If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again...

I have been interested in understanding and building resilience in educational aspects of teaching/learning for a long time, however nowadays it seems like a very current and almost trendy topic. Especially in the light of recent changes caused by the pandemic; resilience has become a necessity. 

When I reflect on my own educational history and adult life experiences I have always been determined to prove my abilities. As far as I remember, whenever I faced any obstacles, challenges or someone doubted or dared me, I felt the fire and ignition to prove them wrong, thinking ‘you better watch me now’. A big part of this attitude was shaped by my upbringing, educators and idols to ‘seize the moment’ and always try to do my best, to carry on and not give up. This manifested in my personality and became a valuable life skill. Not only does it help me in achieving goals but it sets a good example for my students too.  

We’re delighted to share the news of our collaboration with Teach First as part of their ongoing drive to deliver world-leading Initial Teacher Training (ITT). This work is part of a broader, ambitious project to align a range of cutting-edge technologies to enhance the quality, efficiency and accessibility across all Teach First Programmes. 

Guest blog by Haili Hughes, English teacher at Saddleworth School in Oldham and Author of 'Mentoring in Schools' @HughesHaili

“New teachers most benefit from being offered space to grow, reflect, continue to observe others, and to work collaboratively with colleagues. Mentoring is at its most powerful when it is built on positive personal relationships between novice teachers and those with more experience.”
- Professor Rachel Lofthouse in ‘Mentoring in Schools’ by Haili Hughes

We have all seen the headlines screaming at us from newspaper front pages, ‘Teacher recruitment and retention crisis,’ informing us of the frightening statistic that one in five teachers leave school before they have served two years in the classroom (Weale, 2019). There is no doubt that teaching is a difficult job but how many of those practitioners may have stayed in the classroom if they had been given the support of a highly skilled mentor? Somebody who was given the time and training to support and nurture them through what can be one of the toughest times of their career. Now more than ever, in an uncertain educational landscape, where early career teachers are often working in isolation, having supportive mentors and experienced colleagues to support can make a huge difference.

 ‘In order for students to learn they must do something’. This ideal is the same for all those who teach or support education and training. At times, well intended, top-down approaches to CPD can be too broad and not specific enough to meet the needs of individual teachers. In addition, measuring the impact of generalised CPD on learning and progress is a constant challenge. 

In response to this, we at Middlesbrough College asked ourselves two simple questions: 

• What CPD should teachers immerse themselves in that will have a direct impact on their students?
• Who should be responsible for identifying what this is?

The answers seemed strikingly simple: professional teaching focused CPD should be explicitly tailored to a) the teaching practice needs of the teacher and b) the pedagogical needs of their students. 

As a result, the Middlesbrough College Teaching Innovation Group’s (T.I.G’s) were born.

Since Covid struck in 2020, so many things have been put on hold as we collectively navigate our way through unusual and challenging circumstances. Outside, gatherings have ceased and socialising has taken a significant hit.  We now see this taking place in schools, too: cross-over of staff is rare or non-existent as we strive to keep teams safe. Even when schools were full of pupils many teachers were like passing ships as they drifted around in their own bubbles.  Many of us have tried to tackle these issues digitally with get-togethers, quizzes and virtual meet-ups and these can have a really positive impact: just seeing others and interacting with them can be such a boost. 

One area in our school that we had struggled to maintain was staff development: courses have ceased or gone digital; TeachMeets and BrewEDs are digital or postponed; learning walks have had to be rethought; school visits are a no go and cross-pollination of good pedagogy is significantly damaged. Within this blog I hope to unpick some ways of combating this digitally – and more specifically through the use of IRIS Connect.

“The phone rang at 10pm the week before Christmas. It was one of my oldest friends, James, a Headteacher at an Independent School in Melbourne. 

“Something’s wrong,” he said simply.

James went on to describe his symptoms: he couldn’t eat; couldn’t sleep and had terrible pain in his chest and stomach. He’d been to the doctors who diagnosed “stress and anxiety”. Horrified, I asked what they suggested he should do. Unsurprisingly, they offered him a cocktail of drugs and suggested that he see a therapist.

He rejected the drugs and saw the therapist, who was stumped. “You seem perfectly fine to me, I don’t know what to suggest,” he said. Fortunately I was visiting Australia that Christmas and was able to have a conversation with James on a long walk on the beach.