Hands On Support in Shropshire

There are a number of packages available for assisting the management of behaviour in schools, but the one used most widely in Shropshire is Sleuth from the School Software Company.  Written in Acces it provides a database solution for logging many aspects of poor and good behaviour so a macroanalysis can be made to show up issues which may not have been apparent if they were treated in isolation.

For instance, recording the time of the behaviour during a lesson can yield rich data thta can lead to a change in practice - if there is evidence of misbehaviour at the beginning of a lesson then perhaps there needs to be work on the way pupils come into the room, or work on starters.  Similarly, the place or time where behaviour is poor can be analysed.

I’ve worked with a group of PSHE co-ordinators who are implementing this in their schools, and I look forward to working in schools a lot more through HOS.

I got quite excited when I got to Rhyn Park this evening for a twilight session with the English Department.  The department are looking to raise achievement through the use of electronic resources and I was looking forward to introducing some of my favourite tips and tricks as well as take a look at the resources they have bought in.  For ages they have been waiting to use their tablet PC with the projector - the plan has been to use it as a collaborative tool that can be passed around the class. 

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This post on the Primeradiant blog tells of a budding writer of game software at Priory. He’s written a number of games already and is selling them to his schoolmates.

Today I worked with the PE staff at Thomas Adams school, giving support using cSwing performance analysis software in a gymnastics lesson. We were only expecting to be using the “Live” mode of the software for pupils to replay their techniques instantly and improve on their performance, but moved on to using the motion analysis techniques also. I helped out by the “forward roll and cartwheel” mat where pupils worked in pairs and we saw some real and rapid improvements in performance due to the use of the video replay software.

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The following is merely a personal commentary and in no way an endorsement of any product in favour of another.

With the interactive whiteboard getting into more and more classrooms, I’m asked more and more for IWB training. I’m not really a fan of the Interactive Whiteboard itself but some of the software that goes with IWBs is very good for creating engaging resources .  Nevertheless, to create even higher-quality resources for a rich learning experience that reaches more learners it is sometimes necessary to use other tools as well.  Whatever the reason, here I am training people in Smart software.  It’s a good starting point.

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Working with a PE department today in the north of the county who are very keen to adopt performance analysis software as a means to enhance learning in their classrooms. We looked at using cSwing as a way to allow pupils to assess their own performance on-the-fly, to make an instant appraisal and make improvements. The use of this software addresses a number of points in raising achievement through assessment for learning, notably in learners measuring their own improvement against stated goals.

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