Over the last couple of years, St George’s has seen a dynamic and exciting shift in its academic approach with great strides made to deliver professional development for teaching staff and to create a strong culture of digital confidence in the classroom for both educationalists and their pupils. Much of the drive behind these improvements has come from Learning Innovation Lead, Miss Elodie Pierre and her work to strengthen the foundations of capability and confidence for all are bearing fruit in the classroom today.
Since St George’s was awarded the prestigious Google for Education Reference School status in the summer of 2022, its appetite for technological development has only increased. The opportunities for connection, both with those further along the digital journey and those looking to increase their digital provision, are exciting ones. For example, St George’s has already hosted its first Google Learning Festival in January 2023. Teachers and tech-minded pupils from ten preparatory and state primary schools joined Year 7 pupils from SGA for a morning and an afternoon session in which they explored a number of exciting technological classroom capabilities in collaboration with Google specialists, Tablet Academy and EdPuzzle.
Miss Pierre has also taken to the virtual road, building connections with schools that have even more developed digital strategies to take inspiration from their success. She is, for example, in conversation about how interactivity no longer stems from teachers standing at a board, but from pupils working on their devices. The investment in technology made by schools, therefore, is far more sensibly placed in what the pupils hold in their hands rather than in whiteboards. Miss Pierre works closely with a strong and committed voluntary Teaching and Learning Group who weigh up the value of such new ideas and trial techniques and different technologies to gauge their worth and efficacy in the setting of St George’s before school-wide decisions are made. The strikingly high percentage of teachers who have opted to commit to this Group (currently 40% of teaching staff) strongly evidences the high level of teacher support for progress and innovation at the school.
New strategies have also been forged to enhance professional development for teachers with the successful introduction of the first Teacher Innovation Exploration Plan (TIEP) in September 2021. Teaching staff were asked at INSET to share the most pressing issues they faced and, from those most commonly felt, each department picked one for the year and looked to find a digital solution. The English department, for example, wanted to make marking more streamlined and chose to upskill in the use of a Google tool called Rubric to do so whilst the Maths department wanted to look at going paperless with the use of styli to develop environmental efficiency. The year has been spent planning, training and accessing resources required with progress effectively measured at the annual Departmental Quality Assessment Review.
On the back of positive feedback about this focused approach to problem solving, the Academic Management Team launched TIEP 2 at the start of the autumn term 2022. Teachers now regularly assess and diagnose gaps in pupils’ technological skills and, along with a digital skills list completed by pupils themselves, an accurate understanding of the areas for development has emerged. One-to-two minute videos have been made which focus on the gaps and are played during tutor group time to ensure all pupils receive consistent training. Teachers are encouraged to incorporate these nascent skills into their teaching to ensure pupils’ technical literacy is improved by consistent immersion. The rolling group of Year 7, 8 and 9 pupils who have trained as SGA digital mentors - or ‘Googlies’ - play a vital strategic role in providing classroom support for their peers. As St George's recent ISI report, which recognised the school as 'excellent' in all areas, wonderfully stated,
‘The use of ICT is second nature to almost all pupils and, where a pupil is unsure of how to achieve a desired effect, a quick supporting hand from another pupil solves the problem.’
ISI Report
Staff are also responding very positively to the measured application of effective teaching techniques from Tom Sherrington’s WalkThrus material. Teachers have been working in coaching pairs, taking turns each half term to observe one another and comment on the application of a particular technique, for example, they worked on the use of ‘cold calling’ in class during the autumn term and have moved onto ‘think, pair and share’ in the spring term.
'Simply put, WalkThrus is a technical manual that demystifies pedagogy, without reducing methods to an inflexible, mechanical sequence. The WalkThrus really are exceptionally well put together and they provide SGA teachers with a focus point for professional exploration and debate. The opportunities to self-reflect and join classes aside from formal observations is invaluable'
Mrs Magill, Head of Religious Studies
Both pupils and staff are undoubtedly profiting from the sterling work Miss Pierre and the Academic Management Team have invested into delivering a new, dynamic level of academic excellence at St George’s. Undoubtedly there will be more to report in the future, but the ISI’s comment that ‘the high academic standards achieved represent the successful fulfilment of the school’s ambitious aims’ would suggest that the school is forging in the right direction.