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