Three things worth knowing this week:

* We have less children. This NFER briefing puts numbers, consequences and strategies on the issue of the falling number of student entering schools. Primary schools have already felt the consequences of the decline and it is beginning to impact secondary schools too. What middle leaders need to know is that for every student who does not come through your doors there will be at least £6000 less income for your school. That can mean less resources, less staff and even, in some places, less schools. So if you are wondering why your senior team are putting a big emphasis on recruiting students, increasing class sizes, reducing the number of subjects offered or sharing resources with other schools this is probably, at least part of the reason why. What can you do as a leader? Think about the consequences for your teams e.g. can you set more self marking tasks so larger class sizes do not lead to increased workload?

* Ofsted Framework part 2: Maybe the most important point about Matt Bromley’s second Ofsted summary, curriculum and teaching, is that there is relatively little change here. If you are used to the idea of a curriculum which is; designed to meet the needs of different groups of students, based on research, effectively delivered and setting students up for success in the subject and life, then you need to keep on doing what you have been doing. What you might want to consider is the ‘assess, plan, do, review’ cycle as a way of enabling continuous improvement. Leaders and teachers alike should be able to talk about how the curriculum works to ensure that each student is making progress from their starting points. This is a great way to constantly review the quality of your planning and delivery as well as the progress of each student in order to create a genuinely inclusive curriculum.

* Attendance is marginally improving - according to DfE data but the rate of persistent absence has risen from 10% to 18% since before the pandemic. According to EEF, telling parents the number of days their children missed is more effective than telling them the percentage attended. Sending text messages at key moments like starts or ends of terms saying, ‘Sandra missed 5 days’ rather than ‘Sandra attended 90% of the time’ led to a small improvement in attendance. This is an interesting finding because it brings together the two key issues of attendance and inclusion. A warmer, more personal and relatable message might be a significant factor in improving home school relationships and the attitude of parents and students to school. An idea worth considering if you have responsibility for attendance or even if you are just making phone calls for your form group.

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3 things worth knowing this week

* Make a success list instead of a to do list - This was a simple piece of advice from the book The One Thing. A to do list is a way of getting things done with the satisfaction of ticking them off, whether or not they were important or useful. A success list, on the other hand is a way of identifying what matters in relation to your objectives and doing the things which achieve those objectives. If you have a number of small ‘urgent’ tasks to get done or you need to spend some quality planning or thinking time to execute a policy which really matters to you and which will make a big difference. Which do you choose? The urgent or the impactful? Choosing the urgent gets jobs done, choosing the impactful changes things and achieves your goals. Of course, the first thing you need to do is identify those goals or as we say in the Resilience Communities, identify your mission and objectives.

* The EEF Toolkit has been updated with the accompanying comment that leaders find it hard to understand how to put evidence into action. That is possibly because, although these toolkits are brilliant there is just so much information and it is hard to know what works in your context. Their research indicates that, possibly, as a consequence many leaders rely at least as much on their networks as they do on the evidence. One thing to share from this update is the most common uses of pupil premium funding. Schools are most likely to focus on issues relating to English and literacy, attendance and social, emotional and mental health and wellbeing. The funding is most commonly allocated to targeted academic support and high-quality teaching rather than interventions. In case you were wondering if what you are doing is normal, now you know. To find out whether or not it is effective look at the evidence brief, as ever high quality teaching is number 1 on the list.

* Homework is good - This overview of impactful homework policies argues that homework has an overall positive impact on students and staff, when it is set; consistently within and between subjects, enables revision and consolidation, through 1 platform (e.g. Google Classroom) so students can find it, in a way that teachers are responsible for checking not marking and makes appropriate use of AI. With reference to this final issue Peps McCrae cuts through the debate saying; ‘whoever does the thinking gets the learning’. If you have not already begun using AI you are now in the minority (Teacher Tapp). At the end of the day both homework and AI are only useful if they enable students to think more deeply about what they are learning and do their best.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com

The newsletter is taking on a new look. Each week I will be identifying 3 things worth knowing and summarising them in less than 3 minutes of reading or, for those who want to catch up in the car, listening. So if you know a leader with no time to read the educational news for themselves pass it on.

3 things worth knowing this week

* The Disadvantaged White children you teach really are harder to engage

John Jerrim (UCL) reviews the data to show significant gaps between the engagement and outcomes of this group of students and those in other groups. If you have felt like students from this group are not interested in learning and do not want to be at school, the data suggests that may be because that is true. This is not an article to excuse giving up but one that identifies the problem so we can find strategies to solve it.

* Ofsted want you to focus on inclusion

Matt Bromley reviews the 6 evaluation areas of the new framework beginning with inclusion - how a school meets the needs of all students especially those who are disadvantaged. Each school needs to define disadvantage according to the groups who they serve and justify the way in which it addresses their needs. This will include: SEND, disadvantaged and students supported by social services but inevitably others too. Matt suggests 6 things to focus on, which is most significant will depend on your role:

* Focus on high expectations

* Assess students’ needs early

* Maintain a continuous review cycle for each student

* Involve specialists when necessary

* Publish an evidence based Pupil Premium strategy

* Work closely with pupils, parents, professionals and staff

Perhaps the most useful comment in this article is; ‘We don’t do it for Ofsted. As educators, we do what we do for the children and communities we serve.’

* About half of teachers are content

Teacher Tapp asked teachers how content they were, the response was broadly positive but just over 20% of staff are at the discontent end of the scale. That is still potentially 1 in 5 of your colleagues with another 1 in 4 choosing the middle option. That could be down to the day the question was asked or the stage of life or career they are at but overall it means that only about half of teachers are content and that is worth taking into account in your interactions with colleagues and with yourself. For your own wellbeing it is worth considering the other conclusion, that the most content people were the ones who took part in exercise or social activities at the weekend!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com

Jo Howard gave some excellent advice about how to use a school holiday - it begins with binge watching in case you are worried. Last week we talked about working from rest, doing things in your holiday which build you up and refresh you for the year ahead. One way to do that is to use the relative calm of the summer to review the year gone by and consider what we want to achieve in the year(s) ahead. The (short) video above is the first of 4 designed to help you think about your work and personal life and make a plan, we call a Rule of Life.

Over the next 3 weeks there will be another 3 sessions focusing on:

* Values

* Objectives

* Habits and Community

The workbook to go with the videos is available by clicking the link and you can create your own Rule of Life. After you have completed all four videos and created your Rule of Life we encourage you to form or join a Resilience Community to support you to achieve what you set out to (personally and professionally) during the year ahead. There are ideas about creating your own community in the workbook or you can email [email protected] for more information about groups we will be running in the coming year.

Something to watch

In the spirit of summer binge watching this series is the story of an unbalanced but world famous chef who decides to open his own restaurant. It is as much about the psychology of all involved as it is about food. There are also some interesting reflections on leadership and motivation.

Something to read

What would you do if you knew you would fail? In this case what someone does when everything has already failed.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com