Monthly update

Sensible stuff, no quick fixes

Dear colleague

Here are some links that I hope you find helpful:

Great news that the fifth and final book in the Huh Curriculum series is out in the world! John Tomsett and I have spoken to brilliant leaders about the curriculum for young people in alternative provision. It’s just three years since we started work on the first Huh: Curriculum Conversations between subject and senior leaders. We thought it would be the only one. It’s been a joy to find that schools wanted more, and so Primary Huh, Primary Huh 2 and SEND Huh followed.

Alternative Provision Huh is available to order here.

Course updates for the Huh Academy

Why Huh?!

The ongoing aspect of school improvement whether on the curriculum, pedagogy or leadership work might be captured as a ‘never-ending story’, because it is never finished! Huh is the Egyptian god of ‘ever-lasting things’, creativity and regeneration.

Huh captures the spirit of ongoing professional learning. And it’s why I developed the Huh Academy courses to support this work.

I shall be running some webinars with colleagues sharing some of the common findings from our conversations with school leaders and teachers.

We will be tackling subjects such as refining the curriculum, how we can build stronger, happier and more resilient teams and how we can draw on the research to develop as leaders.

The first webinar on Huh Curriculum Leaders is on Thursday 10th June 17.30-18.30 and if you’d like to join the webinar you can sign up here. John Tomsett and I will be talking about the overview of the course:

1. Ways of working, curriculum triumvirate, primary and secondary distinctiveness

2. Principles of curriculum design

3. Sequencing and progression

4. Cognitive science and learning the curriculum

5. Intent

6. Implementation

7. Impact

8. Supporting staff, sustaining momentum

On Wednesday 12th June 17.30-18.30 I’ll be talking with Lekha Sharma and Sam Crome about how to create and sustain a compelling purpose and vision for your school teams. Using a range of evidence and experience from both within and outside education, Lekha and Sam provide a step-by-step guide to boosting your team’s culture and performance by focusing on its purpose and vision. You can sign up here for Building Teams.

And I’ll be talking with Andrew Morrish about the Leadership Lobby course, where we have identified the research which supports leadership development. We’ll be chatting about what we found on Thursday 20th June 19.00-20.00. You can sign up here.

These webinars are live and free and if you can’t make it, just register and we’ll send out a recording afterwards.

Leading the Diverse Curriculum

We are delighted to be hosting Leading the Diverse Curriculum which has been developed by Hannah Wilson and Bennie Kara, co-founders of Diverse Educators.

I had a great conversation with Bennie and Hannah about their reasons for developing the programme, the benefits of offering a self-paced CPD models with live check-ins and how they support colleagues to dive deep into this important work.

You can watch our conversation here.

Dyslexia - Classroom ideas and support strategies for Teachers and TAs - Amjad Ali is running a webinar on this on Wednesday 5th June 19.30-20.30 This is terrific value and Amjad’s sessions are full of great strategies to support learning for all.

I recently visited St Michael’s primary school in Aldbourne in Wiltshire, where Jude Arkwright and colleagues have trialled the ‘Faster Read’ programme with impact on reading outcomes for all their pupils. They also run continuous provision through KS1 and I truly impressed with the high demands and self-directed work which met the needs of all the pupils. If you’d like to visit, there is an open morning on Wednesday 5th June 09.00–12.30 and more info here.

The Teachers' Collection is getting some lovely reviews for example from Sophie Dent, of Fairburn Primary School:

I recently did a reading webinar on how we can improve pupils’ comprehension through using high quality texts across the curriculum and you can watch it here.

We know that there’s interest in developing oracy in schools and there’s a great Myatt & Co collection of colleagues across primary and secondary sharing how they have developed oracy in their settings.

For example, Yamina Bibi, the deputy head teacher at Sarah Bonnell Academy, discusses her role in implementing the oracy programme across the school. She shares how she and her team used research and evidence to develop and drive the initiative.

There is a 7 day free trial for the films on Myatt & Co and group subscriptions available.

If you think there’s someone who would appreciate this update, you can forward the link here.

Until next time

Mary