First Look at MB School

An interesting mix of problems identified when viewing the course video for the first time I thought it would be interesting to capture the contents in a more visual way.Using Diigo to identify the main quotes from the transcript makes for a quick an efficient way of extracting some details.

First Look at The MB Scenario

A few important quotes.

• the previous Head had a very loose leadership style and it got to the stage where the school was no longer moving forward
• I guess deep down we want to be liked don’t we, you know, it’s a human need.
• And I suppose in a way it’s almost like having tuning dials. And you know there are some days where you have to perhaps have a bit more of an affiliative approach. Then on other days where democracy goes out the window and so on.
• To be an effective, a highly effective leader you’ve got to have systems and structures in place. And to be able to challenge standards, to look at data, to appreciate what it means.
• After the assault on data Mike, Charlotte and senior Federation staff began evaluating the quality of teaching across the school using strict Ofsted criteria.To some the ethos of the school was increasingly under threat.
• In the end the observations were generally positive. Although they uncovered a particular weakness across the school.Staff and pupils aspirations were generally too low.
• But despite the pressures staff are beginning to appreciate the sharper focus.
• Once you work in a school people and children get under your skin. And you have this sort of emotional attachment that you wouldn’t have from a distance.
• We were worried that the emphasis on testing would mean that children would become demoralised. That there wouldn’t be the progression we see now because children just wouldn’t find English as exciting and interesting as they had in the past. I haven’t found that that’s the case.
• The only difference has been that the way that we collect data has to be the same amongst the three schools.
• We’re losing sight of the child that doesn’t do very well at school. We’ve seriously gone back full circle. People don’t really care any more and I don’t think that’s just in our middle school, upper school structure.
• A central factor in Mike’s success has been leadership support and resources from the Federation.
• I don’t think we should be ashamed of the fact that some of the modelling of practice has been on the good practice at other schools.
• As soon as Margaret Beaufort joined the Federation the access to all those support networks was triggered.
• The key challenge is to keep the momentum going.
• You name it, we’ve changed it. And as a consequence, yeah, it’s a bit of a painful process.
• Short term pain for long term gain.
• Mr Lavelle is adamant you have to practice the SATS to do well in them. He is adamant the school needs to do well which is what Ofsted and the government want us to do.
• I and a number of other members of member of staff don’t think that that is so important as the rounded human being growing up. And I just don’t accept that that really is a good all round education. And many children suffer enormously for feeling inadequate, not having any self-esteem or confidence. Because they’re not the level they should be.
• Well it’s about growing up, being part of the community. That’s actually what education and life is all about.
• Mike Lavelle:Distributed leadership is absolutely fundamental. I mean, for example I can’t create the illusion that I’m in two or three schools at the same time.
• In the 18 months since Mike and his management team took over at Margaret Beaufort two thirds of the teaching staff have moved on.
• Fran Vellacott:There is no debate or good wholesome discussion about issues. There’s no discussion. It just happens
• But Mike believes there are opportunities for staff to participate. But only once they fully understand and buy into the management strategy of the schools.

Well I am all set for E856

Unable to make the first online tutorial but thanks to another a recorded elluminate session I was able to get the general idea of the course. One week into the course and as usual the national forum has already become to busy with far too many postings. It tends to set the fear of panic as some students seem way ahead already, I can't believe they are reading all this or they must have far too much time on their hands.

E856 Journal Of Learning Many of the links referred to below are restricted for my own use but nevertheless this should give an idea of how I am organised and setup for online study.

I am finally all organised and have read session 1 and given some thought to my Journal my Symbaloo page is set up I have decided to use an Online Google Document as my Journal to store key points from learning which combined with my Diigo references and blog Postings should form my journal of learning . The forum message feeds have been added to my Google Reader feed and this will make searching and staying informed a lot easier without having to find my way through all the forum messages. Piecing all this together is my MAODE ePortfolio which has grown to be invaluable over the past few years.

I have also added a few additional Google Docs to be used in preparation for the TMAs

TMA01,

TMA02
TMA03

And the Project notes
Guidance Sheet
Project Ideas

Well that's me organised, what ever you are studying this year, Good Luck.

Societal Culture

Activity 2.4

Think of one aspect of your national societal culture and one aspect of your local or community culture. Make notes on the values, rituals, artefacts and symbols that sustain each of them. What behaviours do they appear to support?
My first thoughts on this, it made more sense to splash my ideas on a diagram rather than try and write too much on this. The interesting thing here is I have gone off at a tangent. I may have to revisit this once the activity kicks off, forgive the pun.

Exploring Societal Culture