CamStar

It is time to shake the dust off this particular blog! In truth, so much has been happening, that my intention of regular reporting has somewhat slipped since the start of term; but it is always good to reassess priorities, and the opportunity to share the exciting developments at Oakham is not only worth some designated time, but will be enjoyable as well!

Today I would like to introduce any readers to CamStar. Having worked in developing teaching and learning for more than seven years now, I am always looking for a way for really great staff development to take place, and I believe that CamStar is one of them. So, what is it? CamStar is a network of schools and teachers co-ordinated by Cambridge University who are all involved in researching - finding evidence for - what works in the classroom. Members do this through planning an "intervention" (a teaching and learning strategy) which has the aim of answering a specific question: so, "how can verbal feedback improve evaluation essays?"; or "Can regular low stakes testing improve long term memory?". Then the intervention is carried out, evidence gathered and conclusions made. These are shared at both school and sometimes national (or international!) conferences. At their best, a new strategy can be shown to be effective and then shared with the community.

More than thirty Oakham teachers are involved and it is very exciting to see the range of research interests. Letters informing parents of the students who will be in classes that CamStar projects are aimed at will go out in January, and I will certainly regularly report back on how the projects are developing.

To end this post, the following quote from educationalist Tom Bennet sets out the case for why it is so important that teachers do seek their own solid justification to inform approaches in the classroom:

“My suggestion: we don't wait for the grown-ups to make everything better. We carry on doing what we've begun to do: mobilise, organise and improvise. Teachers and school leaders are, to a great extent, leaders of the culture within which they inhabit. Brain Gym may have been dropped on us from a height, but we didn't have to do it. As teachers, we take responsibility for our own development, and get involved in the movements that undercut the traditional hierarchies"

Very inspiring, and a great avenue to develop teaching and learning at Oakham!

Times Festival of Education: Part 2

The Saturday line-up of the festival promised a fantastic day and it did not disappoint.

Early morning at the Festival

Amongst the earliest pedagogical birds, I was lucky enough to see John Tomsett in the first slot talking about the great value of using videos of our own lessons to tweak practice "at the margins": bad teacher habits; things to improve, and negative behaviours that we just do not notice until confronted with the hard visual/audio evidence. The session was enriched by showing some of his own less than perfect lessons (and any of us who think we teach perfect lessons are either abnormal or self-deluded). The concept of "deliberate practice" - which is the idea that we should focus in on an area for improvement and consciously enact improved practice until we embed it in our teaching habits - is one that is an incredibly common-sense path to improvement. His assertion that improving teaching and learning is "all about culture" resonates, and he made much of the idea that a Senior Leadership Team had to lead by example, showing themselves to also be willing to learn and seek to improve.



In the second session, I stayed where I was in the Old Gym and watched the TES Behaviour Guru, Tom Bennett. I have spoken with Tom via Twitter, and I certainly recommend his excellent book "Teacher". Today he unashamedly presented the common sense principles of good classroom management. I hope that others took away the important point that instilling strong classroom discipline is not about "the teacher getting respect" (as an end) but more about insisting on respect for your rules because they are in the best interests of the students. The other important message was that for independent learning to happen, there needs to be self-discipline first, which comes about through internalised discipline (or "compliance" in Tom's words). If this is not provided (in a "loving", but consistent and robust way) by the adult in the room, it is unlikely to happen. Although colleagues at Oakham are teaching in a very different environment to Tom's East London Comprehensive School, his thinking here is simply good teaching and applies to all practitioners, whatever their context.


After a dubious Cappuccino (it was just pretending to be something more than hot water with white froth) I enjoyed watching Kris Boulton argue for there being more of a focus on a teacher's subject knowledge, bringing expectations in line with other professions such as Law or Medicine. Then it was to Old School to hear a humorous but passionate talk by Geoff Barton about "The Habits of Literacy". Much like LHO (Learning Habits at Oakham), he argued that there were so many things regarding literacy that we as subject teachers take for granted and that we do not successfully make them explicit enough to students. The assertion that we have to "normalise" reading is certainly a lesson for all schools to prioritise.

Catching up with Oakham colleagues at lunchtime, David Starkey appeared to have made quite an impact and there were excellent reports on a wide range of other talks. Quite simply, what an amazing event - and one that has certainly offered the staff new ideas, revitalisation and inspiration.

The Times Festival of Education: Part 1

The Times Festival of Education is to education enthusiasts what Glastonbury is to music lovers. For those of us who might admit to spending their "free" time perusing education blogs and reading books about teaching, this is more than an antidote to England's World Cup exit.

 Six Oakham teachers are here at Wellington College but we seem to have the unplanned strategy of optimal coverage of the wide variety of talks - so I have not even seen some of them.

I still have a day to go but this has already been a valuable trip. My own highlights of yesterday include:

Some tribal singing

Dylan Wiliam's talk on Principled Curriculum Design. As a real heavy-weight in terms of teaching and learning thinking and practice, it was reassuring to hear so much support regarding what we are developing at Oakham. In particular, he talked about the importance of specific disciplines focusing on "domain specific" habits of mind when learning subject content. This supports one key strategy for LHO next year: in the Middle and Upper School to identify and present the most crucial Habits for each particular subject. This leads us to a place where we are authentically teaching subject disciplines with the expectation that students ought to be learning to understand how a mathematician (or historian, or linguist....) thinks and approaches problems. With a broader-based understanding of how the Habits are crucial for independent thinking and learning developed in the Lower School, this later specialisation has compelling research to support its value.


Tom Sherrington, one of my favourite education bloggers, did a talk on why despite the seeming divide between "progressives" and "traditionalists", great teaching uses elements of both. This seems to me to be common sense and certainly is how things are developing at Oakham. It is not so much that they are all really the same thing - there are key differences - but to be dogmatic with one is to cut yourself off from incredibly valuable approaches from the other.

A poor quality shot of a high quality session from Mr Michael Gove

Finally, a very late Mr Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, arrived to "headline" (in Glastonbury-speak) the event. It was very clear that many fellow-teachers, particularly those from the state sector, are not happy with many of he interventions that he has made. We, certainly, are currently engaged in much research and discussion regarding the best way forward with the Upper School Curriculum, in light of the proposed changes. However, I do not think that anyone could deny that his performance in answering questions was very impressive. Surprisingly, for a politician, he does answer questions and clearly believes on a principled level what he is doing. Whether or not you agree with all being changed is certainly another matter.