occupies a huge space in the public consciousness. Language barriers can make it difficult to support pupils’ physical and mental health. Supporting EAL pupils’ ability to express themselves in their home language as well as English is vital, as the ability to identify and express your emotions is linked to better health outcomes and greater academic success.Words and graphics to get the message across Differing cultural perceptions can have an impact on how we communicate about physical and mental health. In many cultures, mental and physical health are viewed much more holistically than in the west, where they are often separated. Physical complaints may actually be an expression of mental distress, so try to be aware of this in order to direct people to appropriate services.Language Learning MythsThe language learning myths we hear in the world around usaffect our attitude towards language learning. Here are just a few of the mythswe unravelled: If a child isn’t speaking, their English level is verylow – Most EAL pupils go through a ‘silent phase’ when they first arrive asthey absorb language through receptive skills of listening and reading. It willtake time for them to produce language confidently or spontaneously, but theirunderstanding may be higher than it seems. Help develop their confidence andprovide structured tasks at their level.It is the English teachers’ job to teach English – Itis every teacher’s responsibility to support language development for allpupils. Awareness of learners’ language needs helps remove barriers to learningand create a more inclusive classroomMaking children speak more than one language will confuse them – Research shows that bilingualism has long-term advantages including increased cognitive control and improved problem-solving abilities. Parents often believe this language learning myth and feel they should speak to their children in English all the time. In fact, it is better for parents to speak their home language as they are likely to be more confident and will give children richer language input.Teacher TalkThe mainstream classroom can be an overwhelming place where pupilsare bombarded with unfamiliar language. However, there are ways that you canadjust your teacher talk to help support EAL pupils’ understanding, whicheversubject you teach. Ensure your language is direct, and not too polite (e.g.‘Would you mind doing me a favour?’), avoid self-narration, support yourlanguage with gesture, and model correct grammar in your teacher talk – thereis a strong link between oracy and literacy, so there is the risk that pupilswill imitate ‘slang’ in their academic work!Keen to learn more about accelerating progress for learnerswith EAL? Click hereto book your free trial with the FlashAcademy platform."
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Digital Learning

Essential Topics for EAL Teachers

2 Dec 2020

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