A geodesic dome that can be used to grow vegetables throughout the year.
Teacher retention
Research published in a recent report from the National Foundation for Educational Research finds that the proportion of teachers who are considering leaving the profession has risen from 17% to 23% over the past year.
“Protective factors associated with retention include job satisfaction, having adequate resources, reward and recognition, and being well supported by management.”
Interviews with a self-selecting sample of disengaged teachers indicate that “workload is at the centre of why teachers are considering leaving. This is often perceived to stem from two main drivers – policy and inspection. According to interviewees, a high workload is associated with
two other negative outcomes – poor health or feeling undervalued – which leads to teachers wanting to leave.”
The research found “no evidence of any influence of a school’s proportion of free school meal pupils, academy status or region on intent to leave the profession“.
“Maths teachers and senior leaders have high levels of engagement and are less likely to be considering leaving. Conversely, science teachers, and experienced male teachers have a heightened risk of leaving.”
What’s the problem in science? And why experienced male teachers? It’s a fact that we have only one male teacher.
Reference:
Lynch, S., Worth, J., Bamford, S. and Wespieser, K. (2016). Engaging Teachers: NFER Analysis of Teacher Retention.Slough: NFER.
Key ideas in The Lean Startup
Reference: ‘The Lean Startup’ by Eric Reis
Entrepreneurship requires a managerial discipline to harness the entrepreneurial opportunity.
Lean startup adapts ideas from lean thinking to the context of entrepreneurship, viz drawing on the knowledge and creativity of individual workers, the shrinking of batch sizes, just-in-time production and inventory control, and an acceleration of cycle times.
Lean startup uses ‘validated learning’ as a unit of progress.
Startups have an engine of growth. Every new version of a product, every new feature, and every new marketing program is an attempt to improve this engine of growth. … not all of these changes turn out to be improvements, new product development happens in fits and starts. Much of the time in a startup’s life is spent tuning the engine by making improvements in product, marketing, or operations.
The Lean Startup method involves driving the startup by making constant adjustments with a steering wheel called the Build – Measure – Learn feedback loop. Through this process of steering, learn when and if it’s time to make a sharp turn called a pivot or whether to persevere along the current path.
Throughout the process of driving the startup there is a destination in mind: a thriving business – the startup’s vision. To achieve that vision startups employ a strategy which includes a business model, a product road map, a point of view about partners and competitors, and ideas about who the customer will be. The product is the end result of this strategy.
Products change constantly through the process of optimization (tuning the engine of growth). Less frequently, the strategy may have to change (called a pivot). However, the overarching vision rarely changes. Entrepreneurs are committed to seeing the startup through to that destination.
Tools for business design & test
Quotes from the books Value Proposition Design and Business Model Generation by Osterwalder & Pigneur
“The business model design process … has five phases: Mobilize, Understand, Design, Implement, and Manage.
… the Understanding and Design phases tend to proceed in parallel.
Business model prototyping can start early in the Understanding phase, in the form of sketching preliminary business model ideas.
… prototyping during the design phase may lead to new ideas requiring additional research – and a revisiting of the Understand phase.
… the last phase, Manage, is about continuously managing your business model(s). In today’s climate, it’s best to assume that most business models, even successful ones, will have a short lifespan. Considering the substantial investment an enterprise makes in producing a business model, it makes sense to extend its life through continuous management and evolution until it needs complete rethinking. Management of the model’s evolution will determine which components are still relevant and which are obsolete.”
“The Environment Map helps you understand the context in which you create.
The Business Model Canvas helps you create value for your business.
The Value Proposition Canvas helps you create value for your customers.”
“The value proposition is visible and tangible and thus easy to discuss and manage. It perfectly integrates with the Business Model Canvas and the Environment Map, two tools that are discussed in detail in Business Model Generation … Together, they shape the foundation of a suite of business tools.
The Value Proposition Canvas zooms into the details of two of the building blocks of the Business Model Canvas.”
Primary school accountability measures
Reference: Primary school accountability in 2016 – A technical guide for primary maintained schools, academies and free schools. Department for Education. January 2016
Headline measures of school performance to be published in 2016 are:
- the percentage of pupils achieving the ‘expected standard’ in all three of English reading, English writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2.
- the pupils’ average scaled scores – separate measures for:
# English reading at the end of key stage 2;
# mathematics at the end of key stage 2. - the percentage of pupils who achieve at a high standard in all three of English reading, English writing and mathematics.
- the pupils’ average progress from key stage 1 to the end of key stage 2 – separate measures for:
# English reading;
# English writing;
# mathematics.
Regen SW
“An independent not-for-profit that uses its expertise to work with industry, communities and the public sector to revolutionise the way we generate, supply and use energy.”
Assessment test vs teacher assessment
An earlier post explained how the expected standard is set for national curriculum assessment tests. Scaled scores are used to enable comparison from year to year.
- 80 is the lowest scaled score that can be awarded.
- 120 is the highest scaled score.
- A pupil awarded a scaled score of 100 or more has met the expected standard.
Teacher assessment uses the concepts of ‘working towards the expected standard’, ‘working at the expected standard’ and ‘working at greater depth within the expected standard’. As explained at the bottom of the page here, there are no scaled score equivalents for these concepts.
Standards for 2016 national curriculum assessment tests
Tests for key stages 1 & 2 are developed using test frameworks. There is a framework for each subject in each stage; this sets out:
- what will and won’t be assessed by the test;
- how each element of the subject will be assessed;
- the structure of the test;
- the standard a child will be expected to achieve in the test.
Once a test has been developed, the standard is set for it by two panels of experienced teachers operating independently of each other. The ‘bookmark process’ is used: items in the test are ordered by difficulty from easiest to most difficult and the panels use their professional judgement to decide whether two-thirds of pupils working just at the expected standard would answer each question correctly. The resulting score represents the expected standard on the test. It corresponds to a scaled score of 100.
Scaled scores are used because the difficulty of the test will vary slightly from year to year. The actual scores obtained by pupils – the raw scores – are converted to scaled scores. A scaled score of 100 will always represent the expected standard on the test. Pupils scoring 100 or more will have met the expected standard on the test.
Plymouth Energy Community
Plymouth Energy Community (PEC) is a community benefit society, therefore regulated by the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Goals are: to reduce energy bills; to improve energy efficiency; and to generate a green energy supply in the city. Projects including at the Life Centre and schools have been funded by loans from Plymouth City Council and ‘solar share offers’ in 2014 and 2015. This year’s share offer seeks funding to replace the short-term construction loan that was used to build Ernesettle community solar.
A role for the vice-chair of governors?
Writing in Governing Matters, the magazine of the National Governors Association (NGA), Clare Collins comments that the role of the vice-chair of a school’s board of governors often involves little more than waiting to step in when the chair is unavailable. She makes the following suggestions for how the role could involve much more.
Succession planning is important for long term stability of the board. If the vice-chair were the planned successor to the current chair, who should arguably have a fixed term of office, time in the role could be used actively to develop knowledge and capability in preparation for becoming the chair. Continue reading “A role for the vice-chair of governors?”