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/
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/
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/
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/
We only currently have two year groups (7 & 8) & will grow ever year. This is why we are hiring now!
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/
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/
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/
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:
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/