• Critically engage with a topic by breaking it down into its component parts;
• Organise their thinking to achieve certain outcomes;
• Check that they are on track;
• Pursue knowledge that fascinates them.

Here are three ways Oxplore’s materials can be used to foster questioning and related skills…

1. Investigate what makes a question BIG

• Ask what unites these questions in the way we might approach them and the kinds of responses they would attract.
• Ask why questions such as “What do you prefer to spread on your toast: jam or marmite?” are not included.
• Share different types of questions like the range shown below and ask students to categorise them in different ways (e.g. calculable, personal opinion, experimental, low importance, etc.). This could be a quick-fire discussion or a more developed card-sort activity depending on what works best with your students.

Andrew Johnston, Teacher, Science Coordinator and Head of Research and Development at Copthorne Primary School, shares five approaches to develop resilience for all learners in your school…

The number of children under 11 being referred for specialist mental health treatment has increased by 50% and waiting times for such treatment have trebled (BBC freedom of information requests, July 2019). The Youth Association has recently called for mental health to be taught as part of the national curriculum. Furthermore, the Department of Education has said that early intervention is key to preventing mental health challenges later in life.

Clearly, there is a huge role for schools to play in supporting our young people to have good mental health. Unsurprisingly, there is also evidence that focusing on wellbeing is likely to impact positively on learning outcomes. The EEF has recently published recommendations for improving social and emotional learning (SEL) in schools – reporting that well-implemented SEL teaching has the potential to give learning gains of +4 months over a year.

What does this mean in the context of supporting our more able learners? Those with high achievement and/or potential can often be anxious about their academic performance. Students who are repeatedly told they are very able, and who find failure impossible to consider, often have problems associated with anxiety and self-worth. I would argue that these students need to be taught that failure and struggle are an essential element of learning and a normal part of life. As highlighted in Element 3c of the NACE Challenge Framework, it is important to consider “social and emotional support” as well as academic provision for the more able.

Many schools are already teaching ‘resilience’ and ‘wellbeing’: dogs in school, outdoor learning, mentoring and school-based therapy are some of the provisions being offered. As all schools will know, the new Ofsted framework places significant emphasis on curriculum: “Curriculum matters, as it defines the knowledge and experiences that learners will receive beyond their home environment.” With this in mind, it is important to consider whether we are teaching resilience and SEL as ‘add-ons’, or as integrated aspects of a broad curriculum.

Researcher and lecturer David Glynne-Percy highlights the importance of ensuring all learners have access to opportunities to develop resilience and self-esteem – particularly through extracurricular activities offered as part of the school day, so they are accessible to pupils who rarely stay after school. His research also highlights the benefits of opportunities to compete, develop competence and receive feedback – all helping to develop resilience, confidence, leadership and sustained engagement.

Serving an inner-city community, providing children with fresh experiences is one of the main drivers of our new curriculum. We have focused on enriching our curriculum in the following ways:

1. Working with the Brilliant Club to raise aspirations

We work with the Brilliant Club to raise the aspirations of our most able learners from families who have not yet had a university graduate. Supported by lecturers at Leeds and Manchester Universities, participating pupils can experience university lectures, complete academic assignments and get a taste of what it is like to continue their education at university and the opportunities this can afford them.

2. Wellbeing-focused school clubs

Our children have had the opportunity to develop their wellbeing through cooking, arts and crafts and sports clubs. Last year, as part of a programme focusing on essential life skills, we began a cycling club for pupil premium children and low prior-attainers – providing opportunities to develop fitness and balance, alongside the experience and challenge of mastering a new skill. As part of this, children were recently able to attend a UCI event in Bradford as part of the 2019 Cycling World Championships and represent our school there. We found these children developed an ambassadorial role and now encourage their peers to be involved. Children’s feedback shows that they feel valued members of the school and have further developed a sense of belonging. This year we will assess whether this impact leads to better engagement in other aspects of school life and improved academic outcomes.

3. Developing breaktime and lunchtime provision

As part of our curriculum development, breaktime and lunchtime provision was completely redeveloped last academic year. Staff, including mid-day meal supervisors, were trained to support children to play a range of games and activities during lunchtimes and playtimes. This resulted in a vast improvement in behaviour across the school during these periods, but also allowed children to develop their social and emotional skills as they received feedback and instruction from staff.

4. Incorporating growth mindset

Consider this list summarising the behaviour of individuals with fixed mindsets:

·         Overgeneralising from one experience (e.g. a single test)

·         Exaggerating failures relative to successes

·         Categorising themselves in unflattering ways

·         Setting self-worth contingencies e.g. “If I do not get the highest mark in the class in my maths test I am a failure (or will be in trouble with my dad).”

·         Losing faith in ability to perform tasks

·         Underestimating the efficacy of effort

As a school we saw that these statements described some of our highest-achieving pupils.

Over the last three years, we have introduced growth mindset across the school, aiming to encourage children to enjoy challenges, embrace mistakes and understand that risk-taking is an important part of their learning. After initial training, teaching staff have completed cycles of lesson study to assess the impact of this approach. We have found that all groups of children are more open to trying difficult tasks or new skills and fewer children have a fear of failure or appearing less intelligent if they make mistakes.

Further to this, we asked staff to follow this guidance for supporting learners, including the more able:

1.      Tell them ability is not fixed.

2.      Encourage risk-taking in lessons.

3.      Refuse to help students who have not attempted tasks.

4.      Highlight failure as part of learning and praise effort.

5.      Down-play success but praise effort.

5. Appointment of a Mindfulness and Wellbeing Champion 

The appointment of a Mindfulness and Wellbeing Champion in 2017 has helped raise the profile of mental health and wellbeing across the school and our multi-academy trust for both staff and learners. This staff member has developed a range of strategies to teach resilience and mindfulness – taking risks, celebrating mistakes, open-ended tasks, mastery-style teaching – and has worked with parents to help them to understand the impact of self-esteem on their child’s success at school.

Read next: 4 ways to avoid “But am I right Miss?”

Why make oracy part of every lesson?

1. Balloon debate

2. Draw a line

3. Where do you stand?

4. Talking bursts

5. Praise and feedback

Finally, make time for praise and feedback – both during oracy activities and as part of general class discussions. Invite comments on how speeches could be improved in future, and recognise and celebrate learners when they make good arguments or use appropriate vocabulary.

Natasha Goodfellow is Consultant Editor at the English-Speaking Union where she oversees the publication of the charity’s magazine, Dialogue, and content on its website. She has worked as an English teacher abroad and is now a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Sunday Times, The Independent and The Week Junior.

NACE is proud to partner with the English-Speaking Union (ESU), an educational charity working to ensure young people have the speaking and listening skills and cultural understanding they need to thrive. The ESU’s Discover Debating programme, a sustainable programme designed to improve listening and speaking skills and self-confidence in Years 5 and 6, is now open for applications, with large subsidies available for schools with high levels of FSM and EAL. To find out more and get involved, visit www.esu.org/discover-debating

Read more:

• 5 reasons to teach oracy skills in your classroom
• 7 strategies to develop oracy skills for all learners
  

Plus: for more oracy-based challenges to use in your classroom, watch our webinar on this topic (member login required).

Not yet a NACE member? Find out more, and join our mailing list for free updates and free sample resources.

1. Personalise and localise your content

2. Show how many doors science can open

3. Widen perceptions about who does science

4. Maximise experiences across the whole learning landscape

5. Engage families and communities

Our research has found that many families see science as simply a subject learned in school, not recognising where and how it relates to skills and knowledge they use every day. All too often we hear parents saying, “I am not a science-y person”, “I was terrible at science in school” or even “You must be such a boffin if you are good at science.” When young people hear those close to them saying such things, it is not surprising that a negative perception of science can start to grow and the feeling “this is not for me” set in.

Encourage learners to pursue science-related activities that involve members of their family at home or in their local community. Model and encourage discussions which link science to young people’s interests – this will help to show the relevance of science and normalise it. For specific ideas, check out The Science Museum’s free learning resources.

Additional reading and resources:

• https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/country-sites/en_gb/united-kingdom/home/pdf/BP-UCL-Teachers-science-pack-INTERACTIVE.pdf

• Science Museum Group Academy – training and resources for teachers
  

Beth Hawkins is the Science Museum Group (SMG) Academy Manager. She has been working in formal and informal science education for over 22 years, including roles as head of science in two London schools. Since joining the Science Museum, she has developed and delivered training to teachers and STEM professionals nationally and internationally, and led many of the SMG’s learning research to practice projects. The Science Museum Group Academy offers inspirational research-informed science engagement training and resources for teachers, museum and STEM professionals, and others involved in STEM communication and learning.

“Character” may be the latest buzzword in education – but it’s long been at the core of the NACE Challenge Framework, as NACE Challenge Award Adviser Elaine Ricks-Neal explains…

Increasingly schools are focusing on the development of “character” and learning dispositions as performance outcomes. Ofsted is also making it clear that it will look more at how well schools are developing resilient, well-rounded, confident young learners who will flourish in society.

The best schools, irrespective of setting, have always known the importance of this. And this focus on character has long been at the heart of the NACE Challenge Framework – a tool for school self-review and improvement which focuses on provision for more able learners, as part of a wider programme of sustainable school improvement and challenge for all.

Here are 10 key ways in which the Framework supports the development of school-wide approaches, mindsets and skills for effective character education:

1. “Can-do” culture

The NACE Challenge Framework embeds a school-wide “You can do it” culture of high expectations for all learners, engendering confidence and self-belief – prerequisites for learning.

2. Raising aspirations

The Framework challenges schools to raise aspirations for what all learners could achieve in life, irrespective of background. This is especially significant in schools where learners may not be exposed to high levels of ambition among parents/carers.

3. Curriculum of opportunity

Alongside a rich curriculum offer, the Framework asks schools to consider their enrichment and extracurricular programmes – ensuring that all learners have opportunities to develop a wide range of abilities, talents and skills, to develop cultural capital, and to access the best that has been thought and said.

4. Challenge for all

At the heart of the Framework is the goal of teachers understanding the learning needs of all pupils, including the most able; planning demanding, motivating work; and ensuring that all learners have planned opportunities to take risks and experience the challenge of going beyond their capabilities.

5. Aspirational targets

To ensure all learners are stretched and challenged, the Framework promotes the setting of highly aspirational targets for the most able, based on their starting points.

6. Developing young leaders

As part of its focus on nurturing student voice and independent learning skills, the Framework seeks to ensure that more able learners have opportunities to take on leadership roles and to make a positive contribution to the school and community.

7. Ownership of learning

The Framework encourages able learners to articulate their views on their learning experience in a mature and responsible way, and to manage and take ownership of their learning development.

8. Removing barriers

The Framework has a significant focus on underachievement and on targeting vulnerable groups of learners, setting out criteria for the identification of those who may have the potential to shine but have barriers in the way which need to be recognised and addressed individually.

9. Mentoring and support

Founded on the belief that more able and exceptionally able learners are as much in need of targeted support as any other group, the Framework demands that schools recognise and respond to their social and emotional and learning needs in a planned programme of mentoring and support.

10. Developing intrinsic motivation

Beyond recognising individual talents, the Framework promotes the celebration of success and hard work, ensuring that learners feel valued and supported to develop intrinsic motivation and the desire to be “the best they can.”

Find out more… To find out more about the NACE Challenge Development Programme and how it could support your school, click here or get in touch.