Hi all,
First Story
First of all, thanks to Jamie and Liz for all the work that's gone into the First Story project, culminating in a highly enjoyable book launch event on Weds. It looks like we can get the funding to run First Story again next year, so do have a think if there are any current year 10, 11 or 12 students who you think would enjoy it.
Year 11
Thanks to all of you who've put so much time and effort into our Year 11 students, particularly in getting the coursework sorted and (finally) sent off! Fingers crossed for Tuesday's Lit exam, and I'll be in touch about the Enrichment Day activities for the first week of next term.
Also, I know this is a busy time, but it would be worth finding time this week to check that your tiers of entry are correct for the Lang exam - Jo has put the entries in the shared area. I have had some kids saying they want to change from F to H - problem is this costs £26 per time so can only be allowed for genuine mistakes or deserving cases.
OFSTED
Thirdly, you may have heard that we have OFSTED on Tues and Weds, and any of our lessons could be observed at any time. I'll email around the latest guidance given to inspectors about observing lessons, but the main features of excellent learning are:
- clear, focused learning intentions and activities which promote learning rather than simply task-completion
- clear success criteria; when completing a task, students should be aware of what success will look like
- differentiation (eg through the success criteria)
- high levels of student engagement and participation
In the meantime, please do ask if you have any specific questions about the process (not that I'm claiming to know the answers!). I would advise talking to students on Monday to remind them of targets and development points that you've suggested to them over the course of the year so far. It's possible that a sample of work will be asked for; this is much more likely to be from an individual student than a whole group, but if you know there are gaps in book or folder marking, it would obviously be best to fill these if at all possible.
First Story
First of all, thanks to Jamie and Liz for all the work that's gone into the First Story project, culminating in a highly enjoyable book launch event on Weds. It looks like we can get the funding to run First Story again next year, so do have a think if there are any current year 10, 11 or 12 students who you think would enjoy it.
Year 11
Thanks to all of you who've put so much time and effort into our Year 11 students, particularly in getting the coursework sorted and (finally) sent off! Fingers crossed for Tuesday's Lit exam, and I'll be in touch about the Enrichment Day activities for the first week of next term.
Also, I know this is a busy time, but it would be worth finding time this week to check that your tiers of entry are correct for the Lang exam - Jo has put the entries in the shared area. I have had some kids saying they want to change from F to H - problem is this costs £26 per time so can only be allowed for genuine mistakes or deserving cases.
OFSTED
Thirdly, you may have heard that we have OFSTED on Tues and Weds, and any of our lessons could be observed at any time. I'll email around the latest guidance given to inspectors about observing lessons, but the main features of excellent learning are:
- clear, focused learning intentions and activities which promote learning rather than simply task-completion
- clear success criteria; when completing a task, students should be aware of what success will look like
- differentiation (eg through the success criteria)
- high levels of student engagement and participation
In the meantime, please do ask if you have any specific questions about the process (not that I'm claiming to know the answers!). I would advise talking to students on Monday to remind them of targets and development points that you've suggested to them over the course of the year so far. It's possible that a sample of work will be asked for; this is much more likely to be from an individual student than a whole group, but if you know there are gaps in book or folder marking, it would obviously be best to fill these if at all possible.
Finally, MST has sent around some data sheets for KS3, showing the data that we've put in alongside their predicted grades - it might be worth having a look at this (much easier than trawling through SERCO).
I know that these are all things that we have been working on, so I hope it goes well for everybody; it'll be over in a flash!
Have a great week - it looks like it will be boiling on Monday and then cooler on Tues / Weds, so that's good news.
Tom
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