The Interpretation Game

'When suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This line constitutes part of a reading test that Upper Key Stage 2 may take this year. It is also the key information for what is actually a rather tricky question.

Why does Alice not hurt herself when she falls down the well?

So what do the majority of children do? They utilise the skills that we have taught them, locate the key information and quite rightly answer, 'Alice doesn't hurt herself because she landed on a heap of sticks and dry leaves'. WRONG. At least it is wrong so far as it isn't what the mark scheme wants you to write. We teachers speak often of different types of questions and how we can best arm our miniature soldiers for facing them and this gem is down to interpretation. The correct answer in this instance, according to the mark scheme, is that she was dreaming and therefore couldn't have hurt herself. I personally think that is a long stretch for a 9 year old to work out especially when you consider that most are going to be facing this text for the first time with perhaps only a vague knowledge of this story as a film. In fact I feel that many adults would perhaps have answered in a similar way.

Welcome to the wonderful world of interpretive questioning.

This is, not to put too fine a point on it, a minefield of misinformation and frankly a bizarre way to view reading. Many of our greatest stories are now pushed through to the big screen where many decry 'ah but it's not as good as the book'. Why? Why is that? Largely because it wasn't how they imagined it. We all had a different image of Hogwarts castle in our mind, a different understanding of how invisibility works when you wear the one ring and a different way to pronounce the BFG's wonderful idioms. This isn't to criticise those films in the slightest, but it is important to remember when discussing books with children that interpretation is individual. True there may be many views that are shared by the majority. However that doesn't prevent someone from seeing a situation in a different way.

The Alice example is a good one. One can interpret from the text that Alice is an adventurous girl and therefore likely to be an active child, one happy to climb trees and explore her surroundings. Therefore a perfectly legitimate interpretation as to why she didn't hurt herself in her fall is the fact that is experienced in climbing and falling and simply knew what to do upon hitting the ground. I know this is a somewhat exaggerated example but if we insist on telling children there is a right answer (at least in terms of tests) then we must explicitly discuss the difference between their own interpretation and one that is deemed universal. 

During whole class reading we spend a deal of time looking at how we can interpret different stories. Take the opening chapter of Cogheart by Peter Bunzl. We examined who John was and why he was in an airship with a mechanical fox. As we read we naturally start making assumptions, this is true of adults as well as children. I stress to my class that as long as they can evidence their interpretation it is valid and worth discussing. We came up with over a dozen different interpretations, some are included here.

1. John is an escaped convict and the future police are chasing him. (We discussed how likely this was as our own knowledge of police would have suggested some sort of warning that he should surrender and that him being a bad person seemed unlikely as he selflessly allows Malkin to escape.)
2. John is running away because he has stolen Malkin and he must be valuable as he is a talking fox. (We discussed that Malkin seems to care for John as he tries to save him and that as they are in a flying ship clearly robotics have developed in the future.)
3. Lily must be John's wife because he sends his last message to her and asks Malkin to help her. (On the evidence we had at the time of finishing Chapter 1 this is an entirely sound interpretation of the facts.)

In fact Lily isn't John's wife, however we spent time discussing who else she could be and decided collectively that a perhaps more accurate interpretation would be that she is someone John cares about and has a bond with as he uses the term 'My Lily'.

This is what I refer to as the Second Layer of Interpretation.

The First Layer is simply walking alongside the main character, as we would in our daily lives. Alice didn't hurt herself because she landed on sticks and leaves. Straightforward, almost a retrieval question in it's simplicity.

In the Second we try to detach from the world we have joined in our reading and start to analyse what may have happened in the events prior to the ones we are part of. Alice didn't hurt herself as she is an adventurous girl and therefore experienced in climbing and falling. These are leaps and are often based on our own knowledge or experiences and thus individual.

In the Third layer we then talk about what is the most logical interpretation, have we considered all of the events in detail that could influence our understanding. Alice is a perfect example here, if we went back to the very beginning of the text it tells us that she is sleepy. If we were interpreting and analysing thoroughly then we may come to the conclusion that she doesn't hurt herself as she is in fact dreaming.

This is a very hard skill, it requires holding multiple themes and pieces of information simultaneously in the readers mind for perhaps the entire text or story. However it is a skill that is worth tackling. Not just to answer questions but to fully appreciate and understand themes, emotions and consequences in many texts. Imagine if we had known that Snape had cried over Lily Potter's body whilst Harry was still in his crib, our interpretation of his behaviour throughout the rest of the Harry Potter saga would have been entirely different.

It takes time to develop this way of thinking within a classroom, a lot of it is talk based and sharing ideas. I now give my class an interpretation and they must find evidence to disprove it. We do this together, we examine action and consequence and they are far better at empathising now than ever before.

'You teach primary? But you're a bloke?'

'You'll be expected to lift things, get things off shelves and carry anything that's heavy. Say no. Do not let yourself be defined by your gender.'

This was the instruction I received at The University of Winchester in 2010 during my Men in Teaching lecture. It was held in a room built for 200 yet there were only 7 of us. 7 out of 75 on my course. For a few it was a second career. The whole thing, for me, felt farcical. Firstly the assumption that women are somehow incapable of lifting things and secondly that I would refuse to help. Why if I would help someone carry their shopping or get something off a high shelf in a supermarket would I not help future colleagues that ask for it? This kind of confusion over gender identity in schools is dangerous and has a real tangible impact.

Fast forward 7 years and the number of men teaching in primary schools sits at around 15%. Why? What prevents men from joining the teaching profession, from inspiring our youngest minds and from taking on an incredibly hard, but fulfilling challenge?

A significant part of the problem is pay. Let's not beat around the bush, teachers are not paid well. With men still representing 59% of the main earners in a household, pay naturally has an impact. This is why so many men want to climb the ladder so quickly. To maximise earnings in a sector that they love and wish to remain in. This is the quandary I myself am in. However this can't be the only reason.

It seems to me it's reputation. Or lack of reputation for male teachers in primary. Even more so if you want to work with our youngest children.

I genuinely feel that for many men primary teaching is simply not presented as a 'normal' career option. I have lost count of the number of sympathetic 'oh that's nice' responses when I tell people what I do, lost count of the confused looks and 'did you not fancy secondary?'  It's not a joke, it's a real issue and many male teachers have got in touch with me to discuss their experiences. Lots of them unfortunately are rooted in safeguarding. Their is an underlying suspicion of men in primary, one that people do not speak of but is certainly there.

Once children reach Upper Key Stage 2 they generally split to get changed. This works fine if there happens to be a male and female in say a 2 form school. But what if it was 2 men? I don't enter the room when the girls are changing but teachers, and teaching assistants that are female, will think nothing at all of walking in on the boys? One teacher contacted me to say his TA actually entered the room saying 'it's ok boys I've seen it all before!' Let's be frank this is blatant sexism, there is an assumption being made that I am a risk or that I'm under suspicion. An assumption not made of female colleagues. It gets worse when changing for swimming or water sports is involved. I have been told of female members of staff that have stayed inside communal changing rooms whilst children change, admittedly this was several years ago and was to 'stop them mucking around' but it sent a shiver down my spine imagining the headlines if I were to do such a thing. Children routinely fling their arms round female colleagues, especially younger ones, I have fantastic support in my current school but in previous ones I've been told that I'm not allowed to receive a hug because I'm male. In a primary school in Liverpool a male teacher was told children couldn't sit on his lap if upset but could if it was a female member of staff. When he challenged this it was met with 'well you're a bloke.' Apparently we can't be trusted.

In pubs I've been drunkenly asked 'you teach primary, just enjoy hanging around with little kids eh?' and 'guy teachers always worry me, it's like vicars isn't it, they love touching kids too.' Disgusting and thank goodness rare but these kind of interactions are not unheard of and most male teachers you speak to will have had comments of a similar ilk directed at them.

Working in an industry dominated by women has many benefits but it can have its drawbacks. Many men report feeling isolated and locked out of conversation with staff rooms simply not worth visiting. Others that spoke to me about being mothered and treated like little school boys themselves having to leave their school in search of respect and to be treated as a professional, an equal.

WomenEd do a fantastic job in supporting aspiring and existing female leaders in schools but if I were starting my career again I see nobody supporting people like me. Nobody representing or helping young men who want to work with small children. The farce of 'don't lift anything for anyone' entirely misses the point, lifting something doesn't change anything. The negative assumptions that surround men in schools, the almost sympathetic attitudes from the public and the lack of awareness of male viewpoints among the faculty are all, I believe, impacting on numbers of men in primary settings. Being a man in a primary school can be very lonely.

I now work in a fanatic school where I feel respected, my opinions valued and I geneuinely believe that all staff are treated equally and have the support of SLT but sadly this is simply not the case everywhere. Within an hour of asking for thoughts and experiences from my twitter followers I received 12 messages of concern and 2 from people that have left the profession over related issues. They speak of feeling isolated and not fitting in. The vast majority of teachers of both genders are wonderful, fantastic people that would never mean to generalise men or women for that matter. However these issues are occuring, they are effecting moral and there are men leaving the industry because of it. Something needs to be changed going forward, conversations need to be had or the problems will persist.










All anecdotes have been anonymised at the request of those people that submitted them to me. They have come from teachers all over the country.

The wonders of read theory!

Ok so I'm not normally one to leap on a fad or bandwagon but if you're into reading and you're not on Readtheory get on it now before it's too late and they start charging £500 and a highly understanding SLT per pupil. In all seriousness a fairly weighty pay per child must be on the way and relatively soon it, simply is that good.

So for those of you that don't know what it is let me give you a quick run through. Readtheory.org is an easy to manage and easy to use online reading bananza. Think mathletics with books and none of the razzmatazz that many children I feel have grown out of by Year 5. Readtheory centres on the idea that a broad knowledge of different text types and text content helps improve overall reading potential. But Mr King, I hear you cry (or yawn, let's be honest I'm writing this on a Sunday morn,) how does it work? Well my young padawan let me tell you.

Ok, so a child logs in using a username you assign them and a password you've given them (setting up is sped up inexplicably by the very logical fact they can all have the same password, thank you logic). They then tackle 8 assessment questions. These 8 questions are then analysed and a level is assigned. One negative here (yes they do exist) is that this is an entirely American site and therefore levels etc are listed as Grades not Years but as super talented teachers I am sure you can tackle that little cultural enigma. Once through some rather tricky presassessment questions the texts are then selected to specifically suit the level your child is operating at. Not only that but as over time as their performance improves the texts automatically become more challenging. Thus continually stretching them. All of this data, all of it, you can see in easy to read graphs and charts. You can see how every child has performed on every text they've tackled AND see which questions they've got wrong. This is the final hidden gem in the Readtheory treasure chest. When a child gets a question wrong, it tells them why, it's explains in a text box where the right answer can be located. Now true you don't know if the child's read this but if you're developing the right attitude towards reading then they should have.

This is not a bid to replace books; please don't kill me. However we are in an age where a world of information and knowledge has never been so accessible. These texts are short 5-10 minutes a piece and cover topics as diverse as The Burj Khalifa and mushroom growing. A variety of ways that we digest written content I feel is integral when developing life long readers.

That's about it. Going forward we will be using this in group interventions, whole classroom reading where I'll use Plickers assessment app to gauge how each child copes with a text. There are even free online papers you can print off and give to the children.

If you're keen to develop reading, make it fresh, exciting and fast paced then give Readtheory a go. You won't be disappointed.

Get attached to the unattached

Like most teachers I've taught a range of children from a range of backgrounds. Some rich, some poor, some dirty, some clean, some happy and sadly, some sad. But without a shadow of a doubt the most challenging are those that haven't formed the appropriate bond with parents and primary care givers. Those that suffer from what we know as attachment disorder. The overwhelming and at times overriding breakdown of positive and long lasting meaningful relationships. This normally effects homelife but unsurprisingly all to often impacts on classroom behaviour.

So how does this look in class? Anything from silence, to downright violence. Many children and adults for that matter that suffer from attachment disorder would find it difficult to tell you what is 'wrong' if 'wrong' is even an appropriate way to phrase it. I've struggled with this, challenged my own pedagogy and read at length about ways to adapt my own teaching to help and come up with three steps I've taken that have brought some success. 

Number 1. Hand shakes, I shake hands with every child as soon as they walk through the door, every single day no matter if they are clean or grubby, wet or sweaty we shake hands and wish eachother a good morning. Out of my current crop of 32, 3 knew how to shake hands on day 1. Now they line up eager with anticipation to grasp my relatively gorilla like paw (I'm 6:4 they are about 5 foot.) For many of these children they've never thought anyone would want to shake their hands or at least it just never occurred to them and sadly I've heard detractors of others doing this joking about needing hand sanitizer after doing it. This kind of emphasises the point, the idea of a seperation between child and adult, educator and pupil. Sadly an increasing number of children are seen as an add on to life rather than a purpose to it. Treat them as the most important thing in the whole world, just for that one moment, ask what they had for breakfast, check in as to how they slept. Show them that discussing printing with your TA or nipping off to grab a tea quickly can wait, it doesn't really matter to a child who may have never been hugged. 

Number 2. Build in talking but more importantly listening. Last week I was sat on a table with two children that had been in the same class for four years. One the daughter of a vicar, one the son of a church organiser. Neither knew the other was religious. Why? Because we are too scared to embrace conversation sometimes and two scared to encourage a sinple chat (whilst doing work), we are too concerned someone will walk in and overhear me asking 'so what's the best bit of Sunday school?' and question what I'm doing. We've lost to a degree the soul of working with children, we are too apprehensive of becoming part of their lives and allowing them to be part of ours. Plonk yourself down next to a child you've not engaged with enough, open a fresh pack of colouring pencils and let them in for just ten minutes. Find the time. It's possible. It is. Because nothing is more important. For too long I've obsessessed over making sure everything's taught in exactly the right way and ignored making sure everyONE is taught in exactly the right way. For some children learning which Greek philosophers are significant today is totally irrelevant compared to you saying that you love their drawing or their trainers are really cool. If they don't feel you care about them you'll never understand them and you'll struggle to help them learn. I am still what I consider a strict teacher but I've never had so many children simply want to spend time with me as the bond is now so strong. 

3. Be the sanctuary. I was recently being spoken to by an ed psych. Incidentally his name was Dr Xavier, I couldn't get a surname I was too wrapped up in Xmen puns to ask. But anyway, he was utterly on point. He knew his stuff inside, outside and anyother way his mutant students could go. I plucked up my courage and asked him, 'it's all well and good helping those with attachment disorder that have been removed from the home, but what about those still in it who are still living it?' He very simply answered, 'be their sanctuary'. Show them that there is light in what may be a pretty awful existence, nurture the flame of humanity that still flickers somewhere, ignore the snotty nose, the grubby top and let them just be them. With a world obsessed with data, acknowledge that sometimes just being in school each day is a great achievement. I hate the ultra cool trying too hard clichès that float around education these days (especially twitter) but it is sadly true when we say, for some of these children school may be the best time of their life, the only constant, their port in a storm. 

It's easy to forget this till you're faced with a 9 year old who won't cry anymore because they learnt at 9 months nothing ever changes when they do. 

Making reading integral.

Whole class reading sessions are fast becoming the norm in Primary School classrooms nationwide, the focus on actual reading, over reading linked activities has been partly driven I feel by a new wave of fantastic children's literature. With the change in curriculum and difficulty of the end of Key Stage 2 tests teachers have been attempting to find a way to increase both reading stamina and comprehension of the texts being read.

Until recently I had always taught reading through a carousel of activities. Why? Because this was just the done thing. In every school I had taught in, in every classroom. Pretty laminated comprehension cards printed off and a lovely coloured timetable to ensure that each child got to read with the teacher for their slot once a week. This can of course work. But does it work better than anything else? Have we actually tried other ways? Naturally it has had some successes but surely a system where 80% of the time children are not being guided or often not actually reading isn't the best way to deliver our reading lessons?

So fast forward to now and it appears there is an unstoppable wave of support for the 'new' whole class style. Reading centered and comprehension  rich, my class now have access to a new, high quality text every single week, with this in mind I try to shy away from Dahl and Morpurgo (please don't shoot me). This in conjunction with a rich strain of non-fiction and poetry has seen reading take on a whole new life in my classroom.

Monday morning begins with the introduction of a new text, recently this has included Cogheart, The Dreamsnatcher, Ned's Circus of Marvels and Who Let the Gods Out? Highly detailed, well written, engaging and relevant. The children have demolished them with such enthusiasm that the local Waterstone's are now planning their staff party in The Ivy. An extract is selected from the focus text, the introduction or build up to a key event always work well. The children then read this, targeted children read to myself, this changes each day, and then the whole session is given over to discussion.

The first step is to engage with the vocabulary the children are unfamiliar with. What words do we not know? What techniques do we have for working out meanings and intentions of the author? These are discussed, debated and agreed upon. Lots of suffix and prefix work can happen here too. 

We then examine the characters that the extract has discussed explicitly. This enables those that are perhaps struggling to grasp the content fully to verbalise their level of understanding and seek assurances from peers thus eliciting any misunderstanding. Small snippets of information are retrieved and it is easy for me to see who has accessed the text fully. 

The same exercise is completed for locations and settings and additional information found that begins to develop the children's understanding of author intention. The example above highlights that one child felt it was significant that the location was 'cloudy' as this 'makes it difficult for anyone to see who is out there and what may attack them'. This higher level thinking adds greatly to my running assessment for said child. 

The final part of the Monday session focuses on interpreting the text and the feelings of the characters that have been introduced. Moreover it develops our habits of discussion skills and enables the children to debate and reflect on how they understood a characters actions. The guilt of Malkin in the prologue of Cogheart is a perfect example of this. 

Tuesday and Wednesday focus on high quality detailed questions and answers. The questions are limited to four a day and the children are encouraged to highlight significant text that they wish to use verbatim in their answers. When answers are discussed any missed detail is added in purple pen so that I can see which is their own work and which they have magpied. It also demonstrates to the children the level of detail they could go into on each question. Most children tend to have some purple pen on each question and don't be concerned if there is an awful lot of purple pen to begin with. This is a skill that takes learning. We have moved away from the idea of Point Evidence Analysis to Point Evidence Explain. For example, I think Malkin feels guilty about leaving John behind (point). I think this because in the text it says 'the fox gave a whimper of disapproval. It should be you John.' (evidence) By giving a whimper and wishing to swap places I can tell that Malkin feels like he is letting John down and wishes he could swap places with him (explain). The children have quickly picked up this habit. 

Thursday, we move away from fiction and read a linked non-fiction text. In the Cogheart example our non-fiction text is based on robotics. The texts are taken from a range of sources, non fiction books and online websites and the questions look at features, the difference between fact and opinion and interpretation of purpose.

Friday then looks at a different text type. This could be a poem, an advert or a song even. A good example of this is using Thriller having completed work on Abi Elphinstone's The Dreamsnatcher. The two link very well and the emotive language of song lyrics is a real gold mine for assessed interpretation skills. As with the fiction work, purple pen is used to add to answers and every session reading and the skills of reading are reinforced.

So that's us. Sounds like a lot of work but it isn't. I can give every child the same amount of 1-1 reading time as during carousel but with this method they get to see a new quality text every week plus a range of linked ones.

There are a few top tips:

1. EVERY CHILD and I mean EVERY CHILD reads with a ruler (this may change towards end of year) with black text on white paper the brain is already busy enough reading. Help it out and eliminate the risk of slipping down a line.
2. Post it, highlight, underline, doodle! Anything that helps locate the information or prompts memory. I have had one boy who drew a stick man each time a new character was introduced to speed up information location when the question referred to a character.
3. Share your texts! This method is printer heavy. I would urge you to print off rather than use ipads for many many reasons. However this can be costly so try and share as many resources as possible.

I hope this has been useful. Do ask if anything is a little unclear and happy reading.

How do we close the poverty gap?

We have all sat nervously looking at a child and thought, I don't know how to help you. It is an uncomfortable truth and one that many teachers would be unwilling to admit or acknowledge. However in literally every class I've taught there has been at least one of these children. A child who receives little or no home support, a child who often can't hold a pencil properly even in Key Stage 2, a child who is simply maturing far slower than their peers. For me educating these children is not about trying to get them to reach Expected Standard or beyond (as much as my SLT may not like to hear that). It's not even necessarily about progressing them according to a schools academic monitoring programme. So what is it about? Quite simply, surviving. Providing them with the tools need to survive growing up and into adult hood. 

Statistically a child from a poor background is already about 8 months behind their more affluent peers in their reading ability upon entering school. 8 months, let that sink in for a moment. 8 months. Essentially an entire academic year behind their peers from day 1. A reception teacher is therefore faced with the prospect of having to drag an extra 8 months progress out of a child that will often not have had nursery pre-schooling and is potentially not being read to at home. For some their parents won't be able to read. 

So when I sit down with my disadvantaged  child in Year 4- note I hate labels but sometimes they are needed - they will have been playing catch up every day for their entire school career. As we all know quality reading flows into quality writing so the gap widens across the curriculum. Children so far behind are then regularly withdraw from Foundation subjects in the afternoons to attend booster groups or interventions so their understanding of Geography or History suffers. Suddenly before we know it we are packing a child off to Secondary School with a 'sorry we 

tried our best' sticker on their forehead. And we did. We really, really did. 

Let me be clear this is 100% not a criticism of any setting I have worked in or come into contact with. It's not a criticism of the hundreds of thousands of teachers out there who probably spend more sleepless nights tossing and turning over these children than any of the others. But I defy any teacher to say they haven't whispered to a colleague 'I just worry about what will happen when they grow up.'

And that's the point. 

The Office of National Statistics claim that children are seven and half times less likely to succeed at school if their father is poorly educated. If the mother is then this drops to three times. It goes on to conclude in its poverty report that poor education is the number 1 reason for the maintaining of poverty in certain families. Let's not sugar coat this, the child that you are always having to support, the child that you're always having to check on and give extra guidance in Year 4 is almost statistically guaranteed to have a child in the exact same position some years in the future. The cycle will continue. Unless it is addressed. 

So how do we do that?

1. School ethos - everything will rise or fall on school ethos. Every child will succeed, no matter what. This buy in amongst all staff is utterly imperative to success. Along side this practical steps must be taken, set up an invite only homework club. Teachers hand pick those they feel need the most support, these children are expected to attend every week or the issue is passed to SLT to contact parents. (It works, trust me, it works.) This is done after school and on occasion invite parents to come along too. 
2. Raising aspirations - focus on small victories. What can said child do? What are they already good at? Build on this and make this the positive vehicle that carries them forward. 
3. It's all about the parents - there is only so much we can do. The Sutton Trust has pleaded with Government that alongside free childcare we need huge investment in free adult education and parenting support. In my setting we run regular parent workshops on how we deliver different subjects. Phone your target parents before hand, explain you'd love to see them there. If they don't answer phone again and again and again. Catch them at the school gate. Don't let them say no. 
4. Buddies - every child in my class that I know comes from a difficult background or a background of poverty is sat next to a buddy. This person doesn't need to be the brightest and certainly not the richest. However by simply providing them with a role model of aspiration and attitude it is incredible how quickly you can see personality changes in some of these children. Buddies should be very carefully selected. 

The truth is many schools are already doing this and more. Many are trying to find ways to support these under achievers. But it clearly, according to the research, isn't working nationally. According to latest figures 29% of our child population live in poverty. 29%. Take a look at your new class in September, statistically 29% of them live in poverty. Repeating the same process year after year will bring the same results. Results that often don't change a thing. Make a change, be the change you want to see in your children and in your school. 

The College according to Joe

It has been 8 months since The Chartered College of Teaching officially opened for membership and there has been lots of exciting news and developments along the way. I was fortunate enough to spend some time recently with Joe Treacy, Head of Membership & Partners at The Chartered College and could discuss with him how things are going.

The overwhelming feeling is one of optimism and enthusiasm for the future. With nearly 6000 members now signed up there is a sense of achievement within The Chartered College, however Joe is very aware that there is a much longer journey ahead. Whilst pleased with the current figures he explains to me that the biggest challenge is simply making teachers aware of The Chartered College in the first place. Those that are not on Twitter, he explains, are the hardest to engage with. “How can we get our message out there?”, he asks, perhaps hoping I had an answer. However, a plan is already underway, marketing teams are being put in place and engagement through social media is a key strategy for the coming year. Working closely with organisations like Teach First and the Unions will help and an advocacy team is now set up made up of volunteer teachers and educators, their role is to engage and promote The Chartered College as much as possible with an aim to increasing numbers, interest and support. Finally, the regional research networks have been formed with training due to take place in September offering a go to point for support and research across the country.

Joe, himself a former teacher, is quick to highlight why he feels The Chartered College is destined to become a real success.Joe jokes that they should give Dame Alison Peacock, CEO at The Chartered College another dame hood for the work she has done and the impact she has had on the profession. He openly says that it is the biggest privilege of his career to work with her and describes how Dame Alison could have very easily gone on to work with other established, reputable organisations interested in her skills, and could naturally have continued the fantastic work she was doing at The Wroxham School. However, she felt that The Chartered College was the way forward, a real chance for the profession to regain its autonomy and voice. Joe highlights nicely how Dame Alison sums up The College, it’s about giving teachers something they don’t even realise they need yet.  

This is the strength of The Chartered College according to Joe, the potential and opportunities to work together as a profession. We openly discuss the often self-depreciating nature of educators and the disagreements within our community when practise or theory comes into play. Joe explains that The Chartered College isn’t about designing prescriptive teaching or writing a how to guide. Rather, it is about exploring research together and linking it with every day practice, finding out how we can improve the profession by communication and collaboration rather than teachers in Sussex trying to carry out a pilot scheme of something that may already be taking place somewhere else. It is also about moving away from fads, what is in fashion in education. The College, Joe explains, is there to put those two parties in touch with each other, to arrange visits, share in ideas and suggestions and discuss changes and improvements. Finally, to celebrate the teaching profession for the brilliant profession it is and raise the prestige around it. Joe asks “why can’t teachers be held in the same regard as other professions such as doctors?”

With the Chartered Teacher status due to begin next year, Fellowship, the most prestigious and highest category of membership is also planned to be launched this September and the regional hubs due to begin their work it is an exciting time for The Chartered College. Joe’s infectious enthusiasm for their work is tempered by his readiness to listen to my suggestions. That’s the entire point of The Chartered College, it is about what we as the educators want, how do we wish to be supported, what do we wish to see? Many teachers will feel that they already do a very good job, the vast majority of them do, but that doesn’t mean, according to Joe and The College, that we can’t do it better.

Teach them to love reading, but how?

Let’s get them to love reading, how?

One of the most frequent debates I see on the social media of the education world is the role of reading and how it is delivered. More specifically how we can develop and foster a love of reading. In the second half of the previous academic year I began to give this considerable thought. How can we give a child an emotion? How can we ‘make them’ want to read? This I felt was more of a challenge than teaching them how to write a sentence for example or learn their tables. Those are tasks that can be proven and completed. In comparison loving reading is, of course, an intrinsic emotion that is hard to quantify. This is even further complicated by the fact that much of this reading naturally will be done away from school and as children get older away from parents too. Therefore I set about a three pronged attack on my class’ unsuspecting minds and observed how they got on.

Reading is number 1 – This sounds silly but I looked at my own class bookshelf and noticed that though there were several great children’s books on it (and a number of education ones) there was no real depth. How was I promoting quality children’s literature to my class if I wasn’t doing this myself? To let you in on a little secret, I haven’t read perhaps half of the books on my bookshelf, but the children can see they are there and that I fully have the intention of reading them. I am sure many teachers are already doing this however I now have many teachers popping into my room to borrow off my bookshelf. These books have been bought by the school they aren’t ‘mine’ but it also shows the children the value that the other adults in the school put by high quality texts. The class rushed to ask for recommendations and requests and next year I am going to make some books ‘out of bounds’ like a forbidden section in the library. There will be special release dates when the children can then ask to borrow something that I know they have had their eyes on for a while rather than just asking for it because they like the cover. It is utterly imperative that teachers know children’s books, Dahl, Morpurgo and Enid Blyton have their place but they are most certainly not what we should be relying on when you have fantastic writers like Marcus Sedgwick, Abi Elphinstone and Maz Evans producing relevant, engaging and enthralling modern tales that children can relate directly to.

Freedom. . .  to a point – So what is appropriate for children in say Upper Key Stage 2 to be reading? Who gets to decide? Is it even our job to decide? Personally I think that is entirely up to you, you are the professional, you are the teacher, you know your class, do what you think is right. Having said that you’ve read this far so I will now bore you with what I think. I want every single child in my class to read as much as they can, as many different styles and genres as they can and as many different text types too. We have a responsibility to support this and if necessary set barriers to ensure this happens. This year I will be colour coding specific genres of different books, the children will record what book they have read and see what genre this falls into. At Christmas we will discuss what colour cards they have and why this is. If they have only read what we have dubbed ‘family dilemma’ books, Tracey Beaker etc is this necessarily going to provide them with the depth of language and setting variety we would want? If a child adores Beast Quest that is brilliant however I feel it is my professional responsibility to also ensure they are reading books that aren’t fantasy based, different text types like poetry and a range of non-fiction too. Think of it like this, imagine speaking to said child when they hit 16 and they had only ever read fantasy, they may have grown into Tolkien and Pratchett but they will have been denied the world of Dickens and Stephen King because we just want to make sure they are reading? All the research shows reading tends to lessen as children hit their teenage years, we must show them the whole world of possibilities before they start to narrow their reading choice even further. Of course some of this rests with parents also but I feel we must take a hand in this. If we as educators demonstrate a desire to read as widely as possible, and explain the virtues of different genres and text types then little constraint and directing should be needed anyway.

Beyond reading – now I know this can be a contentious point and that’s fine but I love reading records. When used properly they are a treasure trove of information and evidence for a teacher. Note I am not speaking of the diary that says ‘Read page 4-8. Signed Mum’ this is entirely pointless and just smacks of teachers pushing their children to fill them in because SLT say they must be used.

What I am talking about can be seen below,

This particular child has recorded her journey through the book. She wasn’t initially enjoying the story though as you can see from her comments. However she explains what she feels the author’s intentions are.  By combining simple comprehension explanation with their own feelings and attitudes to the text I am able to get a much clearer understanding of where this child is with their reading. I am not going to pretend this was the standard for every child however every child did develop their diary almost as a companion; they viewed reading as naturally flowing into writing and discussing books. It is almost a diary of their reading accomplishments and feelings. This feeds into their class ethic and work.

By May I had half of my class spending 40 minutes a morning reading to each other in what became known as reading conferences and then sharing their feelings about the books. They trained themselves, learnt from others and guided each other through this process to such a point that other than dropping in the occasional ‘question bomb’, as they came to dub them, they were fully independent. This left me to fully engage with the children that still needed more support on decoding and comprehension.  

I am not going to pretend that every child in my class suddenly fell in love with reading and did it without pause. However  every single child left more engaged with books, better aware of how to talk about and interact with a book and far more aware of the texts around them. Please try these ideas, let me know if you have any suggestions of how to improve them or if you think I am missing a trick somewhere. Good luck!Let’s get them to love reading, how?