March 2011

At KES they use a client control piece of software cann AB tutor that is similar to RM tutor. This is a great tool for showing and demonstrating to pupils work that requires fine details. It simple takes over their screens and allows you to show them what is happening on your screen. It is really useful for monitor pupils work and to see what applications they are using. This is a good test to see if they are on task without actually walking around. I have also been using it to display pupils work at the end of the lesson which has been really great for plenary seshions. It really helps give instant feedback to pupils on the work they have created and is a good quick way of formative assesement.

I used ab tutor after i recieved some feedback that pupils couldnt see the screen and needed more feedback on their design work.

Although KES own the software some of the teaching staff do not use if for ICT lesson so i was able to give a seshion on how to best use it after I had become familiar with it myself. This was great for colaborative work and for helping others members of staff to get up to speed with this technology.

Here at KES the school use their SIMS database to track and manage behaviour throughout the school. The two standard routes are RED and GREEN Referrals. Red being for misbehaviour and Green being for positive merits and behaviour around school.

In a lesson I recently taught there were some boys that where causing allot of distraction and after several warnings i had to ask them to stay behind at the end of the lesson. The behaviour was not terrible but due to the distraction to other pupils that was causing them to go off task i issued them with a red referral for disruption to the class. More recently a pupil was playing a game on his iphone 4 during one of the activities (I did think if what i was doing was not engaging enough but it was a creative Photoshop lesson on filters and effects). I confiscated the iPhone until break and asked him to come back to collect it then I issued him with a verbal warning and said that it was not acceptable during lessons. I then issued the red referral on the sims systems and marked that the action was taken and that no follow up was required. Pupils at KES are brilliantly behaved and this is not saying that there are many cases like this. But it is still good to have high expectations and not tollerate anything like this.

On the positive side I had a about 4 pupils that created some outstanding work in Adobe After Effects which i was able to give green referrals for. It was a good way of officially marking their achievement.

It was interesting to lookin through my class lists and note the ration of green to red referrals and the quantity of both and then match this to the attitude and performance in class. It was interesting that the pupils I referred reflected the style of behaviour that was being tracked on the sims system.

These referrals then get issued and followed up by the tutors. Which is a great way of following up on incidents or positive work.

Yesterday I attended a training session on how KES use data in the school to monitor and track pupils’ ability.

When pupils enter the school at year 7 there are up to 100 new pupils and in order to assess what ability level they are. The test is by a Durham company called MidYis http://www.midyisproject.org/ which basically assess pupils’ inelegance and ability in various areas such as English and maths. Apparently the testing is helpful to indicate and show the more able and less able pupils at the top and bottom end of the spectrum. The top students score about 140 points and the bottom students score around 70 points. The problem they find is that the correlation on a graph on what they are achieving and what they should achieve is quite broad as they are at the top end of the spectrum of the ability when you compare against the national averages. KES find it important to compare their results against other Independent schools as they are way above average when you look at national averages. Most of the pupils are strong and capable which makes it hard to distinguish between the two when it comes to the middle of the road cohort. The main purpose of this test not for pupils but to track how certain departments are doing when they take the MidYis in year 7 compared to the MidYis results in year 9. Each testing session costs £500 per year group.

KES find their own in house results more useful when it comes to tracking pupils’ progress in a statistical manner. They use their SIMS system to set targets based on 3 years of previous results and then plotting graphs with what they should be achieving based on what they are achieving. This basically shows how departments are doing and if they are under or over achieving. It is sometimes hard to use it as gospel as exam years change particularly in subjects like English literature.

The main point that is important here is that according to KES they don’t want to let the data and results that are mathematically calculated dictate how well their pupils are doing and they only use the results from the SIMS and exam results as an avenue in to show pupils where they are at and what they could be achieving. It is great to see that that they are trying to steer away from being completely data driven.

From my point of view it is really interesting to see how this statistical data changes between independent schools and maintained schools and I can personally see the difference when teaching in a academically selective school as the pupils are more able and you need to set work at a higher level to stretch and expand their ability. I have seen in comparison to Norton Hill School that the ability is lower and I have had to adjust my teaching to cater for these pupils. This is not a problem or an issue but just something that I have been learning particularly when it comes to differentiation in the classroom.