Diary Entry - April

School closed on the 31st March and we returned after the Easter holiday on the 19th April. We decided on 20 overall winners to participate in our Sherlock Bones workshop entitled, ‘Forensic Anthropology and Human Osteology. We had originally planned that pupils would compete to deliver a presentation to the Director of Science College. We ran out of time, however, and were unable to complete this part of our project.  Instead, Science Staff picked those students who they felt had really engaged with their Crime Weeks. Each participant had showed an enthusiasm and excitement for Forensic Science during their lessons and home learning activities.

The workshop was expensive but we allocated the funds from our Science Prize Award specifically for a ‘winning’ day. We wanted to thank and reward the students for the hard work and commitment they had shown throughout the year. It was the final celebration of our Crime Week; the students were really excited and keen to begin.

Sherlock Bones arrived and set out five skeletons. Students were required to use a scientific approach to answer the problem of identifying unknown skeletal remains using their new knowledge and skills. The workshop lasted all day and covered topics in:

• Introduction into Forensic Anthropology

• Human Anatomy

• Human Osteology

• Calculating Stature

• Sex Estimation

• Age Estimation

• Pathology

Pupils completed lots of practical experiments and analysis. They recorded all of their results and observations. The workshop was a huge success and definitely something we would like to offer as part of our whole school Science Activity Day next year.

On the 28th April, as part of our ongoing evaluations, I met with Richard Tudor (Head of Faculty.) We spent lessons 1 and 2 conducting a ‘learning walk’ within Science. Staff knew that we would be visiting during the week beginning 26th April but they did not know which lessons. Specifically, we wanted to observe the quality of teaching and learning and discuss the impact that our Coaching Programme has had. Moreover, we needed to identify how Coaching could be improved and developed next year.

Before the project began we identified five key areas for improvement. These were:

• Setting pupil friendly Learning Objectives;

• Marking work effectively – setting appropriate targets;

• Understanding APP (Assessing Pupil Progress) – Levelling students’ work accurately; and

• Active Learning

We observed nine lessons across both Key Stages 3 and 4. Some were ‘top sets;’ others were lower ability groups. There were lots of examples of good practice and innovative teaching methods. Overall, students were engaged and knew their predicted targets; some pupils knew exactly what they needed to do to improve. The table below outlines evidence of good practice and highlights.

Good Practice	Targets
No hands-up during questioning	Reduce amount of teacher-led discussion
Behaviour excellent – clear planning	Transition between tasks
Plenaries – used at the beginning of lessons to review prior learning	Develop questioning skills for Gifted and Talented students
Lessons supported with Home Learning books	Use of self/peer assessment
Classroom buzz – activities fun and engaging	Developing a range of learning styles (visual, auditory and kinaesthetic)
Use of interactive whiteboard	Teacher modelling – use of exemplar material
Classroom displays – use of Bloom’s taxonomy
Use of document cameras
Pupils encouraged to solve problems independently

There were many instances of good practice providing clear evidence that the pupils were making good progress. The Coaching Programme will be extended next year to develop further examples of outstanding teaching where pupils are inspired and challenged to achieve the very best they can.

 

Next month, we are meeting with our Assistant Heads to discuss how Coaching can be incorporated into the work of the Teaching and Learning Academy.

 

 

 

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