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Welcome to our first Critical Skills Newsletter!
Our design for this newsletter is flexible. However
it evolves in the future will happen as a result
of our adherence to the same principles that we
espouse in the CSP classroom. We intend to learn
by doing and we trust that the quality of all our
efforts will improve as we engage in a genuine collaborative
process. In particular, we will welcome contributions
to this newsletter as well as comments on any aspect
of the website in general. As Pete Fox puts it:
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The
CSP team is here to help you and, while we
cannot do all that might be asked of us, we
promise that what can be done will be done.
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We intend to produce these newsletters every 4-6
weeks, with the emphasis very much on passing on
information and ideas from 'Around the UK'. In this
first edition we look at two of the more notable
efforts thus far at implementing CSP in whole school
systems. In this case the focus is on Barrow and
Bristol, where high levels of commitment for the
past 2 years are already bringing striking, tangible
results. We already have some contributions for
our June/July edition from other parts of the country
where exciting CSP developments are taking place
but we will also be delighted to receive contributions
from yourselves.
So if you have any CSP news that you would like
to pass on to colleagues please feel free to send
it to us, either through the interactive facility
in our Community section or directly to me at: colin@criticalskills.co.uk.
Finally, if you wish to receive automatic text updates
from this section, please just enter your email
address in the 'Newsletter' box at the top left
and we'll do the rest. Thank you and good luck!
Colin Weatherley
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Barrow-in-Furness
Pippa Leslie, Raising Achievement Co-ordinator,
Barrow Community Learning Partnership (EAZ)
BCLP schools have been taking part in the Critical
Skills Programme since May 2001. Already over one
hundred teachers from Barrow primaries, secondaries
and FE have enjoyed taking part in a Level One Course
and we have several courses fully booked for the
coming year! We also already have ten teachers who
have trained to Level Two and a small number who
are in the process of ‘interning’ as trainers.
We have found that the Critical Skills Programme
does enable the creation of an effective learning
environment through experiential, collaborative,
problem-solving challenges and are beginning to
really see students developing responsibility for
and ownership of their own learning. A very worthwhile
investment!
Following the enthusiasm with which teachers have
greeted this programme, eight Senior Managers from
BCLP also attended a Critical Skills Senior Management
course in Edinburgh last summer. Many of our schools
now have a large number of their staff trained and
are developing the programme across the school and
are beginning to integrate the programme into school
policy, planning and assessment development.
We also organize annual joint events such as a ‘Children’s
Conference’ and ‘Starship Enterprise’.
The Children’s Conference has the theme of
Sustainable Development. Starship Enterprise is
a community building and challenge programme for
the whole Year Eight/Nine year group. It has taken
place in all four of our secondary schools, involving
over 600 students, and has also included the involvement
and support of over twenty business and community
Enterprise Partners.
BCLP have made a short video promoting the programme
in Barrow which is illustrated with challenges and
interviews with teachers and students. Our website
also contains information relating to recent projects.
We would love to hear from others who would like
to share and network ideas! If you would like a
copy of our video, would like to visit Barrow schools
to see CSP in action or would just like to get in
touch please do not hesitate to contact us at http://www.bclp.co.uk
, email us at pippa@bclp.biblio.net
or telephone Pippa Leslie or Rick Lee on 01229 894361!
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"The
most valuable course I have been on. (It)
has ... changed the way I teach."
Rachel Mallett, Parkview School, Barrow
"I was an initial sceptic ... but
I have been turned round. (CSP) is very effective
in terms of raising students' self-esteem,
improving behaviour (all children remain on
task) and raising standards."
K. Stringer, St. George's C of E School, Barrow
"I wish I had known about Critical Skills
25 years ago ... I will try to use it as often
as possible, even though I don't have too
many years ahead in the classroom."
Jane Ryder, Furness College, Barrow
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BRISTOL
Terry Williamson, Director, SUCCESS@ Action Zone,
Bristol
SUCCESS@ Action Zone is situated in Withywood and
Hartcliffe in South Bristol. We are based at Gay
Elms Primary School and serve eleven schools, all
of whom are strong supporters of the Critical Skills
Programme.
We are part of the Government’s ‘Excellence
in Cities’ programme designed to raise achievement
and standards in city schools. Most of our schools
are situated in areas of high deprivation and social
and economic disadvantage.
We have adopted CSP as our ‘flagship’
project to drive our vision forward. The news set
out below represents a selection of the work and
activities we have been involved with through our
association with Network Educational Press since
the start of the Zone in September 2001.
- Over 70 teachers, including all 5 of our
Advanced Skills Teachers, have trained at Level
1. A further 11 have trained at Level 2.
- All Primary Heads/Deputies, along with the
central team, have completed CSP Senior Management
training.
- Four staff from the Zone will start the process
of becoming CSP trainers in the Autumn.
- Four of our Primary Schools are using funds
from the Government’s Learning Behaviour
Improvement Project to organise CSP Designer
workshops on behaviour management.
- Two Designer Institutes on creativity, funded
through the Creative Partnerships initiative,
have been planned for Autumn 2003 and Spring
2004.
- Evidence of impact is confirmed through Head
Teacher reviews and in a range of unsolicited
occurrences such as positive OFSTED reports.
For example:
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“The
school’s provision for personal, social
and health education is very good. There are
plans to strengthen these further by extending
the Critical Skills Programme ... ”
“Raise standards across the school
by a) extending the teaching of Critical Skills
to all classes ...”
Hareclive Primary School OFSTED report
“A particular strength in the teaching
arises from the very good relationships between
teachers and pupils and the effective strategies
teachers use to manage them... This is in
part due to effective training within the
Critical Skills Programme provided by the
Education Action Zone (EAZ) of which the school
is a partner.”
Bishopsworth Junior School OFSTED report
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- Individual schools have negotiated special
training packages directly with NEP in order
to reach more staff
- We have developed a CSP Challenge resources
book for teachers to use when they need ideas
for crafting challenges – it is catalogued
by age, subject and other general sections,
eg Challenges for leaders and managers or governing
bodies
- Some of our schools are working with CSP
across all dimensions of their daily life –
lessons, breaks, staff meetings and INSET days,
Governors meetings and parents evenings. We
use CSP ‘tools’ when we meet for the
planning, review and evaluation of the Zone’s
activities.
If you would like to know more about our work,
please tel. 0117 9039977 or email me at terry_williamson@bristol-city.gov.uk.
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M.A. Accreditation at Leicester University
Linda Marshall, CSP Manager (England and Wales)
We are delighted to be able to inform participants
in the Critical Skills Programme that they can now
opt to have their work accredited by the Continuing
Professional Development Department at Leicester
University. This includes participants who
have already taken CSP courses, who can have their
work assessed retrospectively.
This exciting development will enable participants
to use the Critical Skills Programme to gain a Certificate
in Higher Education (after Level One), and a Diploma
in Higher Education (after Level Two). These certificates
can be used as credits towards a Masters Degree
at Leicester University.
Why not gain additional professional qualification
while implementing Critical Skills in your own school?
If you would like more details about how you
can enrol on this programme, please contact me and
I will send you an information pack.
I look forward to hearing from you.
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