The document is the February 2015 issue of UKED Magazine, which supports the educational community. It includes articles on early childhood intervention, teaching Mandarin Chinese, improving student learning, highlights from an education technology conference, and international school partnerships. It also advertises teaching jobs and encourages teachers to write for the magazine.

1. ukedchat.com February 2015 Issue 14
Supporting the Educational Community
Review of BETT 2015
Learning and Teaching
Mandarin Chinese p12
The Rising
Dragon
p22 Numeracy
Literacy and…
Oracy
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Relighting the
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20 Teaching in a British
School in China
Why we need a
College of Teaching
Lessons From

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4 Early Intervention is the Key to Success
Paul Stockley discusses the need to intervene to improve the
educational chances of children at the earliest possible time.
Contributors
Paul Stockley @bradwaystockley
Holly Fairbrother @MrsHollyEnglish
Mandi Miles @mandmiles
Phil Herd @montgenev
Mark Anderson @ICTEvangelist
Simone Haughey @simonehaughey
Benedick Ashmore-Short @Benedick1
David Weston @informed_edu
James Abela @ESLweb
Holly Page @21trustedu
Angela Goodman @goodman_ang
Ian Daniels @Mr_Daniels_SFP
Hayley Simpkin @pipkinzoo
Elizabeth Westwood
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From the Editor
Education is a global endeavour. The focus of policy
makers has increasingly shifted towards looking at
international league tables of educational performance
and attempting to import ideas from educational ‘super
powers’.
China is a super power in a myriad of ways and its
education system has developed at a dizzying rate. With
huge resources and equally huge challenges, China has
also been watching and learning from other education
systems from around the world and the reality of
modern education in China may surprise you.
In this issue we take look at education in China and the
lessons we can take from it in the UK. We also explore
ways to bring a little Chinese culture into your classroom
for Chinese New Year. 恭喜发财 and have a wonderful
year of the goat!
Martin Burrett - Editor
@ICTmagic @UKEdMag editor@ukedchat.com
5 In Brief
Three short articles Holly Fairbrother, Mandi Miles and Phil Herd on
writing, positivity and further study for teachers.
6 Lessons from the Dragon
Marin Burrett shares his insight into the rapidly developing Chinese
education system and what it can teach us in the rest of the world.
10 Should You Use Technology in the Classroom
Mark Anderson discusses the case for using or not using technology.
Has the ICT Evangelist lost his faith?
12 Learning and Teaching Mandarin Chinese
Simone Haughey explains how she came to teach Mandarin as only a
beginner herself and what the impact has been on her school.
14 Relighting the fire of learning
Benedick Ashmore-Short tells the story of the remarkable journey he
and is school has been on to improve the education the pupils.
16 The Best of BETT 2015
Our look back on the highlights of this year’s BETT show and a look at
the companies, products and events that caught our eye.
19 Book Shelf
-Leadership Dialogues: Conversations & activities for leadership teams
-How to Teach Literacy - Commas, colons, connectives & conjunctions
20 Time for the Professional Body Teachers Deserve
David Weston discusses why teachers need a College of Teaching to
represent the interests and need of the profession.
21 Why we need a College of Teaching
James Abela looks at the idea of College of Teaching as from some
with experience of a professional association in his first career before
teaching and what this could mean for teachers and education.
22 Numeracy, Literacy and… Oracy
Holly Page explores the importance of oracy and why our young
people need to develop their oral language skills.
24 Global Linking - Manchester to Nanjing
Angela Goodman shares her experience of setting up an international
partnership with a Chinese school and its benefits to both schools.
26 Teaching in a British School in China
Elizabeth Westwood shares her insight into teaching at a British School
in Shanghai and what the pupils think about their school and learning.
Issue 14: February 2015
9 Welcoming the Year of the Goat
A collection of ideas and resources to bring China into your classroom
for Chinese New Year.

4. 04 UKED Magazine
Early Intervention is the Key to Success
I’ve been a teacher for 25 years and a Headteacher for
12. In all that time there hasn’t been enough political
recognition or bravery which is required to provide a long
term improvement in the lives of our most deprived children.
What it was like as a social worker in the 1980’s
Many years ago in the early 1980’s, before training to
be a teacher, I worked as a social worker. I helped to run
an outreach centre for young families, where they could
socialise and receive any support they needed. I also worked
in the attached children’s home for young people who had
just been released from Young Offenders institutions or had
been evicted from their homes by their families. It was a
tough call for a young man who had not seen very much of
the real world at that time and I grew up quickly during the
year that I worked there.
Part of my job was to visit families to offer support and I
saw and experienced many things which challenged my
then limited view about how most people lived. I saw for
myself households with no books or toys, where adult
communication with children barely occurred and where
children were mainly left to themselves. One house in
particular really shocked me and I can still see it in my mind’s
eye today. Structurally it was in good condition and it looked
well maintained from the outside. However on entering
it was like walking into a desert. The spacious rooms were
empty of all but a few pieces of furniture and the floor was
filthy. On the floor, on his own, sat a two year old boy in just a
nappy with not a toy in sight and he was watching the biggest
television I had ever seen. The television looked very new,
and was in such stark contrast to the rest of the child’s barren,
empty environment, that the image was seared into my
memory. It was only a snapshot, perhaps unrepresentative,
but my world view changed a little that day. I often wonder
what that child is doing now. He would be in his thirties today.
Many children still start school without basic skills
It is a sad fact that, as teachers, we often come across
children who have had very limited experiences of the world
when they start school. Schools admit children who are not
potty trained, are unable to socialise appropriately and who
don’t get enough sleep due to chaotic home circumstances.
Many have never been read a story or have never even
handled a book. The aim is to try and make up the shortfall
for these deprived pupils by providing a rich curriculum full of
stimulating activities and new experiences. This is of course a
very important part of trying to improve the life chances for
these pupils but the research indicates that, already, at the
age of 4, it will be much more difficult to make up for these
missed experiences. Children will learn and progress more
easily if they already have an efficient network of ‘pathways’
in their brains when they start school. Those who start with a
disadvantage may be burdened with it all through school and
into their adult lives.
The development of neurons in the brain
Here I need to add a little science to make my point. As
many people know, brain development, or learning, is
actually, physically, the process of creating, strengthening,
and discarding connections among neurons or nerve cells in
the brain. These connections are called synapses and they
organisethebrainbyformingpathwaysthatconnecttheparts
of the brain, governing everything we do. The development
of synapses occurs at an astounding rate during children’s
early years, in response to the young child’s experiences. At
its peak, the brain of a healthy toddler may create 2 million
synapses per second! An under stimulated brain will have a
less developed network of connections which will make it
more difficult for the owner of that brain to progress through
each developmental stage. Effectively stimulation provides
the foundation for learning.
By not focussing sufficiently on the many children who
are deprived of stimulation in their early years is storing up
all sorts of problems for the future and currently we have
a national system of education which is biased towards the
later years of a person’s school life. It is designed to resolve
the problems later rather than to prevent them happening in
the first place.
The government’s own 2011 report recommended early
intervention
In Graham Allen’s 2011 report to the government on early
intervention (bit.ly/uked15feb01) he recommends that the
period of a child’s life from 0-5, including pregnancy, should
be given at least as much status as Primary educational phase
and the Secondary educational phase. Just a brief look at the
research seems to support this view since, if we get it wrong
from the beginning, we will always be playing catch up.
So many of the problems faced by schools, social services
and indeed police forces, are exacerbated because they are
trying to intervene at a late stage when much damage has
already been done. There are four year old pupils starting
their school life who are barely taken out of the immediate
area in which they live; who have never seen a real sheep
or a cow and who are left for long periods of time with only
a television, computer or tablet to entertain them. These
children, unsurprisingly, find it difficult to communicate;
they’ve barely had to before, and they find social situations
suchassharingorplayingwithothers,stressfulandconfusing.
By Paul Stockley
Some 4 year old children looking cheerful during their
first week in school

5. ukedchat.com/magazine 31
The impact of early intervention and what happens if you
cut services for preschool children
Research shows that a child’s development score at just 22
months can serve as an accurate predictor of educational
outcomes at 26 years. In other words, getting it right early is
enormously important if children are to make the progress
that we all want for them in life. This may seem obvious,
but it is not currently reflected in national policy, which has
resulted in the forced closure of services designed to support
very young children and their families.
The challenge for the future
Those who lead in Councils, and in schools, are well aware
of the need to invest in early intervention. Councils can’t
do much about national political decisions on funding,
but schools and other agencies can do something about
raising awareness of the school readiness problem and
taking action to improve the situation. There needs to be a
greater linking of services at a local level, including schools,
greater communication between schools and preschools.
The preschool phase of education, with huge numbers of
privately run nurseries, needs to be viewed as being just
as important as the later phases. Otherwise we will always
be trying to repair the damage, rather than preventing it
happening in the first place.
Paul Stockley is a Primary Headteacher at Bradway
Primary School in Sheffield where he is also Chair if
the Primary Leaders Partnership. Find Paul on Twitter
at @bradwaystockley.
Image credit: Background image by Martin Burrett. Other images provided by Paul Stockley
InBrief
Further Study
“I’ve too much time on my hands,” said no teacher ever.
Whilst this may be true, finding the time to undertake
further learning of your own can have powerful effects on
your role in your school. Whether it be pedagogical changes
that impact on the children or improving your skills in helping
colleagues the rewards are many. After 11 years of teaching
I was starting to get in a rut with my career. However,
undertaking an MA in education and the proper professional
development that brings, refreshed parts of my teaching that
other CPD couldn’t reach.
@montgenev - Teacher & maths coordinator, Nottingham
The Future of Fiction?
Social constructivist learning theories suggest today’s
educators should create inquiry-based units asking learners
to work together to think about big questions. Rather than
the ubiquitous class novel study, I planned a unit asking my
Year 7s to think about the future of fiction and whether
technology can help us to tell a story.
I am currently studying an MEd in Technology and this,
combined with my love of books, is an area of great interest
to me. As a twenty first century educator, I am constantly
considering where reading and writing might be going for
learners growing up in a digital age. I wonder if e-readers
may re-engage learners who read more online but less and
less in print.
My unit was co-constructed with my Year 7s and covered
the essential elements of stories, involved reading and
discussing lots of stories, then ultimately deciding on a story
to tell and a technology tool to tell it with.
The class learned how to storyboard, draft, script, code,
write, animate, create electrical circuits, film, create and
tell stories using tools such as iMotion, Inklewriter, iBooks
Author, iMovie, MinecraftEdu, Makey Makey and Scratch.
Finally,theyshowcasedtheirstoriesandwrotereflectionson
the skills they had developed, what they think they learned,
what they’d like to improve upon, and what they were proud
of, exploring whether or not they think technology can help
us tell a story and where the future of fiction lies.
@MrsHollyEnglish - Global Youth Debates Project Manager, English
Teacher, Qatar
Positivity Breeds Positivity
Have you woken up in a bad mood, convinced that your
day will be terrible and that nothing can improve it to
find that, despite your insistence on misery, you end
up smiling when you really don’t want to? I think we all
have. This is because positivity is contagious. Consider
this in every class you teach. Smile, laugh, encourage
and be in a good mood (yes I am aware that on occasion
you may have to fake it a little).
Students respond, as all humans do, to their
surroundings. If you come into a classroom with the
weight of the world on your shoulders then EVERY
student in there will pick up on that. You will soon bring
them down. Go in happy and smiling, good moods are as
contagious in the classroom as they are everywhere else.
Smile and the class smiles with you!
@mandmiles - GCSE Lecturer, Hampshire
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6. 06 UKED Magazine
CHINA 中国
Wuxi 无锡
Shanghai 上海
Fuzhou 福州
Jiangsu Province
Fujian Province
Xiamen 厦门
Zoomed
Section
Lessons from the
Rising Dragon
China holds a mystique for many people in the western
world. A country where the abundance of superlatives
is simply breath-taking. The cityscapes of China’s vast
metropolises shift and grow upwards and outwards on a
daily basis, backed by economic growth which is almost
tangible on the streets.
But there has been a quiet revolution happening in the
background to China’s remarkable rise which has the
potential to secure China’s place as a superpower long
into the future - Education.
The popular perception of Chinese education in the
west is of silent classrooms of kids in rows listening
to the teacher and copying out notes in a textbook.
While this has been true in the past, as it was in the UK,
China has been making reforms to its education system
in earnest since 1987, with major changes happening
in just the last 3 years. In 2017 China is making huge
changes to its curriculum and in the way in which exams
and university places are assigned, in a move which will
brings it much closer to the system we recognise in the
UK.
The culture of revering knowledge and education
is ancient and deep rooted in China. The ethos of
Confucius is still felt by most Chinese people and
completely disaffected students are rare. In contrast
to many western countries, students in China think it
is cool to be clever and are often very self motivated
in their learning. The price for failing to gain a good
education in China, with competition from 1.4 billion
other people and a limited warfare state as a safely net
is simply too high.
Shanghai scored very well in the latest PISA
international educational tests in native language
studies, maths and science. So impressive that England
has inviting hundreds of Chinese maths teachers into
English schools to share their expertise.
As in the UK, China’s policy makers have been studying
andimportingelementsofotherinternationaleducation
systems into their own and have been rolling out the
latest educational research, such as the meta-study of
John Hattie, into classrooms across the nation. Chinese
leaders have recognised that the academic rigour, which
has been the hallmark of Chinese schools for decades,
by itself is not sufficient, but needs to be developed in
tandem with creatively, independent thinking and the
development of rounded individuals who can function
well in society. They are at the beginning of this journey
and China has many hurdles to overcome. There are
currently government posters all over China promoting
the ‘Chinese dream’. A huge, aging population,
environmental degradation and a huge gulf between
the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ could derail that dream.
In January 2015, UKED Magazine was given unfettered
accesstofiveschoolsinthreecitiesalongChina’seastern
coast to see the changes for ourselves. We travelled to
the city of Wuxi in Jiangsu Province, and then to Fuzhou
and Xiamen in Fujian province and visited one primary
school and four high schools.
Each of the schools visited was interested in forming
ties with schools from around the world. If you are
interested in working with any of the schools, please
contact us at editor@ukedchat.com.
You can view hundreds more photos of our educational
tourofChinaonourFlickrstreamatbit.ly/uked15feb02.
Read our previous UKED Magazine article for
background information about the Chinese education
system at bit.ly/uked15feb03.
By Martin Burrett

7. ukedchat.com/magazine 07
Wuxi Experimental Primary School
I first visited this school in 2008. At least a version of this
school - in the intervening year the school had more than
doubled in size and building continues to this day with the
addition of a multi-million pound sports complex and indoor
swimming pool. The school has over four thousand pupils
from Grade 1-6 (6-12 years old).
In Chinese primary schools the students are taught by many
teachers who teach a single subject, as we do in secondary
schools in the UK. The school is said to be the best in the area
and boosts some amazing facilities, including several lecture
theatres, a huge science museum, a robotics workshop,
numerous science labs and a whole three storey building
dedicated to art and music.
I spoke to the school headteacher about
his perception of Chinese education. He
told me that exams are important, but
now China must focus on development
a rounded individual and improve social
skills. He felt that teachers were adapting
to this way of teaching, but more work
needs to be done. He also told me that
moral education was very important
to build stronger social cohesion for
the nation in the future. He continued,
“Education in Chinese in on the right path
to make our education system one of the
best in the world.”
Extra curricular activities are seen as
very important at the school to build
confidence and to instil a love of learning.
There are a range of club the children
can attend, including Chinese calligraphy,
music groups where students learn to play
both traditional Chinese instruments and
western instruments, nature clubs and
reading clubs hosted by the school library.
While watching lessons around the school
I noticed a marked change in the levels of
interaction between teachers and pupils
and pair work has become increasing
common in only a few years.
Fuzhou No. 19 Middle School
In China, most schools are given a number which
shows their education rank, with the no. 1 school taking
the top students in the area. As it is number 19, this
hows that school is considered a middle-ranking school.
It is also one of the smallest middle schools right in the
centre of city, with only a few hundred students.
Despiteitssize,theschoolhadmanyfacilities,including
an impressive array of education technology in every
class, which is now the norm in middle schools, a huge
sports hall, a pupil well-being building with a school
counsellor. A school counsellor is a relatively recent
development in China, but now most middle schools
have an area where students can go to talk and get
advice about how to management their workload and
any problems they may be having at school or at home.

8. 08 UKED Magazine
Fuzhou No.3 Middle School
This is a huge school which is currently undergoing a vast
building project to erect a towering new teaching block with
state of the art facilities. This school is considered one of the
best in the entire province and the students are some of the
most talented in the area.
In classes across the school, heads were down and the
students were clearly working hard and driven to do well.
I spoke with the vice principal, Mr Wei, who explained that
the school offers students hoping to study aboard special
classes which are taught through English. The school has
a number of foreign teachers from many different English-
speaking countries. We discussed the university entrance
exam and how it is changing in 2017 to reduce the stress on
pupils. Right now every tenths of a percentage point could
mean the difference of going to a good or going to a great
university. In the future, this will be grouped, so students
who are comfortably in that desired range can have a greater
confidence of getting into their chosen university.
These days around 85% of school leavers go on to university,
but the quality and prestige of universities varies greatly.
At the end of the lesson the bell rang and the students
came streaming out onto the playground. The boys played
basketball and many of the girls played table tennis or
volleyball, with one groups rushing off to practise a dance
routine for a up coming show. It was good to see the students
unwinding after the intense concentration of their studies.
Fuzhou Experimental Primary School
The ‘experimental’ in its name shows that the school is
under the direct control of the local educational department
and it is considered the best primary school in Fuzhou city.
The school is a blend of new building and facilities with
ancient Chinese culture, including an ancient tree towering
over the playground and a beautiful ancient tea house being
used to welcome guests to the school.
The school has a special classroom to practise emergency
training for pupils, including first aid and working phones to
practise making calls to the emergency services.
Over a cup of jasmine tea I spoke with the school leadership
team. I asked them what skills the children start their
schooling with. “Just the basics, as it is more difficult to un-
teach misconceptions.”
I asked about class sizes in China, which are often between
35-50 pupils in size, and how teachers deliver personalised
learning. The head teacher told me that it was a challenge,
but it begins by truly knowing the children and their needs.
The head teacher is starting a project with China Telecom,
the biggest telecom provider in China, to deliver video
lessons, both recorded and hopefully live in the future, to
schools with less resources and less-experienced teachers to
provide personal learning to thousands of students through
‘on demand’ learning opportunities (and would welcome
contributors from overseas if you would like to get in touch
via UKED Magazine).
This was a school with big ideas, not only for their own
children, but for the nation.
Xiamen No. 1 Middle School - Haicang branch
Despite the name, this school is more than 40 minutes drive
away from Xiamen city and it is a rural branch school. There
is a educational divide between schools in the cities and
the countryside. In China, successful city schools often are
paired with rural schools to offer extra support, training and
an exchange of teachers. This is one of the success stories,
as this branch school is now pioneering teaching techniques
which are being adopted more widely.
Because the performance of the students was poor many
years ago, the school has used group work and discussion to
improve thinking skills through collaboration. Many lessons
follows a similar pattern of an introduction, followed by
reflection, discussion and note making in groups for 10-20
minutesandthelessonconcludeswithastudentvolunteering
to feedback to the rest of the class.
Unlike most schools in China with generally seat students
in rows, the students in Haicang sit in clusters to help them
collaborate and peer teach.
The strategies seems to have worked. The schools exam
results, as well as student happiness and attitude to
learning, have all increased dramatically in the 2 years that
the school has been using this approach. As a result, the
school is receiving lots of attention from other schools and
policy makers looking to improve the education of their own
students.

9. ukedchat.com/magazine 09
It is clear that China, like every other country, is seeking to
improve it’s education system by looking inwards in detail at
what in happening of the ground and sharing best practice,
and looking outwards to other countries and emulating
techniques which might improve the way things are done.
The government, free from the constrains of electioneering,
can be completely pragmatic and change is happening quickly
at every level of education.
But what I think it the biggest lesson to learn from China isn’t
about policy or even educational techniques - it’s cultural.
Education and knowledge are valued by absolutely everyone
in China, and it is seen as a duty to your country, your family
and your yourself to do your very best in school and students
have the foresight to see the long-term benefits of education
and work accordingly.
While the UK importing Chinese maths teaching will benefit
those who are already engaged in their learning, these will
only be marginal gains unless the cultural ethos of self-driven
learning is also in place.
The rapid rise of China’s educational prowess is in no small
part due to the record investment that the government
is putting into schools, with building project funding at
individual schools being in the hundreds of millions in some
cases.
The world is now a global market and every student on Earth
is in competition for their perfect future. With the reassuring
notion that China is simply an exam factory beginning to
fade, how will the western world compete? Perhaps now is
the time to take some lessons from the rising dragon.
Mandarin children’s songs to stream from the web for
free or you can buy a CD alittlemandarin.com/music
Classroom Resources and Ideas for
Chinese New Year
Find out how to read and write your pupils’ names in
Chinese. Name not there? You can request for it to be
added to the list. ukedchat.com/PLA00002
Write a bilingual letter in both English and Chinese to
a pen pal in China with this template. Just copy and
paste the sections you want. ukedchat.com/PLA00003
A YouTube video of the story of Nian - a mythical
creature which Chinese scare away each year with fire-
crackers. bit.ly/uked15feb04
Find many more Chinese resources at
ukedchat.com/ictmagic
and
ukedchat.com/resources

10. The thing is, technology is just a distraction. There’s
absolutely no chance that it will do anything other than
distract students from what is required. Learning is what is
most important in the classroom. Shiny posh toys such as
iPads and the Nexus 9 do nothing more than distract students
from the main aim of learning. As professionals we know that
there are many key aspects to what made a great lesson and
learning experience for young people and it shouldn’t involve
distractions like these.
You Shouldn’t Use Technology
Remember: Technology surely can’t help us here. Technology
doesn’t provide any opportunity to help with remembering.
Understand: Again, how can technology help teachers help
students to understand a topic? As teacher it is my job to
impart knowledge and make sure that students understand
what is being taught. Technology cannot help anyone to truly
understand.
Apply: In applying knowledge and skills, technology falls
flat on its shiny metal derrière. Surely students can’t apply
their understanding using technology? They would simply
plagiarise some websites and offer it as their own work
without even reading it. There’s simply no opportunity to use
technology to enhance learning there at all.
Analyse: Naturally, technology has no place in helping
students with analysis. Technology has no role to play in
making information clearer and simply complicates the
picture.
Evaluate: Asking students to evaluate things that they
are working on simply cannot happen using technology.
Technology is a barrier to true communication for students,
to feed back to their peers, to help evaluate their work.
Putting information out on a blog is only encouraging
negative comments which doesn’t help anyone. Online polls
and surveys to gather information can’t be used to evaluate
accurate results, as just anyone can take part.
in the Classroom
You Should Use Technology
Technology can enhance learning, raise engagement levels,
and focus student’s attention in new ways, to support the
task at hand. It can help them to express themselves and
collaborate together in unrivalled ways. Devices like iPad
and other tablets enable teachers and students to take their
learning out of the classroom and to learn at any time and
in any place. As professionals we know that there are many
key aspects to what makes for a great lesson and learning
experience and technology can have a huge impact.
Let’s look at this in more detail. I
would hope that we can agree that
one of the most popular pedagogies
for teaching and learning is Bloom’s
taxonomy. In his taxonomy,
Benjamin Bloom said that there
werefivedistinctcognitiveactivities:
Knowledge, Comprehension,
Application, Analysis, Evaluation
and Synthesis. The revised version
of Bloom’s taxonomy expands this
a little:
Remember: Using flip-card apps such as Quizlet and Quiz
Studio can help students remember and re-enforces learning.
Understand: The Internet, with access to videos on the Khan
Academy and YouTube, and using apps such as Socrative,
PingPong, Google Forms, creates opportunities to test
students’ knowledge on whether they understand things.
Apply: There are a vast range of ways which technology is
capable of enhancing the application of knowledge and skills.
Using word processors and photos are just two examples.
Students can re-interpret and re-purpose information
researched using the Web and they could curate information
they find online to a Pinterest/Educlipper board.
Analyse: Creative tools like infographics creators, such as
Piktochart, can be used to compare different information
gathered via research or use of Google Sheets or Excel to
analyse collated data. Technology is offering innovative ways
to give peer feedback, such as through blogging.
Evaluate: There are a range of tools which allow students to
collaborate in the evaluation of a fellow student’s work, not
least the humble interactive whiteboard. You might like to
try Voicethread or the commenting and suggestion features
in Google Docs too. Students and teachers can use blogs and
respond to collective evaluation to refine and improve their
work. Polls and surveys can help to gather information to
helps students evaluate and canvas opinion too.
By @ICTEvangelistBy @ICTpessimist
10 UKED Magazine

11. Create: This is obviously an area where using traditional
methods will bring far more to the learning in the classroom.
Technology simply has nothing to offer in the classroom to
support learning. Even if your students did manage to create
something interesting on MS Paint or tap out a digital tune
on the keyboard - it’s on the computer and it won’t be seen
or heard by anyone else. It isn’t a creative endeavour unless
it can be displayed and appreciated by others.
So there you have it. I hope I’ve made my case clear. There
is simply no place for technology in the classroom to enhance
learning.Ifyoucanthinkofanywaysfortechnologytosupport
other aspects of great teaching such as strong questioning,
formative and summative assessment, explaining and
differentiation I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Create: Tech shouldn’t simply replace traditional methods,
but it can enhance existing methods of creativity, as well as
offer a huge range of creative opportunities - which would be
very difficult or impossible to accomplish without it. Create
podcasts or videos using apps like Audioboom, Explain
Everything, Adobe Voice, Vidra, iMovie or Spreaker DJ to
give an audience to work, demonstrate learning, evaluate or
analyse work and help students remember their learning.
I have only just scratched the surface of the myriad of
possibilities that technology can bring to the classroom.
Naturally, pedagogy and learning guide the use of technology,
but mobile devices and collaborative digital tools mean that
technology can enhance most learning opportunities in the
classroom and beyond. What are your thoughts?
The @ICTpessimist is a literary construct
and alter ego of the @ICTevangelist Mark
Anderson.
Mark Anderson @ICTevangelist is a former AHT, education
consultantwithapassionforcreativity,learningandinnovation
in the classroom. Mark is an award-winning blogger, author of
best-selling ‘Perfect ICT Every Lesson’, Independent Thinking
Associate and finalist in this years UK Blog Awards. Mark
blogs at ictevangelist.com / educationevangelist.com.Image credit: Background image by Martin Burrett.
Other images provided by Mark Anderson
Find thousands of other educational sites at
ukedchat.com/ictmagic
The best websites from
chinese-skill.com
Superb game app for anyone looking to
learn Mandarin Chinese.
bit.ly/uked15feb05
An online Spirograph - great for maths
lessons or pop culture in art.
bit.ly/uked15feb06
Augmented reality app which allows
you to explore human anatomy.
twinery.org
Create interactive non-linear stories where
readers decide the direction of the plot.
codekingdoms.com
Learn coding, travel to planets, complete
missions with this great game.
billnye.com/blog
Science site of activities, experiments,
video demos & downloads
aworldlymind.com
App aims to make you worldly by
teaching you facts about countries.
crumbles.co
Type & this site will collect pop-culture
videos & the words together.
ukedchat.com/magazine 11

12. I had been teaching for two years with a PGCE Primary MFL
qualification when during an interview, I was asked if I would
be interested in learning Chinese in order to teach it. My
reply, that I had an interest in Cantonese film and a passion
for languages, seemed to have worked, as I have now worked
at Robin Hood Primary Academy for just over 8 years.
My initial role was Class Teacher and teaching French
and I started a languages blog robinhoodpmfl.wordpress.
com to showcase the children’s work, sharing websites and
resources I had used in lessons in order to the children to
revise at home. I then started Mandarin Chinese lessons at
evening classes at the Brasshouse Language Centre, making
sure I was a couple of weeks ahead of the children,so I could
teach them what I had learnt in my lessons. Initially, it was
a real labour of love as I found it nearly impossible to find
resources or teachers to share ideas with. All the websites
were in Chinese. I could research for resource material for
French, but reading Chinese websites was another matter.
Twitter was a great way to find other language teachers
who taught Chinese, sharing their resources which were
transferable. I participated on the yahoo Primary Languages
Forum, where people shared their resources, but at that time
there weren’t many Chinese teachers. My Mandarin slowly
improved over the months, but I still had a long way to go.
I wrote my own planning, taking any cultural references
mentioned in my evening classes and researching them in
order to teach them to the children. We even had TeachersTV
come and film a lesson.
Afteramaternityleavebreak,Ireturned
to work for a new headteacher, Richard
Hunter. Richard asked me if I would go
to China with him to our link school,
Beijing No. 2 Experimental Primary
School and I agreed. It was enlightening
to have a tour of an education system
quite different from ours and to meet
some of the 2,700 students who
were friendly and excited.
During the first morning of our visit, there was a flag raising
ceremony. As we waited in the cold December morning,
I hadn’t even noticed half the school had filed into the
playground in complete silence. We had been informed that
we were to give a speech to the 2000 students present, I
thought my knees would give way! As I spoke in English a
Grade 6 child simultaneously translated it for the students.
The sights we saw were phenomenal, I ran out of
superlatives. Our link school’s hospitality was so welcoming.
We were to be chauffeur driven onto Tiananmen Square
into the back entrance of Chairman Mao’s mausoleum, a
private tour of priceless artefacts which different provinces
had sent to the mausoleum on the news of his death, his
name in Rubies or gold silk thread tapestry, and we got to
jump the queue to file past the chairman himself. It was a trip
of a lifetime, and finally I understood the language so much
more. For example, the shape of the characters were like the
slant on the roofs of traditional buildings.
The Mandarin Chinese language work had gained us
Confucius Classroom status, winning a grant and a teacher
from China each year. I have set up a Chinese Choir, and
we have performed in the Chinese Quarter in the centre of
Birmingham for the Chinese New Year celebrations last year,
where the children were each paid £1 in red envelopes, then
again for the Mid Autumn festival. We have made a music
video; bit.ly/uked15feb07
We have just performed, the Disney film Frozen, ‘Let it go’,
Suí tā ba 随它吧 for our Christmas performance, I wanted
to children to have a full experience, so
we made a set of the ice castle, a dance
instructor, they designed their own
t-shirts, stage make up, props and lights.
This year, we will performing again in
Birmingham’s Chinese Quarter.
bit.ly/uked15feb08
Learning and Teaching
Mandarin Chinese By Simone Haughey
12 UKED Magazine

13. I like to use very practical and hands on ideas in my lessons
to engage the children. For example, using inks and brushes,
games, and songs, sometimes even a ukulele.
Mandarin Chinese engages and interests all the students.
Boys in particular enjoy the culture of Kung Fu, dragons and
the logic of the language and learning to write the characters.
If you are thinking of learning and teaching Chinese, I highly
recommend it. Through this I have firmly put the language
knowledge into my own long term memory, the power of this
has meant that I often use peer teaching within lessons and
across the school. For example our Year 3 students planned,
wrote and delivered Mandarin lessons in foundation and key
stage 1.
This experience has been life-changing. It has opened
doors to experiences that I will never forget. I am constantly
learning new words and cultural insights and I have created
my own Mandarin Chinese website; mrsmandarin.co.uk. It’s
in the early stages, but it will be an online support resource
for teaching and learning Mandarin Chinese, using the pool
of resources I have gathered over the past few years.
Here are some websites that I have found to be useful:
• primaryresources.co.uk/mfl/mfl_mandarin.htm
• thechinesestaffroom.com
• ciforschools.wordpress.com
• chinese4kids.net
• memrise.com
• TM Reading - bit.ly/uked15feb09
Image credit: Background image by Martin Burrett.
Other images provided by Simone Haughey
Simone Haughey @simonehaughey is a MFL
Consultant,PrimaryLanguagesTeacherandConfucius
Classroom Manager at Robin Hood Primary Academy.
Simone is a lover of languages as a way to make
friends and try new cuisine! She is a self-professed
teachmeet addict and likes to keep up her CPD with
#mfltwitterati on Twitter and Primary Languages on
facebook. These are great ways of sharing and being
inspired.
The children learn Chinese reading and writing, as well as
speaking and listening skills.
ukedchat.com/magazine 13

14. Relighting the fire of learning
Transformation of a School
What would I want from an article about transformation
out of special measures? Not anecdotes, not self-
congratulation, but I would want to feel inspired that doing
the right thing as an educationalist works! So it is with this
mindset that I write this piece. The right thing being that,
as leaders in school, we have a flame to reignite, protect
and fan; that is the flame of learning.
I will not use up valuable words writing about where
Hamford was as a school, but it was in a deserved category
and had been for a number of years. The flame of learning
had been smothered and was a mere glow. The most
important area to focus time, resources and energy was
in the pursuit of rekindling the love of learning for all. I
will now endeavour to share some of the innovations that
have managed to spark our transformation to where we
are today.
Firstly, in education our time is precious, very precious,
especially if energy levels in the classroom are to be kept
high. Too often time is spent in meetings discussing things
that have no direct impact on teaching and learning.
Staff meetings were removed and replaced with our
‘Communities of Practice’, where we looked at current
research, lesson study and pedagogy. Our time together
as teachers was focused and empowered teachers to take
risks without fear of judgement. These sessions were
replicated in miniature during morning assembly for all
staff so everyone had the same input.
Furthermore, I employed a lead practitioner for teaching
and learning. It may sound obvious, but I often see schools
where the lead for teaching and learning has a number
of roles. It is the most important job in the school. The
individual needs time and resources to ensure all children
Image credit:
flickr.com/photos/nita-w/8344674845 by Nita used under
Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
flickr.com/photos/magnera/3984413077 by L.C. Nøttaasen
used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
Benedick Ashmore-Short @Benedick1 was the
winner of the 2014 Pearson ‘Primary Headteacher
of the Year’. He is currently Principal of Hamford
Primary Academy where his passion and dedication
for improving teaching and learning in schools has
been evident by the substantial improvements made
at Hamford.
By Benedick Ashmore-Short
receive the very highest quality of teaching and learning.
They are there to tend the fire and turn it into a furnace,
they have to be highly skilled, with a passion for adult and
child learning. All adults must be on a learning journey, the
culture created from the top must be one of learning and
this must be shared with pupils.
Staff need to be self-reflective and own their learning.
Too often staff development is something that happens
to teachers. It is not based on need and is generic with
staff waiting for the next buzz word to appear. We have
created a learning blog for all staff that is a one-stop shop
for all development around teaching and learning. A blog
at hamfordteachingandlearningblog.wordpress.com that
staff can dip into, where they will be challenged, but with
ideas that fuel the learning fire. Now staff feel empowered
that development is theirs, and that they are safe to try
new ideas. A school or a classroom is a research centre
where we can constantly tweak and improve what we do,
so that learning is maximized for children in our context.
With a strong fire, what you also need is a firewall and
that must be the Headteacher. So many things try to
extinguish the fire, whether it is Ofsted, the government
or just plain old logistics. My job as a firewall, is to protect
my staff from these dampeners, to allow everyone to
focus on what children need, namely high quality learning
opportunities facilitated by happy, energised, passionate
adults, who have the learning flame burning brightly in
them.
14 UKED Magazine

15. Recently on UKEdChat.com
If you would like to re-blog your blog posts on ukedchat.com, enter your details at
bit.ly/ukedreblog
UKEdChat
Re-Blog
Browse our community pages to find
other educators to collaborate with
ukedchat.com/community
and even add yourself
Find great deals and discounts for
leading educational companies at
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Mindfulness Programme
Makes Positive Impact
bit.ly/uked15feb11
Experts call for a Rethink on
Children’s Screen Time
bit.ly/uked15feb13
bit.ly/uked15feb14 by @te4chl3arn bit.ly/uked15feb15 by @abbiemann1982
Girls Lead Boys in Academic
Achievement Globally
bit.ly/uked15feb12
Quality of Sleep Impacts
Academic Performance
bit.ly/uked15feb10
bit.ly/uked15feb16 by @JulieRyder2 bit.ly/uked15feb17 by @the_college
bit.ly/uked15feb18 by @Powley_R bit.ly/uked15feb19 by @sheep2763
ukedchat.com/magazine 15

16. BETT 2015 once again proved to be very popular, with
hundreds of companies sharing their new and innovative
products aimed at the educational sector. Over 35,000
people are reported to have attended the show this year, and
here are some of the highlights which we spotted:
The show was opened by England’s Secretary of State
for Education, Nicky Morgan, arguing that, "Innovative
technologies must be at the heart of education change, but
this vision is not shared by all schools", and that "The pace
of change that it is difficult for teachers to adapt quickly".
She also highlighted research showing that more than half
of teenagers know more about computing and computers
than their teachers. The full speech is available at bit.ly/
BETT2015Morgan.
Best of
2015
1. Microsoft and Minecraft @microsofteduk – With the
2014 purchase of Minecraft by Microsoft, there was clearly
quite a large presence from the tech giant, showing the
creative opportunities which Minecraft offers. On their stand,
Microsoft showcased the program, with live demonstrations
of how Minecraft can be crafted into different curriculum
areas. Many envied the TNT boxes and blocks on display
within the area!
2. DK Find Out @dkbooks – We are all familiar with the
knowledge and capacity of the DK Books, offering a wealth
of information covering many school curriculum topics. Now,
the publisher has digitised their extensive library online
which is easily accessible on all devices, including desktop,
tablet and mobile. This new digital offering enhances the
learning experience with sound, video animation and quizzes
throughout.
3. Class Charts @Classcharts - We were impressed with
the behaviour and seating program developed by Class
Charts (classcharts.com) which develops seating plans to
help teachers ensure that pupils are sat where they are
not distracted by peers by rating how they cope sat among
different people. This is stored on the platform, helping
inform colleagues determine the best places to seat pupils. As
the developers pointed out to us, it’s not all about negatives,
but also note the positive behaviours of pupils, and how well
they work with different peers.
4. Sphero @SpheroEdu
– We spotted quite a few
robots at BETT, and the
first to be featured in this
section is Sphero, which
uses the SPRK program
to control the spherical
machine. At first glance,
Sphero may just seem
like a quirky gadget,
but when used with the
(free) “Sphero Macrolab” app available for Android or iOS.
Supported by some great STEM activities (available at their
website at bit.ly/BETTSphero) the orb can support learning
about: Time, distance and speed; 2d geometry; mean,
median and mode; percentages, and so on.
16 UKED Magazine

17. 5. Arckit @Arckitmodel – We loved the potential that Arckit
is able to offer. The model making system allows pupils to
physically explore designs and bring their own architectural
projects. The system uses interconnecting components that
are completely modular and based on modern panelled
building techniques, making it possible to create a diverse
range of scaled structures that can be quickly assembled and
endlessly modified. Visit their website at arckit.com
6.VSWare@VSwareUK–Someofthepracticalitiesofactually
running a school are being challenged by some companies
who are using the free-market to offer products and savings
that are appealing to many. One such company is VSWare
who are offering a user-friendly school administration/
Management Information System, which is easily accessible
to teachers and administrators alike. Key information
procedures are easily accessible and easy to maintain, which
is key for keeping relevant information up-to-date. Explore at
vsware.co.uk.
7. The highlight of the show,
for many (judging by the
crowds he drew) was the
keynote speech from Sir
Ken Robinson. During the
speech, the well-respected
and renowned educator
compared the international
education performance
tables by PISA like the
Eurovision song contest – “It
hasn't improved pop music
in the same way PISA hasn't
improved education”. He
declared that, “We don't
need evolution, we need
revolution in education”,
urging teachers to “change what you do.”
8. Petra’s Planet Edu @PetrasPlanetEDU - This online patform
for PCs, laptops and tablets enables primary schools to teach
children E-Safety and Digital Literacy through a safe, secure
and engaging online virtual world. The site also encourages
innovative thinking and problem solving skills. Pupils from
the same class can communicate and collaborate even when
they are exploring the virtual environment on separate
devices. The children can design their own avatar and keep
updated with class news via the child-friendly dashboard.
See more at petrasplanetedu.com.

18. 9. Muv: Bird @Muvinteractive - As you would imagine
interactive screens are everywhere at BETT. Bird offers
something different. This small device attaches to your index
finger and communicates directly with your computer to
make any surface interactive, whether that is a screen, a table
or even thin air. The device senses your gestures to allow
you to control the programmes and media on your screen.
See more information, including a set of videos showing the
capabilities of the device at muvinteractive.com.
12. TeachMeet BETT - The yearly sharing of teaching ideas and resources at TM BETT is always a highlight of the BETT Show
and this year certainly didn’t disappoint. From live ‘real-world’ coding from @catherinelliott, international collaboration
from @digitalmaverick and partners, a flurry of teaching ideas from @ASTSupportAAli, to well-being ideas separately from
@iTeachRE and @abbiemann1982, there truly was something for everyone. You can browse the archived TM BETT 2015 site
at bit.ly/uked15feb20.
10. Rapid Education @Rapid_Edu - There are some stands at
BETT which simply tick all the boxes. This stand had the right
mix of fun small items to try out and examine, plus larger
exciting items like a 3D printer (complete with a 3D printed
Darth Vader), maker electronics for students to hack their
circuit boards and robots to construct and code. See more at
rapidonline.com/education.
11. TTS Group @TTS_Group – TTS continue to develop their
product range, building on the popularity of the Bee-Bot
range, which is visible in many primary schools across the
country.
18 UKED Magazine

19. Book ShelfBook Shelf
For many more book reviews, go to
http://ukedchat.com/category/book
View on Amazon at
www.bit.ly/leaderdialogues
Leadership Dialogues: Conversations and
activities for leadership teams
Creating a school culture that is built upon professional and
positive dialogues takes time, trust and respect among all
who work within. But sometimes it can be difficult to focus on
these discussions as schools are notably hectic environments
with the pressures of the workload creating barriers to
such sustained and positive deliberations. Sometimes, staff
meetings can be controlled by the priorities of a certain
individuals who are more concerned about their own distinct
agendas, rather than focusing on the bigger picture and
reality.
In their new book – Leadership Dialogues: Conversations
and Activities for Leadership Teams - John West-Burnham and
Dave Harris (@bravehead) propose changing the dialogues
that take place in school with a collection of questions and
activities which teams can collaboratively explore to examine
the mechanics and structures within. The book is not meant
to be read sequentially, however the topics within cover:
teaching and learning; effective leadership; innovation and
change; accountability; thinking strategically; managing
resources; collaboration; leading people; organisational
change and personal change, and; engaging with students,
parents and community.
Accompanied by a comprehensive CD-Rom, the book sets
the scene of dialogues with critical questions, (such as – How
far would you characterise your school as being committed
to developing a culture of creativity?) plus further notes,
quotes and discussion points to support a positive dialogue
between leaders at all levels within the school.
The book is a fantastic starting point to reflect on how
your school operates, being applicable to primary and
secondary school who are looking to create a framework of
self-improvement, dialogue and to create a positive learning
environment for everyone who attends.
AvailableinPaperback,LeadershipDialogues:Conversations
and activities for leadership teams, by John West-Burnham
and Dave Harris has an RRP of £24.99* available from
Amazon.
*Correct at the time of publishing
The English Language is a complex beast. There are so
many rules, conventions and expectations that it is easy for
the best of us to unwittingly make an error with grammar,
spellings or punctuation! Although many teachers specialise
in a particular curriculum area, modelling literacy behaviours
to students remains an essential element of the role – so
ensuring a sound knowledge in some of the basic language
rules is critical for all teachers, "Literacy is a platform for
democratisation".
There are many barriers for teachers to overcome, but some
of these obstacles need to be overcome by the individual.
There are other barriers, and these are noted by Phil Beadle
in his ‘How to Teach Literacy’ book, which attempts an
examination of such barriers whilst offering solutions to
help overcome. For example, Beadle explores: Issues around
how oracy is not taken seriously; a lack of extended writing
opportunities; marking and feedback; not enough poetry,
or; a lack of understanding of why students can be reluctant
writers, “with literacy you can articulate your anger”.
Let’s be clear here. This is not a self-help grammar aide to
help teachers. Neither is it a punctuation revision guide which
teachers should dip into during each lesson to ensure they
have got the possessive apostrophe in the correct place. This
book is about pedagogy. This book is about using practical
ideas for helping students to improve their writing and oral
skills in every lesson they attend, written in a readable and
amusing style that will inspire confidence. At the end of the
day, there is no logic in English spellings - there is little logic
in many things in life – but it is logical that teachers scaffold
correct language conventions with pupils. As Phil reminds in
the introduction, “It’s your job”.
Published by Independent Thinking Press, How to Teach
Literacy by Phil Beadle is priced at £12.99* and available
from the Amazon Link.
View on Amazon at
www.bit.ly/teachliteracy
How to Teach Literacy - Commas, colons,
connectives and conjunctions
ukedchat.com/magazine 19

20. We are more motivated in work when we have
professional autonomy and recognition. And yet, in too
many schools, the only way teachers are recognised is
by taking on more managerial responsibility. Not only
that, the majority of our professional life is spent in
isolation: planning lessons alone, teaching lessons away
from other adults, and marking books by ourselves.
For some teachers, the only time another professional
enters the classroom with them is to judge them against
a series of narrow accountability criteria.
WhenIvisitschoolsIoftenfindthatthereisagreatlevel
of frustration, particularly among classroom teachers
and middle leaders, about the lack of opportunities
for growth, development and challenge. Many staff
feel that where such opportunities do exist, they are
unevenly spread and they often feel stuck, not knowing
where to go next.
An idea that has been mooted since 2012, the creation
of a professional College of Teaching for (teachers in
England), is an exciting opportunity to do something
about this, as well as raising the status of the profession
more generally.
In consultations so far, the consensus that has
emerged is for a voluntary body with no compulsion
to join (unlike the old GTC in England) to exist that will
focus on professional and career development as well
as establishing a repository of professional knowledge
for the most effective approaches in the classroom.
Popular ideas include giving teachers access to career
accreditations(e.g.Charteredstatus)andanentitlement
to support from peers, a flexible and life-long portfolio
of professional learning and access to research and
knowledge through a database and regular online
publications.
The idea is being spearheaded by the Claim Your
College (ClaimYourCollege.org) coalition of teachers
and organisations, which will be responding to the
recent Department for Education consultation paper
where Ministers are exploring how they might support
the start-up of such a member-led body while ensuring
its independence from them.
The next steps are a number of public meetings
in January followed by a public response to the
consultation. This would be followed by an open
appointment of practising teaching professionals to a
project board (and eventually trusteeship) to oversee
the transfer of a Royal Charter to the new body.
Nothing is set in stone and the idea simply cannot
take flight without the support of thousands of
teachers across the country. Find out more about the
history and future plans for a new College of Teaching
at ClaimYourCollege.org or #claimyourcollege hashtag
on Twitter and have your say on what it should do and
look like.
It’s Time for the Professional Body
Teachers Deserve By David Weston
David Weston @informed_edu is a
former teacher and the Chief Executive
of the Teacher Development Trust, the
national charity for effective professional
development in schools and colleges.
Find out more about the Trust’s work at
TDTrust.org
20 UKED Magazine

21. The difficulty for teachers is that we have never
had a College of Teaching and every other body has
either been to scrutinise teachers, such as OFSTED, or
primarily to represent our personal well-being. We have
never had an organisation to look after our professional
well-being!
I am a second career teacher and before entering
teaching I was a Royal Chartered Marketer. The
Chartered Institute of Marketing is the professional
body that provides “Knowledge, support, network
and growth.” I used to run the Cambridge branch
meetings and we would have Teachmeet style events
where we would get in presenters and network with
each other. The institute would provide well written
summaries of the research and provide a menu of
professional development. It was a one-stop-shop to
keep yourself up to date, to look into the future and
to find useful training.
However, the real benefit of the organisation
was that we had somebody who would speak
up for our professional integrity! Some would
argue that is a challenging job in the world
of sales, but they were remarkably
effective at putting our view across
to the public and
lobbying government. They used evidence to show the
integrity of the profession and the hard work that their
members were doing and to generally lift the status of
our work.
I am a little surprised that the government is willing
to give us the seed money for the organisation, but it is
just before an election and they want to show they have
done something positive for education. For them it is
political expediency, but for us it is an opportunity we
should grab with both hands, say thank you very much
and use our imaginations to start something truly great.
My Chartered certificate is signed by her Royal Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II, something I am very proud of, but it
also shows the importance of the marketing profession.
How much more important is it for teachers who
train every other profession to have the recognition it
deserves? This is why we so badly need a professional
voice that is respected to represent our interests and in
doing so further benefit the education of all.
James Abela @ESLweb is 21st Century Teacher
of year 2014, but before becoming a teacher in
2004, James was responsible for e-marketing at
ARM Plc and a member of the Cambridge branch
of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He is
very enthusiastic that we gain the recognition we
deserve for the amazing teaching that we do.
Why we need a
College of TeachingBy James Abela
Image credit: flickr.com/photos/geezaweezer/16120054576 by Geraint Rowland used under Commercial Creative Commons 2.0 License.
ukedchat.com/magazine 21

22. The UK needs to provide explicit teaching of speaking skills
in schools to raise the profile of “oracy” to the same level as
numeracy and literacy.
“If we are to break down the barriers that stop many young
people succeeding, then we need an education system that
teaches our children to be articulate and confident”
At December’s SSAT conference, Harvard educator Eric
Mazur vocalised one of the greatest flaws in our current
assessment driven education model; that we are preparing
our students to pass tests only for them to “fail at life”.
Outside of education, in what other context do students find
themselvessatalone in alargehall, separatedbyequal spaces
from those around them, prohibited from communicating
with others or voicing their ideas?
Numeracy
Literacy
and….
Oracy
“Good language and communication
skills are absolutely fundamental to
personal and societal wellbeing.”
(Nuffield Foundation)
“Classroom talk is not merely a conduit for
the sharing of information, or a means for
controlling the exuberance of youth; it is the
most important educational tool for guiding
the development of understanding and for
jointly constructing knowledge.” Neil Mercer
(Cambridge University)
“There is an urgent need to support
communication development through
adolescence. Otherwise we risk consigning
a huge proportion of Britain’s young people
to a life of missed opportunity and unfulfilled
promise.” Virginia Beardshaw, (I CAN)
By Holly Page
Weneedtostartequippingstudentswiththeskillsnecessary
for success outside of the educational sphere, speaking skills
being arguably amongst the most important across multiple
contexts:
Employment
Communication, interpersonal skills and teamwork are
consistently ranked in the top five skills most valued by
employers.
Education
Schools have perhaps afforded less importance to speaking
skills because they are not deemed to directly contribute
to a student’s attainment of the all-important A*-C grades.
However, good communication skills have benefits across all
subject areas, with students able to use their oracy skills to
meaningfully peer critique, debate and present their work to
others.
Well-being
Not only do good language and communication skills have
universal value for employment and act as a mechanism
for improving metacognition, oracy skills are the vital
components in forming friendship networks and negotiating
social experiences.
Skills gap
However, despite the evident importance of communication
skills, research conducted by the charity ICAN has found that
many young people lack the language and communication
skills needed for adulthood.
There is more to this skills gap than meets the eye. It is a
profound socioeconomic problem, with an overwhelming
50% of young people from areas of disadvantage suffering
from language delay. This has “implications for the potential
long-term outcomes for these children and their ability to
exploit the curriculum and to flourish as individuals”.
Speaking in Schools
Unfortunately for many students, home does not always
provide a supportive environment for promoting talk and
therefore schools are the medium through which this
socioeconomic divide should be addressed.
After all, young people spend the majority of their waking
hours at school, and it is therefore important that schools
act as facilitators for talk, with the positive influence of staff
22 UKED Magazine

23. "Leaving compulsory
education without adequate
spoken and communication
skills is a serious blight on
young people's lives and a
major handicap when they're
looking for work." Katja Hall
(CBI)
“If young people are silent
it doesn’t mean they don’t
have anything to say…It can
be that no one has ever
asked for their opinions
before.” Janine Ryan
“Spoken skills have
not had enough of
a focus within state
schools but it is clear
this needs to change.”
Stephen Twigg
and peers as well as an engaging curriculum providing an
opportunity for students to learn how to express themselves
and communicate with others appropriately.
However, schools are currently doing very little to promote
speaking skills. On average, teachers do 90% of the talking
with individual students saying approximately four words
per lesson; the idea that if students are talking they are not
learning is unfortunately still prevalent. The removal of the
speaking and listening element from the English GCSE has
further compounded this issue; teachers have increasing
pressure to ensure achievement in written exams and there
is currently little incentive for schools to prioritise speaking
skills.
Universal Need
Fortunately, there is an increasing awareness of the need
for intervention in this area. However, current provision
is inadequate and far from universal, tending to focus on
targeted interventions for students suffering with Speech,
Language and Communication Needs (SLCN).
Interventions are most common at primary school level
yet many children slip through the net and therefore suffer
throughout their secondary school education. All students
should benefit from a focus on improving oracy, not just the
most vulnerable.
Private school domination
On the other side of the educational spectrum are
independent schools, renowned for embedding oracy skills
into the school culture, building their students’ confidence
and equipping them with the communication skills necessary
for future success.
In response to the consistent domination of independent
schools in national public speaking competitions, Education
Secretary Nicky Morgan recently stated that “it simply cannot
be the case that the only young people able to stand up and
argue their corner are the 7% of pupils educated in private
school”.
Private schools shouldn’t lower their standards. Conversely,
to bridge the socioeconomic divide, measures should be put
in place to provide structured support enabling state schools
to teach a broad spectrum of speaking skills to all students.
Curriculum Provision
Organisations such as the English Speaking Union, and
initiatives such as Debate Mate are doing excellent work to
support an increasing focus on public speaking skills in the
state sector. However, if we are to truly address the deficiency
of speaking skills they should not merely be an addendum to
an existing PSHE curriculum or an optional after school club.
Complemented by its implementation across school
culture, oracy can be used as a tool to unlock learning across
all subjects. Students need discrete oracy lessons, providing
them with a supportive environment in which they can learn
and hone the skills necessary for successful communication
across a variety of contexts.
This should be a call to action. It is our responsibility as
teachers to ensure that all students leave school with the
confidence and communication skills to compete and thrive,
not merely survive in the increasingly international world in
which we live.
The nation needs young people who have the confidence
to use their voice, who are eloquent and can communicate
their ideas; young people need teachers who are prepared
to support them to improve their speaking skills and in
order to achieve this, teachers will need oracy to become an
educational priority.
It is a positive sign that we are starting to see speaking skills
creeping up the educational agenda. However, the irony of
the matter is that we need politicians to spend less time
talking about talk and more time transforming words into
actions.
Having qualified as a modern languages teacher and
became frustrated with the results driven nature of
education, Holly now works at the 21 Trust, working
in close partnership with School 21 in Stratford, East
London. You can contact her at: holly@21trust.org or
you can follow the Trust’s work on Twitter: @21trustedu
ukedchat.com/magazine 23

24. Four years ago Moorside Primary School was a typically
average school in an urban area four miles from Manchester
City Centre. Our demographic was in line with National Average
in many ways, though our percentage of learners with English as
an Additional Language was very low. Our curriculum relied on
purchased resources with relatively few real-life experiences.
The picture at Moorside has changed dramatically in a short
space of time.
Between May 2013 and June 2015 students from Moorside
Primary School will have visited partner schools in Greece,
Poland, Spain, Turkey and China. Our Chinese link began in
October 2012 when our Headteacher, Pierre Coiffait, and our
Deputy Headteacher, Ian Wilson, attended an International
Cooperative in China to promote the speaking of Chinese. Links
were forged with Youfu West Street Primary School in Nanjing,
capital of Jiangsu Province, Eastern China. So far two groups of
staff and pupils have visited our partner school, with another
group due to travel in March 2015.
Months of planning goes into arranging a school trip to
China, starting with selecting the children. We have limited
our international trips to Year 5 – old enough to cope with the
journey and the time away, with another year left at school for
us all to benefit on their return. All Year 5 children are welcome
to apply. Parents contribute towards the cost of the flights, with
the cost of hosting being taken by our partner school in Nanjing.
Selecting children is a challenge! Resilience, confidence
and independence are key. Children are asked to submit an
application form explaining what they feel they will learn from
the trip, as well as what the challenges may be. All children are
then interviewed by a member of the School Governing Body
before the final eight are chosen.
In preparation for the trip, all children in Year 5 have weekly
Chinese lessons. Many opportunities are also taken to learn
about China and our partner school in different subjects
throughout the year. Our curriculum has been enhanced in this
way, making comparisons more real. Purpose has also been
given to many aspects of the pupils writing and computing.
During the trip the staff and students stay in the boarding
facilities at Youfu. They attend a maths lesson at the school, as
well as traditional paper cutting and calligraphy. Children are
also expected to share a presentation about themselves with
a class at Youfu. As well as sharing in the life of the school,
children are also able to experience local historical and cultural
features.
The most eye-opening aspect of the trip for me was being
able to visit an area of China little used to European visitors.
The children went from spearing food with one chopstick at the
beginning of the trip to managing a whole meal by the end of
the trip! We did not, however, get used to being the centre of
attention when walking around the city. Whenever we paused
for a group photograph people would crowd around to take
their own shot! Working with a foreign currency and trying their
hand at bartering was also a new experience for the children.
On the pupils’ return, they lead a whole school assembly
to which we invite parents. Their maturity and relationships
develop over the period of the trip, as well as their outlook
on the world around them. The feedback on return has been
incredibly positive from both staff and children. Speaking to the
parent of a child from our first trip, she felt that the positive
impact on her child, Faye, will influence her for many years.
In discussion about possible family holidays, Faye now wants
to visit places the family have never considered before so that
they can explore new cultures.
Ewan Goodman, one of the children selected for the March
2015 trip said, “I think the trip will be life-changing! I’m looking
forward to finding out about life in China.”
The chance to visit the real China, beyond the tourist route,
is certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity, and one that the
staff and students involved will treasure forever. The benefits
to the individuals and the school are huge and wide-ranging –
we hope to continue to foster this link for many years to come.
Global Linking
Manchester to Nanjing
Angela Goodman @goodman_ang is International
Coordinator at Moorside Primary School, Droylsden,
Manchester. I have been in post for four years. In this
time I have developed links with schools in South Africa,
Ethiopia, Namibia, Greece, Spain, Poland, Turkey and
Argentina and I was part of the team which visited Nanjing
in 2014. Our international work has led to us being
awarded British Council/HSBC Link2Learn Primary School
of the year in 2014. To share our work we are involved in
the Global Learning Programme as an Expert Centre.
By Angela Goodman
24 UKED Magazine

25. Read and download all of our back issues for
free at
issuu.com/ukedchat
Order a free printed edition of the magazine
at ukedchat.com/magazine
(just pay postage and packing)
Next issue...
Our March issue has a Geography
theme, as well as a mix of other article
from front-line educators.
Have you got a idea for an article?
Contact us at
editor@ukedchat.com
Take part in weekly educational discussions on Twitter
Thursday at 8pm
Just look for the #ukedchat hashtag
See the chat archive at
http://ukedchat.com/archive
Up coming issue themes
March - Lands and People (Geography)
April - Computing & Digital Learning
May - Environment & World Issues
June - Learning for All (SEN & G&T)
July - Far Away Lands & Languages
ukedchat.com/magazine 31
InBrief
Bring Fiddlers Forward
In the way that doing exercise to have more energy can
seem counter-intuitive, giving dis-engaged or disruptive
students a greater role in class can produce wonderful
results. It is too easy to place constant fiddlers, chatterers
and troublesome pupils at the back of the class in the hope
this will change their behaviour. This option may only enforce
their negative behaviour: Bring them up to the front. Give
them responsibility, no matter how small, and you often see
great improvements in behaviour and concentration.
How you do this must be considered and balanced. It cannot
seem like a reward for bad behaviour, or a punishment. Ask
them for help: taking notes for the rest of the class, moving
your Powerpoint presentation slides on, ticking off the bullet
points you want to cover in a lesson in case you “forget”
anything.
These simple tasks can greatly improve engagement for
distract able students, but bare in mind that they are different
to more active tasks like asking a student for help collecting
books in or handing worksheets out. These are best suited to
someone whose concentration can be improved by having a
brief respite from sitting down and a bit of movement.
@Mr_Daniels_SFP - MYP Science Teacher, Spain
An Update from Our School Farm
You may remember the article about our school
farm in the October issue (bit.ly/uked15feb21). Since
then we have attended the National Harvest Service
at Birmingham Cathedral, where the students who
attended had a chat with HRH The Duchess of Cornwall
about the blue eggs we included in our harvest box.
A few weeks later, we went to the English Winter Fair
at Staffordshire Showground. We exhibited the pigs
which were pictured in the article, and the British Pig
Association’s Junior Pig Club also organised a sausage-
making competition which one of our teams won, with
the unusual recipe of apple, sage and chilli.
In 2015 we face some significant challenges as there are
no new GCSE or equivalent qualifications approved, as yet,
for use after 2016. Most of the exam boards submitted
a qualification this time around, but none seem to have
met with the approval of the powers that be. Without a
qualification attached, it may be difficult for many school
farms to continue.
On a lighter note, we will soon be re-homing a pygmy goat,
and regenerating the school veg patch (the sheep are now
on old one) hopefully with an African keyhole garden and a
Native American ‘Three Sisters’ bed.
@pipkinzoo - Leader of Land Studies, Warwickshire
ukedchat.com/magazine 25

26. If someone had told me five years ago that I would be sitting
in a Year 5 classroom in China writing an article on what it
is like to teach abroad, I would never have believed them.
I hadn’t always dreamed of teaching abroad, and hadn’t
really thought about it seriously until a friend of mine from
University suggested that we came to China to teach. I am
now in my fourth year at The British International School Puxi
Shanghai, and it is amazing. This is my second international
school and I am hooked! Aside from the amazing travel
opportunities afforded to me by being here and getting to
live in an incredibly vibrant city, I am truly privileged to teach
such incredible children. I am Head of Year 5 and we have five
classes in our year group with 109 children in total. In terms
of my day to day job, this is one of the biggest differences to
the small one-form entry school I worked at in Hertfordshire
before I moved abroad.
When I sat down to really think about what the single best
thing is about my school, I struggled to pick. Of course, I am
speaking of what the best thing is after the children! If I was
forced to pick, I would have to say our learning environment.
We are incredibly fortunate to have two purpose built
campuses designed specifically to engage children right from
the youngest in pre-Nursery to our oldest in Y13. In our
Primary campus, the EYFS area supports all areas of learning
and the creativity is just wonderful. Our KS1 area supports
a whole range of role-play areas and the displays in KS2 are
child-centred and thought-provoking. In primary, we have a
brand new cooking room and a purpose build Science lab to
support the curriculum. In just a short time, both have been
used to make all sorts of weird and wonderful creations and
thatisjustthestart.OurSecondaryCampushostscomfortable
areas for students in KS3 and KS4 to congregate both inside
and outside and our IB Academy has individual study areas
solely for our IB students. Having such great facilities means
that our students can pursue their interests from sports or
languages to music and performing arts.
Of course, a school couldn’t function without it’s staff. BISS
Puxi has a wonderful team who work tirelessly to engage and
educate our students in every way they can. Both local and
International staff work alongside each other to ensure that
our students have a safe and happy learning environment.
All students up to Y9 learn Mandarin (although it is an option
up to IB) and we have a dedicated team of Mandarin teachers
who bring the language to life. Special events in the Chinese
calendar are often marked by our Chinese staff and teachers
and Learning Assistants get together to celebrate Chinese
New Year. This is a time when Chinese culture really comes
into our classrooms through all sorts of different activities.
On the last day of term before the New Year holiday, most
female staff can be seen sporting Chi Pao, a tradition Chinese
dress, while others join in by wearing lucky red.
A piece about teaching wouldn’t be complete without the
thoughts of the students:
What do you like most about being in China?
“I have learnt more Chinese and the bullet train is really fast
and exciting. It made me feel as if someone was pushing me
backwards.”
“In China I have made lots of new friends from all around the
world.”
“In China there are lots of beautiful gardens like Sheshan, the
place we went for our trip in Year 2.”
“I like being in China because it is very interesting to learn
about different countries and their cultures. I also like
learning about Chinese history.”
“What I like about China is the different types of architecture,
both ancient and modern.”
How is being at school in China different to your school at
home?
“My school in South Korea was really small. I used to walk
across the road from my Grandma’s house. Now I get on the
bus and have lots more friends and teachers.”
“When I was at school in Holland we didn’t have the Smart
boards. I love having these in class because we can move
things around when we are in class and learning.”
“My school in Holland didn’t have football pitches. People
bring in their footballs, we can play matches and practice
goal scoring.”
Teaching in a
British School
in China
By Elizabeth Westwood
26 UKED Magazine

27. Elizabeth Westwood is Head of Year 5 at The British
International School Shanghai Puxi, part of the Nord
Anglia Education family of schools. She has been teaching
for 13 years, 8 years in the UK and this is her 5th teaching
internationally. She is currently in her 4th year at BISS
Puxi, having spent one year in Oman before Shanghai.
Follow the school on Twitter at @bisspuxi.
“In the Singapore school I went to we didn’t have a swimming
pool so I didn’t get to learn this in PE. I have learnt how to
freestyle here. You have to take turns rotating your arms and
hands. Also in Singapore I only learnt repeated addition, here
I have learnt multiplication and times tables much earlier.
BISS Puxi is different to my school in England because in
England, my school is a village school so there are only about
90 pupils.
What is your favourite thing about BISS Puxi?
“I like Maths in school because we do cool experiments and
investigations.”
“I have learnt how to make my own movies and making step
by step animations. I was really fun learning more about
computers.”
“I love Literacy because I enjoy doing descriptions in my
writing. We do these lots in class and learn different types of
writing that gives me new vocabulary. The writing and words
we learnt for dinosaurs is really different from the Just So
Stories. It makes me a better writer.”
“We have lots of school trips now at school and we don’t do
as many in Poland.”
“My favourite thing about BISS Puxi is that I can make new
friends from around the world and learning about different
places in history.”
And from the staff:
What do you like most about being in China?
“You never know what is going to happen next! I moved from
rural Norfolk to Shanghai earlier this year. It’s just so diverse
and it has a huge ex-pat population. It is totally out of my
comfort zone.”
“I have never been anywhere where the general population
are so positive about the direction of their country, especially
coming from England. It is just great.”
What is the best thing about BISS Puxi?
“The kids. It’s got to be the kids.”
“The children. They are so happy and enthusiastic to come to
school to learn.”
“Being able to teach. We have a new curriculum based on the
IPC and it is just amazing.”
Why did you come to China?
“Nine years ago I asked my 11-year old daughter which place
she would most like to go and she said China. There was a big
dust storm in Beijing when I had to choose where to work, so
here we are in Shanghai.”
“I came abroad to have the freedom to teach. This isn’t my
first post in China nor is it my first international job. China
gave me the best offer.”
“I came to China because it is a great jumping off point for
other countries and it’s just so diverse.”
“China is awe-inspiring and Shanghai is an amazing, vibrant
city. The skyline is forever changing and life never stops.
There are so many ‘China moments’ every day and they just
make you stop and think ‘I live here!’”
Image credit: All images by Martin Burrett
ukedchat.com/magazine 27

28. Designed by @PrimaryIdeas
Download the pdf version at
ukedchat.com/pen00030
ukedchat.com/resources
KeyPoeticDevicesandTerms
alliteration
Wherewordsclosetogetherornexttoeach
otherbeginwiththesamephoneme(sound).
chorus
Ashortsectionofpoetrythatisrepeated
occasionallythroughoutthepoem.
freeverse
Poetrythathasnorhymeorconsistentpattern.
line
Poemsaremadeupoflinesthatdonotform
paragraphslikethoseusedinnormalwriting.
metaphor
Writingaboutsomethingasifitweresomething
else.Thewords‘is’and‘are’areused.
onomatopoeia
Theuseofwordsthatsoundliketheirmeaning.
patterns
Whenthepoemtakestheshapeofthesubjectit
iswrittenabout.
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