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There is already a lot of noise about how schools go about enabling students to ‘catch up’ in their learning. Herewith a thread about possible ways to do this. My view is that we are missing the real answer so far in the debate.
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First: summer schools. Lovely idea. Just move the lessons they have missed into the summer, right?
Wrong.
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Wrong.
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The EEF meta-analysis of summer schools show that they have a HIGH cost and a LOW impact.
Staff deserve (and are legally entitled to) annual leave. We cannot sacrifice staff wellbeing for perceived student gain.
The students that require ‘catch up’ the most are the least likely to turn up.
Again, that pesky evidence shows us that this has a HIGH cost and a LOW impact.
Adding more of the same is not a recipe for automatic academic success. Those students who are struggling to accelerate their learning in class won’t magically be able to do it if you just make them do more of it.
As the curriculum develops, gaps that exist between students, their knowledge and their progress widen unless they are directly addressed. The Matthew Effect.
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The student is identified as having gaps in their knowledge. There is then small-group intervention that focuses on closing that gap. The intervention is bespoke and time-limited (say, two sessions on the water cycle). The impact is measured and the gap is closed.
Issues to solve: when does this happen? If maths intervention happens away from the main class during maths lessons then they are missing the new learning that is happening in the class, and so whilst one gap is closed… another one opens.
Who does this? Teachers already have full timetables. Schools don’t have queues of maths teachers outside the door, waiting to be called upon.
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Fourth: tutoring programmes. England has announced a National Tutoring Programme that will match experienced tutors with need. I hope that Wales will develop a similar programme.
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Schools cannot be left to create this kind of programme in an isolated way. The issue of quality recruitment to these programmes and of scalability remain.
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Frankly we need to make it worth the while of people to join the programme, and we should be tapping up recent graduates who are not yet sure about a teaching career to join a Tutoring Programme that gives them a pathway and relevant experience as well as a decent graduate salary
Fifth: make use of digital learning. Oak National Academy is a great programme that can have a benefit. Other schools and groups have really gone hard on developing materials as well. We have our own bank of digital resources developing.
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Schools need to be tactical and specific about what is used. No point just sending the link to all Year 11s and saying “please complete”.
Sixth…. And this is the BIG ONE… invest in teachers and their professional learning so that we can improve the No.1 driver for student progress, which is high quality teaching.
This means continuing to make it an attractive profession – salary, terms and conditions, career development pathways.
Wales has made a good start in increasing the starting salaries of new teachers.
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Wales has made a good start in increasing the starting salaries of new teachers.
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This means ensuring that teachers have enough time to develop. I’d love to be able to convert one teaching period a week into a training period for everyone. This would cost me around £100k a year, which I don’t currently have.
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That investment would have really significant benefits for student learning, staff wellbeing and retention and the quality of teaching.
So, forget the idea of just doing more of what might just sound good. Let’s base our decisions on what we know works.
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All the evidence shows us that high quality teaching is by far the most critical factor in ensuring that students get the high quality education that they deserve.
Give us the resources and we will make it happen.
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Give us the resources and we will make it happen.
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