Writing… Teaching… Learning…

Just been sent some info about some great professional learning opportunities from therapeuticstorywriting.com…

3-day training: Story Links – Working with Parents of Pupils at Risk of Exclusion
A parent partnership training for professionals supporting individual pupils, age 6-11 yrs, with very challenging behaviour (related to attachment anxiety) and poor literacy skills. Story Links is a 10-week intervention that uses Therapeutic Storywriting to engage parents in supporting their child’s emotional well-being while also developing reading skills. The training days are scheduled to support professionals implementing the 10-week programme in the Autumn ‘09 term. For further information about the training visit: www.TherapeuticStoryWriting.com

Target group: SENCOs, SEN support teachers, Behaviour support teachers, Educational Psychologists, Learning Mentors & School Counsellors supporting pupils with BESDs at KS1 & 2
Location: Jurys Inn, Brighton (next to B’tn station)
Dates: Thursdays 16 July, 17 September & 22 October 2009
Booking form: Download from www.TherapeuticStoryWriting.com or ring 01273 235666.

Note: Teachers TV have recently filmed Story Links taking place in a couple of schools and the programme will be shown later this year.

Forthcoming Lectures/Conferences
Caring for complex children
The focus of this one-day conference is to help foster carers, adoptive parents, guardians, care workers, health care workers, teachers and other professionals to think about how to best manage the often very complex children that are placed into care.
Thursday 11th June 2009 9.00am-5.00pm, Brighthelm Centre, Brighton
More details: /www.emotionaldevelopment.co.uk

Research Centre for Inclusion and Well-Being: Social Research with a Local Flavour
A University of Chichester afternoon conference on research in the field of social and educational inclusion with a focus on projects taking place in the Sussex area. Presentations include Story Links (by yours truly), Working in partnership with parents of disabled children (Diana Seach), Anti-bullying casework in schools (Sam Baeza); Supporting contact in adoption (WSCC Adoption Support Team) Tuesday 23 June, 1.00- 6.00 pm (you can also attend individual sessions), University of Chichester, Bishop Otter campus
More details: Contact Cathy Allen - C.Allen@chi.ac.uk or tel. 01243 812130

Developing the skills of the 21st Century SENCO
This NASEN conference will look at developing some of the key skills needed by the 21st century SENCO. The keynote presentation will be delivered by Phil Snell, Programme Lead for SEN and Disability, Training and Development Agency (TDA).
22nd May 2009 Bolton
More details: www.nasen.org.uk

Creating a Passion for Learning
One day conference with a range of workshops on interventions to enhance positive learning. Organised by Warwickshire County Council Educational Psychology Service.
15 May 2009, Stratford upon Avon.
More details: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/eps

My latest issue of CPD Week has just been published by teachingexpertise.com. Getting Real About Development takes a good look at truly collaborative professional learning, offering five key points of focus for exploring how shared, open and accessible professional and personal learning is in your school. To subscribe free of charge click here.

Looking back over my own school days, I can think of two art teachers who were in any way inspiring. They loved what they taught, always encouraged students to produce the unexpected and helped us to see the intrinsic value of art and artistic pursuits.

According to a recent report from Ofsted, there is a very mixed picture of opportunity and achievement in art, craft and design in schools. It seems that not all schools have great expertise in these areas and where they don’t, they aren’t always seeking to bring it in from elsewhere.

There have been enough studies done to support the value of art and the fact that when young people are inspired to achieve artistically, they are far more likely to achieve towards their potential in other areas of study and far less likely to squander their talents in a pit of detachment from learning and emotional development. We know that having access to art, craft and design in schools is important, perhaps even essential.

There’s much to celebrate in the Ofsted report, Drawing together: art, craft and design in schools, but there’s also much that bemuses. Its recommendations are crystal clear: 

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) should:

• promote opportunities for every child and teacher of the subject to have the opportunity to work in an art gallery, or with an artist, craft worker or designer as part of their cultural entitlement 
• further develop the National Archive of Children’s Art, Craft and Design and consider dedicating a national gallery space to the creative achievements of children and young people in England.

Local authorities and headteachers should:

• promote further opportunities for schools to exhibit their work publicly and for talented pupils to meet and work together.

While we can obviously accept that not all art staff in schools will be as expert as the best, as their skills are being developed young people must be given access to what their local communities can offer by way of artistic expertise. Having artists in residence is one way of achieving this, but there are many other solutions too. Organisations such as the Revolutionary Arts Group have an incredible amount of experience in harnessing talent and showcasing it in creative ways. Pioneers of using the empty shops on our recession-ravaged high streets as pop-up galleries, this is just the kind of idea that schools can run with (well if the Telegraph can, what’s stopping schools!).

Our communities are packed full with people with the energy and skill to add value to the great work that schools are already achieving in art, craft and design. If we’re serious about maximising the potential that artistic pursuits can have on the well-being of young people, this has to be the perfect place to start.        

I’m always amazed at the residual resistance there still is to an open discussion of mental health. Being well both physically and mentally is something our bodies seek to strive towards and a denial of mental ‘dis-ease’ simply means that we prevent ourselves from experiencing overall health and well-being.

The more that we can speak openly about our experiences of our mental health the better we will be. When we are as free to speak about, say, depression, as we are to speak about headaches or hayfever, many people will have greater access to happier and healthier lives.

The book, Teacher Well-being, is my own contribution to this need to keep well-being issues, especially within the teaching profession, firmly in the public domain. The Department for Children, Schools and Families also has a document which might usefully add to discussions within schools on ways of maintaining good mental health. Common Mental Health Problems: Supporting School Staff by Taking Positive Action is available to download, and carries with it the reminder for employers that their duty of care regarding employee well-being must be taken seriously. Sure, there’s a lot employers can do, but we’re all ultimately responsible for recognizing when it’s time to take action to improve our mental and physical health.       

Just received information on a new resource for teachers to use to support children with autism. Funded by the Scottish Government and developed by the National Centre for Autism Studies at the University of Strathclyde, the Autism Toolbox is available on the Scottish Government website and hard copies can be ordered through Blackwell’s Bookshop.

Further info:

“The Autism Toolbox will help everyone involved in delivering education to those with autism by:

• Giving autism-specific advice aimed at pre-school, primary and secondary school staff to encourage innovative, individualised and creative teaching
• Examining how education professionals can work in partnership with parents and families to ensure the best possible outcomes for the child
• Providing schools and education authorities with good practice and exemplars drawn from all over Scotland
• Giving guidance on the different approaches that can be taken to support individuals with autism - both within and out with the educational setting
• Sign-posting useful and reliable sources of information and further help, such as publications and key organisations”

I often find that ideas and inspiration for writing I’ve been commissioned to produce comes from unlikely sources. The wider the research net, the more intriguing the thinking process and ultimately, the results. For some inexplicable reason, I picked up twentieth century philosopher/theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s book The Irony of American History  to ease myself into thinking, prior to writing about supervision for teachers, and was struck by this stunning little gem:       

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes any sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our own standpoint; therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”

The nature or brand of faith (or non-faith) is irrelevant, it’s the humility that counts here. And that’s incredibly relevant in schools today.

When I first started writing for teachers, in particular for NQTs, there was a fashion for advice and information to be presented as ‘fool-proof’ tips. Often this meant greatest accessibility to need-to-know essentials for busy professionals. Nothing wrong with that as an idea, but there are some aspects of the job that won’t ever lend themselves to this kind of approach… behaviour management being one of them.

An indisputable fact about working with children and young people is that it’s the relationships that we create with them that enable teaching and learning to flourish. It’s pointless to dictate the nature of those relationships, or prescribe how they might best be created and nurtured, because they are always dependent on the dynamics between the two people involved. Combine that with the dynamics of the group (i.e. the class) that this relationship has to work within and there’s very little that a remote writer can concoct to be of any genuine use at all without spending time with the people involved. Nothing can replace relationship building for great teaching and learning and for that, there aren’t any short cuts.

Coverage of behaviour in schools remains depressing, though. If teachers are losing 50 minutes a day to pupil misconduct, amounting to five weeks of secondary school a year according to the NASUWT, it’s blatantly obvious that the circumstances in which great working relationships can be developed simply don’t exist in all cases. The atrocious diets some children are given, the inconsistent messages they get about emotional development, and large class sizes among others all conspire against the creation of a fertile space for relationships to thrive and the consequences are etched on the faces (not to mention the minds) of teachers and other school staff at the sharp end. The weakest response from society and politicians would be to blame schools and their staff. The most supportive? For each to take responsibility for what lies within his/her sphere of influence.