Guidance, ideas and examples to support schools in developing their curriculum, pedagogy, enrichment and support for more able learners, within a whole-school context of cognitively challenging learning for all. Includes ideas to support curriculum development, and practical examples, resources and ideas to try in the classroom. Popular topics include: curriculum development, enrichment, independent learning, questioning, oracy, resilience, aspirations, assessment, feedback, metacognition, and critical thinking.
Robert Massey, author, teacher and lead for high-attaining students, shares his “three Rs” for the return to school.
The ‘new normal’ is full of contradictions. As teachers and students prepare to return to schools this September, we face a unique set of challenges. Much will be new, but some of what we do will look familiar and reassuring; a lot will be strange as we navigate physical barriers such as one-way systems and Perspex screens and the technological challenges of virtual meetings, but at the heart of what we do will be lessons and learning. Same old, same old.
Some schools have used the work of Barry Carpenter on a ‘recovery curriculum’ as a helpful way of thinking about the new term ahead, and I hope that the points which follow about language, mapping and high expectations are useful as suggestions towards a way of thinking about what the ‘new normal’ might mean.
Recovery: words matter
The language which schools and teachers use in the first term back will be vital in setting the tone for learning. It will be so tempting to resort to good old standby phrases used in the past following, for example, periods of pupil illness or teacher absence.
“We’ve got tons to catch up on!”
“We’ve missed months of learning since March.”
“You’ve had all this lockdown time to get the work I set you done.”
This is unhelpful for many reasons. It will serve to heighten anxiety among students, some of whom will already be worried about what they’ve missed, and more nervous than they may let on about what the future may hold. It will imply that responsibility for the ‘lost learning’ somehow rests with them. It will depersonalise the classroom experience: we’re all in this together, and we’re all ‘behind’.
Heads and senior leadership teams can take a lead here by sanitising such language from the classroom, and by sharing more positive phrases with parents. A recovery curriculum might be framed around metaphors of building:
“I’m just checking that we have strong foundations of learning in biology by revisiting cell structure.”
“Now we’re reinforcing the use of key terms in poetry that we’ve used before.”
“How as a class can we build upon last year’s work on Tudor monarchy as we move on to look at revolution and civil war?”
Reassurance: mapping the learning journey
This is not mere window dressing and pretty words. I’m going to be spending time with Year 9 mapping where they are as learners. If I don’t know where they are now, I can’t set out a learning journey for this term, still less beyond. Each pupil will need individual reassurance that I know where they are and where they can get to. This will take time and will mean less time to deliver content, but that is a sacrifice worth making this term of all terms. Reassurance, reassurance, reassurance is what I’ll be offering to my Year 13s faced with the traditional UCAS term on top of uncertain A-level assessment outcomes. Small steps will be my building blocks, starting from the here and now rather than what might have been, with big topics broken down into smaller and accessible chunks of learning which can be more easily monitored and supported should lockdown return.
A recovery curriculum is a joined-up piece of collective thinking shared across a school. There has never been a greater need for departments to look closely at how they link with others. Pupils and parents will be confounded if, to take a very simple example, the English department puts in effort to focus on the wellbeing of students by revisiting key skills and encouraging the articulation of doubts and fears about the current situation, while in maths the emphasis is immediately on tests just before half term and ‘filling in gaps’ missed in past months.
How will your department work together to share approaches to recovery and reassurance?
How will your faculty and school build shared attitudes and actions to support pupils’ return?
Remarkable students
I’m therefore emphasising for September the importance of pupil wellbeing and the reassurance of parents and colleagues. This does not mean a lowering of expectations. As children learn from our modelled attitudes and actions that the ‘new normal’ is more normal than new, they will understand that it is natural for us as teachers to set the bar of learning high, just as we used to do.
We are not revisiting, rebuilding and reinforcing past learning in order to stand still and stagnate, but rather are doing so as a springboard for the skills and content still to come. Think of it as recovery revision ready for new challenges ahead.
If I am teaching to the top with my Year 10s this term, as I hope I am, I will be doing them no favours if I simplify core content or fail to stretch them in discussion. The challenge for me will be to do this alongside the mapping and reassurance they need. So:
I’m building in more signposting: this is where we are, and the next three weeks will look like this.
I’m increasing ‘hang back’ time as the lesson ends, so that students can catch me or I can speak to them individually.
I’m reviving a pre-lockdown good habit of three Friday phone calls home to spread the message of reassurance, praise and high expectations.
Summary
The three aims stated above will need careful balancing and blending. Context is everything, and you know your students better than anyone else, so you can judge and provide the scaffolding and support needed for each class and each pupil. This will be a rollercoaster recovery term, where the language we use to map our learning journeys will matter a lot. Equally, the one-to-one reassurance we offer has never been more important. This recovery curriculum needs to remain ambitious, with teachers teaching to the top – combined with a culture of high expectations continuing from pre-lockdown days. Remarkable teachers will model this curriculum for our remarkable students.
Robert Massey is the author of From Able to Remarkable: Help your students become expert learners (Crown House Publishing, 2019). For a 20% discount when purchasing this or other Crown House publications, log in to view our current member offers.
NACE Education Adviser Hilary Lowe explores the challenges of “lockdown learning”, how schools are responding, and what lessons could be learned to improve provision for all young people both now and in the years to come.
We have been submerged with COVID-19 stories. But very few of those have told the tale of what is happening to thousands of young people whose lives have been disrupted and delayed or of their teachers who have been keeping calm and carrying on, often going to extraordinary lengths to try to ensure continuity and quality in those young people’s education.
NACE too has been trying to run business as usual wherever possible, working with members and colleagues to find creative and innovative ways of serving the school community in immediate practical ways. We have also been planning for possible future scenarios in the way we work with schools and others involved in supporting the education of highly able young people. We know that things may never be quite the same again. We could even go so far as to hazard that many of the changes we are seeing in the way schools and national organisations are supporting young learners in lockdown are heralding a new age in education.
Could this be the watershed in the paradox of a pandemic that has shut down many forms of normal life which will usher in some of the radical changes pundits are predicting might emerge in other areas of social and economic activity? Could this be the time we move from what is still in many ways the Victorian order of schooling to a new order for the 21st century? An order which connects the best of what we know about how we learn and what we need materially to learn – and how we teach, with the benefits of technology and informed by the needs of society and the individual in the uncertain years to come.
Facing up to the cracks and gaps in the current system
It has been both fascinating and humbling to hear how NACE member schools have moved with great alacrity from largely classroom-based learning to providing schooling, including pastoral support, from a distance. This has often been – although not of course exclusively – from a low base of technological skills and hardware and little training in designing distance learning.
We know with even greater certainty than we did before that young people’s home environments are not always conducive to good learning. We also know that millions of young people do not have access to the technology and basic resources which could support their learning and wellbeing at a distance. The deep cracks in social and economic equity are becoming even more obvious to teachers whose profession at its noblest aims to develop young people to aspire to be the best that they can be. Recent reports from the Sutton Trust, amongst others, attest to the ongoing deep social divisions with which we are already familiar and to the emerging impacts of the pandemic learning lockdown on young people, not only on their achievement but also on their aspirations (Sutton Trust, 2020).
Acknowledging the stark picture painted by the Sutton Trust research on pupil engagement and the capacity of schools to deliver distance learning, we know through contact with our member schools and through our two recent online member meetups that there are both state schools and independent schools making things work despite the odds. NACE has been privileged to be able to gather a wealth of knowledge about both what is working well in supporting learning at home and what is proving most challenging.
Challenges and concerns
Lack of engagement from learners and parents
Lack of technologies and resources at home
Marking and feedback
Accelerating and monitoring progress for all learners
Learner choices and future decisions e.g. options, post-16, post-18
Future behaviours and engagement when back in school
Growing ‘disadvantage gaps’ and how to manage/remediate
Supporting learners with additional, particular needs e.g. SEND
More able learners who are socially disadvantaged
More able learners affected by the pressure they put on themselves or excessive pressure from parents
Transitions and transition points e.g. Years 6 and 13
Negative effects on mental health and wellbeing
Realities of what can be achieved at home
Teacher capacity and skills
What’s working?
Clear, consistent cross-school strategy regarding distance learning and learner contact
Systematic approaches with checks and monitoring
Making expectations clear to learners and parents (e.g. parental guidance and communication apps)
Different models according to need, age, experience of online learning, populations, access to technology and resources e.g. some schools delivering a “normal” timetable of lessons virtually; some providing a mix of timetabled lessons, extended projects, suggested downtime activities; some schools delivering individualised learning packs to pupils’ homes
Many schools favour a mix of online and offline learning
Some schools are trying to tailor provision to individual needs e.g. more able learners having access to appropriately challenging resources, guest speakers, debates and projects which involve higher level skills and knowledge
Some schools are prioritising language development and reading as a priority
In the best of cases schools plan home learning according to best practice in effective learning and effective distance learning e.g. retrieval/recall, use/application, new learning etc; judicious use of what can be learned without too much scaffolding; sometimes readjusting planned schemes and schedules of work; allotting “transition time” for catch-up and individual support
Some schools are trying to connect current distance learning to future work to be undertaken when school restarts
Emphasis on motivation and keeping learners engaged e.g. feedback, praise and rewards, competitions
Emphasis on supporting wellbeing and mental health
Regular contact via email/text and phone e.g. once a week and sometimes once a day for more vulnerable groups
Platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Classroom enable greater participation and interaction, peer-to-peer and peer-to-teacher
For more insights into how schools are responding to current challenges, watch the recordings of our recent virtual member meetups:
Secondary session (28 April 2020)
Primary session (29 April 2020)
What lasting improvements will be made?
In addition to considering how the many and significant challenges will be addressed, it is interesting to speculate on what will be taken forward from all the excellent practice we have seen being developed. Even more interesting might be to speculate on the more radical consequences of the current period on how we teach and learn in future, not only to be ready for further periods of uncertainty but perhaps because we have glimpsed and exercised approaches that might simply allow to do things better for all our young people. Perhaps we have also glimpsed ways in which we as educators would prefer to approach our profession, learning and development.
To conclude then, here are a few future schooling scenarios. Some are more readily doable and could in the short-term help to mitigate the educational damage currently being wrought. Some will require more radical changes in thinking and resourcing at a national level. It is encouraging that we are seeing in this country at least a recognition of and the opening of a debate about how to alleviate some of the collateral damage produced by the present schooling situation and the educational inequalities it is making more visible.
Future scenarios:
Every child in school ensured access to appropriate education technology (basic internet access in every home with school-aged children?)
Schools open longer as “learning hubs”, equipped and resourced to support children’s and parents’ learning and wellbeing
Priority given to developing parental and community engagement
School structures and timetables to allow greater tailoring of learning and greater personalisation e.g. through mixed-mode learning, time for one-to-one, consolidation etc
A major focus in all schools on high-level language development, reading and cultural capital
Emphasis on development of metacognition, independent learning and study skills
Planned opportunities for all learners, including the more able, to learn and be assessed at appropriate levels and points in their learning
School staff trained in designing online learning and assessment in conjunction with evidence-based classroom pedagogies
Greater use of technology for professional dialogue, planning and CPD
As well as responding to the current situation through increased online CPD, resources and guidance, NACE is planning additional ways to support schools and more able learners in the medium- and long-term. As always, this will include listening to what members are telling us about what they need, encouraging more schools to join the NACE community, and making our voice heard at policy levels and with partner organisations to ensure that learners, including the most able, are at the heart of any educational change and improvement.
What would be most useful for you and your school this term? Complete this short survey to help shape our response.
NACE is collaborating with York St John University on research and resources to help schools support more able learners with high levels of perfectionism. In this blog post, the university’s Marianne E. Etherson and Prof. Andrew P. Hill outline the importance of the need to “matter” in perfectionistic students and how we can begin to promote a sense of mattering in the classroom.
More able learners are typically bright, talented and ambitious. They possess innate aptitude and ability, but with it comes an intense pressure to succeed. Stemming from these intense pressures, students are highly motivated to demonstrate their talents, to fulfil expectations, and to reach their potential. And subsequently, many place irrational importance on their academic achievements. But when expectations become impossibly high, the pressure of being highly able will take an emotional toll. Indeed, because of their ability, more able learners often base their sense of self on their academic achievements. In the face of failure and setbacks, they may begin to question their worth, and as a result, many fall victim to psychological ill-being, lower self-esteem, and lower perceptions of mattering to others.
To matter to others is fundamental to building health and resilience. And a perceived sense of mattering is instrumental to protect against failures and setbacks. Mattering is defined as the feeling that others depend on us, are interested in us, and are concerned with our fate. Researchers have also begun to examine the idea of anti-mattering. Anti-mattering fundamentally differs from low perceptions of mattering as it includes feeling insignificant and marginalised by others. Research suggests that perceptions of anti-mattering can adversely impact psychological wellbeing. Anti-mattering, for instance, is associated with lower self-esteem and increased risk of depression and anxiety. Indeed, feelings of anti-mattering may also adversely impact student achievement and behaviour. For these reasons, it is important to examine personality traits that may influence perceptions of mattering and anti-mattering. One such trait is perfectionism.
Perfectionism is a particularly pervasive characteristic among the more able. Researchers define perfectionism as a personality trait by which individuals set irrational standards and engage in harsh self-criticism. Underpinning their incessant striving for achievement is a need to attain validation, approval, and a need to matter. Accordingly, perfectionistic individuals will be driven to attain expectations because they believe that only when expectations (e.g. grades) are met, they will be of worth and will matter to people who matter to them. Those high in anti-mattering may also catastrophise and overgeneralise their thoughts to perceive they do not matter at all and will not matter in the future. The profound need to matter can be intensified when unmet and thus, many will continue to strive relentlessly to counteract feelings of inferiority.
Because of its importance, people have begun to explore ways of boosting students’ sense of mattering. Mattering is indeed central to promoting healthy and positive development in schools. Ideally, a focus on mattering should be adopted as a whole-school approach, including all aspects of the school community. However, learning environments can act as focal points, to reinforce key messages to students (e.g. you are worthy, and you matter). Environments, such as the classroom, can also be designed to convey a sense of mattering, in addition to minimising external pressures. Teachers, certainly, play a prominent role in boosting learners’ sense of mattering. To convey a sense of interest and care for students, for instance, may be enough to transform students’ academic self-concept (i.e. how they think about, evaluate, or perceive themselves) and sense of what they can achieve.
Research examining school-based interventions shows promise in developing young people’s resilience and self-worth, which can act as protective factors against academic setbacks and interpersonal stress. This work provides a strong indication of the potential value of interventions that focus specifically on mattering. However, interventions focusing on mattering are still in development stages. Similarly, so are interventions that embed mattering and perfectionism. With this in mind, we (York St John University) are collaborating with NACE to pilot an intervention for more able learners aimed at increasing knowledge of perfectionism that includes elements of mattering and other key aspects of making perfectionism less harmful, such as self-compassion. Early indication is that informative videos are sufficient to increase awareness of perfectionism and we hope to learn more about the benefits of other resources and lessons shortly.
In collaboration with NACE, our hope is to better prepare more able learners for the challenges they face. Our intervention aims to convey the message that students are important, are valued and matter. Ultimately, we aspire to establish positive learning environments in which perfectionistic students can thrive and flourish.
Post-script reflection: COVID-19
In this reflection, we consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perfectionistic students.
The COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the globe and has disrupted students’ daily lives. With schools closed, students are facing unprecedented change and must learn to adapt to a new way of living. Amid increased isolation and overwhelming uncertainty, many students will be experiencing heightened stress and anxiety, and in its aftermath, it is likely that teachers and educators will observe a steep surge in mental health problems. In particular, the global health crisis will likely be exacerbating the stress, distress and mental health problems of perfectionistic students. As we undergo a period of great uncertainty, students will likely intensify their perfectionistic behaviours as a means to cope and gain some control. Undoubtedly, perfectionists will become further distressed when their expectations are not met.
Evidently students are experiencing severe disruption to their daily routines and goals, and thus, it is important they reappraise failures and setbacks as opportunities for growth and learn to adopt self-acceptance when goals do not go to plan. Teachers and educators can certainly help implement a sense of self-acceptance and significance and should remain a vital source of contact to calm the uncertainties and doubts of their students. Indeed, the benefits of showing students that they are significant and matter are particularly instrumental amidst the unfolding pandemic.
References:
Flett, G. L. (2018). The psychology of mattering: Understanding the human need to be significant. London: Elsevier.
Flett, G. L. (2018). Resilience to interpersonal stress: Why mattering matters when building the foundation of mentally healthy schools. In A. W. Leschied, D. H. Saklofske, & G. L. Flett (Eds.), Handbook of School-Based Mental Health Promotion. New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
Flett, G. L., & Zangeneh, M. Mattering as a vital support for people during the COVID-19 pandemic: The benefits of feeling and knowing that someone cares during times of crisis. Journal of Concurrent Disorders, 2, 106-123.
Hewitt, P. L., Flett, G. L., & Mikail, S. F. (2017). Perfectionism: A relational approach to conceptualization, assessment, and treatment. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Flett, G. L., & Hewitt, P. L. (2020). The perfectionism pandemic meets COVID-19: Understanding the stress, distress, and problems in living for perfectionists during the global health crisis. Journal of Concurrent Disorders, 2, 80-105.
NACE is collaborating with York St John University on research and resources to help schools support more able learners with high levels of perfectionism. In this blog post, the university’s Luke F. Olsson, Michael C. Grugan and Andrew P. Hill outline the current research in this field and how growing awareness of the problem can be used to reshape classroom climates for the better.
The need to be or appear perfect pervades all aspects of society. In education, this is evident in that the experiences of many students appear to be underpinned by irrational beliefs that they need to perform perfectly. Perfectionism – an aspect of people’s personality that involves unrealistically high standards and overly critical evaluation – is therefore a particularly important characteristic to examine when considering the experiences of students.
Recent research suggests that perfectionism has become a hidden epidemic among students over the last 30 years, with students now more perfectionistic than ever before. In addition, this complex characteristic has been found to explain a wide range of outcomes among students. On one hand, some aspects of being perfectionistic are related to better academic performance. But, on the other hand, other aspects of perfectionism have been found to be significant sources of psychological distress for students, including burnout and depression.
Regarding more able learners, one interesting study of 10 samples including over 4,000 students found that intellectually gifted students tend to display higher levels of aspects of perfectionism than non-gifted students. One implication is that more able students are potentially at greater risk for mental health and wellbeing issues. This is evident in other research which has found that while more able students perform better academically, they can also be unhappier, lonelier, and have lower self-esteem. Tellingly, this may also be why more able students often respond to failure and setbacks more negatively.
As a consequence of what we have learned from research, it is apparent that more may need to be done to better support perfectionistic more able learners. Critically, if more able learners display signs of mental health difficulties, they need to be referred to a mental health professional. As such, those who work with more able students will need to be able to recognise when this might be the case. Improving mental health literacy among teachers is one way to do so.
There is also a great deal that can be done in regard to preventing mental health difficulties before they arise. We believe that prevention efforts aimed at reducing perfectionism are particularly important in this regard. One new area of research focuses on understanding how the environment created in achievement contexts such as the classroom can be designed in a way to discourage perfectionistic thinking among students. Our work in this area suggests that perfectionistic environments can involve a number of features including unrealistic standards (e.g. demanding extremely high standards regardless of ability), harsh criticism (e.g. fixating on minor mistakes and errors), manipulation and control (e.g. public punishments and rewards to motivate students), and anxiousness (e.g. signalling excessive concern over mistakes).
As awareness of the negative effects of perfectionism for more able learners students increases, there will be a greater emphasis on what teachers can do to support students. We believe that reshaping the classroom climate and making it less perfectionistic is one way teachers can help do so, and combat the hidden epidemic of perfectionism in young students.
NACE, York St John University and Haybridge High School (a NACE R&D Hub leading school) are currently trialling new resources to help schools raise awareness about perfectionism and support students with high levels of perfectionism. Watch out for updates in our monthly email newsfeed.
In this article, originally published on the Psychology Today website, NACE patron Richard Bailey explores the problem(s) with praise…
There have been a number of reports and research articles trying to help teachers distinguish between effective and ineffective practices. One useful example comes from the University of Durham, when a team led by Professor Robert Coe reviewed a wide range of literature to find out what works, and what probably does not, in the Sutton Trust report What makes great teaching? Review of the underpinning research (2014).
Among the report’s examples of teaching techniques whose efficacy is not supported by research evidence was the widely discredited idea of "learning styles," as well as commonly used practices like "ability grouping" and "discovery learning." Even more surprising for many readers, perhaps, was the inclusion of "Use praise lavishly" in the list of questionable strategies. This is likely to be surprising because praise for students is seen as inherently affirming and beneficial by many people and is a core element of a positive philosophy of teaching, coaching, and parenting. In a similar way, criticism is now frequently condemned for being negative and harmful.
There are school programs and sports organisations based explicitly on the dual premises of plenty of praise and minimal criticism. And the rationale for this is usually that praise bolsters self-esteem and criticism harms it. In effect, this is the "gas gauge" theory of self-esteem, in which praise fills up the tank with good feelings and social approval, and criticism drains it.
Creating positive learning experiences
How can one not applaud the movement towards more positive approaches to education and sports? Especially for young people, these settings should be joyous, exciting experiences, and we know from vast amounts of research evidence from the United States and elsewhere that this is not always the case (link) (link).
We know, for example, that bullying, harassment and abuse still hide in dark corners, and that far too many parents, coaches, and teachers confuse infant needs with adult wants and infant games with professional competitions. We also know that such behaviours drive children away from engagement in and enjoyment of these pursuits because young people, if not all adults, know that learning, playing sports, and taking part in other activities are supposed to be fun.
Consider sports specifically for a moment. Research from the United States suggests that sports participation drops by 30% each year after age 10. According to a report from the National Alliance for Youth Sports, over 70% of children drop out of organised sports by age 13.
Numerous studies report that many children are put off participating in sports by an over-emphasis on winning and that this effect is especially strong among girls. Children are too often presented with a narrow and uninspiring range of opportunities, and while many love team games and athletic events, others find these traditional forms of physical activity irrelevant, boring, or upsetting.
Remember: this pattern of children dropping out from sports is happening as the health and happiness of young people are being compromised by unprecedented levels of physical inactivity. With activity levels low, and predicted to go even lower, we cannot afford to turn children off sports, and the movement toward more positive athletic experiences is undoubtedly a movement in the right direction.
There is a danger, though, in embracing praise as wholeheartedly and unconditionally as some parents, coaches, and teachers seem to have done.
When praise goes wrong…
Praise for students may be seen as affirming and positive, but a number of studies suggest that the wrong kinds of praise can be very harmful to learning. Psychologist Carol Dweck has carried out some of the most valuable research in this regard. In one study from 1998, fifth-graders were asked to solve a set of moderately difficult mathematical problems and were given praise that focused either on their ability ("You did really well; you're so clever") or on their hard work ("You did really well; you must have tried really hard”). The children were then asked to complete a set of more difficult challenges and were led to believe they had been unsuccessful. The researchers found that the children who had been given effort-based praise were more likely to show willingness to work out new approaches. They also showed more resilience and tended to attribute failure to lack of effort, not lack of ability. The children who had been praised for their intelligence tended to choose tasks that confirmed what they already knew, displayed less resilience when problems got harder, and worried more about failure.
What many might consider a common-sense approach – praising the child for being smart, clever, or "a natural" – turned out to be an ineffective strategy. The initial thrill of a compliment soon gave way to a drop in self-esteem, motivation, and overall performance. And this was the result of just one sentence of praise.
Some researchers have argued that praise that is intended to be encouraging and affirming of low-attaining students actually conveys a message of low expectations. In fact, children whose failure was responded to with sympathy were more likely to attribute their failure to lack of ability than those who were presented with anger. They claim:
“Praise for successful performance on an easy task can be interpreted by a student as evidence that the teacher has a low perception of his or her ability. As a consequence, it can actually lower rather than enhance self-confidence. Criticism following poor performance can, under some circumstances, be interpreted as an indication of the teacher's high perception of the student's ability.”
So, at the least, the perception that praise is good for children and criticism is bad needs a serious rethink: praise can hinder rather than help development and learning if given inappropriately. Criticism offered cautiously and wisely can be empowering.
Well-chosen criticism over poorly judged praise
These findings would seem to call for a reconsideration of a very widely held belief among teachers and coaches that they should avoid making negative or critical comments, and that if they must do so, then they should counter-balance a single criticism with three, four, or even five pieces of praise. This assumption is clearly based on the "gas gauge" model of self-esteem described earlier, viewing any negative comment as necessarily damaging, and requiring positive comments to be heaped around it in order to offset the harm.
I am unaware of any convincing evidence that criticism or negative feedback necessarily causes any harm to children's self-esteem. Of course, abusive comments and personal insults may well do so, but these are obviously inappropriate and unacceptable behaviours. Well-chosen criticism, delivered in an environment of high expectations and unconditional support, can inspire learning and development, whilst poorly judged praise can do more harm than good. Even relatively young children can tell the difference between constructive and destructive criticism, and it is a serious and unhelpful error to conflate the two.
We actually know quite a lot about effective feedback, and that knowledge is summarised nicely by the educational researcher John Hattie: "To be effective, feedback needs to be clear, purposeful, meaningful, and compatible with students’ prior knowledge, and to provide logical connections.”
I suggest that it would be extremely difficult to deliver feedback that is clear, purposeful, etc. in the context of voluminous praise. Eventually, the parent, teacher, or coach simply ends up making vague, meaningless or tenuous platitudes. And this can cause more damage to the learner-teacher relationship than criticism.
Build confidence by being present
The psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz describes a conversation he had with a school teacher named Charlotte Stiglitz – the mother of the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz:
"I don't praise a small child for doing what they ought to be able to do," she said. "I praise them when they do something really difficult – like sharing a toy or showing patience. I also think it is important to say ‘thank you’, … but I wouldn't praise a child who is playing or reading.”
Grosz watched as a four-year-old Stiglitz showed her a picture he had been drawing. She did not do what many would have done (including me when I taught this age group) and immediately praise such a lovely drawing. Instead, she had an unhurried conversation with the child about his picture. “She observed, she listened. She was present,” Grosz noted.
I think Stephen Grosz’s conclusion from this seemingly everyday event is correct and important: being present for children builds their confidence by demonstrating that they are listened to. Being present avoids an inherent risk associated with excessive praise, as with any type of reward, that the praise becomes an end in itself and the activity is merely a means to that end. When that happens, learning, achievement, and the love of learning are compromised.
Praise is like sugar. Used too liberally or in an inappropriate way, it spoils. But used carefully and sparingly, it can be a wonderful thing!
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 highlightsthe 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.
Cathy Metcalf, Year 5 teacher and expressive arts lead at St Mary's RC Primary School, shares four approaches to help learners move beyond the search for a single right answer.
For many of our more able learners, much of their education is spent seeking (and usually finding) answers. Correct answers. They are the children in our class who ‘know’ they have the answer we are looking for, and frequently the learners who struggle when they get an answer wrong. But how do these learners cope when there is no ‘right’ answer? When everyone’s ideas and opinions are valued and acceptable, and right and wrong are no longer the outcomes or intentions of the lesson?
Element 3c of the NACE Challenge Framework reminds us of our responsibility to consider “social and emotional support” as well as academic provision for the more able. Similarly, the updated education inspection framework (EIF) calls for schools to develop “pupils’ character… so that they reflect wisely, learn eagerly, behave with integrity and cooperate consistently well” and “pupils’ confidence, resilience and knowledge so that they can keep themselves mentally healthy”. In Wales too, wellbeing has a significantly raised profile in the context of ongoing curriculum reform.
Learners who are not used to the feeling of struggle and failure are likely to crumble when faced with a task or approach that does not entail a straightforward correct answer. As practitioners, we have a responsibility to ensure that our more able learners are regularly exposed to a high-enough level of challenge to experience the feeling of struggle, in an environment where they feel part of a supportive learning community.
In my ‘other life’ (beyond teaching) I have worked as a musical director in theatre for nearly 15 years, and I feel that the expressive arts provide so many opportunities for this kind of development. I am always looking for ways to explore and use the arts in my pedagogical approach, and have found the following approaches to be particularly successful for more able learners:
1. Draw on creative role models to develop growth mindset
Carol Dweck’s theory of growth mindset is important to helping learners understand the benefits of ‘staying with’ a task or problem, even when it feels beyond their ability – and here, there is much to be learned from the world of expressive arts.
Many artists and musicians spend weeks, months, even years perfecting a work. Even the process of rehearsing for a performance (be it a school concert, instrumental examination or West End production) requires dedication and resilience, calling for repetition after repetition to ensure consistency.
For learners it can be powerful to take inspiration from an artist or other celebrity and to understand how they approach their craft. The NACE Essentials guide to learning mindset suggests encouraging learners to “research individuals they admire who have achieved something great and explore what these people have in common.”
In my school, figures such as Walt Disney and J. K. Rowling are year-group models, and pupils learn about how they have created their masterpieces through teamwork, setbacks and extensive editing. Developing a growth mindset permeates our whole school culture and reinforces the idea that “the most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time” (Thomas Edison).
2.Set creative open-ended tasks
The guidance for more able learners from the regional consortia within which I work suggests “setting creative open-ended tasks” within our everyday practice. I recently used a task which involved playing short excerpts of music and asking children (and staff) to choose the colour they felt the music was describing.
Of course, with this type of task there is no ‘right’ answer, yet the lesson serves many purposes: to encourage reasoning and justification for any answer, to develop child talk in a low-stake environment, and as an introduction to the technical vocabulary required for describing music.
It was particularly interesting to note how many of my more able learners were fixated upon ‘Yes, but who is right Miss?’ and I am already planning further activities using paintings, sculpture and digital art to try and change this mindset.
3. Provide regular mental workouts
In its recent thematic review of provision for more able learners, Estyn recognises a problem in many schools of simply setting more work in terms of quantity, rather than extensions which require deeper thinking.
I try to provide my class with opportunities to think deeply about their academic work, but also to think deeply in an altogether more abstract, creative way. The use of ‘thunk’ questions and ‘cognitive wobble’ are particularly strong ways of encouraging learners to question their own perceptions of the world, and even to challenge information that is presented to them by teachers and parents.
Some of my favourite ‘thunks’ are excellent warm-ups for art, drama and literacy lessons… e.g. If I drop a bucket of paint on a canvas, is it art? What if I drop the bucket deliberately? What colour is Tuesday? If I compose a piece of music, but it is never played, is it still music?
Character studies during drama or literacy lessons also provide opportunities for ‘cognitive wobble’ – the result of conflicting information clashing when we need to form an opinion about something. e.g. We know thieves are villains, and yet Robin Hood is a hero...
My class last year also took part in a project with a visiting neurologist, who taught the pupils about the brain, and how it works in the same way as any other well-exercised muscle. They learnt about different parts of the brain and how it functions, and many were able to make links with the ongoing work we had done on mindset.
4. Challenge parents to change their perspectives
Finally, I am reminded of a conversation with a parent who had been flicking through a maths book before a parent-teacher consultation. The parent commented on the number of mistakes in the book and expressed concern over their child’s lack of mathematical understanding. The child in question was, in fact, a strong mathematician who really thrived when challenged and was learning to articulate her mistakes and what she had learnt from them.
If we want to reframe the concept of success for our learners, we also need to challenge the perception of ‘right’ answers held by parents – which in many cases is passed on to their children. Ensuring that parents are well informed of the learning culture in a school, particularly that of mindset and deep learning/challenge is crucial in supporting this change.
We have recently introduced Individualised Achievement Plans for our most able learners, which involve a target-/project-setting meeting between learner, teacher and parent, and already we are seeing the benefits of parents’ support when more open-ended tasks are introduced and continued at home.
I was particularly struck by a comment in the NACE Essentials guide to learning mindset: “the risk with more able learners can be that teachers do not sufficiently reward effort, due to success being perceived as a ‘given’ [… A]ll learners need ‘process praise’ to build or reinforce that all-important growth mindset.” This is of course true, and not just of learners at school age. We all need to feel as though our efforts, whether at work or elsewhere, are appreciated, and we are all likely to perform better when praised.
For our young learners, receiving support, praise and encouragement not only at school but also at home can have a huge impact. Engaging with parents to ensure a consistent approach is key.
I recently read an NCETM article titled “The answer is only the beginning”. It seems to me that the more we are able to instil this mindset in our more able learners, the better we equip them for whatever challenges they may face, both academically and throughout their lives.
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Naomi Parkhill leads on provision for more able learners at Challenge Award-accredited Mulberry House School. Here she shares five key steps in the school’s successful focus on developing intellectual and emotional resilience – coined the “Mulberry mindset”.
The Mulberry House School is a co-ed, independent pre-prep school in North London with 211 students aged 2-7 years old. We aim to develop a love of learning within each child, encouraging them to reach high to be the people they want to be, to be respectful learners and to enjoy every challenge they face.
We have been working with the NACE Challenge Framework since 2013, having successfully completed our second cycle in June 2019. During this we embarked on a more research-based approach through undertaking case studies. One of these, focusing on strategies to improve the resilience of more able learners, had an extremely positive impact. We noticed that not only our more able, but all learners, now have increased levels of confidence in problem-solving and attainment. There has been a strong focus on intellectual character in the context of personal and academic development. The overall impact on children’s mindsets has been measured both through staff observations and using our annual wellbeing questionnaires.
Following on from the success of this work, here are my top five tips for improving emotional and intellectual resilience:
1. Understand the importance of resilience
The first step of any element of school improvement is to understand its importance. Look at how improved resilience will impact your school. For us, the impact was just as important for the children’s personal development as for their academic achievement. With regards to our more able learners we recognised that they were naturally able to shine academically when faced with written work and extensions tasks, but when it came to problem-solving and stretching themselves to apply critical thinking and look outside the box, they panicked and became very self-critical. We recognised that by improving resilience in this group and for all learners, we would notice a significant improvement in this area.
2. Introduce opportunities for risk-taking
Although the word “risk” often triggers an immediate connection with danger and caution, providing opportunities to take risks is an integral part of supporting learners to develop resilience. Without facing and taking risks, they will not learn how to manage them, work through them and overcome any barriers. This process alone lends itself automatically to increased resilience. Ways in which we have increased opportunities for risk-taking include developing our outdoor learning provision, collapsed timetable weeks which include lots of problem-solving, and peer-peer learning throughout the school.
3. Celebrate mistakes
Introducing the celebration of mistakes within the work already being done on growth mindset was one of the biggest steps we took towards improving the resilience of our learners. Using strategies such as “my favourite mistake” within maths lessons has proved extremely successful. By using this as a formative assessment tool we have been able to allow the children to unpick their mistakes, analyse where they went wrong and provide them with the skills to learn from this, correcting their errors. This works well as the children work together to correct the mistake and it is a great recap of the strategy. The children now know that a mistake is something to celebrate, offering an opportunity for learning and improving.
4. Embed these values in the wider school culture
For work to be successful across the school, our management team understood the importance of embedding these, and other values of importance to us, within the wider school culture. Coined the “Mulberry Mindset”, we introduced this ethos throughout the entire school. Following training from C.J. Simister, an expert in the subject of independent learning, staff became even more invested in developing this side of our curriculum.
5. Share the approach with parents
We pride ourselves on strong parent partnerships. Our open door policy allows us to give daily feedback to parents and carers, and the impact this has on the children’s personal and academic progress is invaluable. For learners to truly build resilience, they need to be able to apply this in every area of their lives. By sharing our approach with parents, they can continue to support this outside of school.
Posted By Jon Murphy,
11 February 2019
Updated: 22 December 2020
NACE member and Challenge Award holder Llanfoist Fawr Primary School has developed a whole-school approach to character education, drawing on its use of the NACE Challenge Framework alongside the SkillForce Prince William Award. Headteacher Jon Murphy explains why the school believes so strongly in character education as a prerequisite for both wellbeing and academic success.
Why focus on character education?
Character education is not an add-on: it is essential for all young people, and the remit of all educators. Schools have a crucial role in preparing young people to withstand the pressures that life presents, to respond resiliently to setbacks and challenges, and to make informed decisions to shape their future lives. Character education provides the toolbox that will allow them to do so.
At Llanfoist Fawr Primary School, we also firmly believe that nurturing non-academic attributes such as resilience, determination and teamwork is a prerequisite to sound learning. Learning only takes place if the conditions are right and children can cope with the pressures and challenges thrown up by school and life beyond school. And until an individual knows themselves and feels happy in their own skin, they cannot fully realise what they are capable of.
Developing a whole-school approach to character education has unequivocally proved to us that this kind of holistic development is essential in preparing children to become effective learners in all areas, be it academic, sporting, artistic, cultural, spiritual, musical or social.
This goes hand in hand with our use of the NACE Challenge Framework – recognising the importance of character education as a foundation for all learners to develop and achieve at the highest levels of which they are capable.
What does character education look like at Llanfoist Fawr?
There is no single method for developing character-based curriculum provision. At Llanfoist we have aligned our character education work with the NACE Challenge Framework and with the SkillForce Prince William Award (PWA), for which we were selected as a pilot school. The PWA and NACE Challenge Framework complement and enhance each other perfectly, ensuring challenge for all.
External PWA instructors provide whole-class sessions, each exploring a character attribute or “guiding principle” such as reliance, courage or passion. The PWA explores 28 guiding principles through five key themes – personal development, relationships, working, community and environment – using experiential learning. Children engage in practical skills-based activities and are encouraged to review their actions and behaviour in accordance with the guiding principles.
How is this integrated with other areas of learning?
Character development is not a standalone programme and will not succeed as such; it will only succeed in developing productive character traits if it is an integral part of everything we do and everything we believe in.
Once a guiding principle and its associated behaviours have been taught in a PWA session, children are encouraged to use and apply that character skill across the curriculum. At every opportunity the class teacher reinforces the principles and applies them to other areas of learning.
The impact can be seen in every lesson; we see children become more resilient, self-regulating and develop self-belief. The guiding principles and associated behaviours become second nature as learners assimilate, value and live them.
What has been the impact for more able learners, and all learners?
Developing character has transformed the life chances of many of our pupils, including the more able, helping to equip them with the social, emotional and academic skills needed to succeed.
As with many of the most effective influencers in education, the impact cannot be measured in a number or score. The results have been seen in the children’s improved emotional health, wellbeing and view of themselves; the happiness they gain through productive learning; the self-belief and confidence that positively radiates from young people who are comfortable in their own skins and daring to be their “best selves”.
Character development allows learners to discover previously untapped inner strength, skills, talents and self-belief. It has empowered children in our school to understand how best to lead their own learning, to make strong moral choices and to be confident, independent decision makers. Our more able realise what potential they have and are enthusiastic engaged leaders and learners who thrive on the challenges and opportunities afforded them.
As a school we seek innovative, creative and fun approaches to curriculum delivery with guaranteed high-impact learner outcomes. Developing character education has delivered on all fronts.
Posted By Elaine Ricks-Neal,
04 February 2019
Updated: 22 December 2020
“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.
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