Top marks: How can we continue to gain good results in a changing environment?
Gaining good results is integral for pupils, teachers and leadership staff – yet the conditions to achieve them are constantly making the route to the top seem out of reach. How can we tighten our grip on the ever more slippery slope?
In July 2022 a poll from Teacher Tapp, which runs a daily survey for teachers, found that more than two in five schools leaders would be left with no choice but to consider staff cuts in 2023. [1] This news followed the Government’s teacher pay rise announcement, pledging to increase wages by at least 5%. [2]
Another blow came in June 2022, when it was reported that teaching staff vacancies were at their highest levels since records began in 2010. [3] Staffing crises always lead to concerns over the knock-on effect this could have on educational outcomes. This rings even more true as schools return to pre-Covid-19 exam practices for the first time in two years.
To maintain a consistent standard of teaching and keeping pupils engaged, leaders must take a two-pronged approach. As workloads increase, everything needs to be done to support the wellbeing of staff and streamline daily workloads. But it’s also important to make the most of the resources that are available, increasing the efficiency of every teacher and boosting each pupil’s chance of success.
Playing a crucial role
The Garibaldi School in Nottinghamshire decided to invest in Ed Tech in 2020. Though this digital transformation took place as children worked from home throughout Covid-19 lockdowns, the learnings act as a guide for other schools facing similar challenges around engagement during a turbulent period.
During the pandemic, video conferencing technology meant that classrooms could be brought to pupil’s homes during lockdowns, but the lack of consistent teacher-learner contact meant that concerns over knowledge gaps were common amongst parents and industry officials alike. During this time, Qualification Wales reduced the content of its courses and more generous grading was awarded, while UK students were given calculated or teacher-assessed grades. [4]
Lead teacher at the school, Kevin Chatten, found that an on-demand blended learning tool, GCSEPod, played a crucial role in helping students feel supported throughout the disruptions of the pandemic.
"Singing from the same hymn sheet"
To be a truly successful school, though, teachers need to feel the same level of support – staff absences caused by Covid-19 illness and isolation often created a pressure cooker situation not dissimilar to the one caused by more recent recruitment concerns.
Yet at The Garibaldi School, reducing workload without losing transparency over pupil progress helped teachers to adapt lesson plans and focus their limited time on teaching areas that needed the most improvement. Kevin said:
“It’s important to remember that monitoring independent study wasn’t something most of us had experience of. One of our main concerns was not being able to intervene soon enough if a student began struggling or stopped engaging, however GCSEPod has helped massively with this.”
The intense, hyper-focused revision period that takes place just before exams was replicated consistently throughout the year, by using digital tools to see where each student is succeeding, and struggling.
Kevin noted that the school recognised a strong correlation between positive student performance and high levels of GCSEPod usage. He added:
“The platform is certainly part of the formula alongside our intervention, enrichment, and bespoke student support initiatives. If everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, then we are giving our students the best chance possible to achieve greater personalised learning both inside and outside school.”
Losing time, boosting engagement
Engagement in the classroom isn’t the only area where schools struggle. Keeping parents up-to-date with everything from school trip payments to a child’s progress has always proved difficult, with paper letters getting lost at the bottom of bags, or emails remaining unopened. The ongoing cost of living price hikes could ramp up the need for a centralised communication system – particularly for regular payments such as dinners, uniform or activities, as the public increasingly looks to take control over any ‘ambient’ spending. [5]
Graham Purves, vice principal and head of senior school at The Grammar School at Leeds knew this was lacking at his school, and so invested in a cloud-based communication platform, My School Portal.
He said:
“As a parent myself, I know how challenging it can be to remember which co-curricular activities are booked on certain days, the times these sessions finish and when the next school trips are scheduled.
“Now, parents are able to login either via their phone, tablet or computer and view a full breakdown of their child’s schedule. With more and more of us struggling for time, this tool is perfect and has really strengthened parent engagement across the school.”
Similar to the on-demand revision platform, the parent portal technology also reduced unnecessary administrative tasks for teachers. Every doctor’s appointment or planned absence was logged by the system, rather than requiring lengthy email chains.
For The Grammar School at Leeds, gaining positive feedback from the parents using the new platform was enough of a result to prove its success, while The Garibaldi School could cross reference data from the tool with its pupil’s grades to understand its effectiveness.
The World Bank’s 2018 ‘World Development Report: Learning to Realise Education’s Promise’ states that: “Technological interventions increase learning –but only if they enhance the teacher learner relationship.” If engagement is the key to boosting exam results, then searching for a system that connects teacher, parent and pupil simultaneously could prove to be the missing link. [6]
[1] Source: www.schoolsweek.co.uk/a-race-to-the-bottom-pay-rises-push-struggling-schools-to-the-brink/
[2] Source: www.gov.uk/government/news/government-delivers-landmark-rises-to-teachers-salaries
[3] Source: www.schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-teacher-vacancy-pay-jobs-recruitment-data/
[4] Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-61008812
[5] Source: www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media/press-releases/2022/lloyds-bank/over-a-million-subscriptions-stopped-by-customers-as-households-feel-the-squeeze.html#:~:text=Over%201.2%20million%20subscription%20payments,new%20data%20from%20Lloyds%20Bank
[6] Source: www.issuu.com/world.bank.publications/docs/9781464810961/8
