A round up of some of the GTC's recent gatherings
The GTC hosts a variety of events each term, enabling teachers from all over the country to meet and share ideas. Here we report back on three of our recent gatherings.
Empower parents, says playwright
Parents must be empowered if underachievement is to be successfully tackled in schools, leading black playwright Sharon Foster told an audience of teachers and educationalists at a reception organised by the GTC.
Speaking at the event held in London in January to celebrate the second year of the GTC’s Achieve network – set up to promote race quality in schools – the award-winning playwright urged teachers to look upon parents as experts in their child’s education and welfare.
She said: 'You will not be able to educate a child to a certain place without a commitment from the parents – you don’t have that power. Studies show that what makes the difference is the parent.' Sharon’s most recent work includes the provocative drama, Shoot the messenger, shown on BBC2 last summer.
Afterwards, GTC Professional Networks Manager, Shiraz Chakera gave an overview of the work of Achieve over the last two years. He reported that, of Achieve’s 3 500 or so members, more than 30 are working on projects exploring racial equality issues in more detail.
One such is Anthony Badu-Anti of Wyvil primary school in Vauxhall, London, who is investigating how best to help the Portuguese children in his school, of whom there are more than 60 per cent. 'I felt that if we could research how to help the Portuguese children to achieve their best, that would impact on the overall achievement of the school,' he explains.
Amongst his school’s innovations are classes for Portuguese parents, where subjects such as maths and ICT are translated into Portuguese. 'If we don’t help the parents, they can’t help their children. The home is a powerful agency of education,' adds Anthony.
Change afoot on assessment?
Change is in the air, the Chair of the Education and Skills Select Committee told a packed conference organised by the GTC in March to debate the future of assessment.
Giving the keynote speech at Assessment in the future: building the case for change, Barry Sheerman MP confirmed to the audience of more than 170 teachers and educationalists that his committee will be holding a wideranging enquiry into testing and assessment. He said: 'I predict that there will be changes. But I need your help.We need you to say what you think.'
The GTC’s conference – held at Central Hall in Westminster – also came on the same day that the Chief Executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), Ken Boston, raised the alternative of testing a representative sample of primary school children, rather than every child sitting national tests.
Indeed the subject of assessment was so topical, said GTC Chair Judy Moorhouse, that the conference was fully subscribed the first day it was advertised, with a waiting list that could have filled another conference hall. Opening the day’s proceedings she said that the GTC has been working to generate the momentum for change, holding more than 20 events on assessment across the country to date, with more planned for the summer.
In addition, the Council had advised the Secretary of State that a radical overhaul was needed. “There have been some shifts in Government thinking, but it hasn’t gone far enough,” she said. 'There are two clear messages that we want you to take away with you today. The first is that the GTC’s proposals would support pupil learning better than the current regime. The second is that they are built upon the widest consensus in the education community.'
To find out more about the event, read the conference report.
Let’s stop meetings, argues David Jackson
David Jackson, formerly Strategic Director of the Networked Learning Group, is one of England’s leading education consultants. This article is based on his presentation to the Connect network meeting in Cheltenham in March. Airline safety guidelines make clear that, in the event of an emergency, adults must look to themselves first. Top priority is care for the adults so that they can take care of the children.
Schools need to be like that. When they become as conducive to adult learning as they should be to children’s, we will be sure of raising achievement levels all round. So why are they not like that? One reason is the historical model of CPD. Sending a lone teacher on a course away from school to work with others that they don’t know, taught by someone who doesn’t know them or their context, has always been a poor model.
Yet we do know many things about how adults learn best. Firstly, we need our craft and context knowledge to be respected. Secondly, the closer the learning is to our school and classroom, the more likely it is to lead to changed practices.
Some rigorous and challenging joint work tasks – like collaborative planning, action research and peer teaching – are very simple to make ways of life, and the GTC will accredit such learning, evidenced over time, through its Teacher Learning Academy.
Another simple example makes this point. If we were redesigning our school system and asked the profession whether they would like, built into their conditions of service, collaborative time to work with and to learn from colleagues, what would be the response? So how did we turn this into 'meetings'? I know no teachers who enjoy meetings! Let’s stop them, then, and replace them with 'seminars', 'workshops', 'reading or study groups’, 'learning sets', 'task teams' … or whatever. We can make them into applied learning spaces.
And then schools can become places in which adults truly learn.
* Connect is the GTC network for CPD leaders.
