I have found the book to be an enjoyable and quick read that I'd recommend to others. Following our training the book gives you more detail about the five pillars and offers helpful anecdotes that we can empathise with, and that often for me mirror my own experiences.
The structure is helpful as you get a few pages detailing an idea and discussing ways that other schools have tried this. At the end of each chapter Paul offers a really useful summary broken into 3 parts.
"Testing" here he guides you on the steps to take if you would like to trial an idea. This makes the idea quite straightforward and easy to adopt in a consistent way.
"Watch out for" are the cautions he applies in terms of how the best laid intentions could slip or be adopted in a way that does not produce the desired results. Some of these, watch out for points are ways that pupils may try to derail your idea, so this is great in reflecting on how you might respond to a situation before you trial it.
"Nuggets" are more guidance, some of these are framed as coaching style questions. Other parts are more thoughts about how to positively engage the pupils in the outcome you are aiming for.
So finally, I thought I would share a few takeaways that I am going to trial from the book. It might be we get the chance to discuss these in more depth soon and we can make them tailored to Crofton.
Use of scripts when being challenged.
I like this idea, as break duties are probably the time I feel most challenged. I am not in the comfort of my own room, and am often outnumbered in terms of challenging a large group of students. In these moments, it does become frustrating, as an adult you can feel as if you have lost face, and so it is easy to potentially escalate a minor issue. Firstly, as Alastair demonstrated to us, we need to remember showing our annoyance or pointing out we have better things to do, won't build a relationship or result in pupils doing as asked. An academy Paul Dix worked with used a simple script along the lines of: "You know we don't eat in this corridor. I need you to move on, I have to walk on as there are other places I have to check on" (page 12) In doing this, the pupils may not immediately do as asked but you have not given them the fun of getting a little fame in public by arguing with you. If this becomes the thing you always say, you are building on consistency and reduce the "game" element to breaking rules.
Impositions
This idea is about when a pupil needs to pay back a little extra learning time (page 119). "Impositions are additional work that must be completed that evening and countersigned by an adult at home". The work is then returned first thing the next morning. This helps you to highlight to a parent or guardian where there are minimum standards that are not being met. This helps the pupil to recognise consequences for their actions, and places the onus on the pupil. This reduces the need for detention punishments as these are not often a deterrent. As we know many pupils who end up with a detention may have them regularly. This also frees up staff time to follow up on positives and putting time into planning thoroughly enjoyable lessons, for you and your pupils.
I hope you might find these useful and as I post I am returning the book to the shelf to be borrowed again.
Author LWR
The structure is helpful as you get a few pages detailing an idea and discussing ways that other schools have tried this. At the end of each chapter Paul offers a really useful summary broken into 3 parts.
"Testing" here he guides you on the steps to take if you would like to trial an idea. This makes the idea quite straightforward and easy to adopt in a consistent way.
"Watch out for" are the cautions he applies in terms of how the best laid intentions could slip or be adopted in a way that does not produce the desired results. Some of these, watch out for points are ways that pupils may try to derail your idea, so this is great in reflecting on how you might respond to a situation before you trial it.
"Nuggets" are more guidance, some of these are framed as coaching style questions. Other parts are more thoughts about how to positively engage the pupils in the outcome you are aiming for.
So finally, I thought I would share a few takeaways that I am going to trial from the book. It might be we get the chance to discuss these in more depth soon and we can make them tailored to Crofton.
Use of scripts when being challenged.
I like this idea, as break duties are probably the time I feel most challenged. I am not in the comfort of my own room, and am often outnumbered in terms of challenging a large group of students. In these moments, it does become frustrating, as an adult you can feel as if you have lost face, and so it is easy to potentially escalate a minor issue. Firstly, as Alastair demonstrated to us, we need to remember showing our annoyance or pointing out we have better things to do, won't build a relationship or result in pupils doing as asked. An academy Paul Dix worked with used a simple script along the lines of: "You know we don't eat in this corridor. I need you to move on, I have to walk on as there are other places I have to check on" (page 12) In doing this, the pupils may not immediately do as asked but you have not given them the fun of getting a little fame in public by arguing with you. If this becomes the thing you always say, you are building on consistency and reduce the "game" element to breaking rules.
Impositions
This idea is about when a pupil needs to pay back a little extra learning time (page 119). "Impositions are additional work that must be completed that evening and countersigned by an adult at home". The work is then returned first thing the next morning. This helps you to highlight to a parent or guardian where there are minimum standards that are not being met. This helps the pupil to recognise consequences for their actions, and places the onus on the pupil. This reduces the need for detention punishments as these are not often a deterrent. As we know many pupils who end up with a detention may have them regularly. This also frees up staff time to follow up on positives and putting time into planning thoroughly enjoyable lessons, for you and your pupils.
I hope you might find these useful and as I post I am returning the book to the shelf to be borrowed again.
Author LWR
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