The five stages of post-results intoxication

Last year, I wrote a post about ‘The five stages of post-results grief’ that I went through in the subsequent days and weeks after results day.

This year, I am pleased to say, that the number crunching wasn’t accompanied by the overwrought sobs of the year before, but I have been surprised to still find myself experiencing the proverbial rollercoaster of emotions which leads me to this post: ‘The five stages of post-results intoxication’.

Feeling good

It is the morning of results day, the headlines are in and, for once, it becomes apparent that it’s good news.

You shout to your husband, text your parents, and tell your (bemused) cats. Together they breathe a collective sigh of relief that they won’t be scraping you up off the floor, this year at least.

In the shower, you allow yourself a wry smile for the students who have fallen on the right side of the grade boundaries for once. You chuckle as you dry yourself knowing that this year when the school’s headline measures are flashed up for all to see in the first school meeting back you won’t be staring at the worn-out carpet. You wonder 'Is a jaunty finger click and wink to the Assistant Head taking it a bit too far…?'

Rifling through your wardrobe, you take out your new shirt despite it really being ‘Parent’s evening best’.

In the car, driving in, you sing loudly to Adele. You hate Adele.

Euphoria

When you finally sit around the computer screen with others and see the forecast impact of your department's results on whole school measures there are actual high fives. Together you glimpse a very different potential outcome of the upcoming Ofsted visit to the one that has been stalking your collective nightmares.

Individual subject results may be a ripple in the pool of school life, but in English and Maths they have the potential to be a crashing wave. Most English Heads of Faculty are all too aware of this and when a set of results impacts positively on colleagues and friends it can feel like you’re finally swimming with the tide rather than thrashing against turbulent waters as it’s often felt in the last few years.

We might all strive to be radiators but a set of half decent results lights a bonfire; there is a re-ignition of the belief that effort can equal outcome. There is justice in the world after all!

Bad decisions/Talking loudly

Thus the excitement felt by you for your colleagues, students, and school leads to the desire to SHARE THE NEWS WITH THE WORLD.

You want parents to know - immediately - see just how awesome this news is. Students need to know how proud they can feel of their school and their achievements. You want other teachers to know that your school isn’t what you’ll find on Data Dashboard when you whack the name into Google. Sod it, if a future Inspector catches an eyeful what harm could it do?!

So, you tweet your results: not the actual statistics, mind you, just the upward swing. You have rash conversations with colleagues and other HoDs via text. You offer advice and write brash declarations about the cause of the department’s success, condensing a year’s worth of strategy and effort into a series of reductive messages. You remember how you felt a year ago, but decide 'I would be pleased for me too'.

Paranoia and depression

But as is always the case, what must goes up must… Celebratory glass of wine in hand, you read Chris Curtis’ brilliant blog post astutely comparing the trumpeting of results to an educational willy measuring contest. You think he’s writing about you.

Chastened, you compare the results of your Faculty with others within your school, within your local authority, within your subject.

Bottle of wine now empty, you look again at your headlines and acknowledge you’re still not where you want to be. Not by a long shot. You dig a bit deeper and realise your most able kids have bombed their usually strongest unit, the Poetry exam. A clutch of As and A*s are M.I.A.

You think about the student in your own class who didn’t make it. The one who came to the revision sessions after school and in the holidays. The one who you knew was at risk of not quite getting there but who on sheer bloody determination alone deserved to succeed. You read back your tweets and feel that your excitement has somehow let him down. You have let him down.

You realise the hard work starts again in a week’s time. You’ve still got that scheme of work to write, lessons to plan, and a new job to settle into.

The Hangover

You crash down to earth with a bump, a dry mouth, and sense of impending doom that even paracetamol won't shift. 

But, unlike last year, it’s a soft landing.

The flicker of potential lit by our positive results will buoy us up against the groundswell of current that has the potential to take us under once more. I’m not complacent. We’re not complacent. We’re not there yet. If any school does in fact ever get ‘there’.

Much like the selfies in your phone the 'morning after the night before', I may cringe at my garish tweets from results day, but in a year's time I'll enjoy seeing them in TimeHop as a record of when much-loved school succeeded when it feels like success is so often in short supply. 

Identity, Professionalism, and Me

On Tuesday, I get tattooed for the seventh time. Some would say it’s the teenage rebellion I never quite grew out of. But then, at 32 and with a similarly tattooed spouse (and mother who I’m convinced will get her first by the end of the summer) I’ve not really got anyone to rebel from.

So, perhaps it’s a rebellion not from ‘who’ but ‘what’? Like most schools, our policy is for staff and students to have no visible tattoos. Could this be my attempt to distance myself from the seemingly sterile confines of my school identity? Or to mark myself out as some kind of educational radical or firebrand? No, not one bit. I fully support any school policy that puts professionalism at its heart. All of my tattoos will remain happily hidden on my return to work in September.

From the moment I achieved QTS, I have valued professional status: I attend conferences on Saturdays and read books to improve my subject knowledge; I work hard to keep myself up to date and to get a little bit better at what I do every day. For me, donning professional dress is an extension of the pride I feel for my profession. In a political climate that has sought to devalue the professional status of teachers and to denigrate the job I hold so dear, in my opinion, any outward symbol of status and respect is to be embraced rather than quibbled over.

But it would be a lie to deny that the moment the school bell goes at the end of the summer term there isn’t a sense of release. This year, that exhilaration led me to a bottle of purple hair dye. Any of my colleagues who’d have seen me two days after the end of term would’ve been left wondering quite what had happened to me at the hairdressers and whether I wouldn’t be best placed to sue. And this leaves me with a dilemma. For there is clearly not one Caroline, but two.

Perhaps for me these concerns have been exacerbated by a sense that, even from early adolescence, defining my identity – exactly who I am – was never going to be completely straightforward. Having skipped the Primary-age bonding due to a move from the leafy confines of the Wirral to the more cosmopolitan hubbub of Derby aged 11, I was always aware of being different. Be it gender, sexuality, social class or musical taste, identifying with any given social group didn’t feel particularly easy. As a result, I’ve often said that one of my motivating factors for remaining in schools is a desire to help students who see themselves as outsiders feel, well, less outside.

‘Things do get better’, will always be my persistent message. Find one or two good friends and they will see you through. Or as the wonderful Kathleen Hanna puts it: ‘Keep on living’.

As I grew older, I began to realise that there was maybe never going to be a definitive answer to the question of identity, at least not for me. It was apposite that my undergraduate dissertation was sub-titled (somewhat pretentiously) ‘The subject always asks: what am I?’. And I’ve come to realise that the question of identity is one that I will be continually asking, over and over again, as I change and the world around me changes.

It is a question that is yet again at the forefront of my mind this summer as I take my first steps into senior leadership. I am keenly aware that as a school leader authenticity, and the practice of being true to your core values, is key to your effectiveness. And yet, from the outside, it would appear that with my hidden tattoos and purple hair at school the image I present is utterly inauthentic. So, how do I reconcile the un-professional me with my desire to be seen as both authentic and professional at work?

Well, like my core values, professionalism for me is unchanging. The way I present myself, see myself, and am seen by others – my identity – may change. But what I believe, work for, and the way I work, will not.

This stance was tested last week at a local music festival when I bumped into one of my current GCSE students. My violet hair was glowing bright, my tattoos were on display, I was sporting a shirt with the word ‘Poison’ printed all over it, and at least one pint of cider had been consumed. My initial reaction was to hide behind the shirt of my good friend who was laughing loudly at my discomfort at having been ‘caught’. But then I looked again at the wonderful, hardworking, girl I teach and thought ‘Why on earth shouldn’t I show her that I like the same music she does? That I’m a little bit different too?’ If one of my core purposes is to make outsiders feel ‘less outside’ then it doesn’t matter whether we’re in a field or a classroom; to be authentic is to ‘walk the talk’ and say a warm hello. So that’s what I did.

I have no doubt that that the young woman in question will go on to achieve a Grade 8. I can only hope that even though she may not yet have a strong sense of who she is, like me, she will have a strong sense of the professional she can be.

Reassessing assessment

WOOO WOOOOOO all aboard the 'Assessment without levels' juggernaut!

So, this time last lear the time had finally come for my school to take its first steps on the journey that is redefining assessment in a life after levels.

And what an exciting trip it's proven to be. Because, once you get over the terrifying, often chaotic, smorgasboard of options available to you, and get your head around the appallingly fragmented nature of attempting to compare progress of cohorts across differing specs, schools, key stages, LAs, systems, you'll realise we're actually in a PRETTY POWERFUL position.

For once the decision-making is in our hands: we are redefining assessment in a way that works in our schools and for our students.

Of course, all of this should be prefaced with the fact that I am a very lucky teacher.

I'm lucky that my school decided the way ahead was to set up a working party of interested teachers to consider what might work best for us, rather than making top-down decisions. 

I'm also lucky that at that working party, with just weeks of the summer term left, our brave Senior AHT decided to listen to the enthusiastic voices of the Faculty leaders for English and Maths (@mr_g_walton) and gave us permission to go ahead with a September launch, piloting an assessment model ahead of a school-wide launch in September 2016. 

Mostly, I'm lucky for the team work and quiet wisdom of my superb DHoF (@miss_s_fry) and the skill and enthusiasm of our team for taking on a new approach whilst also grappling with new GCSE and A Level specifications.

In the rest of this post you'll find an attempt to quantify what we did, why we did it, and what happens next. I've done a stack of reading around the topic and apologise if I've unwittingly failed to credit any ideas from others. I will say in advance that I'm 100% indebted to the magnificent Freya Odell @fod3 for sharing her own new KS3 assessment criteria and giving me a much needed starting point for our own and the 'Growth and Thresholds' work of Shaun Allison @shaunallison on which our whole  school approach is built. 

What did we set out to do?

1. Rather than seeking to reinvent the wheel, we wanted to make sure we used best practice from other schools further on in their AwL journey. As already stated, our starting point was primarily the ‘Thresholds and Growth’ model developed by Shaun Allison, but I was also interested by the way in which the likes of Alex Quigley (@HuntingEnglish) mapped back from the skills students need to study English at A Level and beyond.

2. We wanted to ensure that clearly communicating to students what they needed to do in the classroom to improve was at the core of our new assessment model. We also wanted to make this easier for teachers, doing away with superfluous assessment folders, APP grids, cover sheets etc. Basically, we wanted to do less better. 

3. We wanted to focus on achievement in relation to students’ end of KS2 starting points, showing that we valued the progress of ALL students, in order to foster a growth mindset and to encourage students to value their own progress. Early on we realised that this necessitated rejection of purely age-related expectations which weren't going to be appropriate for our wonderfully varied intake and that felt unhelpful for students with SEN.

4. We wanted to create assessment objectives that more effectively prepared students for the increased challenge of all the new GCSE/A Level courses. Again, we also felt that intuitively we could reduce the number of AFs to create something more easily communicated and understood.

5. We wanted to more effectively track student achievement in different aspects of English so we could more effectively target our interventions to address underachievement. This is one we've returned to: 'do not collect data if you're not going to do anything with it' I now have tattooed on my soul.

What did we then do as a result?

We took a good hard look at book marking and decided that what helps students improve is high quality verbal and written feedback - not an often arbitrary number. We therefore decided all formative work would simply state:

ATL = Attitude to learning

WWW = What went well

EBI = Even better if

We then decided we still needed a standardised way of knowing if students were making good progress. We decided to do this by staying with our model of termly assessments. These needed to be marked and so we set about developing our own AOs and assessment criteria.

We did this by using A Level and GCSE assessment objectives to boil down achievement in English to its base elements. For example, reading has six AOs:

A Level	Lit AO5: Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations.	Lit AO2: Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts. Lang AO2: Demonstrate critical understanding of concepts and issues relevant to language use. Lang AO1: Apply appropriate methods of language analysis, using associated terminology		Lit AO1: Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated concepts and terminology	Lit AO4: Explore connections across literary texts. Lang AO4: Explore connections across texts, informed by linguistic concepts and methods.	Lit AO3: Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received. Lang AO3: Analyse and evaluate how contextual factors and language features are associated with the construction of meaning.
GCSE	AO1 Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas. Selects and synthesises evidence from different texts.	AO2 Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology	AO2 Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology	AO4 Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references.	AO3 Compare writers’ ideas and perspectives, as well as how these are conveyed, across two or more texts.	AO3 Considering the significance of context
KS3	Reading for meaning	Analysis of language	Analysis of structure	Personal, critical response	Comparison	Understanding of context

We used the top of the GCSE mark scheme to create a bench mark of excellence for students at KS3. From there, we considered the achievement benchmarks we would expect them to meet as they stepped towards this.

A Level	Lit AO5: Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations.
GCSE	AO1 Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas. Selects and synthesises evidence from different texts.
KS3	Reading for meaning
Step 7	There is a well-structured, conceptualised argument in response to the task with perceptive exploration of explicit and implicit meanings. There is synthesis of evidence from across the text/s with judicious use of precise quotation to support interpretations.
Step 6	There is sustained and developed response to the task which expresses thoughtful ideas about explicit and implicit meanings. Apt quotations are increasingly integrated into interpretations.
Step 5	There is a detailed response to the task which shows detailed understanding. A range of inferences have been made. There is effective use of a range of quotations to support the ideas expressed.
Step 4	There is an explained response to the task which shows clear understanding. At least one clear inference has been made. A range of relevant quotations have been selected and commented; comments are securely rooted in the text.
Step 3	There is an explained response to the task which shows understanding of the extract and the whole text. There is an attempt to infer/interpret information. Relevant quotations have been selected and commented on. However, the comments are not always accurate or securely rooted in the text.
Step 2	There is a supported response to the text and task which shows understanding of the extract and/or the whole text. There is at least one reference to the whole text. There is selection of, mostly relevant, quotations to support comments.
Step 1	Simple comments are made which show some understanding of the text, which may be an extract e.g. accuracy when responding to true or false statements. There is an attempt to select relevant quotations e.g. use of paraphrase when responding to a ‘List 4 things…’ task.
Step 0	There is little or no understanding of what has been read even when responding to simple texts or extracts. If there is any textual reference then it is irrelevant or inaccurate.

We allocated each child invisible pathway based on whether their end of KS2 attainment was low, middle or high using the same criteria as RAISE online:

Low = below Level 4

Middle = at Level 4

High = above Level 4

We then judged what would be expected progress for a child with each of these starting points and mapped a nominal pathway for them.

	Step 0	Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4	Step 5	Step 6	Step 7
Low	Year 7 below	Year 7 expected	Year 7 good	Year 7 exceptional
Middle		Year 7 below	Year 7 expected	Year 7 good	Year 7 exceptional
High			Year 7 below	Year 7 expected	Year 7 good	Year 7 exceptional
Low		Year 8 below	Year 8 expected	Year 8 good	Year 8 exceptional
Middle			Year 8 below	Year 8 expected	Year 8 good	Year 8 exceptional
High				Year 8 below	Year 8 expected	Year 8 good	Year 8 exceptional
Low			Year 9 below	Year 9 expected	Year 9 good	Year 9 exceptional
Middle				Year 9 below	Year 9 expected	Year 9 good	Year 9 exceptional
High					Year 9 below	Year 9expected	Year 9 good	Year 9 exceptional

The new KS3 assessment objectives are mapped across the curriculum in Years 7-9 to ensure they are appropriately interleaved and that they build cumulatively.

The formal assessments are marked against a mark scheme generated by the DHoF from our master grid of assessment criteria - this ain't no APP grid!

After each of the formal assessments, teachers enter their marks onto a tracking document which then generates a progress outcome for each child. This gives the HoF/DHoF a live overview of the strengths/weaknesses of every child in the cohort, but also flags up students who aren't yet making expected progress so that appropriate interventions can be put in place.

What happens next?

Inspired initially by the outcome of the DfE workload reports, formal assessments are going termly rather than half-termly. This will halve data entry for teachers, but will also benefit students by allowing greater flexibility in curriculum delivery and building revision skills vital for a 100% exam GCSE course. I am hopeful it'll also support Faculty leaders to ensure that all data gathered is acted upon. 

We've also amended the wording of the assessment criteria for clarity and to make it more succinct (on reflection, 'variety of' is about as woolly as a sheep's coat). 

But, other than that, we're feeling pleased that the system we've ended up works for us, our students, and our wider school community. The emphasis really is on the learning, progress judgements are used as a marker on a journey and not a stick to beat students with, and there's finally a way of creating consistently high expectations for all students regardless of their starting point.

Surely that deserves a second WOO!