In the second of Gerald Haigh's popular new fortnightly column, he explores building teachers for the future, making more of music, thinking skills for vision and more...
BPF - Building People for the Future
School transformation makes its demands on support staff as well as
teachers, so it’s important to make continuing professional development
(CPD) opportunities for the people in the office. The National College
for School Leadership (NCSL) already provides a Certificate and a
Diploma in School Business Management (CSBM and DSBM) for people who
are on track to management, but there’s a need for a more initial level
of training and recognition.
That's exactly what is now available in the Certificate of School
Administration provided by the Eastern Leadership Centre (ELC). The
course takes about six months and has three modules: “Knowing your
school”; “Working with people”; and “Knowing your role”. There’s a
project related to the person’s work in school, and an online community
as well as face-to-face tuition.
www.elc-cambridge.org
The learning piper calls the spaces tune
It’s certain that every new school will want state-of-the-art
facilities for music. The SSAT document “Arts Spaces in Schools –
Designing for Excellence” has many examples of what can and should be
done. Maybe, though, in line with the first rule of school
transformation, which is to start with teaching and learning, everyone
should begin by reading Ofsted’s just published report, “Making More of
Music”.
Among many messages, there a clear one for those school leaders who,
misled by surface impressions, may fail adequately to challenge their
music departments. “In one school, for example,” says the report, “a
positive impression was gained through observing the high-level,
extra-curricular activities of the music department, yet the senior
leadership team was unaware of the inadequate teaching in key stage 3.”
Something (call it experience) tells me that’s not an uncommon state of
affairs – and it probably exists right across the arts subjects in
those schools where leaders aren’t able to probe beyond the high
profile showpieces.
“Arts Spaces in Schools – Designing for Excellence”
“Making more of music. An evaluation of music in schools 2005/08”
Thinking skills should feed vision for learning
More and more schools are building thinking skills into their new
curriculum vision, and innovative work going on across all sectors.
Northwood College, a girls’ day school in North West London, for
example, has ambitious and far-reaching Thinking Skills Programme and
Jane Simister, who’s Northwood’s full-time specialist (director of the
advanced cognitive development programme”) is an acknowledged authority
on the subject. Her book,
How to Teach Thinking and Learning Skills
by C J Simister (Sage), is a best seller in its category and this
summer Jane’s leading a series of courses in various locations on
“Gifted Girls” and “Embedding Thinking and Learning Skills”.
http://www.osiriseducational.co.uk/
Partnerships require agreed standards for data
Partnership Xchange, Capita’s Bett Award-winning product for sharing
data across schools in 14 – 19 partnerships has attracted much
attention. Before technology arrives, though, comes the need to make
sure all the partner institutions are handling their data to agreed
standards. Ask any gathering of deputy heads, for example, whether all
their form tutors are diligent with their e-register marking and the
chances are you’ll get a hollow laugh. Multiply that across half a
dozen partner schools and numerous fields of data and the laugh will
turn to a despairing sob. It’s an old story isn’t it? And the answer is
familiar too - take-no-prisoners oversight of data procedures by
someone well up the hierarchy.
www.capitaes.co.uk
Run for cover – a priority for home-school ICT
If you let your students take laptops home and one’s dropped on the
pavement, will your insurance pay up? If you’re going down the
laptops-for-pupils route, you need to know the answer to that. Full
cover will cost more, which is why when quotes come in it’s important
to be careful you’re comparing like with like. James George, general
manager of ICT supplier Lanway, with 20 or so client schools across the
country, says, “Read the small print. Most educational insurance won’t
give cover off school premises.”
www.lanway.co.uk
Gerald Haigh’s continuing ‘Five Things To Think About’ column for
the National College for School Leadership builds on his highly popular
work with The Times Educational Supplement and highlights important issues for school leaders engaged in Building Schools for the Future and the Primary Capital Programme
Gerald Haigh welcomes feedback and suggestions - gerald.haigh@btinternet.com
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