Oasis Academy Enfield: July 2007

Sunday, 29 July 2007

Packed up, ready to go .....

Friday afternoon, all of the Keys Meadow classroom packed up into the crates.

Holidays here we come, next stop, Kinetic Crescent ....

Wednesday, 18 July 2007

On Tuesday our hosts Keys Meadow Primary School held their "Playground Idol" talent show. Paul was glad to be asked to be on the judging panel. In this our last week at the school, we are very grateful to Lawrence and the team for the chance to be located within such an inspiring school during our time of preparation. We are sure that this is just the start of a continuing relationship between our 2 schools.

Rockin' with the Robins ...

Keys Meadow "Playground Idol" - an appreciative audience

Carnival Time

Oasis Staff Conference - Monday July 16th

Group reflection after afternoon session

Lunch in the canteen

We're all pleased with our new Oasis lanyards

If you eat that you won't have space for your ice cream ....

This event was, for many of us, our first experience of the wider Oasis family. Many of us probably did not know quite what to expect from this day at All Nations Bible College at Ware, but everyone by the end of the day were pleased to have attended.

Overnight we reflected on our experience and thought about how we can retain and develop the unity and purpose that we have gained as a staff over the past few weeks.

There were features of school life in some of our previous establishments that we wished to avoid, namely :

We want to retain a positive outlook and avoid slipping into a negative mindset where criticisms stop being constructive
We want to promote a collective spirit where we avoid statements like "it's not my job to ...." at the same time as taking a strong professional lead in the areas for which we are responsible. There are times when we will all need to roll our sleeves up and get stuck into the general "to do" list.
It is not our aim to have a culture where it is a slight on someone's reputation if they express a need, or ask if something blindingly obvious could be explained again.
We want to avoid any tendency to label "them and us," be that another subject area, another local school. another area of Oasis or the Leadership Team. Such division detracts from what we are about. At the conference it was mentioned that "the quality of our relationships is more important than the work itself."

We don't want to appear pious in these statements of what we wish to avoid. We all know that we have indulged ourselves in plenty of this kind of thing in the recent and more distant past. It's just that we now sense an opportunity to grasp for something far better, and at the same time as saying what we want to aim for, it is useful to be equally explicit about what we want to avoid.

We are looking to establish a number of traditions that can continue to "set the tone" for the way that we relate together as a staff. Some of these might not be manageable in the long run, but as of 17th July 2007 these seemed worthy of note :

Opportunities to eat together - family barbeque, cakes on Friday, end of terms nights out, bring and share lunch.
Cards and cakes on birthdays - for both staff and kids
Staff welfare team that go beyond usual bouquets and leaving presents, focusing instead on more general aspects of staff well-being
After-school staff football, other sports and pastimes eg a book club
Photo and video biographies of staff in the foyer and on the website
Staff prayer group
Interaction with parents eg "Dads and Lads" football tournament
Establishment of Academy archive

Finally, we thought about the kind of school that we wanted to be in five year's time, and what we can do now to make that a reality :

We spoke about the need to develop genuine partnerships with other secondary schools, primary schools, the local authority and other arms of Oasis.
Making a "soft boundary" with the community
Developing and retaining high-quality staff
Continuing to recruit effectively, getting the "right people on the bus and finding them a seat"
Gaining a reputation for high academic standards (a likely outcome of a high-trust environment)
Keeping the feeling of fam-a-lee as a high priority
Telling our ongoing story as it develops down the years
Forging interdependence as a hub and across the Oasis organisation

Tuesday, 17 July 2007

Reflections on Lea Valley Park Trip

As well as enjoying the visit in itself, the Lea Valley visit was useful for previewing the "Trip Out" for the "Everyone's A Winner" module. After a night to recover, we reflected on the experience.

High level competencies such as initiative and the ability to understand and intervene in team projects are difficult and demanding activities that no one will engage in unless they very much care about the activity in which they are engaged – or unless they find these activities intrinsically satisfying. Such qualities will, therefore, most often only be developed and displayed while people are undertaking activities they care about.

(Wikipedia "Competencies.")

We affirmed the value of "walking through" the trip in advance and understood the importance of preparing the students properly for the trip and helping them reflect purposefully on the experience.
Students need to be prepared in terms of the skills required to carry out the task.
In the spirit of personalisation we agreed on the need for an element of choice for the activities.
A parents letter will need to be raised in adavce, letting them know about the cost, clothes etc.
We know our children, so it is important for us to be willing to intervene in the unlikely event that they are not getting the best possible deal for themselves and the Academy.
We agreed it was important for our children to experience reassurance, success, challenge as well as ensuring that all students are supported to access the activity.
Children will need to experience success early on in the activities.
It will be possible to debrief twice - on arrival as well as early the next day.
As far as supervision is concerned, teacher positions (static) will need to be identified on the map. Staff teams will need to be on bikes, allocate resources, capture achievement and communicate with various other team members.

Friday, 13 July 2007

Lea Valley Park - School Visit Preparation - Wed 11th July

Bola handles Success graciously

Sharon pleased with dubious rule interpretation

Quick - back to the car park !

Striding out back to the finish

Jenny outstrips the cameraman

Important to spend time planning before heading off

Handy to have a humanities teacher reading the map ...

Lunchbreak reviewing the morning

Everything stops for tea ...

At the end of the morning task

Jenny's the teamaker

Judy and Bola pick up rubbish item of the day

Matthew checks his job description ....

Time to choose the gloves

Can I take these home ... ?

Beth chooses from the Manolo Blahnik wader collection

"Not sure I'm into resilience today, dahling ......."

Choosing the waders and wellies

Paul Roper, Park Ranger, outlines the day

Thursday, 12 July 2007

Oasis Conference - Monday 16th July

For all of us July 2007 marks a significantly important point in the life and work of Oasis - the way ahead looks incredible and very different to anything we have done before. So we will be gathering together as the full Oasis Family for this years Oasis Staff Residential which will be taking place at: All Nations Bible College, Ware, in Hertfordshire on Monday 16th - Tuesday 17th July 2007.

A Time to Remember our Interdependence
The opportunity to gather all UK staff together at the residential will provide us with a perfect chance to learn together, enjoy and appreciate each others company and be inspired as we continue to become all that God has called us at Oasis to be. So we want to give these 2 days a real focus on our interdependence with each other, God, humanity and creation.

Things to look forward to during the two days include:

Inspirational and reflective teaching

Beautiful countryside and surroundings to enjoy

Leisure activities

Special Guest Artist appearance

Urban Clay

Good food

Amazing company

The first session of the conference will begin at 10am on the Monday morning.
Please note that a map of the location can be found at : http://www.allnations.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=8&section=Home

Key Stage Three National Curriculum Hyperlinks

Learning Family Welcome Evening

On two evenings this week we welcomed our new parents, carers and students to the Academy. During one-on-one sessions with their Learning Guide, parents had the new role explained to them and were free to ask questions relating to uniform, equipment, dates and times etc. Francoise was on hand to introduce our catering service provided by Restaurant Ecole and the Apodo was on display to once again intruige all-comers. Two very successful evenings that got us off to an excellent start with our parents.

Queues were kept quite short

Uniform was on display

The inclusion team were present to answer any queries

Highlights from DfES E Mail

A good idea to subscribe to this email - full of excellent resources - some below : http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/atoz/e/emailalerts/

Everybody Writes is a new online resource which aims to help teachers get their pupils excited about writing. The website provides inspirational ideas and practical resources and will act as an online hub for teachers, allowing them to share information and expertise about promoting writing.
Funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Everybody Writes is a web-based initiative that has been developed by Booktrust in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.
http://www.everybodywrites.org.uk/

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) will launch VeloDream in September 2007. VeloDream is a unique competition that offers pupils across the UK the chance to design their dream VeloPark. The winning entries will not only help shape the actual design of the 2012 VeloPark but they will win the opportunity to work alongside world-class designers in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Downloadable teachers' resources will be provided to help teachers bring the energy, excitement and spirit of the Games into classrooms. Follow the link below to register for this competition or to find out more about the ODA and its role in delivering the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
http://main.london2012.com/en/gettinginvolved/education-resources/velodream+schools+competition

A free online resource pack entitled 'Book It!' is available which aims to help schools set up reading clubs and keep them going. It applies mainly to clubs for the top year of primary school and the first two years of secondary school, although much of the material can be used for any year group.
'Breakfast Club Plus' consists of guidance on setting up and sustaining breakfast clubs. The resource is aimed at anyone who is starting up a breakfast club or who wants to improve on the breakfast provision that they are currently offering.
'Sum It!' is a free online resource which uses study support to promote an increase in participation, enjoyment and attainment in maths. It's primarily aimed at those working with pupils at Key Stage 3.
'Taking Part' is a resource pack designed to assist children's services, working in partnership with other agencies, in making study support an integral part of raising the achievement of looked-after children, and of good corporate parenting.
http://www.continyou.org.uk/content.php?CategoryID=1147

Tuesday, 10 July 2007

Library Resources - From Bola

I am in the process of building and collating resources for the library at Oasis Enfield Academy.
Please can you make a list of resources and books that will contribute to your learning area in terms of:

Aiding the students’ understanding of your subject;
Helping the student extend their learning;
Operating as a valuable revision tool for your subject.

Please can I have the information by Tuesday the 17th of July at the very latest.

NB: You could include DVD’s and videos that are closely related to your programme of study e.g.: The DVD of Amazing Grace to teach an aspect of slavery.

Qwizdom Training

On Monday we were pleased to welcome Alan Diprose who is a trainer from the Qwizdom organisation. Qwizdom is an interactive device that allows students to "vote" or express preferences across a range of formats - from multiple-choice to sequencing and true / false. Soon we were able to utilise Powerpoint to create slides of our own that set up classroom resources in these formats. We also saw the way that Qwizdom will be able to add flavour to our parents' meetings, assemblies, staff meetings - the list is growing larger by the day ! Staff are encouraged to look round the Qwizdom website :

http://www.qwizdom.co.uk/

Life in the Classroom

In the last few days we have been pleased to welcome Hannah Jenkins and Rob Bird to the classroom as we get going with our lesson planning in earnest. It is good to see everyone working so well as a team, even though this is under fairly cramped circumstances !

Friday, 6 July 2007

Programme for Week Beginning 9th July

Monday 9th July
Plan Easy 2 feedback
Learning Family meeting schedule
Quizdom training 11-1pm
Prepare displays
Module development PE2
Prepare for Learning Family meeting

Tuesday 10th July
Review of Learning Family meeting
Module development PE2
Preview of Lea Valley Park

Wednesday 11th July
Outward Bounds Day - Lea Valley Park

Thursday 12th July
Feedback on PE2 preparation
3Es
Review of Lea Valley Trip
Module development - PE2

Friday 13th July
Cover / duties
Oasis conference preview
Module development - PE2
Week 2 / week 3 review/preview

Apodo Training - Thursday 5th July

On Thursday 5th July we were pleased to welcome Gavin from Tree of Knowledge who introduced us to the very wonderful Apodo resource. Apodo contains 100 interactives that emphasise different elements of enterprise in a highly original and hands-on way. We enjoyed not only the opportunity to try out the activities but also the inspirational input from Gavin, which very much chimed with the Oasis philosophy. Enjoy the pictures.

First Aid Qualification

We are keen to have a good number of colleagues trained to be First Aiders. It might be that your qualification has "lapsed" or that you are keen to be trained from scratch.

If you fall into either category, please make yourself known to John.

Inclusion Staff Meeting - Wednesday 4th July

Beth hosted a very successful meeting of the Inclusion Team and we were very pleased to have everyone on the team present - thanks to all.

In that time colleagues received an overview of our Academy Development to date as well as some detailed discussion about their important roles.

It was stressed that their role as "teachers" was on par with all other colleagues in the Academy.

Thursday, 5 July 2007

Year Seven Curriculum Model

We have tried to simplify the model in this description - requiring only that we cover the focus element of the competence rather than all 5 elements.

THEME defines CONTEXT
COMPETENCE(S) prompt LEARNING
SUBJECT provides CONTENT

A) Learning Competence – 5Rs
Two elements describing character – "resilience" and "responsible"
Two elements framing learning methods – "resourceful" and "reasoning"
"Reflective" providing L2L opportunities, primarily through the plenary

B) Second Focus Competence
To focus planning tightly, it is suggested that students experience a co-ordinated programme that features just the chosen highlighted element of the competence, ie "diversity," "team roles," "evaluate."

C) Tracking
We will track three elements within Plan Easy 2:
Competences (Learning and each descriptor of the second focus competence)
Literacy
A4L

At the start of each new module we will be provided with an update of common dimensions of numeracy, ICT and L2L that will be featured within the module.

Wednesday 5th July

We have had 5 one-hour sessions looking at the modules to good effect and made copious notes on our module overview sheets. Georgina and Jermaine found it possible to come in for the day and make some good progress on identifying the main themes for each of the modules - so we are confident that Janine and Rob will be able to do the same when they visit in the next couple of days.

Anita, Bola, Judy and Jenny used the Accelerated Learning Cycle to plan an introductory seesion on "Planning your Modules" for Janine's and Rob's session on Friday.

Oasis Academy Enfield