Well, 2012′s done and dusted and we find ourselves in the almost unwritably ugly 2013, arguing about whether or not to pronounce it ‘two-thousand-and-thirteen’ or ‘twenty-thirteen’. Being something of a maverick, I like to switch between the two.

So, here are my own picks of that recently deceased beast, 2012. A year which saw a number of highs and lows (as one would naturally come to expect, I suppose).

Digital Leaders

Though in constant fear of typecasting myself, one of the things I was most pleased to see in my professional life last year was the nationwide (and indeed, international) explosion of the Digital Leaders concept. I’ll spend no time explaining the Digital Leaders idea (if you haven’t heard me bang on about it yet then count yourself in the lucky 2% of the population, or ask me if you’re genuinely interested in hearing more) – your favourite search engine and the search terms “Student Digital Leaders” or the like will no doubt fill in the gaps. (In the interests of avoiding upsetting anybody I’d like to also point out that Digital Leaders was not my idea in the first place – I borrowed and adapted it!)

Along with my Innovation Centres colleague, Vicki Cox, 2012 saw Bradford welcome its 50th school with Digital Leaders, which now includes both Primary and Secondary establishments. FIFTY! An amazing number really and something I’m pleased to have been involved with – now for two days a week, after an extension of my secondment to the Innovation Centres doubled my time working on such projects. Thanks to all of the teachers, senior leaders and pupils who have made the experience so enjoyable for me.

In addition to this, two colleagues from further afield, Sheli Blackburn of Norfolk and Nick Jackson, who can now largely be found in Adelaide, Australia, shared with the world The Digital Leader Network and Oz DLs respectively. The Digital Leader Network goes from strength to strength with an impressive number of schools now forming an active community, in no small part down to the enthusiasm and hard work of Sheli and the many teachers and students who make time to contribute. If I was to have a New Year’s Resolution it would be to post on this more frequently myself (and to stop telling Sheli I’m going to post things and then not doing it, but I won’t go that far just yet).

Oz DLs is a far newer phenomenon, which aims to bring the same level of success to Australian schools under Nick’s expert guidance. I’m convinced this will be one of the big Digital Leaders developments of 2013.

CPD events

Again not wanting to rewrite posts already written, the stand-out events of 2012 for me included #CampEd12, the Naace Third Millennium Hothouse and the Naace Strategic Conference at which I was fortunate to be in the company of fellow candidates shortlisted for a Primary Impact Award, which I subsequently failed to win (a clerical error I’m sure Naace will be embarrassed to eventually spot. *Joking*). Thank you to all of the people who made these events so special. I won’t attempt to list you all here – you know who you are and I appreciate our conversations, laughs and opportunities to drink into the evening (even if it was only Ribena).

France

In the summer, and with only three weeks’ notice, I was invited by my friend, Steve, to accompany him on a three-week driving/camping holiday across France. Taking in the length of the country from Calais to Cannes, with Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy all getting a look in, too, we had an amazing time drinking cheap wine, eating local cheeses and enjoying the French heatwave, subsequently enjoying temperatures up to 42 degrees Celsius. Pictures to follow, perhaps…

As well as obviously enjoying the holiday at the time it was more apparent when I returned just how a) necessary it felt to get away and rest, and b) how fortunate I am to have been able to do it. On returning to school in September and being greeted by excited stories of pupils’ trips to Birmingham to see cousins or a visit to the park across the road, my luckiness was all too evident. And I’m very grateful for it.

Tales of sadness

Sadly, 2012 also brought about some less positive news. In July, the sad passing of my Great Uncle Ted, the World’s Loveliest Man, was difficult to take, but (looking on the bright side) the funeral provided an opportunity to see some members of my family I haven’t seen in years (why do we fail to make contact until such occasions? I suppose life gets in the way).

Shortly after this, in October, a former pupil of ours was tragically killed in a road accident close to school, in an incident which was widely reported in the national media. With mum, family friends and many of his former teachers still members of staff at our school the news hit us hard and is still very fresh in the hearts and minds of a great many people today, still so soon after the incident. Hopefully 2013 will provide fresh hope and comfort to those most affected by the tragedy.

So, all in all…

A mixed year of things to make me smile and feel proud, to cry and feel lost, but mostly a year surrounded by great people, in times of happiness and in sadness (I don’t mean this to sound like a rewrite of the Lord’s Prayer: Amen. But you take the point, I’m sure).

It would have been very easy to include a great many more things here, but these things just stood out as the most significant.

A toast to 2013 then, a year as any other in which I refuse to predict its highs and lows. All I can hope is that I continue to seek new opportunities to be better and to help others do the same. So, not that it’s a resolution – and it really isn’t – but I shall try to keep this blog more up to date than I did in 2012. I will. Honest…

How does your review of 2012 shape up?

So, it’s been six weeks since the incredible event which was #CampEd12, a weekend learning festival which took place at Hardnaze Farm in Oxenhope, courtesy of the generosity of Helen Daykin‘s mum, Sue, and the organisational prowess of Helen herself, Bill Lord and Dughall McCormick, all of whom played a genuinely appreciated part in making the event come together.

The reasons for my delay in blogging about the event are threefold: I’m quite lazy at blogging; I have had a tremendously busy few weeks; and more importantly, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the event and its impact and only now feel able to write with some coherence.

Now I’ve finally managed to get round to it I’m not going to write a diary of #CampEd12 events (not least because my memory of them is hazy at best) or include my own photo stream, indeed these things have been done already and no doubt better than I could be bothered to attempt, so I shall simply point you in the direction of an excellent blog post from Dughall which also includes a list of other attendees’ posts: Dughall’s blog, and add that the activities I took part in over the weekend included a lovely walk across the surrounding moors, some daytime astronomy and a 36-hour game of football.

Instead I shall attempt to focus on what I learnt from the event and share my thoughts about the future of such events.

Firstly, I had a GREAT time at #CampEd12. If you’re reading this and you were there you made a positive difference to my weekend. Whether we spent lots of time together, spoke briefly or not at all, whether you were six, forty-six or Tony Parkin, you made a difference to my weekend.

As with most things which are tremendously positive, it seems appropriate to think about how to widen the impact of such an occasion. There are undoubtedly a list of barriers to extending the opportunity to attend to many others, which I will summarise here:

1. The event was very middle class. This is not a criticism per se, just an observation, but it poses a difficult question to answer: how can we extend such an opportunity to those who do not necessarily enjoy the cultural capital of those who were at #CampEd12?

2. The event was largely publicised via Twitter. Quite simply, many people do not use Twitter. Those of us who do are often cocooned in a world of like-minded individuals and the net result is a largely positive one, but how do we engage the uninitiated? Should we try and convert them? Or accept that it’s perfectly acceptable to not use Twitter? Surely we cannot operate a slightly fascistic ‘if your name’s not on the list, you’re not coming in’ sort of policy? So how do we get to these people?

3. Financing such events is another issue. #CampEd12 was a very low-cost event for ‘delegates’. But this relied on the generosity of the organisers and of those who donated such important things as venues… Indeed future events could potentially be more expensive to run based on inflation, the current financial ‘situation’ and additional costs such as venues, which could be realistically added to future events. Moreover, even the relatively low cost of #CampEd12 is not low enough for some families who have to get by on very little income. The only way to achieve a level of universal access would be to offer these events for free, but then this must rely on sponsors (which may alter the dynamic of the event) or grants (which are often hard to come by).

I’m sure there are other barriers, too, but these appear to me to be the most obvious ones. I can imagine a situation where schools, community centres and suchlike may offer the use of their premises for little or no money, but I don’t know if that’s the answer.

Either way, I really hope there’s a #CampEd13. If there is, I’m there!

What do you think? Is there a sustainable future for family learning events? Can these events ever be open for all? Please leave a comment to join in the debate.

It’s the famous interview question, isn’t it? But also, surely, pointless? The only correct answer can be ‘I don’t know.’

What is wrong with answering the question with that frankly honest answer? Where do I want to be in five years’ time? I’ve genuinely no idea. And that’s not a bad thing.

I am a (reasonably) well-rounded individual yet I am often pressured by friends, colleagues and (sometimes) people I’ve only just met to start thinking about my next move as if what I am doing now is only a stop-gap to something significantly more worthwhile. (Just to clarify, I love my current job!)

It is this kind of insistence on systematic forward-planning which prompts people in their mid-20s to fret at the thought that they’ve been teaching for four years and have not yet attained that much-coveted TLR. In their 20s! Imagine!

Now, it’s important to clarify that I think striving to be better and achieve ‘more’ – whatever that means – is an important characteristic and I am constantly trying to improve on things I do (which is one of the reasons I set up this blog) and look at things I might be capable of achieving in the coming days, weeks, months, etc. But I certainly do not beat myself up about not having done X, Y or Z, because quite simply I don’t see the value in it.

My biggest fear is that we impose this ludicrous mindset on our pupils from an increasingly young age, constantly asking them what they want to be when they’re older – a simple re-wording of the interview classic.

There are so many reasons why this is flawed. I will only explore a couple here. For the first, I will make reference to the numerous incarnations of the Shift Happens videos, but particularly the most recent UK version (which is still a significant number of years out of date), embedded below (If you haven’t seen it then it’s certainly worth spending six minutes of your time on):

In particular, I should draw attention to the point that we are currently in the process of preparing pupils for jobs that don’t exist yet. If they don’t exist how can we possibly begin to suggest pupils choose them now, aged 18, or 16, or 11? How??

In addition, the suggestion that by the age of 38 people will have worked in an average of 10-14 different jobs, must beg the question: ‘Just which future are we preparing our pupils for?’ If they are to work in numerous jobs, quite possibly representing numerous professions, surely the question should be: ‘How are you best preparing yourself to respond to your changing future?’ (Or something more pithy!)

Surely, therefore, our job as educators must be to help equip pupils with a ‘toolbox’ of transferable skills which can be applied to different professions, and to inspire and stimulate a genuine passion for learning and self-improvement. What better gift to leave someone with as they enter adulthood?

The second point I wish to address is the insanity of trying to make children pick jobs from the incredibly narrow group of jobs to which they are likely to have been exposed by whatever age they happen to be. My adult self is only aware of a relatively small number of potential jobs which are available to me, so our pupils are quite probably less informed still. So why, sat in your Careers Advisor’s office aged 14 should you have to choose between the narrow range of options you’re currently aware of? You don’t know what you don’t know, which is why I inherently support any project or initiative which broadens children’s experiences and opportunities to explore the world around them, including enterprise and ‘formal’ projects such as professional School Councils, such as this stunning example from Bowling Park Primary School (although I work there I have no direct involvement with the School Council and so don’t feel too boastful in recommending it).

Ambition is important, but I think that forcing people to make choices under too much pressure stifles ambition and creativity, something which is unforgivably irresponsible.

What do you think? Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?

This is the final in a series of three posts about my experiences of the Naace Conference 2012. To read the first post in the series, click here and for the second, click here.

After a very, VERY late night on Friday, getting up on Saturday was quite a challenge. Nevertheless, I still got up and had another enjoyable breakfast with Vicki Cox before the main event had begun.

Saturday, the final day of the conference, began with a keynote speech from the ever-charming Mick Waters. Mick’s keynote – Curriculum Change – The Place of ICT? – was interesting and inspiring, but of all of the statements he made which caught my attention, this one was somewhere near the top of the list:

“Teachers often bemoan a lack of time and a need to ‘get on’. But with what? What exactly are they ‘getting on’ with?”

This quote interested me as I often find that education is more about blindly going along with what is deemed ‘normal’ or ‘correct’ and not often enough about accommodating the interests of pupils. What exactly is the issue with engaging with children in an unplanned debate they are interested in? Isn’t that a good thing? Is the need to ‘get on’ really greater than the need to discuss things our pupils are interested in?

Needless to say the rest of Mick’s keynote was superb and his delivery style was always going to win over the crowd immediately, and not without justification.

(We were once lucky enough at Bowling Park Primary School to be featured on Mick’s Teachers’ TV show, Mick Waters Drops In. To see the 15-minute documentary about life at school, click here).

After the keynote there were opportunities for more networking and a number of smaller breakout sessions, of which the Vital-led sessions and geocaching with Vicki and James Langley, two of my colleagues from the Bradford Curriculum ICT team, were particular highlights.

Teachmeet Naace

Saturday afternoon saw the introduction of the Naace Teachmeet, an event co-hosted by James Langley, Dughall McCormick and Drew Buddie, all members of the Naace Board of Management.

The event was hugely successful, seeing tens and tens of teachers turn up of their own volition to this weekend-hosted CPD event, an astonishing fact I could not resist pointing out.

So much happened and so many great people spoke of their great ideas and projects that I simply won’t detail my own personal highlights here, but instead point you in the direction of the recorded presentations, which can be found here. Many thanks must be extended to Leon Cych for filming and uploading these videos.

So, my first ever Naace conference was amazing! An incredible opportunity to see, share, meet, eat, drink, learn, write and sleep. In no particular order. Roll on next year…

This post is the second in a series of three posts about my experiences of the Naace Conference 2012. To read the first post in the series, click here.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed I meet Vicki Cox for breakfast on Friday morning before heading into the keynote presentations from Vanessa Pittard from the DfE and David Brown, Ofsted’s National Advisor for ICT.

Both spoke well, as one may expect, but much of the content, particularly from Pittard, demonstrated some serious towing of the party line! If nothing else, Pittard did remind delegates of the DfE ICT Curriculum Review, which remains open to anybody to register their views until April 11 2012. The review can be found here.

Of Brown’s highlights I would suggest that Ofsted’s findings about the issues around the teaching and learning of ICT in primary schools particularly interesting. Programming, data logging, data handling and assessment were seen as particular weaknesses. I think programming is something that I personally teach well, and Michael Gove’s focus on computer science could see this spread, though the subject knowledge of teachers, highlighted by Brown as another Ofsted area of concern, could prove to be a barrier.

At the end of these presentations, Tony Sheppard asked each of the presenters how they expected teachers to assess ICT effectively without a statutory ICT curriculum, and how Ofsted could possibly judge schools nationally with no assessment framework to judge against. Rather predictably, neither was able to give a convincing answer, which seems worrying particularly since Brown had himself identified assessment as an area of weakness…

Graeme Plunkett, Headteacher at Copland Community School, presented ‘Introducing mobile learning as part of a structured school improvement strategy’, before a session by Miles Berry, newly-elected as the chair of the Naace Board of Management, entitled Re-thinking ICT Pedagogy. Miles’s session was thought-provoking and challenged me to think more carefully about how children learn. I will certainly be attempting to tweak my planning to allow pupils even more time for open exploration and trial and error. I think I do this quite well already but there’s always room for improvement.

Miles reminded me quite a bit of Sugata Mitra and his Hole in the Wall experiments. If you haven’t seen them, they’re a must. His famous TED Talk is here.

Amongst other things, Stephen Carrick-Davies, presenter of the Munch Poke Ping session, introduced an interesting idea by explaining that social networking was often used by children in a particlarly antisocial way, hence calling it antisocial networking. Perhaps there is something of use to take away from that…

The next session was possibly my favourite of the day, as it explored an area with which I have no experience at all. Steve Moss presented ‘The Server-free School’, a practical and thoroughly useful guide to options for schools to explore cloud-based computing. Moss talked about the project he had run using Google Chromebooks and extolled the virtues of a a speedy user experience as solid state hard disks and fast internet connections saw load times dramatically reduce compared to Windows-based setups.

Ever-balanced, Moss was keen to point out that a lack of Java functionality was an issue at times, as was the limited integration with interactive whiteboards, but neither of these were big enough issues to halt the project.

This session has certainly made me want to explore this kind of solution in a bit more detail, surely the point of most breakout sessions at conferences? I feel that my eyes have been somewhat opened to a totally different way of thinking about computing in schools.

Naace Impact Awards and Gala Dinner

The evening programme of events was hectic and I had to quickly make my way to my room after the conference programme was over to get changed for the drinks reception and gala dinner.

I had been lucky enough to be nominated and subsequently shortlisted for a Naace Impact Award for ICT in the Primary category, for the work I had done with Digital Leaders in primary schools. Have a look at the blogs here and here.

Prior to the dinner, shortlisted candidates were invited to attend a drinks reception in the company of former Secretary of State for Education, Charles Clarke. Clarke seemed slightly bemused by the whole affair and small talk didn’t appear to be his forte. It was, however, a good opportunity to meet some of the other shortlistees and discuss their progress over a glass of (free, thanks Naace!) wine.

An hour later we were escorted to the front of the main room, where dinner was to be served, and seated in and amongst other shortlisted people and members of the Naace Board of Management. I sat next to eventual winner of the Secondary category, Ben McCarey and his wife Becky McCarey, both of whom were totally lovely, and 16-year-old Lewis Philips, also nominated for the Secondary Award, a frankly staggering achievement for which he was commended on the evening.

The food was great and the conversation lovely, and Clarke’s after dinner speech was great. It was also brilliant to watch some video clips of the eventual winners of the categories in action – there were some very worthy winners to whom I extend my own personal thanks and congratulations. (The full shortlist can be found here).

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t win the award I was shortlisted for. I can only imagine this is some sort of clerical error which Naace are no doubt in the process of rectifying…

Either way, the night was thoroughly enjoyable and I was pleased to have been invited to attend. The rest of the evening was taken up with more networking, conversations, singing, dancing and the odd glass of vino.

**Check back soon for Part 3: Naace Conference 2012 – Saturday**