Pritesh Raichura Profile picture
Feb 11, 2023 9 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Being a form tutor at @ArkSoaneAcademy means you’re responsible for the character development of your students.

We *explicitly* teach students to:

1. Show integrity
2. Be grateful
3. Work hard
4. Be kind
5. Aim high
6. Take responsibility

How?

Thread 🧵 1/ Image
We regularly tell students that we are on their side & care deeply about them. This is why we will hold them to really high standards.

“We will do this by being strict. We will be strict because we *believe* you can rise to our high standards.” 2/ Image
We sweat the small stuff & link to a bigger value.

If a student drops litter & picks it up, we will talk about the value of integrity that day.

Are we the kind of form who does the right thing even when no-one is watching? Or do we expect others to pick up after our mess? 3/
We use the story of the individual to build a group identity. What kind of form do we want to be?

If a student does excellent work, we show it off & celebrate to the entire form: X has contributed to the form. How will you? 4/
We believe in building strong relationships with all students. This is the bedrock of being a warm-strict school.

When relationships are strong, students don’t want to let you down. Instead, they want to make you proud. 5/
We have a system of merits & demerits + detentions. Crucially, we train teachers to ensure these are used consistently.

We talk about merits / demerits all of the time. The students really buy into them & love the competitive side of them. 6/ Image
But we are effusive with our praise: we celebrate success, even small ones, with great joy. We reinforce every tiny thing:

“Are we greeting teachers enthusiastically? Are we putting hands up straight? Let’s nail this team!” 7/
We explicitly narrate to the students how far they have come. We regularly remind them to appreciate what they have through lunch time appreciations & half-termly postcards. This builds self-esteem & a sense of contentment rather than entitlement. 8/ Image
We only currently have two year groups (7 & 8) & will grow ever year. This is why we are hiring now!

Apply using the link below.

DMs are open for any questions. 9/9

arksoane.org/current-vacanc…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Pritesh Raichura

Pritesh Raichura Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Mr_Raichura

Aug 28
This September, if you are looking to improve your classroom practice, one of the highest-leverage but underused strategies to try is HIGH-FREQUENCY questioning. Not note-taking, not copying definitions, not retrieval starters. What do I mean? 1/
The biggest factor that determines whether pupils develop strong understanding is FLUENCY of the key constituent facts. It’s hard to explain ionic bonding if you can’t quite recall what makes an ion positive or negative. 2/
The problem is, often, the trickiest concepts require fluency of LOTS of facts. But, our working memories are limited. So how can we get pupils to think deeply despite this limitation? 3/
Read 11 tweets
Nov 14, 2024
Two of the biggest myths about direct instruction:

1. Pupils are passive while the teacher talks endlessly.
2. The teacher tells pupils everything so pupils don’t think for themselves.

These are completely wrong. 🧵 1/
Far from being passive, teacher-led lessons involve:

- High frequency questioning: after nearly every sentence, pupils answer a question.

- High participation strategies (e.g. choral response or turn & talk) which get the whole class involved. 2/

bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/12/30/tur…
Direct instruction can involve ALL hands up cold calling in which the expectation is for ALL pupils to participate. The culture is far from passive. 3/

bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/04/08/che…
Read 4 tweets
Aug 26, 2024
Back to school & want to build a strong culture?

Here is a thread 🧵 of 5 blog posts with concrete strategies that you can implement from day 1.

1. Four Whole School Strategies to set pupils up to pay 100% attention in your lessons. 1/5
bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/04/15/set…
2. Forget 'no hands up'. If you want a buzzing classroom with a culture of participating, expect ALL hands up for your questions. 2/5

bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/04/08/che…
3. Boost the success your pupils experience with 'turn and talk' and the 3 phases of questioning. Your classroom will literally be buzzing! 3/5

bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/12/30/tur…
Read 5 tweets
Apr 8, 2024
Lots of teachers & leaders have reached out to me over the last year, wanting to implement:
✅ 'All hands up' rather than 'hands down' cold calling
✅ High frequency 'checks for listening'
Here is a thread of resources (podcasts & blogs) to help, which I'll keep adding to 🧵 1/
What is 'all hands up cold calling' and what are 'checks for listening'? This blog summarises the ideas 2/
bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/04/08/che…
How can you go about implementing these ideas? I discuss these strategies, leadership & culture more generally in this podcast 3/

open.spotify.com/episode/0J0a5g…
Read 7 tweets
Jan 6, 2024
‘Turn & talk’ FAQ:

Q1. Implementation: how do you establish the routine?

A1. Make success criteria explicit: face your partner, take turns, eye contact, full sentences.

Establish clear in cue: ‘Go’ & out-cue: “3,2,1 hands up!”

Consider pairings in seating plan.
Q2. When *shouldn’t* you use a turn & talk?

A2. Never for a ‘check for listening’ - this removes accountability for paying attention.

For ‘checks for understanding’ it is better to use a turn & talk AFTER you have seen the whole class’ answers.
Once they’ve shared their answers via ‘heads down, hands open’ or ‘MWBs’, for example, tell the class the correct answer & use the turn & talk to give pupils a chance to explain why the correct answer is correct. Example in this video:

Read 8 tweets
Nov 29, 2023
What has SLANT got to do with Spider-man and All hands up cold calling?

Story time! 1/
3-2-1 SLANT. All my Y9 pupils were sat tracking me as I explained the factors that affect the rate of diffusion. Suddenly I notice the face expression of one of my pupils change. 2/
I could see her eyes focus on the head of the pupil in front of her instead of focussing on me. A look of extreme concern washes over her face. Straight away, I suspect I know exactly what is happening… 3/
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(