LEARNING AND TEACHING JOURNAL - North Birmingham Academy

EDITION 2 - February 2012NORTH BIRMINGHAM ACADEMYLEARNINGANDTEACHINGJOURNALWelcome to the second edition of the North Birmingham Academy Learning andTeaching journal.Here at North Birmingham Academy, we are fully committed to the sharing of best practiceacross the curriculum and throughout the academy. By sharing our expertise and teachingmethods, we are able to learn from one another and implement strategies that will raisestandards across NBA and increase opportunities for our students. This journal will provide abrief outline of teaching and learning strategies that have proved successful.

EXCELLENT LESSONSDEVELOPINGEMOTIONALINTELLEGENCEOver the last few months,members of staff within theacademy have beingparticipating in ‘Packtyping.’Packtypes is a packagedesigned to develop people’semotional intelligence (EQ).Supported by provenpsychology, the packageenhances an individual’s selfawareness, self-esteem, selfmotivationand communication.For teachers, EQ can shape ourleadership styles and explainhow different students learn indifferent ways. The packagehas been well received and staffat NBA have found it aninspiring and effective form ofleadership.We hope the results of thepackage will filter through tostudent level, encouragingstudents to communicate andlead effectively and becomebetter team players.FULL MARKS FOR STUDENT ENGAGEMENTLast term saw the launch of the new marking policy atNBA. By encouraging active student engagement, thenew policy gives students greater independence in theirlearning and enables them to develop confidence andlearn new skills. Having support and feeling valued hascontributed to student success. It is evident studentsenjoy the opportunity to respond to their work, and thegreater use of peer and self assessment ensuresstudents are clearer on what they are being assessedon and, therefore, how to improve.CHALLENGING E-BAC PROGRAMMENBA currently has 61 Year 10 studentsfollowing the challenging English-Baccalaureate programme. This meansstudents must obtain 5+ A*-C GCSEs gradesin: English, Maths, Modern Foreign Language,Double or Triple Award Science and aHumanities subject. The E-Bacc is designed toprovide students with the opportunities, skillsand qualifications to compete and succeed inthe competitive business world. Theprogramme is designed to equip students witha competitive set of results along with theknowledge, skills and understanding toprogress smoothly into A level studies anddegree level.As part of the course, students are providedwith personalised support and mentoring, ifrequired, over a 6 week period. Reviews takeplace in weeks 3 and 6 to ensure students aregaining the necessary support and are on trackto succeed in this challenging curriculumcourse. We are delighted that 5% of our E-Bacc cohort have already obtained the desiredgrades in Maths and Modern ForeignLanguages and 56% have obtained a highergrade in GCSE Mathematics.SHARING GOOD PRACTICENBA is committed to sharing goodpractice. Throughout the autumn term,weekly sessions were held at theacademy to provide insight into differentteaching techniques. The sessions weredelivered by staff who explored anddelivered presentations on differentapproaches and strategies that hadproved successful. Last term, thesessions focussed on literacy andnumeracy, explaining new approachesto developing students’ skills in thesecrucial areas.Staff shared knowledge on a range ofareas; from kinaesthetic activities (whichare designed to motivate our students)to understanding the use of graphs inMFL and technology.UNDERSTANDING GOOD PRACTICEThe NBA Teaching and Learning team have investedin the Star Lesson Observation system. This is a toolthat uses cameras to film lessons. The lesson is thenuploaded to ‘Star Lesson Land’ to be viewed by staff.This allows teachers to ‘tag’ aspects of good practicewithin the lesson and produceclips than can be shared andexported. The facility isbookable through the ITtechnicians athelpdesk@nbacademy.org.uk“ITT SURVIVING SPRING”Workshop with Kim Wheelar from BASS.

CONTINUED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENTA WARM WELCOME TO NEW STAFFOur NQT/TF/GTP/PGCE and cover supervisors recentlybenefitted from the expertise of our staff. Second andthird year teachers presented a number of ideas andsuggestions for application in the classroom. Sessionsincluded useful information on ‘games for learning’, ‘mini-plenary games’, ‘showing progress’, ‘differentiation’,‘marking’ and ‘group work’.The sessions were designed to help our new staff withtheir professional development and to give them theopportunity to discuss good practice. NBA offers a greatdeal of support and guidance to training and newlyqualifiedstaff in the early stages of their careers. Thishas had a direct result on the ‘team’ approach amongststaff andhas had apositiveimpact onstudents’learning.Feedbackfrom ournew staffmembershas beenverypromising.STEPPING UP TOSUCCESSMembers of staff whohave recently beenpromoted at theacademy are taking partin a ‘Step Up’Programme to coachthem to feel confident intheir new role. NBAsupport members ofstaff to ensure they arecomfortable with thenew challenges they arefaced with and toencourage them toreach their fullpotential. Theprogrammeincorporates a numberof workshops onaspects such as‘holding difficultconversations’,‘creating a vision’ and‘leadership styles’.The programme willdevelop a strong groupethos and enable staffto share any concernsthey may haveregarding their newroles. By explainingstrategies and exploringsolutions theprogramme ensuresstaff settle into their newrole as quickly and aseffectively as possible.Feedback has beenvery positive; onemember of staffexplained:“it has allowed methe time to reviewmy workingpractices andprovided anopportunity todiscuss with othersany issues I mayhave had.”READING WEEK - SUPERNATURALThis year saw the first themed reading week takingplace at NBA in an effort to support our drive to raisestandards in literacy.Lessons were themed around ‘The Supernatural’ withdifferent reading skills informing every lesion.Students were challenged to decode questions, learnto skim read, examine texts and identify theirpurpose, and also become familiar with summarisingtext.Students were lucky enough to have access to arange of specialist books such as E-books andKindles as alternative methods of studying texts.Feedback has been great; staff have shown acommitment to using the reading skills in all of theirlessons, and 80% of students feel they haveimproved their reading skills as a result.

FOCUS ON - THE BIG FOURThe ‘Big 4’ push of literacy, numeracy, differentiation and marking is well under way. We have key members ofstaff working hard to develop these areas using a range of strategies.LITERACYLouise MaherThe literacy focus aims to enable students to access the curriculum moreeffectively. We will be looking at the following areas: reading and extractinginformation, writing in a logical and coherent manor and detecting points of view.Students will learn to transfer skills from one subject to another meaning theirprogress is accelerated in all areas.DIFFERENTIATIONPaula SpriggAlong with the Differentiation Champions, I am responsible for the planning,monitoring and evaluation of Differentiation across the academy. Throughscrutiny of data I plan on sharing good practice and introducing twilight sessionsto support staff in the delivery of good or better Differentiation strategies in theclassroom.MARKINGSarah CaseyMy focus is to provide a structure to marking that will provide consistency forstaff and students alike. This is the ship: marking consistency. You are thehelmsmen and women, steering us on the stormy ocean of learning andteaching to achieve that consistency. If, along the way, you need some calmingweather, some support, please see me.NUMERACYAnna GaddMy aim is to develop the confidence of both staff and students when it comes tonumeracy and help highlight where numeracy fits into the big picture. Numeracyis all around us and it is essential that our students leave our academy with theskills they need to succeed in the outside world. It is important that students areable to transfer these skills to a variety of subjects and situations.

MIDDLE LEADERSPart of the Training plan of North Birmingham Academyincludes an annual twilight for all Middle Leaders. This yearthe topic was Outstanding Leadership and Managementand took place in two cohorts both at Fairlawns Golf andSpa resort on January the 13 th and 20 th 2:30 - 7:30pm.The aim is to provide training and support that will developmiddle leaders whilst ensuring that this is in response totheir needs and those of the wider academy. Leadershipand management skills are often left to grow organically ineducation however we have made clear links between theacceleration of these skills and the performance ofdepartments therefore we see investing in these skills as agood value for staff and students.Sessions included inspirational and challengingseminars from Karl Turner providing lots of foodfor thought for ho we can be leaders of the futureas well as lots of great tips from an experiencedschool leader. Caroline Bentley Davies alsodelivered some much needed OFSTED advice forour middle leaders and allowed for somepertinent discussions about how we can deploysome of the techniques she discussed. We also welcomed back the Round Midnight Theatregroup who worked hard to get us responding as leaders to a variety of in –school situations.The support of our colleagues and the expertise of the theatre groups saw us discussing underperformance, in effective teaching and “burn out” with some surprising and humorous out takes.

NEW INITIATIVESFROG CHAMPIONSWe have begun to pilot the new VLE within the academy, which will enable students tohave secure access all their work from anywhere in the work, submit work to teachersand to have feedback, assessments are all stored in one place.Students will be able to access all the software that is currently used in the academy andkeep track of all their work that is due in, in their own online MAP (My Aspirational Planner)Students will be able to discuss and share their work with their peers Students can see their timetable,homework that is due in and important informationStudent’s will also be able to communicate with the academy community, creative and engaging projectsThis will be live during the Summer 2012LEARNING DETECTIVES AT NBAThis is the second year of Learning Detectives atNBA and has successfully seen the number learningdetectives in the academy double.There has been a record number of detective assignments this term, with 50% of teachers having had adetective in their lesson.The Detectives went on a team building visit to the Think Tank at Millennium PointStudent feedback on being a detective about being adetective :Fun intrainingWorkingwith newpeopleTeachersareimprovingGainingexperienceAllowed tohave ownopinionsImprovesteam workTo interactin lessonsto help alllearningChildrenare gettinginvolvedand helpingLessons seemto be improvingsince we haveintroduced thisproject

PLANNING AHEADTEACH FIRST“Teach First is a charity that finds workplacements for graduates in schools withindeprived communities. Their aim is to addresseducational disadvantage through good qualityteaching and learning, as well as supportinggraduates to develop leadership skills so theycan become the best possible teachers, withexcellent experience.Graduates partake in a two year programme;in the first year they teach an 80% timetable intheir placement school whilst completing aPGCE. After qualifying, participants stay intheir placement school to complete their NQTyear.NBA supports this programme and thecharity’s belief thateffective teachershave the power toaddress the issueof educationaldisadvantage. Theresults are an increase in studentachievement, aspiration and access toopportunities”.TIPS IN UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIOURA number of NBA staff were invited to an ‘OutstandingBehaviour Management’ session in October. The trainingwas run by OSIRIS Education and was designed to teachthe skills of successful classroom management, by providingpractical strategies for lesson planning and motivatingstudents.Rebecca Wilshire,Teach First, English.‘POWERING’ LEARNING AT TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITIONLaura Chinn attended the‘BETT’ show in January.The annual, internationalexhibition is dedicated toshowcasing the best in UKand internationaleducational technologyproducts, resources andbest practice. The showproved an excellent insightinto the latest hardwareand software resources foreducation, ranging fromsmart tablets and ipads tohigh-tech finger printregister systems. Laurawill be consulting with staffabout new technologiesfor the new build but if youhave any ideas in themeantime please emailher atlchinn@nbacademy.org.uk

FOCUS ON DIRECTORS NQTs/GTP/PGCEs Step upprogramme 2nd and 3rd yearsupport CommunityCohesion Transition ICT Arts Zone SGP Website FROG LearningDetectives EnglishSpecialism PerformanceManagement CPD booking