Merry Christmas!...nearly...

1. Dates for your diaries
- Monday 12th Dec: Dept meal - The Black Boy, 8pm
- Thursday 15th Dec: Staff Christmas party - The Living Room, 8pm
- Friday 16th Dec: Year 11 reports

2. Preparing our students for GCSE English/English Language exam
With one month and two weeks of teaching time between now and the GCSE English/English Language exam, here are some prep guidelines:
- the one mark booster pack (one per student)
- the one thing reminder card
- past papers (PTO has created some of her own - now scanned and on Staff Resources)
- individualised training programmes (let me know targets and I'll mail merge for you)

Thank you for all your hard work this term, enjoy a very well-deserved break!
Jamie

Bulletin - 5.12.11

10...9...8...7...

1. Dates for your diaries
Wednesday 7th Dec, 2-3pm – whole staff meeting
Thursday 8th Dec – AS parents evening
Friday 9th Dec – ENG DEPT STAFF TEA!
Monday 12th Dec – Eng Dept Christmas meal
Wednesday 14th Dec – College Meeting (2-3), Dept Meeting (3-4)
Thursday 15th Dec – Staff Christmas party, money to AHS or FHA
Friday 16th Dec – END OF TERM!

2. Mock exam marking
Thank you for all your hard work over the last two weeks - I'm aware it's been a big ask to get everything marked in time. Please send your marks to me asap.

If you used Excel to write your comments/targets and would like them mail merged into feedback sheets, please let me know.

3. Reports
Year 13 (completed, being checked)
Year 12 (due Wed 7th Dec)
Year 11 (due Friday 16th Dec)
Year 10 (should be completed)

4. Mary Glynn
Mary Glynn is a GTP student at Cherwell who is going to be joining us for a six-week placement, starting on the Tues 3rd Jan. I will be putting together a timetable for her in the next couple of weeks. Is there anyone who would particularly like to have an intern with a particular class? Would anyone like some experience of mentoring?

Bulletin - 28.11.11

15 days...!

1. Dates for your diaries
Monday 5th Dec: Music Dept Christmas Concert
Tuesday 6th Dec: Year 10 PSHE Day (off timetable)
Thursday 9th Dec: Year 12 Parents Evening

2. Reports
Year 13: Should be completed
Year 12: Should be completed
Year 11: Should be completed
Year 10: Deadline Fri 2nd Dec
Year 7: Should be completed

3. Strike Day on Wednesday
The unions have voted in favour of strike action on Wednesday 30th November. Obviously it is up to individual teachers as to whether they strike or not - please notify your union rep of your decision. Please also see the Headteacher's communication re: strike action.

4. Mock exam marking
Hopefully you are all on track for the 5th December deadline for mock exam marking. If you aren't, please let me know and we can definitely help out. Remember to use Simon/Ruth to cover lessons if you want to get yourself some time to do some marking.

5. Storytelling
Many thanks to Paul for organising the Storytelling training on Wednesday. It was great fun and should have a real impact on our KS3 provision and beyond.

6. First Aid training
So far there's 5 of us signed up for the First Aid training: Wed 7th Dec, 2-4. If you would like to join us, please let me know.

7. Department Christmas meal
I need to confirm our booking at The Black Boy asap. Can people please:
a) let me know if they're coming
b) let me know what they want to eat (choose from one of the Christmas dinner menus: http://www.theblackboy.uk.com/pwpcontrol.php?pwpID=8030; or order a la carte: http://www.theblackboy.uk.com/cp2.php)
c) if you are coming, give me a tenner for the deposit

Have a great week.

Bulletin - 21.11.11

Let the four-week countdown commence!

1. Mock exam
Year 11 English/English Language mock is today. Scripts will be passed back to teachers asap for marking. JKY will make marking, feedback and lesson materials available to Year 11 staff asap. Remember that we have Simon and Ruth available to cover lessons for marking and computer rooms have been booked for these two weeks. To book Simon or Ruth, email Charlotte Baker; to book a computer room, use the sheet pinned up in the Eng Dept office.

2. Lesson observations
All members of the team will be observed in the next few weeks. The schedule has been sent out, please let JKY know if there are any issues. I know that observations are often stressful for people on both sides of the equation, so please see this as a chance to have a conversation with a professional colleague that, if handled correctly, should be a learning experience for you both. I certainly feel I learn as much from observing other people's lessons (and stealing their ideas!) as I do from receiving feedback on my own teaching.

3. Storytelling workshops
On Wednesday, there is the opportunity for you to be a part of a two-hour storytelling workshop, run by members of the Storytelling Museum. See email from PWA for more details.

4. Christmas meal
We're booked in at The Black Boy on Mon 12th Dec. Please let me know if you are coming, what you intend to eat (either from the Christmas party set menu: http://www.theblackboy.uk.com/pwpcontrol.php?pwpID=8031 or from the a la carte menu: http://www.theblackboy.uk.com/cp2.php) and give JKY a tenner for the deposit.

Have a great week.

Bulletin - 14.11.11

Morning all,

1. Dates for your diaries
Wed 16th Nov: Double department meeting
Fri 18th Nov: Year 13 long reports
Fri 18th Nov: G&T register
Mon 21st Nov: Year 11 mock exam


2. Welcome
We have not one but TWO new faces in the department: Simon Cooke and Ruth Cadywould have joined us as English Achievement Assistants/Lesson Supervisors. They will be observing lessons over the next week or so, while receiving the usual lesson supervisor training via Phil Waters, and will start dealing with small groups/covering lessons in the coming weeks. I'm sure that they will both bring a huge amount to the department and that they will be made to feel very welcome.

3. Lesson observations
There is an expectation that all members of staff will be observed between now and Christmas. Obviously, this is a busy time of year for everyone so we have put together an observation timetable that will hopefully fit in with everyone's workload - this will be made available at the dept meeting on Wednesday. Talking of which...

4. Double department meeting - Wed 16th Nov
We have two hours on Wednesday, which is good because we've got a fair amount to discuss (I'm sure you've all got thoughts on the homework timetable for starters!), so I'll see you in C26 at 2pm. Agenda is on its way.

Have a great week.

Bulletin - 7.11.11

Hi everyone,

1. Dates for your diaries
- Sixth Form Open Evening - Wed 9th Nov (PTO: Eng Lit, JKY: Media Studies)
- Year 8/9 reports due - Fri 11th Nov
- Year 11 reports due - Fri 18th Nov

2. No dept meeting this week
College meetings, 2-3pm
Self-directed time, 3:15-4:15

3. Uniform
SOK has asked classroom teachers to maintain their vigilence on uniform in classrooms. Incorrect uniform is creeping back into circluation - if anyone isn't in appropriate school uniform, please send them to their college.

4. Year 11 Mock Marking
I've been thinking of ways to make our marking of Year 11 mock exams a) helpful for students, and b) not too much of a burden on teachers. To that end, I've put together:
- a self-assessment document for students to use
- a feedback document for teachers to record their feedback/marking
- a set of ready-made comments/targets for each of the questions that teachers can cut'n'paste into their own marking document

I'll show you examples of these briefly at briefing on Monday morning.

Bulletin - 31.10.11

Welcome back everyone,

Hope everyone had a restful break and are now chomping at the bit to take on the Christmas run-in...

1. Dept meeting - Wed 2nd Nov, 2-3pm
We have a single dept meeting this week. Agenda to follow.

2. Year 8/9 reports
Should go live on Serco asap and are due in on Fri 11th Nov

Keep calm and carry on.

Bulletin - 17.10.11

1. Forthcoming events:
- Tuesday 18th: Year 11 Spanish Trip leaves, students may be missing from your lessons
- After half-term: Year 8 and 9 reports
- After half-term: Bugsy Malone

2. Department meeting - Wednesday 19th October
2pm in C26. Followed by Special Interest Groups, 3-4.

3. English Achievement Assistant
We've had nearly 18 applicants for this role. AW and JKY will interview next week. Charlie Field has NOT applied but is still keen to come in once a week.

4. PWA on paternity leave this week

5. Only one more week until half-term
Nearly there everyone!

Bulletin - 10.10.11

1. Dates for your diaries

Wednesday 12th October - Double department meeting
Thursday 13th October - Joint English and Maths exam preparation evening (Year 11)
Friday 14th October - Year 12 'skills reports' due
All week - Year 10 + 11 MFL exams

2. DOUBLE department meeting on Wednesday

We have two hours of department time on Wednesday, 2-4pm. I won't be available from 2-3pm as, despite being only an actor, they are letting me play at the HoDs meeting. My proposal:

• 2-3pm: department time. People talked about wanting in-house training sessions in this slot. PTO mentioned she'd like some PowerPoint training (poss from NTU?). Does anyone have any other suggestions? Otherwise, I'm happy for colleagues to use this time at their own discretion.


• 3-4pm: department meeting. Agenda has been sent out.

3. Year 11 students & parents/carers evening - Thursday 13th October
The English and Maths departments are holding a joint exam prep session on Thursday, 6-7pm. Letters have gone out to all Year 11 parents. Please push this with your Year 11 groups. Steve Palmer and I will be leading the sessions, there is no expectation for staff to attend, but if you want to come along and help out, you'd be more than welcome.

4. Year 11 mocks - w/c 21st Nov
Because we haven't got a past paper we can use for the Year 11 mocks, I've picked one higher and one foundation specimin paper from the AQA website that we can use for the mock exams. I will email these around the department for everyone to take a look at. Feel free to use any materials from AQA with your classes but please don't let students see these specific papers!

Have a great week.

Bulletin

And on into the Indian summer...

1. New member of staff: Paul Stapley
Most of you have now met Paul, who is replacing Laura Wigley with immediate effect. He has had the briefest induction in the history of British education and is starting on Monday morning, so please make him feel welcome and point him in the right direction should he have questions about how things work here.

2. Open Morning
Thank you for all your hard work on Thursday's Open Evening, I felt we sold the department very effectively. Following on from this, Year 6 students and their parents will be in school on Monday morning, taking a look at Cheney in the cold light of an actual teaching day. English, as is always the case, will be a main focus for many parents, so do expect to see people pop their head around the door. I have said before that I don't feel there is any reason for us to change the way we work or teach in light of this - you all do an excellent job and that will be apparent to anyone who sees you teach.

3. Performance management
Many thanks for all your hard work on Friday. If you have done your PM on BlueSky then your job is finished. If you did it on the old paper system, please can you send a copy of your PM form to myself and Phil Waters.

4. SEF/DIP feedback
There's no department meeting this Wednesday - you'll be with colleges 2:00-3:00 and free after that - but can I ask colleagues to take a look at the re-drafted SEF/DIP in preparation for our meeting on Wednesday 12th Oct. If you have any comments on it, I will look to take them then and draft a final version for submission to the powers that be.

5. Coursework catch-up sessions
These started up again on Wednesday and we were overwhelmed by a staggering attendance of one student. In fairness, several did come to me in advance with legitimate excuses but letters will be going home to students who pulled a bunk. I'll give a list of non-attendees to classroom teachers so that they can also follow up.

6. Achievement Assistant job
An advert has gone out for an Achievement Assistant for the English department (replacing the role that Fliss fulfilled last year). At present there is only funding for the job until the end of March. Charlie Field will be applying and I will be emailing the PGCE co-ordinators at Oxford Uni and Brookes to see if they can put the word out. If you know anyone who might be interested, please direct them to the relevant page on the school website: http://cheney.web6.devwebsite.co.uk/page_viewer.asp?page=ACHIEVEMENT+ASSISTANT+%2D+ENGLISH&pid=280

7. Predicted grades for Year 11 students
We need predicted grades for Year 11 students for the English/English Language exam in January. I have emailed the spreadsheet around to Year 11 teachers, if they already have a statistical predictor (and you agree with it!), please just leave that in; if they haven't, or you think it's wrong, please add/change as you see fit.

8. Staff tea
It's our turn to provide staff tea on Friday. Get baking/buying as applicable.

Enjoy the sunshine, have a great week.

Bulletin - 26.9.11

Hi everyone,

Another busy week coming up...

1. Wednesday 28th Sept - interviews for a new English Teacher
We will be interviewing for a replacement for Laura Wigley on Wednesday. We have six viable candidates so are hoping for a strong field and to make an excellent appointment. Details have yet to be finalised but candidates will have to teach half of a Year 7/8 lesson - we will let relevant teachers know asap so that they can plan accordingly. We will have the usual meet-the-department session during first break, so come along at 11 for refreshments and to meet the candidates (Liz, your feedback would be especially welcome here!)

2. Thursday 29th Sept - Opening Evening
Pupils will go home at 1:20 on Thursday (end of P4) so that staff can prepare for Open Evening - a free lunch will be available. The evening itself will run from 6:30 to 8:30. Time during Wednesday's department meeting will be dedicated to planning and preparation.

3. Friday 30th Sept - Performance Management INSET
Friday is off-timetable for all staff performance management reviews. All staff should have received any data that will be relevant to their review and key members of the team have receivved the relevant Blue Sky training. Exactly who will be reviewing who is yet to be decided but all details will be made available as soon as possible. If anyone has any questions, please come and ask.

4. Monday 3rd Oct - Open Morning
From 9am to 12pm, Cheney will be open to Year 6 pupils and parents. Don't feel you have to do anything special or different from your usual teaching practice (we are a strong department and I don't feel we need to 'put on a show') but be aware that people might pop their head around your door at any point in the first few lessons of the day.

Have a great week.

Morning all,

It's our first dept briefing this morning (8:20, C26) so here is just a taste of some of the things that will coming your way...

1. Dates for your diaries:

• Tues 20th: Deadline for remark requests


• Wed 21st: Double dept meeting (2pm, C26)


• Thurs 22nd: Deadline for Nov exam entry


• Thurs 22nd: Year 11 PSHE day


• Fri 23rd: Deadline for updating UCAS references


• Thurs 29th: Open Evening


• Fri 30th: Performance Management Review INSET

2. Feedback from exam boards

This has been very positive across the board, reflecting the professionalism with which we go about coursework and the accuracy of our marking/standardisation. Well done everyone:

AQA AS Media Studies: 'informative comments...a pleasure to moderate'
AQA A2 Media Studies: 'clear and supportive annotations...commendable'
AQA AS Eng Lit: 'annotations and summative comments were extremely helpful...the centre is to be commended on its moderation process...the recreative responses to 'Antigone' were superb'
AQA A2 Eng Lit: 'staff and students had clearly worked hard to produce some very individual work'
WJEC GCSE Media: 'some splendid research and planning activities...evaluations showed real insight...a pleasure to moderate, thank you'

3. Eng Dept SEF / DIP

We will discuss this in more depth in our meeting on Wednesday 21st. I am keen to get input from colleagues across the dept, so please come armed with ideas for departmental issues/priorities.

4. Year 10 data tracking

I will be sending Year 10 teachers coursework tracking documents very soon. Please use these to record coursework marks. Feel free to mark using your own personal methods and then give to Toni for final data inputting if you prefer.

5. Jan exam entry for Year 11

Please let me know students for Higher and Foundation papers asap so I can pass on to Jo Simpson.

6. Creative writing groups

We have two creative writing groups within the dept:

• First Short Story (for KS3): Tuesdays, 3:15-4:15, J39


• Sixth Form Creative Writing Group: Wednesdays, 2-3, C27

Please promote to the relevant students/classes.

Have a great week.

Bulletin - 12.9.11

Hi everyone,

So, quite an uneventful first week...

1. Laura Wigley
Thank you to everyone for your help and support in dealing with the sudden and unexpected departure of Laura Wigley on Thursday. We have Laws in as a cover teacher for the time being until we are able to source a more permenant replacement. I have set up blogs for AS Media Studies (http://www.cheneyasmedia.blogspot.com/) and A2 Media Studies (http://www.cheneya2media.blogspot.com/) that contain work for those students to follow - Liz and Andrew, please direct your Year 12s towards this. There is a folder on Staff Resources for all of Laura's other classes and Paul and I will liaise with Laws to ensure the right work is delivered to all of these students: T:\Staff Resources\English\LWI cover work

2. Timetables and Serco
Apologies for the madness over timetables, class lists, etc. Hopefully these issues are starting to be resolved (especially in Year 10 where there were a lot of problems) but if there are still students who aren't where they need to be, please let me know and I will pass on to MST. There are still quite a few issues at KS5 but hopefully these will be worked out soon as well.

3. Charlie Field
Charlie going to be volunteering work in the English Department one day a week (Thursday) from now on. I will look to put together a timetable for Charlie and work out some activities he/she can be involved in. Please let me know if there are any classes you would like help with on Thursdays or any students that could use some one-on-one help (I was thinking we could use Charlie to help with students missing coursework?)

4. Cat Hartley
Cat is a friend of Val Goff's daughter. She has just finished an English degree at Cambridge and is starting a PGCE in Oxford in September. She will be spending Thursday and Friday in the English department, observing lessons, with a specific focus on how teachers set about getting to know their classes, how students make the transition between Key Stages and the range of teaching and learning methods used in the English classroom. I will put together a programme of observations for her in the next day or two, so if there are any classes you would rather you WEREN'T observed with, please let me know.

5. Staff Tea
It's ours on 7th Oct.

6. Plums
There is a punnett of plums in the English office. They are excess allotment produce from my father-in-law. PLEASE HELP YOURSELF. Take some home, I beg you, we have thousands...

A great first week everyone, especially in light of all that has happened. Bring on Week 2!

Bulletin - 26th June 2011

Hi all,

Well - loads of exciting things happening at the moment!

First Story - many thanks to Jamie and Fliss for the work that's gone in to FS and FSS - Weds saw an absolutely brilliant launch of the new books, much enjoyed by all,

Appointment: thanks to Jamie and Alastair for the smooth and successful interview day on Friday - we look forward to welcoming Laura to the department from the 4th July.

A Question of Words: Thanks again to Fliss for sorting out the Q of A heats - our students excelled themselves by all accounts - now to the final on 7th July at the North Wall Centre - it's on from 1.15 and is usually a really enjoyable event. If anyone would like to come along, let me know.

Creative and Media Conference - 15 year 10s are out on Thursday at a Creative and Media conference at Brookes - names will be on SERCO ASAP.

Standardisation: Standardisation of year 10 coursework will take place on Weds - venue to be announced - see Jamie or me if you have any questions about the process.

Timetabling: now that staffing is finalised, we are in a position to push ahead with scheduling the timetable and hopefully get it sorted before too long.

Year 9

Year 9 reading test markschemes have gone into pigeon holes - I'll be in touch with a sheet to collect the data soon. If I could get all year 9 data in by July 15th, that will give me some time to sort sets and groupings out before the end of term - please let me know if you think this will be a problem.

Finally, here's Jamie talking students through the new GCSE English exam, to be take by our students in January - have a watch if you want to get yourself ahead of the game!

Welcome back all - hope you had a restful break. Congratulations to Jamie for his appointment as Acting HOD until Xmas 2011.

Staffing
The decisions regarding the HOD job have complicated our staffing and timetabling somewhat - an advert is going in ASAP for a main scale English teacher, with a deadline of (I think) 20th June.

Dates for this term:

10th June - Deadline for Year 10 reports
13th June - Year 12s return
16th June - Year 10 PCE
20th June - Deadline for Year 9 NC data to go into SERCO - this is an end of year level which gives an overall best fit for Year 9, broken up into separate levels for reading, writing, and S&L.
21st June - Question of Words - students needed!
24th June - English Staff Tea
29th June - Standardisation day for Year 10 GCSE coursework - details to follow.
30th June - Creative and Media conference at Brookes for 15 Year 10 Media students.

Thanks everyone!
Tom

Bulletin - 24th May 2011

Hi all,

First of all, a massive thanks and well done to everyone for the efforts that have gone in to preparing our exam classes. The students seem confident and have clearly been expertly guided; now it's fingers crossed that they do themselves proud!

Department Meeting
Tuesday 24th May
C26
3.15 - 4.15

1) Homework
2) GCSE - overview of progress, issues and next steps

Thanks everyone,
Tom

Bulletin 9th May

Hi all,

Welcome back to the first five-day week for what seems like an age! How will we cope!

A big thanks for all the effort that's gone into teaching, sorting out and administrating the coursework this year. GCSE has been sent off - the end of an era! - , and A Level will go at the end of this week.

Thanks to Jamie for sorting out Tuesday's C/D borderline 'All-you-can-eat' Takeaway Teacher buffet... (5000 hits on our videos on TT by the way!).

Year 9

By the end of this year, Y9 should have achieved the following:

1) Completed the individual presentation Speaking and Listening for GCSE. In the past, most classes have undertaken the Room 101 task, but there is no set way in to this, so please feel free to be creative if there are other alternatives - Julie's approach of asking the students to present an 'object of significance' comes highly recommended.

2) Completed one controlled assessment task from the 'Commisions' column of the English Language spec. This means the 'Change' piece, or the 'Don't get me started on...', but not one from another column please, as this will cause problems in year 10.

3) Completed an end of Y9 Reading test - this comes in half way through Term 6, will involve a SATS reading paper, and I will provide more info and guidance on this nearer the time. The idea is not that lots of direct preparation occurs prior to the event, however, but more that we are able to get a snapshot of their reading ability at the end of their KS3 experience. There will be no skills tested that haven't been addressed somewhere at KS3.

See me if any problems or issues with this.

Reading Books

Good to see that classes are using the reading books in Paul's room. Can I send a plea that the books don't go home, and that the sets of 4 are maintained? There are a couple of sets where one of the books is no longer there, and it's important that we don't start leaking books - the idea is that we can capitalise on the social element of reading by encouraging groups of students to read the same books - if any spare copies could be returned that would be great. It's also probably worth checking with PWa if it's appropriate before sending students in during the middle of a lesson.

Thanks everyone and have a wonderful week,

Tom

Bulletin - 2nd May

Hi all,

Welcome back Liz!

Right, this week:

Department Meeting - Tues 3.15 - 4.15

- A Level English Teachers meeting with PTo in C23

- Year 11 Teachers meeting in C26 to fill in coursework cover sheets (see email from JKy)

- Remaining Colleagues - planning and preparation time

Exam Classes

Thanks to all for the continued work with our exam classes - we are nearly there. This year has been a real challenge with the sheer weight and volume of assessment on our shoulders - not long now until a bit of respite!

Takeaway Teacher

TT now has a Media Studies Channel, on www.youtube.com/user/cheneytakeawaymedia . Some useful stuff here for GCSE and AS / A2 - please do have a look and direct students to where appropriate. We've also had over 4000 hits now on the English site - I've added a load of videos over the holidays, eg videos on how to plan for the OMAM question, and how to achieve the A* in Lang and Lit. Please feel free to take classes / use the netbooks to access this resource. Also, if there are any teaching points that would really benefit your students, please let me know.

Books

We have received a substantial number of books from Amazon - they are currently stored on the shelves at the back of C2. The books are in sets of 4 or 8 and are intended for:

- use for class Reading Weeks as discussed in dept meeting - feel free to pilot this with KS3 classes, and we'll aim to get a proper schedule / approach clarified in the summer.

- use as an alternative to the class novel for teaching the Shared Text units

Please don't send these books home with students!

Thanks everyone,

Tom

Bulletin - Monday 4th April

Hi all,

One week to go, and thanks to everyone for the work you've put in this term. It's absolutely flown by as usual! Particular and heartfelt thanks to Fliss for doing an astonishingly good job in tricky circumstances - we are so lucky to have you.

GCSE Prep

Two things - firstly, Takeaway Teacher is growing exponentially - we've had over 1,000 views already (not all of them from me, I know what you are thinking) and the site now houses 39 videos uploaded by us, plus more taken from other schools. Please give your students a chance to use this if at all possible - I'm getting mine to go back to their mock feedback, target their weak areas, and use TT to act on it.

Each student will shortly be receiving a Takeaway menu guide - I will get these out to you by the end of the week to distribute to classes!

Do have a look: www.youtube.com/user/cheneytakeaway

Otherwise, please just keep going ... not long now until we will be waving a fond goodbye to exam classes, and I hope everyone enjoys a well-deserved rest over the hols.

Tom

Victor Borge Phonetic Pronunciation

Bulletin - 21st March

Hi all,

Very quick this week as we have a meeting on Tuesday.

Department Meeting
Agenda:
1) Supporting exam classes - the last few weeks!
2) Homework
3) AOB

Otherwise, please do keep directing kids to Takeaway Teacher - we are up to 20 uploaded videos now and going strong, so hopeful it will continue to grow into a useful resource.

Thanks everyone,
Tom

Bulletin - Monday 14th March

Hi all,

Firstly, thanks to all for your professionalism at work during what was an extraordinary and very difficult week.

Thanks to Felicity, for taking on the challenge of being Liz for two weeks, and to Pat and the sixth form team for yet another successful theatre trip. We also had some exceptional AS level results from the January resits, which is good news for the students and our exam figures, but certainly leaves us with a depleted sense of trust in the exam board I'm afraid, having had the some students receive a U in the summer, and now achieving top A. Hmm.

GCSE Moderation / Planning
Jamie and I moderated a sample of folders on Thursday - many thanks to GCSE teachers for sorting them out - and it was clear that we were marking accurately and consistently. We also scrutinised some exam papers, and the following actions were decided on:

1) Run an intervention day for C/D borderliners on the first Tuesday of next term. Rather than going to Hill End, we are going to work in school, using IT to provide a personalised approach. The way that students have been responding to video learning in mentoring sessions has been very positive, so we are going to try to organise a day using this, where students self-direct themselves through a programme of revision.
2) We discussed the view that our students are currently getting so much information and advice that it seems that, particularly at the C/D borderline, there is an element of overload. This comes through in mentoring sessions, where students are frequently unable to articulate their personal targets for improvement, despite the fact that teachers have clearly worked hard to communicate this to students. Alongside this was the fact that scrutiny of exam papers at the C/D borderline often revealed only one or two key areas that students were missing in their work; for example students were writing imaginatively but not in paragraphs, or writing in paragraphs but not in sentences. We are therefore planning an approach whereby all students aiming for a C are given one key target for reading, and one key target for writing, which can be given out to students at an assembly or similar event. We'll be in touch with the details about this, and to ask for teachers to select key targets for year 11 - obviously this is not intended to be at the expense of giving more precise advice and guidance in lessons, but is hoped to raise the profile of a few key areas which seem to be holding our students back.

Takeaway Teacher
Jamie and I have added some resources to the Takeaway Teacher bank - it is early days with this but we are learning and refining as we go. Here are a couple of samples (note in particular puppy-dog Kirkaldy's raised eyebrow, imploring students to achieve the C!); the main channel is located here http://www.youtube.com/user/CheneyTakeaway :





Please do direct students to these resources - best way to access is to search 'Takeaway Teacher' on YouTube - avoid going via this blog please.

Thanks everyone and have a good week,

Tom

Welcome back!

Hello everyone, and welcome back after what felt like a pretty brisk half term break and first week back!

Many thanks to Pat for organising the King Lear trip on Monday; great to see lots of staff going and I hope you all enjoy it. Also hope my wife behaves herself, and that everyone is OK with having a Cherwellian along!

EXAMS

Clearly, we are really running against the clock in terms of preparing students for the exams, and are entering a crucial time in the year.
So, some dates for the diary. We have only 5 weeks remaining this term, followed by just less than two weeks after the break before the following:

• English exams on the 16th and 18th May for Lang, and the 23rd May for Lit
• GCSE Media is on 13th June
• Media exams are on the 17th May for AS, and 16th June for A2.
• KS5 Lit exams are on the 24th May for AS, and 16th June for A2.

This gives us just over 20 hours of teaching before the exams - not a lot! Every lesson counts, so please keep working on exam skills, ensuring that students are fully aware of the requirements of the exam and their own strengths, weaknesses and personal targets. Thank you for all your work in ensuring that exam classes are thoroughly prepared.

In particular, it's essential that GCSE classes are given plenty of opportunities for exam practice, at home and in class. This is an absolute priority, and if you need help finding time for the purposes of marking and feedback, please do see me about this and we can make suitable arrangements.

COURSEWORK
Jamie and I are planning to be off timetable this Thursday in order to achieve the following:
- moderation and analysis of current coursework
- work scrutiny of mock exams
- preparation of battleground student interventions
We will therefore be in touch requesting coursework folders and mock exam papers for various students (only approx 5 from each class) - thanks for providing this.

Video Revision
Some mentoring and intervention sessions recently have seen students making excellent progress using video resources via YouTube. This seems to work well because:
- students can control the pace at which they learn, pausing and replaying key points
- external distraction is reduced through wearing headphones and the use of audio visual on the videos
Please do take the opportunity to take year 11 classes to an IT room (unfortunately the laptops don't yet allow us to access YouTube) for the students to use this resource. A good place to start is the Other Cultures videos on www.wix.com/teacherinmypocket/english (although avoid the one about Limbo), or else use the first ever Cheney School Takeaway Teacher video, available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8bIjJmS7m0 or embedded here:

Summer School

Jolie has asked us to repeat the offer that, if any member of staff would like to take a week off in July, to be replaced by a week's summer school teaching in August, she would be very happy to sanction this.

Have a fab week everyone,
Tom

Bulletin : Valentine's Special!

First of all, very sincere congratulations to Paul Waite for his appointment as a permanent English teacher on Friday. I know that I speak for the department when saying how pleased we all are at the way things have worked out!

Jamie is on paternity leave this week, so thanks to Felicity for taking his lessons.

Thanks to Pat, Felicity and Erie for coming to the Poetry Live! event on Tuesday of last week - good to see over 50 of our students there, for what was a really enjoyable and useful day.

Thanks to Corinna for sharing the Valentine's lesson - it's brilliant when a perfectly formed lesson plops into our collective inbox - thanks for this and to everyone who has shared stuff recently.

Have a great week everyone,
Tom

Bulletin - 7th February

This week:
Welcome to Erie, who is doing a GTP-type thing and will be with us for the next fortnight, observing and doing some teaching.
Thanks to Jamie for taking the First Story students to London last week for a Creative Writing workshop and to Felicity and Rebecca for getting a thriving Junior FS group going.
Tuesday: thanks to Pat and Felicity for accompanying me to Poetry Live!
Tues: Department Meeting

C26 - 3.15 - 4.15
Agenda:
1) Enrichment Day Planning
2) Sharing Best Practice: Agile Teaching
3) KS3 Review
4) AOB

- JKy will lead this meeting and I will get back from Poetry Live ASAP.

Kitchen:
A lock is currently being installed on the door to the kitchen area in C5, and all teachers will get a key. Sorry for slight layer of hassle here, but we need a secure area for bulky Media kit such as the lights.

GCSE:
Please refer to Jamie's email from last week regarding requirements for coursework moderation on Thursday, and pass the relevant folders on to me.

Thanks everyone and have a fabulous week!
Tom

Bulletin - 24th January

Hi all,

First of all, a massive thank you for the work that you've put in this year - having someone in observing (as on Friday) always prompts reflection on how things are going, and it's hard to avoid the conclusion that we are brilliant!

Year 11 Parents Evening / Issues
- Exam feedback - please take the opportunity to ensure that parents are clear about the students' exam performance and what they need to improve. We will provide exam breakdown sheets for each student to be given out on Thursday.

- Please ensure that year 11s are being set regular homework and that this is being completed. I know that this is easier said than done; parents' evening is therefore a good opportunity to let parents know what is being set. A really good homework with limited marking demands is to ask students to watch the videos on the departmetn website, and particularly to target those areas of the exam in which they performed poorly. A good approach is to use Watch - Write - Watch - Check: students watch a video, write down what they've learnt, watch it again, check what they've learnt.

- Blogs - to help with homework setting and communication with students and parents, I've set up a blog for each year 11 class. Can I ask that year 11 teachers give serious consideration to using this to set homework - they are very very simple to use, and really take only slightly more time as a homework setting tool than writing the work on the board. The main advantages are that parents can be informed about homework and deadlines in real time, there is absolute clarity about what has been setand therefore greater accountability for students. Among the many other pros are the ability to link to resources, embed video, the capacity for students and parents to comment and ask questions etc.

Here's my year 11 blog as an example: http://www.cheneyenglish10x4.blogspot.com/ - I've only done 4 posts this year, but parents have really appreciated it. Here's an example from another school of a blog being used in a very time-efficient way: http://mrsryear11.blogspot.com/

The blogs are all set up and ready to go - you should have received an email inviting you to contribute. You will need to set up a Blogger / Google account if you don't have one; it's a simple process - ask me / Jamie / Nicky for a 30 second tutorial if you get stuck!

- Website: please use the parents' evening to plug the department website: www.wix.com/cheneyenglish/gcse - if you haven't yet shown this to the students please let them know about it. I've embedded a sample video from the website here so you get the idea - very useful for use in lessons also I think.

- Could we also use this as an opportunity to plug Poetry Live ... I'll get some letters printed and have somewhere for parents to be able to hand money and slips in on the night.

Books
- please let me know any other books you think we should get - I'll send the list around of what has been selected so far, but please do add any ideas that you think of.

Thanks everyone and have a great week,
Tom

Bulletin - 10th January

This week

- Tues: College Meetings after school
- Weds: TBo absent (funeral)

Poetry Live
- Please continue to push Poetry Live with students and get them to bring their money in! If you need spare letters, let me know.

Classroom redesign
I've emailed around a proposal for the redesign of C5. I know that it's very difficult to find space to think about anything other than the day to day at the moment, but do have a look if you get a chance, as the idea is that we create a space that the whole department will benefit from and have ample opportunity to use. Liz and I will be off to IKEA in the near future, so if you, or students in your class, have any thoughts about what we could include in the room, do let me know. Basically, let me know your thoughts if you want to and if you get a chance!
UPDATE: after writing this, I have adapted a creative thinking lesson which I did the other day, which gets them to use the 6 thinking hats idea to think about the redesign. Had great fun doing this with mine, and it's a really nice easy and fun lesson if you need a breather at KS3! Do have a go, and send the students' plans through to me!



Careers Event - Year 11
I've been informed that year 11 will be out of school periods 4 and 5 on January 26th, thereby missing two English lessons (11Y). It is likely that C/D borderline students will be kept in school for intensive, small group revision - watch this space for further details.

YouTube
Just a heads up that YouTube is now unblocked for students (but isn't yet working on the department netbooks - trying to get that sorted). This gives access to an incredibly powerful resource and tool for self-directed learning, so please do explore.

GCSE Mocks
Results from the mocks look encouraging - thanks to everyone for their hard work. Do let me know when you want to do the feedback lesson, although I'm intending to sort out the ppts on Monday anyway - I'll save them back into the shared area.

Thanks everyone and have a great week.
Tom

HAPPY NEW YEAR BULLETIN!

Hello everyone, and welcome back! Hope you all had a fab break and are ready for the brand new year... and if you are the former but not the latter, one out of two ain't bad. It feels like we are about to set off down the ski jump towards the exam season again, with lift off for English Language GCSE a frighteningly early Monday 16th May.

So, to get us started:

Poetry Live!
We have currently got 20 students going on Poetry Live! on 8th February at the Kings Centre in Oxford, but have 30 tickets remaning. Can we please encourage year 11 Literature students to come on what is a really useful day. See Toni if you need more letters, but basically the cost is £17, and they need to bring money and a slip in to the school shop.

GCSE Mocks

Thanks to year 11 teachers for the effort that has gone into marking the year 11 mocks. Please follow guidance from JKy regarding formative approaches to feeding back on these mocks - the most important thing is that the students are working hard and engaging with the process, and that the work we put in is matched by the students!

Next steps for year 11 will be a work scrutiny of a variety of mock papers in order to analyse current performance a little more closely, so please don't let mock papers go home.

Progress Booklets KS3

Just a reminder to keep using these - well done Paul for spotting the second deliberate mistake, which is in the Poetry Unit of year 9. The Success Criteria are correct, but the 'We are learning to...' bit at the top identifies the wrong skills - please just go with the success criteria if tackling this unit. But other than that, please do ask students to have their documents out in lessons regularly and be filling in targets and spellings as we go. I'll also send round the lesson on encouraging effective reflection on learning again for use as units come to an end.

Sharing Practice

I hope you all received the Agile Teaching sharing practice doc - there is some really good stuff in here, gleaned from some very high quality observed lessons. Do have a look if you get a chance, and I'll be in touch regarding a round of observations for terms 3 and 4 in the near future.

Of Mice and Men

Found some fab resources on OMAM at the increasingly impressive TES site here:

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6055716

Media GCSE

Some great resources for GCSE Media here: http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/media_studies/119/index.html . Jamie and Nicky, let me know if you are available for a planning meeting on Thurs - no worries if not as we can rearrange.

Have a great week, term and year!

Tom