I am blowing the cobwebs off Teaching Uncovered for the first time in a decade.
I think this stint of blogging might be a bit more sustained, as the last ten years has left me with a lot of get off my chest. To begin with, a bit of an update. What are the edited highlights since 2012?
Well, remarkably, I'm still at Mickley Grange - the school I cut my teeth at as an NQT almost 15 years ago. A lot has changed at Mickley Grange and it has to be said it hasn't all been for the better.
The first major change, probably around a decade ago, was academisation. Previously I have mentioned that Mickley Grange became part of a hard federation with a few other schools. The individual school governing bodies were disbanded and a new governing body formed to overseeing the management of all the federated schools.
Only a year or so later the decision was taken that each school should become an academy. A new multi-academy trust (MAT) was formed. I shall refer to this as The Green Pastures Learning Trust. The idea of academisation, as it was sold to us, was to streamline processes, cut waste and drive efficiency. There was also an element of collective security, with the larger MAT having more clout financially. The schools would move out of local authority control, which would give them greater freedom and flexibility when it came to day-to-day management and curriculum.
The head teacher of the largest school, which I shall refer to as Benford Towers, became the new super CEO of The Green Pastures Learning Trust, which resulted in a hefty pay rise and feather in his cap. Academisation hasn't really improved things for those workers at the coal face. Borrowing a phrase from George Orwell "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others". There is no doubt that some of the Green Pastures schools and staff are treated very differently to others.
Mickley Grange got a new head teacher. He had been on the senior leadership team of Benford Towers, so was one of the blue-eyed-boys of the new super CEO. The job was put out to advert, as the law requires, but the deal had already been done behind closed doors. The new man had a bit of a reputation for discipline and efficiency at Benford Towers, which is just what we needed at Mickley Grange. His particular area of interest was the learning of disadvantaged students - especially those eligible for the pupil premium. He was welcomed with enthusiasm and optimism. More on that later, no doubt.
Then a while later along came the covid-19 pandemic. Contrary to popular belief us teachers weren't all sat at home doing nothing, despite some parents - many of whom were sat at home doing nothing - complaining that we were. School was open to key worker and vulnerable students throughout the pandemic, although the definition of what constituted a key worker became increasingly tenuous as parents tired of the novelty of home schooling.
At those times school was open "as normal" the routine was very different, with timings and lesson venues staggered to prevent the mixing of year group bubbles of students. Hand sanitiser dispensers were placed in every room, with students regularly reminded to clean their hands when they were entering or leaving. At the end of every lesson they were given wipes to clean their desks and any equipment they had been touching.
At the height of the pandemic, when the Government was urging as many people as possible to stay at home, full time teachers at Mickley Grange were in school two days a week and working at home three days a week. When in school we followed a rota to deliver lessons to the 60 or so students (around 10 percent of our school roll) in attendance. We also set full lessons for every student working at home, so they could follow their normal school timetable as closely as possible. Most of these were delivered "live" by the teacher on a webcam using resources shared on Google Classroom.
It would be reasonable to say that probably only half of those students at home actually engaged with the online learning being set. A register was kept of everyone logging in and parents were regularly reminded of the expectations, but some students - say 20 percent of those on roll - did no home learning at all throughout the entirety of lockdown.
We also had the weekly job of calling the parents of every child in our tutor groups, just to see how things were going. Marking was done online for those children working at home. Those students in school had all their work in a folder that only they touched. Whole class, self-marking was very much the routine.
By mid-March 2021 schools were allowed to open again, but for the next couple of months there was severe disruption as local cases resulted in the isolation of whole classes and year groups of Mickley Grange students.
It wasn't until the start of the new school year in September 2021 that things were completely back to normal, although a few members of the Mickley Grange community were still occasionally unwell with covid-19.
But for all things were back to normal in theory, they weren't really in practice. More about that in the next gripping installment.