Final bulletin of the Noughties!

Hi all,
Thanks to everyone for all your hard work through 2009, and have a wonderfully restful Christmas!

This week:
Thurs - Department meal out.
Fri - END OF TERM! (poss not necessary to put this on the bulletin, but just in case anyone hadn't realised...)

Department Meeting - Christmas Special
Tues
3.15 - 4.15
C26
Agenda:
1) INSET Day 4th Jan
2) GCSE Speaking and Listening
3) Enrichment Day - January 2010

Year 11 mocks:
Thanks to everyone for all the work that's gone into getting mocks sorted and entered into SERCO. It's up to you when you prefer to run your feedback lesson (I know last year some of us waited for a few weeks), but please let me have your mark sheets ASAP so I can get the sheets sorted.

Year 7 Leon Link
Just a reminder that the Year 7 Leon project needs to begin in one of the first few lessons back - I've emailed a link to some resources, but feel free to use your own approaches or ideas. The important thing is that they do the project at this time, as it combines with work in History and Geography and is being launched by AW in assembly. They need to produce a booklet travel guide to Leon / Nicaragua at the end of it, and prizes are given to the best efforts.

Hope the last week goes well,
Tom

Bulletin - 6th December

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone for your very hard work so far this year. It's certainly a tiring term, particularly in these almost-but-not-quite-Christmas weeks; only ten days to go (9 1/2 really)!

Many thanks also to Alastair and Jamie for their much-appreciated contributions to the quiz, which seemed to go down really well (Gulliver-gate aside!).

1-to-1:

I didn't have any response to the recent email about 1-to-1 training. If you are still interested in pursuing this opportunity, do let me know and I'll pass on when the next training is available.

GCSE:

Just a reminder - please don't pass on results to students - we'll need to get them into SERCO before the end of term, but they won't go out to Year 11 until the first week back.

Year 9 into 10 data:

Please could any remaining work to be passed from year 9 to current year 10 teachers (media and S and L assessments) be given to Heather ASAP!

First Story:

Lots of really good news coming from the First Story writers, with two of our students (Nick Clarke and Lizzie Mundell-Perkins) winning prizes in a competition based around 100 word stories. Many thanks again to Jamie and Liz for all your work on this project.

Safeguarding:

Not sure if everyone got the implications of the email that was sent round last week, which are that we all need to watch the safeguarding video on the VLE and send a signed letter in to say that we've done it, by Thursday of next week. Not sure how long it is, but I think it's about an hour. The letter suggests that we are also required to read some accompanying training documents as well... (can I just clarify my role as the messenger here, so please don't shoot!)

Thanks everyone and have a wonderful pre-Christmas week!

Tom

Bulletin - 23rd November

This week:
Meeting on Tues
3.15 – 4.15
C26
Agenda:
- Department Review feedback (TBO / AW)
- SIP / SEF
- Year 11 2010
- AOB

Year 11 Mock Exams on Mon and Weds (period 3 and 4).

Year 11 Issues
Thanks to Pat for the feedback on the standardising process on Friday. I have the booklets and will distribute them this week. I have also used the AQA Enhanced Results Analysis service to gather more data on the performance of our students from last year; it’s not quite finished as I need some FFT data, but it’s more or less done. Could year 11 teachers please have a look at the document, which has some interesting data relating to our students’ performance on specific questions and parts of the paper. Some points in particular:
- Higher Tier performance was considerably stronger than Foundation, when compared with similar schools nationally
- Boys performed similarly to girls in Paper 2, but significantly worse in Paper 2
- Our coursework received lower grades than similar schools nationally
- The two AOs for writing which achieved lower marks were:
o AO3 (i) communicate clearly and imaginatively, using and adapting forms for different readers and purposes
o AO3 (ii) organise ideas into sentences, paragraphs and whole texts using a variety of linguistic and structural features

If you would like to know how to complete this detailed, question by question analysis for your own class, see me and I’ll show you how.
I have sent around some resources on this – a document from the QCDA which has some really useful practical approaches to teaching writing for GCSE, and an AO grid for the writing sections of the exam.

Bulletin 16th November

This week:
Year 12 PCE on Thurs
Year 13 Reports to be completed this week (see guidance from TLa)
PTo out on Friday at GCSE meeting


GCSE Issues

You may have noticed that we are not asked to complete the marking of the standardising booklet this year - instead, Pat will attend the meeting and report back.

I attended the HODs training on the new GCSEs on Thursday, and saw presentations from each of the exam boards. I will collate this information and summarise for the department in a meeting early next year, at which point we will have to make a decision as to which specification we prefer and start planning!

Year 9 Work Scrutiny
Thanks to all for providing work for the work scrutiny of year 9. It was a heart-warming experience to look through and see such excellent work from students and from staff - I'll get the overview back to you this week.

Have a good one!
Tom

Bulletin - 9th November

This week - reports for Year 13 and year 8 are available on SERCO.
TBo out on Thurs at HODs conference (finding out about the new GCSE syllabi)

Department Review
Sincere thanks to all for the efforts that went into review week. I hope that colleagues found the opportunity to reflect on and discuss lessons useful. Two things are happening this week:
- We will conduct a work scrutiny of year 9 books and folders. Therefore, could I ask year 9 teachers to provide me with the books and work folders for three students from your class - one should be high ability, one middle and one low. I need to collect these on Wednesday please.
- AW and I will meet this week to put together the formal feedback
Finally, there will be feedback to the department at the next meeting, at which point staff will have the opportunity to discuss how we found the process and how it could be improved.

Year 11 Mocks
Mocks are on the 23rd and 25th November. Could I ask year 11 teachers to send me confirmation of which tier they'd like their classes to do. If there are different tiers within the class, could you let me know who entered for which tier. Thanks.

Serco Bulletin
Just a reminder to keep checking the SERCO bulletin as the main source of whole-school communication.

KS3 Assessment
I'll email a copy of the success criteria for KS3 around this week. They are very much a first draft, but please be explicit with your KS3 classes in terms of the skills that are being addressed in each unit, and how they show progress / success.

Have a great week everyone,
Tom

Bulletin - 2nd November

This week:
Welcome back everyone and I hope you've enjoyed the break. Loads going on this term, notably the department review, year 11 mocks, Secret Santa etc... have a good one!

Department Review 2009/10
I hope that the procedures for the department review are clear to everyone. I have updated the overview sheet from last year and emailed it around to staff, but please get in touch if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks to Pat for emailing the lesson planning sheet around.

Meeting: although this is a calendered HODs' meeting, it is expected (and factored into our directed time) that the rest of the department will meet during these slots. Therefore, there will be a meeting on Tuesday after school in Liz's room. On this occasion, Hugh has asked that all staff discuss and feedback on the questions listed in the agenda, in order to contribute towards the development of a whole school learning policy.



Department meeting this week:

C26

3.15 - 4.15

Agenda:

1) Creating a Language of Learning
3 Key Questions:
What does a good lesson look like?
What expectations do we want from our teachers?
What expectations do we want from our students?

2) AFL - monitoring and development

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Tom

Bulletin - 12th October

Hi all,
Just a couple of quick ones this week.

Media / Speaking and Listening Marks and Work
Could all year 9 teachers from last year please pass on your class work and marks for the S and L and Media pieces to Heather at some point this week. Heather will then organise the redistribution to the new classes. Julie - I have yours, so I'll pass them on.

Year 13 Re-marks
We are in the interesting position of having challenged a re-mark for some Year 13 Unit 6 candidates. Apparently they have been checked by the principal examiner, but they've also been checked by us and we are convinced that the marking is flawed. Anyway, the examiner has offered to send us a report of why the marks are so low - I'll keep you posted. Pat - is there any way you can get hold of Julia Peto's script photocopy and pass it to me? I might need the evidence! Next stop, the European Court of Human Rights ...

Thanks to Liz and Jamie for the work they're putting into the First Story project - seems to be going really well.

Observations
I am intending to start a round of observations in the near future. If there are any lessons you'd particularly like to be observed - I suppose either because something is going really well or really badly, or there are any issues with a class that you'd like support with - please let me know and I'll arrange it.

Thanks for all your hard work and have a fab week,
Tom

Bulletin 5-10

Hi everyone,
First of all, a big welcome to Mary Brereton and Helen McGowan, who are our Brookes interns this year - see Liz's email for the obs schedule for this week.
Thanks to all for your work on Friday with performance management, and I hope that you found the experience positive and useful. One point on this - if you have lesson observation forms from last year's peer observations, please pass a copy on to me. Thanks also to Gary for taking Year 13 to the Globe (see photo) - sounds like a brilliant production!

Formative Assessment
Thanks to all for your contributions to the discussion on formative assessment at the last meeting. I would just like to clarify the expectations at KS3 to ensure that the policy is implemented consistently for all students and all units.
- Staff (and students) need to be clear about the precise assessment focus for each unit, and to have built in explicit teaching of that skill. If you are not clear about this, please refer to the SOW overviews on the shared area or speak to me / Liz.
- All classes should be given a mid-unit assessment point, in which students complete a short, focused task which requires them to display their learning in a particular skill area.
- Success criteria need to be shared and understood. The framing for this is to provide descriptors for ‘Good’ and ‘Excellent’ writing. The APP grids can be useful here, with Good encompassing levels 3-5 and Excellent relating to levels 6-8, but the exact wording will need tweaking to make it make sense.
- Opportunities need to be provided for self,peer and teacher assessment.
- Teacher assessment should be in the form of positive comments and specific targets, related to the success criteria. Using IT will make this process quick and efficient. Please do not put levels on students’ work – I will distribute an article this week which goes into more detail about the effect of levelling on student attitude andmotivation.
- Finally, follow up tasks need to be provided which allow students to act on their targets straight away. Again, marking on Excel will make this task simple to manage.
- However, please do keep a record of the level that the student has achieved – we will be required to report on this and use the data for tracking. I will therefore be collecting this data on a termly basis – if you keep your data on Excel this will be zzzzzzz….
Thank you for putting in the time and effort that this will require. It’s one of the strongest features of the department that staff are so willing to share resources, so thanks in advance if you are able to send useful materials round to colleagues. Please feel free to trial similar approaches at KS4/5. I will be looking to discuss this further and get feedback as to how staff are getting on with it; please come and see me with any queries or if you’d like to discuss the process further.

Shared Text at KS3
I’ve had several conversations about this unit with colleagues recently. I know that this unit can be very successful, but I’d just put out a reminder that there’s no requirement for all students to study the same novel, and that an alternative model is to have students working in groups with a particular novel. It’s an option, and one which I found helpful with regards to differentiation, motivation and student independence – see me if you’d like to discuss (there are definite challenges to doing it this way also!).

Open Evening
We could really do with some help on Tuesday afternoon sorting out C2 and C5 in preparation for Open Evening. I have got a few kids in doing a news report as suggested on Tuesday, but it’s not too late to invite others in if you teach any who keen.

One to One tuition
More details about the one to one.
Sessions would be outside school hours, but can be in school (so 3 - 4 in your classroom would be fine)
Students are KS3 and selected from the following criteria:
a) entered Key Stage 3 behind the expected level
b) are not on the trajectory to meet national expectations
c) are Looked After or may particularly benefit from this kind of additional support
We are in the process of generating a list students who hit one of these. Anyone with QTS can tutor, at £25 per hour. The class teacher is expected to provide targets / information about areas of the student's skills which need work. It is aimed at underachievement rather than SEN specifcally.
If you are interested, please let me know ASAP

C5 computers
As you may have noticed, 8 computers have been installed in C5, a mere 18 months after the project was agreed! The main thinking behind this was to address our desperate need for kit for producing practical work in GCSE / A Level Media, but obviously there are lots of opportunities for use in English lessons at all levels. Please have a look at the room timetable that Heather sent around and let me know if you’d like to use the room (although the room timetable does need AT’s lessons in there added on) . If I am timetabled in there, I am more than happy to room swap. Some potential uses:
- Group work on comupters, eg research, media work, moving image work.
- Personalising learning, by having students work on different targets or tasks
- Using a combination of computer / conventional approaches in the same lesson
The software is installed on these machines to control the websites that the kids can access. As soon as I’ve worked out how to use it, I’ll let you know.
Thanks everyone and have a wonderful week,
Tom

Bulletin 28th September

Hello everyone,
Thanks to everyone for your efforts with staff tea, and I apologise for my absence, which was due to the astorturf having it in for my family. I've told Lyndsey not to go near it...
A big welcome to Barry, Elaine, Ruth and Pippa who will all be working with the department this year.

Meeting on Tues 29th September
3.15 - 4.15
C26
Agenda

1. Formative Assessment tasks at KS3
2. English Support
3. Performance Management
4. Open Evening
5. Detentions
6. AOB

Performance Management

The pairings for PM this year are as follows:

TBo: NTu, EFr, CSw

EWa: PTo, JKy, PHa

PTo: GSn, EWa

Exam results data will be provided this week. The system has changed somewhat this year, and the new forms are available on the intranet, page 351. This link should take you there if you are reading this in school... http://intranet/staffintranet/351.htm

Open Evening
Open evening is almost upon us again! I propose that we use C2 and C5, but would be happy to switch upstairs to the 'new carpet zone' if people would prefer? Please have a think about ideas to show the subject in its best light; in particular it would be good to get some students involved so any ideas?

Here's to a wonderful week!

Tom

Bulletin 21st September

This week:

• College meetings on Tues (we're next week)
• UCAS references to be completed by the end of the week.
• I've sprained my ankle so have to sort of waddle everywhere - Isobel says I'm not allowed to play football again.
• Cake day on Friday!

Assessment: please see email and resources regarding approaches to formative assessment at KS3.
Staffing: I'm delighted to say that we have some staff who have been allotted to support in English - Pippa, Sue Buckley, Elaine Davis are three confirmed so far. The precise role of this is yet to be confirmed, but will probably have an emphasis supporting year 11 classes.
Department Review: a heads-up that we are likely to be one of the first departments to be reviewed this year, so expect this in the next few weeks.
Tables and Chairs: any more requests for tables and chairs to me ASAP please! Only if you are short though I'm afraid.
Co-op learning structure: this is a good, easy one. It's called 'Chips-in' and is designed to ensure high levels of participation. So: each student in a team discussion has a different coloured poker chip. When they want to make a point, they put their chip into the middle of the table. Each person has to put their chip in, and therefore make a contribution, before the chips are given out again. If you need the chips, see me as I've got a set in my office...
Have a great week!
Tom

Bulletin - 14th September

Hi everyone, and thanks for all your hard work in what's been a positive start to the year. Not much to report this week:

Group Lists
There are still a couple of group list changes which need to happen, and I'll email those affected. Otherwise, it should really settle down from this point.

First Story
First Story begins this Weds - thanks to Jamie for overseeing.

Silly YouTube video
My class enjoyed this one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4vW3fsJ8pk&feature=related

Have a fab week!
Tom

Bulletin 7th September

Hello everyone and welcome back to the first full week of Cheney, although given how exhausted I was at the end of one day, I'm worried that I'm not going to make it to Friday... Thanks to all for your contributions to the meeting time that we had, notes from which will be emailed around this week.

Anyway, here we go:

Class Lists

There are usually a number of students who are unsure which class they should be in, or have ended up in the wrong group. This is often due to students switching sides of the timetable - if this is the case with a student in your class, could you please email me the details. Thanks.

Year 9:

The class lists for Year 9 look to have changed quite a lot in some instances; I was unaware that this had taken place and can only apologise to those staff who have already sorted out seating plans etc.

Year 10

If you are teaching An Inspector Calls first with your Lit group, I have the copies centrally, so please let me know how many you need. Also, don't forget that we have an audio version of the play available on the shared area, along with some useful looking audio resources which could be used in class.

Department support:

I will put together the dept support timetable this week - for the time being, could staff please make themselves available by letting the rest of us know via email if they are teaching a 6th form lesson today or tomorrow.

Cover:

I'd just like to bring attention to the following info as sent round by Alasdair regarding procedures for staff absence this year:

Cover Guide

In the morning or night before if ill ring 01865 755228 and leave a message on Alasdair Harley's phone, or email ahr@cheney.oxon.sch.uk

All forms for cover, trips etc go to Charlotte Baker based in the office at main reception on extension 261 or email on cba@cheney.oxon.sch.uk

All illnesses during the day could staff ring Charlotte on extension 261 and she will arrange cover

Attempted Strangulation

Should this eventuality take place, please remember the procedure: head wiggle, back step, wrist-squeeze, arm-in-the-air-like-john-travolta, turn and run (I think that's right??).

Have a great week!

Tom

Final Bulletin this year!!

Hi all,

First of all a massive thanks to all for the hard work that staff have put in to English and Media this year - our students are a lucky bunch! Please keep things going as normally as possible for this week. Particular thanks to Maz for all the work you've put in - Cheney won't be the same without you!

Meeting on Tues:
- TBo out at SSAT course.
Agenda:
- KS3 update (EWa)

- Introduction to Salsa / Latin American dancing (Led by EWA but involving ALL, except ME as I won't be there HA HA!!!)*
- Planning time (GSn, PTo, JKy to look at A2 Lit)
-AOB

*This item will not take place in any real or actual sense.

Timetable
I was given a completed timetable on Friday which I'm happy to share, but there are some problems. KS5 and 4 are fine, but there are a large number of split classes in KS3. This may be irresolvable but I have asked Mark to have another look to see if anything can be done.

Work Experience:
We have two Year 12s on work experience - Yasir Badoume and Dale Dandridge - who are acting as TAs and Media technicians - they may come round to do some filming, but please send them away if it's not appropriate.

Year 9 Data
Lists coming round on Monday for Y9 data - we need S and L scores, Media and Reading test /32 please. I have the data which went onto SERCO and will use this initially, but need the rest of it to tweak the lists during the hols. Thanks for all your recommendations for Lit / Media students.

Co-op
Please see the film on Co-op learning made by some Year 9s - it's available on the SERCO bulletin or in the Staff area in a file called Co-operative Learning.

Outing!

Dept outing is on Friday, meeting at the City Arms on Cowley Road from 7.15, with a table booked at Fratellis across the road from 8. Thanks to Maz for sorting it all out.

Have a wonderful summer everyone!!

Tom

Bulletin 6th July

Nearly there!

Lesson Visits this week:

Monday 6th July
EMA visits Ntu – Y9 – p3
Pto visits Ewa – Y8 – p2
Pha visits JD – p3 – Year 9

Tuesday 7th July
JKY visits Tbo – p4 - Year 9

Wednesday 8th July
CSw visits Tbo – p1 – Year 10

Bulletin - 29th June

This Week:

Dept Meeting
C5
3.15 - 4.15

1) Assessment policy review (All) - I know that this is short notice, but if you were able to cast your eyes over the draft policy emailed around on Friday, that would be great.
2) GCSE update (TBo)
3) Year 9 into 10 grouping data (EWa)
4) Eal update (NBr)
5) AOB
6) At this point the meeting will split for the remainder of the time into:
- KS5 Media meeting (TBo, PHa, JKy)
- KS5 Lit meeting (GSn, PTo)
- KS3 Planning meeting (EWa, EFr, NTu, CSw, JD)

Lesson Visits
Thanks to all for taking part in the lesson visits, and I hope that staff are finding the process useful. Please pass on a copy of the forms to me (electronically or photocopy).

Survey this week
I have put together a survey for students in Year 8 and 10, aiming to get feedback on attitudes towards English and on assessment in particular. You can look at the survey here : http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=wzErzP_2bo4Xuy5P23orflIA_3d_3d . This is not intended for individual classes, but I will be asking for some students to come out of a range of lessons to complete this this week, aiming to get feedback from across the year group with differentiation between genders and ability groups. I will speak to individual colleagues about appropriate times to ask small groups of students to leave your lesson for 10 mins to complete this.
If you would like to complete this survey (or a variant of it) with one of your own groups (from any year group), please let me know and I will arrange.

Ning Nang Nong
At the time of writing, there are 23 members of the Cheney English KS5 Ning network (which is sort of like Facebook, but about Lit!) ... there are some forums running about favourite reads etc, whilst I'm getting my group to post up their ideas for coursework on their page. Not really sure as to the best way to use it yet, but could KS5 teachers let their classes know, and if they've not recieved an email invite then get their address and I'll send one. If any other colleagues want to join in, let me know and I'll make sure you are invited - it's then a 30 second process to register and start contributing.

Thanks
To everyone for all your hard work, and particualrly to Pat and Gary for sorting out amazing trips for our lucky sixth form!

Have a great week everyone - looks like being a scorcher!
Tom

Bulletin - 15th June

This Week:
TBo out on Weds at HODS conference.

Department Meeting -
Tuesday 16th June
C26
3.15 - 4.15
Single Item Agenda
- Assessment for Learning in the English Department (All)
- AOB

Year 10 Reports and PCE
Please make sure that reports are entered onto SERCO by Monday and that appointments are made for the PCE on Thursday.
Thanks to all year 10 teachers for the data you sent through last week. I'll merge this info onto a sheet for PCE and distribute.

Bulletin 8th June

Hi all,

Sorry for late posting this week!

Year 10 Coursework / Exam Grades: Thanks to all those who have emailed me the coursework grades for their Year 10 English classes. The deadline for this is Friday.

Mentoring: the tutor time mentoring of Year 11 was quite successful, so can I ask Year 10 teachers to send me the names of any students who are significantly underperforming and who would benefit from tutor - time intervention. I'm looking for students who are reasonably motivated and will turn up, and who are aiming for C grades. I'll do this for a few weeks, then perhaps switch to A into A*s, but start with C/D ers please.

Freed-up time: please see the emailed document for details of the ways in which we are using time made free by the departure of Year 11 and 13. In particular, please make a note of the dates for the classroom visits and let me know of any problems.

First Story: I learnt last week that our place on the First Write programme is confirmed, which means that we'll have a professional writer available to work with students on a long-term creative writing project from September. All we need now is students from Year 11 (ie curent year 10), 12 or 13 to take part. We are looking for students who are motivated and have some ability as writers, who will be willing to commit to attending fortnightly sessions. Could I therefore ask that you email me the names of any suitable candidates ASAP, and I will then approach the students about the project. Further details can be found here: http://firststory.co.uk/default.htm

YouTube: just a reminder that YouTube is available to support learning from now on - if it says it is blocked, just refresh and it will unblock! This is a really amazing resource, which gives us access to: film clips from just about any film, any song that you need, GCSE revision materials, funny videos, persuasive speeches from film or fact, charity ads, documentaries, poets reading their work, speaking and listening tips and examples, stage plays, every epsiode of Room 101, ... more or less anything that you can think of will be on there in some form (globally, there is 7 hours of video uploaded to the site every minute!). See me if you want a quick guide.
Thanks everyone!
Tom

Bulletin 1st June

Welcome back everyone - I hope you enjoyed the sunshine and had a well-deserved rest. Lots more glorious weather and no Year 10 this week!

Department Meeting on Tuesday
C26
3.15 - 4.15
Agenda
- Coursework / grouping issues (current Year 9 and 10) (TBo)
- Departmental priorities (TBo)
- Raising engagment through Co-operative learning in English / Media (TBo / EWa)


GCSE Coursework

Sorting out the GCSE coursework was difficult this year due to a high level of incomplete folders and numerous problems with adding up marks.

To try to make our coursework run more smoothly and effectively, I'd like to collect all the Year 10 coursework marks in over the next two weeks and will be sending out Excel documents for this purpose on Monday. Please fill them in with the grades for the coursework that's been completed so far, and I'll store this information centrally. This is a slightly fiddly job, but will not take more than a few minutes and it has the advantage of doing the adding up for us! I'll put the instructions on the email- any questions get back to me.


We do need to make sure that there are as few gaps as possible in our Year 10 coursework by the end of this year, so please keep the following in mind:


- coursework should now be completed in controlled assessment conditions, ie working in silence in class over approx two lessons.
- where students have missed this lesson(s), they need to complete the assessment as soon as possible, probably in a different classroom - let me know if you need me to supervise students in completing this.
- where work is missing from previous teachers, eg media or speaking and listening work from year 9, it is the current teacher's responsibility to ensure that this work is caught up and completed.



Year 9 this term

As Liz communicated last term, Year 9 will be asked to complete a SATS reading paper in week 3 of this term. Please do not feel that you have to spend a lot of time preparing the students for this - the skills tested are taught elsewhere in our KS3 SOW. It would be a good idea, however, to go through the format of the paper with them beforehand, and look at some of the wording for typical questions. We will distribute copies of the paper beforehand, and provide an alternative for students working below level 4.


Part of the reason that we are doing this is to provide us with supportive data for forming groups for next year, but please don't suggest to the students that their set placing is dependent on their performance (it isn't). Sets will be formed for next year using the following data, in the following order:

- Teacher Assessment levels from this year
- Writing grades from their Year 9 media piece (film review)
- Reading grades from the SATS paper
- Speaking and Listening grades from the end of year 9
- Prior attainment and FFT data

Have a great week!
Tom

Bulletin - 18th May

Hi all,

Well, just one week to go before the end of a manic term - thanks to everyone for all the hard work that's gone in and fingers crossed for kind questions in the exams. This week:

- Literature exam on Tuesday AM - it is essential that I get all copies of Of Mice and Men in from staff on Monday so that I can pass them on to the exams office in time for tomorrow's paper. I have sent an email around about this - please get texts to me ASAP.
- GCSE coursework - sample folders are being sent off on Monday, so please get any outstanding folders to me or put in the box in the English office as soon as you can - I need to drop them off in the exams office at lunch or p5.
- KS3 testing - as Liz mentioned in an email last week, we are going to ask year 9 teachers to conduct a SATS reading paper in the third week of next term. It will be the reading paper which was planned for the '09 tests. Year 9 into 10 students will be setted according to teacher assessment, and data on their reading test / media coursework.
First Story: we have been allocated a place on the First Stopry programme, which means that a professional writer will be coming into school to work with (probably older) students on a regular basis next year. Please mention this to any students in current year 10 - 12 who you think might be interested in taking part. More details here: http://firststory.co.uk/default.htm
Have a fab last week everyone,
Tom

Bulletin - 5th May

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend, and didn't mind missing our duty day / manic Monday too much!

This week:
Tuesday - whole school staff meeting after school
Weds - Year 10 English exams (please see previous email on this)

Interns
We are welcoming Hannah back this week, along with a new intern for this term: Felicity Rombough. Please see the observation schedule circulated by Liz last week on this, along with the request for volunteers for Felicity to take up some of your classes!

VLE
It seems that the VLE page is still with us (rumour was that it was disappearing, but it hasn't!), so please remind Year 11 students that this facility is there for them to use for revision. This link will take them to the GCSE home page: http://www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupID=419800 , but they can also access via the VLE link on the school website.

Year 11
Please remember to tell students about Nicky's fab-looking poetry revision service! Sessions every day this week by the looks of things - thanks Nicky!

Coursework
Thanks to all for the hard work that went into getting the coursework sorted, and particularly to Maz and Heather for filling in the little boxes! Next step is to hear which folders are called for moderation, at which point you'll receive back the folders for your students for checking.

Have a great 4 day week everyone!
Tom

Bulletin - 27th April

Thanks to everyone for all the effort that went into moderation, and to Heather for filling in the dreaded CAM sheets. Also, thanks for the efforts that went into Staff Tea, particularly Pat's home-made effort and Liz's last minute trolley dash! Apologies from myself and Jamie that we had to run off to play cricket - whilst JKy had a very promising debut, we lost and I was appalling. Would have been better for everyone if I'd stayed and done the washing up.

This week:
Pastoral meetings on Tuesday.

Co-operative Learning: Liz and I are holding a short meeting in on Weds in C5 to have a look at approaches to co-operative learning. I think that there is some valuable stuff here in terms of encouraging students to become more engaged and active in lessons, so come along at 3.10 if you have time.

Year 11: Thanks to Nicky for offering to run some revision sessions for Y11 - please refer to her email and send kids along. If anyone else would be willing to put on a session or two, please let me know, along with the topic you'd prefer to cover.

Behaviour: our detention system is currently being swamped by Y11 students who are then not turning up. Can I suggest that we leave Y11 out of this system from now on unless you feel it absolutely necessary. Thanks.

Have a great week,
Tom

Welcome Back Bulletin! 20 / 4 /09

Hi everyone, and welcome back to term 5... can't believe how fast this year is going! Particularly the holiday parts of it.

This week

Tuesday Moderation:

• Moderation is going ahead as planned on Tuesday, and I'm waiting for confirmation that we can use the Community Hall as per last year. If not, it might have to be the staff training room. The only slight problem is that AHr has contacted me to say that cover is proving very difficult. I am therefore proposing that Year 11 teachers take their classes as normal - I know that this isn't ideal, but it's difficult to see another way. There are also the obvious benefits that this will have for our students at this vital time also. So, please set cover for all lessons other than Year 11, and have folders ready to bring to wherever we end up on Tuesday.
• Tuesday's department meeting will be subsumed into the moderation process, so a separate agenda won't be produced.

Thanks to everyone for your work in preparing and administrating this coursework - there is light at the end of the tunnel and we'll be able to get rid of it all soon!

That's all really for this week, other than to say that I hope you all had a very restful and enjoyable break and are looking forward to the new term.
Tom

Bulletin - 30th March

Hi all,
There's been a real flurry of work being shared via email recently - huge thanks to everyone!

A Question of Words
Students performed admirably in the heats of this competition, and 16 have been selected to visit the Playhouse this coming weds afternoon. I'll send the names around and let you know the details tomorrow.

GCSE coursework
Please make sure that missing coursework is in this week. If any are particularly struggling, let me know and I'll see about getting them off timetable on Weds am, but this is obviously disruptive on the rest of their lessons so we'll avoid if poss. I am also available to supervise finishing coursework on Weds after school in J3 and on the first Tuesday of the holidays (also J3), but please try to get work from students before resorting to this!

Tony
Tony Marshall will be leaving us on Thurs as his placement has been moved to another school. He's been a fantastic intern and will be sadly missed!

Once again, thanks to everyone for your work this term - what you do really makes a difference to students' lives.

Have a good week,
Tom

Bulletin- 23rd March

Hi all,

Hope everyone has had a restful weekend and is enjoying the sunshine!

Dept meeting on Tues this week:

c26

3.15 - 4.15

Munaza Dogar is due to lead a session on preparing students for GCSE English Language for all teaching staff except KS5 Media Studies teachers.

Media Meeting

- JKy, PHa and TBo are spending this time meeting in C5 re KS5 Media Studies

Coursework:

- GCSE Coursework cover sheets are available on the central desk in the English office - please take what you need. Our moderation day has been approved for 21st April, which is the first Tuesday back. Minimum requirements for then are that the front sheets are filled in and the folders signed by staff and students. We don't need to fill in all the details of speaking and listening / oral assessments - marks only in these sections are fine at the moment. However, if you want to fill these bits in that's no problem, of course.

A Question of Words

- This event is happening on Weds - thanks to all those who've passed me names. I can't actually sort the lists out as planned as the school email is having one of its many weekends off - maybe it's taken advantage of the sunny weather to go to the coast - so I'll have to get the lists sorted on monday and let the kids know then or on tues.

Dept Drinks and Meal

Social whirlwind Liz Watkins is organising drinks and a meal for Friday night to celebrate the impending end of a busy term - please email her if you are up for it.

Thanks to all for your very hard work in what has been a busy term - light at the end of the tunnel with exam classes now!

Tom

Bulletin 16th March

Hi all,

This week:

Year 11
C/D Borderliners: Munaza Dogar in p3/4 to work with selected C/D borderliners (approx 30), so expect some students to be missing from your lessons. I'll email the list around ASAP.
Coursework: Please let me have an update via email of any students who are still missing coursework - SOK is organising a catch-up day (poss in exam conditions) so if I could know ASAP that would be very helpful.

Shakespeare: Aldyth has kindly sorted out some fab looking ideas for active approaches to Shakespeare (specifically R and J), which I'll send around via email.

A Question of Words:
Thanks to all who've sent me names for this. We still have plenty of space for students to take part from years 7-10, so please remind classes and let me know of any likely candidates.

Have a good week everyone - I'm glad to be back!
Tom

Dept Review review

Hi everyone,

Thanks to everyone for your hard work in preparing for last week's dept review - I hear that it went very well. Everything going well here with the baby doing well (although not quite grasping the idea that night is for sleeping!). Visitors welcome if anyone wants a closer look...

Liz will be in touch regarding this week's meeting on Tuesday.

Have a great week,

Tom

Edward Peter Boulter!

Here he is, born Sunday at 4.56 and weighing 8lb exactly. Quite a quick labour, mother and child doing well!
Have a good week everyone - I'm sure I'll be in at some point.
Tom

Bulletin - 23rd March

Welcome back everyone!

Meeting on Tues in C26
3.15 – 4.15
1) Dept review procedures (10 mins)
2) SEF (10 mins)
3) NATE (GSn) (10 mins)
4) Exam class issues 2009 (20 mins)
5) AOB

Planning info
Thanks to all staff who have responded to the request for info on your KS3 and KS4 classes from the previous bulletin (on http://www.cheneyenglish.blogspot.com/ ) – if you haven’t yet got back to me, could you do so ASAP please.

Department review
Please see earlier email with info on our forthcoming review week and get back to me with any queries.

Coursework Moderation 2009
I’ve asked for coursework moderation for Year 11 and KS5 to take place on Tuesday 21st April. This will involve the department being off timetable and will need all KS5 / Year 11 staff to bring completed coursework folders to the meeting.
We haven’t received cover sheets from the board yet as far as I know, but they are available from the AQA website at http://www.aqa.org.uk/admin/crf_gcse_2009.php (GCSE ones), http://www.aqa.org.uk/admin/crf_gce_2009.php (old A Level) and http://www.aqa.org.uk/admin/crf_newgce_2009.php (new A Level).

Coursework Admin
I've emailed around a spreadsheet which I’ve used with my Year 11 to store their coursework and exam scores. It’s been helpful as it generates a graph showing them their progress towards and beyond the C grade (access this through the tab at the bottom of the worksheet). Please feel free to use this yourselves if you’d like, and see me if you want some help filling it in. It’s a bit fiddly, but we can just paste in the exam data and it’s quick if you have help. It’s great for showing them visually how they’re getting on, and has the added advantage of being able to merge the data straight onto the Candidate Record Form, thereby making this onerous process a whole lot easier.
If you are interested, I’ve also attached a sheet which I’ve used to merge their coursework data on to – this is aimed at my paternity really, but you might find it useful if you want your class to improve coursework or if you have any gaps.

Have a great term everyone!

Tom

Bulletin

Hello all,
Well, as I write the snow is coming down with gusto, but surely we can't be looking at another day out of school??! Back to Fox FM in the morning I suppose, but the forecast does look like we should be in... heavy snow forecast for Monday though...

This week:

• EWa and TBo out on Weds at HODs conference.


• INSET day on Friday for all staff.

KS3:

As we approch the end of term, could I ask all teachers of all KS3 English classes to send me a quick email confirming the following:

• which unit you are currently completing with each KS3 class


• which unit you are intending to move on to next
  

KS4:

Could all Year 11 teachers please email me with confirmation of the date on which you are intending to compete your mock exam feedback lesson. I'll then organise the resources for this. Also, if there are any pieces of coursework missing could you let myself and parents know before the half term break.

Writing to describe: please see the writing to describe resources sent to us by Munaza last week- I've emailed them around, and they might be useful for catch up / improvement original writing coursework, as well as exam prep.

Thanks a lot and have a good week,

Tom

Bulletin- 2nd Feb

Hi all,

I've just been reading the extreme weather warning on the BBC website, but I can't see any evidence outside my window. Still, fingers crossed regarding a possible repeat of the legendary 'Snow Day' of 2007 (whether you are hoping for or against, you decide!)...

This week:
- Full staff meeting on Tues after school in the staffroom

- PCE on Thurs for Year 9 from 4.30- please chase students for appointments this week.

Thanks to Corinna for taking what sounds like a really successful trip to Poetry Live!, particularly as the date was changed at short notice.

Year 11: various members of SLT have expressed a willingness to take an active part in our work with year 11, specifically by coming in to key lessons to support and make sure the students are applying themselves. If you know you have a big lesson coming up- exam feedback seems a good one- let me know and I'll try to organise something.

KS3: Please see the email sent round by Liz about the Year 9 Poetry unit, with particular reference to the focus for assessment for this unit. Liz and I had a productive meeting with HN last week regarding assessment, and I hope to produce a draft policy document for your comments at some point this week. I would just like to emphasis that using homeworks set in advance has been very popular with parents, so please use these sheets if you can- they are on the VLE in the KS3 English area.

Website: try this for promoting equal turn-taking when doing Q and A / discussion work: http://aschool.us/moodle-scripts/random-name.php

Thanks for everyone's hard work so far this term- only 9 proper school days to go until the hols!

Tom

ps- just a reminder that our dept review week begins on the 2nd March...

Bulletin- 26th Jan

Thanks to everyone for your hard work on Thursday's Enrichment Day!

This week:
1) Meeting on Tuesday
C26
3.15-4.15
Agenda:

• PTo / GSn / TBo / JKy / AW - Year 12 Coursework standardisation (please see email from PTo about this)



• All other staff- working on KS3 SoW, with focus on assessment.

2) WELCOME

Further to Liz's email, a very warm welcome to our Interns Tony and Hannah, who will be with us until June.

3) RFL:

Further to SOK's email from a few days ago, student behaviour seems to be slipping at the moment after an improved start to the year. For our part, please try to stick to the RFL policy as far as possible, particularly concerning uniform and in class behaviour. So:

- Please try to give Achievement Points to reward good performance in class. I know that SERCO has been difficult to access recently, but if we can try to get back into the habit that will be helpful. Further to this, there are new praise postcards available for us to use (provided by the Art department) so feel free to send these. Any other ideas for ways in which we can celebrate student success gratefully received!

- Students should be in full uniform and if they aren't, should be sent to ASc to get a report. Tina will then monitor them from this point on, and will follow everything up. We don't have to send a TA with them for this (good job, as we have virtually none available!), but if a student is wearing jeans, white trainers etc, please send them along.

-Please ask students to remove scarves and coats in lessons.

- Give a formal warning for behaviour which is preventing the student or other students from learning, then move if appropriate, then send to DS. Send student accompanied whenever possible. Please don't send students directly to ASc.

Have a good week everyone- ps- the first 'name the poet' competition begins today- the first person to correctly name the poet in the picture at the top of this post, through comment or email, wins a fantastic and as-yet- undecided on prize!

Tom

Bulletin- 19th Jan

Hi all,



I've selected this image as it reminded me of my daughter's attitude at this afternoon's birthday party when another toddler walked off with her bit of cake. You'll be pleased to hear that I survived the occasion with only mild post-traumatic stress disorder and would like to make the following points about the coming week!

Year 11: I have emailed to you the current English attainment data for year 11, which will show you exactly how your students are progressing alongside their predictions. The students are colour coded, with red showing below prediction and green showing above prediction. No colour means they are on-prediction and the darker the colour, the more they are under or over prediction.

Mock exam feedback documents will be with you shortly- you are free to feedback to the students whenever you want; if you'd like me to run the feedback session I am more than happy to (I only say this as I've done the lesson a few times before and have got my head around all the graphs and things).


Meeting feedback: I've put the research that we looked at in Tuesday's meeting on the teacher's page of the VLE.

Enrichment Day: This is on Thursday. I will pass on any info about staffing for this as soon as I get it- at the moment EWa and JKy are confirmed for the All Saints trip, but that's as much as I know.

Poetry competition: a reminder that Brookes' most recent poetry competition details are available here: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/about/news/loveandjustice - closing date is the end of the month, so please push with students.

Have a good week everyone,


Tom

Term 2 Week 2 Bulletin

Hello all,

Well done to everyone for surviving the first week back, and particular thanks to Year 12 teachers who had the extra demands of the PCE on Thurs.

Department Meeting on Tues:

C26

3.15-4.15

Agenda:

- Enrichment Day (TBo)

- KS3 Curriculum (TBo / EWa)

- Reading and Writing Non-Fiction at KS4 (PHa)

AOB

Year 11 Parents Evening on Thurs: keep pestering the students about this please! I tried to make appointments on Friday and only about 5 were able to commit to a time, but hopefully they will shape up a bit this week. Could we make the following high profile on the night:

- using the VLE for revision and homework- there is an independent revision programme on there for all year 11s to use, so please make this high profile.

- getting a copy of OMAM for the Lit exam (and reading it, obviously!)

- I'll aim to make sure that you get copies of their mock feedback sheet in time for this- perhaps a parents' version- for discussion of their strengths and weaknesses in the exam.

Enrichment Day: you may be interested in the VLE page for this- this link will take you there: http://www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupID=585446 . David has sorted out some amazing activities- should be a good one! Whilst I'm on the subject, I've updated the Year 9 Poetry page in the English section so that it has homeworks for 6 weeks of the WW1 poetry unit (which hopefully we are all started on or beginning in the near future)- this can be reached on: http://www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupID=439691

Have a good week everyone,

Tom

Welcome Back and Happy New Year!

Hello all,

Welcome back to school everyone, and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas break. I'd like to try replacing the bulletin system with a blog this year- this gives us all the opportunity to comment, give suggestions or put our own posts on. We'll also use this to link to the the teachers' area on the VLE- anyway, we'll see how things work out.

This Term:
Loads on in the next few weeks, not least the impending new arrival in the Boulter household (due on 23rd Feb! YIKES!).

This Week:

• Deadline for inputting data onto SERCO is now Thurs am. Data required is for all KS4 classes, with the mock exam results for year 11.
• Year 12 PCE: Thurs.
• Mocks: please don't tell Year 11 what mark they've got in their mocks- this will be given to them next Thurs. If you can get your marks back to me as soon as you can, that would be great.
• Poetry Live! Please publicise this with Year 11 Lit students- the letter is on the VLE if they need another one. Money to the School Shop ASAP.
• VLE: a reminder for anyone starting new KS3 units that a homework for each of the units is available on the VLE if you'd like to use them. With year 9 Parents evening coming up, it may be a good time to start with this.

Have a great week everyone!

Tom