Class Teaching

Blog of the week:

Three for the price of one with our blog of the week this week! Marc Rowland and Jon Eaton at Devon Research School have teamed up to write a 3 part blog series around supporting disadvantaged pupils to thrive.

Durrington Resources:

A further reminder that you can sign up to any of twilight training courses via the link below:

https://researchschool.org.uk/durrington/events/2022-23-training-offer

We have two new blogs from the Durrington Research team this week:

1. Research School Blog, Co-Director Ben Crockett explores how status quo bias can influence initiative success in school.
2. Classteaching blog – Deputy Director Jody Chan shares some of the small tweaks Durrington staff have made to their teaching at the start of this academic year

Other useful links

The Key to Motivating Students – and Maybe Everyone else too – Natalie Wexler discuss the slippery concept of motivation and the importance for students ofexperiencing achievements.

ResearchEd -2025 – Reflections Part 1 – What are they thinking? – Rob Chambers shares his reflections on David Goodwin’s ResearchEd session around the importance of checking for understanding and also be wary of lethal mutations of “I do, we do, you do”.

Not a new one (apologies I must have missed it when it was published) but love this blog from Jennifer Green at Bradford Research School on how to plan think aloud phases in lessons.

Fresh Starts

One of the things I love about teaching is having a fresh start every year.  It is an opportunity to start again and bring to fruition all those things that we wanted to tweak the previous year.  There are few jobs, maybe with the exception of a gardener, where there is a total reset, a new beginning each year.

I always start my lessons by saying to the students that it is a fresh start for them.  This year all of our students came back in September and filled out a reflection sheet, looking back and remembering the things they were proud of and the areas they wanted to work on year.  It was a lovely exercise and the students were really honest and many have since told me of the changes they have made so far this year.  One student who always did her homework at the last minute proudly came to see me to tell me she had completed it the night it had been given to her.  We can be really good at promoting self-reflection in our students but can forget that we are afforded the same opportunity.

It doesn’t matter how experienced we are there are always changes we can make that will improve the experiences of our students or will make our own lives easier.  It may just be that as we gain experience, the tweaks we make each year get smaller.

In writing this blog I have asked a number of colleagues at various points in their careers for the changes they are making this year.  I will share them below and hope they are useful for others.

Second Year ECTs:

Helena Paver.

I have begun the year really reinforcing routines and expectations for longer than I did last year. Being relentless with my clear instructions and brightening the lines has already helped me feel more in control of my lessons, even though it may take a little more time, it will eventually mean I have smoother transitions between tasks and have disruption-free learning.  In particular, my do now tasks feel much calmer and focused, and I have seen more compliance from the students as a result.

Georgina Hoole.

I have written a checklist of all the things I want to include in my lessons and I take the time to ensure they are included before I deliver my lesson.   This has meant I am really clear of my expectations of my students at each part of my lessons.

Ed Marshall.

This year I am ensuring I have the full attention of my students throughout my explanations and I am waiting for full compliance.  My insistence on maintaining expectations has had a marked impact on the work ethic of the students, particularly in deliberate practice elements of lessons, and whilst I have held the line more firmly than last year, I have still been able to build rapport with the classes in the same way.

Third Year Teachers

Ollie Sawyer.

One of the things I have done differently this year is having all of my resources printed in my classroom in folders pinned to my board then I have them to hand straight away.  I also have a print out of the homework schedule and a year view calendar attached to my desk with important deadlines written in.  This has really helped with my organisation.

Rosie Beavan.

I have focused on setting clear boundaries first and being consistent with my expectations and will then focus on building relationship.  I will still be warm and welcoming to my students but will also focus on boundaries first and relationships second.

More experienced staff

Hannah Townsend.

I have been using mini white boards for a while but this year I have reorganised my resources so that there are mini white boards on tables with pens, rather than having to hand them out each lesson or having students distribute them.  This has saved me time in lessons and has meant I am using them much more than I did previously.

Emily Hitchcock.

This year I’ve made a small but important tweak to my teaching of not displaying the title of the lesson until after the Do Now Task.  This has led students using their time more efficiently and more are completing all of the questions within the time given. It also helps me transition to the new content of the lesson when putting up the title as I am able to take the opportunity to explain how the title and that day’s content is connected to their prior learning.

Me (Jody Chan)

Personally, I have made a change with regards to my organisation.  Now that I have a new role, I am even busier so I print my timetable for the fortnight and stick it on my desk and put in all of my meetings and additional tasks on to it, this has really helped me stay on top of things.

I hope there have been some useful ideas in this blog, please speak to your colleagues and steal more ideas from them.  Anything we can do to make our jobs easier can’t be a bad thing.

Jody Chan

Deputy Director Durrington Research School

If you want to find out about our training courses this year follow this link.

 

Blog of the week:

What makes spaced practice so powerful? – Carl Hendrick – Carl discusses the findings of new research into “why” spacing works and what might be going on in our brains during the “breaks”.

Durrington Resources:

 No blogs yet from the Durrington team (we have only been back 2 days in our defense!), but do take a look at our twilight training programs on this year. Our twilights programs are normally spaced over 6-8 weeks and consist of 3 live online sessions between 3:30 -5:00pm. Topics being covered this year include:

• Tackling Education Disadvantage
• Supporting Attendance
• Feedback to improve learning
• How to improve behaviour in schools
• New Leaders: how to drive and sustain change
• Mobilising Metacognition
• Improving Secondary Science
• Unpicking Oracy
• Responsive Teaching

If you want to find out more about our twilight training offer or would like to book onto a course please click here.

Other useful links

Leadership lessons from planting trees – Ian Frost reflects on how schools and leaders need to nurture and support the leaders they currently work with to develop them into the leaders of the future.

The Oversimplification Trap – Alex Quigley discusses the dangers of oversimplifying complex tasks and concepts in the classroom. Alex acknowledges the need to sometimes distil complexity, but also advocates for students grappling with challenging contents. Alex also considers the need for complexity in teacher professional development.

How “The Simple View of Writing” can help you develop your pupils’ fluency in writing – EEF Literacy Content and Engagement Specialist Chloe Butlin explores how the EEF’s framework “The Simple View of Writing” used across literacy guidance report can offer a useful lens to look through the experience of those students that often have lots of ideas but seem to write very little.

Uniting Values and Improving buy-in: how to make evidence-based initiatives stick – Tom Pole (Tudor Grange Research School). As part of their summer blog review Tudor Grange RS looks back at one of their blogs from earlier in the year, in which RS Director Tom Pole, reflects on why initiatives often struggle to stick in schools and how to combat this.

Not a blog but I love this post from Marc Rowland looking at what is in our gift as teachers/schools to address the impact of low family income on educational outcomes.

6 Common Curriculum Mistakes – and how to avoid them – Mark and Zoe Enser outline  common curriculum pitfalls such as the thinking behind determining content and structure or simply including too much breadth, and how effective schools avoid these.

As we head towards the end of our first year implementing our Teaching: Principles in Practice, it seems like the perfect time to celebrate the endeavours of our brilliant teachers who have been working hard to incorporate these routines into their practice. I blogged earlier this year about our PiPs, so for a more detailed description of them please refer to this. Today’s blog draws on the shoutouts staff have been given via Steplab that relate directly to our 15 PiPs. I’ve chosen one for each PiP, but there are dozens (in some cases hundreds) I could have picked for each area. The leadership of teaching and learning ultimately succeeds or fails on the daily decision making of teachers in their classrooms on whether to do x or y, as Jonathan Sharples says “The practitioner is the intervention”. It is therefore with a lot of pride that I share all the hard work Durrington teachers have done to make our PiPs real.

PiP 1: Do now

PiP 2: Secure attention

PiP 3: Means of participation

PiP 4: Drive thought

PiP 5: Build on prior knowledge

PiP 6: Think and participation ratio

PiP 7: Cold calling

PiP 8: Vocabulary instruction

PiP 9: Paired talk

PiP 10: Guided practice: I do, we do, you do

PiP 11: Live marking

PiP 12: Gathering responses

PiP 13: Whole-class feedback

PiP 14: Presentation of work

PiP 15: Orderly dismissals

 

Blog of the Week

Bron Ryrie Jones – https://bronwynryriejones.com/the-implementation-edit/

Three for the price of one! A series of blogs exploring the importance of participation, challenges to ensuring it and strategies to improve student participation in the classroom.

Class Teaching

James Crane – How do we ensure reading in schools is purposeful?

This blog outlines our approach to supporting reading across the curriculum at Durrington.

Research School Blog

Jody Chan & Ed Marshall – Clips from the Classroom – Using worked examples to help reduce cognitive load in maths

Jody and Ed introduce and explain the thinking behind the exemplification video they have made for the use of worked examples in maths.

Other Useful Links

• The EEF have updated the Clips from the Classroom website with another swathe of exemplification videos from the Research School network.
• Alex Quigley with as ever with a concise argument for raising the profile of reading in young people – Reading Every Day Matters
• Another entry for Alex Quigley – this time a podcast with Chloe Butlin, Shareen Wilkinson, Alex Fairlamb and Pinnacle Learning Research School exploring Subject Specific Talk and How it Supports learning across the curriculum.
• Adam Robbins – exploring the ever-present challenge of developing teachers – Why is Improving Teaching So Difficult – and What Can We Do About It?
• Professor Becky Allen explores the concept of assessment reliability, the factors that interfere with this and what teachers can do about this?
• Marc Rowland shares a video and accompanying resources summarising recent work on Addressing the attendance challenge: Relationships and Connections in Cornwall.
• Kat Howard reflects on the urge to implement and/or plan for new ideas in September and the importance of ensuring organisation readiness – School Improvement/Organisational Readiness.
• Carl Hendrick with the first in a series of posts focusing on Responsive Teaching
• A quick evidence snack from Peps McCrea on “nudging norms” in school cultures.
• Ben Newmark reflects on the need for some “difficult conversations about special education needs” and the pros/cons of linked interventions.
• Shaun Allison talks about how leaders can test the temperature in their schools.