Workload - an issue that cannot be solved

Teaching (in secondary schools at least) is a competition. The number of students who will get certain grades has already been decided and no student has even made a mark on an exam paper yet. Every school’s cohort has to be above average. Yet, an average means that if one school makes more progress and other has to make less.

So it’s my job to prepare my students better than you. If I can’t? Performance management means I have to evidence that I at least tried, which manifests itself in extra resources, revision classes and individual interventions.

Teaching is a competition where I have to work harder than you.

No education secretary is about to change that. So we need more time.

Teachers need more time so that when they go into a classroom they feel that they are prepared for the lesson they are about to teach. They have planned the questions they are going to ask, they have read and marked the work of the students so they are ready to address the misconceptions that might come up or tackle the weaknesses the students might have. In science the teacher has had time to think about how they will best organise the practical work so that the students get clear instructions and learn the most they can from doing it. Teachers need to prepare schemes of work or edit, supliment or refine the ones they are teaching. Teachers need time to produce resources for students with learning needs, for example enlarging resources or adding images for those with low vocabulary.  Teachers need time to talk to colleagues, sharing ideas and picking up alternative strategies. Teachers need time to pass on concerns about students and discuss how to support them.

Teachers need time to go to the loo.

So, as far as I see this is the solution to the workload crisis:

Dear @DamianHinds the only way to reduce teacher workload is for us to teach less. The only way to do that is to give schools more money and employ more teachers. Good luck.

— Helen Rogerson (@hrogerson) March 10, 2018

https://twitter.com/hrogerson/status/972516717850218496?s=20

But it can’t happen. If we teach less we need more teachers. There are not enough teachers as it is. The school population is still growing. It would create as many issues as it solved as schools compete over teachers and those in difficult circumstances would be in very difficult circumstances indeed without teachers. I know good schools who have received no applications for jobs in shortage subjects.

However, in every decision he makes in every discussion he has it is my dearest wish that this is in his mind as what he needs to do to improve the conditions of those in the profession and improve standards too.

However, I hink there is an alterior motive behind the focus on workload.

What worries me intensely is that the discussion about workload is about solving the teacher shortage. Does Damian Hinds think that we are doing unnecessary paper work that if it was removed means we could be teaching from 8am to 3pm without any PPA time during the week? Those two hours a week a standard scale teacher gets could go a long way, adding another few percent capacity to the system. We would still have an hour and a half to mark books and plan lessons after school and all those holidays...

Damian, this isn’t possible. My advice? Take your cap to Phillip Hammond. Ask for a bigger payrise for teachers. Force schools to give the M1-6 increments automatically again. And seriously consider making our pension scheme attractive once more. These are things you can do right now. It might help retention, it would help us feel valued. It all costs money.

Practical work changing attitudes

It's important to discuss the value of practical work as science teachers, but we need to be aware of who is watching and what might be inferred.

Back in 2009/10 the target for our department from our 'mock-sted' was that there should be more practical work in lessons. We all knew it wasn't relevant as the previous one had been during the summer time when most classes were preparing for exams. I did a practical activity during my mock-sted lesson at the insistence of the HoF and it was rubbish as it didn't relate to the lesson at all. The students didn't see how it helped them and they were right. This sort of practical work we can do without. Practical work for the sake of it.

However, the pendulum has swung in a lot of places. There are senior management teams who see the share of the capitation that science departments get as unfair. There are those that observe lessons and see students collecting and returning practical equipment as a waste of time that they could have been redrafting an answer to an exam question. Practical lessons are too chaotic for a non-specialist to observe as being outstanding.

These departments are being pressurised in various ways (lesson observations, budget being cut, directly told) to stop doing practical work in favour of more written work, more mock exams and more delivery from PowerPoint (textbooks and worksheets cost money). These lessons look more ordered and are easier to show that progress has been made.

We have to make sure that in making the argument that a practical activity is not the only way to teach science, we are not saying that practical activities are not needed at all to teach science. And we need to be making the argument that schools have responsibility to fund the departments properly, give adequate technical support, have good schemes of work and ensure that services in classrooms are maintained. They should also give staff access to appropriate subject CPD.

Teachers should have the right to use their own professional judgement to use practical work if they so choose.

Nurture 16/17

Sorry, I can't keep it short! 10/10.

Review of 2016.

We didn't get on holiday abroad, mainly because I spent my money on fixing my car instead.

1. Family wise, the main thing this year was my step-daughter Esther's GCSE results and she really did herself proud with the number of A*s As and only one B that she got. She also got an A in AS English Language. She's coping OK with the academic demands of A-levels, but has set her sights on Cambridge and we are worried about how much pressure she is putting on herself to be perfect.  I also forced Esther to go to Wimbledon with my mother this summer. She had to get the train to London all on her own and meet mam at Kings Cross. Esther did have an amazing day despite 'not being sure that she could go' and now she's very keen to go again. A little taste of independence has spurred her on to do more. Richard now has a permanent job at a school that is hard work, but he likes the students and they have some level of respect for him. A teaching job is never going to feel permanent for him, but he's also prepared to move on if necessary. We bought a new TV because I was fed up of not being able to watch all the olympic coverage on the old CRT one, and we also bought a new sofa.
2. Another personal target has been my appearance. I am not that vain, honest! I have managed to lose a bit of weight in 2016, my eczema is more under control and I am getting my hair dyed every 8 weeks or so (£££). I feel so much better about myself. 
3. BREXIT. I am STILL angry about it. A lot of people will write about the number of famous people who have died this year, my dad was an undertaker, this doesn't affect me at all. But voting to leave the EU was ridiculous. I think it was more stupid than electing Trump, as least the US can get rid of Trump in 4 years. 
4. In school a major hurdle has been the resignation of our science technician. There is a blog post in there about coping for a week without a technician: it wasn't fun. We have a new one now and she's great, luckily we really landed on our feet. However, I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't been so proactive about working out how to find a technician when the normal routes weren't working? There is a yet another blog post there about being a middle manager and not leaving everything to those above you to sort out: I learned just how important it can be to take control of your own area. The situation taught me a lot about myself and about managing an impossible situation. I was sick to my stomach and unable to sleep properly trying to work out how to deal with a situation that had no solution. It did make me realise just how seriously I take the responsibility to supporting those who I line manage. The problem is solved now though, so I now need to get with ensuring our current technician has the skills to do the job. I have to add just how great CLEAPSS are, following their documents has really helped her get to grips with the job. 
5. In September I also took on responsibility for key stage 4 across the school. I am finding the pastoral position a little strange. I am used to just being left to get on with things as head of science. I get upset when science related things don't go through me and to be honest I can only think of a few times that this has happened. It's not the same pastorally. Information doesn't flow through me, it flows around. I am finding this hard to deal with. However, I have patience and a thick skin and I will slowly adjust the systems to ones that work for me. Looking at it practically I am not sure I wouldn't be overwhelmed if all the information went through me anyway; while I am learning the role in all likelihood I would be a block to that information getting to where it needs to be. I am keeping a diary to make notes of the issues that crop up so that hopefully second year through things run smoothly. 
6. The curriculum changes are looming large still, as they have for the whole of 2016. All key stages really, but GCSE in particular. As a department we haven't had time to discuss the changes, and I don't see when we're going to get it. Which is really frustrating. It has also meant that the time I have to devote to ASE has decreased. A lot of effort goes into the marketing of the events we run and I am not up to it at the moment. I am not allowed to go to the ASE conference for all three days this January, (even though I always pay for myself), and it's going to make getting to grips with the curriculum changes even more difficult. 
7. I have to add the Royal Society Summer Science exhibition to the list of achievements for 2016. I found out about it at the ASE conference and the dates fell nicely inside of activities week so I entered the ballot for tickets and got some. The event was fantastic. Girls who I would never have put as being interested in science had an absolutely brilliant morning and as staff we learned an awful lot too. The only issue with the day was that we planned to go to the Natural History Museum in the afternoon, but it was on the same day as the teacher strikes so the minibus got stuck on the other side of the march and when we'd finally walked to the Natural History Museum the queue to get into it was massive so we went in the V&A instead. 
8. I am eternally grateful to OUP how have given me the opportunity to write assessment materials for the new AQA mastery curriculum. This has given me a great insight into curriculum design. It has made me put my money where my mouth is in terms of producing resources and has been hugely enjoyable. 
9. The Olympics. I just love it, roll on 2020. 
10. In 2016 I finished paying off my student loan. 

Looking forward to 2017. 

1. I have always made and taken opportunities presented to me and I will continue to do that in 2017. 
2. In my professional life I during 2016 I made the decision that I am ready to move into management. I am enjoying Andy Buck's book 'Leadership Matters' and it is helping to give form to my ideas about being a senior leader. In 2017 I need to continue to refine and develop my understanding of being part of senior management so that if I do get the opportunity I am ready. 
3. My aim in 2017 would be to find that new role in SLT. But a massive difficulty is the lack of roles for someone with my experience in my area. The only job I have applied for had over 70 applicants and I wasn't selected for interview. Another post I have seen wanted someone with recent experience of schools in difficult circumstances, I haven't had this in the past 10 years. I am certainly considering just putting my CV out there and see what happens. I need to improve my linkedin profile, just in case someone is looking. I have remained on the fringes of #womened and I haven't committed to any coaching. I am not sure why to be honest. I don't want to become someone who CV builds, rather I do the job in front of me that way that works for the situation, but I am prepared to do that if that is what it is going to take. I would consider a deputy head role if AHT positions remain scarce, and I may even have to take a side step to get into a MAT to find the opportunities. I don't know what this means for my link to the big picture of science education and the ASE.
4. I will join the College of Teaching. I have had huge benefits from being an ASE member and I hope that the College will be a help in the same way. I am looking forward to the networking that it will allow and I hope to get to some events. I hope that it doesn't conflict with anything else. 
5. Within the department we are slowly crafting a curriculum that works for our students from Year 5 to Year 13. It's been almost three years since we started, and by this time next year it will almost be over. On the rare chance we do have to meet on the first day back after Christmas I will start the discussion about how our teaching and learning strategies at key stage 4 are going to help us overcome the issues we've identified. I want to put in place something stable so that we can concentrate on teaching and learning and refining what we do. I have never believed in making great changes for the sake of it.
6. I also need to work on my understanding of how my key stage 4 role (Head of Upper School) can make a difference to students and colleagues alike. I know that my colleagues are happy with my leadership in this role and very supportive, but I also know that I can do better. It is my aim to. I hope that Year 11 have a good run in to their GCSEs and Year 10 build a firm foundation.
7. Esther learning to drive is the family target for 2017. I am worried about how we'll afford the insurance after she passes her test. It's going to be an extra £1000 per year and I don't have that spare. It's wrong to hope she fails her test a few times isn't it? She's also got to get that UCAS form and personal statement completed in 2017. Leaving home and going to university is becoming a very real prospect. 
8. Always in the year we have small treats that we look forward to. This year I want to go up the Shard; it will be expensive, but we are going to do it as a birthday present to me. We also have tickets booked to go to the paratheltics and world athletics in London this summer. I am looking forward to the Cheltenham Science festival, Fame Lab heats, the festival of physics and all the other science communication events I can get to this year. 
9. Richard is riding London-Edinburgh-London again this summer, or at least hopes to. I will volunteer at one of the checkpoints. Having this on the horizon is great for us as an aim keeps him positive and I can keep the conversation off politics, education and work. 
10. I think that this year I will have to consider marking exam papers. I want to apply to do A-level physics and I have applied to mark the Year 10 new gcse mock papers. See 2017 target 7 for the reason! 

Knowing what you are supposed to be doing is not enough

I have been thinking about whether teachers knowing more about research into science education will make a significant difference to what we do in the classroom. It's not straightforward.

Recently I bought "Enhancing Learning with Effective Practical Science 11-16" edited by Ian Abrahams and Michael Reiss. It's new, and even has 2017 as the publication date. I am familiar with the work of Prof Ian Abrahams in the area of practical work in science and wasn't surprised to read the first chapter which talks about how practical work doesn't have the all the effects on learning that most science teachers would suppose it should.

The second chapter talks about the 'hands on, minds on' approach that Reiss and Abrahams advocate. They offered training to teachers to help them improve their teaching approaches. The training didn't have a great deal of impact in primary schools as they found that in primary science this is done quite well already. However, the training was of very variable impact in secondary schools. For one school it had a fantastic impact because of the personnel, time, support and buy in from the department and school management. This example got me thinking again about the impact of CPD on teaching.

In 2014 I heard from Prof Shirley Simon on the conditions that teachers need for CPD to be effective. It was a real eye opener for me. It wasn't anything I didn't already know, but I suppose sometimes information comes along in such a way that it is at the right time and the right message to have an impact. I knew from a project I did back in 2011with the Science Learning Centre that one day of training isn't enough to change practice and I experienced it myself. Online training over the course of a few months made me make a change because I knew I was going to be asked about it. Doing the AfL MOOC wth Futurelearn made me change what I did for a while, but it took discipline to do what the course was asking, the prolonged nature of the course was a real help.

Do we take time to let changes to our practice embed? There is a lot of talk in education about practices being 'embedded', but what does this really mean? Is it enough to know what research says or to hear about a pedagogical approach? Does knowing about something help to make it happen in the classroom? I don't think so.

As a profession we are becoming more research aware and while I think this is a valuable and important step, it isn't going to have a swift and deep impact on the way we teach. Mainly because it is hard to change what we do in the classroom.

This is something for the College of Teaching to consider. It's something for any organisation that is involved in CPD to consider. How do we convert knowing into doing?

Prof Simon said we need, time for change, relevant resources, activities and strategies to implement in the classroom, critical reflection, collaboration between colleagues and 'professional learning' should be focused on outcomes.

Even action research, which starts to address these five areas isn't a strong model. What happens after a year when the teacher has worked on a project. If it is part of your performance management and you claim there has been no impact? Or what about if there is an impact, do the whole department implement it?

I am aware of my limitations and I know that I find it difficult to implement even great ideas I hear about at one day training courses in my classroom. I wonder how difficult others will find things. Especially if they are contradictory or in conflict with school and departmental processes.

We certainly need a different atmosphere around how to change practice if we do what things in teaching to change in any way.

Practical Work in Science

NB: borrowed heavily from the work of Abrahams, Millar, Reiss and Osborne.

There are a lot of reasons to do practical work in science lessons. Lighting a Bunsen burner is a right of passage. 'Blowing stuff up' is something that primary students look forward to when they come to secondary school. But does it do what we think it does? Does the way that we teach it have the effect we would like?

(Spoiler: not everything, but that doesn't mean we should give up on it).

Does it promote interest and motivation towards science? It makes lessons more 'fun', but doesn't do a lot to promote motivation towards science long term. My anecdotal evidence would agree with that. I did mathematical physics at university because I really didn't like practical work. I didn't like it because I already knew what I was going to find out from it. When I got to university the practical physics lecturers were dismayed - practical physics is the 'truth' (for want of a better word) and the mathematical things that describe it are contrived by humans. Oh. I find that students often long for the 'fun' of doing a practical and when there are not many sometimes can be turned off by the lack of the anticipated excitement.

Does practical work help to develop skills? It depends what is meant by skill. If by skill it is meant 'manipulative skill' of using the equipment, then yes it does make a difference. If you are learning to do something or use something then doing it helps. The real challenge here will be to the GCSE examiners in writing papers that test this. If we are talking about transferable problem solving skills or creativity then practical work does not seem to have an impact here either.

Does it enhance the understanding of scientific ideas? Not very well. The use of practical does not improve the performance of students in pen and paper tests. Although students carry out investigations, following instructions well and even making appropriate observations, they often cannot link the practical to the subject being learned.  There have been a lot of projects trying to improve teaching using practical work. http://www.gettingpractical.org.uk But of course it is extremely difficult to change the practice of science teachers and projects like this haven't had a great impact.

Does practical work develop understanding of the nature of science? Hopefully with the new GCSE it can, but prior to that we students were looking for the 'right' answer and this isn't how science (should) works. We often teach about experiments and theory in such a way as to confuse students about the interplay between the two. Practical work in school is not representative of the way that scientists really work.

So should we bin practicals?

No. We should get better at them.

Firstly, we are required to do practical work at GCSE and A-level. As educators we would be in trouble if we did not give our students the opportunity to do the required and core practicals. This is to ensure that students do have the manipulative skills that practical work does teach. Universities are keen that students arrive being able to use equipment and the best way to teach this is through practical.

Secondly, we should be allowing students to experience scientific phenomena for themselves. Experimental work is an important feature of science, after all observations are what we are trying to explain. However, the science is often counter intuitive and therefore you cannot understand everything from observation. The teacher is needed as a mediator.

Thirdly, we should use practical work to help students understand enquiry. However, again this is not something we do well. How many of us have the time to allow students to work through an entire investigation and analysis of the results? Before an investigation it is important that students have a good understanding of the question they are asking and are able to select from the different types of enquiry which is the most appropriate. How many teachers know what the five types of enquiry are? (Other than fair testing).

And finally, we can do better at teaching students about science phenomena through practical work. But we have to be clear about our expectations for the outcomes for students, both from the practical work and what they can do and apply afterwards, particularly at secondary level.

Further reading (may need to be an ASE member to access all of these).
May 2015 School Science Review (practical work theme): http://www.ase.org.uk/journals/school-science-review/2015/05/357/ 
September 2009 School Science Review, Millar and Abrahams, Making Practical Work More Effective: Practical work: making it more effective (warning may download directly)
Abrahams and Reiss Effective Practical Science (Bloomsbury) Amazon Enhancing Practical Science
Abrahams: Practical Work in Secondary Science (bloomsbury) Amazon Practical Work in Secondary Science
December 2010 School Science Review, untangling what teachers mean by the motivational value of practical work. Untangling what teachers mean by the motivational value of practical work (warning may download directly)
Article about the 5 types of enquiry: IT'S NOT FAIR - The Association for Science Education (warning may download directly)
Education in Chemistry, Practical Work a New Opportunity: https://eic.rsc.org/cpd/practical-science/2000009.article
Getting Practical: http://www.gettingpractical.org.uk

New GCSEs in Science: teaching them!

The new science GCSEs are starting to be accredited. This is a relief, but not good enough. We should have had these specs a year before first teaching. What makes matters worse is that pretty much everyone is accepting that we need to start teaching them in Year 9. So very many schools are teaching unaccredited specifications right now. I know the argument about the content being fixed, but it's the principle.

There are several things that I am considering currently as I plan how to get the best possible outcomes from the new GCSEs.

The first is the non-spiral curriculum. Pre-2006 when I first taught edexcel modular GCSE and it was spiral I didn't like it at all. And to be be honest even now I am not a huge fan. However, I have learned to make the most of revising ideas to revise what I have taught previously. I want to consider how I am going to help students remember previous ideas. I do hope that teaching a topic as one will help better conceptual understanding though.

Electromagnetism is a good example of this. At the moment I teach generators and transformers independently and with no reference to electromagnets and motors. I don't even tell the core science students how a transformer works unless they specifically ask. When I do I certainly don't get them to write it down. What I want to do is what I did pre-2006 when I taught the AQA specification. Teach electromagnets and how to make them stronger. Then teach motors (effectively that two magnets attract or repel, but one is an electromagnet, and knowing how to make it faster is easy if you know how to make an electromagnet stronger). Then teach generators because physics works backwards as well as forwards, the idea of generators translates well to transformers then.

I feel like low stakes testing is another answer to this. Multiple choice tests using zip grade to check what students know and what they are, in general struggling to remember from topic to topic. We will need to identify fundamental ideas that we want all students to remember. I suppose the things that I feel will have to be taught well. Hopefully by reviewing the previous topic during the current one will keep the learning fresher than it would otherwise. However, too much time doing low stakes tests will impact on the second issue.

Secondly, I am struggling slightly with the format of the specification. During my teaching career I have always found the GCSE specification to be useful in setting the level of expected understanding. Teaching the post-2006 specifications has always felt like an exercise in ensuring the students were using the right words in the right order. Whist it looks like we are stepping away from that, I would imagine that we won't be in reality. There has to be a 'right' answer. Even A-level physics has that. A-level physics has a lot of past-papers though to help with the wording of an expected answer. (At least help the teacher). This is issue will be on going. I hope that the GCSE textbooks we have going back to when my husband started teaching will help. But if GCSEs are getting more difficult then old textbooks might not be useful... I will be looking at all the specimen assessment materials to help establish level of difficulty.

Now, you can argue that we should just teach the content to the most difficult level we can. This is exactly what I have said in meetings in the department. But, I still want an idea.

I do want to look more closely at questions that require application of ideas in the current specifications and for other exam boards. I do think that this has been done well in the current gateway specification, but our students have also found it challenging. It is an area that we need to look at and improve in our teaching. However, it is easier said that done when I consider the shear vastness of the content.

Then there is the pace we'll be teaching at. The content is vast. Our students are not happy when they don't feel they are confident in an idea. I imagine we're not alone. But we're going to have to keep going if we are to get through the content. I do agree that it is better to 'teach some of it well than all of it badly'. I actually hope that the non-spiral nature of the content will help with this. I can spend more time on the basics if necessary and the should help understanding of the more difficult concepts. (Even if the more difficult concepts end up having to be taught by chalk and talk due to time). Hopefully I can use my pre-2006 experience to pick the concepts that will allow students to access maximum number of marks.

I will plan out a lesson by lesson break down of the content to ensure that it fits within the time we have to teach it. A tight rota will be necessary to ensure we can keep on track. Hopefully there will be the chance to build in some slack in case of absence for class or teacher. We need to be allowed to be ill.

As part of homework/prep I would like to encourage students to think about the topics and concepts they should have met at key stage 3 so that when they come to the topic we can quickly review the underpinning knowledge and then move on to new concepts. This won't be straight forward as I can imagine that there will be a lot of 'I didn't understand it' and a few excuses. But hopefully by setting the expectation they will see the benefit and it will be easier to enforce as time goes on.

I also want to encourage the students to make Q&A flash cards as we progress through the course. This will hopefully allow them to spend time revising and reviewing rather than copying when we get  to Y11 mock time and Easter of Y11. I think giving a selection of questions will help scaffold this activity.

This holiday I am going to evaluate our key stage 3 offering to ensure that we are getting across the key ideas that will be fundamental to the new GCSE. I hope that OUP are doing the same!

Lastly is the practical aspect. The monitor who visited for the A-level practical endorsement suggested having some fold out information sheets in the back of the practical books with advice. I want to do something similar for GCSE. I have been looking at the GCSE specification and what is expected. I think if we get the students into habits it will help.

These would be making a prediction, writing a results table, drawing a graph identifying anomalies and writing a conclusion. Yes, we'll need to look at practical techniques and evaluations too, but I think that I want to teach that for each experiment rather than make them come up with things totally independently. The worksheets that we use for the A-level practical endorsement have instructions to follow and questions at the end that make the students evaluate the specific data collected and methods. Something like that would be useful. It probably means we will have to try all the experiments.

To make practical work efficient I will probably create instruction videos for the practicals. (Without giving away the conclusions if I can possibly help it. I usually try and obscure the readings during filming or speak over still photographs). It is very satisfying watching the student watch and pause video instructions. I have said this, but it does make a difference.

We are debating if we get students to only 'write-up' the PAGs we have to do in a practical book, or all the practical work. Or whether it should just be in their files.

The GCSE changes are becoming pretty real now.

Nurture 15/16

When I sat down to write this blog post I felt that my 2015 wasn't as busy as previous years (especially 2013), but it seems that I have still been busy.

The greatest defining points of my year have again revolved around my husband. I am just used to calling him that as we have now had our first wedding anniversary. Of course on the actual date he was cycling!

1. Paris-Brest-Paris: In the summer Richard cycled 1000km in 87 hours (three of them sleeping) from Paris to Brest and back with thousands of other randoners. He absolutely loved it.

2. New job: The main cloud hanging over us this year has been Richard's job. In the spring he was put in a position where his only option was to resign without a job to go to. However, he has a new job and is a lot happier and making good headway with very challenging students.

But the whole experience has been crushing on my opinion on the people involved in education. I naively thought of teaching as a job for life, but now heads are now able to give a couple of observations and destroy 25 years of a career that you thought you were good at and don't expect your colleagues or union to be able to support you.

I fear to go back and work in the state sector. To see so many good and hard working colleagues fall is heartbreaking and I don't want a part of it.

3. Curriculum change: My job is defined by the changes that are going on at the moment. After the October half term I had a real wobble about the new GCSE and the amount of work it will create for me.

I am still not confident about the way that we are recording the practical endorsement and the quicker someone comes to see the better. We're doing the practical activities so I know that even if we get a slapped wrist or have to make changes the students won't be disadvantaged. However, I am happy about the opportunity to reflect on A-level. I would really like another couple of years to iron out the changes that are happening at A-level before the GCSE changes start

We still have work to do on key stage 3, but the students in Year 8 are very positive about science lessons. I fear that key stage 3 - the most important key stage will be neglected because of the impatience of politicians.

At key stage 2 I am delighted with the scheme we are using from collins. It takes a very long time to prepare lessons, but the ideas are excellent, the students love the lessons and I feel like I am doing a good job when I teach these lessons. I just wish I had more free time so I could prepare all my lessons so well.

4. GCSE and A-level results: Again I was delighted with our GCSE results. The A-level results were got on the back of an awful lot of hard work and determination on behalf of the students. They got into the universities they wanted to and are content in their courses. I am very proud.

5. ICT: As a department we have been using kerboodle with key stage 3 and it seems to becoming more and more part of our practice. There are a few girls still struggling, but they are in the minority and as a staff we are getting to grips with all the things it can do. Using iPads in lessons is reaching a peak now and it's 'newness' is wearing off on me. I find it frustrating when students don't bring their devices, can't remember passwords or can't connect to the WiFi properly. I have hit a wall and don't know if I want to break it down when I also have all the curriculum change hanging over us.

6. Drama: I have been given a bigger insight into the workings of the drama department this year. Drama and music are very important to the girls at my school. Last year the production was the Wizard of Oz and because I like to wear red shoes at work I jokingly became the witch that gets squashed under the house for one night of the production. It was interesting to help back stage and see how the cast work together to give us a show. My tutee was Dorothy in the show too. In the summer I helped with the lighting of the play that the drama department took to the Fringe in Edinburgh. Getting to see so many shows and seeing behind the scenes at the fringe was a fantastic experience.

This involvement is partly of my own doing as I try and increase my own knowledge of different areas of the school. If I am to have a whole school responsibility down the road, then I want to be able to have a degree of understanding for other colleagues in other areas of the school.  Of course it is also because I love supporting my colleagues.

7. Extracurricular: This year I have been to Edinburgh with the Drama department,  Weston-Super-Mare and Bath with the Geography department, Cardiff to hear a lecture about Einstein with the A-level scientists, Bristol for the IoP festival of physics with the Y13 physicists, and Thorpe Park with a mixture of students for a great day out. Again we went to see Team Bath play netball and I took a group of Y11 to tour the Krispie Kreme doughnut factory in Bristol. I got the school outside to see the solar eclipse, we had the space odyssey dome in to give shows to the students. In enrichment week the students took the squashed tomato challenge. Year 6 came second in the Great Bug Hunt and completed enough experiments to qualify for a Crest Mega Star Award.

8. Tutees: I have been very lucky over the last 12 months to have two amazing groups of tutees. Working with them is a great

9. GCSE Classics: Esther completed here Classics GCSE a year early and got an A*. Relived and proud are the two emotions. She has set her sights on Oxbridge, so the GCSEs need to be good.

10. CPD, MOOCs and conferences: The year always starts with the ASE conference, which makes going back in January a very positive experience. Speaking to Chris Colclough about being a head of science was extremely useful. Seeing great friends and getting lots of inspiration is the main reason to go to the conference. I don't think that I made the most of last year's ASE conference, but I still took a lot away. I went to two teachmeets and organised another; I always love these events because of their atmosphere and positivity. The iPad training day from Rachel Jones' school KEVI that I went to with a couple of colleagues was brilliant. I also attended Research Ed in September and was able to speak to Nick Gibb, and presented at Teaching and Learning Takeover 15. I also helped organise our own ASE conference in Bath.

The AfL MOOC from future learn, the SLC and Sheffield University was brilliant. Taking place over a period of weeks meant that my practice was changed much more effectively than just attending an event. The live Q&A with Chris Harrison was very good; there is so much to be learned from those people in universities who study education and being able to ask about AfL was very useful.

The CPD highlight though was the ASE professional learning conference. Shirley Simon's talk was a real inspiration to me and it was a real treat to hear Jonathan Osborne speak. Paul Black and I exchanged words! Hearing Brian Cartwright was very useful and I can only describe Andrew Carter as an 'interesting' character. It was great to meet Andrea, Katrina, Bryony, Helen and see Pete, Liz, Chris and Stuart.

11. Writing: One of my aims was to add more purpose to my writing. I have written a lot during the course of the year, but I haven't published much of it at all. I don't want to get into arguments. I am not all the knowledgeable about education, I only know my own classroom and some of what goes on in that of my colleagues. I don't know enough to be an expert. More than that though I don't want to get into an argument and have to spend a great proportion of time defending my position. I would expect some people not to agree or understand my position, but it makes me nervous that some people appear to not want to let others have their opinion based on their own experiences. I don't want to be part of that, so I fly below the radar thank you. (Actually more about time than not feeling strongly about something and the curriculum change is overwhelming me emotionally).

12. Home: In the summer I sorted out all the accumulated rubbish we had in the spare room. It seems that we had an awful lot more paper and plastic wallets than I thought and a large number of ethernet cables 'just in case'. Several 'very useful boxes' and trips to the dump later and we are at least able to get in there! Next step is to get into the loft and put some boards down so I get move some old CDs and books Richard refuses to art with up there.

13. Event at Westonbirt: This was one of the aims for last year. I will do a teaching and learning team party in the spring I think. It would be lovely to have a small gathering in the library at school with some cake. (The library is a wonderful room).

14. Shaun the Sheep and friends: After finding all the Gromit statues in 2013 we decided to do the same with the Shaun this year. Richard and I went to London and found all 50 there in one day. We walked a marathon that day. Then Lucie and Abi helped us find all the Shaun's in Bristol. It was a great excuse to catch up. It was also brilliant to meet Karen in Exeter for some black Friday weekend sale shopping.

15. Holidays and breaks: I make it my mission to get away and see as much of the UK (I can't afford the world) as we can. This year we had a day out in Oxford and London, went to the Brecon Beacons for a few days, visited Lincolnshire, Northumberland, had a day in Hull, Swansea and Minehead. My brother has bought me a scratch map of the Uk so I can make a record of where we have been.

The year ahead:

To be honest I don't have many plans that haven't a;ready been set in motion by things that have happened this year.

Esther's GCSEs feature heavily and hoping that Richard can get a permanent job. Although no teaching job will ever feel permanent again.

I really want a foreign holiday and we're thinking about visiting the North West when we book our cheep caravan holiday. The Olympic Games will feature heavily in my summer holiday plans.

I am still thinking about preparing myself for management and I want to aim my personal CPD to that. However, I think that it is unlikely I will find anything because school are not advertising for assistant head teachers externally. Budgets and MATS are the reasons I would imagine. However, I still enjoy working at my school and the curriculum changes present me with more than enough challenges!

So mainly next year is about dealing with the changes to the curriculum and trying to get the best possible outcome from them for our students.

Tracking and Evidence

When I started teaching we'd all give our students tests at the end of a topic. They'd get 18/24 and we'd would add this to a spreadsheet. My head of department would use testable to level each question and this would help us develop a level system whereby 17 on this test gave a lower level outcome than 15 on the next. (Rather like raw to UMS scores in public exams).

Sound and Moments always came out skewed too high, Simple Chemical Reactions too low but otherwise it wasn't too bad. Using levels helped to make homemade tests equivalent. At the end of Year 9 when students would do the SATs exams our method usually under predicted what they would get by up to half a level, but this is not enough that we were concerned. We tracked the students and were reasonably happy with the quality of the evidence and we also had grades for reports. We did lots of tests and if a student missed a test they didn't need to re-do it, this gave plenty evidence about the child's attendance too.

No where in the previous paragraph do I describe formative assessment.

Fast forward twelve years: I thought that getting rid of the levels was to put the focus onto formative assessment. Not how you move from level 3 to 4, but how you really improve that individual piece of work or your knowledge about what is going on in a chemical reaction. That ray diagram you have drawn about refraction, do you really understand it? Can you identify the normal? Can you measure the angles? Can you explain how and why the ray bends? 

I have seem some projects and work (in primary) that are putting the focus on formative assessment. Using examples of real work as tracking and as a starting discussion for developing the teaching and learning of science within the school. 

But, others it seems have to track EVERYTHING. Is it reasonable to know if a child in year 7 got mixed up between a chloroplast and the cytoplasm. If in year 8 they wrote oxide instead of oxygen? Does this information really help? Is it useful? If a child did know the difference between exothermic and endothermic reactions in year 8, will they still know it in year 10 anyway? What am I really going to do with all the data that tracking every learning intention will generate?

Would we be better off keeping the actual work rather than transferring it to a spreadsheet? Would that tell us more, with no extra work?

In a GCSE curriculum change spiral of despair

I am so pleased that I decided (all three science subjects decided) to stay with the same A-level examination board. There are subtle differences in the content and I have at the back of my mind that I have to do a decent job of the core practicals in order to help the students gather enough knowledge to access the questions in the exam paper that will be around practical work. I have actually embraced the chance to reflect on my A-level teaching and think carefully about how my lessons and schemes support the students I teach and what I can be doing differently. I am including more technology and making more of an effort to investigate different practicals and demonstrations that I might include in my lessons.

However, the department are also working through our key stage 3 changes. Some of it we love. Some of it we find lacking (the homework) and some of it needs a bigger solution (the end of topic assessments). We really need time to discuss the changes, divide up the work, upload what we have created independently to the platform and make notes for the schemes of work to stop us from making the same mistakes next year. But we don't have that many opportunities to do any of that because we're working on year 12 now.

We also teach Year 6. Luckily, I have bought an excellent scheme of work. But it is not perfect. Again, homework isn't great and I spend three hours per week preparing for one hour of lesson because I have to make presentations and often have to make equipment or set up my classroom to be ready. Teaching Year 6 needs a lot more thought with respect to classroom management/organisation that teaching year 11 does.

So adding yet another curriculum change to the mix is distressing me. I can't describe myself as feeling any other way.

When I was teaching the final year of the old key stage 3 and making resources I didn't feel I was wasting my time. I figured that key stage 3 is flexible so I might teach that content in that way again. When I was teaching the last year of the previous A-level specification and making resources I felt the same. But GCSE teaching is the majority of my timetable and even though I am teaching the final year of a specification I am still making resources. Resources that will be unusable in their current form in the new specifications. Resources that are very specific to lesson P3f (for example) of the Gateway specification.

Why am I making resources? I am making them because the students now have iPads and I feel that I need to embrace the new technology we have to ensure that the girls are using them and their parents investment is not wasted. I am making them because (in the case of video) it genuinely does improve the educational experience of the girls. But I know I am putting effort in for the students I teach now that is not going to be laying a foundation for the future.

So this time next year I will have an even greater amount of work than I would have if there had been no new curriculum changes. Not only will I still be trying to perfect the key stage 3 and 2 schemes, and ensure we have key stage 5 schemes that prepare the students for the longer more integrated terminal examinations I will also be starting from scratch on a totally unknown GCSE where I will be able to use very few of the resources that I have spent the last 10 years developing without some level of adaptation. Add to that the uncertainty of how practical skills will be assessed and what the grading 1-9.

Understandably within school we are grappling with the best procedures and timings to deal with all the changes. The changes that not only impact science. If the drama performances or geography field trips have to change then what impact does that have on the time pressures on students and my teaching time in science? If examinations are longer, how does that impact our mock examination weeks and internal assessments? How do we change our reporting at key stage 3 and 4 to reflect the new GCSE changes? The options booklets and curriculum descriptions all have to be changed, the parental handbooks regarding revision and coursework have to be updated (twice, once saying this is provisional and again when the changes are confirmed). Etc etc, all little things that add up to a lot of administration work we need to do.

Not having a settled school environment and knowing this is going to be the case until at least 2018 is filling me with dread. I was told when I started teaching that after six years of teaching I would have my resources and be able to get a decent work life balance. I would not be working until 1am just to keep my head above water.

To have every aspect of my working life affected by the shear volume of change being created by the previous and current government is distressing enough, but knowing that it we are not being given a decent length of time makes me extremely angry. Knowing that the Science GCSE specifications will not be ready until February, 6 months after some people have started teaching it is unacceptable. For me is a yet another straw. When will the camel's back break?

I am overwhelmed by the changes, by the swirling mess of knowing that everything I am doing, every aspect of my working life is on shifting sands and there is no end in sight.

Nurture 14/15 Update.

1. Writing with purpose

My blog needs more attention and direction. I would like it to show what I feel and my vision and I don’t believe that it does. I have strong feelings about things and I want to be able to describe them in a rational way. 

When I go to my blog, one word stands out: "draft". I have written a lot of posts about education. But most have been too angry to publish. Nothing that is really constructive and adds to the educational landscape. However, we now have curriculum change and a reason for me to write about the things that I am doing (particularly post-16) and share the progress of the things that I put in place. After Christmas I hope to look more at GCSE. 

2. At home

We only have one plan for the this year - getting Richard qualified and ready for Paris-Brest-Paris in the summer. It really is the culmination of ten years of cycling so that he is ready for this challenge. My main hope is that some of his colleagues recognise the achievement, it will mean so much to him. I doubt it though. We did say that we would take Richard’s daughter to Oxford to see the city and to go to the Imperial War Museum as we haven’t been for a while. When Richard is out cycling I want to work on things around the house and get over my fear of gardening. 

Richard has qualified for Paris-Brest-Paris. I haven't got over my fear of gardening. The over growth is winning every battle. I really want to let it win the war. However, in the house I am doing better. The recycling pile is increasing and I am being ruthless. We did take my step-daughter to Oxford, it's a really lovely place. A trip to London is planned for the summer. 

3. Bringing a conference/an event to Westonbirt

The head has seen me help organise activities outside of school and has invited me to replicate this in school. We certainly have the space. I need to think about this in order to bring together something valuable. It is a real compliment to be trusted with this. 

Still in the planning stage. 

4. More curriculum change

The next task at school is to embed the changes to KS3 and do more to look forward to the changes at KS5. I think that the department will need some help to develop the idea of a lab book as will the students. The changes at GCSE concern me greatly, I don’t think that the specifications will be ready towards the end of 2015, again giving teachers and publishers less and less time to prepare a good scheme of work. 

I am really pleased with how well Year 7 have done this year with the new scheme of work we have. We're teaching less in Year 7 than we used to and I think this really helped them. I worked hard on revision with them and as a result the test results were extremely high. 

I am teaching them as Year 8 in September, so I can continue to work on the new schemes. All of the curriculum change is a work in progress otherwise. 

5. What is next?

I love my school and working there. But I also feel the pull of a new challenge. I don’t know what that is yet and I fully expect to see myself working at Westonbirt in a year’s time, partly because I want to see through the curriculum changes and develop my use of 1-2-1 devices in the classroom and partly because it is a fabulous school and I believe in what we do. But I need to prepare myself for what is next. Would I get an assistant head position from where I am? Do I want one or do I want to stay more closely tied to science education? Would being an assistant head affect that? Am I good enough? Do I want to stay as a teacher?

But I also think that to look to the future I also need to consolidate. Think about what we/I/the department do really well and make the most of those things. Ensure they stand out as excellent and don't get lost amongst all the change. 

I have spent some time this year talking to my colleagues in other departments. I think that it is important to understand the pressure and commitments of other subjects if I am going to have whole school responsibility in the future. However, I am still really enjoying thinking about my own subject and working with my team. I want to work on the current set of curriculum changes and I am enjoying working on the 1-2-1 iPad scheme. I also enjoy being able to tap into the expertise within the ASE, the professional learning conference reaffirmed it's usefulness to me last week. 

ASE Professional Learning Conference 2015

Back in January Joanna Conn, chair of NAIGS (which is the advisor and consultant subgroup of the ASE) suggested that anyone with an interest in teacher CPD should attend the NAIGs/ATSE (science ITT tutors group of ASE) conference in the summer. The date was set for after I finished my term, and I do organise conferences and have an interest in teacher CPD as part of what I do in my own department, on twitter and where my career might go, so I thought that I would go.

The first session was by Prof Shirley Simon, entitled 'CPD, what does it really mean?' This was definitely my favourite talk of the two days and the one I took the most away from. Prof Simon was obviously an expert, her talk was pitched very well for me though. It was understandable, yet also thought-provoking. (I was very glad she delayed her holiday a few hours to give us her time).

She said that moving from 'surviving in the classroom' to 'teaching for learning' (I love this phrase) was a life time's work. I have to agree. Even now, 11 years in there are occasions where my lessons are about getting through the hour and hoping the students have a positive experience, rather than knowing what I am going to do will be valuable and result in progress. I suppose the positive I take away from that is that I do know the difference. I always get the impression others are planned and perfect all the time, but I have a way to go until I am organised enough to be brilliantly prepared for every single lesson I teach.

Prof Simon said that for valuable PD it was important to learn from outcomes, that collaborative learning was important as well as critical reflection, and teachers need time to change. To support teachers in this they need relevant classroom activities, accessible strategies and the opportunity to reflect.

At the time I was struck. I should know these things, I do know them. I suppose it is just the right time in my career to hear them? I am thinking about moving to senior leadership, but more on the curriculum, procedural side (time tables, exams, policies, that sort of thing), but on hearing this I decided that despite my lesson than perfect performance in the classroom perhaps I would have something to give a teaching and learning role.

Is what we do in schools transformational to the way that teachers develop their teaching? I don't think it is. When I consider the way that CPD has been delivered in schools I have worked in over the past 11 years of my career I feel that it is far from being transformational and collaborative.

Prof Simon went on to describe some of the projects she is involved in, listening to the way that she works with teachers, schools and other organisations was very interesting. It made me hope that one day I can work more closely with a university researcher to improve my practice. Her analysis of why the work she was doing had more impact on some teachers than others was interesting too, again going back to reflection and collaboration.

Next was a session by Paul Clark who examines international qualifications for Edexcel. He went through examples of exam questions that require students to have done the practical. I am more confident that students who have done the practical work and learned from it and about it, will have a greater advantage than those who haven't in the new qualifications. It also made me acutely aware we need to discuss practical skill development with Year 9 students when we start in September. I would also advise any reader to have a look at the examiner reports of international qualifications.

I wrote the following questions at the end of the session.

• can students apply their theory in context?
• do students know how to use pieces of equipment appropriately?
• do students understand practical concepts or are they learning them by rote?
• just because a student has an A, do we assume they have a good grasp of all topics?

The next session I went to was excellent. It did assume more knowledge of how to deliver good practical work than I really have, so the conversation went slightly too quickly for me to make good notes in places. Prof Paul Black and Prof Jonathan Osborne both spoke about the importance of practical work. 

One set of statistics that I wrote down, and I hopefully remember the context correctly was also about the importance of practical work in increasing understanding. Prof Paul Black said that in a study involving three groups of students one group was given a list of equipment during their learning, another pictures of the equipment and the third group was given the actual pieces of equipment. In the assessment of the work those that were given the list 15% got top grades and 72% got the bottom grades, the group that got the pictures 32% got top grades and 54% got the bottom grades, and as you can guess those that were able to use the equipment 48% got top grades and 33% got the bottom grades. That sold the importance of practical work for me.

Jonathan Osborne spoke about the obsession there is about practical work, and that it is only a small piece of what we do in science education. He talked about the importance of the practical coming from what we do before and after it. He refuted that practical work itself was motivational, but that the motivation came from answering a question. His talk was compelling and makes me need to go back to the work of Abraham and Millar on good practical work. Jonathan Osborne's article in SSR is also worth a read if you are an ASE member or know one. 

The final session of the day was from Tony Sherborne. I love hearing from Tony, everything he does is so considered and rooted in theory. He talked about a mastery curriculum as he is working with AQA to develop this idea at key stage 3. He talked about assessing students before teaching the topic so we know who needs extending and who needs intervention and we can do something about it. He talked about ensuring that students get the support they need. This is something that has been going around my mind for some weeks now (after doing the future learn AfL MOOC) but I don't really have a practical way that I can accomplish it - yet. Some of the advisors in the room were slightly more sceptical than I. I saw mastery statements, that helped breakdown the key stage 3 curriculum into steps that we can use to help students achieve this mastery then move onto excellence. 

In the evening we had a great conference dinner. The social aspect really helping to make the conference something special. It was time for reflection and to meet people that I only know virtually. It was also great to be able to talk to Liz Coppard and Stuart Naylor about the day and get that opportunity to reflect. Stuart is a real joy to speak to, everything he talks about is backed up with examples and rooted in his vast understanding of classroom practice. He asks challenging questions in very non-challenging ways. Through my interactions with him I have learned a lot over the past few years. I also have to mention Liz Lawrence, Andrea Mappleback, Briony (PriSciGeeks), Chris Harrison and Pete Robinson, who were brilliant company too. 

The second day started with a presentation by Sir Andrew Carter of the Carter review. A very charismatic man, with a lot of positive things to say. However, I do believe after that presentation that he is not the person to be able to sort out the recruitment crisis in education and that power hungry heads should not have to have been given power over ITT routes in order to make schools pay better attention to the quality of teachers on entry to the profession. The whole thing made me worry about teachers.

I then went to a session by OCR about the new practical endorsement. OCR are officially my new favourite exam board. I took away that I really need to get my head around the practical endorsement, lab books, teaching and recording. But that there is a lot of work being done by exam boards - especially OCR, so we are not alone. More importantly we can be positive about practical.

If you get the opportunity to hear Brain Cartwright speak then take it. I know others who have been invited for biscuits at ofsted feel that there are good people in the organisation and I feel that Brain is one of them. 

He outlined what inspectors do when they come to a primary or secondary school to look at science and why they might do that. (The data from the school shows there is something going on in science that is different from the rest of the school). And that he is looking for evidence that the students are being taught the national curriculum, including working scientifically. He does this by looking at the work the students produce, visiting lessons and by talking to students. He also looks that schools are following the best health and safety advice. A lot of new schools are not part of CLEAPSS and as a result do not always get it right. Ask yourself, have you read maintaining curiosity and have you read the purpose of study section of the national curriculum documents? This is what ofsted are looking at. Brian's presentation was hopeful. The issue over grading lessons was wiped from my mind, he didn't mention about looking for progress in the lessons he visits, he talked more about looking for evidence of the type of experiences the students have and the the outcomes for the students, including them speaking confidently, being proud of their work and enjoying science. 

After an amazing lunch. I heard Alan Edminston talk about the update that is being given to the CASE materials. He told us that CASE is very popular still and that a few years ago a very small charity was set up to try and update the resources. The charity have now been given money from EEF  to work on let's think secondary science. I was very alarmed and interested to see the comparison (and apologies if you are not familiar with CASE as this will make little sense) between the results from the volume/density CASE test II from the students in the 1970s and the students involved in the new study. The results show a drop in the cognitive ability of our modern students. Alan's hypothesis for this was that young people don't explore the world in the same way anymore. However, we await the outcomes of the trail, which are due in the winter of 2016. 

The final session was on the SAILS project. It's about assessing inquiry learning in science. I remember sitting through the presentations by both science teachers involved and hearing their enthusiasm and wondering if that was really coming from working as part of a project that forced them to reflect and collaborate (bringing me back to Prof Simon's initial talk). The open endedness of the inquiry that the teachers had allowed the students was inspiring though. Every teacher should be working with a researcher on something, it would help all of us to continually improve. 

As the session was being lead by Dr Christine Harrison I suspected that there would be an element of participation. She asked us to come up with questions that we might ask the students at each part of an investigation. I was absolutely thrilled (and tongue tied) when Prof Paul Black complimented one of the questions I came up with! The reflection on what questions I can ask during scientific inquiry was very useful. How much time is spent telling the children what to do rather than eliciting their ideas about why they have done what they have done. Something to consider for the future. 

Then I grabbed a taxi back to London and had some food and great conversation with Andrea Mapplebeck. So useful to be able to talk to others about CPD. I know that Science learning centres have evidence that two people from the same school going on a course has a greater impact on return than just one, so being able to talk to another colleague and friend about the experience of the conference was very valuable. 

Jo and Caro (Chair's of NAIGs and ATSE) did a great job of putting together a strong conference that helped me to reflect on my role in helping the rest of the department (and myself) continue to improve. I am beyond the point now where I need to be told what I should be doing in the classroom. I am at the point where I need help to ensure that I implement it. My continued engagement with the people of ASE and the conversations it allows me to have with people who support and challenge me.

If you are a head of faculty and are research engaged, then I do suggest you look to try and attend the professional learning conference and engage with ASE.

Do the DfE care?

After the department for education posted ANOTHER dreadful version of the GCSE science subject content I am left feeling even more bereft than previously.

Do they care about what we teach? Does anyone there understand anything about science? Does anyone there have the passion to get science education in England 'right'? 

At the moment it really doesn't feel like that. 

Let's face it they have made too many changes in too short a time frame and teachers are left pushing round pegs into square holes and hoping ofsted don't notice. But even if the curriculum that has been decided on is quite a distance from perfect it is a massive insult that they couldn't even get the science in it right. 

More care and attention required. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/436828/GCSE_combined_science_content.pdf

Improving and Organising my A-level teaching

My aim for A-level this year is to make sure that students are working and learning the basics right from the start.

A few years ago I had a conversation with a great teacher at the school I worked in and I told him how it was my opinion that to 'get' A-level physics students had to first know all the individual pieces of information, but that would only get you so far, an E or a D. To get a higher students have to apply their knowledge, which requires lots of practice.

So next academic year I want to make sure that I scaffold my students from the start to learn the key knowledge they need to start the journey through A-level physics. With this they can hopefully recall it quickly to be able to answer questions. I know that this will only get them so far, application and creativity are required to make the journey up through the grades, but it should help build confidence and get them working and in good habits.

Firstly key words, I have a quizlet list of key words for them to learn on the topic of materials: https://quizlet.com/_trag3 And I have made longer lists with just the words for them to do themselves https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HzzFw0lSrelUn7JWZE_8Udcv3k7sc-OXqiRIFafNUAM/edit?usp=sharing. (I will check what they have written).

Secondly checking over their class notes. I have been thinking about this since pedagoo south west, and want my students to write Cornell Notes so that they can review them by writing questions and summarising. I think the will take time to practice, but I hope using this structure will mean that it is more obvious on how to actively review notes.

I want to make sure that the homework/prep that I set is accessible and covers all the basic information they need to answer exam questions. I have made some summary knowledge question sheets for students to do. I hope to give these out when the students get to the end of the section in the specification. This means that even if they can't do the exam questions from the start (and many can't as they are not used to dealing with many pieces of information at once) they can still begin picking up pieces of information that they will need later.

I am also writing the time that I want students to spend on each homework task so that they get the idea that I want them to work for an hour after each lesson (four hours per week) and give the option for more. I hope to encourage them to organise when they will do their physics prep (and I will work with their timetables in what I set).

Again, in an effort to prompt my students to go over their work and revise it I want to set them regular tests. To do this I have been setting up quizzes in socrative that test basic knowledge like SOC #: 16472046. This would give automatic feedback and allow me to keep a record of their errors. It will also be easy to resit. I want to use scores in multiple choice quizzes that cover the basics to keep a record of who is really struggling to get to grips with the basics so that we can intervene. I have written the points at which I want to do them into my scheme of work to help me ensure I find the time and can give the students plenty of notice.

I am also using past papers to set up examination level socrative quizzes like SOC #: 16471038. This will then help give an idea as to how far the student has progressed from learning the basics to being able to answer exam questions.

There are a lot of people out there doing great work on A-level changes. Two brilliant examples are linked in the tweets below.

I'll be new to AQA A Level next year. I've written + resourced 6 lessons on Measurements/Errors. Thoughts? http://t.co/pY3ZfjB3yU #asechat

— Drew Thomson (@mrthomson) May 26, 2015

@mrthomson At first glance looks good. I've used this resource lots this year, you might find it useful http://t.co/6AXsWnH2OJ

— Miss Physics (@Miss_Physics) May 26, 2015

Their resources have loads of practice for skills that the students will need.

This site is very useful for resources for the core practicals: http://practicalalevelphysics.thomascarlpion.co.uk which I have to work on next.

Hopefully I can strike the right balance, using routines to promote working independently.

This is all done so far, so my next step is to work on the core practical requirements, ensuring that we map the skills that will be examined into the practical work we do. I also want to have mapped the mathematical requirements against the specification topics and resource the practicing of the relevant skills. Then do the same thing for the waves topic.

As an aside, I am using Trello to keep a note of the activities I am doing as part of this project. Which I am finding useful.

Pedagogical Aims for A-level

Totally stolen from Tom Sherington I have put together the list of things I am working on for A-level. 

http://headguruteacher.com/2015/05/25/teaching-better-my-pedagogical-to-do-list/

I do usually do something like this in my improvements note book for each class at the start of the year.

1. Building a bank of key words using quizlet 

In order to get to a grade E in physics students have to know all the basic definitions, there is no way around this. Last year I spent a long time laminating key word definition cards for my ELT students. This year I have done the same thing on quizlet, but really I want my students to do it for themselves. This will help me because I will be able to see their understanding in their definitions and help them practice phrasing their ideas succinctly. What I need to do is draw up the list of words I want my students to know to ensure they cover them all. 

2. More opportunities for longer answers

My students, and I can't imagine I am alone, don't feel confident approaching exam questions where there are a lot of blank lines to fill in. I need to make this part of their experience in class so they are not so nervous in approaching this type of question in an examination. What I really want for inspiration are paper 6 questions from the pre-2008 specification. But I am not sure where I can find them now. This is probably the most under developed idea for next year, at the moment I rely on past exam paper questions and development of this skill between Easter and May when they are working to complete papers, it needs to get embedded. 

3. Low stakes testing at regular intervals

I have tried to do this before with a groups of students I was trying to move from U to E and it wasn't successful as it didn't make a difference to their learning of the basic facts (they still did no work between lessons no matter how accessible I made it). However, I think that my current students would respond well to this. It will help to encourage them to learn the facts they need to be able to start to access the A-level materials and give them confidence that they are making progress. I want to test the uni structural/multi structural knowledge students need. I have made lists of closed questions for the materials topic and will do the same for waves topic during the course of this half term. Answering them will then form part of their prep. I have also created some socrative quizzes that should be 'easy' to check knowledge at certain points in the course, such as : SOC #: 16472046  It will mean I can track failing students and hopefully work with the pastoral teams to intervene early. 

4. More practice in maths basic skills, building to multi step questions

For the first time 2/3 of my physics class won't be doing A-level maths along side their physics A-level. I have discovered this year from one student that this can pose quite a confidence problem. I aim to make sure that I am explicitly considering the mathematics I am asking my students to do. Currently I am mapping the mathematics skills in the back of the specification to the units that I am teaching to ensure I teach them too. I find that students struggle with the prefixes to unit and standard form the most, and I know that I must teach calculator skills. I have bought some resources to help.

5. Hands on practical wherever possible to encourage problem solving

I know a lot of people don't like this idea, but I did read an article about how 'experts' learn by solving problems and 'novices' need to be told something. After reading this I taught an A-level physics lesson and it rang true. I want my students to ask questions and search for answers and doing practical work brings up those questions. I feel that if students ask the questions themselves they will engage more with the answer (particularly given it has a context) and will build a better understanding. They will need to think widely about a topic to answer exam questions and learning to question is part of this. I will have a group of up to a maximum of 6 students so I can manage discussions and ask questions to get students to the conclusions I want without talking at them for an hour. In the past I have not been as good as I could be at using practical work with A-level students and I want to change that. 

6. Opportunities to work with authentic data and draw conclusions

I don't know what the new exam questions will be like, but I know that they should include working scientifically. When we do the core practicals I want to ensure I am taking more care than I have previously on making the most of the practical activities to ensure students understand how to process data and evaluate it. 

7. Develop lab book skills

I want to create a course book and have the students use it to keep a record of their core practicals. I will be relying on Alex Weatherall to lead the way here! The shape of what I want to make is still in development and very much in note form in my note book. 

8. Increase context by reading around subjects

I want to copy the idea of Sarah Pannell and develop a journal club for the science post-16 students (and perhaps some Year 11s who are keen). I also have students who have ambition to apply to some very high caliber universities. I want to make sure I am helping them in their applications by giving them a helping hand in learning beyond the specification. More than that though, physics exam questions have contexts to them, and learning more about the context of physics should help to expand the vocabulary of EAL students and practice thinking about physics in different situations for the others. The Salters Horners course does help to do this, but I would like to go further. 

9. Using prep to instil good study skills from the start of the course

The amount of work you do for a single subject at A-level is a big increase (four times) than what you would do at GCSE. In some cases turning up to your GCSE lessons is sufficient to pass a GCSE. It isn't enough at A-level. I need to get my students into the habit of working 3-4 hours per week on their A-level physics work, but it isn't easy at the start. I still haven't got this right yet. Students struggle with the questions because the amount of knowledge we expect them to use to answer an A-level question is far beyond that at GCSE. For example, changing the unit they are using, understanding standard form, rearranging a formula, knowing what letters mean, remembering a formula, understanding the context of the question (is it under compression or tension) etc etc. I need to consider the develop of my students from the demands of GCSE to the expectations of an A-level student. 

10. Use video to help give clear explanations

I want to try and expand the number of videos I have made for the students. So far I have only made resources for GCSE, but I would like to support any A-level students who need to refresh their know of a skill or key idea by being able to watch a video of me. I find this an excellent way of explaining things clearly as I can have numerous goes until I am satisfied the explanation is clear and uses key language appropriately. Hopefully I can encourage the students to do this too using showme to explain how they are doing calculations so I can see their thought processes, which will be useful assessment. 

I will try to follow up with the sum of my preparations during July.