Looking back, looking forward #Nurture1415

So another year has past and here I am, in a hotel room in Belfast, looking back at 2014 and looking excitedly on to 2015. Reading my last years Nurture post, I've definitely accomplished most of what I hoped to achieve this year although I still need to blog more, read more and go to more football games, oh yeah and full in love! 

So in brief, here's my looking back at 2014:

1) Making a difference as a year leader - So I completed my first year as a Year Leader, being part of the SLT and leading changes to the new Geography and Computing curriculum, and I've loved it. Being a driver of change and seeing the benefits it has had to the education of children outside my own classroom has been an amazing and exciting experience, one I can't wait to continue with next year!

2) A fitter, healthier me - This year I've completed even more runs and races in new locations (Wembley Run to the Beat, Brighton Brooks 10k, Warrior Run) with old and new running buddies! Half way though the year, I was introduced to the Clean 9 healthy eating programme which has helped me lose a few pounds, drink more water and eat more healthily! It's amazing the benefits of aloe! 

3) Reconnecting with family more - This year has been a year of getting closer to my family through various reasons. My nan had a nasty fall and broke her hip which led to lots of hospital visits. My cousin, Annette, has spent most the year in hospital without a hip and this year I've spent lots of time with her, keeping her spirits up and reminiscing about the past. Finally, after dressing up as Dory for my cousin, Donna's, 30th birthday party we decided to go on holiday together. We spent a week in Dubrovnik, Croatia and had the best time away together- sharing a mutual love of cocktails, Olly Murs, eating, chilling, fun and adventure! I've loved the time spent with my immeadiate family- my sisters 30th birthday celebrations were also a highlight too. 

4) Fun with friends- This has been another year of fun times withfabulous  friends:Festivals, hen parties, weddings, birthdays, races, staying in a cottage on the Isle of a White, New Forest camping - thank you all for a fun filled year! 

5) Working towards a better work/ balance - this year I have definitely tried to maintain a good work life balance ensuring I work hard but also spend time having a life outside of school! Long may it continue!

So what I am looking forward to in 2015? 

1) Setting up my own mini-business selling Aloe Forever Living products!!

2) Being a bridesmaid for the first time ever!! So privelledged and honoured to be a big part of my friend Michelle's big day! 

3) Running my first half marathon!! Eek! 

4) To take greater responsibility in my teaching career- maybe that next step at some point?! If not, developing my career further to make a difference beyond my classroom and being a better leader. 

5) Continuing to love life and embrace new experiences and opportunities they bring, wherever they take me! I will endeavour to Keep a good work life balance and see family and friends as much as possible! It's a year of big birthdays in our family so I'm sure lots of fun to be had!

Also I hope to watch more football, blog and read more

So that's me done for 2014, all I have left to say, as I set about preparing for a night of fun and celebration, is Happy New Year everyone!! Here's to an exciting and bright 2015! 

Working walls - not just wallpaper!

So working walls –when used well they become an integral part of the learning process, used badly they become terrible wallpaper. Until this year, working walls were pretty much an unused tool in my teaching toolkit until I moved to a school which lives and breathes working walls and now I can’t imagine life without one. Here is my low down on what I think makes a good working wall (and I am still learning and improving this!)

So why have a working wall?

In the past, teachers have used their wall displays for a multitude of reasons: to celebrate great work, topic display boards of maths and English vocabulary walls (VCOP!). However working walls offer a more purposeful use of the classroom display which offers a richer learning environment for the children. Working walls are an interactive wall which can be used to record, visualise and assist learning- to me an underused teaching resource. Working walls allow a learning journey to be shared from a starting point to an end point. Within in that journey, clear steps of the progress will be shared and displayed along with examples of good practise and scaffolded models with clear success criteria’s. They should be a flexible tool that allows innovation and evolution from the children and the teacher. A good, well used working wall can effectively create an independent learning environment where the children use the wall as much, if not more, than as much as they use the teacher.

So what makes an effective working wall?

They must ultimately be child led. The success of a working wall lies heavily on the involvement of the children and how a teacher encourages them to take ownership of the wall and their own learning which will mean the walls become used and less like decorative wall paper. Children will use a resource that they have managed and organised themselves and invested time and effort in.  If they do not see its value, the children will not use it so they must be involved in it from start to finish. Children in my class now ask me to change the theme of our literacy working wall linked to the theme or topic we are learning, showing their engagement and desire to be part of every process of the wall making. I often have a working party of children that help me change the learning journey for maths every Monday or at the start of a new journey ready for the next one.  

The children need to take pride in their working wall and it should become an integral part of the lesson. Refer to it always and praise children who independently use it to support their learning, which will ultimately encourage others to follow. If the children see you valuing their work and adding it to the working wall as best practise, a culture of achievement will follow where children are engaged in the learning and will also seek to have their work displayed on the wall.  The more you use the working wall and build it into the lesson planning, the more the children will see how each lesson fits within the concept there are learning and where it is taking them. For example, during any one lesson the children should be able to state their WALT for the lesson and share how it is linked to the bigger picture – the ultimate end goal at the end of the unit of work, they do this by referring to the working wall. During a unit of work on play scripts, they children understood that a lesson on adverbs would help them write clearer stage directions which will ultimately help them reach their end goal of writing a play script of Harry Potter for J K Rowling.

What should be included in a working wall?

A working wall should evolve. It should start empty and as the learning journey progresses over the days and week it should be added to and developed by the children and the teacher. It should at no time be pretty. Don’t get me wrong, I love being creative with my displays but they start off looking nice, enticing the children to the board, and soon they become covered in learning which is used by the children.

There should be a clear audience, purpose and outcome displayed so they children know where they are heading to and why, particularly on the English wall however this could easily be added to a maths wall. For example on a unit on writing to entertain, the audience was to Year 3 children, the purpose was to entertain and the outcome was to write a funny short story for year 3 children. Once children know where they are going, the learning journey and WALTs will demonstrate to the children the steps of how to get there, for example step 1: WALT: Identify the feature of an entertaining story. Step 2: WALT Use dialogue to create entertaining characters (this step will have its own success criteria linked to speech marks and dialogue writing which may last several lessons). I could continue further along the journey but I think you get the idea!

Modelled examples showing the different stages of the writing process for word and sentence level activities to mind maps, drafting and editing should be displayed. The examples should come from both the teacher and the children. It is vital to display the children’s work as examples and WAGOLLs (What A Good One Looks Like) so they children can see the steps are attainable and also seeing their work displayed allows successes to be celebrated. It is also good practise for the teacher to write their own setting high expectations. WAGOLLS and scaffolded models do not need to be pretty – scraps of paper, photocopies of children’s work, visualiser print outs, whiteboards, flip chart paper – whatever way of getting the work up, it doesn’t matter as long as a wall of visual prompts develops. Post it notes are a great way to involve the children using the working wall, they promote engagement and allow children to independently add to the wall at key points in the journey/ lesson. Use multiple examples of work or steps in the journey. You can take these down as the journey progresses but it is important for the children to see several examples to inspire them. On my English wall, I have ‘Ingredients for Magic Writing’ where the success criteria is split into organisational features and language features, this is also developed and evolves along the learning journey.

 Key vocabulary needs to be a vital part of the working wall alongside other generic models that can aid support the children in their learning. The working wall should be a visual toolkit for the children to utilise at any point of the day.

Let the children track their progress along the working wall. I have seen different versions of this in different classes in the school. Some teachers use a symbol which the children move along to show which step the class is on along the learning journey. I, however, recognising that all children learn at different paces, use names on post it notes, and the children move themselves along the journey based on their own progress. This really allows for a more individualised approach for each child, so they know where their next step is. I always include challenges and extensions for those children that reach the end of a journey more quickly than others. This method works particularly well on a maths working wall.

Word of warning!

Only start a working wall if you have support from your headteacher, remember they are not meant to be pretty so if you have a headteacher who advocates neatness and mounting, working walls will not work for you!

So in summary, an effective working wall must:

•           Be child led – children should value and use it!
•         Show the starting point and an end point to a leaning journey.
•           Visually display the steps along the journey with modelled  examples including teacher examples and children’s work.
•         Be included in the planning and referred to throughout the lesson.
•          Be flexible and not pretty!

Working walls have been a wonderful addition to my teachers toolkit and are now a strong part of my everyday teaching! I have even begun to use working walls for other subjects such as ICT and Geography- watch this space!! 

Useful articles

Here is a useful articles I found on the TES Website regarding  working walls: http://community.tes.co.uk/tes_primary/b/weblog/archive/2013/09/16/how-to-create-an-effective-literacy-working-wall.aspx

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6337169

Here are some photos of my working walls at the start of the journey- yes they do look pretty but trust me they do not stay that way!! 

Muddling through the middle!

Well, I set up this blog many months ago with the sole intention of documenting my first year in middle leadership however, it is clear by my lack of posts that this year has been a busy one and it's only just half way through! It is my intention, now that I have a bit more time, to write the many post titles I have had stored in my head over the last few months which may be of interest to some and will be a great release for my full mind! So here I start, with 'Muddling through the middle' - blog title and post title, because I have been exactly doing that!

Early days
So let's start at the beginning - September 2013 where I began my new role as a Year 4 leader of a three form entry Junior School. I had been at my previous school for six years, and time had come for me to stop hitting my head on the glass ceiling in to leadership and venture, scarily, into the unknown - a new school. It became apparent very quickly, that starting a new school again, be it as a leader or not, was going to be challenging. I suddenly felt, very much so, like an NQT again. Not in regards to the teaching and classroom management, you can apply this anywhere to a degree, it was the structures, organisation and routines of a completely different school. Over the years, I had completely taken lots of things for granted, like knowing assembly routines; where you had to be and when and who people were. I was part of this amazing special bubble of people - parents, governors, children and staff; where everyone knew me and I knew them. I knew the school inside out and I always felt that I was a leader with out the name badge! In this new school - I needed one just so I could learn new names and faces. That was my first mission, to get to know my Year 4 team initially, the children and then the rest of the staff. My year team, particularly my teaching assistants, were to be my saving grace in the first few weeks. They helped me get to grips with the time table, where you and the children had to be and when (this may sound ridiculous, but trust me when your classroom is the furthest away from the school hall and you can't hear the bell ring, you need the assistance of others!) By week two, I was still struggling to keep up with the new routines and different ways of doing things, however I am a fast learner and the children were great at helping me out.

A breakthrough!
Week three was my break through week as I managed to get myself, and the children, to all the right places and all the right times. It seems like such a crazy achievement to be proud of, but I was. You really are not prepared for how hard it is to move schools especially when you were so established in your old one. However, I moved for the challenge and I was definitely getting that. The one thing I struggled with the most, was how I could possible lead four members of staff on things that I was still myself getting to grips with. So I was honest. I said this was all new to me, as a leader,  and if I did or said anything there were worried or unsure about, then they must not hesitate to let me know, they had to be honest with me too. If I made mistakes, which I am sure I would, they needed to let me know. I honestly believe, you are only as strong as the team around you, and I wanted to nurture a strong team which has the children, in our year group, at the heart of it. Investing time in getting to know your colleagues is such a valuable resource for any leader. Knowing who they are and their motivations and goals for the school and it's children is key in developing a positive work life ethic. I wanted everyone to feel included and valued, so team meetings, daily catch ups and even sociable drinks at the end of the day all add to this vision, cupcakes help too! I had to set my authority too as a leader, that although I wanted to be friendly and approachable, I was also in charge. This is probably the hardest part of leadership, and I am not sure how I am going with that - perhaps I should ask my team! However, the respect me and my decisions so I must be doing something right! :-) The feedback I have received from my Headteacher has been overwhelmingly positive, which when I received this really did put my mind at rest that I was on the right track.

Leadership responsibilities - not as bad as I thought!
My leadership responsibilities have actually been easier to take on then I first thought. Many of them, I was doing already in my previous school such as rigorous pupil progress meetings. Looking at data, monitoring progress and setting up interventions is something I am not new too, and I actually enjoy number crunching. So doing this for 83 children is not too daunting at all, the hard part is that I do not teach them all so you need to have great faith in your teaching team, ensuring all children's needs are met whether you teach them or not.

In the past, I have completed observations before however not learning walks and book sampling, so these have been two new areas of leadership I have taken on. My first book scrutiny, I really had no idea what I was doing. I followed the lead questions and wrote it up to the best of my ability having not seen an example of one. It wasn't until the Head completed a book scrutiny of my books when I realised what I had to do, so my second scrutiny was more thorough and specific. Again, muddling through but getting there in the end. The Head was really pleased with my recent feedback and it is great to see your colleagues improving their practise as a result of your feedback as well as the impact it has on the children they teach. I am really looking forward to developing this further into classroom observations again.

The bringer of change
Being new to a school, you want to bring new ideas and suggestions, and although I was itching to do these I was very aware of not over doing it and becoming that annoying eager person. I often felt I had to hold my tongue from saying 'In my old school' especially as sometimes things that would have worked in my old school might not necessarily be appropriate or useful in my new school. So I decided on a drip by drip approach, make small changes to my year group, with the headteachers backing. So I did and it soon became apparent that my changes were not always welcomed.  This is one thing I really have found hard, being the enthusiastic new girl who embraces change and brings in a creative approach to teaching to an old regime still stuck in QCA units of work. I knew it was going to be hard, the Head warned me of this, but I don't think I realised how hard it was going to be. Some people find change difficult and I totally understand that, but when change is for the good of the children then it is needed. I think the school realised how different I was when I turned the whole of Year 4 into the Polar Express and children came in dressed in Pyjamas, the school had never really done dressing up before. The children loved it, my teaching assistants cried (tears of joy) and the learning was amazing. The children loved coming to school because we were doing things differently. I had come from a school where being creative in the way you teach and the children learn was the norm and was encouraged as long as there was real learning and progress. For example, to hook children into learning about the Tudors, we re-enacted the battle of Bosworth on the school field. Every child had a real part and name and the quality of historical knowledge that they learnt was outstanding. This then led to detailed and inspired pieces of writing. Awe and wonder moments, something my new school was crying out for and I was slowly bringing this in, along with a few others. However, this approach is hard work - it involves extra time and resources, but it is so worthwhile. This is, I am sure, what puts off many teachers and I don't blame them in an age when we have data and progress pressures to contend with, the fun side of teaching gets squished out. So I can see why many of my new colleagues might begrudge the things I was doing, and although they never said anything, you can tell: the quiet staffrooms, the small conversation. It was confirmed to me on a night out with my year team, when one of them said 'You are hated but it is because they are intimidated of you'. I laughed it off, but it does hurt. My friend said that part of being a leader is there will always be people that don't agree with you and dislike your decisions, which I understand. However, to be disliked by my approach to teaching is tough, but I smile and thicken my skin and keep doing what I am doing. After all it is all about the children and I have a happy cohort of children, who are excited and eager to come to school to learn. My headteacher is supportive of the changes I have made and we both look forward to a new curriculum where further changes across the whole school can be evolved. I know now that I am not the only one in the school and the acceptance to change is really now beginning to radiate across all. The good thing for me is I feel less disliked! Change is coming, whether people like it or not and people can love me or hate me for embracing it!

This only touches the surface of my first two terms as a middle leader and there is so much more I could write about and share, and I will at some point. I have enjoyed my new role and the new things I have learnt along the way. I do wish someone had written a guide book to support me in my role but I have learnt from my mistakes which have only made my practice stronger. I will continue to muddle through the middle, although I now definitely feel less muddled and more in control - long may it continue!