A very Happy New Year!
As staff returned to work on Monday they were put through their paces, once again, as we covered Day 2 of our Kagan training. Kagan is a method of teaching, which ensures all students are equally participating in discussion and classroom activities. We completed Day 1 in October and this time Emma, our instructor, was back to give us even more tips and structures to try in our teaching. It impresses me that after 2 weeks of possibility overindulging a little bit, staff fully engaged with the full-on day and are already looking forward to Day 3 in September. At the end of the day, we also pledged as a staff to focus on positivity and make sure we are the Calm Consistent Adult at all times. This Pivotal approach to behaviour management has also been a strategy we have chosen as a school, as it diffuses angst and allows students and staff to have restorative conversations about how things can be better in the next lesson.
Tuesday arrives and as the students flood back into school, the staff prepare themselves to put into practice the theory from the training. The results were impressive. This week we have seen and felt a definite shift in attitude and behaviour across the school. I have trekked around the building many times and popped in and out of lessons and without exception every member of staff has tried Kagan structures and are using , by now my famous Pivotal phrase ‘ be that as it may’ with students, rather than a slightly more negative approach. This is a very encouraging and positive sign and the students feel more relaxed about their learning and there are some really engaging teaching activities going on. A big welcome to Mr Smith (English) and Mr Brooke(Science) who have joined the team and made a huge impact already.
Shortly, Year 11 will have a new social area to use equipped with soft seating, motivational thoughts and science equations on the walls! It has been a bit of mision of mine to create some breakout space for our students, as we are woefully short on social areas in the winter months. Hopefully the newly designed area will offer a peaceful and relaxing area for our students and I have earmarked a few other spaces around school for KS3 later in the year. All in all a good start to 2018 so far.
