My enquiry....at last!

Apologies for the delay in finally putting fingers to keys and getting this posted!
My original enquiry was 'Can I plan a series of creative activities which will help engage the disengaged children in my class?'
At our various sessions we talked around this and I was given some excellent ideas by members of the group. I then went back to school and talked to a colleague who is working with me on a 'personalised learning plan' for some disengaged pupils in Year 6. As I work in Year 3 we thought it might be a good idea to bring the two groups together.
The Year 6 children have been attending sessions at Building Futures on Walker Riverside. They have been learning the skills of bricklaying, woodwork and tiling and I'm proud to say that the instructor told me that one of them (the only girl!) in one of the best bricklayers he's ever taught!!
So, We have planned for the Year 6 children to mentor my Year 3 children and together they are going to make a 'whirligig' for our playground. Each pair will make an essential part of it but it will only be complete when all pieces are put together.
The disengaged children in my class see themselves as making no useful contribution and usually sit back, do nothing, get bored and cause disruption. Through this project we hope they will see that the finished project will not exist without them.
Through my conversations with Rob at B.F. we have now roped him into our Creative Partners Enquiry Project and he is going to work with a group of Year 1 and 2 children to make an outdoor stage fro our playground! What a bloke!!

Happy New Year

Hello all,
Hope you are all well and have enjoyed the holibobs.
After our sessions at Hoults Yard and Northern Stage, I arranged a coaching session with my Headteacher that linked to my Leadership Pathways course that I'm doing. We chatted about how I can encorporate the ideas and enquiry based questions from both Leadership Pathways and the Creative Leadership Programme. It was a good session and I felt that the Head took on board my ideas that would enable myself and the staff as school to really move things forward.
I've decided to focus on developing Change Teams within school that will enable successful peer mentoring, observation and support to engage staff and provide quality CPD within the school's limited budget. I have decided to pilot this method with an initial 'Starter' Change Team. It consists of myself [Senior Management team and leader of Creativity and Innovation /Y5 teacher], Our SENCO [Y3 teacher], A new teacher in Y2, and a really dynamic [but lacking in confidence] teacher in Y1. So the team consists of four of us that really represent a good spread in year groups and experiences. I've approached to team and they are all on board. We will be meeting next week to discuss ideas of how to move forward.
Kate x

Creative Leadership Group 2

Hello,
Looking forward to session 2 tonight. I have had a think about my question and it is ' Can creative use of English develop skills in Scientific writing'. I intend to work collaboratively with our English AST to design some materials that can be used in science lessons. I will then use and assess these tools and ask other members of the science department to trial them too. We will then try to roll the ideas out to the whole of the science department.

Hopefully this will impact on reading and writing in science.

See everyone later. Claire D.

Staff meeting

I have been given two staff meetings to get the staff enthused about looking again at the curriculum, making it more relevant, exciting and effective for learners through creative cross curricular links. I made a pretty good start last week, especially as half of the meeting was hijacked by looking at maths monitoring. I got the staff involved in 2 exercises to get them thinking about what made learning most effective - an individual one, then a small group sorting, ordering and discussion one - both of which got people quite enlivened along the lines I had hoped.
This week I am leading the second meeting. Teachers are very tired and I need to make the meeting not too heavy or demanding - but useful. Ideas for methods of engaging them welcome!

Creative Leadership Programme: Thanks for a great day in Middlesbrough, looking f...

Hello Paul, a clear question for enquiry that is to the point and most importantly achieveable. You could consider what information those in the next phase of education need and what would benefit the child. Do you want to lead a change in a new way with a transition package which has not yet been used. How will the child and members of staff (multi-agency) be involved and how will you lead this? Really interesting thankyou for the post, Sarah.
Creative Leadership Programme: Thanks for a great day in Middlesbrough, looking f...: "Thanks for a great day in Middlesbrough, looking forward to this afternoon/evening session. My question is as follows - 'How can I best d..."

Creative Leadership Programme: Creative Leadership Programme- Group 2-Enquiry que...

Have the staff had opportunity to identify their own and their colleagues creative skills. This could be used as an initial task to encourage reflection and interaction. This would allow you to use Tim Baileys system of teams effectively whilst empowering the staff to achieve goals. The coaching/mentoring element will be crucial this sounds like a really interesting enquiry.

Creative Leadership Programme: Creative Leadership Programme- Group 2-Enquiry que...: "A really interesting day at Hoults Yard-good to be in a non-educational setting, good to talk to other professionals, good to have time to t..."

Creative Leadership Programme: Enquiry question - group 2

Creative Leadership Programme: Enquiry question - group 2: "Hi all, A really good day at Hoult's Yard - the time to think about creativity and leadership was invaluable for me as there have been so m..."

Your setting sounds amazing, I would love to visit one day! You need time to stand back and think about how you see your role and what you would like to develop particularly as you are in a new building. I would suggest you do something which develops your skills as a creative leader. It is difficult as I am not in your shoes, but what are you keen to develop in terms of creativity?

Enquiry question - group 2

Hi all,

A really good day at Hoult's Yard - the time to think about creativity and leadership was invaluable for me as there have been so many changes in my setting recently. I especially liked Liz Harker's talk about leadership and management; it's an area I find we are rarely asked to consider and yet do all the time! The more I thought about my question, the more questions I uncovered and so I have decided upon an intermediate question, (which may stay!) as I need to discuss it all a bit more with the Deputy Head.

Enquiry Question: As the end of our Change School project approaches how can I re-define and develop my role as leader of Creativity and Enrichment in our new setting?

Any thoughts on this greatly appreciated!

Clare

(Context: SEN primary school for moderate learning difficulties and autism, a very strong focus on inclusion. 'Pathfinder school:' Has moved to a brand new school site with another mainstream primary school; the building has been built so that paired year groups are in 'pods' called zones, eg year 3 and 4 in one pod. My ASD Y3 class has Y3 and 4 mainstream next door classes. Shared (fantastic) specialist rooms, (eg Art/DT room, Cookery room, Music room, Sensory room) hall space and play areas, corridoors, though still two separate schools. My TLR role is as lead of creativity and enrichment, and has mainly focussed on managing creative partnerships enquiry and change status in the last couple of years, mainly focussed on devloping our curriculum, embedding creative practice in teaching and learning and supporting the transition to the new setting.)

Creative Leadership Programme- Group 2-Enquiry question

A really interesting day at Hoults Yard-good to be in a non-educational setting, good to talk to other professionals, good to have time to think.
Back at school, ht keen to support any line of enquiry, although the one that she is most keen for me to develop is about developing creative leadership throughout the school. In a previous school I helped to organise a faculty system for subject leadersghip. We have talked about this but see this enquiry project as an opportunity to "share" our creative leadership-it would work a bit like Tim Bailey's structure, with different people operating on different teams. My role would be to coach and support "middle" leaders towards some outcomes for their faculty, looking at leadership techniques, and also being part of one of the structures-as maybe no.4 or 5!
So as a question-
"How can creative leadership be devolved to empower more members of staff towards creative outcomes?"

Simon Ward

Thanks for a great day in Middlesbrough, looking forward to this afternoon/evening session. My question is as follows -



"How can I best develop and manage an effective personalised transition package for children moving on from the PRU to their next phase of education?"



Thanks,





Paul Bryan

I had a really good day in Middlesbrough - It was great to hear from speakers outside of education - encourages thinking outside the box!

My question for my enquiry is
'How can I begin to lead our whole school community in embedding an understanding of the wide range of cultures and beliefs found nationally in our creative curriculum?'

As part of a small monocultural school I want to engage as many stakeholders as possible in the process to maximise understanding and engagement.


Ann Lowden

enquiry question

Hi all, my enquiry question is "how can I use business coaching techniques to encourage a new inexperienced department to take ownership of their planning and teaching"

I'll be looking at corporate leadership within the UK and USA and identify some techniques to use from each culture (I am assuming there will be a difference) . I will be trying out some of these techniques on my two unsuspecting staff and will document the results which could turn out to be quite an amusing but hopefully meaningful piece of research.

Christine Perryman

Enquiry Question: Raising Aspirations

This is my initial question which I feel sure needs some refinement, advice is welcome:


How do I raise the profile of my department and, in the process, improve the aspirations of my students and the personal involvement of the departmental team?


Kathryn Mills

Creative Leadership Programme: My question is as follows: What can I do as a crea...

Amy, you seem to have been doing alot of thinking and I am delighted to see pupil and staff satisfaction. Can I ask how do you plan to gather student feedback, what media will you use? Will this be anonymised? Great initial thoughts, see you on the 9th where we can share and discuss ideas further. Thank you for the post. Sarah Martin-Denham
Creative Leadership Programme: My question is as follows: What can I do as a crea...: "My question is as follows: What can I do as a creative leader, through the underlying principals of the teacher effectiveness enhancement pr..."

Creative Leadership Programme: Enquiry Q

I am thinking about this one it is quite a question. What would the shared goal be, pupil achievement? The pupil learning experience? How we listen to the learner? Maybe you need to focus in on a key aim that can be shared across areas of specialism regardless of what that might be. Could this come from the Every Child Matters agenda? or student feedback?
Let me know your thoughts.
Sarah Martin-Denham
Creative Leadership Programme: Enquiry Q: "Hi all, Thanks for a really inspiring day! Q- How can I create a team, who works together as a team? Being part of a big Technology Depar..."

Creative Leadership Programme: Enquiry Q.

Hello Kate, I feel that your 'to do so' list really did answer your question extremely well. Introducing change is clearly what is going to be happening in education for the foreseeable future so there really is no way of avoiding being involved. In order to have change team work is crucial with everyone involved. The dynamics in schools and relationships between people can often conflict and this can result in difficulties. You were right that teachers need ownership over changes and most importantly chances to put them in place with time for them to embed and be evaluated. This is critical, schools have so many initiatives that I have often heard the phrase 'here we go again'. You are proposing that it is the teachers in control and motivation does rub off on those who are less keen intially. It is about celebrating change, taking risks and trying new things.
Great thoughts
Sarah Martin-Denham (new to the team)

Creative Leadership Programme: Enquiry Q.: "I'm looking forward to the other sessions, hopefully we can be in smaller groups so it's possible to discuss/coach in depth. My question: H..."

Creative Leadership Programme: Creative Leadership Proposal

Good afternoon, from reading what your role is I instantly feel that you are very passionate about what you are trying to achieve. E-learning is crucial in today's society and there is alot of academic literature which I can signpost you to at your request. Your initial thoughts were exactly what I thought, what are the barriers? At the end of the session that you deliver you could give each person a slip of paper which would allow you to analyse their individual needs so that you could begin a mentoring/coaching discussion. On the paper have three options
I dont have any concerns about introducing ... into my teaching
I am concerned about ..... because ...
I would like 1:1 mentoring with...
I have done this with students to ascertain their level of understanding regarding a teaching session. It does provide immediate feedback and may open your eyes to those who are reluctant to use e-learning. It could be that they are concerned about their current skill level and capabilities. Let me know if you would like me to signpost you to some literature.
Sarah Martin-Denham (new to the team)
Thank you for your post

Creative Leadership Programme: Creative Leadership Proposal: "Question: How can I lead (reluctant) staff to embed effective e-learning within their lesons? Context: I currently run a series of Teaching..."

Creative Leadership Programme: Enquiry Idea

Hello Laura, I am new to the team and hope to be able to provide support in terms of education and academic thought. My background is Primary, FE and HE so I do feel able to consider your question. When I taught vocational students they were level 2 and 3 girls aged 16+ and independence was a key issue. Could I ask which level are they studying at and on which course, or is there a range? In my college my team and I promoted independence by giving students ownership of their learning environment and teaching methods. We provided video diary rooms where they would provide suggestions of how we could enhance their learning experiences and their college life. This in itself did change how the vocational students saw themselves as learners. From the DVD diaries we the management made changes as they arose, such as more e-learning resources, dedicated course learning spaces and even changes to the food provided on site. The outcome of this two way partnership was that independence did improve as they became more pro-active in college life and in understanding themselves as learners. I hope that this in some way helps, independence is a key skill that many students do seem to lack.
Creative Leadership Programme: Enquiry Idea: "Hi everyone, Id first like to say thank you for a great day. 'How can I encourage vocational students to become more independent learners?'..."

My question is as follows: What can I do as a creative leader, through the underlying principals of the teacher effectiveness enhancement programme (TEEP) to bring a ‘profit’ (socially, professionally and academically) to my team?

Why have I chosen this area of focus?
As one of the lead coaches and mentors for the school my aim through the ‘Creative Leadership Programme’ is to use the underlying principles of T.E.E.P and the learning cycle to encourage and promote independence with my colleagues and students to ‘profit’ the English department and them as individuals. To do this effectively I plan to utilise Liz Harker’s four ‘personal objectives’ titled Interpersonal skills, planning and organisation, managing change and leadership style thereby focusing on managing an efficient and continually improving team through building colleague and pupil satisfaction. This alongside Tim Bailey’s notion of ‘profit’ will be the markers of my success.

• Evidence/Ideas
  
  · Interpersonal skills – questionnaire
  · Planning and organisation – lesson plans based on the T.E.E.P model, feedback from the students on the success of these lessons, photographic evidence of student participation and statements from staff who have used the lessons within their own groups.
• Managing change – Creating and innovating (above lesson plan?), adaptability and risk taking? Mention three pathways of students and how using the TEEP cycle meets needs of all.
• Leadership style – Staff statement to include developing others (JWo, JGr, CBo) and coping with pressure – BIP.

This is just my first thoughts so no doubt all will have changed by the 9th December :-). See you all then,
Amy Cadwallender

Enquiry Q.

I'm looking forward to the other sessions, hopefully we can be in smaller groups so it's possible to discuss/coach in depth.

My question:
How can I lead the staff to want to work together to improve curriculum links to make it more relevant, challenging, stimulating and enjoyable for all learners in our school community (pupils, families and teachers.

To do so I will need to :
Convince staff that there is a purpose to this (we are a school which has used a creative curriculum for many years, indeed is considered to be a leader in this area)
Ensure that teachers have a real sense of ownership over any changes
Provide opportunities for staff to extend their own learning and expertise.