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Using coaching to support network objectives
January 2008
Lead Teacher and Lead School
Carol Harrison, The Sir John Colfox School, Bridport, Dorset
Main objectives of the network:
To increase pupil autonomy within MFL at KS3 by focusing on:
- Independent reading skills and strategies
- The use of the target language by both pupils and teachers
How many schools are involved in the network?
5 - The Sir John Colfox School, The Woodroffe School, Beaminster School, The Thomas Hardye School, Budmouth Technology College
Description of how the network was launched:
Requests for initial interest in the project were sent out to all schools within the LEA by our County Consultant, Pat Pinchin. In addition, applications were requested from schools interested in becoming Lead Schools.
A meeting was held for all interested schools to outline the purpose of the project and schools were roughly divided into geographical area groupings. After the meeting, schools were asked to commit to the project and Lead Schools were selected on the basis of their applications.
Another meeting was then held with the final schools and the geographical networks were given time to think about possible areas of focus. My own network decided upon two objectives, split between the five schools. Two schools have focussed on reading strategies and three on improving the use of target language.
We also decided to use coaching as a way of developing the teaching of colleagues in our own departments, in relation to the objectives above. In the first instance, each teacher from each school identified one member of their department who they would invite to take part in a small-scale co-coaching programme to support work on our objectives at department level.
Our first meeting with all participating schools took place in the first week of October 2007 and considered the principles of coaching and possible MFL strategies related to our chosen areas of focus.
Any advice you may give to others looking to set up a network:
- Where possible, create networks which have similar areas of interest to work in rather than by geographical location or sector (primary / middle / secondary)
- Plan all your dates for the year in advance and make sure everyone has a copy and knows for what they will be responsible
- Have clear, measurable outcomes and identify support you will need early on
- Choose one class to focus on
- Choose one other member of your department to work with to share good practice/ resources
Briefly, what are the future plans of the network?
We have a full plan for the year which will give each participating teacher the chance to observe and coach in another school.
We will develop coaching expertise through county level inset using consultants whose experience lies outside of MFL.
We will use questionnaires to gauge student response at the beginning and end of the project.
There will be opportunities for extra visits to other schools in the network to observe coaching projects in those schools.
The LA consultant will remain fully involved in the SLN project work by taking part in full coaching cycles in order to monitor it.
CILT wishes to thank Carol for writing this case study.
