Recently, we were particularly impressed by the work of Andrew Mackereth, who joined The Parker Academy when they were under special measures. As regional education director, Andrew made the decision to focus the attention of the school on pastoral structures, introducing a house-based system. He organised an old-fashioned sports day to help student engagement, and attitudes began to improve. This emphasis on whole-school wellbeing led the academy to pull in its best ever set of five A*-C GCSE exam results, and will be developed even further during 2017/18.
Meanwhile, through working with Archbishop Temple School, we loved how much they embrace mobile technology, and asked headteacher Gill Jackson why this was:
“We have a very clear vision when it comes to mobile technology in school, which is why I think it works. There’s wi-fi which can be accessed during lessons by teachers and is turned on for students to use in the run up to exams. We really believe in mobile technology as something which can successfully supplement and support traditional learning but by no means do we use it to replace traditional methods. That said, we have been very careful in what software and content we invest in. This is why we have chosen to limit the options we offer the students and use only two resources: GCSEPod and Firefly. Because we focus our efforts on two key providers, the students have fully adopted them, and in the main are using them to maximum benefit. We’re really excited to see how this can be developed from September 2017 onwards.”
So enjoy This Is Your Year, which will run for the whole of September. We’re looking forward to reading about how everyone’s going to champion great teaching and learning in 2017/18.
For your first taster of what GCSEPod have in-store for This is Your Year, here's our first article on how your school can save money.