Reconstructing my swing

I don’t really watch very much golf these days, but back in the day I seem to remember Tiger Woods periodically reconstructing his golf swing. Even though he was winning major after major he was never quite satisfied with his level of play, or perhaps as his body changed he needed to re-adjust tiny things, so he underwent significant work to change his swing. Usually this then led to a terrible dip in form before, predictably enough, he started winning major after major again.

Now, before we get too carried away, I am in no way comparing my teaching ability to Tiger Woods golfing ability. I am an alright teacher with some strengths and some weaknesses like everybody, and I’ve happened to have had a bit of success from time to time in different schools.

However, I’ve been reminded a lot about Tiger Woods’ swing quite a bit this past academic year, because frankly I think I’ve found teaching really hard this past year and don’t think I’ve been particularly good at it. As a result, I am having to make significant changes to how I teach in order to deal with my new reality.

What’s changed?

· The students: To begin with, let me say quite clearly that I’m not blaming the students for my own battles at all. It’s just a very different cohort from what I am used to. In my current school, History is a much tougher sell to our students than it has been in previous schools I have worked in. That is not in any way down to the other History teachers who frankly do sterling work in not the easiest circumstances. Instead, it’s dealing with a student body for whom History just doesn’t seem mesh very well for the overwhelming majority. I think the reasons for this are many, and they include the fact that the students lack the levels of prior knowledge I am used to, which therefore means they struggle to access the academic curriculum they are required to learn, and then fold in the extremely low literacy levels of our students and you have a difficult mixture of things to contend with, that I have not really had to before in other schools I have worked in. Their attendance is also an issue — our school serves a highly deprived area and therefore we are disproportionately affected by the national attendance crisis, and this is an issue for all subjects but especially history where for many of our students they have a DVD Box set of a good TV series, but 3 of the 7 discs are missing so they frequently lose the thread of what’s going on. Behaviour management is also more of a challenge than it has ever been. Whereas in the past I have had the luxury of not being the most militant in terms of having very precise routines and I’ve never been a teacher that’s swallowed a copy of Teach Like a Champion, in this environment I need to be a bit more regimented because otherwise my lesson gets derailed more easily. I’ve never really had to teach the behaviours I want to see from students so explicitly, and now I probably do need to do that a lot more.

· The curriculum: In my previous school I was in charge of the History curriculum — I had complete control over what was taught, how much content was taught, the sequencing and all the rest. In my current school we deliver a trust-wide centrally resourced curriculum which we need to adapt for our learners at Key Stage 3. This need to ‘adapt the curriculum’ is a regular refrain in my school but to be honest is one of those bits of advice that is true, but a bit useless. If you have a curriculum built around high level academic text, how do you adapt that for a class where the average reading age is that of an 8 year old? Easier said than done. I think this is where we have to be careful about saying that centrally resourced curricula are a ‘workload saver’ because it can take quite a while to unpick a lesson planned for a different class in a different part of the country to then make it work for the class you are teaching. This is something we are going to be looking at a lot more as a school this year, both in terms of ensuring are students are better able to access the curriculum (by raising their reading levels) and to ensure that the curriculum meets the learners where they are at. At GCSE I am now teaching the course over two years rather than three, so that is just a constant feeling of trying to rush through the course, with me trying to ensure just that I’ve taught it all, rather than worrying as much as I need to about whether they’ve learned it.

· My role: I just don’t have as much time any more to plan lessons and think about my teaching with my senior leadership role. I don’t have the time to stand at the photocopier and prepare resources (indeed I’ve generally abandoned having copied resources — we have 1 to 1 devices in my school so I try to have everything uploaded to my OneNote file that I use for my lessons). I don’t have the time to get my room set up exactly how I want and the resources and books perfectly laid out in advance and the powerpoint/OneNote on the screen with the Do Now up in advance. I just feel a lot more rushed in terms of my preparation and the thinking I need to do about my lessons.

All this means that the stuff I used to do doesn’t really work very well any more. I’ve traditionally relied on high level subject and specification knowledge and my own planned resources to get the job done. So what can I do differently in 2023/24 to feel more successful? There are many things of course, but a few that stand out include:

· A year older, a year wiser? I am hopeful that one year through the curriculum has given me greater insight and knowledge as to how to prepare a bit better this year. I have better knowledge of how student knowledge of the curriculum is being assessed, as well as the themes of the curriculum I need to pull out more clearly. Essentially I am not travelling blind quite so much as perhaps I felt I was last year.

· Better use of home learning: I need to do a lot more with home learning than I have this year to get the students to revisit the key knowledge they need, and to hold them to account for not doing said work. Some regular Microsoft Forms quizzes as a starting point are needed, I think.

· Economy of language: I’ve got to be more precise in my use of language, think carefully about the vocabulary I’m using, and be open to scripting parts of my lessons. I need to avoid overly long explanations and make it easier for students to follow what’s going on.

· Better routines: Perhaps linked to the scripting point above, I’ve got to do a bit better at having consistent routines for different parts of the lesson that become habitualised by me and the students.

· Positivity: I need to be relentlessly positive with the students, not something that comes naturally, to try and get them to believe that, yes, they can be successful in History and that it is a subject for them.

These are a few things that stick out for the time being to start with in September. A fresh start and a fresh approach and hopefully feeling a bit more successful in the process.

A wider lesson here with my Leadership hat on is to remember that new teachers, no matter how effective or successful they may have been in their previous schools, can really struggle for a bit in a new setting. Some school leaders I have worked with in the past have been a bit unforgiving about this and quick to wield the support plan mechanisms and so on. Setting new teachers up for success requires an effective induction process, continued support (actual support rather than ‘support’ as a euphemism for something else), visible leadership and access to high quality CPD and coaching as needed. Another one of my tasks for 2023/24!