Tag Archives: oracy

Poor | inspiring childhoods shaped by poverty

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Pause. Before we launch into the new term, we should check we are prioritising what matters… serving those who need us most.

Childhoods that are constrained by poverty are shaped by steep challenges, limited resources, and few opportunities. Children surviving under the weight of hardship, cope with more, with less help, are more vigilant, anxious, and mistrusting of the world they navigate. Childhoods that are shaped by poverty lead to adulthoods that never quite escape the impact of growing up poor, because childhoods last a lifetime (Floella Benjamin).

“Even as an adult the ripples of that (poverty) still affect me.” (Katriona O’Sullivan)

As educators we must do more to understand what it is to grow up poor, to grasp some understanding of the lived experience and the visceral truth. We should cut through our own jargon, our own perceptions and assumptions to understand the barriers, the struggle and the occupying weight of what some children are forced to carry.

“‘Poor’ cuts through a lot of jargon – words like ‘disadvantaged’, ‘underprivileged’, ‘deprived’, ‘under-class’, ‘under-resourced’. Words that have their place but don’t capture the visceral truth of what it is to grow up the way I did. The way thousands of children are growing up right now.” (Katriona O’Sullivan)

We need equity | inspiring lives with greater opportunity and choice

“We need equity in education, not equality. If someone can’t see straight because the world is falling in around them, we need to raise them up to clearer skies.” (Katriona O’Sullivan)

In these times, as schools return, we must apply the equity required to enable all children to flourish, to clear their skies, and to not feel marginalised in their world. “We cannot keep pretending it’s an equal opportunities education system. It is not.” (Katriona O’Sullivan) Applying equity is giving what is needed, offering the opportunities for more children to thrive, to have greater choice in their lives, to open doors that let in the future.

“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.” (Graham Greene)

This is not about planning and plotting an escape for a few but creating the conditions for all children to feel success in their school and their community. Applying equity to create the opportunities and experiences that inspire lives and unlock doors.

Tipping the odds | valuing what matters

As educators, we need to choose to better use our power, to be braver, to tip the odds and create the conditions that enable more children to flourish in their lives, where they are. To do so requires us to value and measure what matters, high attainment and attendance for the most vulnerable. This reveals the quality of provision and the closing of gaps is the evidence of success. We can and should do better.

“I was lucky, the timing for me was right – I managed but so many others don’t. The world is less because of that. The education system can and should do better. We all should do better.” (Katriona O’Sullivan)

Children living in poverty are not problems to be solved, the system is mis-aligned, lop-sided and intransigent. An uneven playing field that starts from birth and is exacerbated though childhood. Our system creates adverse conditions, fails to value diversity and has narrow success measures that perpetuate the present order and condemns those with the least. Poor assumptions and preconceived views of ability and ambition fail to unleash the potential and contribution of too many children. We need to re-engineer and reconfigure our system, avoiding the traps of meritocracy.

Our deficit discourse, language and vocabulary, both intended and unintended is deafening and maintaining the status quo, ensuring that a child’s poverty extends into all aspects of their lives. Only the deliberate application of equity addresses the a-symmetry of childhoods. Equity, tips the odds.

The deeper implications of poverty | levelling up

“Most of the time being poor felt like a sodden blanket was lying heavy across my shoulders, dragging me down into dark waters.” (Katriona O’Sullivan)

Whilst poverty is fundamentally about having less money, the impact of poverty extends far beyond, eroding self-confidence and a sense of worth:

“… ‘poor’ for me was also feeling like I had no worth. It was poverty of mind, poverty of stimulation, poverty of safety and poverty of relationships. Being poor controls how you see yourself, how you trust and speak, how you see the world and how you dream.” (Katriona O’Sullivan)

If we are to influence how children see the world, how they dream and how they build their future, we need to be bolder, to call out our unhelpful narratives, excuses, and assumptions that fixate on escape and tales of rags to riches. We must enrich their world, create more opportunity, more experiences, offer greater belief in individual children so that they feel more success and have stronger self-belief. You’ve got this.

“… opportunity, money and support. The middle classes are born with those three things in spades; the poor are born with none of them. And the truth is, we are losing some brilliant minds in the trenches of poverty.” (Katriona O’Sullivan).

Beyond the brilliant minds, there is considerable benefit to society when we create conditions that include, that value diversity and broaden access to success. Conditions that privilege all children disproportionately levels-up those who are traversing a world that is loaded against them.

“Sometimes, even these days, I feel like an interloper. I need reassurance sometimes that I am okay. Deserving. Worthwhile.” (Katriona O’Sullivan)

The smallest act | surfing on the ripples of others

Our influence on those closest to us and those that depend on us is more significant than we believe. How we are, what we say, do, behave, deeply affect those around us; children particularly so, who seek clues and are vigilant of snakes…

“Are there snakes here? …you become hyperaware. Mistrust becomes a tool of survival. Whenever I met anyone in authority, I was instantly suspicious, instantly mistrustful… it is actually a safety meter.” (Katriona O’Sullivan)

We have an opportunity as educators, as schools and trusts to shape and inspire lives, to remove snakes, hold ladders, create the conditions for children to feel secure, to belong, to have status, to feel less anxious, less wired, more trusting and to grow in an environment that values the uniqueness of each child. And one of our greatest gifts is to give children their voice, the oracy to confidently contribute, to step forward, and stop their lives being narrated by others.

“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.” (Tara Westover)

Sadly, not our present system, which is perfectly designed to create the reverse, to exclude children from and within schools. Schools need to be riddled with details, interactions, and sparks that pivot young lives.

“Every development in life pivots on small, contingent details, ad infinitum. We’d like to pretend it isn’t true, but reality doesn’t care what we think. We forever surf on the ripples of others.” (Brian Klass)

But, here is the thing, whilst our influence on others carries significant responsibility, humans are beautifully contagious; And, amazingly, importantly, thankfully, even the simplest acts, set of words, an acknowledgement, a moment of belief in another, changes every constellation, shapes a life and creates ripples for others to surf.

“The smallest act in the most limited circumstances bears the seed of boundlessness, because one deed, and sometimes one word, suffices to change every constellation.” (Hannah Arendt)

Excellence | Expectation | Equity | Currency | Culture | …our identity

So, at the start of term, we should pause, and plan to create the conditions for more to flourish, to apply equity and build schools that privilege all children and disproportionately support those who need us most. Prioritising what matters…

…to seek excellent educational provision: the strongest curriculum, enacted well, inspiring thought and stalking awe, where assessment follows learning to meet need.

…to never lower our expectations of what a child can achieve, because if we let them off, we let them down. Focused on high attainment and attendance, to build belonging and gift agency so that all children possess the keys to thrive through childhood, into adulthood. Because there is no lack of ambition, and a significant desire for self-agency …

“We don’t need to waste time raising people’s ambitions. Idleness and low aspiration have never explained the lack of mobility. Presented with greater opportunity, most people grasped them …(seeking) the control over their lives and (the) choices that offered.” (Selina Todd)

…to apply equity, the permission to give what is specifically needed, to meet need, remove barriers, do different for those that need us most and give strong, timely, specific feedback, the golden thread of an advantaged upbringing. To need want to do different, to create the pathways and encouragement for children to ‘play on’ (Jemima Montag).

“I am giving you this feedback because I believe in you.” (Jo Boaler)

…to create incentives, currency, performance indicators that place value and reward the closing of gaps and gap-closers, so that no child is left behind, written off or able to be discounted. The attainment and attendance of disadvantage, reveals the true quality of provision.

…to build culture that privileges disadvantage and those in poverty, unswervingly never giving up on a child, because it is who we are and what we do. A commitment etched into our identity.

Perhaps then…

…we can create the conditions for colleagues to wittingly and unwittingly inspire lives with more opportunity so that we create the conditions for those living in poverty to prosper in their world, in these times. It is why we are here … to be the Myles for others.

“If not for Myles, I wouldn’t have been on that train. As distant as he was, his impact on my life was still tangible – only wishing I had the chance to thank Myles for the path he unwittingly set me on.” (Ashley John-Baptiste)

so, breathe, commit … and go inspire lives

Much of this piece is inspired by Katriona O’Sullivan, whose book “Poor” is an extraordinary exploration of what it is to grow up in poverty. Read it.  

Dr Dan Nicholls | The White Horse Federation | August 2024

Privileging disadvantage | Excellence, Equity, Culture

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Securing provision that privileges disadvantaged children requires a deliberate balance of Excellence, Equity and Culture. A system in 3 dimensions. An excellent education made accessible by the application of equity held within a culture of high expectation closes gaps into adulthood for under-resourced children.  Shifting the identity of schools and organisations to systemically privilege those that need us most, because it is who they are and what they do.

Privileging disadvantage and closing gaps is futile without excellent provision. Effective enactment of a progressive, sequenced curriculum, every lesson, every day, as a universal entitlement, offers far greater opportunity for all. Whilst our strongest lever is an excellent education, this alone, is not enough. Schools also need to apply far greater equity, to be braver and fiercer to do different for under-resourced children, so that they are empowered and able to exploit the excellent education. An alchemy of excellence and equity.

“One measure of poverty is how little you have. Another is how difficult you find it to take advantage of what others try to give you.” (Michael Lewis)

When schools secure an excellent education, allied with the deliberate application of equity, children are enabled to, supported to, and expected to take the opportunity. This creates the conditions that disproportionately advantage disadvantaged learners. A potent mix of excellence and opportunity.

“…schools remain one of the few remaining trusted institutions equipped to help create a fairer society. -explicitly thinking about how teaching can be genuinely inclusive to benefit all pupils, while relentlessly identifying, understanding and overcoming barriers to learning outside (and inside) school – are the interlocking foundations of equity-based education.” (Lee Elliot Major)

Privileging disadvantage in three dimensions.

Sustaining this potent combination of excellence and equity requires a strong culture, where colleagues take responsibility for enacting the very best provision and to unlock it for all children (psychologically and structurally). Cultures of high expectation, never give up on individuals, let them down or off, they meet them there, step (push) them forward, in an ‘advantaged-like’ environment, upheld by all. Creating a culture that changes the life chances of those that have had the least, because childhoods last a lifetime, and we may be their only second chance.

“4.3 million children, 30% are growing up in poverty in the UK.” (Department of Work and Pensions)

Closing gaps and privileging disadvantage requires Excellence, Equity and Culture:

Excellence | Securing an excellent education for all learners – our strongest lever.

An excellent curriculum, sequenced, progressive and enacted to secure powerful knowledge and understanding, with eye-wateringly high expectations of all children, is our strongest lever. It requires our full attention to be uncompromising in pursuing social justice, confer power and an entitlement to the strongest possible provision. 

“Curriculum is all about power. Decisions about what knowledge to teach are an exercise of power and therefore a weighty ethical responsibility. What we choose to teach confers or denies power.” (Christine Counsell)

To disproportionately support disadvantage learners, we need all teachers and leaders to really understand the architecture of each subject, the most fundamental substantive core concepts, the most powerful knowledge and the key disciplinary concepts. We need to not stray far from this spine of the curriculum so that we weave baskets and schema that fundamentally support children to make links and learn more in the future. Arbitrary subject wanderings is kryptonite for disadvantage learners, confirming it is not for them and too abstract to connect and engage with.

Seeking to bounce up and down through a spiral curriculum, often, reinforces the spine, increases the proximity of the presently known to new knowledge and reinforces over time what is the most important and fundamental for learning. Do seek to inspire, expect much, and be geeky about the subject spine.

Excellent teaching must invest in strong explanation and direct instruction that assumes less about previous knowledge and experiences, tethered closely to the spine of the curriculum. Don’t hide explanation in slides or complicated context. Exposition is teaching and learning. Prioritise human explanation, modelling and analogy, enacted in real time, in plain sight, in simple language, visually accumulates advantage. High quality teaching triggers attainment mobility and realises potential.

Enabling disadvantaged learners to find their voice requires an effective school-wide systematic development of oracy. When there is strong oracy we privilege disadvantaged learners, because…

“… it is utterly transformative. It changes the way we feel about ourselves. It changes the way in which other people see us. It changes the way in which we relate to friends and family members. It changes our ideas about what we might go on to do in the future.” (James Mannion)

Seek to prioritise the building of vocabulary, particularly tier 2 vocabulary. This is key for joining thoughts and ideas together, deepens oracy and enables deeper thinking. Also actively lift the quality of all conversations, in all interactions, all the time, in the school. All colleagues have influence and skin in this game.

Reading and the development of reading is fundamental for accumulating advantage. It is hard to over-state the importance of reading: it develops cultural capital, comprehension, vocabulary, thinking, empathy, inference, confidence, concentration, oracy, writing, esteem, unlocks the world, quality of life, belonging…

“I didn’t know words could hold so much.” (Kya Clark)

Nudging, narrating, and coaching is a feature of an advantaged upbringing. From formative years advantaged children receive constant feedback and commentary that supports growth and is the driver for accumulating advantage. Formative assessment needs to be an intentional and deliberate part of an excellent education, it is a strong expression of care. I am giving you this feedback because I believe in you. The strongest teaching seeks to hunt, not fish, being precise about where individual children are and offering specific feedback. Follow learning to meet need.

Creating a strong culture of professional learning, with colleagues engaged in incremental coaching, often and specifically on aspects of teaching creates classrooms of opportunity for disadvantaged learners.

Children taught by the most effective teacher in that group of 50 teachers, learn in six months what those taught by the average teacher learn in a year. (Hanushek & Rivkin)

Equity | to enable all children to take advantage of an outstanding education.

“Fair doesn’t mean giving every child the same thing, it means giving every child what they need.” (Rick Lavoie)

We tend to under-use equity, in favour of equality, which often stops us giving what individual children really need. Applying equity, fiercely, bravely and deliberately, enables children to access and take advantage of excellent provision, but it requires us to understanding children as individuals. To do so requires us to genuinely walk in their shoes and see the world through their eyes and then to remove barriers and create an optimal environment. Applying the disadvantaged lens.

“90% of my time is spent thinking about and watching people … (to) genuinely get inside their shoes and see the world through their eyes … (to) create an optimal environment where a human being is going to have the best chance of being the best they could possibly be.” (David Brailsford)

To grow up advantaged is to exist in a world of opportunity and high expectation, it is demanding. We need to have the highest of expectations for disadvantaged learners, if we let them off, we will let them down. Each time we lower the bar we are complicit in widening the gap. Disadvantaged learners are not less able, it is an economic label only… and labels are dangerous.

To grow up advantaged is to be held to high expectations and encouraged to participate in supported opportunities over time. A childhood that encourages risk taking, a low safety bar (with safety net), offers commentary of the journey through life and reaffirms a child’s internal locus of control. We need a system where all children have someone who believes in them, someone (maybe many) to meet them there.

“The biggest benefit in being the child of a scientist? Low safety bar. As soon as Mad could walk, Elizabeth (Zott) encourages her to touch, taste, toss, bounce, burn, rip, spill, shake, mix, splatter, sniff, and lick nearly everything she encountered… Nevertheless, she lived.” (Bonnie Garmus)

Focus on Attendance first, compelling and engaging all colleagues to drive up attendance of disadvantaged children, as the priority. If children aren’t in, our influence is zero, they need us to reach out and pull them in.

Mentoring and tutoring, in addition, is an overt expression of equity and a typical feature of an advantaged upbringing.  Schools must focus on careers and future planning, so that disadvantaged learners see and know what is possible, because disadvantaged children are not less ambitious.

We need to apply equity to every transition point, to step in, hold disadvantaged learners and build a secure sense of psychological safety. It is within transitions that advantaged parents step in, navigate, and support children over the multiple transitions of childhood. It is not just between schools, or years, or terms, or days, it is all the time; our lives are punctuated by transitions. We need to be the bridge, to be the ladder.

Beware of being complicit in creating schools within schools. Too often schools inadvertently create pathways, perfectly designed to widen gaps and exacerbate disadvantage. Alternate realities do not exist in schools that privilege disadvantage. We measure ourselves and our status against those we spend time with. We should seek to create conditions for attainment mobility and wide social connection.

Culture | Privileging into the long term is about culture change, seeking irreversibility.

“Your goal is your desired outcome. Your system is the collection of daily habits that will get you there… you do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” (James Clear)

In schools where under-resourced children thrive the strength of culture and shared responsibility is evident and tangible, you feel it. These schools have systems that entirely privilege all children, subconsciously carved into the expected norms, habits, routines, language and behaviour as an irreversible commitment to educate and apply equity to all children. Disadvantage even over

Schools that privilege disadvantage have exothermic systems that generate their own energy and subconsciously (but by design) close gaps, rather than endothermic systems that require external energy, conscious focus, initiative, strategy and tables on websites. The first is a permanent shift in identity and values, the latter is ill-equipped to close gaps. Schools becoming what they repeatedly do.

Our interactions, language, and the attention we give to others defines our attitude towards themand influences the way children see themselves. Language really matters, it warrants deep consideration and development over time, it is the artefact of any culture.You belong here. Systems that privilege disadvantage call out behaviours, attitudes, actions, language and intent that widen gaps.

Schools that close gaps measure what matters, because and what we measure, we care about. The true measure of the effectiveness of an education is revealed in the attainment, progress, and attendance of disadvantaged learners. The best schools prime the conditions, reward gap closers and gap closing as part of the values, even over other metrics.

Closing gaps in 3D | In brief

Step one: Seek to secure an excellent education, where great teaching of a well sequenced, progressive, conceptually driven curriculum, disproportionately supports learning of disadvantaged children, every lesson, every day to close gaps.

Step two: Really understand all children, remove barriers, maintain very high expectations, and apply equity to secure full access for all children to an excellent education (over privileging and applying equity as necessary).

Step three: Build a culture that ensures the excellent education is accessible and unavoidable for all children by applying equity. Shift the identity, to one that privileges disadvantage in everything.

Then: stop talking about disadvantage, disadvantage strategies, PP Plans and initiatives, instead talk about high quality provision, accessed by all, because it is who we are and it is what we do for all.

If we do so, we just might create the conditions that disproportionately support disadvantaged learners to accumulate advantage and close the gaps that we currently perpetuate. An education, where all children belong and feel success because it privileges disadvantage.

Seek Excellence, Equity, Culture | close gaps in 3D.

Dan Nicholls | May 2024

The disconnection of disadvantage | reconnecting the disconnected

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Please hold while we try to connect you, your life is important to us

dis: the lack of, not…

We live in a time when increasing numbers of children are becoming disconnected from their world. Too often, circumstances and events act to disconnect disadvantaged learners, who become increasingly disillusioned and disenfranchised from society and school; pushed to the fringes. As children become disconnected their status, sense of belonging and self-esteem diminishes, encouraging retreat.

We live in a time of increased disconnection and social inequality, that is tipping life and opportunity away from increasing numbers of children who are presently disadvantaged. Disconnection is an ever-present thread, a process, through life, accentuated by key events that chip away at a child’s belief in what is possible. This is an on-going and sometimes catastrophic erosion of agency over time that encourages children to step back and not forward into opportunity.

 “Disconnection is a fearsome state for a social animal to find itself in. It is a warning that its life is failing and its world has become hostile: where there’s no connection, there is no protection.” (Will Storr)

Looking through the lens of disadvantage we can see the circumstances and experiences that create disconnection and accentuate disadvantage. Almost none of it is purposeful, but we are inconveniently complicit through our actions and collude with practices that disconnect. The failure of a child to connect positively time after time, increases the likelihood of disconnection that drains the joy, the ambition and colour from life, profoundly harming well-being. Once disconnection leads to disillusionment, children find themselves on the outside, where return is possible, but rare. The powers of education are weak at this distance, too often any existing connection irretrievably snaps.

“…loneliness can quite literally make us sick? Human beings crave togetherness and interaction. Our spirits yearn for connection just as our bodies hunger for food.” (Rutger Bregman)

We can counteract and remove these “forces of disconnection” and create better climates and cultures that enable children to grow, to belong and to have more agency. Only then will children feel like the hero in their story through life. Heroes that need equity for their quest, to be privileged, to not be let off and to be held by high expectations worthy of hero-status. We do, however, need to meet them there and up the bandwidth of connection to reach out and say you belong here.

The pandemic is the greatest “disconnection event” of our time and it has entrenched and exposed a world that is already riddled with disconnection. A world where connection systematically weakens over time for increasing numbers and gaps become chasms between those that have and those that have not. The following explores just a few examples of disconnection.

Alternate realities | schools hidden within schools

Alternate reality: a self-contained separate world, coexisting within the real world.

Schools are navigated entirely differently by each child. We may like to generalise provision, but children are the only real experts of their experience. The reality for too many is that they attend a school within a school, disconnected and parallel to the best provision. These alternate realities hinge on a range of factors: levels of attainment, timetable, staffing, setting, banding, reputation, pathways, peers, groupings, pre-conceived ideas, expectations. Typically, high attaining children experience a privileged route, whilst lower attaining children endure a less privileged route; different reality, same school.

“The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water.” (Ralph Linton)

The decisions we make about how we organise provision, have consequences for learners, that create or deny connection, systematically over time. We have come to accept the alternate realities, where those presently disadvantaged are disproportionately represented in the less connected, lower performing, under ambitious, alternate reality. They do not often feel the privilege of the high attaining reality.

“What provokes our outrage depends on what surrounds us – on what we consider normal.” (Cass Sunstein)

Lost in Transition | mind the gap

Children navigate many transitions as they move through their education. Advantaged children leap confidently across these transitions, whilst disadvantaged gingerly and uncertainly step across; this is not for me. Whether it is the summer break (any break), moving schools, moving years, options or pathway choices, advantaged families step forward, stage manage, resource and guide readiness and decision making. At the same time disadvantaged learners get lost in transitions and lose connection, disconnected from seizing opportunities. In these transitions they are reminded that this is a world that happens to them, they step back, not forward and the gap widens, on repeat. We need to stage manage and connect children so they find (not lose) themselves in transition.

We assume too much | pedagogy and teacher that connects children to what is possible

Classrooms should build connection, not just between peers or with adults, but also with the joy of learning and the richness of subject. A connection that enables children to feel clever, to build knowledge and understanding that opens their eyes and inspires them to feel enfranchised and empowered; connecting and giving them access to the world.

Too often we make assumptions that erode connectivity and deny access, particularly for disadvantaged learners. Each time we assume knowledge, cultural capital, language, vocabulary, ability to attend to verbal and written instruction, resilience, persistence in seeking to understand… we limit accessibility and the ability to connect. Assuming too much over time, disenfranchises learners; there is a limit to how often a child will go back and try to connect.

“Making good use of school time is the single most egalitarian function that schools perform, because for disadvantaged children, school time is the only academic learning time, whereas advantaged students can learn a lot outside of school.” (Hirsch)

Enhancing connection in classrooms:

  • Invest deliberately in a Reading Strategy; perhaps the most important enabler for learning, connecting to the best that has been written. Literally connecting a child, forever, to learning and the world around them; fundamentally enhancing quality of life.
  • Invest in vocabulary, the keys to language, to comprehension, discussion, building fluency and falling in love with words.
  • Invest in oracy; supporting children to find their voice to articulate, apply and explore their understanding out loud, connect to others and have a voice that is heard.
  • Tell stories that bounce up and down through the curriculum, reducing assumptions, inspiring, connecting knowledge and understanding in rich retrieval spaces.
  • Weave schema nets: really understand the architecture and structure of subject. It is this spine, these key organising concepts that create the net or holding baskets for future learning. 
  • Keep the curriculum tight, spiralling and bouncing not far from the core spine of the subject. Too much unconnected breadth or arbitrary content disconnects disadvantaged learners; who are much more likely to blame themselves than the quality of teaching.

“The curriculum should whisper to our children, you belong. You did not come from nowhere. All this came before you, and one day you too might add to it.” (Ben Newmark)

Connection lost | attendance first

Looking for the disconnected? they aren’t in. Everyday too many children are physically disconnected from school. If we do not consider attendance first and reach out to reconnect we reinforce disconnection. In our endemic world the forces disconnecting children from their education are strong. There is a growing sense of wider disconnection that is shifting attitudes and weakening the contract held between families and schools. Children need to feel like they belong, that they can succeed, that it is worth attending and that we deeply care if they are in. Belonging is rarely achieved through compulsion or penalty.

Small moments of prestige | interactions can have serious repercussions for the future

“Anything you do could have serious repercussions on future events. Do you understand?” (Doc Brown, BTTF)

Tread carefully, you know not where your influence will lead. Each interaction or experience can trigger a child to connect or disconnect to a new self-image a new sense of whether this is for them; whether they step forward and persist or step back and dissociate. Each positive connection fills a child’s “confidence locker” stacking evidence that they can do.

“An ignition story … when a young person falls helplessly in love with their future passion … a tiny, world shifting thought lighting up your unconscious mind: I could be them” (Dan Coyle)

Small moments of prestige, give status. We all need to feel clever, to achieve something, to be acknowledged, to be truly listened to, to be invested in, to see yourself in the learning, to build belonging and status over time. Every interaction, word, comment, response, expectation, experience builds or breaks a child’s sense of what is possible (often stickily into adulthood). It is too easy for individuals to grow disconnected and to feel the insecure sense of being an outsider.

“To feel a sense of belonging is to feel accepted, to feel seen, to feel included.. to not feel belonging is to experience the precarious and insecure sense of an outsider“ (Owen Eastwood)

Our language and expectations are an expression of our attitudes towards others. Deficit language erodes connection, we need to invest in specific language, in high standards and expectations; if we let you off we let you down. High expectations are an expression care, that connect and include individuals. To grow up advantaged is to be shaped by high expectations.

“My expectations about you define my attitude towards you.” (Rutger Bregman)

“some of us may need to start with bubbles of safety.. when we belong and where we are encouraged or at least allowed to make a contribution, the magic happens.” (Jon Alexander)

Dan Nicholls | March 2023

To grade or not to grade… is probably not the question?

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obs in time

“Whether we grade observations or not, we need to ensure teaching is increasingly progress-orientated and outcome-orientated – concentrating the strategies that provoke progress and secure outcomes for students.”

It is probably true that we should not determine the quality of teaching based on short lesson observations, but use a triangulation of evidence that identifies the typical quality of teaching; evaluating the effectiveness of teaching for securing progress-over-time and its success in securing strong outcomes for students. (outcomes in a broad sense as well as”attainment”) 

It is also true that we need to ensure and support teachers to find their way to great progress/outcome-orientated teaching that has a deep impact on students life chances. It is this autonomy that secures the motivation and ownership to reflect and stretch toward mastery.

We should, however, explore the assumption that grading teaching denies formative development; understanding that it perhaps provides the framework for improvement. Without a descriptive continuum of effective practices there is a danger of mediocrity. Particularly as…

“Not all approaches aimed at securing progress over time are equally effective or equally well delivered”

So this begs the question how do we develop a deep understanding of what secures progress, how do we measure the quality of teaching and how do we ensure that feedback to teachers is precise, owned and liberating, such that it sparks deliberate improvement, debate and improvement? It is difficult to see how we do this without a  descriptive continuum of what matters. We can rename the continuum, but when we consider progress-over-time and outcome-orientated teaching not everything is equal…or equally well delivered. Slide1

What if we fully understood how we move from this…Slide8To this… (where teaching is progress and outcome-orientated?… and that it is this that is rewarded and developed?)

Slide16

What if we understood that measuring quality of teaching through observation alone only measures a teacher’s ability to perform a lesson by tumbling and jumping between different teaching and learning strategies to tick enough of the criteria to get them over the Good line? What if we understand the limited sample that a lesson observation provides?…(shown as the vertical line below)

jumpy progress What if we firmly framed any episode of learning or scrutiny in the context of student progress, in the past and into to the future as the measure of the typicality of teaching?… such that it becomes a measure of how:

  1. Progress-orientated the teaching has been, such that students have made good progress over time.
  2. Outcome-orientated the teaching is, such that students achieve in the future.

What if we viewed the window of observation as an opportunity to measure progress over time and future progress?… obs in time

What if we examine, reward and measure the conditions, teaching habits and approaches in lessons that give us evidence that students are making progress over time and are aimed at achieving worthwhile outcomes?

What if this involved us recognising and identifying poor proxies for learning and being smarter at evaluating what we see? (from Robert Coe)… Slide21

“every child a powerful learner” (Steve Mundy, 2015)

So given that not all approaches/strategies are equally able to leverage progress over time and that some proxies are compelling, even blinding, what should be valued to ensure that every child is a powerful learner? What if progress-orientated and outcome-orientated teaching was revealed in…

  • The quality of teacher subject knowledge, concept (and misconception) understanding as well as pedagogy understanding.
  • and that this was revealed in the quality of direct instruction and the ability to impart knowledge and to understand how students learn and make progress in their subject
  • and that this was expertly revealed in the quality of questioning that accelerates learning and unlocks understanding (perhaps the most efficacious part of the learning for progress?)
  • and that this has had the impact of increasing the quality of students answers and oracy that is beyond age-related expectation and directly improving writing.
  • and that through embedded formative assessment (within not after) – teaching plans, differentiates and intervenes to enable all abilities to make progress.
  • and that there is real clarity on the end point – students are well set to perform unusually well in assessment or exams as a result of outcome-orientated teaching.
  • and that teaching shows ambition, warmth and drive to secure progress for all; setting ambitious expectations for all students.
  • and that this is also revealed in the quality of work in books.
  • and that these highlight an appropriate amount and depth of learning as a consequence of time spent in lessons focused on writing and demonstrating learning.
  • and that teaching dwells and goes to depth at the expense of skimming content.
  • and that is informed by on-going feedback that is within and not bolt-on in lessons. And that time is committed in lessons to respond to feedback and make progress. What if we rewarded and looked for actual improvement in books from the front to back as evidence of ongoing feedback … and much less impressed by regularity of feedback sheet or dialogue that does little to improve the work?

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  • and that there is clear evidence of an ethic of excellence where students re-do and redraft work, so that they produce their very best work that they have ever done more often – something that diminishes as they progress from 3-19. Primary children often produce their best ever piece of work.

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  • and that leads to students attitudes and approaches that demonstrate a thirst for knowledge, enquiring and knowledgeable questions.
  • …and because teaching has imparted inspiring knowledge and achieved progress over time – learning takes on its own momentum.

What if we also realised that the greatest teachers have these as habits…consistent approaches and abilities to teach with purpose, precision and consistency.

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What if the importance of progress over time and having the end in mind was rewarded and that observation is seen as just one part of evaluating whether the conditions are present to secure progress? What if we triangulated with data, outcomes, planning, student voice, books and other evidence? Perhaps then we would measure the quality of teaching in this way…(apologies for the grading – but not everything is equal or equally well delivered)

Slide2 …by ignoring observed performance, we reward teaching habits and approaches that have created and secured the conditions for progress and outcomes. if there is no evidence of progress over time, historic good outcomes and/or evidence of outcome-orientated teaching then teaching cannot be typically good.

What if this meant that evidence over time led to a view of the typicality of teaching and that this is stickier than when judgements are based on one-off observations? Any observed episode then simply adds to what is already known about the typical quality of teaching to secure progress and outcomes.

What if we ensured that ownership for improvement was located with individual teachers – understanding that there is also an element of earned autonomy to this freedom… Not least because you…

“Prescribe adequacy, (but) unleash greatness…”

What if this empowered teachers who then have greater freedom to explore progress-orientated and outcome-orientated approaches to teaching…

  • Purpose (secure student progress to give them a better chance in life)
  • Autonomy (you decide how you secure student progress)
  • Mastery (it is a craft not a science, be creative and innovative – seek mastery in teaching to drive progress and secure outcomes) (Dan Pink)
“We know we are in a good school when the four following things happen: Teachers talk about teaching and learning; Teachers observe each other’s practice; Teachers plan, organise, deliver, monitor and evaluate their work together; Teachers teach each other” Judith Warren, Little The Power of Organisational Setting (1981)
What if we applied our understanding of deliberate practice to support teachers to improve…deliberate practice occurs when teachers…

1. …are motivated and exert effort to improve their performance.

2. …engage in tasks that take into account their pre-existing knowledge.

3. …receive immediate informative feedback and knowledge of the results of their performance.

4. …repeatedly perform the same or similar tasks.

So that…

“practice (is) intentional, aimed at improving performance, designed for (a student’s) current skill level, (aimed at excellence), combined with immediate feedback and repetitious.” (Malcolm Gladwell)

What if observers engaged with teachers in real time, so that observers support improvement, reflection and learning during lessons?

Maybe then we would…

  • …ensure that teaching is progress-orientated and outcome-orientated.
  • ….not use short observations alone to assess quality of teaching and instead triangulate observation that evaluates progress over time and the effectiveness of the teaching to deliver outcomes.
  • …tread carefully when considering removing grades as this may reduce our ability to understand what makes the difference and to show direction of travel for teaching improvement…even without grading a descriptive continuum is required – probably divided four ways… (beginning, embedding, effective, transferrable)(or 4,3,2,1)
  • …understand that not all strategies and approaches are equal or equally well delivered.
  • …understand that the efficiency and efficacy of teaching for progress and outcomes is what matters.
  • ..release teachers to own their improvement and to consider what we know about deliberate practice as a framework/continuum to enable teachers to receive immediate feedback that informs focused, repetitious improvement.
  • …realise that what maybe considered as traditional teaching is often the most effective at securing progress over time.

March, 2015

Life without levels | With opportunity comes responsibility

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It is probably true that: “The removal of levels from the curriculum creates an amazing opportunity to redefine success and progress for children…and to reshape teaching (and assessment)” It is also true that poor thinking or planning of a new curriculum could lead to the promotion of mediocrity and the inching over thresholds or jumping through false hoops that hang in the air… and ultimately results in slower progress that has a detrimental impact on learning and progress.

From September 2014 levels have been removed from the curriculum (except Y2 and Y6). Tim Oates provides a good case fro their removal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q5vrBXFpm0  Whilst a number of schools have chosen not to jump and retain levels, a brave few have jumped to new approaches. It would be fair to say that Primaries are ahead of the game in their thinking in this new world (the compulsion to act has been greater).

Which begs the question what should be considered in the new world without levels?

The following attempts to offer a set of What if… comments that underline the new opportunities that are presenting themselves and how a set of key principles can be applied to seize this opportunity. It is clear that this will play out differently across 3-19 (we must however anchor our approaches around the same principles).

What if we saw the move away from levels as an opportunity not to just re-do/rethink assessment and how we track progress?, but instead asked the question what should teaching look like in a post level world? This initially shifts debate toward pedagogy and away from how do we replace numbers/levels/labels. It is proving very easy to shift to a system that simply reframes levels and replaces with grades for example.

What if we considered the age related standard that children should reach each year. What if this is clearly located around what would be the expected standard of a child in terms of knowledge, skills, understanding, application, conceptual awareness and mis-conceptions?

What if the age related standards are clearly communicated on single sheets that show the specific areas – not dissimilar to PiXL Covey table or PLC grids…a DTT approach. What if deliberate practice approach is then used in lessons and intervention to close gaps.

What if we then further embed ideas around Blooms and SOLO taxonomy? That “by age” we were very clear about what is expected (what competences children need to know or be able to do?)…and that this provides the framework for depth, teaching, questioning etc. as it already does in many classrooms.

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What if the achievement of these age related standards were delivered through a Mastery approach – such that teaching was given the time and focus (and teachers the permission) to secure the age related standards…and that this was non-negotiable.

What if we were able to teach to depth around these age related standards because the necessity to cover lots of content is removed. What if there was a real stickiness around redrafting and re-doing, such that children were challenged to do their best work and this enabled students to achieve age related standards.

More generally, in top performing education systems the curriculum is not mile-wide and inch-deep, but tends to be rigorous, with a few things taught well and in great depth.

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What if we did not seek breadth and reduced the burden on teachers; freeing them from the need to skim and teach at pace.

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What if we made a far greater investment in developing (continuing to develop) teacher subject, conceptual (and mis-conceptual) and pedagogical understanding.

What if instead of using KS3 as the basis for performing in GCSE exams that we asked what do we need student to be able to do and know, so that they are set up to perform well at GCSE and in the rest of their lives?

What if this is firmly located around a growth mindset model (Dweck) – where an anything is possible  – what if it was the absolute expectation that children had to meet the standards. …ensuring, of course, that we do not set the bar too low.

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“People with Growth Mindsets and who show GRIT achieve more when they engage in deliberative practice … it is this practice that achieve marginal gains (Steve Peters), inching toward excellence.”

In Finland, Japan, Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong, students, parents, teachers and the public at large tend to share the belief that all students are capable of achieving high standards. (BBC news)

And yet, results from Pisa tests show that the 10% most disadvantaged 15-year-olds in Shanghai have better maths skills than the 10% most privileged students in the United States and several European countries. (BBC news)

What if we focused more on the journey; on the “near win” (Sarah Evans)

“The pursuit of mastery is an ever onward almost.” … “Grit is not just simple elbow-grease term for rugged persistence. It is an often invisible display of endurance that lets you stay in an uncomfortable place, work hard to improve upon a given interest, and do it again and again.”(Sarah Evans)

What if that when children achieved the standard for their age the focus shifted to greater depth (not breadth) moving to the top of Blooms and across SOLO taxonomy and not moving to the set of age-related targets.

What if all of this also sought the ethic of excellence, because… https://dannicholls1.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/the-ethic-of-excellence-powerful-lever/

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“Once a student sees that he or she is capable of excellence, that student is never quite the same. There is a new self-image, a new notion of possibility. There is an appetite for excellence.” (Ron Berger)

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What if this seeking excellence required an unswerving expectation that all teachers were  purposeful, deliberate and precise around formative feedback and that this was within tasks and lessons and not bolted on.

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What if we judged the quality of feedback much more on the quality of what students produce and less on ticks or comments or forced dialogue in books.

What if we described progress not in terms of levels but is terms of a child’s progress in line with age related standards. Perhaps the conversation at parents evening becomes much more powerful and useful: compare “your child is below what would be expected at this age, we need to focus on…” “with your child is a 4a to move to a 4b we need to focus on…” Levels can mean little to (parents and students).

What if we are very aware that there is a real danger that we could teach to the middle and even bottom with this approach and that we should embed from the beginning the ability to challenge children to depth to ensure that those on steep progress trajectories continue to accelerate improvement.

What if parents evening was a discussion not about a series of letter or numbers, but real clarity about what is expected by this age and a rich discussion around the students work (in books), oracy, knowledge and practical skill.

What if summative assessment remained a key part of preparing and testing students. That this could test against age related standards and also indicate present GCSE grade and given professional judgement and trajectory the most likely grade at end of KS4. Keeping an end in mind.

What if the curriculum was interleaved so that the age related standards are re-visited to embed and secure new knowledge and understanding?

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Maybe then we would have a curriculum and teaching that:

  • was purposeful, deliberate, formative, to depth…
  • sought to move all children through age-related standards… and these raised the bar…
  • used a mastery approach, a growth mindset and an ethic of excellence focus to expect much from every child…
  • is really focused to depth on the things that mattered…
  • enabled teachers to not race or skim content, but to focus on quality outcomes…
  • invested heavily in formative assessment…
  • measured progress on security of the age related standards…
  • used evidence to show progress not movement between random numbers…
  • reported formatively to secure next steps…
  • was not hung up on numbers or grades…
  • used summative benchmarking to quality assure and formatively develop teaching and children.

And finally all of this requires time, thought and professionalism. Teacher and team ownership is crucial and particularly the setting of appropriately challenging and well communicated age related standards the detail really matters, because this is worth getting right.

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