Learning about Learning

Got a bit of a second wind today, thanks to the enthusiasm of others surrounding the alternative curriculum project.  Had a productive (very early croissants and coffee!) meeting this morning to (almost) finalise the programme for January to June 2007.  

We have had a tremendous commitment from the outside agencies involved and they have put forward both staffing and funding to help make it happen.  I am really hopeful that we can have this commitment matched in some way from the education side.  We also decided to look at making some bids to other sources for funding to help with the initial phase, although one of the criteria is that we have to be sustainble so we have to be careful about being reliant on short term sources of money. 

When I met with Lesley Gillies of Dunbar Grammar on Wednesday she gave me inumerable tips and solutions to some of the issues Dunbar have faced.  Their model is somewhat different to what we are proposing at the moment in that she has two Pupil Support staff who are basically full-time on the programme.  This is a fantastic resource and means the programme is more flexible than it otherwise might be.  I learned a great deal from Lesley.

Yesterday I had a fruitful meeting with one of the directors of ELCAP, Danny Harvie.  We are hopefully going to be setting up a partnership with them in the school, with youngsters having the opportunity to gain work experience in a social care setting.  We also see this as an opportunity to make links in the community and to challenge perceptions of what it means to be mentally or physically handicapped or to have a mental health problem by having speakers come into the school to discuss issues with the youngsters.

I explored the possibility of using Skillforce as part of our alternative curriculum programme when I met with Andy Bruce this morning.  Trinity Academy have an agreement with Skillforce to provide a comlpete alternative curriculum provision in third and fourth year, as well as doing work further up and down the school, most notably around primary 7/S1 transition.  It’s not inexpensive, the equivalent probably of employing two principal teachers (point 2) but they do seem to be providing an excellent service.  My gut feeling is however that it would be difficult to make it sustainable.

I had a very real reminder today of how important it is for some of our youngsters to have an alternative to the current model.  I was working with a youngster who is finding it particularly difficult to cope with the demands of a full academic curriculum as well as deal with his own ‘issues’ and consequently things are breaking down around the school. It helped me focus my attention on where this is actually going to ‘count’.

Finally, I think we have to find a more appropriate name than Alternative Curriculum.  Far too divisive I think.  Suggestions welcome.

There is a concept in long distance running called ‘the wall’, a psychological barrier that defeats many a marathon runner.  Apparently, although I wouldn’t know, it is defeated, as most things in life, by mind over matter, talking yourself through it.   I think I’m hitting the SQH ‘wall’ at the moment.  My post today is really a marker that I hope I’ll look back at in a few months and smile knowingly to myself, thinking about how tough I was finding it and how glad I am to get that ‘chunk’ behind me. 

I am almost at the point of having to submit my Unit 2 assignments - Analysis of the school’s capacity for change and improvement, a school improvement project rationale and project plans.  I have 8 days left, it feels like both an eternity and microsecond. 

It’s the last meeting of the Alternative Curriculum working group tomorrow morning.  Hopefully our proposals will be accepted by the management team and we can get cracking.  I had fruitful meetings this week at Dunbar Grammar and with the director of ELCAP, when I have more time (and energy!) I’ll post about them. 

Bit of a ‘nothing’ post but hopefully significant when I look back!

I had an interesting conversation at the weekend with Andy Marjoribanks,  headteacher of a secure special school in Edinburgh.  We were discussing the ‘chaotic thinking’ that characterises many of the youngsters for whom mainstream schooling is unmanageable and breaks down in a flurry of exclusions, at times characterised by violence and aggression. The youngsters often have not had the opportunity to develop the thinking skills that most of us take for granted, such as seeing things from another point of view.  There may be a number of explanations form this, including damaged or non-existent relationships with the significant adults in their lives or that those adults have not themselves had the opportunity to develop the skills as youngsters and pass them on to their children.

He was telling me that one of the strategies used in the secure unit to help empower the youngsters and give them the self control and skills to make positive decisions for themselves is teaching Edward de Bono’s cognitive thinking skills. This was music to my ears as I was (obviously!) relating what he was saying to our Alternative Curriculum plans, part of which was using Edward de Bono’s six thinking hats to do exactly the same thing.

I’m looking forward to meeting Leslie Gillies at Dunbar Grammar this week to pick her brains on the possible pitfalls in setting up  the Alternative Curriculum programme.

Today I learned a lot.  I went down to see the new facility at the Pennypit Centre in Prestonpans which will be hosting some of our Alternative Curriculum activities.  It is fantastic, with catering facilities and internet access as well as teaching and meeting rooms.  The possibilities are enormous for developing the partnership between the school and this wonderful community facility.

I also learned about Young People Speak Out (ypso) who are an organisation that create an expressive platform for young people to explore, develop and share their thoughts, ideas and feelings on any subject which affects them personally, socially, emotionally, spiritually, creatively or politically, through the medium of Film and Television Arts.  Alternative curriculum bells started ringing immediately!  I’m hoping to get them involved with what we are doing.  Their website www.ypso.tv seems to be down at the moment. Hopefully it’s not terminal.   I’ll be following up my email tomorrow.

I further learned that I can advertise in our community newsletter, an offshoot of www.prestonpans.com so every person in Prestonpans will potentially hear about the Alternative Curriculum plans and have a chance to explore and add to the ‘wiki’.  Fantastic!

My final piece of learning, more good news than learning I suppose, was that Angie Davie at the Pennypit had been evangelising about the Alternative Curriculum and has got some volunteers for our mentoring idea from the staff at Meadowmill sports centre and from her outdoor education colleagues.  She is a fantastic person to have on the team!  We are going to try and match up the young people involved with a mentor who will meet regularly with them to listen to and ‘coach’ them through the programme. 

On a different tack our under-18 football tie was cancelled last night after everyone had travelled up to George Heriot’s at Goldenacre.  The all-weather pitch was waterlogged, that was a learning experience too, I didn’t know it was possible, but it is!  I’m hoping we can negotiate this tie because we are away to my old school Eyemouth High in the next round if we win!

I watched Bebo: The Movie at the weekend.  What a brilliant way to engage kids in debate on safe use of the internet. It’s a shame we can’t access it in school.  Having been alerted to it by Ewan I thought it would really appeal to my S4 Social Education class.  Unfortunately the school ‘net nanny’ blocked access.  Made me think of Little Britain, “Computer says no”.  

This is not the first time I’ve had such an experience.  As a maths teacher on many occasions I was unable to use interactive web based games because the sites were ‘restricted’.  Why?  Who knows.  There nay be a very good reason, but I have even tried to ask for access to specific sites for educational reasons but have had no joy.  I don’t have enough knowledge or expertise to comment on whether or not this is reasonable or if it could be changed, but I do know it’s frustrating!  Like trying to drive a porsche while sitting on your hands….

Today has been a day of challenges on several fronts.  Initially I met with Graham Rae from Telford College to discuss their involvement in the Alternative Curriculum project.  We are hopeful that there will be a place for Telford College to deliver some of the outdoor education content, but the issue of funding was never far from either of our minds.  We concluded with the agreement that the most likely way to have our youngsters involved, and funded, was having them matriculate as students.  Graham seemed to think that this may limit the options that the college would be able to provide because the money made available for a student who is matriculated for a 40 hour input, for example, is much less than would be generated if the provision for a similar time period was bought by the school directly.  If only the school had the hundreds or thousands of spare pounds it would take to do this.  I wish Tom Farmer was an East Lothian boy!

I then had an interesting lunchtime, speaking to our probationer teachers about the pre-vocational and alternative curriculum provision in the school.  I was delighted to be questioned on the principle of having “the bad kids” benefit from the input at the expense of those who cause no difficulties in mainstream classes and yet appear to receive no rewards like outdoor education visits.  This is a view I hear a great deal, from all quarters, including staff, parents and (less often I have to say) students. 

My reply is that the majority of young people(in my experience) who have real difficulty ‘holding it together’ in mainstream education have a complex set of factors affecting their ability to succeed in the average school day.  I am not condoning or defending inappropriate behaviour in any way, but I do believe that when you peel away the outward layers of bravado, or ‘break the shell’ of faux disinterest in themselves or anyone else, there lurks a young person who is probably very insecure, frustrated or scared by their future prospects.  The problem sometimes lies in the inability to articulate these feelings or ask for help in addressing their behaviours, or in their belief that they can break the cycle.  That’s where I believe some alternative has to ‘kick in’.

I have yet to meet a young person who genuinely did not want to succeed at school and I passionately believe that we must find creative ways of allowing every young person, not just the ones who fit in to our current model of schooling, to find that success.  I am not naive enough to believe that the school can be the universal elixir for every ill that society visits on our young people, but I am sure that we have enough expertise, vision and knowledge to open our view of ‘what school is’ a little wider than exists currently.  I also believe that all youngsters need rewards as much as anyone else and therein lies another challenge for schools.  It begs the question, Is the reward of learning not enough?  Do we now, as a society, value material rewards above all else?  Too big a question for this already monster blog.

I’ve now set myself another challenge.  By spending so long ranting I’ve not prepared my work for my SQH tutorial tomorrow. 

I’m sure I remember saying somewhere that blogs were a good thing….. 

We had another extremely productive Alternative Curriculum meeting this afternoon, focussing on consultation with our various stakeholders.  I said at the start how astonished I was at what we had achieved thus far, only two meetings ‘down the line’. 

The wiki is set up, we have a draft outline of our programme, have addressed some of the main challenges we will face and have considered the ’shape’ of the programme beyond its first year. I think this in itself demonstrates the tremendous enthusiasm and commitment that has been shown by all involved and I’m ever more excited as the development progresses.  We are also delighted by the interest that seems to be being generated in the project, both by word of mouth through our Alternative Curriculum ‘advocates’ in the group and by the wiki.   

We are exploring the possibilities of making links with employers under the banner of Health Promoting Schools, possibly in relation to healthy living, and/or a work experience element and within the mentoring component of the programme.  While it is still ‘early days’ on all these fronts we can all see some wonderful opportunities ahead.

I  have to keep reminding myself however that we still have not actually delivered anything yet and the proof of the pudding will be in the impact we have in relation to our stated aims.  I’m sure most of the really hard work has yet to come and my meeting with Lesley Gilles co-ordinator of the Dunbar programme will no doubt shed some light on the potential pitfalls ahead.

In relation to our discussions today, we have decided to use the SELS electronic questionnaire generating software to consult with S3 pupils in Social Education classes.  Staff consultation will involve a presentation, question and answer session and then the opportunity to complete an ‘online’ questionnaire using SELS.  The tea and buns will be getting looked out for that session!  Finally, consulting with parents will be done by using a ’stand’ at parents’ evening, hopefully with the combination of some SELS questionnaires.  We also intend to give the staff who will be delivering the programme a chance to contribute, probably through the wiki.  

I met Ewan Mcintosh for the first time today.  Unfortunatley I wasn’t able to attend his Learning with Blogs session this afternoon, but I did manage to ask a quick question about multiple users having authoring rights to a blog.  I think it’s going to be a fast and effective way for providers to share information about what we are getting up to on the Alternative Curriculum.

Monday and Tuesday were spent out at the Council’s Discipline and Grievance training, a requirement of SQH.  I have to admit the prospect didn’t fill me with a great deal of enthusiasm but I was pleasantly surprised.  Margo Cunningham delivered the content extremely well and I  was surprised by how well teachers seem to fare in comparison to other workers with their terms and conditions of service relating to their support and representation in discilpinary matters. 

The pay back to having two days out on training was fielding 43 emails and several pupil issues back at ‘base camp PL’.  I did have two conflicting but significant teaching ‘moments’ today.  Firstly, I had to really question my own methods and skills in relation to presenting an indivdualised SE programme which the youngster found ‘boring’. We had a great discussion about what wouldn’t be boring and came up with a plan of attack for our future work, but had to really take a hard look at how I had intended to present the material and realise that I could make things more relevant.  A great learning experience. 

My second teaching ‘moment’ was even better in that I got (what I took as) a backhanded compliment from two of my S3 S.E. class students.  On hearing that we were going to have a discussion in relation to the information I had given them on our topic of ‘disability’ I got two wonderful comments bounced back at me.  Number one was “Aw naw that means we’re going to have to think” - I was delighted when I heard that, I must be doing something right!  And secondly, “Aye, and there will be no right or wrong answers”, again this filled me with joy because obviously in life there are often no right or wrong answers, so I’m taking that as progress! 

I finished off the day with a really interesting PTs meeting in Haddington, based on the leadership development of principal teachers.  Not only was the discussion worth taking part in; the prospect of an explicit focus on developing the specific skills of leadership in principal teachers is both long overdue and hugely welcome; but I also managed to make contact and arrange a meeting with Lesley Gilles, PT Inclusion at Dunbar Grammar and co-ordinator of the hugely successful alternative curriculum prgramme down there.  To top things off I have found a suitable ‘host’ in East Lothian Council for my SQH comparitive study.  Don Ledingham has very kindly agreed to ‘host’ my comparitive study focussing on fostering and promoting creativity and innovation within an organisation.  All in all a good day or three.

I’ve had a really interesting few days since I sat down to write my last blog.  I attended a Child Protection in-service in Musselburgh which was top class in terms of content and presentation.    I decided the weekend was to be both a work and SQH-free zone and attended a djembe drumming workshop run by my friend Mockolo Sawane.

On Sunday we had a ‘gig’ at  a Camphill community in Dunkeld to celebrate the birthday of one of the residents. It ended up being a late night, but what a fantastic time we had and a great response from everyone there.  Got me thinking about the ‘power’ of rhythm, dance and music in breaking down barriers and enhancing quality of life.  Sounds cheesy, I hate writing statements like that, but when you see it in action you can’t deny it.  There is something incredibly powerful about music,(and I believe particularly in african drumming) in the way that it quite literally moves people both physically and emotionally.  I’m sure most people have been affected emotionally at one time or another by a piece of music, and to see people smile and dance spontaneously when the rhythms start up always ’blows me away’. I spoke to Sue Palmer recently recently at an in-service at our school who told me about research being done by Colwyn Trevarthen about the link between learning and music. 

From what I understand, the research suggests that exposing youngsters at a very early age to rhythm and rhyme enhances the capacity to acquire language and has an impact on their acquisition of numerical competence.  This ‘feels’ like common sense to me, but as we are often reminded,  youngsters are exposed less to these media as the tradition of singing nursery rhymes has diminished with the advent of digital alternatives.  A crucial element is the interaction between adult and child, something which no computer or TV can replicate. 

I’m sure there are many nursery schools and primary schools who continue to have singing and rhyme as part of their daily routine but Sue Palmer also talked about how the ’starting point’ for want of a better expression has changed.  Some youngsters arrive at primary school with little or no knowledge of, or exposure to traditional nursery rhymes and therefore are at a disadvantage in more ways than one if the research of Colwyn Travarthen is to be believed.

It also made me think of the role of music in secondary schools; and I should say, I’m not talking fom a position of strength on the above point or this one, just my own thoughts;  is ‘music’ another discrete subject to be learned about and tested on or is there another place for it?  Can music therapy, or art therapy for that matter, be used in a more regular and explicit way to help youngsters who are having difficulty expressing or managing their emotions?  I have a feeling that it could and believe this is another possible avenue to explore in our alternative curriculum project.

This week the balance has been firmly tipped towards work, with life taking a bit of a back seat and sleep lagging behind somewhere on a pushbike.  I think children must have a sixth sense, I think Ruaridh’s difficulty sleeping this week was his way of telling me I’ve been not been home early enough.  I’ve taken his point.

 I have achieved loads in terms of the SQH and had some bad news about my comparitive study.  I was ‘knocked back’ by a drinks company with whom I had planned to study the fostering of creativity and innovation within an organisation.  A real blow, because it is a slow process, trying to find a suitable ‘host organization’.  I definitely don’t want to change my focus, I think how we encourage creativity and innovation in schools is a fascinating and hugely important area with precious little research conducted on it as far as I can see.  So I’ll have a think on Sunday to try and find a new host.

I deleted a blog this week, after having read it over the day after I wrote it I realised I was veering off track in terms of what I’m trying to achieve with my blog.  It’s about my learning and reflection in relation to SQH and not really about the wider issue of blogging.  I think I got a wee bit carried away!   

Got through an S1 parents night and SQH tutorial on Wednesday and Thursday before going on the East Lothian Child protection training today, I had done it before in Borders but  not since moving to ELC.  A really top quality session.

We also had another (early!) alternative curriculum meeting today where we focussed on programme content.  I’m really excited about this project and would encourage you to have a look on the wiki and give us your views, the programme is beginning to shape up. 

Next week will definitely be less ‘full on’.  The work/life balance has to come back towards having a life!