- Three days into my visit at The Ashwood AP Academy and what are the stand out take-aways or observations so far?
- The Academy has a strong “family” feel, partly due to the fact that it is a relatively small staff body on a relatively small footprint and also because the staff are tightly knit and recognise the need to be so.
- Staff are welcoming, very supportive of one another, very visible and supremely resilient.
- Effective communication systems are very important, daily start and end of day briefings means that every referral is discussed. Every action is shared. Every small success noted.
- Sanctions are monitored, tightly, breaches of sanction are monitored, every effort is made to ensure all sanctioned behaviour is resolved.
- Short term, day-to-day plans are revisit, daily (obviously) and long term rewards monitored.
- Staff are adaptable. They have to be. The students a teacher is expecting can change by the period and regularly by the day. The students readiness to learn is fragile. Added / missing students both affects and effects class dynamics in already small classes more prominently than in large settled classes. Although attendance is higher than you might expect (80%+) students still miss one day in five, this effects classes.
- Internal sanctions are quite common, this can effect classes dynamics and learning flow.
- Personalised provision, mentoring, work-experience all add flex.
- Finally, the referral process is purposely fast. These students can afford to be missing school so new students arrive with planned short notice. From my conversations, it is not uncommon for staff to plan multiple lessons per period.
Tutors play such an important role. Communicating on behalf of the Academy building relationships with the students.
The staff and support staff are multi-skilled (despite the small staff body, the Academy still fulfils all the duties of a school).
Teaching Lessons Learnt
- The most readily used strategy is broken record. Delivered in a calm and sincere voice.
- I am simply going to ignore you at my door. Distractions rarely distracted staff. Most staff very calmly carried on teaching and simple reached for the radio.
- It had been fascinating professional development watching how staff handle the question response of “I don’t know.” Typically students were prompted just one more time. Then staff frequently gave the students both thinking and physical space.
- Busy one student (stop watch task), so that you can address the behaviour of another. Simple. Effective.
- No breach is ignored. Breaches of sanctions are followed up. Breaches, of breaches of sanctions are followed up.
- Isolation is set for a single period and is used as a mentoring opportunity.
Let me introduce you to the wonderful Mrs Murphy.
As for teaching, one of the many highlights was the culinary spell cast by Mrs Murphy.
This chicken kiev started on the chicken. Two out of four students presented themselves ready to learn and yet all students received a warm welcome. A portioning demonstration complete with cracking bones and gruesome chicken carcass caught one over a third. A fifth students arrived and there was barely a flitch and most certainly a warm welcome. In fact, in the follow five minutes I recorded eleven encouraging prompts to draw in the final two students in.
The portioning demonstration was completed by one of the student. She did am amazing job (and I told her so). Guerrilla maths peppered the conversation; budgets, portions, value for money and of course plenty more encouragement aimed at the final two students. The make or break attempt to draw them in came when they moved to the practical phase, pairing, smart use of the work stations led to one more students engaging.
I didn’t stay for the filling and pane demonstration but I did race back to see how the kievs came out of oven. Proof is in the pudding right? Well, the students I met were eating the pudding. A real privilege.
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