ISANet Newsletter Monday 8 September 2014

http://goo.gl/jWbZ6o for the full picture edition.

Beyond fulfilling your potential…

At the start of every new Academic Year, teachers and pupils have a chance to reset how other people perceive them. There has been a substantial break, a chance to refresh and renew, an opportunity perhaps even to reinvent their personae.

And many choose to make that step, and because of their change in attitude, change what others perceive they might achieve. We have been back at school for 2 days (3 days for Year 7) and whether we  are 6, 16 or 60, it seems those of us that believe we can change for better are giving it a go. The extensive evidence from science around how neural pathways are formed, how they can be further changed and developed with time has developed rapidly over the the last decade. And as the evidence grows exponentially to support the principles of ‘Growth Mindset’ theory, it’s notable that educators need to take these principles on board if they want to extend the achievements for their pupils, themselves and their school.

For those of you that need an easy-peasy guide to Growth Mind set theory, here’s Eduardo Briceno at a TEDx event in 2012 – http://goo.gl/OqggAZ.  Now don’t go shuffling about now thinking, do I really need to know this stuff, you do. It’s teachers using the wrong kind of language for praise that sets boundaries and limits for children.  “You’re really smart” rewards intelligence and encourages others not to try hard. “You must have tried really hard” rewards the learner and encourages the others to do the same.

Post-modern Western Parents tend to protect their children from making a greater effort by siding with their children when the going gets tough.  “I used to find Maths hard too” or “I gave up X as soon as I could, I just didn’t get it” are typical examples of Parent-speak. It’s very noticeable in Far Eastern cultures, such as Japan, that getting Maths is a requirement that requires effort not genius, and they’ll work at it much more obviously to achieve a good standard.

Here’s a new-ish National Numeracy for everyone, for life website that rather helpfully shows us how we can move Maths into a Growth mindset approach.  Judging by the enormous struggle we still have nationally to get our 16 year olds up to scratch, we could do with a bit more Challenge in this neck of the woods – why don’t you take the National Numeracy Challenge and restart your own willingness to improve your Maths!

Beyond Michael Gove…Morgan the Mighty

The sacking of Mr Gove is now yesterday’s news, and it is amazing just how suddenly the soundbites in education have dried up. The worry remains that those Ministers (Morgan – Surbiton, Laws – St Georges, Gibb – Bedford Modern, Nick Boles – Winchester, Timpson – Uppingham, Lord Nash – Milton Abbey)  that drive education policy were educated privately, so can’t represent the wider Education community that is still (93%ish) state educated. I am not so sure about that – after all, there is a signficant volume of senior markers and subject leaders in the Exam boards who work in our sector, as inded tehre are represented in many other facets of education, and the whole system would be lost without that contribution. There was a nasty scare last week that our new Secretary of State, Nicky Morgan, was about to direct Sir Michael Wilshaw that his inspectors were to find in favour of universal setting and streaming at secondary level.  Now that really would have been the worst kind of political interference in an independent inspectorate, and I honestly think Sir MIchael would have welcomed such a call. Fortunately, such was the outcry from those who are specialists in education, here as reported by the BBC for example, that NM backed tracked very smartly.

What else can we now look forward to?  The good news is that she’s has not put a foot wrong yet, and peace making seems more important than news.

Special Education Needs Reform

I quote from the Torygraph: “In July, the House of Lords approved the long awaited final version of the 0-25 Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice for England.

The SEND reforms are the largest overhaul of services for children and young people with special educational needs in the last 30 years, and will see education, health and social care services joining up to provide a more holistic approach to service provision.

Currently the needs of children and young people in England are assessed and detailed using statements of Special Educational Need (SEN) and Learning Disability Assessments (LDAs).

From this September, these will be replaced with Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans and will bring together all the education, health and care needs of the child in order to form a more cohesive support package, placing the needs and aspirations of the child at the centre of the process.”

The thing to watch here is that Needs that are underpinned by SEN statute are compulsory, and those by Health are advisory.  This ‘great revolution’ could be undermined by local authorities and central govt. slipping the ring fence from one to the other, for example with Speech Therapy services, and thus permit the ‘I know it is desirable, but we don’t have the cash’ excuse’.  Think ‘Nice’ for example. At the start of the year, RCSLT ensured that govt. kept these services within Education statementing, but there is bad news too.  The needs identification does not include joint commissioning; if the child’s GP felt that a Child’s needs required some extra support at school, they can’t just write a chit. And typically what will emerge is that some LAs are going to be more generous than others, so the arrival of a postcode lottery is feared – so what’s new? A good explanation of this here by Newcastle Uni blogger James Laws. Independent Schools need to join up to the EHC movement too –

Five things Schools need to know about the SEN Reforms.

Nice Guardian article here covers our responsibilities, but as Independent Schools don’t have to be involved, their children might miss out. I don’t see that it is schools interests not be part of the offer, but let me know if you think otherwise!

Looking after the Tiger… from my Twitter stream

What an extraordinary story – who’d have thought?  Here’s the ITN movie clip…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqkzJoRua5U

And finally…

The research bank at Wilding Towers has captured a vast number of interesting snippets over the last 8 weeks. I like…

Teaching History with 100 Objects by the British Museum

Design Thinking an Animated walk-through by Ana de Armas

Five Research-Driven Education Trends At Work in Classrooms by Katrina Schwartz

Top independent school puts lessons free on iTunes by the Stephen Perse Foundation

US pediatricians call for delay to morning school start for teens – everywhere

Future Dates

Saturday 18 October 2014 – Google’ Hub’ Event at Claires Court.

It’s 3 years since Claires Court went to the cloud, and our ‘Hub’ community numbers over 30 schools across the country.  This event, co-sponsored by Claires Court and C-Learning, seeks to bring those communities for a lively day of chit&chat – booking opens next week.

Objective of the day:

1. a) to allow staff from the 30 – 35 schools who have gone done the “Hub” route to get together and share experiences of how they have evolved their use of Google Apps and other resources to create their Cloud based learning service
2. b) to show these schools new products and services that they may wish to add to their own services including Chromebooks, Chromeboxes, Chromebases, Chromebox for Meetings, Google Play for Education, Tablets, Google Vault, Synergyse, Securly, etc

In terms of the schedule for the day

9.30am to 10am – Arrival & Tea/Coffee

10am to 11am  – Welcome to Claires Court & All Schools – Hub Show & Tell

11am to 12.15pm – Streamed sessions for Prep/Primary Schools and Secondary / Seniors schools for them to continue their Hub Show & Tell as there are uses which are age specific

12.15pm to 1.45pm – Lunch, Networking and hands on trials of Chrome devices, Tablets and Google Glass

1.45pm to 2.45pm – Software demonstrations (all) – 5 minutes plus discussion on Google Vault, Backupify, Synergyse, Classroom, Hapara, Securly, GoGuardian, Google Play for Education

2.45p to 3.15pm – Panel Q&A and Close

Welcome back to Claires Court for another fully-committed and high-energy Academic Year.  Please do read my last post, Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it,  in which I highlight the sweet and the sour of the Summer, celebrating the best of our students’ results at A level and GCSE, opening up as they do other doors for their future, and somewhat selfishly reflecting that if only he had them for one more term…

We have received two major pieces of evidence this week, both of which highlight just how well our Sixth Form provision promotes excellence for all in our care.  Here is what the Edexcel Art Moderator wrote to our Head of Art, Jan Price.

” I would like to thank the centre for taking the time to talk me through the course structure, and congratulate them on the accuracy and rigor applied to its assessment. The centre should celebrate and feel confident in its richly mature and dynamic approach to Art practice; I would happily recommend the centre to Edexcel as a model for its exemplary standards. Thank you for all your hard work and hospitality in respect of this moderation. It was a pleasure visiting such an exciting and organised centre.”

Now lets face it, dear reader, it is difficult not to swell with pride reading that.  We have received general praise for other departments too, from History to PE, and I don’t think I have ever had a Faculty of Teachers quite so strong as just now.  And here’s an example of one of our colleagues, Huw Buckle, Head of Y11, teacher of Business Studies and Master in charge of Cricket, as reported in the Press:

Berkshire Cricket Coach of the Year 2014

Congratulations to Huw Buckle, teacher at Claires Court who has been awarded ‘Coach of the Year for Berkshire’ by the ECB (English and Wales Cricket Board) Coach Awards. The award is in recognition for his contribution to Girls’ cricket, having been instrumental in developing the Girls’ Section at Maidenhead & Bray, which is now in its third year.

Several of the Claires Court Girls play for the teams, who have had great success, winning the U12 County Championship in 2013, the U14 County Championship this year and later in September the U12 Girls are in the County Final again.

Mr Buckle received the award during the recent England v India Test match at the Oval, where he was presented with his certificate by former England batsman Mark Ramprakash, on the pitch during the lunch interval.

This broad ability school also received really strong A level and GCSE results in August for our students, and here’s a sample of our reporting of that on our website:

100% Pass Rate at Claires Court – Exceeding the National Average

For the third year in a row, Claires Court students are celebrating a 100% pass rate at A Level, with 19.6% of the grades at A* and A, up nearly 6% on last year. This marks a year of excellent academic and personal achievements for students at the school with over 93% getting their favoured University choices.

Across a wide range of subjects the grades reflected the hard work of students and staff, Andy Giles, Head of Sixth Form said: “This is a fantastic set of results, we encourage our students to aim high and they have been justly rewarded for their hard work. Our cohort has a diverse ability and it is pleasing to see across a breadth of subjects, from chemistry to economics, art and psychology, success and achievement of such a high quality. We wish them all the very best for the future.”

What our Academic Auditor, CEM Centre University of Durham feeds back to us is how our performance as an  institution  stacks up against all other schools in their project, which covers over 50% of all A levels sat. In 2013, our performance placed us in the top 20% of schools, and this year we have moved up a gear and now are  placed  in the top 15% of Sixth Forms. The most important message of all is that our best do as well as the best, whatever their core natural ability or intelligence.  Some entered the Sixth Form with 6A* or more, others with 2Bs and some Cs, yet by their own lights they have achieved so very much at the highest end of their capabilities.

We started school today, Thursday 4 September with some 994 pupils on roll, and we have 3 more students to join us who arrive next week.  We have a further 4 children in the pipeline for a new start this month, so I have my fingers crossed we’ll nudge past 1000 any time soon.  And that number is a great achievement in these times of austerity; in itself indicative of tremendous confidence our parents and wider community have in us to nurture, inspire, engage and  energize  the young boys and girls in our care.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them. George Bernard Shaw.

The full colour edition here – http://goo.gl/396qMz

“If you want to go fast, travel alone.  If you want to go far, travel together.” [African proverb]

Once again we end our Academic Year reporting on a wealth of pupil achievement in and around the classroom, on stage and the playing fields, lakes and rivers, and out there in the wider community at large. The amazing report by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) of our School started this Summer Term in “excellent” manner. During their visit in March, the Inspectors came to a whole series of “excellent” judgements about our provision, the opportunities we make available, the care that we bring, and the excellence of our achievements, by pupils and by our colleagues.  Your reaction to the published report was heart warming in congratulating us on the quality of the judgements received and in affirming that it came as “no surprise and thoroughly deserved”. Thank you!

New Campus Consultation for Claires Court

During May, together with our chosen partners, the Institute of Medicine & Surgery, Berkshire and The Berkeley Group,  we held a number of events around Maidenhead to showcase our vision for the future of Claires Court. If you were not able to attend one of these you can see more at http://www.clairescourt-consultation.co.uk . Since then we have worked continuously with our architects to ensure a sensitive development of the Ridgeway estate and the retention of its unique ecology. We expect to make an outline application for planning during the autumn and will consult further with you at that time.

Farewell to Mr Jeff Watkins, Head of Claires Court Junior Boy A fuller appreciation will appear in the Court Circular Review of the year 2013/14

Jeff Watkins retires this summer as Head of Junior Boys leaving a huge contribution to the development of Claires Court. Jeff joined Senior Boys in 1985 as a teacher of English and  transferred to Junior Boys to serve as Deputy to Karen Rogg (then Miss Boyd) when she took over the Headship from David Wilding on the latter’s retirement in 1988. Through his clear sighted leadership of sport, Junior Boys became one of the powerhouses for Under 11 physical education, promoting inclusivity and the opportunity for all to play for their school. As parents of young children, Jeff and wife Anne placed both son Alex and daughter Verity at Claires Court, from where they graduated after A Levels to successful University careers in Sheffield and are now working in Law and Media respectively.

Jeff has led the Junior Boys’ School since April 2010, and has provided clear, engaging and supportive guidance for his staff, so that they have been able to develop post National Curriculum, a unique blend of academic and collaborative disciplines that particularly suits the young males in his charge. His insistence on manners, courtesy and service above self has been the ideal exemplar of the four values we promote of Responsibility, Respect, Loyalty and Integrity, and ensures that ‘Ridgeway’ boys are not arrogant in any sense, yet have a quiet confidence and unreserved enthusiasm for their School and all it stands for.

Jeff stands aside at a time when the future for Claires Court is exciting and challenging, and his successor, Justin Spanswick could not have asked for a better legacy – a full school and an outstanding Inspection report!  

We wish Jeff and his wife Anne the very best for the next stage of their professional lives.  Jeff will stay close to Claires Court over the next few years, assisting us in a variety of ways, not least on the further development of our Former Pupils Association.

ISA Awards 2014

Claires Court is among the 340 schools that make up the Independent Schools Association which earlier this year invited its members to apply for awards marking success in 14 categories from excellence in early years, prep and senior provision, to outstanding achievement in sport, IT and the arts. In our application for the Award for Excellence, we cited our extensive range of partnerships with other local and national organisations with particular reference to ‘3for3’, our major commitment to support three local charities, and our sponsorship of  ‘Art on the Street’, Maidenhead’s biannual art event.   

Here is some of the detail that gave rise to our award in 2013/14:

ISA Community Award 2014

Claires Court set out by way of its 2007-2012 School Development Plan to become an integral part of its town, Maidenhead, covered by its postcode – SL6.

We have partnerships with:

Maidenhead and Bray Cricket Club

Maidenhead Rugby Club and Phoenix Rugby Club

Maidenhead Sailing Club

Maidenhead Rowing Club

Maidenhead Golf Club

Maidenhead Centre for the Arts, Norden Farm

Maidenhead Rotary Club

Maidenhead Lions

We are an integral part of the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead’s strategic plan, providing 50% of their holiday child care needs for Maidenhead through our innovative Holiday Club and Sports Club provision. http://www.clairescourt.com/holiday-club/

This March, our Year 12 BTEC students ran a football tournament for all of the local primary schools, known as the Sainsbury’s Games.

16 teams from schools in and around Maidenhead and Ascot competed to be crowned the ‘Winners of Level 2 Sainsbury’s School Games’, giving them a free pass to play in the Level 3 Tournament, representing Ascot and Maidenhead.  

Through our innovative use of technologies, we now work with hundreds of other schools in the UK and Europe assisting them in developing their use of digital services in the classroom. This January 2014, we welcomed 150 headteachers and digital leaders from Sweden over three days to see at first hand our use of these technologies. We work with local primary schools, in the post GCSE period for Year 11, to introduce to them what cloud-based learning looks like, and you can see Barnaby Woodruff presenting our work with Ellington [now Riverside] School at BETT14 – 4min 40 secs into the Video.

We host a whole variety of Artistic events for our Community, from Public Speaking, Orchestra Day for local schools and our own Drama productions for other schools to visit as well as Activity weeks to engage and involve our children in the local community.

We have two major Jewels in our Community work.

Charity work – 3for3

Our School Councils determine each year our charity work involvement, with 3 local charities being supported by the 3 sites of CC – hence 3for3. Each year during the second half of the Lent Term (March), we then set out to have as much fun as possible whilst making as much money as possible for the three charities supported.  Here’s what it looks like through our ‘blurb’ to parents:

The Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service (previously The Alexander Devine Children’s Cancer Trust). This charity was set up in memory of Alexander Devine who sadly died at the age of 8 having been diagnosed at just four years of age with a brain tumour.  This charity already provides a service and is looking to extend this by ultimately building a children’s hospice in Berkshire to help all families with children with life–limiting conditions, not only those suffering from cancer.

Thames Valley Adventure Playground

Most children love being able to get out and about, explore, climb trees and play with friends, but for many children and adults with a special need, it isn’t possible. The Thames Valley Adventure Playground provides a chance for children and adults with all types of special needs to enjoy fun, freedom and friendship in a safe and stimulating environment. Our own Sports Leadership students support this worthwhile cause by giving practical help and assistance.

Kids in Sport

This charity is close to our School as it was set up in memory of Julian Budd, a past pupil of Claires Court, who sadly died in 2007 at the age of 33. Julian was a keen sportsman and raised money for charity to support children. His parents have set up the charity to continue this work. Kids in Sport aims to help children participate in sport who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity.

The fund raising is colossal – each charity receiving some £4,000+. This year, Junior Boys alone have exceeded £5,900 and still counting (‘til the end of April!). [When the final monies were collected, each of the three charities received a cheque for £4,262.84.] In addition, we support a further 20 charity collections a year, Jeans for Genes, Help for Heroes and so forth – but our localism is really important for us and our pupils!

Art on the Street – Some community activities don’t need money; what’s needed is the get up and go of enthusiastic adults and/or children, either on their own or on groups, lending a hand and putting on a show. Claires Court is the main sponsor of Maidenhead’s major artistic open air event, Art on the Street. This does not just mean cash (which the organisers do find helpful it must be said) but organisational people-power and jaw-dropping, show-stopping performances from our Actors, Musicians, Singers and Artists (the latter running workshops for much younger children in otherwise closed town centre units we open up for the day).

Following our work with Art on the Street,  with young offenders from the Maidenhead PRU and with disabled adults we continue to work in partnership with Maidenhead Centre for the Art at Norden Farm, as we take the innovative Arts Award forward to Bronze and Silver in this academic year.

Here are some examples of the Arts Award candidates work for their Bronze award, June 2014.

As we move towards creating a new campus for our School at the west of Maidenhead, it seems we have very many friends now in the local community who want to see us succeed. If nothing else, the evidence above highlights why!

And finally…

This Summer Term has seen challenge aplenty for the various Claires Court PTAs with hugely successful events in the May Ball, the Summer Fete and the Rowing Dinner. Four extraordinary parents have led our PTA communities for a number of years; Felipe Foy at Junior Boys, Vanessa Shander Kelsey for Senior Boys, and Louise and David Johnson for Girls and we thank them and their committees for all the wonderful events, awards and donations to the School and its Departments they have caused and overseen during their watch. They step down in September for the next generation of willing Parent volunteers to take us into the future, posing the question ‘how do you follow that!’ To which the obvious reply is ‘if not you, who?’ – names on a postcard, please!

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

Whilst our own educational landscape seems to enjoy many successes, nothing happens without intense hard work, and we hope you join with us in paying tribute to all of the teachers together with administrative and support staff who have gone that extra mile and kept so much of what we do at such an ‘Excellent’ level. They may be salaried for their work, but in no way does that cover the exceptional care they give to our pupils, your children. We could not be better supported and the Faculty of Claires Court 2014 step into their holidays knowing they have worked remarkably together and ‘Gone Far’!

Hugh and James Wilding

Link to Academic Principal’s Blog here – www.jameswilding.wordpress.com

Writing last week, I referenced the cutting edge nature of Science I discovered on entry to the University of Leicester.  The degree was a BSc in Combined Science, in the end focussing on Ecology, Microbiology, Psychology and Sociology. I arrived at University at a time when environmentalist activity was relatively new, and specific celebrations in 1972 were focussed on the banning of pesticides.

This prohibition arose from the research work of Rachel Louise Carson, the American-born marine biologist and writer, best known for her 1962 book Silent Spring, which is credited with launching the global contemporary environmental movement – read more below from the Independent newspaper 3 July.

52 years on, and we face a similar crisis, with Bees for similar reasons, and additionally in that parallel universe of Medicine, with the growing  resistance of microbes to antibiotics.  As David Cameron made clear yesterday in announcing a review of why so little work has been done to launch new antibiotics in recent years, “The world could soon be cast back into the dark ages of medicine unless action is taken to tackle the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics”.

At the educational level, we know that warnings of this kind can inspire children to take up the challenge, to become scientists and researchers into History. Children need heroes, and those of the past such as Carson and Fleming are readily superseded by David Attenborough and Brian Cox, who might not be famous for their science, but have made science intelligible once again the the masses.

Science literacy in schools is not developed by reading books alone, but through extensive practical activity so that children gain the investigative skills to research into the unknown.  Joining up subjects such that Historians and Scientists alike (Y9) can understand how we gained initially an understanding of germ theory, how we created sanitation and focussed our communities on the importance of public health really does capture the imagination.

Isn’t it a pity that David Cameron is so alive to the issue that he makes it national news, yet his government also authorises the decoupling of diverse practical science experiments from A level examinations. Education’s Michael Gove states that these changes will ‘correct the pernicious damage of dumbing down’. Of course, Mr Gove hasn’t heeded the opinion of scientists on this,  nor reflected on the traditions of UK education that have included such practical laboratory assessments since before he was born.

And what kind of school will continue to offer major practical activities at A level despite its sidelining? Why the independent Sector of course, because we don’t just study subjects to pass exams, but to inspire, inform and develop students such that they see the potential of science and other practical subjects as future careers. Just as my first extract came from the Independent, so does my last, alerted as I was by today’s (Thursday 3 July 2014) lead editorial (not on-line), bemoaning the growing gulf between the earnings of those educated at independent schools (such as Claires Court), and those in state schools, as reported by the Social Market Foundation.  Sir Peter Lampl of the Sutton Trust, another campaigning organisation on education wrote in the report’s forward of“a sense of outrage at the waste of talent in Britain” over the class divide in schools.

I can’t do anything about government choices, or calm such outrage, but I can continue to guarantee that children will enjoy a practical history and science (and everything else) hands-on education at Claires Court. It is from such experiences that the future generations of our historic and scientific heroes will come.

And as if by magic, the Eureka project report back on the combined experiment shared between Claires Court and their project on Mars. http://goo.gl/xAEesA

Silent Spring focused on the impact of synthetic pesticides on the environment – with the title referring to the absence of birdsong across swathes of agricultural landscape following the widespread introduction of pesticides and other intensive farming practices. The book sparked a public outcry, bringing to widespread attention the effects of these chemicals both on the ecosystem and on human health. Although her research was attacked by chemical companies, a decade after her book was published, and years after her death, her book led to a nationwide ban of DDT, a colourless and crystalline organochloride with insecticidal properties, and other pesticides. 

Silent Spring demonstrated that these pesticides could cause cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly to birds.  A worldwide ban on DDT’s agricultural use was formalised under the Stockholm Convention, but its limited use in disease vector control continues to this day and remains controversial.

Carson died on 14 April 1964, aged 56, of a heart attack having had breast cancer for many years. (From the Independent 3 July).

http://goo.gl/Tw3kZR link to the picture edition

Preamble

The ISANet Newsletter started as part of the ISA’s service to schools, something I felt would bring teachers and ideas together. The ISANet site shows me I have created some 238 Blog posts, of which the vast majority are newsletters such as this.

My editorial approach to creating the newsletter goes as follows. Most of the time, I have used POCKET as my bookmarking service, so that on a Sunday evening, I can review the week’s research and build the items into some kind of coherent (or otherwise you might say) content. In the early years, as the Ning network attracted people to its Facebook-style of social activity, plenty of other colleagues would blog and bounce ideas. But gladly, as more and more colleagues have become digitally savvy, the need to gather on the ISANet has disappeared, but your kind reactions to the Newsletter service has kept me going for some 5 years.

And today, this is the last of the Weekly newsletters from the ISANet.

I have downloaded the distribution list, and will email each member after the end of term to see whether they wish to be signed up for my WordPress blog, which will have both ‘A Principled View’ and ‘ISANet Blog section’ back up from next week..

Ian Nairn, Founder of the ISANet Ning, is shortly to close the site down, and save himself a few dollars each month into the process, and assist me in archiving the content.  I suspect there’s a Master research base in there somewhere – what 5+ years of Social Networking has achieved for a group of 563 Independent school  teachers and fellow travellers?

My grateful thanks to Ian, Dave Orchard, Chris Rowan, Eric Leuzinger, Rupert Fowke, Theresa Ward, Paul Robson and all that have taken and interest, written for me and promoted the cause of Digital Literacy and Innovation.  It’s been a pleasure working with you, and I hope all will consider adding to the ISANet Blog on its WordPress platform.

From next week, the Digital Newlstter will reappear on the sister Blog on WordPress http://isaonline.wordpress.com/. 

Newsbytes on ISANet stuff

Google Apps, the Story continues – event is now on the horizon, for Saturday 12 July, during which we host Beginner and more advanced GAFE training in the various core tools, as well as showcase the soon-to-arrive in the UK tools of

Google Classroom, Google Play for Edu and Google Glass:

https://www.smore.com/8h6e

• My Google Glass arrived last week, and today make their first outing into the Classroom with 2 of our year 11 students, Will and Lisa, as they support Junior school children in their work in the Cloud. Hopefully in the hands of these two CC Google Mentors, Glass will show what it can do for Education.  My Colleague Paul Robson has also acquired a set, and we’ll try our best to share with you Hands-on what they might mean for Class.
• Google Classroom arrived recently today, and last week I started a demo in school. It looks a useful free edition to the GAFE ecosystem, but it’s right at the start of its development and functionality will develop as Google Certified Teachers feedback to Mountain View what tweaks and extras are needed to make it a useful coherent service to schools.
• Google Play for Education is almost here in the UK, and will be incredibly useful for the deployment and management of Tablets in schools. Claires Court is supporting the use of Tablets in Primary schools as part of a Samsung Project in the autumn, but I understand the Lawyers need to keep tweaking the contract to fit inside the EU, and Samsung need to make sure their Tablets will run the Service.  Stateside, they have just retro-fitted Play for Edu to Chromebooks, permitting some greater functionality to the Management console. As the advert syass “With the revamped Google Play for Education, teachers can now give students access to Android apps and Chrome apps, books and videos from a single site. According to Google, about 10,000 schools currently use Chromebooks (and some of them use both Chromebooks and tablets).”  Techcrunch
• Coding in Drive seeks to highlight some free to use tools, that sync with Google Drive, assisting young and old to get their hands and heads around computer programming, rolling out across the UK in Primary schools from September.

From my POCKET this week

• A nice little cartoon by Ros Asquith from the Guardian, on the yet further decline on Music funding in schools.

• Most graduates have switched careers by age of 24 – from the Daily Telegraph.  19 out of 20 of today’s graduates have changed jobs at least once within three years of finishing university, study by New College of the Humanities finds

• Playing with Dr Doug Belshaw on Google+ on Sunday night, as he launched his book on The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies, he reintroduced my to the whole stuff on Memes – by way of this site – http://knowyourmeme.com/ and this Meme generator – http://memegenerator.net/ .  I really can see some Fun can be had with these two, and if children by end of Year 6 can get the hang of generating Memes and using them, then they’ll be digitally literate for Secondary school, or that’s Doug’s contention.  You can view the 60 minute session led by Doug here – Google+ Live.
• A Simple Coding sandboox for use in the Classroom – PENCIL
• Axe A-levels for Bacc-style exam, say UK scientists.  Another week, another 10 or so Education Soundbytes to add to that incredible insecure feeling that we are now living in.  The UK scientists concerned are looking 10 or so years down the road – perhaps they’d like to take a Time Machine back to Curriculum 2000, the New A level curriculum that promised so much but was derailed by a combination of League Table frenzy and Universities lack of appetite for change.

And finally…

I have followed Ewan McIntosh and Tom Barrett from the NoTosh digital training consultancy for a number of years, exceptional practitioners in schools and the corporate world now plying their trade mainly down under it seems.  

Here’s Ewan’s blog, and a post on which he highlights what a year of school innovation around the world looks like. He reminds me to remember to be Agile, and I like that, for at my grand old age of 60, I’d like to think I have tried to be just that as your editor of weekly digital news.

My closing aphorism to make you think:

James Wilding

jtw@clairescourt.net

www.jameswordpress.com

@james_wilding

When I was at University of Leicester (1972-75), studying Biological Sciences and Psychology, lots of ideas we now take as read in those days were ‘cutting edge’.  My personal tutor was directly involved in cracking the genetic code and working out how to sequence Chromosomes, which of course led to DNA fingerprinting.  As part of my Ecological studies, we learned about Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect.  Here’s what wikipedia have to say on that early idea:

Sensitivity to initial conditions is popularly known as the “Butterfly effect”, so called because of the title of a paper given by Edward Lorenz in 1972 to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., entitled Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?.^[ The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different.

Schools form part of that group of most complex systems known to man, see a previous note of mine here http://wp.me/p1i7wC-yc.  Rather like the weather, storms and sunny weather come and go, and schools large and small have to cope with the change in climate that they face.

However, in the last month we have had to face an extraordinary buffeting of ‘Flapping Wings’ from Government and their quangos about Education. Not a day goes by without another centrally created crisis becoming a news-bite for the national and international media to feast upon. And for what?  Is this how complex systems should be run?  Would any adult with an understanding of what’s meant by emotional intelligence seek to name, blame, game and shame in every speech they gave about the sector that they supervise?

• Schools should teach British values
• Too few pupils learning languages
• Are teachers ready for the Coding revolution?
• Ofsted says state pupils denied competitive sport
• Lack of challenge bad for pupils
• White working class fail at school
• Go back to traditional text books, Minister says

Ouch – this litany of daily failure might herald the end of the world as we know it. The crescendo of discontent though is very much driven by journalists and politicians alike. Their Flapping continues to cause a chain of events that is destablising schools and the professionals who work therein. Add to that talk of ‘Trojan Horses’ and ‘Religious Extremism’ and it’s no surprise people are running scared. And yet, none of these stories seem to apply to the world of education in which I work.  Sure stuff happens, but what we are about is creating a daily ‘cut and mow’ second to none, a rhythm of educational life that ensures that practice happens and opportunities are taken at every turn.

The Independent Education Sector is renowned internationally for the quality of our all-round provision. So it’s no surprise to learn that if ISC schools were a country, we’d be found at the top of the PISA rankings. The fact that our athletes disproportionately represent the country in the Olympics and World sporting achievements should be no surprise. That we are over-represented in the Universities, professions, parliament and even dare I say the higher echelons of the Military and Judiciary again should not come as a surprise.

I am writing this blog at 6pm, Wednesday evening, and the Cricketers, Rowers, Tennis players and Sailors are still hard at work.  The girls’ Tennis team came back from the ISA National Tennis championships last Friday with a hat-full of medals, and they are back out practicing again. The top 3 school quads (Rowers) are out training at Henley, preparing for qualifying events this Friday prior to Henley Regatta. The 12 strong Sailing team depart Sunday for 3 days of International Schools sailing on Rutland water on Sunday. Every day now for the next 3 weeks, children young and old alike are stretched and challenged beyond compare.  Sports Days, Drama showcases, Community Research projects, Work Experience and even Google Apps showcasing fill the calendar.   Oh, and there will be a host of boys and girls out on expedition in the Chilterns, New Forest and moorlands between now and September as they learn how to look after themselves under canvas and navigate challenging terrain in remote and wild country.  We are a day school by the way.

The Royal Ballet school and Yehudi Menuhin School are specialist providers; no surprise that so many of their graduates fill our ballet and orchestral companies. Of course they are Independent Schools, of course they charge Tuition fees, and of course they also have state-funded places so that those of real talent and ability whatever their means can apply and be supported through their specialist education.  And post school, no-one can learn to fly a plane without going to a specialist flying school; the last thing you want is that training left to a generalist organisation.

Claires Court is a specialist provider too; from academic study through to personal development, we have mapped programmes developed for decades that give rise for those that pass through our school brilliant opportunities for them to become excellent in their field.  Our multi-sport disciplines approach to developing physical excellence is recommended across the world as the best way of developing the best sporting super-stars. Our Libraries and classrooms bristle with books, and children make informed choices as to whether use ink-based or virtual print. Specialisation too early prevents the overarching development of the all-rounder, so we look for the Goldilocks effect – not too much, not too little, just right. Like-wise our teaching programmes do not propel children pell-mell (disorderly confusion, reckless haste) into early academic specialisation. That’s an outrage that even Ofsted and Gove say should not happen.

My title alludes to the negative effects that panic and agitation bring.  Be very afraid if you hear too much of such fuss around children.  They pick up upon people running scared pretty quickly, and that will shape how they think and act. If they only learn how to behave when adrenalin flows, that’s really not great.

By practicing lots and lots, we become what we repeatedly do, skilled under pressure, calm under fire and creative when something outside the box needs to happen.

“Fly like a butterfly, Sting like a bee, Work like a Trojan, That’s a guarantee!” with apologies to Muhammad Ali – one of the greatest sportsmen in History.

P.S. From the promotion of British values to the provision for excellence, you can read how we do that here – http://www.clairescourt.com/news-and-media/news/inspectors-recognise-maidenhead-private-schools-excellence-/