NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot shares key takeaways from this year’s conference, which took place online on 25 November 2021.
It was fantastic to welcome so many school leaders and practitioners to our 2021 conference – including representatives from across England, Wales and much further afield. The conference theme “Creating cognitively challenging schools” was designed to build on NACE’s research into cognitive challenge over the past few years – exploring what this looks like both in classroom practice and at the level of whole-school leadership and improvement.
The day’s keynote sessions explored the key principles of cognitive challenge and why we believe this should be a key focus for schools, as well as focusing on the importance of creating a language-rich learning environment – exploring the transformational impact this can have for all learners.
Alongside these plenary sessions, delegates participated in workshops focusing on how to put these principles into practice at the leadership and classroom levels, with strands for primary and secondary colleagues respectively.
There were many inspiring moments and invaluable exchanges during the day, with some key themes, common challenges and shared aspirations emerging. Here are 10 key takeaways to reflect on:
At the leadership level…
1. Responsibility for more able provision and cognitive challenge should be shared by all. The idea that it’s all up to the more able lead needs to change. The importance of developing cognitive challenge for the more able – and for all learners – should be shared, owned and understood by all as a non-negotiable.
2. Challenge should not be seen as an add-on, but integrated fully into all lessons. Placing the needs of more able learners at the centre of curriculum design and pedagogy will deepen the learning for all. Middle leaders are crucial to this process and, for larger schools, there should be an advocate for more able learners within every department. There is scope for Heads of Department to be more involved in the organisation of learning to support cognitive challenge.
3. Articulating and sharing the vision is key. The “why” of more able provision and cognitive challenge needs to be understood and owned by everyone in the school – and this will support the points made above and below.
4. High-quality ongoing professional development is crucial to supporting these goals, whether this is for existing staff to improve their teaching in line with the vision of the school or the training of new staff. Staff should not, however, be a slave to the chosen instructional model for a particular school. They should be encouraged to take risks too.
5. Enrichment has a role to play – but should not be the sole focus. Enrichment opportunities are important so learners can develop their skills in a variety of different ways, but having challenge at the heart of every lesson should avoid the need for academic interventions at a later date. Utilising every second of every lesson is key.
And in the classroom…
1. Finding the right balance between direct instruction, facilitating learning and activating learning is important but not easy. Delegates in the practitioner strands felt that the balance was not always right. Understanding the role of each approach within the context of cognitive challenge could help here, as could the use of flexible approaches such as “cutaway”.
2. At primary level, it was generally felt there was a tendency towards a greater level of direct instruction in the core subjects. There were more opportunities, within foundation subjects, to explore the other types of learning. This is due to the large amount of coverage in the core, but a balance needs to be achieved. “How can I show my learning in a variety of ways?”
3. At secondary level, the same applied to KS4 for more direct instruction and KS3 for a more varied style of learning. Again, the pressure over content appeared to be the reason for this – but our more able students need to be reflective and evaluative learners if they are to reach their full potential. “When do we stop direct instruction and let go?”
4. The “why” needs to be explained to other stakeholders too – particularly parents and carers. We can then all work to a shared vision.
5. Again, the need for high-quality CPD was raised as being crucial for ensuring cognitive challenge is at the heart of every lesson. The strategy for more able provision needs to be embedded at a whole-school level.
Read more:
Conference recordings now available to purchase for your school
If you missed the conference, or participated and would like to revisit some of the sessions or share them with colleagues, we’re offering the opportunity to purchase recordings of the conference keynotes and workshops, including:
- Keynote 1: Creating a culture of cognitive challenge
- Keynote 2: Creating a language-rich climate for learning
- Workshops Strand A: Primary leadership - led by NACE Challenge and Curriculum Development Director Christabel Shepherd
- Workshops Strand B: Secondary leadership - led by NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot
- Workshops Strand C: Primary practice - led by NACE Curriculum Development Director Dr Keith Watson
- Workshops Strand D: Secondary practice - led by NACE Associate and Challenge Award Assessor Rob Buck
- Closing comments: summary from each workshop strand
Cost for the full package: £199 (NACE members) / £249 (non-members)
Please note: recordings are of the main presentations only; breakout conversations and group discussions are not included. Handouts of the slides from each session are also provided.
Purchase the conference recordings for your school
To learn more about any of the themes mentioned above, or for information about how NACE could support your school, please contact communications@nace.co.uk
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