Future U

 

Quinzone EAZ has held two Future U events for Year 6 pupils from Zone schools.  The first Future U was held in June 08 with the second on 17th October 2008.  Pupils were able to take part in a drama activity and 3 workshops.  They were introduced to a range of employment opportunities and encouraged to think about the skills and qualities needed by employers.  Overall, the pupils were shown that there are choices for them for their futures.

West Midlands Fire Service demonstrate some of their protective clothing

West Midlands Fire Service show how to set up a rescue through smoke filled buildings

West Midlands Fire Service show how to set up a rescue through smoke filled buildings

Pupils learn to collaborate while learning about construction

PC Flynn and PCSO Reeves explain the many roles of the police.

Evaluations from the drama input

Hairdresser, Anita Dyson, explains the skills and qualities needed within hairdressing.

Learning about the many roles in Horticulture

 

Quinsound

For the past 2 years, the Quinzone EAZ schools have come together for an afternoon concert to celebrate music in Quinton.
In partnership with the excellent Quinton Community Choir, at St Boniface Church, all schools have made high quality contributions to the programme.
The sheer enjoyment of the participants and the way that they appreciate each others work makes this event well worth attending each year.

 

Quinzone Awards

Since 2001, Quinzone EAZ has given awards to pupils who have succeeded and achieved in different ways.  Each school nominates 3 or 4 pupils and the nominees are all interviewed by Pat Twyman (ex-Principal, Bournville College).  All nominees win a trophy and book voucher prizes.  Additional trophies are awarded to pupils who are judged to be outstanding in an area.  Now known as the awards for those who Make a Positive Contribution, the Quinzone Awards Evening continues to be a highlight in the Quinton Community Calendar.

Quinzone Awards 2009 took place on 9th June at Four Dwellings High School.  We thank Pat Twyman, as ever, for her hard work and commitment to these awards.  This year, awards were given to:

Baskerville School

Christopher Lear
Paige Holloway
Patrick O’Brien

Four Dwellings Primary School

Iris Geada
Connor McNamara
Lucy White
Suhayb Muse

Four Dwellings High School

Jamie Bright
Jake Hayden Wright
Paige Stolle
Stephanie Williams

Quinton Church Primary School

James Russell
Jesse Ijeomah
Sophie Eadon

Welsh House Farm Community Primary School

James Earl Pantling
Emma Joy Pantling
Joshua Stephenson
Nyamka Undrakhbayar

Woodhouse Primary School

Damien Charnley
Jennifer Brookes
Thomas Baker
Ellis Baker

World’s End Infant School

Sadia Rehman
Afnan Mohamme

World’s End Junior School

Lucy Goldsby
Matthew Williams
Lucy Meredith

Trophies

The Quinzone Award for All Round-Excellence

Lucy White

The Quinzone Award for Academic & Sporting Excellence

Jesse Ijeomah

The Quinzone Award for Citizenship

Matthew Williams

The Quinzone Award for Personality

Connor McNamara

The Quinzone Award for English

Nyamka Undrakhbayar

The Quinzone Award for Excellent Progress

Damien Charnley

The Quinzone Award for Creativity, Art & Design

Hannah Partington

The Quinzone Award for Modesty & Courtesy

Christopher Lear

The Quinzone Award for Sportmanship

Jake Hayden Wright

The Quinzone Award for Pupils of the Year

Emma Joy & James Earl Pantling

 

Raising Standards Through Staff Development

Formative Assessment (Assessment for Learning)

Working together, Quinzone Education Action Zone’s Learning Team embarked on a learning journey that enabled 22 staff from 7 schools to focus on the use of Formative Assessment in the classroom.  The impacts on children’s learning and cross-phase teaching have been vast.

Phase 1

March 2007 – November 2007
Shirley Clarke Learning Team

• 22 staff from 7 Education Action Zone Schools
• Representatives from Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4.
• 8 additional places sold to 3 other schools/Education Action Zones.
• 3 days delivery from Shirley Clarke

Day 1: March 2007 input from Shirley Clarke
Day 2: June 2007 input from Shirley Clarke and feedback/development from team members
Day 3: November 2007.  Morning session; final input from Shirley Clarke and feedback/development from team members.  Afternoon; showcase of learning delivered to 50 additional guests including input from Shirley Clarke and all team members presenting elements of their learning

• Process filmed for LA transition DVD ‘Personalising Transition’.
• Summary of learning published on Shirley Clarke website  www.shirleyclarke-education.org

Phase 2

November 2007 – June 2008
Embedding into schools

• Team members cascade information and embed practice in their own schools
• Support provided by the EAZ as requested mainly through networking opportunities
• Visualisers purchased for all team members as a way of delivering ‘instant feedback’

Phase 3

June 2008 – June 2009
Embedding across the EAZ        

• Team members invited to share and discuss common practice within the zone
• 3 schools contribute to Quinzone EAZ website based resources (launch October 2008).
• Support programme for development and further use of Visualisers initiated  
• 3 schools commence a programme of observations

Cross phase
Cross school

• LA Personalising Transition DVD  and booklet launched with Quinzone’s work featured as one of the main elements
• Regular networking meetings arranged
• Visits from schools within and outside of LA

Phase 4

June 2009 onwards
Evaluation of position/further developments

• Consider second learning team using zone staff for delivery
• Update to website

  Please click on these links to go to the following sections:

  • Visualisers
  • INSET
  • TalkPartners
  • Success Criteria
  • Decontextualising the Learning Objective
  • Effective Questioning
  • Feedback and Marking
  • Unit Coverage

   Visualisers
  

Following the three days of input from Shirley Clarke and the Learning Team, all the members of the Learning Team were given a visualiser to use in their classrooms.  There are many models of visualiser available on the market with varying quality.  The visualisers that the Education Action Zone bought were AVerVision 130 from Alite Computer Consultants Ltd.

Impact and evaluation has been extremely positive, however there is a real feeling that we need to explore the potential further.

Uses

• instant feedback
• improving writing
• developing ideas
• film mode – can be used to control behaviour
• to show art work
• within big write
• media/film impact

Visualiser positives

• Children editing own work with immediate effect
• Good modelling
• Great for instant visual clue
• Motivator for work

Visualiser negatives

• Can take a while to adjust to it
• Needs careful managing of discussion and time management so that lesson is still focused and productive
• Can have technical difficulties

Comments on Visualisers

• Pupils don’t like stopping mid flow (class does not gel)
• They like to criticise but not say good points. Feels like there could be more impact.
• Don’t use everyday, children were positive
• Can disrupt flow
• Only accept positive comments
• Works well in maths and can see where it impacts on error diagnosis
• Say at beginning that group will use Visualiser
• Great for art work
• Could use a scanner for same effect

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INSET

Two schools (Four Dwellings Primary and Woodhouse Primary) have shared materials and strategies from cascading the learning across the whole primary school.

Four Dwellings Primary School

Impact

• Everyone on board
• We have agendas and INSET and PowerPoint presentation

Need to do

• feedback and marking
• success and improvements

Delivery

• Use of AfL features
• Ensured we delivered according to styles of teachers
• Gave homework for next meeting and always recapped previous meeting

Prior to Shirley Clarke’s input, InSET had already focused on:

• De-contextualised learning objective
• Success criteria
• Feedback and marking (pink and green)

After Shirley Clarke’s input the following were focused on:

• effective questioning
• success criteria (part 2) in depth
• talk partners
• success and improvement- as phase

Download materials are available from Lisa Naughton and Linda Jones

Woodhouse Primary School

• phase meetings
• KS2 meetings:
• Put staff into learning pairs to discuss their feelings
• De- contextualising success criteria in pairs
• Practise ideas for three weeks
• After 3 weeks shared positive and negative intervention
• Follow up meeting on effective questioning
• In learning pairs practised over next 3 weeks
• Follow up meeting again to establish PMI

Materials are available from Jo Copestake (assistant head)

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Talking Partners


(Learning Partners)

From Formative Assessment in Action Weaving the Elements Together – Shirley Clarke Even if the question is a basic recall question (‘What does a plant need to grow?’), a more effective approach than rapid fire is to ask the question, then ask children to talk to their talking partner for say 30 seconds, to determine the answer. The answers are then gathered, with no hands up, from a number of pairs (with one child acting as spokesperson each time) until a full definition is compiled. When asking open questions (What might be the reasons for this?’), it is often useful to ask children to raise their hands if their partner had a good idea that the could tell the class. Having ‘talking partners’ as a regular feature of lessons allows all children to think, to articulate and therefore to extend their learning. Shy, less confident children have a voice, and over – confident children have to learn to listen to others, so the benefits extend to a more respectful, cooperative ethos and culture: fundamental to the success of assessment for learning. We have tended to over focus on individual children when they have responded to a question, so that the child;s name is often repeated and maybe public congratulations given, thus reinforcing the comparison effect for those children who have not responded, which changes the emphasis from the child to the responses.



• random and fairly organised
• changed every 3 weeks
• evaluate each others practice
• SEN can go in 3 or use fairness sticks to join random 3
• Don’t be afraid of groupings

 

FS	KS1	KS2	KS3	KS4	Special	Maths	Eng	Cross Curric
ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü

How we’ve used it  (comments from the Learning Team members)

• use from sheets
• preparing

 

Some teachers developed different names for talk partners:

• fez of fairness
• pot of fairness
• learning partners
• carpet partners

 

download of comp slip

Comments from Learning Team Members

How I use Talk Partners


I use talk partners a lot, but mainly on carpet sessions at the beginning of the lesson. This is because children work in different groups at tables and I lose the randomness (fairness). In those situations the children still work in 2’s but with the person they sit next to.
To generate talking partners I use old birthday cards and children find their partner. Odd number I use my poor SEN child and pick a name out of the bag of fairness and he joins that group.
At the end of each three weeks children evaluate each other.

Talk/Learning partners

• Pot of fairness – names on lollipops
• Photos of pupils
• Names on laminated card (make sure they are same size)
• Match a card- find a partner

 

• Severe S.E.N- work with 2 other pupils but name drawn out fairly.
• Initially, fixed, challenging behaviour child/autistic- difficulty with social skills, also had to do this with ‘unliked’ child.
• Evaluated on talk partner ability after 3 weeks, what were problems? How would we solve them? Made into a display “our talk partner target for this time is”.
• Use at all times of the lesson- effective questioning at the beginning
• Assess at the end
• Throughout lesson
• All subjects- Value- Learning from mistakes, no hands up

Talk Partners

Random, changed three weekly.
Have fixed it for specific children (never more than 2) to have a specific partner either for behavioural or social reasons.
Use no hands up for answering/feeding back which allows for more children to participate and forces others. If a child puts up their hand, I immediately know they have a question- we have had loads more.
Used often with effective questioning.

Talk Partners

How we’ve used it….
Used in core and foundation subjects- mainly at beginning and plenary of lessons- linked to ‘no hands up’ approach and to ensure that all children participate in the learning.
Used to organise children for trips/educational visits.
Group tasks eg presentations- jpin pairs together-perceived to be more fair by pupils.
Link to ‘fez of fairness’- to feedback answers.  

Talk Partners

How we have used them:

• English/paired for introduction and beginning of lesson. Discussion about test/sentence construction i.e. capital letters, full stops.
• Listening activities, paired/reporting back what their partner has said, very difficult for year/ children.
• Model writing, to generate success criteria
• Maths discussion work
• White board in pairs
• Practical sessions
• Science- trips out to the think tank paired for discussion work
• Practical sessions
• No hands up

 

Using Talk Partners has become an expectation by the children.  On a trip to Birmingham’s Think Tank - the response from their staff was really positive, they were very impressed the children at such a young age (Year 1) could ‘pair up’ instantly and feedback.

Talk Partners

• defined as learning pairs
• discuss concepts (verbal)
• provide ideas (verbal)
• model writing together
• random choice dug class discussions
• generate success criteria for discussing class issues or ideas for student council
• maths games to improve friendship groupd
• trips to the zoo
• link to no hands up
• I feel the learning pairs has made a real impact on developing the social skills of the children

 

Talk Partners- impact

• works well with EAL
• good for alternative groupings
• great for speaking and listening
• supports less confident pupils and those who are reluctant to share
• “makes lazy children do some work” (pupil)
• Creates ok to be wrong culture
• Links to no hands up
• All getting opportunity to respond
• Supportive to children’s listening skills
• Ensures fair rotation/respons/coverage
• Ensures pupils are all participating and all learning
• Support network in class
• Forces new networking and has positive impact on relationships with new pupils
• Supports organisation (also for trips)
• Feedback opportunities have been developed
• Easy to hand as a strategy to other teachers (PPA/cover/etc)
• Links to SEAL materials and therefore deal with conflict situations more positively.

 

Challenges/difficulties

• can initially be difficult for ‘unpopular’ or ‘behaviourally challenging’ pupils. However this turns to a definite positive over the year.
• All staff need to be on board
• Some groupings need to be ‘supported’ or ‘managed’.
• Talk partners of difficult abilities don’t always match the differentiation within lessons (particularly in maths), therefore needs careful forward planning.
• Integration support needs to be changed every three weeks.

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Success Criteria

‘Communicating assessment criteria involves discussing them with learners using terms that they can understand, providing examples of how the criteria can be met in practice and engaging learners in peer and self-assessment’.  
                                                                        (Assessment Reform Group, 2002)

Description:

• different types of success criteria
• open
• closed
• flexible as to when to put it in lesson
• generation of success criteria
• some generic
• some child generated
• some teacher generated

 

FS	KS1	KS2	KS3	KS4	Special	Maths	Eng	Cross Curric
ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	Can be difficult	ü	ü science

Notes:
 
Art- good for skills but care needed to ensure outcomes are not prescribed and creativity not stifled.
Boys- achievement very clear.

Comments from Learning Team members


 

KS1 Phase

English
 

At the beginning of the lesson- share points to follow- what do we always have VCOP.

What are we looking for via basic reading-tell/narrative piece of writing

Maths

Practical ‘hands on’

1 step instruction path

 

Science

Good for investigation work

What makes a piece of work ‘good’ or ‘not so good’

 

Success Criteria

to model criteria for different genre

initially teacher led used as a teacher point for teaching genre

colour coded- green for generic criteria

child generated is a way of using needs

mainly used English

used in plenary

 

Specific Success Criteria not included (e.g. VCOP) but expected

Often children generated but not always

Referred to throughout the lesson and assessed against at the end (and throughout depending on the lesson)

I had already done a lot of work on success criteria (I did a dissertation on it for my MA) I always think of the complete unit- i.e. the success criteria will de different at the start of a unit. I.e. the success criteria will relate to skills needed to e.g. write a set of instructions at the end of a unit to use as a tool for assessment the success criteria will be open e.g. have a good structure, will use VCOP.
I find that I show children good work and annotate and generate success criteria.
I also find with maths, I use it to annotate a process e.g. to show a system for solving problems, it gives children an order e.g. first, second.
I always generate success criteria with children. My research showed this had the most impact.

Identify success criteria for all writing- generic VCOP- link to Alan Peat.

Children are comfortable with these and list.

generating success criteria – variety of ways pupils very responsible to good/bad example.

Children refer to success criteria, assess effectively according to success criteria- helps them to success and improve

As a teacher- you must know what success criteria is- have to discuss with colleagues what ‘open’ success criteria is e.g. description- can I see a picture?

At first we gave children the success criteria to the children as it was a new concept. As children became more aware of the use/purpose of criteria, the children began to generate their own through looking at a ‘good’ and ‘less effective’ piece of work- the things that made the good one ‘good’ become the success criteria.
Mainly used in English lessons.

Impact.

children know what needs to be in their work

children’s responsibility for own learning

teacher knowledge greatly enhanced

pupil perception of learning/teaching enhanced

very supportive for children

children can see their goal, they have something to work towards

particularly good for boys

raises self esteem ‘not talking’ have visual reference

clear for focusing the marking

clear for next steps for learning

 

Changes/difficulties

can be regimented/restrictive

highlights need for common language across school

differentiation of success criteria  across school

initially time consuming to generate the success criteria

can be challenging to implement in maths

 

Downloads
- examples

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Decontextualised Learning Objective

‘A teacher’s planning should provide opportunities for both learner and teacher to obtain and use information about progress towards learning goals. It also has to be flexible to respond to initial and emerging ideas and skills. Planning should include strategies to ensure that learners understand the goals they are pursuing and the criteria that will receive feedback, how they will take part in assessing their learning and how they will be helped to make further progress should also be planned’. 
(Assessment Reform Group, 2002)

quite easily to implement

Teachers practised and put into backs straight away

 

Positives for decontextualising the learning objective

transference of skills across curriculum

teachers actual focusing of teaching not context

success criteria flow easier- was woolly

brings back to basics- reduces to key skills focus

more literacy and numeracy links

links to key aspects- topic based enquiry

 

Challenges/difficulties for decontextualising the learning objective

at first it takes time re-adjust e.g. to make a sandwich- to write instructions

dividing process skill from understanding in ‘foundation’

unit understanding – from process

 

Downloads

examples of Learning Objective, all subject areas

links to INSET

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Effective Questioning.

‘More effort has to be spent in framing questions that are worth asking: that is, questions which explore issues that are critical to the development of children’s understanding.’ (Black et al., 2003) Studies about teacher questioning over the years have revealed that teachers mainly ask recall or social managerial questions to ask, but have not challenged our children so that their understanding is further and deepened. Although improving teacher questions is a continual and difficult process, it is an area of formative assessment which can result in relatively rapid, positive change in the classroom. From Formative Assessment in Action weaving the elements together – Shirley Clarke

How?

INSET- tried out, tried out variety of question types, increased teachers awareness of what they say. Helps you reflect on who you are asking and what (stops leading pupils to answer) Links to talk partners well. Use for assessment tool.

need to plan questions

no hands up, body language

 

Positives +
 

variety used- great for assessment, informing planning. Plenaries “stops show and tell”, moves forward.

Encourages teacher to reflect on learning throughout the lesson

Children more confident to discuss disagreements

More ‘philosophical’

Speaking/listening- really need to concentrate

Increasing and developing literacy heritage

Little ones need to be ‘trained’ to what talking is

Social skills- talking effectively

Teaching style, organisation improved

Change teacher talk- becomes more reflective

Gets children to justify and think about learning

Variety to learning

Discussion

Challenges/difficulties

Difficult to include all questions

Have to plan for all question types

Not all types at first

 

Younger phases

watered down e.g. 3 different answers rather than 5, particularly true or false

 

Downloads

Effective questioning examples

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Feedback and Marking

To be uploaded

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Unit Coverage

To be uploaded

World Of Work (WOW)

Our World of Work (WoW) programme for Year 5 pupils has been an instant success for both pupils and teachers. Pupils attend The Quinzone Centre for one afternoon a week for 6 weeks.They take part in a work experience programme that covers hairdressing, horticulture and construction.  The tutors expertly link the skills and attitudes needed in the workplace to the work and learning that takes place in school.  They also show the pupils the range of careers and employment prospects within each area, enabling the pupils to understand and start to think about the vast number of job opportunities and choices available to them.
World of Work Evaluation Quotes Teacher - An awareness of the qualities needed to be successful in the World of Work. An understanding of the choices available in the World of Work. How will the World of Work Programme contribute towards the children’s learning in your class? They have used the skills they learnt in areas of Science. They are also using the knowledge to have a better attitude to wards their work and how these decisions now will affect them in the future. It has helped them think about and know what happens after school and why they are at school. We will be able to reference back to the World of Work when talking about qualities we are trying to install e.g. pride in your work, tidiness, punctuality, teamwork, responsibility. Children will see the relevance of their studies in work situations. How will the World of Work programme contribute towards the children’s learning in the future? They will be more focused to achieve and think carefully about the choices they made in school life. It will hopefully encourage them in all that they are doing. As well as giving them confidence to try new things. They will retain the knowledge of the importance of success and learning at school to their future success in the work place. Would you recommend that the World of Work programme is repeated next year? Yes – The children really enjoyed the opportunity to learn the range of professions they can do. They were also informed of the steps to get to this point. The children thoroughly enjoyed the programme and were engaged at all times. The World of Work programme gave the children the opportunity to learn new skills and confidence that they can try new things and achieve. All the children really enjoyed learning outside the classroom environment. Yes – the children really enjoyed the whole experience. contributed to a broad curriculum made them aware of qualities needed in the workplace developed social skills with other adults developed new skills and interests Children- Quinzone gives us an idea of what we could do in the future. I liked the World of Work programme because it helped me learn about what job I could have in the future. What did you learn about working life? That you have to be tidy, helpful, happy, polite and not moody. I learnt that you have to be polite, punctual, neat and tidy. Never be miserable at work because you might upset others. You have to be on time and be tidy and smell nice. Working life can be hard and you have to have a job you like. I learnt that you should be polite, tidy, have a good communication and be friendly. I learned about the safety hazards and how it is so important to be on time. I learned that whatever job you have to be a really good listener. I learned about working life, that you have to be polite, a good listener and be on time. I learnt about myself that I like construction a lot more than I thought. I learnt that you have to be polite, tidy and friendly. You also have to wear appropriate clothing. You have to get on no matter what the circumstances are. You also have to have good skills to achieve your goals.  It can be dangerous. When you are working in construction you could die if you don’t wear protective gear. I learnt that when work is finished you should clean the room. That it is hard but when you put your mind to it, it is easier for people. That I shouldn’t moan about things. I moaned about horticulture but I enjoyed it when I got there. I have learnt that I am more confident. I have got more confident. I learnt to be sensible while working. I learnt to be kind to the people you are working for. I learnt about myself that I can be good at all different things. I learned at school that you get hard work and in work. I have learnt a lot of things whilst working with Noel. I’ve learnt that I’m capable of using tools. I’ve learnt that I can listen to instructions and follow them. I’ve learnt that I can be sensible and dependable all the time. GOOD TO BE ME! I learnt about myself that if I concentrate then I learn more. I am capable of many things. I learnt how to concentrate when the teacher is speaking. I learnt that I can work more independently. I can do it if I put my mind to it. I learnt how to be a good speaker. We learned that we had to be happy, on time, reliable and lots more. Listening, doing, learning, fixing pipes, careful with hazards, be careful with earthworms. I learnt to be sensible, calm, don’t be silly and do your best. That there is more in my life.   Please describe one of the sessions that you attended. Please include some of the things you learned, the way that it was different from school and how you felt about attending The Quinzone Centre. Noel was very funny and very strong he had to lift the big bag of soil everywhere and he was very nice. I learned at construction that you need to know maths, literacy and science. I liked construction the most. I learnt that you always need to wear safety goggles, high visibility jackets and to be relaxed. I felt great about going to Quinzone because we were going to learn about work. Construction has a good manager. He taught me how to use the tools safely. It has made me think what I want to be when I grow up. I really enjoyed attending Quinzone.  It was different from school because you have to write stories but at work you have to make stuff and put stuff together. We did Miss Cowan’s hair, she is our Headteacher, it was fun! To Anita and Jo,

 

Book Boost for Year 1 and Years 7 & 8

Book Boost is a project, funded by Quinzone Education Action Zone, that will mean that every Year 1 child and a selected group of Years 7 & 8 pupils will receive a book each month.  In total they will each receive 10 books.  The idea behind the project is to increase the number of books that children have at home and to link learning at home with learning at school.  The project starts in September with the Year 1 pupils receiving a quality encyclopaedia and the Years 7 & 9 pupils receiving a dictionary and thesaurus.  Each book has been selected by teachers (with advice taken from children) in order to enhance the work going on at school. Click the link below to find out more September Book Talk