Welcome    

Summer's long gone yet the fun of Christmas is too far away (whatever the shops may tell you). In school, in spite of half term, it's beginning to feel like a long slog since September and there are still quite a few teaching weeks left until the next holiday.
 
 It's sometimes hard to feel cheerful about November. I
 think Lin Yutang gets it right: "I like spring, but it is too
 young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of
 all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are
 richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden
 richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the
 power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly
 wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of
 life and its content."
 
 In my book it's Autumn until December 21st. So enjoy,
 everyone!                                                Janet Grant 

Behaviour Checklist

Charlie Taylor, the government's new behaviour tsar, has recently come under attack for his suggestion that teachers use a checklist to help manage pupil behaviour. There is one item on the proposed list however, which we maintain is crucial in turning round the behaviour problem in so many schools. In the checklist, under the title of Leadership, "Model the behaviour you want to see from your staff".  

But we need to take this one step further...model the behaviour you want to see from your pupils!  

Emotional intelligence and maturity starts with us, and if we don't want the students to yell, we need to stop yelling; if we want the students to listen to us, we need to listen ; if we want our students to stop bitching about their friends, we need to stop bitching about members of staff. Ghandi's words remain true..."Be the change you want to see". That is true Leadership!

Jamie's Farm

Here at VisionWorks we like to bring publicity and awareness to other projects aimed at improving the lives of young people and optimising their chances at school. One such project is Jamie's Farm. www.jamiesfarm.org.uk

Jamie's Farm is a unique intervention which helps vulnerable children to flourish in education, at home and in the community. Children are referred to improve self-esteem, relationships and behaviour, and may be at risk of exclusion from school. It provides a combination of 'family, farming and therapy' delivered through a five day residential and follow up programme. Teachers report improved student behaviour, engagement and attainment, and one student comments "from the minute I left your home, my life started".  

Children in Care in schools

Did you hear about the student who, along with the rest of her class, had to write her autobiography for her English teacher? Unlike the rest of her class, her essay was returned unmarked and the teacher asked her to rewrite the autobiography - this time she wanted the real one. This particular student was in care. Her life had been full of incident and it had been quite cathartic for her write about it. To have it dismissed as fiction was terrible; it was salt in the wound.

Care of students in schools has improved dramatically in the last decade. However children in care can still find themselves in embarrassing and humiliating situations caused by staff and /or their peers.

VisionWorks is working with Bath Spa University to try and address the problems faced in schools by children in care. Richard Parker, Director, Centre for Education Policy in Practice and Mike Gorman, Head of BaNES Virtual School, have gathered a team of experts together and we are working with the Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES) In Care Council. These articulate and sparky youngsters have used their own experiences to create scenarios that can be used in schools to inform both staff and students.

A professional film crew is to shoot the scenarios and, combined with written lesson plans, we aim to raise awareness in the UK.

We'll keep you posted!                                                                       Janet Grant

Being part of a paradigm shift 

In our work we train staff using the VisionWorks programmes, It's OK Being Me and Discovering Me. What is true for any school addressing Emotional Literacy is that they are joining a paradigm shift happening in education. 

Teaching EL is not something we were trained in as teachers and it is not necessarily one we signed up for but nevertheless we are being asked to embrace it. As Sir Ken Robinson says in his popular RSA talk, Changing Education Paradigms*, we need to move past old assumptions such as the separation between academic and non-academic performers and "we should be waking students up to what is inside themselves". 

Any paradigm shift is bumpy, unpredictable and exciting all at the same time; we are glad to be part of it and we salute all front-line teachers who are taking the ride.

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