The classroom experiment.

My biggest worry was the year 8 teachers. They all seems very disinterested and bored. It didn't bode very well for my daughter!! And they had their open evening last week, hoping to to attract new pupils! They are already an under subscribed school, so I hope this hasn't affect them that way.

And yes parent will want to see result now!!
 
I think this was alluded to in the preview for next week. I'm not a teacher and my only experience is as a pupil in a classroom but I agree. It's better for pupils and teachers, I think, if the class is of a similar ability.

I have been to several conferences where Dylan William has spoken and he does have some innovative ideas and methods. It will be interesting to see whether these ideas translate to improved teaching and learning in the classroom.
 
Watching now on iPlayer - many of the techniques the professor is attempting to employ in the secondary school are used in primaries. I think the lollipop technique can work but I wouldn't use it instead of hands up but alongside for different activities. I've known some teachers to pretend they've picked up a child's stick when they have asked the question at that child's particular level, or if it's an easier question pretend it's a child's name who they know could answer.
 
A few points.

Are there only two ability ranges for maths? Is that normal these days? The schools I taught maths at, many years ago, had six or eight ability ranges for maths.

Is it the same group of children for all subjects? Is that normal nowadays? Or are children still put into sets for each subject so they might be in a much higher set for maths than for English or vice-versa etc, so there is no such thing as a consistent group of children?

The presence of the camera crew would have had a very considerable effect.

Knowing they were taking part in an experiment would have also had a very considerable effect. There's a famous story from long ago of a whole set of innovations tested in turn on a group of workers on a production line (I think in a US car factory), each of which improved their performance. Finally they were told to go back to the original way of working and that resulted in improved performance as well. All the improvements were because the group knew they were "special".

Those children seemed to be way above the norm for a comprehensive school in behaviour and ability to articulate.

But perhaps things have changed over the years?
 
As a teacher, I can say that what the Maths teacher experienced is pretty typical of comps in this country.

She could do with reducing her volume a bit. I to found it distracting and actually anxiety inducing. I'm not sure that it helped with her teaching. Her accent (and I am not being racist here, let me repeat it, I'm not being racist) was hard to understand.

I liked some of the ideas...especially the cups...but I do wonder whether the 'extra props' are more of a distraction than anything else.

Although not keen on the 'pupils feeding back to the teacher' because of worries of being undermined, I would be willing to give it a go.

I hope it makes all those not in education realise what are hard and challenging job it is...as well as rewarding.
 
It was filmed last academic year, when they were year 8, they are year 9 now. They picked a form that already work together.
And they are an art and drama school that covers music so they have to have a music teacher.
 
I should stop watching this!!! Its really worrying me!! My daughter only started at the school in September and the teachers seem so disinterested!!

And most of these ideas are already used in primary school. I keep waiting for Sid to speak up and tell that guy he used most of it at his last school!!!
 
The 'Secret Student' thing would have bugged the hell out of me - seems like a very childish concept

Whiteboards on the other hand are a good idea at least until the kids decide its more fun to draw on them
 
Most of the ideas are good, but Sid and William used white boards, and lolly sticks and traffic lights at Monksmead! The planner they carry has a red, amber and green page in it that they put on their desks, the cups they just fiddle with!!
 
I think, to be fair to them, we teachers are continuously bombarded with strategies etc, and that can get wearing, especially when these 'specialists' swan in and swan out. You are almost made to feel that what you are doing isn't good enough, maybe it isn't, but things are never allowed to settle and bed down. You then start to question everything.

I was impressed with Miss Jenner, the form tutor, and the teacher who was doing the PSHE class.

It is worth remembering that teachers hands are tied. I wont go into all my experiences, but safe to say, that I believe that if the government, Heads and senior managers get behind and support staff, things would improve greatly...especially in relation to behaviour. I will leave you to read between the lines! ;)
 
In my experience, subjects are blocked together because of the timetable. So if you are in set 2 for Maths, you are likely to be in set 2 for English and Science, regardless of your ability in each.

We had four (max five...although that was rare) sets for each half of each year grp. Each set had a parallel set on the other side of the year.

I have to say, I don't agree with it. The kids normally spend the whole year in the sets they are given at the start, and as I hinted at earlier, those sets are pretty similar or virtually the same for each child, regardless of the subject they are in, or the ability that that child may have in a specific subject. The bottom set kids spend all day with each other to which isn't good. They become totally unmanageable because very often, the naughties are often 'dumped' in there to.

I agree, the camera would have had an impact.

That class looked pretty normal to me, although we only really saw a small handful of the 24 in the class didn't we. Apparently, the camera crew were there for ten weeks...that means that a lot of material was edited out, and therefore, not shown.

A word of caution...I am sure the school had a pretty tight reign on what was filmed and shown. They wouldn't have set themselves up for a whole load of bad press!
 
Back
Top