TES Connect update

The latest news, resources and hot forum topics from the TES

This week’s big news stories from The TES

Results from single level test pilot scheme will count in next year's primary school league tables
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6017932

Pupils faint as flagship school heats up to 38C
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6017935

Primaries still concerned over marking of KS2 writing tests
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6017939

“Bullying” academy head given £45K to go
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6017941

Heads too quick to believe false allegations, MPs report
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6017944

New teacher code of conduct – is it really needed?
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6017960

The ‘Rarely Cover’ controversy
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6018001

The benefits of introductory placements for NQTs
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6018007

Hot discussion topics from the TES forums

Anyone else not broken up for the school holidays yet?
http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/334064.aspx?PageIndex=1

Car keyed on last day of school
http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/334078.aspx

Time saving tips in the classroom
http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/226958.aspx

Answers to the most frequently asked ‘Rarely Cover’ questions
http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/109.aspx

The best one liners in response to pupils comments
http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/184713.aspx?PageIndex=1

Collections of useful classroom resources

Resources, activities and ideas for the summer holidays
http://www.tes.co.uk/tesassets/newsletters/wednesday/150709/150709win100.html?s_cid=16

Healthy eating
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6017821

Weather
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6017824

Seaside
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6017013

The winners of this year's TES Schools Awards

 

TES 2009 Schools Awards results

The TES Schools Awards for England and Wales recognise outstanding innovation. Here are this year's winners:

 

Outstanding Personalised Learning Initiative

The winner: Maltby Crags Infant School, South Yorkshre

Children are taught according to their needs and interests and not their age at this infants school. In a Year 2 class, a gifted boy is learning Latin alongside children who are two years behind their chronological age. Children are consulted about the curriculum: one of the thinking skills courses uses themes from popular culture such as Sponge Bob and Doctor Who.

 

Judges’ verdict: “The school has sharpened the principles of assessment for learning to make a powerful tool. It is demonstrably successful with vulnerable children.” They also spoke of a deprived school that had transformed itself and praised the self-assessment, peer marking and mentoring programmes.

 

Outstanding Staff Training/Develoment Initiative

The winner: Challney High School for Boys and Community College, Bedfordshire

Everyone at Challney High is a trainer. Pupils, teaching assistants, senior management and experienced teachers all contribute to the training programme, with pupils taking part in staff training days so that teachers can learn from their views. The use of an electronic e-portfolio to monitor, assess and develop teacher training has revolutionised the way that trainees and staff can record their progress.

 

Judges’ verdict: “Challney is setting the highest possible standards for staff development. They have a tremendous commitment to working with teachers outside their school. The range of CPD opportunities and strategies is excellent and the school should be commended for its approach and achievements.”

 

Best E-learning Initiative

The winner: Evelyn Street Community Primary School, Cheshire

Most schools have to grapple with the challenge of engaging boys. Evelyn Street Primary, in a deprived ward near Warrington town centre, is using hand-held computers to encourage their interest in learning. The school began by giving junior boys a computer to take home. After they had done their homework, they could access games and websites controlled by the school’s ICT technician. For a small charge, families were also able to use the computers, except when pupils were in school. The aim was to encourage parental support for education.

 

Judges’ verdict: “This is a very exciting project which appears to have had an increasing impact on the pupils and the community.” The judges also liked the way in which the project was supporting home-school links and the school’s use of ICT to enhance the enjoyment of learning.

 

Outstanding Literacy Initiative

The winner: Ellis Guilford School and Sports College, Nottingham

Nearly a fifth of children leaving primary school are below the expected level in reading. In some schools the figure is much higher. At Ellis Guilford, between 35 and 40 per cent of children entering Year 7 fall into this category. The 11-16 school does more than accelerate their progress; it persuades many of them to read for pleasure. The learning resource centre runs programmes, such as Mega Read and Book Café, that offer personalised help to pupils. Mad Manga Mondays are designed to appeal to boys who are hard to reach, while gifted and talented pupils tackle the Carnegie Medal book award shortlist.

 

Judges’ verdict: “There is a brilliant range of activities that encourages a really diverse range of routes into reading.” They spoke of the school’s “sheer energy and super ideas”.

 

Outstanding Numeracy Initiative

The winner: Moredon Primary and Nursery School,

Swindon

, Wiltshire

A numeracy co-ordinator’s research into problem-solving has brought higher Sats scores to this school. Children are given the opportunity to solve problems and show off what they can do with the help of a working wall. Strategies from the calculation policy are displayed on the wall and pupils  discuss how to proceed. The programme is for Year 1 and Year 5 so that the impact on Sats can be measured. Teachers set targets for September following the end-of-year tests.The result? Children are more confident and test scores have improved.

 

Judges’ verdict: “The school has made excellent moves to take forward a number of strategies and to build on research on developments in numeracy. The strategies used to build up the problem-solving and team-working skills of the pupils are a useful co-product.”

 

Outstanding Special Needs Initiative

The winner: Beacon Hill Special School and Business and Enterprise College, Tyne and Wear

This new special school for pupils aged three to 19 who have severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties and autism has concentrated on encouraging independent travel. Most of its pupils come to school by taxi so they do not know how to use public transport or how to cross the road safely. Beacon Hill has its own travel training facility, with real traffic lights and pelican and zebra crossings across the car park. All the special schools and five colleges in

Tyne

and Wear now use it.

 

Judges’ verdict: Beacon Hill was a clear winner because of its innovative approach in the important field of autism. They said: “The independent travel training facility is a wonderful initiative, promoting independence for all students. The focus on skills for life throughout the school is admirable.”

 

Outstanding Sporting Initiative

The winner: Wright Robinson College, Manchester

A 10-year partnership between this college and Manchester Metropolitan University shows that physically active pupils get higher grades at GCSE than those who are less active. A longitudinal research project found that 62 per cent of physically active pupils achieved five or more top-grade GCSE grades, including maths and English, compared with 38 per cent of those who were less active.

 

The research has enabled staff to target pupils. One project focused on girls who lacked confidence. It built up to a weekend where they were encouraged to take part in outdoor activities. Another aimed to engage low-achieving boys.

 

Judges’ verdict: The good partnership between the school and the university was noted. They said: “The university acts as an excellent prefect.” They said the research provided long-term, serious evidence and praised the involvement of disaffected pupils.

 

Outstanding New or Refurbished Primary School

The winner: Forest Way School, Leicestershire

This 136-pupils special school is in the National Forest. Natural and sustainable materials have been used for its new building wherever possible. The floor looks like a river and the lower part of the walls like grass. At the centre of the school, oak trees appear to drape themselves over a woodland floor and the children activate the sound of birdsong and water as they move.

 

Judges’ verdict: “The building has flair, imagination, functionality,” they said. “This outstanding project combines a range of aesthetics with a brilliant choice of materials.” They were delighted with this “very special school” and praised the “massive child and parent involvement”.

 

Outstanding New or Refurbished Secondary School

The winner: Forest Way School, Leicestershire

Buildings and curriculum work together at the academy to provide an atmosphere that visitors say is like a university. Nearly 1,500 pupils are split into four mini-schools where they study the core subjects of maths, English, humanities, modern foreign languages and information technology. Each college also takes responsibility for two or three subjects that it franchises out to others. The distance between the colleges is never more than a two-minute walk.

 

Judges’ verdict: “The scope and design of the academy are impressive. This is an outstanding, functional environment. The college is a very coherent building that maximises the use of space and creates an excellent learning environment and sense of community.”

 

Outstanding Sustainable School

The winner: Turners Hill Primary School, West Sussex

Turners Hill had an environmental education programme 18 years ago, long before most others recognised its importance. The school has two wind turbines, photovoltaic panels and has planted 1,750 trees on a three-acre site by the school. In citizenship lessons, pupils are taught about switching off appliances, and an eco committee monitors this. Wind turbine and solar panel monitors take regular readings of the energy created and display them. Every class has a blue recycling box.

 

Judges’ verdict: “This is a good initiative that seems achievable for all. The school wants to share its ideas in an altruistic way.” The judges praised the school for its consistent support for environment education for many years and its excellent teaching and outside classroom use.

 

Best School Dinners

The winner: St Aidan’s Church of England High School, North Yorkshire

The school employs a 20-strong catering team and 85 per cent of pupils eat school lunches. There are three professional chefs and a baker. Year 7 pupils have a separate dining hall while sixth formers can use an all-day café.

 

Judges’ verdict: “Very exciting. We liked the clear and, therefore, sustainable business approach. It breaks down some of the individual barriers.”

 

Special mention: Abbey Manor College, Lee Green, south-east London. The judges said: “Very impressive; a PRU with 60 students doing NVQs.” The judges particularly liked the way in which catering was integrated into the curriculum.

 

 

Outstanding Community Involvement Initiative

The winner: Drove Primary School, Swindon

Language is the starting point for the success of this multicultural school, which takes children from more than 33 communities and where 27 languages are spoken. Seventy nine per cent of pupils do not have English as a first language, and in some classes 11

languages are spoken.

 

Drove Primary works with other schools in Swindon that lack experience of black and ethnic minority families but who have recently begun to receive them. Its outreach service to Swindon schools covers 13 languages and tries to help children feel comfortable in their new setting. It also runs a crisis service for children who become distressed while at school, and a Saturday language school for 90 children from across the town.

 

Judges’ verdict: The school is making a profound difference, they said. They were impressed by the “excellent bilingual outreach service and crisis response”. They praised its outward-looking approach and its provision for pupils whose first language is not English.

 

Outstanding Leadership Team

The winner: The Duston School, Northampton

Until May last year, Duston was known as the school that had kept its “failing” label for longer than any other – more than seven years. Now that’s all changed: Ofsted described it as a “rapidly improving school” with “outstanding and decisive leadership”.The current leadership team has turned the secondary school around by using new strategies to engage teachers and developing an excellent CPD programme.

 

Judges’ verdict: Remarking on the school’s “huge progress”, the judges said: “There is a tangible sense of achievement and pride. The school is a powerful example of teamwork and proves what can be achieved by a committed, hard-working team.”

 

Primary School of the Year

The winner: Caedmon Primary School, Cleveland

Teachers at Caedmon Primary have tackled the challenge of engaging the community and banishing racial prejudice with vigour and determination. The school serves a deprived area near Middlesbrough that is almost exclusively white. In the past, families from other ethnic groups have been hounded out. Caedmon Primary responded by setting up international school partnerships and giving every part of the curriculum an international dimension.

 

Judges’ verdict: Caedmon Primary is “a truly community-based school with great achievements. It has an impressive range of partnerships, including an international dimension. The fact that it has become such an outstanding school following the amalgamation of two schools is a tremendous achievement. The development of school-parent-local community relations as part of the extended school has been first rate.”

 

Special mention: Whitehill Junior School, Hitchin, Hertfordshire

Judges’ verdict: “This school is developing on so many fronts and making a huge drive forward in all of them. So many initiatives are all followed through to ensure an impact on student achievement.”

 

 

Secondary School of the Year

The winner: Denbigh High School, Luton

This 11-16 comprehensive and specialist sports college, where 89 per cent of pupils have a first language other than English, is remarkable for the way it uses sport to raise achievement. It is constantly looking for new ways of engaging its most difficult pupils through curriculum innovations.

 

In September last year, it started a sports academy for key stage 4 pupils who are disillusioned with school. In addition to playing plenty of sport, they also focus on improving their literacy and numeracy and study for Btec awards. Every pupil follows a course to develop leadership. They organise sports festivals for primary schools and are trained to coach younger pupils.

 

Judges’ verdict: “The school has continued to sustain improvement over many years: no mean feat. What was particularly impressive was the use of sport and physical activity to raise achievement and the curriculum to develop leadership capacity. There was outstanding work in academic mentoring and promoting students’ development through a personalised approach.”

TES Awards will be announced today

The TES School Awards 2009 will be announced today at a ceremony in London's Hilton Hotel. The awards are the first to celebrate and reward the professionalism and flair of teams making an outstanding contribution to primary and secondary schools in the maintained and independent sectors.

The 15 categories being judged are listed below and you can read all about the shortlisted schools at

Shorlist

We'll be announcing the winners as it happens on our Twitter site from around 1pm today. Join up to our Twitter page now to keep track of the winners. After the awards we will post the full list of winners on this blog too.

TES Connect Twitter

The Judging categories
Primary School of the Year
Secondary School of the Year
Outstanding Special Needs Initiative of the Year
Outstanding Community Involvement
Outstanding Leadership Team
Outstanding Literacy Initiative
Outstanding Numeracy Initiative
Outstanding Sporting Initiative
Outstanding Sustainable School of the Year
Best E-Learning Initiative
Outstanding Personalised Learning Initiative of the Year
Best School Dinners
Outstanding Staff Training/Development Initiative
Outstanding New or Refurbished Primary School
Outstanding New or Refurbished Secondary School

The death of the teaching profession

Former schools chief schools inspector Chris Woodhead explains why he thinks teachers are no longer in a profession. 

"State school staff are expected to be puppets for ministers’ latest agendas - even if they are nonsense.

I don’t understand. Why has there not been widespread rebellion? Riots in teacher training institutions? Expressions of disgust in staffrooms?

Teaching is a profession. By definition, professionals determine their own beliefs and practice. They don’t twitch mindlessly as politicians pull the strings. But this is exactly what teachers in state schools are expected to do. How is it, I asked myself, as I wrote my new book, A Desolation of Learning, that we have surrendered so much professional independence so easily?...

Read the rest of the Chris Woodhead article

Ex-Sats chief say fresh exam marking fiasco is on the cards

The cover story in this week's TES highlights the high risk of another national tests disaster this summer. Ken Boston, former chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, told MPs the root cause of the problems last year was an 'archaic' marking system which the Government had chosen not to reform.

Read the full story here http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6012261

Editors' picks - Language of the Month

Our highlight from TESConnect today is a teaching resource called Language of the Month which teachers are using to help with their language lessons. It has been downloaded over 1,800 times so far by site members and currently has 23 comments.

The resource promotes language awareness including online videos of children teaching their home languages, resources for putting up language displays, a booklet with 100+ ideas for celebrating community languages, and lots more.

You can view more on it, read comments and download it on the resources section of TESConnect here.

Superheroes Teach Grammar

Captain Connective Britain's most taught lesson

Superheroes give gift of grammar to school children

 

One of the most popular lessons being being taught by tech savy teachers is a superheroes-themed English grammar lesson, used by over 4,400 teachers across the UK, according to TESconnect http://www.tes.co.uk.

 

The lesson plan is one of several thousand which teachers are sharing over the web in an effort to save on time taken planning for lessons. Over xx,000 [number of total downloads of resources] have been dowloaded by teachers across the country since the launch of TESconnect in August.

 

The superheroes grammar lesson uses characters such as Captain Connective, Doctor Punctuation, The Incredible Opener and Violet Vocabulary which are downloaded and printed out to be used in English lessons to teach punctuation.

 

Edward Griffith, head of TESconnect, said: "It's fantastic to see so many teachers sharing a lesson plan, and it shows the appetitie for English teachers specifically to look at how creative ways of teaching are being shared across our industry. We're seeing plenty of other examples across ou site that are getting a lot of pick-up, and this one in particular even has 65 reader comments feeding back on their classes."

 

The lesson can be downloaded from The Library, TESconnect's daily highlights site, at http://tesconnect.typepad.com/xxxx. TESconnect a social network for teachers, with over half a million members.

Screen shots of newly launched TESConnect

Feel free to take a look through screen shots of the new TESConnect site. They are downloadable below and by clicking on the links.

Screen grabs: Community // Resources // Home Page // Mytes // Profile

TESConnect launches

Launch of TESconnect highlights how the Internet will give back 14.3 million hidden hours to UK teachers by 2012

5,000 teachers say social networking will revolutionise the teaching profession

New research, released today and downloadable in full here proves that social networking, resource sharing and collaboration has the potential to transform the productivity and working lives of the UK teaching community and fundamentally raise the quality of lessons taught in UK classrooms. The research is released by TSL Education, publishers of the TES to launch TESconnect at www.tes.co.uk, the essential new website for teachers, by teachers, a social network that allows teachers to network and share teaching and lesson planning resources.  At launch, TESconnect will be the world’s largest social network for a single profession.

Additional materials on the news of the launch of TESConnect are downloadable from this site, on the right-hand column.