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Dr Annetta Minard Oakmead College of TechnologyBournemouth, England, United Kingdom
Oakmead College of Technology is a mixed secondary modern school in a fully selective area, with 1,300 students in the 11 to 18 year old age range. It has a high percentage of special needs and the school is situated in an area of social deprivation. Results are below the national average but in line with the ability profile. The implementation of a three-year development plan has resulted in a culture of creativity, an improved work ethic, raised standards of behaviour and an open and innovative teaching staff. However, academic attainment has not risen at the anticipated rate, which suggests that, despite improvement in teaching standards, learning has remained the same. There was a need to analyse what it was within the existing structures that prevented effective learning. Feedback from staff and students indicated that the communication that took place between teachers needed to be extended towards all members of the College community. The vehicle for these improvements is student voice and this paper describes the processes, structures and preparation at the formative stage of implementation.
In order to promote communication with young people on a meaningful level, it is important to actively seek insight into the aspects of their socialisation that are important and relevant to them. It would be ineffective to empower students to shape the course of their education without developing the individual skills of those in authority to listen effectively. Equally, there is little point in enabling students to express their perspective on education if the exercise does not result in pedagogical changes in the classroom and the school environment. These changes will not happen simply through the exercise itself; teachers need training to increase their chances of responding appropriately to the learning needs of their students. For this reason, the training of staff (which includes teachers, administrators, support staff and teaching assistants) was prioritised in creating the climate for change.
The aim of the staff training programme was to further develop skills in empathy, listening, mediation, conflict resolution, circle time, consequences of actions and restoring self-respect for individuals. Training centred on ' Restorative Justice ' (1) was made possible through the financial support of the Children ' s Fund and delivered in partnership with Bournemouth and Poole Youth Offending Team. Over the course of a year, each member of staff would participate in an intensive two-and-a-half day training programme. We are currently two thirds into the programme, with a completion date planned for the end of the autumn term 2004. In order to facilitate such an undertaking, two members of staff followed a five day residential training programme to become accredited Restorative Justice trainers. This enabled ' in house ' facilitation that proved to be manageable and cost effective. Making the process part of a whole school commitment meant that staff were more willing to accept timetabling disruptions during training, since they were aware that their opportunity would arise in the next training phase.
Involvement in the decision-making process is a motivational factor that positions participants as active contributors, rather than passive observers. Students need the opportunity to participate in a whole series of decision making processes which impact upon whole school structures and the individual ' s role within those structures.
Individual mentoring provides this opportunity and empowers students to make decisions about themselves and the whole school. Members of staff have approximately sixteen students to mentor. Formalised meetings are timetabled at least once every six weeks and link into the whole school cycle of assessment. This entails an analysis of progress in relation to targets for every child in every subject. The outcome is sent to parents and forms the basis for personal goal setting in the mentoring meeting. In order to facilitate such small groups, mentors are recruited from all members of the adult community (including the leadership team) - not just teachers. This new system has replaced a traditional tutor period and early indications are that staff prefer less time with smaller groups and individuals rather than more time with large tutor groups.
During the one to one mentoring sessions, staff are aiming to promote productive two way dialogue, centred around the language of learning. Students are given the opportunity to debate their performance across the curriculum, set targets for future progress and ask for help if needed. This system is strongly dependent on the school ' s in depth data system, which provides a quantifiable basis for measuring improvement.
As adults, we can only imagine the experiences and perceptions of young people in a rapidly evolving society. However, we can access these images through meaningful dialogue and attempt to place education at the centre of these experiences, rather than on the periphery. At Oakmead the opportunity for meaningful dialogue is created through the use of circle time.
Circle time is usually associated with primary schools but, following the staff training programme, it is not unusual to see circles of teenagers in classrooms all over the college. It appears to have a multitude of uses, such as warm-ups, brainstorms, ice breakers, sharing experiences, exploring topics, and the list goes on. I have seen it used to give students the opportunity to feedback on lesson content and, in this instance, I noticed that it had a calming effect on the group and formed a natural conclusion to the lesson.
Changes at Oakmead are made within the context that all innovation must impact on learning. Ultimately, standards need to rise and, in order to increase academic attainment, a more formalised approach to circle time has been implemented in Years 7 and 11. These years were selected because student voice on arrival could strongly influence long-term strategic development and the same opportunity in Year 11 could produce short-term changes that could have immediate effect on standards.
Each year is divided into learning groups and each group has an allocated period a week in which to discuss their learning with a trained mediator. Each session is based on the circle approach and developed in line with the requests of the students themselves. The aim is to gain information on topics such as curriculum provision, learning styles, the areas in which they feel successful, what (or who) interrupts their learning, their aspirations, and what changes could be made to policy and procedure in order to increase their chances of success.
Circle time aims to give students the time and liberty in which to raise topics that are important to them. Hence it is vital that the agenda is student-driven, rather than mentor-driven.
At Oakmead there is recognition of the need to constantly question the validity of traditional structures and processes in contemporary schooling. Attempts to impose a meaningful mentoring system upon a traditional pastoral system have proved problematic. The system at Oakmead centred on tutors and heads of year. In order to facilitate the changing culture of student voice, the year head posts were removed and tutors were replaced by mentors. The heads of year were highly effective individuals, who retained an influential role in student support within a reconstructed system. These new posts involve responsibility for mentoring, learning, restorative justice, attendance and admissions and enable a more proactive approach to student support than had previously been possible.
The pastoral changes have resulted in a refocusing of classroom practice and the role of subject leaders. The new system prevents ambiguity in terms of accountability for student progress and behaviour. Whatever happens in the classroom is now clearly the responsibility of the teacher, the subject leader and the supporting member of the leadership team. There is no longer a head of year to divert attention away from curriculum responsibility and no debate, for example, about who is responsible for the behaviour of Year 9 in History - the head of History or the head of Year 9?
Although the pastoral area no longer exists, a ' restorative justice ' centre has been opened that is staffed by trained mediators (many of whom are support staff) and available to students and staff throughout the day. The centre is co-ordinated by a non-teaching administrator, who streamlines all activities and ensures that every opening is taken to provide students with the opportunity to express themselves. This includes mediation sessions, counselling and clinics in anger management, self-esteem and anti-bullying. It is planned to extend the use of this centre to parents and negotiations are currently underway to hold evening family sessions and parenting classes.
This system is only in its second week and review meetings will take place each half-term in order to monitor the impact of these changes on the teaching staff, support staff and the students themselves.
The restructuring of student support enabled us to improve our working relationship with local primary schools. At our ' restorative justice ' training sessions, we were joined by staff from our three main feeder primary schools. This opened channels of communication between the schools and increased awareness of the practices within specific schools. The newly opened ' restorative justice ' centre and some of our trained personnel will be available to the primary schools to use for counselling, mediation and training. This joint approach to student voice ensures that students arriving at secondary school will already be aware of our approach to behaviour, conflict and learning. It also eases the transfer process for students and enables us to improve communication across the age continuum.
A major aim of our focus on student voice is to provide the students themselves with the skills needed for effective peer communication. Four staff completed a five-day training course in order to develop their ability to facilitate peer mediation. A rolling programme of facilitation, involving a four-day programme for identified students, will result in the development of eighty peer mediators by the end of the year. These mediators will be available to discuss issues, resolve conflict and provide support and friendship to students in their social time. They will also act as a conduit through which communication can be improved with the adults of the college.
Whilst increasing the opportunity for student voice, there is a need to recognise that some voices are easier to listen to than others. Oakmead College of Technology has a high percentage of students with emotional and behavioural difficulties and we are determined not to exclude the voices of those who do not fit the student stereotype.
The school provides a strongly differentiated curriculum that offers work-based learning and practical vocational courses alongside traditional examination subjects. There is also a highly successful learning support centre, which provides an alternative education programme for disaffected students, many of whom are successfully reintegrated into mainstream lessons. The students who attend the centre have been instrumental in the production of an enhanced curriculum which is intended to meet the needs of those who find it difficult to succeed in mainstream.
The enhanced curriculum operates at different times and in a different section of the campus than other lessons but it is very much part of the school itself. The curriculum offered is highly practical and encompasses topics such as gardening, fishing, plumbing and mechanics. The core curriculum is delivered in short ' chunks ' and extensive use is made of interactive learning. The content is strongly student-driven and this active voice increases ownership of their learning in a way that has never been possible in their previous experience of mainstream lessons. Early observation indicates unprecedented motivation and attendance and the outcomes of this project will form an important research focus throughout the year.
Attempting to respond to student voice within the restriction of existing frameworks, can result in empty gestures and a failure to commit fully to participative dialogue for change. Radical restructuring, involving a multitude of structures and processes, has been implemented. We have recognised that communication is a multi-layered process which can only be enhanced if the skills needed to advance the process are further developed. What has become apparent at this early stage is the interdependency of systems and the need for a cohesive approach to reform.
At Oakmead College of Technology we are committed to improving communication between all members of our community. This means not just providing the opportunity for voice but increasing the proficiency of all voices in order to promote meaningful discourse towards a culture of learning and respect.
Note: A model based on ' Just Schools - A whole school approach to restorative justice ' by Belinda Hopkins. Restorative Justice is a philosophy that centres on relationships above rules. It values dialogue in healing the damage done to relationships by inappropriate behaviour. The restorative approach advocates that the people best placed to resolve a conflict or problem are the people directly involved. It contends that imposed solutions are less effective, less educative and less likely to be honoured.
Dr Annetta Minard is the headteacher of Oakmead College of Technology in Bournemouth, Dorset. This is her seventh year in post and she is particularly concerned to create a diverse curriculum which meets the needs of all students. Annetta ' s teaching degree is in Physical Education. She has a Master of Science from Loughborough University and the majority of her teaching career has been in PE and Science. Annetta also has a PhD, which focused on ethnographic research into the impact of gender on physical activity and education. Annetta is a qualified inspector and as a consultant head, she facilitates The National College for School Leadership programme, ' New Visions ' to recently appointed headteachers.
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