Small schools / human scale education – what is it?

downtown Boston

The visit to Boston and New York for senior staff of 4 UK schools was a privilege, thoroughly enjoyable and highly rewarding, thanks to all professionals involved. It’s a long way to go to see schools and many of the approaches seen may not translate directly into our schools. Context, culture and climate differ, educational structures are similar but not the same, politics and policies act in different ways. Yet what is abundantly clear is that a sharp focus on the person is making a real impact in the schools we saw. Being small helps that to happen, but size is not the simple pre-requisite of success. I think that our definition of ‘human scale education’ (or schooling) is yet to be penned in a succinct way, and the discussions that lead to it will develop all involved in the process. Human Scale Education offers great views – perhaps we can start with 5 simple bullet points of key features?

Last visit – ICE

ICE on a sunny day!

An excellent opportunity to see an excellent small school in action with grateful thanks to John Pettinato (Principal), staff and students who were all keen to share practice, ideas and receive feedback. ICE, Institute for Collaborative Education,  Respecting John’s views I am posting comments that will influence our development at WTC.

Things to think about and act on at WTC;

• phone, e-mail and messaging contact to add to more common communications for students and parents directly to teacher advisers and principal – no filter / high trust?
• continue to select the best staff, irrespective of subject and preferably through the ITT placement route?
• induction of teachers – first year co-teach with experienced colleague?
• induction of other staff – co-support with experienced colleague?
• immersion for EAL students with 1:1 support?
• teacher advisers meet weekly to discuss students (similar to extended GAR/B&A/SEN) and update HT whose prime role is leading learning & teaching
• establish, share and work to explicit ‘habits of mind’ within a community of learning?
• family photos?
• open door policy – completely open plan HT office and soft seating?
• how best to meet, greet and bid farewell through D/G/S schools?

New York city – Urban Academy (UA) / Julia Richman Schools

UA in midtown NYC

Thanks to Ann Cook,  Don ?? and two UA students for giving their holiday time and expertise so freely to explain our many questions so well and offer challenge. NY schools were on holiday today so we could not see the schools in action, but  both students were excellent ambassadors.

This time 6 schools occupied one very large building which also houses a heath clinic, infants centre and teachers’ centre, with shared facilities otherwise unavailable to small schools such as swimming pool, 1500 seat auditorium. The complex was created to replace a very large dysfunctional and violent high school in the mid 90′s .  All schools are small, 4 are high schools.

Of interest;
•    Each school is autonomous but HTs meet weekly and the building is managed by a shared manager and building council
•    Each school has a different emphasis and intake
•    UA runs an inquiry curriculum assessed by ‘performance assessment’ (portfolio presentation?), specially allowed out of the NY testing regime
•    Emphasis on close relationships, students can phone teachers, teacher contacts parents
•    Teachers work in teams and school decisions are based on consensus (20 staff +HT)
•    All staff teach except the 1 secretary
•    All teachers have responsibilities above teaching (typical teaching load c50%?) but unclear about any financial reward for such
•    Teachers adapt curriculum to group / school need to support students’ needs – plan in teams of 5/6
•    Have 3h/w planning time – students offsite on community learning (work experience?)
•    Mixed age classes – peer pressure supports and keeps individuals in line
•    Key feature of success: emphasis on instruction, school culture (no personal attack, etc)
•    Adviser has 18-20 students
•    40 small schools network for support and development
•    staff student photo exercise reinforced small school culture
•    start academic year with 2 week project to orientate / induct students
•    2 week musical project (similar to Durham Johnston)
•    not all classes have 2 adults, use interns (student teachers) where possible
•    strong support from parents – ‘time out from testing lobby
•    staff selection important – not simply a teacher

Potential impact on WTC thinking?
•    Student adviser – does it have to be a teacher?
•    Teaching teams – how many teachers / support staff? Planning time? Scope of decision making? How flat should this team structure be across a school? Do we need eg 3 KS3 teaching teams with 1 leader of each reporting directly to the head of School?
•    How can the TLR structure best be developed to serve the needs of students?
•    Head of school is exactly that for D,G,S? generic support management?
•    How to develop rapport with confidence for students to phone staff?
•    Can we align peer pressure to support the D/G/S culture
•    2 week orientation / induction at start of academic year within red weeks?
•    How do we lever up parental engagement?
•    Rethink staff selection to match new staffing model
•    Student card exercise

Mission Hill School (K-8) & New Mission High School (9-12), Roxbury MA

welcome to our schools

Many thanks to Principals Ayla  Gavins and Naia Wilson, staff and students for their warm welcome, hospitality and patience in fielding our many questions. Very busy schools with engaged students and staff.

Again two schools in one building, an old one with large rooms feeding off a wide central corridor, akin to the ‘mall’ design seen in some PFI schools. Mission Hill feeds into Mission High and other Boston public schools that include BAA. Most students choose to progress to small pilot schools rather than the bigger public schools so they can build on the quality of experience. It certainly works well.

Of interest in Mission Hill;
•    focus on ‘habits of mind’, ‘habits of work’ and developing ‘essential skills’
•    c170 students, 50 staff
•    themed curriculum, currently studying democracy at the time of presidential election (children’s books on 2 candidates)

Of interest in New Mission High;
•    restructuring from an alternative curriculum with a strong emphasis on social justice and preparation for college entrance (now have special Advanced placement classes for students most likely to progress)
•    pushing Maths courses over 4 y, ‘mastery’ assessment with recovery sessions at weekend, summer school
•    Strong partnerships with local colleges and community
•    250 students, c22/class with 2 staff and full inclusion
•    teacher adviser:student ratio 1:15, meet am (connect) and pm (reflect)
•    time built into the school day for teachers to plan
•    3 overnight ‘retreats’/y to plan as whole staff and extra days for faculty planning
•    no external cover – disperse among staff available
•    support from academics eg Ron Ferguson at Harvard (relationship / curriculum / pedagogy triangle)
•    seemingly fewer resources – using whiteboards (not smart) and OHPs, hand drawn posters. approved textbooks – targeting cash on staff first?
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Potential impact on WTC thinking?
•    Student adviser role focusing on connect (am) and reflect (pm)?
•    Does it have to be a teacher?
•    Recovery / booster sessions for core subjects / skills?
•    How to provide more staff – rebalance budget spend against resources?
•    How to build in more planning time – as learning (kaizen) teams?
•    Rethink teacher / support cover?
•    Research Ferguson approach?
•    Reposition our own ‘habits of mid/work/behaviour’ around social justice and academic learning / achievement?

human scale learning and modern technologies

A seminar hosted by the Human Scale Education charity and supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation was held today in London with Prof Stephen Heppell leading invited guests from schools nationwide.

The day was spent learning from Stephen about the impact of modern technologies, then debating the impact in schools with a focus on 2 questions;

1 what should schools be doing to take advantage of modern technologies to develop human scale learning?

2 what is stopping us from making that happen?

Video clips and other resources will be uploaded onto this blog to stimulate debate, share ideas and build a momentum for sustained change that brings modern technologies (computers, mobile phones, games consoles, cameras, etc) into an influential and essential aspect of the daily learning of young people and the many adults who help them to learn. For more of Stephen’s great thinking go to <www.heppell.net/>.

Your comments and contributions are vital, so please offer your thoughts and accept my thanks for them in advance!

Rethinking school lunch

A follow up to our engagement with dott07 is this link kindly provided by John Thackra and a timely stimulus to the design of food and eating for ournewschool. You can find much more on the ecoliteracy site related to eco-schooling, well worth an exploration!

This link (click here) is to a US programme looking at school lunch. I welcome your thoughts

Human Scale schooling in Boston

Day one of a fantastic opportunity to see US models of small schools in action, courtesy of the very generous invitation from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and excellent organisation / support of Simon Richey and Jane Thomas.

First up, Boston Arts Academy.

entrance on Ipswich Street

Many thanks to Linda Nathan, Co-Headmaster, staff and students for their great expertise, generosity, warmth and openness. For website click here

Impressions? Well, an excellent school with very responsive and mature young people interacting closely and respectfully with each other and dedicated staff. Housed in a renovated factory, which offers space inside but not out, the accommodation is functional and  not as physically impressive in terms of learning spaces as emerging BSF designs. What clearly works is organisational systems design. How?

• a fundamental belief in small scale to maximise human interactions pervades the academy
• an embedded focus on developing the essential ‘habits of the graduate’ derived from extensive staff discussion, defined as RICO – Refine / Invent / Connect / Own
• a 1;8-10 teacher adviser: student mentoring system to support all aspects of student growth towards the above end
• an expectation that each student will produce a portfolio of evidence to support and illustrate how they use RICO to progress all aspects of their learning
• twice yearly reviews with students which can include adviser, parent, external expert/s
• open days for parents to sit in classes to see what happens and how
• extensive student voice with twice weekly feedback to principal and senior staff
• teachers available to advisees and classes via e-mail, messaging, mobile phone
• each teacher holding reading / writing seminars with their group, ie all support language learning

Possible implications, transfer or adaptation to improve practice at WTC?

• define our own RICO as an overarching ‘design brief’ for personal learning to drive ownership?
• 1:10 student adviser support from entry through to leaving?
• ensure the adviser is always available – use systems and technologies to best effect?
• develop skills set of teacher adviser to include support for teaching key skills?
• develop teachers/student support teams (similar to Nissan kaizen teams) to maximise learning on a personalised basis?
• train, train, train staff and review?
• add an external (employee/er) mentor in 14-19 and hold student review / portfolio presentation as part of yearly parent consultation event?
• use open house sessions to inform, enthuse and engage more support of parents / carers?
• focus on the positive – simple psychology really?
• engage student voice more comprehensively – feedback to improve system design and operation – it may be hard to listen at times but it will help to embed student ownership as well as improve service?

Happy Bookers (The Times, 19 Sep 2008, Page 2)

An interesting view of the way libraries seem to be going – public and possibly in schools? I’ve certainly come across a range of views and I’m sure that the traditional view espoused here will not stop the diversification of library design and purpose. Do we want a living, active library or a quiet, ossified museum? Is it possible to design a blend to suite varied tastes? I’m sure there’ll be strong opinions which is the reason for this post, to arouse debate- what do you think?

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Happy Bookers

The Times
19 Sep 2008

Casanova, Laura Bush, Golda Meir and the Grimm brothers were book( wo) men in them. From Alexandria to the British Library they have been treasure houses of knowledge. Over the centuries libraries have established traditions: a lost book is found only…read more…

Tech Tags: The Times newspaper Leading Articles

journey delayed by?

This morning I have been phoning parents and students early to make sure that we have a prompt start at 0850. Being on time is a key need of any organisation or team. Yes, I know it wasn’t a good day at St James’ Park on Saturday, but what do you think the score could have been if half the Utd team had drifted onto the pitch 10 minutes after the ref started the game?

The key to being punctual is a positive frame of mind that says it is important to me that I am on time and I am an important part of my team. The punctuality habit means that people aim to be early so any slight delay will still not make them late. The zenhabits blog post on early rising (click here) is written for an adult audience yet offers very sound practical advice for the younger reader too – why not try some of the tips?

Over the summer I’ve experienced a number of delayed journeys – power failure, flooding, roadworks, accidents, hedge trimming – all frustrating when you have done your level best to be on time. Yesterday my flight to London was delayed by organs, the human kind, being transported in haste to a hospital. Now that’s the sort of reason for lateness that no one could reasonably object to. In fact the delay was curtailed by a change of plan, the organs were redirected onto an other flight, so not to London. Sadly. of course, the whole story is of mixed blessing, the sorrow of one family being the joy of another. If you want to know more about how to become a donor click here for the NHS website

simply success

For the past few months I’ve been following a blog that has impressed me greatly. It’s based around zen, an aspect of budda religion that makes a great deal of sense in a non spiritual way. I came across the site by following my noise around the many advocates of ‘personal productivity’, mostly US based, largely focusing on IT/freelance/writing professionals but nevertheless very useful across the board.

Like any other blog, you’ve really got to ‘lurk’ for a while to get into the format and philosophy and with zen habits it has certainly been worthwhile for me. So have a look at this post on simplicy and if you are interested have a good look around the site, there’s mcuh to interest and inform you. lick on the link here.