What is Education For-Steve Gulluck

Guest lecturer Steve Gulluck

Steve Gulluck, the Director of the All Wales Centre for Governor Training and research provided an informative lecture about Governors within schools

I am going to explain the information Gulluck talked about and explore in more detail about governors within schools from research which I found.

School governors make combined decisions to help increase educational standards and performance of a school by standing alongside the head teacher and staff. Governors help to provide answerable information to parents and the wider community and their aims are to:

1)       Promote high standards of achievement

2)     Budget, allocate and control

3)     Plan the school's long-term future

4)     Set the school's aims, values and ethos

5)     Appoint senior staff

To become a governor, volunteers will need specific skills which will meet the criteria. These include

•        Willingness to challenge assumptions they may not agree with,

•        Work in a team,

•        Inspire and promote improvement; and

•        To contribute to decision-making.

Steve suggested that there were 4 types of governing body. These include:

1)       The Abdicators- the Abdicators do not have much input within the school and leave a lot of the decisions to the head teacher or the experts.

2)     The Adversaries- have high standards and watch the school carefully to see if there are any improvements needed regarding how the school is run and make the decisions surrounding the running of it.

3)     The Supporters club- The supporters club work together to establish and observe how the school is spending their funds and offers advice on what to spend their expenses on, for example, sports equipment or school dinners.

4)     The Partners- These governors work alongside the head teacher and staff. They have equal responsibility in making decisions and ensuring the importance of team work by communally respecting each other’s views and opinions.

Steve  went into a lot of detail on how to become a governor. It was an interesting discovery to find out how much determination and effort it takes for someone can become a governor. Steve mentioned how long someone can become a governor for before their ‘term of office’ time ends, this is about four years.

Steve Gulluck stated that only those who are related to a member of the school are allowed to become a governor, for example, parents, staff and those who live within the community who portray ambition for the job. He stated that there are round about twenty-three thousand governors and that they are required to meet three times a year to discuss factors of improvement and decisions.

In Wales it is compulsory that you are eighteen before you can become a school governor however those who attend schools in England are able to become school governors from ages sixteen to eighteen.  

Steve’s lecture was very useful in helping me to determine the ambitions which people have and the skills needed to become a governor of a school. I have learnt that even though it is down to volunteering, it gives people a chance to be heard and to give their input into what they think needs improving, providing and changing within schools.

http://tsn.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/977/~/the-role-of-a-school-governor-in-england-and-wales

What is Education For-Dr Russell Grigg

Dr Russell Grigg, head of South West Wales centre of teacher education did an interesting lecture about Estyn, their works, policies and his involvement with them. He talked about how he has worked with Estyn and the intentions it holds.

Estyn examines and reviews the criteria’s, quality and standards in primary and secondary schools as well as other educational environments such as special schools and the Local Authority Education Services for Children and Young people. Estyn strives to ‘inform policy development and to monitor progress’ and inspects the wellbeing, performance and development of young people attending education.

   Estyn provide three main purposes of their work, these include:

·         Accountability- to provide the uses of services and other stakeholders through public reporting on providers.

·         To promote to education and training

·         Inform – Make sure that the government in education and training are up to date with information and inspections and to give advice to the National Assembly Government.

There are two types of reports which Estyn are in charge of writing and reviewing. These include:

 ·         Annual- The first annual report saw a great importance on how well schools and education providers are encouraging skills-based learning and self-evaluation within the learning environment. The Annual report is presented to the Education Minister Layton Andrews who will then provide it to the National Assembaly for Wales, for debate. Chief HMI (Her Magisties Inspectorate for wales) Ann Keen states that the annual report focuses more on the general successes in the Foundation Phase to all children aged three to seven years old. Keen suggests that it is clear that a large majority of children of this age enjoy engaging in the more diverse activities being offered in the Foundation Phase and that this has helped in developments to their wellbeing, behaviour and physical development. The annual reports also look at the wellbeing of the children in educational environments and Keen states that ‘it is a significant feature of the new inspection framework’. Overall standards of wellbeing are high in most schools and post-16 educational settings.

 · Thematic- A thematic report looks at development of progress made by children in schools and give them the best possible chance to work to their best abilities and reach the stages they need to develop further.
 
Dr.Grigg then gave us two websites which might come into use to find more information on the work of Estyn. These include: estyn.gov.uk and ofsted.gov.uk.

As it came towards the end of Dr.Grigg’s lecture he provided us with some key points about what a typical inspection holds. We learnt what an inspection was like and he told us who was involved in these inspections and the significance of the results and data from the inspection.

Dr Russel Grigg gave an impressive lecture and I learnt a lot from the information he provided. I found it useful in establishing Estyns rules and imperatives which goes towards inspecting an educational/learning environment. 7

http://www.estyn.gov.uk/english/thematic-reports/overview/

http://www.estyn.gov.uk/english/annual-report/annual-report-2010-2011/

Placement

Placement diary-The Dell Primary School

Day One:

On my first day at ‘The Dell Primary School’ I arrived into a vibrant, lively class full of smiling faces and the loud giggling of the reception class who I would be with for the next week. The staff and children were very welcoming and I got involved in activities with the children such as colouring pictures and helping them with their nativity play. As I looked around and explored the classroom I saw the sparkling colours and the useful letters which were scattered out to help the development of basic writing and reading. I loved seeing the way the children got involved with activities and how they played together with consideration for each other, and by the end of the day I knew all their names because each personality was different and remembered those personalities attached to their name. Inclusion based on SEN proved successful in accommodating children with speech difficulties and other minor learning disabilities.
The way the children learnt and the questions which they enthusiastically asked provided me with the understanding that, as four and five year olds, their skills and knowledge are forever blooming and will continue to do so in time and practise. There were play resources such as apparatus for P.E and play area’s with books and cushions. Overall I enjoyed my first day at the school. I hope to develop more skills and knowledge over the next few days.

Day Two:

On the second day at ‘The Dell Primary School’ I came into the classroom, again greeted by the happy faces of the reception class. Today we did some more colouring, painting and running around on toy reindeers. Before break time the children showed us the things they built with the Lego and building blocks and the beautiful pictures they drew.

From speaking to the teacher of the class I have learnt about the different levels of ability which exist from those who are highly developed in speaking and spelling, whereas others are less so, or struggling. The teacher also stated that the wellbeing of the children is the utter-most important thing before numeracy and literacy.

As I was walking around the school I noticed that the doors had different things on them, some said ‘pull’ and some said ‘push’ to help the children differentiate between contrasting learning areas.

Day Three:

On my third day of placement I watched the proud parents support their children in the Christmas nativity play. The staff made sure that each and every child had a part to play even if it was a short sentence. This helped to build their confidence and self-esteem and with the parents watching develops individual attention as well as working together as a class. Watching this play made me feel proud of the two reception classes, even though it was only day three I felt like I had played a minor role in a very small fraction of the children’s learning because of the questions they asked and the respect they showed me and I feel that they showed affection towards each other and sympathy when they upset someone.

Day Four:

On the fourth day of placement I watched the children read and write basic letters which had little anecdotes attached to them to understand the sounds of letters, for example, “f” is “fffff-lower” with the stem of the ‘f’ going down and then across the leaves. I found this a useful method in helping the children to gain more knowledge of the letters and the way they are interpreted by the children. In January the reception class joined the year ones for some reading and writing sessions to check and monitor their abilities.

Day Five:

On my final day of placement I learnt the seven areas of learning which they used in the school. These consisted of:

·         Developing ideas

·         What they did and how they did it and then be able to share it with the other children

·         Thinking for themselves

·         Observing

·         Copying staff

·         Understanding their own feelings

·         Numeracy, literacy and thinking skills

The children also participate in compulsory welsh and physical education.

The children thanked me for coming and asked if I was coming back. It was emotional for me to leave them, even though I had only been there for a week, I felt as though I knew them all so well. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at “The Dell” and would love to go back there again sometime soon.

Expression of emotion

For my Visual comminucation module we were given half an hour to go round the university and take pictures of things which caught our eye and we could use as metephores for certain emotions and feelings.

I chose to take a picture of these Yorkies because they are popular chocolates and the two flavours are very different. I have used this picture as a metephor for two different personalities which portray those of real people, how everyone is different, some people are original and some people strive to be unique. The raisin and biscuit one shows a quirky and vibrant personality and is something different, but not nessicerilly loved by all..but it wouldn't be rasin and biscuit otherwise would it? Original Yorkie represents an original personality, a portrayal of original but at the same time new ideas. It is the first one people look for because it was the first one to have that 'original' streak to it.

Again, chocolate (as seen on a previous blog, I do love chocolate). The picture of these twix's represent togetherness and companionship because there are two chocolate fingers in each pack stuck together (like glue). In the media, the adverts of twix's show how you cannot eat one without eating the other, basically, it's only fair to eat both. I used these as metephores for real people to show loyalty and togetherness and how if you stick with something or someone you are never alone. Even though there are only two in the pack, the quality of the chocolate out-weighs the quantity.  That also applies
to companions and friends in the lives of real people..afterall..two's company.

When I saw these post-it notes I thought they were simple and optimistic. It shows that you can dream, hope and inspire to do anything and if you hope and believe in your dreams then the positivity of these thoughts will inspire you to do your absolute best and achieve your goals. So remember..Dream, Hope and Inspire..you can do it!

Overall all of these pictures portray metephors about everyday life, whether it's people's personalities..original or different, whether you have two friends or two hundered friends... you still have the companionship, and whether you pay attention to your goals and achievements or not...you can still succeed with a sprinkle of insperation. All of these metephors show optimism and everyday life. This is why I chose these pictures, because they made me happy at the time of taking them and they make me happy from the optimistic element of them. Better than pesimism right?

Tagxedo

The purpose of this task is to show how pictures can be used to represent words and feeling. It shows creativity and the site "tagxedo" is easy, simple and fun to use.

I have created a simple but personal representation of the things I love and the things which conote love. I love life, chocolate, colours, food, family and friends, all of which I have included in this picture. I have also included the word "falling" in it to represent the emotional/unconditional side of love. I used the theme/colour: "Fruits of passion" to portray passion and love for all things I find beautiful.

Education and how it has been shaped and changed

People have been learning all their lives, we are learning all the time, whether we are sat at a computor nosing around at someones facebook page, or whether we are reading the calorie information on the back of a chocolate bar, it doesn't matter what time of day it is, or where you are, we are learning with every thing that we do.

Within learning environments and in and around the home education is changing rapidly, and there's nothing we can do about it. Technologies are progressing with bigger and better sourses of power and machines such as ipads and touch-screen laptops which people can use for typing out reports/essays/assignments or letters. Even boards in schools are computored and have pens (which are hard to use..but practise makes perfect) but are clear to copy from.

In a group we conducted a presentation about what education was like ten years ago: Here are some of the examples of what we wrote about:

• Ten years ago, primary schools used mostly white boards and blackboards.

• Ten years ago, reading corners the children would listen to cassettes while reading a book.

• Ten years ago, there usually was a television trolley where you would have a vcr player.

• Ten years ago, some schools would have a computer per classroom or a computer suite which kept developing throughout the years. On these computers children would use paint, spelling games, reading games and mathematic games.

Using the Internet for Research

The internet has been a big part of peoples lives for many years and technology is developing rapidly with new inventions and creations being made all the time. The internet is a useful tool for finding resources and information worldwide and can successfully allow you to comminicate, share and find information. For me, the internet provides key sources to help me with assignments and comminicating with peers, for example, Facebook. WWW. means world wide web, which means that you can find information from all over the world in different languages and different formats.