Learning about Learning

The loss of the Community Liaison Team Active Steps outdoor education provision from our ALPs programme due to funding not being renewed will be a major blow.  Sally Harris and her team have done a fantastic job working with our youngsters in the past year and it will mean a re-think of our programme at the school.  I know that the team have done similar, excellent work throughout East Lothian in the past few years with many different groups of young people and their provision will be sorely missed.  A great shame.

We are about to develop at our new ALPs programme and there will be some changes to the format of the programme based upon our experiences and successes.  We are also taking into account the views of the current participants and facilitators. 

A full report of the new structure and any changes will appear in the coming weeks and months.  I’m particularly keen to build upon the enormous success of our outdoor education activities as well as developing the ALPs website further to make it even more interactive and ‘live’.   I think there is scope for collaborating with other local secondaries too, especially as the cost of some outdoor education activities can be limiting.

If anyone else has been doing anything similar in other schools I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences. 

I’ve just completed the interim evaluation of the ALPs programme, reporting on progress thus far.

In summary:

The programme has improved links with partner organisations, particularly Telford College.  There has been siginificant benefit to the young people on the programme as a result of this, providing opportunities on the Sports Leadership course that almost certainly would not have come along without the work done in S3.  There has also been very close working with the Integration team, Active Steps and Mobex.  In particular the links with the Integration team have helped with work being done in the community as the Integration Team are ‘well kent faces’ with the youngsters.

Incidents in school have reduced by more than half for the group, compared with the preceeding 15 week period.

Exclusion statistics were too small to make a meaningful comparison, they remained constant as compared with the preceeding 15 weeks.  What is significant is that there was no third term ’spike’ as in previous years for this cohort.

Attendance was not improved overall, due in large part to the statistics being heavily influenced by the poor attendance of a couple of individuals.  Attendance on programme activities was very good overall.   Two youngsters have left the programme because of family re-location.

The youngsters involved and outside agencies working with them were positive about the experience thus far.  Each youngster has an idea of their desired destination beyond school and is working with the school’s career officer to establish their own individual pathway.

Work experience opportunities are being taken up by the youngsters to help build their portfolio of employability skills.

Every youngster has had the opportunity to undertake a college placement this year.  So far four youngsters are involved in college programmes of one form or another.

In conclusion, we are well on the way to reaching our goal of having each youngster leaving school for a ‘positive’ destination.   It has for me re-inforced the notion that in terms of the school curriculum more choices does mean more chances.

If you would like further information about any of the above or a copy of the interim evaluation please get in touch.

Unit 4 of the Scottish Qualification for Headship challenges us to compare our skills and competencies to the Standard for Headship in the context of our progress to date and identify areas of strength and areas for development backed up by appropriate evidence.  As a precursor to my unit 4 submission I’m going to use my blog to help that process along.  The reasoning is twofold, it allows further reflection on my part in relation to my progress towards meeting the Standard for Headship and it affords anyone who wishes, or who has perhaps worked with me, the opportunity to provide feedback on my claims.

The Standard for Headship is comprised of Professional Actions and 3 essential elements of practice:

1.  Strategic Vision, values and aims

2.  Knowledge and Understanding                    

3.  Personal qualities and interpersonal skills

In this post I will begin to deal with the Essential Elements. 

I have explored and discussed my educational values through my blog.  I believe this has helped shape my moral and ethical perspective in relation to education. Reading educational literature as documented on this site has also challenged my thinking, as has engaging with the views of staff members in school, students and ‘bloggers’.

Completing a critical self-evaluation as part of SQH unit 1 allowed me to communicate my vision for an effective school.  Undertaking the 360 degree review as part of SQH unit 1 provided further insight to my current practice, including my ability to articulate and embody my moral and ethical standpoint in relation to education.

My blog provides evidence of professional reflection and review of my own practice.  I have taken part in professional coaching sessions, covering personal development target-setting and values.

The ALPs programme has given me the opportunity to provide a rationale for practice and to be accountable for it, in relation to the way the programme operates and it goals.  On a daily basis I am accountable for the actions I take in relation to my dealings with young people and professionals.  The ALPs programme has also provided the opportunity to encourage critical reflection in others, including young people, as has my blog through comments and interactions with others.

Comlpeting Unit 2 of the SQH, including a school self-evaluation allowed me to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of school improvement.  Developing the S5 Social Education programme and monitoring and evaluating the ALPs programme and Pre-vocational educational programme allows me to employ strategies for improvement. (taking account of pupil voice, using attendance and behaviour statistics, taking account of stakeholder perceptions, recognising achievement)

To be continued at a later date.

Stephen Heppell’s visit to the school was a great opportunity for me to see some of the incredible animation and film work being created by the youngsters at Preston Lodge High School.  If animation and film-making are your thing it would be worth getting in touch with our Art department, PT Jim Cramb and the other members of staff are helping to create our film-makers of tomorrow. The link above is to an immensely powerful film about the Holocaust used in school for Holocaust memorial week and created by Preston Lodge students.

I then had an opportunity to discuss the ALPs programme with Stephen,  Ewan MacIntosh and David Gilmour and share experiences and views on working with youngsters who are in need of significant support in the mainstream setting. 

Having these opportunities helps convince me further that the type of work we are doing with our ALPs youngsters has the potential to spread much further than just the ‘NEET’ group.  I hope that we will have the opportunity to explore avenues for such development in the coming years as A Curriculum for Excellence broadens out our ideas of the curriculum.

I went to Telford College today to see our ALPs students make a presentation to bring to end their time with the college.  It was fantastic to see the boys making such an effort with what was obviously a real challenge for them. 

We now have four out of seven boys placed on a vocational course for next session and are moving ahead with the organisation of work placements.  The boys are also taking part in a pilot programme with our HE department to learn the ‘industry skills’ of a sous chef, courtesy of Dave Robertson who was himself a chef before coming into teaching.  This is an idea loosely based on the Hospitality Skills for Work programme that we have been considering as a possibility for the future.

Finally, we welcome Stephen Heppell to the school on Wednesday to see what we have been doing with technology to help engage the students and to chat to some of the ALPs participants.

I found out about VIG only today in discussion with a colleague and we have decided to look at look at possibly using it with the ALPs programme.  What is the VIG you ask?

Video Interaction Guidance “is a technique which aims to improve communications and relationships for participants.  Participants are involved in discussing very short recordings of their interactions of their successful interactions with a Video Interaction Guider.”   The important word for me in this blurb is “successful”, focussing on where things have gone right and re-inforcing and exploring that strategy/choice/behaviour.

We already use digital video with the group, but this is much more focussed and will be delivered by a trained Video Interaction Guider.   This person will initially be another professional not directly involved with the ALPs programme, but it may be something we look to having as an integral part of the programme in future.

It has been a hectic few weeks as I think I’ve mentioned ad infinitum recently with the launch of ALPs, SQH Unit 3 and other ‘enjoyable’ pressures.   However, I think I was beginning to feel a bit empty in the fuel tank, the red light was certainly on.  I knew that the brain was threatening to become full of broken biscuits because I hadn’t done any reading for three or four days, a sure fire sign.  I also hadn’t done any drumming for two weeks prior to tonight so it was great to go bash them to bits and switch fully on to another ‘mode’ of brain activity. I’m feeling re-invigorated now and ready for the next few hectic days.  It really is amazing what a completely different challenge and focus does to help order the rest of the brain!

I’m going to the ’Thinking about Thinking’ inter-authority conference at Murrayfield tomorrow.  I’m excited about attending because I believe that teaching thinking skills explicitly is an idea that will be developed further in the coming years in Scotland.  I’m convinced it has huge potential for the development of self awareness and emotional literacy in young people and adults.  There is a keynote speech from Brian Boyd who was one of my tutors at teaching college and someone for whom I have great respect.

I’ll no doubt report back on that tomorrow.

Ice-breaker fun!

We finally got ALPs off the ground today with our induction day at the Pennypit Community Centre at Prestonpans, a really top class facility.  It was a great day and it was tremendous to see all the ‘thinking’ becoming ‘doing’. 

I was also delighted that the input from all the different people connected together to present a discernable ‘whole’.   It re-affirmed again to me that we are ‘on to something’ in delivering a model of this type. The blend of personal development, active learning through outdoor education, thinking skills, mentoring and employability skills has great breadth and depth of skills development coupled with reflection.  By the reaction of some of the parents who attended our induction there is a positive feeling about the potential benefits of the programme too.  

We were very pleased to welcome Kay Affleck, who is responsible for ELC pre-vocational opportunities, along for an hour this morning and we had a good chat about the possibilities for the ‘careers’ focus of this group in S4.

I’l be writing more in the coming week, but I think most of my ALPs blogging will migrate to our new site with short updates and pointers here from time to time. 

We had what I’d call a ‘feel good’ and ‘develoment plan’ sandwich today at our in-service day.  The development plan business was the bread and the feel good was the meat in the middle.  A nice idea, and hopefully one that we can build on.  Some of the sessions on offer were ‘an introduction to body conditioning’, ‘relaxation’, archery and learning how to make the perfect kebab(!) to name but a few. 

On the business side we were trying to establish how our develoment plan priorities had faired in the first half of the school year.  Development planning has never filled me with tremendous enthusiasm, and I don’t think I’d be alone in that feeling, although it is a vital part of what we do.  I think it is vital for all staff to be able to make a clear connection to the overriding ‘vision’ of the school to prevent it becoming just another paper exercise.   I think the ‘Tracker’ that we now use is a step in the right direction as it seems to streamline the process and gives a greater focus and clarity to tasks and responsibilities than there was previously.

However, I digress, the main reason for this post is that I’m looking for some Extreme Learning templates to use with our ALPs group if anyone has put one together yet.  I know there was talk some weeks ago of people doing it but I can’t remember who it was.   We will no doubt develop some as part of the programme but any work that people are willing to share that has already been done would be most welcome.  If you know of any please get in touch.