Summary
Four schools (Hadleigh Junior School in Essex, Langley Junior School in Devon, Grinling Gibbons Primary School in London and Norton College in North Yorkshire) have had successful Power to Innovate applications to change the times of the school day. This allows teachers more time to prepare for lessons and to discuss new strategies. In the case of Langley Junior School, Hadleigh Junior School and Grinling Gibbons Primary School, it also provides enrichment sessions for pupils.
Norton College, Malton, North Yorkshire
Norton closes an hour early on a Wednesday afternoon once a fortnight. This enables the School to provide dedicated Teaching and Learning Quality Time to teaching and support staff - a two hour session from 2.15 to 4.15 pm every alternate Wednesday. The second hour is after the school day and was previously used for staff meetings. These staff meetings have now been reduced and moved to after school on the Wednesday when Quality Time doesn't happen.
Jill Hodges, Headteacher at Norton College, believes Quality Time can really make a difference.
"We believe that if we want quality of excellence, an education of excellence for our pupils, we have to provide teachers and support staff with excellent resources to enable them to produce the high standards of teaching and learning that we expect.
Teaching and Learning Quality Time at Norton College is all about teaching and learning and raising standards. We do this by providing staff with dedicated, uninterrupted time once a fortnight to work together, in teams. We focus on teaching strategies and learning strategies which are then incorporated into lesson planning and assessment for learning opportunities. Research projects, the use of ICT, dissemination of excellent national, LA and local practice, discussion and implementation of new initiatives will all figure in our Teaching and Learning Quality Time.
Teaching and Learning Quality Time was achieved through finding two hours - one from the last period of every other Wednesday and one from the previously allocated time for meetings. However, because we finished school one hour early once a fortnight, this actually counted as a change to the school day. We did not appreciate this at the time, and although consultation with pupils, parents, governors, transport the LA all took place, it was not in the specified timescale, hence the Power to Innovate Application. It was crucial to get parents on board and to have the support of both governors and the LA.
The consultation with parents was crucial. We wrote to all parents, chased for 100% returns, replied or phoned all parents with questions and held an open evening. This evening gave our rationale, detailed all 'pros and cons', answered all questions and addressed the points that had already been raised. Pupils came and explained why they thought it was a good idea and how the teaching and learning strategies already used were making a difference.
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Impact
Teaching and Learning Quality Time is having a real impact on classroom practice, as evidenced by our recent Ofsted report where teaching and learning was judged to be very good."
The teachers really value it:
'If we didn't have this time, then all the issues stemming from our Maths Self Evaluation would just get lost' - member of the Maths Faculty.
'I come back from courses bubbling with ideas. But when am I supposed to plan them into my lessons? Within a week it's back to the usual stuff because I just don't have the time.'
For the pupils it seems to be working too:
'It helps me to learn when the teacher shows me things as well as telling me.'
'You can tell when a lesson's been well planned. It flows more and it's more interesting.'
'If teachers are more interested in learning they'll be more interested in planning. If they're more interested in planning, they'll plan more interesting lessons. Then it'll be more interesting for us.'
Link
Norton College website
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