My Feedback

My Final Reflections

Thinking of myself as a leader:

I initially found it really strange thinking about myself in a leadership role. As a RQT I hadn’t considered my leadership qualities but since beginning the course I have become more conscious of how I approach different stakeholders and how I respond to delegation. I now know how I need to move forward in trusting others and not being too resistant to change.

The intervention strategy:

I initially found choosing an appropriate intervention strategy a daunting thing to do. I didn’t want to just pick something small or random for the sake of the programme I wanted to implement something that was worthwhile, had potential and sustainability for the future. When my intervention began to mould and evolve it was rewarding to see it work and to see the PP students feel at ease and even enjoy themselves. At the end of the intervention I only had soft data to analyse the impact, however, I am confident that if the strategy was rolled out in a larger-scale it would have a positive impact.

The presentation:

Pre-presentation I wasn’t nervous. I had already given a literacy lecture at a local university and conducted it confidently. However, within a few minutes of presenting I began tripping over my data, I missed out information I had planned to include and also began heading on tangents. I think it was due to perhaps lacking in confidence with relaying data and also feelings of inadequacies when it came to presenting to my experienced and successful peers. As I drew towards the end of the presentation I eased into it; the experience has been the steepest learning curve as it has highlighted to me where my insecurities lie and this will be one of my next aims to overcome.  

My next steps:

In the long-term I like the idea of moving down the departmental route and so my next step is looking at moving into a second in department role; after completing the DLP I feel as though I have begun taking the first steps in the right direction.

 

My Leadership Challenge

My First Lesson Visit to a Group with a High Proportion of PP Learners

I went to visit a year ten group with a high proportion of PP learners. 33% of the low ability group were eligible for PP and another 33% of the group had some form of SEN identified. I was interested to see how the teacher managed the group and ensured all learners made good or outstanding progress during the course of the lesson.

What became immediately apparent was that a positive learning environment had been established and there was an atmosphere of mutual respect as soon as the first pupil entered the room. The group was relatively small comprising of only nine students; this small class size was fantastic as each student received lots of personalised help by the teacher and the TA. This has been made possible as there are five sets in this band and so class sizes are much smaller. For my research project I am focussing on year nine PP learners. For the A band of this year group class sizes are incredibly large and this has proven problematic in terms of the behaviour management of some groups where there are a great number of pupils who have behavioural issues. This lesson visit has made me conscious that it may be essential for narrowing the gap between PP leaners and other learners that class sizes are purposefully made smaller.

After the lesson visit I started to think about the next steps I now need to make and there are two actions I would now like to take:

·         I would like to put a survey together aimed at staff who teach groups with high proportions of PP learners. To ensure this survey reaches the right people I intend on using SISRA to identify groups in different subjects that have high proportions of PP learners. I will then approach the teaching staff specifically rather than sending a blanket email which could be overlooked. My intention with this survey is to enquire about the strategies members of staff use in different departments to help in narrowing the gap and ask them to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies.

·         I would also like to shadow a PP learner for a day and experience their school life first hand. The compartmentalized nature of the secondary school environment naturally means that the teaching staff have a very different experience during the school day to the students. I think it will be unlikely that I will be granted the opportunity to be off timetable for a whole day but I think it would be quite beneficial to consider the gap from the student’s vantage point as well as the teacher’s. If my request is denied then I may approach two or three PP students and ask them to complete a reflection log of their day where they explain what tasks they did in each lesson, how challenging they found them and the support they were given.

·         I may also use SISRA to identify year nine groups that have high proportions of PP learners and are also quite large in the year nine cohort. I could analyse the data and compare the progress of the PP learners in these more highly populated groups to PP learners in far smaller groups.

In School Variation

Effective Teaching and Learning from the Perspectives of Teachers and Students

Leadership Styles

I initially thought that I would most likely be seen as a ‘pacesetting’ leader. I like to think that I set high standards for myself and that I would therefore lead by example. However, I was most closely linked to being a ‘democratic’ leader; I see this as a positive thing as I will be most likely to collaborate with my team and develop effective working relationships. I must be conscious of my drawbacks though and keep in mind that I should push myself to not be indecisive.