There's already a discipline policy

In the course of work (setting a one hour detention for a shockingly poorly behaved pupil) it was pointed out to me that a discipline policy already exists at school. I was questioned as to whether I'd set a 10 minute, then 30 minute first!!

Now I'm all for doing the right thing and blending my policy to fit in with school's, BUT - this one is awful! It looks as though it was put together purely for our OfSTED inspection late last year. It doesn't seem to allow for major disruption to a lesson and setting a meaningful length detention. It states 10 minutes. If the pupils sits the 10 minutes, the matter is closed! If they fail to attend, 30 minutes, then one hour, etc!

So to my mind, effectively, this means that a pupil could mess up repeatedly and get 10 minutes every time. As long as they turn up for the 10 minutes (and let's face it, that's easy enough to factor into your day), they can continue to misbehave!

Well, I'm sorry. The system MUST allow for entry onto the structure at greater than 10 minutes for more serious behaviour! I'm quite happy with my version of a discipline structure and would prefer to run through mine than the school's one!

Year 11 leaving....

Our Year 11 are already long past the time they need to leave school and begin study leave. They are probably the last set of year 11 in the whole borough to be released from compulsory schooling.

To be fair, they've been really good so far. They've not complained about not leaving, attendance has been the best I've ever seen from a year 11, even at this point of the year, and they have attended all lessons as expected.

Today, however, I noticed a change. Particularly within my own tutor group. I've noticed the silliness start to emerge. The desire to maybe strart creating havoc - albeit a very muted version of havoc. They want to throw their bags around. They want to leave the classroom to find other yeaar 11's to talk to, to play with.

Who can blame them? They are 2 days away from leaving school. They've even finished their entire English course - exams and all! They know that their lives are about to take a huge turn.

For me, it's not the end of their schooling - it's the beginning of the rest of their lives!

Purpos/ed

What is the 'purpose of education'?

Sometimes it feels that its sole function is as a glorified baby-sitting service! Somewhere for parents to know their kids are safe, whilst they go to work, or indeed, anything else they feel like doing of a daytime.

Genuinely though, I think the purpose of SCHOOL is to equip youngsters with the knowledge to succeed in life, be it academically or socially.

But education is so much more than just school. I believe that we never stop learning just by living, and that some of us actively seek out new things to learn constantly. I learn every day. I learn from the children at school, I learn from the adults at school, I learn from my own child, my family, the TV, the computer. I learn from my Master's degree course.

I learn because I want to learn. I am hungry for knowledge, to KNOW. If I don't know something, I know how to find it out.

Maybe this leads us back to the purpose of education (albeit school education) - to learn the ability to KNOW how to find something out for oneself!

Yesterday, I recieved the book 'Purpos/ed' (pictured below). It's a crowd-sourced collection of short essays (500 words), written by people I admire in the world of education about their view of the purpose of education. People who are also hungry to learn, but also to teach. I am very much looking forward to reading it!

How to embed google docs into your blog

(to be added)

Discipline Policy

On a whim (and still avoiding work) I have decided to create a formal discipline policy for my area of responsibility - Key Stage 3 Mathematics. Currently, we have only this: Whatever sanctions the class teacher decides to implement, and if they miss a detention, referred to me to do a follow-up detention. I created this extra level of formal detention when I became KS3 coordinator, and called it a 'coordinator's detention (10/10 for originality, right?)

Also, staff in my geographical area know they can send students to me if they have become too difficult to remain in the classroom (and I get to keep 'em in mine for the duration!).

None of this is formal, nothing has been written down.

So we definitely need something. Staff need to know what they should be doing at each stage of discipline. I am adamant that most sanctions should be applied by the class teacher themselves, ownership of the issue will be far more effective that passing it over and students thinking they can mess about in the classroom and only worry about me!

So I plan to list some example mis-demeanors, and what should happen at each stage; what happens if this is not effective; and what to do next.

Hopefully, this should empower staff to be clear about discipline and consistent in the application of any sanctions. It also should mean that only the more serious cases are referred upwards.

That way, I'll know who is determined to prevent teaching and learning from occurring in the classroom, and not be side-tracked by those simply having an 'off' day.

My draft flow diagram is as follows:



After taking advice from some Twitter colleagues, I now realise that I have completely forgotten to add the fact that I created an extra level of sanctions via a co-ordinators report; that it may not be wise to refer to 'time-outs' as my school doesn't really support putting children in the corridor, however brief the time; and that I may just have too many levels (do I really need Serious / Very Serious / Major Incidents?) I think I can remove one of these levels to make it a little clearer.

Decided....

... that I need to open this blog at the same time as I open FB and Twitter pages. I open both of those every day as I turn on the laptop! That way, I won't be neglecting it as I do now (and missing out on posting so much of importance, or things that have happened in work and my wider educational life....)

Let's see how that one goes.......

Avoiding work

I've come on here to post in an attempt to deflect from schoolwork I should be doing. Having said that, perhaps I've done too much already this weekend and my brain is begging for a rest!

Since leaving school on Friday I've virtually attended a teachmeet (online), spent practically the entire Saturday adding to my fabulous Schemes of Work (nay, curriculum!), marked a mental test, and added scores from three mental tests to a spreadsheet (whilst considering my next MA assignment: Studies in the Mathematics Classroom).

I still MUST mark a piece I've set for my year 9 - an old GCSE coursework task 'Opposite Corners', and mark my year 9 books, which have been seriously neglected for quite some time.

(cont......)

Problem Solving

I've just had an email from my HOD to say that we're going to be looking at 'Problem Solving' at least once a week for the remainder of this half term.

Perfect!

Due to my first MA module, I've read (probably) everything there possibly is to read on problem solving! Gardner, Polya, Mason, Boaler, Wells, to name but a few problem solving advocates. But do we agree on what actually constitutes problem solving in mathematics?

I don't like the kind of maths where you dress it up in a context (or as Dan Meyer calls it - pseudocontext). But I DO like the investigative task, just like the Chessboard Problem I dissected for my first MA assignment.

I'm going to have a little think about what is appropriate at KS3 (all of them, I hear you cry?) I think I mean what is appropriate for the teachers in my school - they are the ones who need to deliver it - and if few have given problem solving tasks before, it is they who will need to be supported through it.

I'm going to suggest tasks like "The staircase problem". This one comes from Nrich - but is a familiar task, and one that produces familiar results.

The Staircase Problem