Teaching Calculations Better

A summary of strategies I’ve used to improve my students’ calculation work in Science:

• Specific calculation lessons – I’ve started dedicating regular lessons to specific calculation work. These lessons are designed to provide focused work on particular calculation skills (e.g. calculating relative formula mass, percentage mass of an element in a compound, concentration calculations) which then ensures the students are able to attempt these types of questions as they appear within the content. I think having these lessons dispersed throughout the course has improved the student’s uptake of the mathematical components they need to master. I intend to have a lesson like this one a fortnightly basis for every class from September.

• Mini whiteboards – Allowing students to practice calculations on their whiteboards gives them more reassurance that it’s ok to have a go as they can just wipe it off when done. I can also check how they are presenting their calculations (see FIFA below) more easily than if I was having a look over their shoulder into their books! It’s also really easy to check answers and spot which students may need further support when I ask all students to show me their whiteboards. I have another blog post on how I use mini whiteboards linked here – https://misstait.wordpress.com/2023/04/12/using-mini-whiteboards/

• FIFA – Spotted this on Twitter, shared by a few people but @STEMyBanda is the one who comes to mind! This has been superb in terms of giving students a clear structure for their calculations. I am quite picky about how students present their calculation work and FIFA has made it much easier to show students what their calculations need to look like and why. I’ve used this with various classes across the ability range. It’s great to hear them talking about FIFA and I am starting to see students using this in assessments. For the benefit of anyone who has not yet heard of this structure, FIFA stands for:

• Formula – what is the formula you intend to use.
• Insert – put the numbers you have into the formula.
  • Fix – rearrange the formula if needed.
    • Answer – complete the calculation and give your answer.

• Homework – Changes to our homework policy this year have made it much easier to dedicate some homework tasks to calculation work, not something we could easily do with the online testing site we were using previously. With my Triple Chemistry class, they have had a booklet of all the calculation-based questions I could find on ExamPro (only the Level 3/High Demand questions). This has ensured that students are regularly practicing their calculation skills which has definitely improved their confidence. With my Combined Science classes, I’ve tried to ensure there is a calculation element in any exam question they complete for homework, giving me another opportunity to review their calculation work as well.

• Units and Symbols – Starting with Year 10, they have been required to learn the various Physics units and symbols for homework and have then been tested on these on a weekly basis. Their retrieval is now very good, and I am hopeful this will ensure success in any questions which give marks for recalling units, even if students make mistakes in their calculations.

• Equation Recall – Another approach for Year 10. Assuming that this cohort will not receive a Physics equation sheet in 2024, a colleague has shared some strategies for learning the Physics equations and training students to note these down at the start of the Physics exams. I am testing students on this tactic regularly to support the retrieval process.

• Starting early – I have been more aware of introducing calculations in KS3 when appropriate. My Year 7 class have been shown how to calculate density as part of their Particles topic. I am hoping this makes calculation work later on more straightforward. I am not going to shy away from introducing equations – all classes, all ages, all abilities.

• I do, we do, you do – When practicing calculations, I always model the first few calculations, making it clear what steps are involved and how to set out each part (FIFA!). We then do the next few calculations together, with students being selected to contribute and suggest what we need to do at each step. Finally, I ensure students have time to complete some independent practice. Dedicating lessons to calculation practice has ensured I can follow this process and give students the opportunity for as much practice as possible.

Using Walking Talking Mocks

I originally wrote about Walking Talking Mocks back in 2016 (https://misstait.wordpress.com/2016/07/16/why-i-love-walking-talking-mocks/) but as we approach the 2023 exam season, I want to share how we’ve moved this process on and what we’ll be doing with Walking Talking Mocks in the coming weeks.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term Walking Talking Mock (WTM), this is a process where a subject specialist completes an exam question or exam paper live and explains to a student audience the thinking that is going on behind each question and each answer. It is an opportunity to actively teach students how to answer exam questions and improve their exam technique. Showing students how to take time over reading the information in a question or really using the diagrams and tables provided. Explicitly discussing the thought process for each question and modelling calculations or structures for longer answers.

My previous blog on WTMs ended at the point where I was in the early stages of planning a WTM for a full Year 11 cohort (split in two groups). So what did this look like?

We had exam desks set up in the Main Hall to recreate the feel of an exam. Each student had a copy of the paper and I had staff support from any Science teachers who were timetabled for the groups in the WTM plus a member of SLT who provided an introduction to the Year 11 students and highlighted the importance of the session. To say this session was well received would be an understatement!

These large WTMs continued over a few years and then I decided it would be beneficial for all teachers in my team to be able to carry out WTM style activities in their classrooms. So when some funding became available, we purchased visualisers/cameras for all of the Science rooms (note – this was pre-COVID, so still quite unusual in my context for visualisers to be available in every teaching room). With this introduction, the large group WTMs were scaled back…and then COVID arrived and everything changed.

As we approached the 2022 exam season, I really felt the students needed to experience the WTM of old – in the Main Hall, at exam desks, with a clear and consistent message around exam technique. Whilst I wasn’t able to have the exam desks, I was able to schedule four different WTM sessions (half a year group at a time) during the exam season.

With access to the advanced information, I used the details around the Required Practicals to produce four mini exam papers:

• 1- any paper 1 required practicals
• 2 – Biology paper 2 practicals
• 3 – Chemistry paper 2 practicals
• 4 – Physics paper 2 practicals

Session 1 took place before the exams started and sessions 2, 3 and 4 were scheduled directly before the paper 2 exams, usually following any full cohort examinations for other subjects e.g. year group complete English exam in the morning and then stay onsite for Science revision/WTM session in the afternoon, with the Science exam taking place within the following 48 hours.

I really believe this was one of the most beneficial things we implemented for the students last year. Given their educational experience over the previous two years, I’m confident it provided some reassurance and clarity for the students as they prepared for their exams. I discuss this more in a previous post reflecting on our work with Year 11 last year (https://misstait.wordpress.com/2022/09/18/reflections/).

So what are we going to do this year?

Well Year 11 have already had their first large scale WTM. I scheduled this for January – after Mock 1 but before Mock 2. They will also have three more sessions during the exam period to support their preparation for the paper 2 exams (as described above).

However, I have always felt that introducing WTMs in Year 11 is too late. If we really want to teach students how to attempt an exam paper effectively, we need to make this a regular event and we need to start earlier. So this year, we are completing a large scale WTM with Year 10 in Term 5, just before we all get consumed by the GCSE exams! This will mean that before these students complete their first GCSE Mock in Year 11, they will have experienced a WTM (with exam desks!) and will hopefully be able to implement some of the strategies in those papers.

We know it is our job to teach students the body of knowledge from our subject specifications but it’s also worth remembering that exam technique needs to be explicitly taught if we want our students to effectively demonstrate what they know. Walking Talking Mocks are certainly my preferred method for doing this.

Using Mini Whiteboards

Returning to work after Christmas, I decided I wanted to make better use of my mini whiteboards. They have always been stored in large box at the front of my room and distributed as needed, which meant their use was always deliberately planned for (not a bad thing) as I would have to factor in handing out boards, pens, and rubbers.

The only solution I could think of was to have these items on desks permanently. I had several concerns about this. Would students be distracted by them? Would equipment get damaged? What would I do when I had to change rooms for someone else to teach in my classroom?

During the first week of term, I explained to every class that the boards would be on desks every lesson, clear instructions would be given when we needed to use them, and I expected everyone to take care of the equipment they were using. Every row had enough sets of equipment for each seat rather than each student – this makes it super easy to see when pens or rubbers are missing.

I started to see the benefits immediately:

• Whole class responses to key questions
• Increased buy-in from students as they felt able to make mistakes
• No wasted time giving out resources

Board use is better when I am clear with my instructions on how to use them, we now have a pretty good routine around this. My script usually goes:

“Ok, on your boards please…question…thinking time…question reminder…one more minute for completion…ok and boards up in 3…2…1…show me your boards.”

Repetition of this has made the process super smooth. Students know exactly what is coming and this allows them to concentrate on the question they’ve been given rather than the procedure of using the whiteboards.

I’ve insisted that all students are expected to answer every question when using the whiteboards. Our mantra is “a guess is better than a blank” so it’s no issue if an answer is wrong but all students must take part. I still have some students who try to opt out, but I’ll prompt where possible or highlight the expectation that this is something they should know and they need to do better – I make no apology for having high expectations of all students.

As the whiteboards are available permanently, I have many students who now opt to complete their starter quizzes on the boards and again, see better buy-in with students attempting all questions, most of the time. It’s also much easier to check compared to peering over shoulders into exercise books. For those classes who are using booklets, the boards ensure students can do the starter quizzes without needing extra paper and the logistics that go with this.

So, after a whole term working in this way, my reflections are as follows:

Pros:

• whole class response = better assessment of all students understanding
• repetition of key questions to embed specific phrases/credit-worthy answers
• flexibility to use the boards and check understanding at any point

Cons:

• quality of whiteboard pens – cheap ones don’t last long enough, still working out a solution to this
• some students still try to opt out, I just need to keep pushing on the expectations of this
• some damage to rubbers but they are cheap sponges so easily replaced

Overall, it’s made a significant different to my classroom practice and to my students understanding and recall of key knowledge. I can’t imagine teaching without them now!

Using Booklets in Science – An Ongoing Reflection

In June 2022, SLT asked all Subject Leads to start working towards using booklets in all subjects as a means of delivering core content and ensuring a “minimum curriculum guarantee” for all students. The scale of the task was reflected in the time frame given – five years in which to have all year groups working in this way across all subjects.

As with most things, I decided my approach to this would be deliberately measured and evidence based. With a large team of varying experience and teaching styles, whose results have improved steadily year on year, I knew I would be faced with many questions and, initially, concerns.

Would the booklets take away individual autonomy in the classroom? Would they reduce the variety and excitement in our lessons? Would they become a straitjacket to which we were bound?

I determined the best way forward was to do my research and start using booklets with some of my own classes first, before slowly introducing to the team and getting a few colleagues on board to trial their use.

My research started with a search of the Twitter-sphere. I looked at what had been produced and written by others (@adamboxer1, @MrARobbins, @ITeachBoys92) and delved into the @cogscisci CPD Module on How to Write SLOP. This all gave me lots of ideas on what booklets could look like, how to write them and how they might be used in a classroom setting. I also wanted to see how they were already being used within my school. Another department had introduced booklets a few years back, so I asked if I could visit a few lessons to see how different teachers were using the same resource. This gave me the reassurance that introducing booklets would not reduce our individual autonomy or variety in our classrooms.

I used the time and headspace available to me during the summer holidays to make a start on producing my first booklet. I chose a unit I’d be teaching soon after we returned in September and which I had recently taught to another group, so I was up to date on the content.

Writing a booklet is a very complex task, not something that can be rushed and requires a lot of thought. I found it difficult to “switch on” for shorter periods and was most productive when I could dedicate a few hours at a time. I could have used a whole range of materials that are widely available and kindly shared online but, for me, they didn’t harness what I thought I needed in a booklet at that stage. Eventually, version 1 of my very first booklet was written and ready to go!

My test class for using this first booklet was Year 11 Set 4, a foundation tier class of around 15 students. A class that keeps me on my toes in terms of behaviour management but at the heart of it, many of them want to succeed. The initial response was very positive. The class had been introduced to booklets in other subjects (as per the whole school plan for this) and they were happy to give them a go in science. The thing they seemed to like most was having the core knowledge ready for them. No need for copying from the board. No worries about their own notes not making sense. They were engaged in highlighting and annotating the content and most importantly, we had much more time to practice applying knowledge or skills such as balancing equations. From this point on I was hooked, and I wanted all the booklets to be ready immediately!

By this point, I’d started having informal conversations with my team, explaining what I was doing with booklets and sharing my early successes. As expected, they raised many valid concerns, and I reassured them that we would be taking our time to get this right before introducing booklets across the board.

So where are we on this journey?

I have now produced four booklets with a fifth in the pipeline. I’ve trialled three with a range of classes. Two colleagues have started using my booklets with their own classes and this has provided some fantastic feedback about the order in which we teach concepts within a unit of work. My understanding of how the booklets work in practice has evolved and so their structure is evolving too.

I have done an official launch with my team to share my vision and findings so far. We have three INSET days allocated to department time this year and I’m ring-fencing these for booklet development. The first of these was in November and the team had a very positive day discussing booklet development, sharing ideas and concerns, and problem solving (how are we going to move away from exercise books?).

It’s still early days but there is an excitement amongst the team, and I can’t wait to see where we go with this next.

To be continued…

Update – April 2023

Booklet production and use is in full swing! My goal is to launch booklets wholesale with Year 9 in September when they start their GCSE course. My team have been given all three INSET days this year to complete the production of the first six booklets. Some of my team are so keen to get started they have worked on units outside of the first six and produced wonderful examples to use immediately with their classes. The buy-in has been superb which I think is reflective of my measured approach to this launch and clarity of expectations. Again, the conversations we are having as a team of teachers about our curriculum feel so powerful and I can only see this being a positive development.

I’ve started looking at additions needed for our Triple Science students and have trialled using a booklet with them for one of the Chemistry units. I also used one of my booklets when covering a new class while their usual teacher was absent – they were a little disappointed that no other booklets were ready for their final few units. It’s fair to say, students across the board like booklets!

I’ve also noticed, personally, that my explanations of key concepts are better! With the content material prepped and ready to go, I can concentrate on taking my time to give deeper, clearer explanations and really noticed the benefit of this with electrolysis. My Year 10 middle set seemed to grasp the idea of electrolysis far more quickly than I’ve noticed with other classes. The true test was when I used the electrolysis booklet pages for revision with my Triple Science class and they said it made much more sense too.

Long term, I am hoping to move away from exercise books and use the funds we would spend on those to finance the ongoing production of our booklets. Some staff were concerned about this but a reasonable compromise has been to hole punch the booklets, insert lined paper and treasury tag together. It’s just a huge task to do as each booklet would need to be done separately which is a significant admin task.

Work continues, further updates to follow…

Homework: From Online to Old-School

In 2018, my department started using an online platform for homework. It was intended to bring some consistency in the homework that was being set across the department. Overall, it did the job, but we felt there was room for improvement with regards to the logistics. There was confusion amongst students about which homework was due to be completed for which teacher and we constantly seemed to have students forgetting log in details.

In September 2021, I decided it was time to re-look at homework setting and try to improve the completion rate of homework, while still utilising the online platform. We moved to a model where all homework, for all year groups and classes, was set on a Monday and due for completion by midnight on Sunday, regardless of when lessons actually took place. There was also a very clear expectation that students would have one week at the start of the year to log in to the online platform and sort their log in details. Students were shown how to complete this and directed to set up password recovery options. After that, forgetting log in details would not be accepted as a reason for non-completion of homework. Our school had made provision for computer facilities to be available before and after the school day to support students more generally with homework and work outside of lessons, so I was confident in being able to hold a firm stance on expecting this online homework to be completed. Letters went out to parents/guardians explaining our systems and expectations.

Initially, it seemed to go well. There were very few issues or disagreements around whether or not students had/had not completed the homework and my team felt confident in being able to reiterate the messages that had gone out to parents/guardians if needed. We quickly established that there was a small group of students who persistently chose not to complete homework. These students were sanctioned in line with the whole school behaviour policy, and we continued to encourage and support all students to complete homework.

Unfortunately, by the summer term, it seemed that instead of an improving picture, we were seeing an increasing number of students forgetting log in information or simply choosing not to complete the work. Staff were finding it difficult to provide feedback on the work students had completed due to the disconnect between homework deadlines and actual lesson time. Many students were not giving the homework the due care and attention we expected, even the “really good” students, with completion times averaging 2-3 minutes for a 20-question quiz. Most importantly, we were realising that our focus had shifted from the students learning to being bogged down in dishing out consequences.

I realised that for the benefit of the students and my team, we needed to rethink homework again.

So, here we are, September 2022, with a “new” approach to homework. We’ve moved away from the online platform and gone old-school! Students will be expected to learn keywords/definitions/units/symbols/equations or complete a relevant exam style question. We will be alternating between these activities each week. The focus is on giving students the opportunity to learn information that will be useful to them by the time they reach their GCSEs and to practice exam technique or apply their learning. This plan will allow KS4 students to make better use of the preparation time they have each morning with their tutors – another thing that didn’t quite work with the online homework. Students will either be tested on the keywords etc or they will be taken through the exam question at the start of their “hand-in” lesson. This ensures staff workload is not impacted by these changes. We’re hoping this will shift our focus back to the learning, rather than the consequences and negatives which took over towards the end of last year.

There are potential pitfalls to this move. It no longer works for a Monday to Sunday timeframe across the department, so my team will need to be “on it” in setting their own routines with their classes. It’s also entirely possible that some students will still not give homework the care and attention it deserves. However, there are appears to be many more positives and I continue to hope that one day every student will see the benefit of completing homework.

Reflections

This week my team and I reflected on strategies used last year to prepare Year 11 for their summer exams. After seeing an improvement in all our headline measures, compared to pre-COVID headlines, there were a lot of positives to discuss.

Intervention – Our school has a very comprehensive intervention programme covering KS3 and Year 11. Centrally coordinated and covering English, Maths and Science, students are identified to partake in either morning sessions or after-school tutoring. After-school tutoring sorts itself out but the morning sessions were within my remit to organise. We started the year with a more traditional approach, looking at specific topics and revisiting key knowledge. This was useful in plugging some gaps in knowledge but left little room for exam technique, so during the second cycle we focused on the Required Practicals and in particular, the types of questions that could appear on an exam. We found that this allowed us to revise knowledge, skills and exam technique in one go and was very well received by the students. Staff commented that students were positive about this shift in focus and were able to apply what they had learnt in the sessions to the work they completed in class. Having everything ready to go in a booklet made the logistics and planning side straightforward. It also ensured consistency between all the staff involved in delivering morning intervention sessions.

Use of the Advanced Information – The Advanced Information was, in my opinion, more of a hinderance than a help. I’d rather it had not been published at all. However, published it was and we needed a clear plan on how to approach this with students. To ensure consistency in the message being given to the students, I used Zoom to speak to all Year 11 classes at the same time. This was easier to organise that trying to bring the year group together in a traditional assembly. During this Zoom session, I shared the highlights of the Advance Information, including the main areas of content that were expected to appear on the exam and the Required Practicals that we had been told would be assessed. However, the crucial message given to all students was to revise everything and not cut anything out. I feel it was an error to publicise topics that would not be assessed, and I believe this caused confusion for some students who went on to access the Advanced Information for the themselves. Thankfully, the majority of our students took on board my message to revise everything, a message that was reiterated by my team regularly.

Exam Preparation in Class (after completion of course) – Having found the Required Practical focus to be beneficial during intervention sessions, I decided to have this as the primary focus for all lessons between the completion of the course and the start of the exams. To support my team, I produced booklets for Biology, Chemistry and Physics, and included the Required Practicals identified in the Advanced Information (possibly the only good thing about the Advanced Information in my opinion). I found a fantastic resource on the TES site which had a series of questions and video links for each practical (AQA Science Required Practical Revision | Teaching Resources (tes.com)). I then added in relevant past exam questions. This provided each teacher with a clear plan of attack for the final stages of revision. My team have since shared that they found their “revision lessons” being more purposeful and productive than they have been in previous years. It also gave the students a clear focus for their own exam preparation outside of lessons.

Mock Exam Top 10 Errors – We had two series of mock exams for the Year 11 cohort. Marking was completed in teams, so each member of staff only marked one specific paper (helps to keep workload manageable by only having to “learn” one markscheme). To ensure that all Year 11 teachers were able to feedback effectively to students, each marking team was asked to produce a summary of the most common errors demonstrated by our cohort of students. These documents were incredibly useful in helping staff target their feedback and provide specific guidance on the improvements students need to make, much like the examiner’s reports that are prepared following the external examination series, but better as they were tailored to our students.

Walking Talking Mocks – We reintroduced our Walking Talking Mock sessions having not used this activity with a whole year group for a number of years – more information here about how they work https://misstait.wordpress.com/2016/07/16/why-i-love-walking-talking-mocks/. We held one session prior to the exam season starting and then held sessions prior to each of the Paper 2 exams where we could focus specifically on the content coming up. Students found these to be a real confidence boost and a timely reminder of the hints and tips they had been receiving along the way. It ensured that pointers about exam technique were at the forefront of the students minds as they went into their next exam.

It has been really useful to reflect on what we did last year after having two very strange years. While some of these things were done in response to the Advanced Information, we are planning to continue with them all again this year as we could see the positive impact on the students ahead of the examinations, and that can only ever be a good thing.

Feedback and assessment…it’s about impact.

I’m fortunate to work in a school where there is no centralised marking policy. Departments have been given the freedom to determine what feedback and assessment will look like and there is a clear understanding that this could look very different in different subject areas.

Feedback should be high impact for students and low impact for teachers. I don’t want my team spending excessive amounts of time writing comments in books. So, we just don’t do it. We do check books for presentation and to ensure the standard of work is as it should be. We use red, amber and green stickers to indicate the quality of work up to that point and it is the student’s responsibility to improve their work going forward. There is no set number of times that books need to be checked.

In terms of moving students forward in their learning, we use a system of feedback codes. The idea behind feedback codes is to generate a list of comments that apply to the piece of work completed by the class. Each comment is given a code/number and two or three of these codes are then applied to each piece of work. Ideally, these comments are in the form of a question or task that the student must complete. It is the student’s responsibility to record the feedback and complete the task during a dedicated portion of lesson time. Day to day, the team decides when it is appropriate to give feedback on a piece of work.

Another strand of our feedback and assessment strategy is in how we approach exam marking. First and foremost, no grades are given on any exams. Generating grades is a complex process that takes exam boards many weeks to accomplish. There is no way that we could accurately mirror this and therefore any grades given to students could be misleading. We also do not provide percentages (although many students could work this out for themselves, we do not encourage it). The focus of our exam marking is on what students know and what they do not know. From there we can provide whole class feedback about strengths and areas for improvement. We can use our visualisers/cameras to show excellent answers and model approaches to specific types of questions. This applies to all year groups. I am aware that some schools expect GCSE grades to be applied to Year 7 work etc. We do not do this.

As Subject Leader, it is my role to ensure that feedback and assessment is happening in the way we have agreed. One of the best ways I have found to check this is to ask the team to bring a selection of their choosing and lay it out in one classroom for everyone to look at. Some of our most fruitful conversations have come from this collaborative approach. It’s supportive, everyone gets to see examples of feedback in practice and to see slightly different interpretations of the “policy” (I don’t really like that word!).

It has taken time to embed this way of working and students do find it odd when they are not given grades but this is a change for the better, with the focus being on the students and their improvement.

Where should we teach Science?

Do all Science lessons need to be taught in Science labs?

I’m sure many science teachers would say yes. My own team certainly felt this way when they were initially presented with the plans for our department refurbishment. It was seen as an asset for us to each have our own lab and would ensure that we could all do practical work whenever we wanted.

However, the refurbishment needed to take us from nine labs to eleven teaching spaces to accommodate an expansion in pupil numbers over the coming years. With no capacity to build new labs, we had to go for a reconfiguration of the current rooms and the proposal was to have four fully equipped labs, three standard classrooms and four demonstration labs. To clarify, a demonstration lab has practical facilities for the teacher and students sit at standard classroom desks.

The refurbishment was completed in three phases. I won’t go into the trials and tribulations of this process but it was a testing time for the team who were expected to “keep calm and carry on” despite the noise and disruption going on around them.

The work was finally completed in February 2019. Our four labs retained the large dimensions of the old labs but were vastly improved with fresh paint, new furniture and fittings.

The classrooms were an interesting addition to our suite of resources. We had to think carefully about how to maximise their use. Clearly most practical work can not be carried out in a classroom but we established that the reaction time investigation (ruler drop) would be fine along with any others that only required standard classroom equipment.

Having only four labs meant that the team had to think carefully about what practical work they wanted to complete with their classes and why. Was it purposeful? Or practical work for the sake of practical work? Labs would need to be booked via weekly prep sheets and coordinated by the technician team. We established an order of priority for lab bookings as follows:

• Year 11 Triple Chemists
• Year 10 Triple Chemists
• Any other Year 11 class
• Any other Year 10 class
• Year 7/8/9 equal weighting

To aid with this, the staff teaching Triple Chemistry are roomed in labs permanently but they do move out as needed for other groups.

The demo labs have been the most sought after room amongst the team! One of my team has commented that the setup allows him to teach exactly as he would like with a good mix of practical demonstration and optimum environment for theory work and as a result he feels his teaching is the best it’s ever been. He noticed an immediate shift in the students attitude and engagement. They were enthralled in watching demonstrations being carried out most lessons and were very positive about the fact that they could engage with the theory distraction free, in other words, they didn’t have to worry about the procedures at this stage.

Now of course, there are instances where students must complete practical work but this doesn’t require a department full of labs. I’m not sure we’ve ever had a situation where every member of the team was completing practical work at the same time.

One point I would make is that this system relies on the fact that teachers will move to different rooms if needed. Thankfully, I lead a very collegiate team who support each other completely and will happily move around to ensure students get the practical experiences they need and deserve. I know some would find this nomadic approach unsettling but it works for us and in reality it hasn’t been too difficult this year as we have been able to keep one lab empty. Next year all four labs will be occupied which may result in more movement than we’ve seen so far. We also have identical “teaching walls” in every room to make moving easy and consistent for staff.

Having classrooms also means we are able to accommodate other subject teachers in need of a room to teach in. The addition of a Science Office means that my team will always have somewhere to work should they need to move out of their classroom for a particular lesson.

A final bonus of our refurbishment was the creation of a large atrium at the heart of the department. This area is used as a teaching space, a social area for Year 11, a venue for CPD sessions and was the main space used for our Teachmeet in January. It definitely adds a wow factor to our department area.

So, returning to my original question, do all Science lessons need to be taught in Science labs? I don’t think they do. Science labs will always have a purpose but the Science curriculum is more than just practical work and our teaching spaces should reflect this.

Review of our first Teachmeet

In November 2017, I attended and presented at the ASE South West Regional Conference. My session on the challenges of the 9-1 Science GCSE was well received and started the conversation about what could be done to support teachers and Science departments in my local area. My first thoughts were to host a Teachmeet.

However, as I was due to go on maternity leave in January 2018, I knew this idea would have to wait.

Returning to work in September 2018, I was determined that this was the year for our first Science Teachmeet. My team was in a really strong position following a turbulent year of staffing issues and we were all feeling extremely positive having received our best results in the summer. The timing just felt right.

I started to do some research around how to organise a Teachmeet. What did I need to consider? Who did I need to contact? What would make this event a success? I found this blog post by @TeacherToolkit https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2016/04/09/organising-teachmeets/ and the following posts by @ICTEvangelist https://ictevangelist.com/my-top-5-tips-for-teachmeet/ https://ictevangelist.com/what-is-a-teachmeet-any-more/ This gave me the push I needed to get started.

I decided on the date, set up the Eventbrite page and started trying to get sponsors on board. As it happened, this was the easy bit! The support I was offered blew me away. Very quickly I had sponsorship from Educake, Quizlet, The Royal Society of Chemistry and Crown House Publishing. They agreed to send raffle prizes, items for goodie bags, cake and, in Educake’s case, present on the night.

The thing I struggled with most of all was getting people to attend as an audience. I quickly had to reassess my expectations in terms of numbers. However, with a lot of support from my department and a lot of perseverance we ended up with 30 people on the guest list and expected to attend on the night.

I chose to split the evening into a mix of 5 minute presentations and market stalls for the attendees to visit. Educake chose to take a market stall and others were taken by Cheltenham Festivals, DataHarvest, Stem Ambassadors and the local Science Learning Partnership. Again, I was so grateful for the support of these organisations. Most of my department decided to present and another local school took a further three presentation spots.

On the night, feedback from all guests was very positive and there was a wonderful buzz. One thing that did come up just ahead of the evening, was a realisation that perhaps the start time was too early. I’d chosen a 4pm start time but feedback suggested that this didn’t leave enough time for local teachers to battle with rush hour traffic. Next time I intend to start at 4.30pm.

Overall, I loved every minute of the actual evening. The run up was a little stressful when I thought I may have to cancel due to lack of numbers but feedback on the night showed me that going with it was the right thing to do and showed that at least amongst some local teachers there is an appetite for further collaboration, this is something that fills me with hope and excitement.

If you have any advice regarding organising Teachmeets, I’d love to hear it!

2018…a year like no other.

This time last year, I was about to start my maternity leave with my first baby being due on 12^th January 2018. I remember feeling a little bit lost when my colleagues returned to work on the 3^rd January and I was at home taking it easy and banking as much sleep as possible. Thankfully, baby didn’t keep me waiting too long and on the 15^th January I became a mother.

From that point on, my time was filled with the all-consuming task of “being mum” and caring for this little person who honestly and truly needed me and, sometimes, only me. Work became a distant thought and my days were filled with baby classes and catching up with my new “mummy friends” over cups of tea and cake.

My mindset about maternity leave was to make the most of it. I did not want to get back to work in September thinking “I wish I had done X, Y or Z” and so I squeezed everything I could into the time I had. Looking back I think there were days and weeks where I did too much. I didn’t do the nap-when-baby-naps thing or the lazy mornings snuggled up in bed with my little one. I always felt the need to get up, get ready and get going because that’s what I do.

As September became ever closer, I didn’t find myself dreading it or wishing for more time. I was ready to go back. Being blessed with a baby who slept, I was able to start using my evenings to prepare for going back to work full time. On that note, going back part time was never a consideration for me. I needed to know whether I could do my job full time alongside being a mother.

Now, I can’t lie, actually getting back to work was a massive shock to the system. I spent the first four weeks of term in a complete daze. I struggled with being late most mornings (8.30am compared to my pre-baby arrival time 8.00am) due to nursery drop off and horrendous traffic, being exhausted on a completely different level and trying to be the Head of Department I had been before baby arrived. Thankfully, I have a superb team, an excellent line manager and hugely supportive colleagues who I also count as friends. They gave me space when I asked, hugs when needed and reality checks as appropriate – because there were some days when I needed just that!

Then week 5 arrived and things seemed to settle into a place a little. I felt that maybe it was possible to be a full time working mother and to enjoy both. I threw myself into work during the week and my little girl got my full focus in the evenings and weekends. Before I knew it, we had made it to the Christmas holidays.

So, here I am now, gearing myself up to go back to work on Monday after two weeks of amazing family time. I’m excited to get back at it. My department is in a really good place, we are hosting our first teachmeet in January and making great strides to ensure we improve on our 2018 results – which were pretty darn good in themselves! My daughter has her first birthday coming up and I can’t quite believe that a whole year has gone by. I’ve learnt a lot about myself in the past year and feel more ambitious and driven than ever before.

I’m excited to see what 2019 brings.

Happy New Year!