Internet Safety Day from the Interner

February 2017

It is internet safety day today and schools across the country will be delivering input to students to promoting safe use of our relatively new information source.

But to maintain these lessons, we as staff need to have some awareness of the biological and social impact technology is having, as well as the huge potential to take our classrooms around the world and learning into fields far beyond the curriculum.

We have highlighted three key podcasts that are well worth a listen on lunch or the journey home.

The impact of ‘screen time’ TED Talk

Are our devices turning us into a new kind of human?

The effect of violent video games

NAPCE knows the power of technology and how they can host valuable resources. That is why napce.org is having a revamp and launching our new resources. On the same line, our National Conference is coming up at Newman University in March.

And last but in no way least, our Post Graduate Certificate in Pastoral Care is set to begin in September, working alongside Newman University’s Dr. Dave Trotman and Professor Stan Tucker.

Following a year that certainly raised them, over the next twelve months we are going to be tackling some of the biggest issues in pastoral care and how they are being addressed in schools.

I am sure that a week in to the new year and a week back at work may be making things seem a little less than joyful or back in your element, but this months NAPCE is all about looking ahead to the future.
What is pastoral care looking like in the 21st century? Without doubt it is still about building a supportive community around everyone we work with. There are new approaches to education not just cropping up, but being expanded on. NAPCE will be investigating a range of philosophies, from the autonomous need satisfaction to the anti-technology, and all that goes in-between. This including what and how the government is supporting and neglecting our schools.
But what format does this community take? Our digital society seems to be growing ever larger, stronger and influential, but what are we doing to embrace it so its best features can be used? NAPCE will address this next month following its coverage of CAPITA’s 15th Protecting Children and Young People in the Digital Environment Conference.

NAPCE knows the power of technology and how they can host valuable resources. That is why napce.org is having a revamp and launching our new resources. On the same line, our National Conference is coming up at Newman University in March.

And last but in no way least, our Post Graduate Certificate in Pastoral Care is set to begin in September, working alongside Newman University’s Dr. Dave Trotman and Professor Stan Tucker.
So, the 2017 new years resolution at NAPCE is to increase just how much we can do to support you… the one’s who are there to support everyone else!

The Rochford Review

November 2016

The Rochford Review was released this October and NAPCE believes that its recommendations have the potential to support great steps forward across all forms of education in the UK.

The report’s headline suggests the removal of the statutory requirement of assessing pupils using P scales, building upon the removal of levelling. NAPCE sees this as an ideal opportunity for all schools to consider valuing progress in learning outside and alongside academic subjects their data, potentially assisting other outcomes related to pastoral care.

The report comes across as more clear cut for those students who are not engaged in subject-specific learning, suggesting limits on the statutory assessment for pupils. Special needs provisions NAPCE currently work with are already leading the way in assessing pupils’ development in all 4 areas of need outlined in the SEND Code of Practice and in the areas of cognition and learning. The use of models such as SCERTS and the Life Skills frameworksupport an educational practitioner in their own delivery. They are able to address key aspects of whole child development in the present and evidence it as beneficial to the individual’s long-term goals.

For those within mainstream looking to differentiate not just learning but now assessment this could pose an additional burden. Responsiveness, curiosity, discovery, anticipation, persistence, initiation, investigation; the 7 aspects of cognition and learning put forward by Rochford, are worth assessing throughout all of education and therefore bypassing the bias of those with additional needs in NAPCE’s opinion. With the report seeking for ITT and CPD for staff to have a greater understanding of assessing pupils working below the standard of national curriculum tests, now appears an ideal opportunity to link in with developing assessment (and delivery) across all learning environments. Perhaps this is something that will grow if stable systems of assessment are first put in place for the early stages of development. Those who doubt such skill sets as being applicable beyond focus areas of study need to be considering the knowledge based economy all students will be entering. One that perhaps requires a skill set flexible and resilient enough to be applied outside of a mastered field, let alone complex relationships.

Without P-levels the report suggests schools need to be able to evidence not to the DfE but to parents and carers, inspectors, regional schools commissioners, local authorities, school governors and those engaged in peer review to ensure robust and effective accountability. How this will be done is not included, but if you are a school that is searching for support in assessment post levels and now beyond p-scales, contact NAPCE for support and/or to be pointed in the direction of schools that can. We see the report as an opportunity to grow our students and our education system.

The Balance of Time

October 2016

For the past week @NAPCE1 has had the pleasure of delivering SEND training to cohorts of trainee teachers. It was a learning experience for both that provided the opportunity for some real world research to be put into place. Baselining what was known by each individual on the ITT allows a marker as to the extent that a year of training in mainstream primary and secondary education will raise their experience and understanding of additional needs.

The fieriest part of each training session was the debate between exclusion vs. alternative provisions. For some, having to argue against their beliefs and adjust to the alternative perspectives was a battle within themselves. The majority of trainees had limited experience of additional needs and therefore feared the behavioural and time demands a child could place on them. I felt this was understandable, although the rest of the training was geared towards changing and experiencing perspectives. The first few years of teaching places such demand on each individual that any additional demands can be perceived as a ‘threat’ to add to that burden- as was frankly pointed out- ‘that’s life’.

This set an interesting pivot to the rest of the training. Where is the line that marks the quality of life balance between learning and living for both teacher and student?

The first key message was that everyone has individual needs. Some can be independently sort but most require additional support in one way or another and some needs take priority. The second was that communication is essential to learning and human development. And the third I received through feedback- that this was the first session that had talked about themselves rather than the classroom. Upon reflection, what I failed to stress was that communication between ourselves and our institutions (school and home) is key to ensure our own and other’s needs can find an equilibrium, or if not, empathy.

When it came to discussing trainees own personal needs, they first identified the three most important things in their life. All candidates included family in this. Some quoted themselves as already saying to their own children ‘I will probably be spending less time with you this year as I will be busy with school’. Reflection on this balance led the trainees to plan in quality family time, but it left me pondering on how we prioritise both in and out of the classroom.

The conclusion I came to is that it is time. How we use our time will determine our own satisfaction with how each day ends and how we can support our new teachers may be creating a little more time for them.

Click To Add YOUR Input For the Pastoral Care Post Graduate Module

Why You Should Encourage Failure This Term

September 2016

Yes I am still trying to cling to the final few days of the holiday as well but the quiet whirring of cogs has begun to turn in the back of my head. What did I have to get done for the first day back? What does my calendar have marked? Did I…

For @NAPCE1, the start of the new school year often creates a time for setting new year education resolutions. What are my targets this year? What will be achieved in the classroom? Professional goals? What project will focus on getting up and running? Will I focus on teams’ stats, wellbeing or both? This is goal setting with a fixed mindset.

However, a TED radio hour podcast called ‘Failure is an Option’ has made me readjust how I will set my goals this year and what I will seek from my staff teams this term. I am going to try addressing goals with an open mindset.

Getting something to work or achieving something can be done by trying, failing and re-trying (repeat). But reducing the determination and effort is key in facilitating change. Instead, identify the problems on route to success before the journey even begins, or even if it can be gauged as realistically achievable. This allows you figure out how to prevent the hiccups or whether to even take them on.

Finally, encouraging more minds to be involved allows your participants to feel safely led as you are demonstrating your trust in them. If someone feels safe enough to try something and not be judged, then failing becomes learning.

It is natural for failure to hurt, but developing what we take from it and resolve to respond is a character strength (resilience) I would like to nurture in my every member of my team- that is my goal this term. The biggest display going up in my room is a celebratory failure board. Each entry will be given the time to be appreciated and reflected on and the biggest failure will be rewarded. If students can see their staff and their own mistakes as learning, their resilience and calculated risk taking can grow.

It might work, but if no one feels they can add anything, maybe I’ll have still met that goal and have succeeded.

I really hope you can fail too this term.

On a related note… To demonstrate my willingness to fail, I am yet to receive a single opinion on the post graduate Pastoral Care in Education module. If you would like to help me succeed, please click on the big blue button below:

Click To Add YOUR Input

You are essential to this months NAPCE newsletter…

NAPCE invites you, real world practitioners, to have your say in the development of its new Post-Graduate module in Pastoral Care in education that is set to launch in September 2017. You are the colleagues that are in the classrooms, working with the students and your peers, and so we seek your expertise. Only then can we deliver training that is real, useable, shared and dynamic. Our open survey wants to hear from you and your colleagues.

As the responsibility for a pupils overall wellbeing and development increasingly falls on schools and other learning institutions, the skill and knowledge set and systemic understanding of its staff and their leaders are having to adopt. Alongside Newman University, we want to offer a nationwide accredited programme. We know why pastoral care is essential, so NAPCE wants to develop the delivery of outstanding practice across education.

Click To Add YOUR Input

So what skills would you identify as needed (and for who)? What areas of pastoral care could you do with support on for yourself and your peers? What practice is effective? What existing networks are in place for support across the board? This survey is a blank canvas-the floor is yours.

We will feedback to you on what your peers across education consider vital and how your contribution is meaningfully aiding the development of the course and therefore the practice that will result. We are committed to taking new steps in the development of education and the care of the child being central to this. Care with us and belong to this development process- whether it is one line of opinion or an essay, please click the link below.