Building a Whole School Culture of Scholarship

scholarship

I have been teaching at my current school since 2001 and I love it. It is a fantastic school and the staff and pupils are brilliant. However, while the vast majority of our pupils are determined to achieve a good crop of GCSE grades by the end of Y11, I have often been struck by the lack of a real thirst for learning for learning’s sake. And, as a teacher of English, I have been frustrated by some pupils’ lack of knowledge or even interest  in politics and culture. This matters hugely. As @websofsubstance says here  , ‘knowledge is what you think with.’ Not only that but a lack of cultural knowledge can lock pupils out of texts, particularly at A Level. Even more worrying is the fact that ‘what you know’ impacts on your self image; the kind of people you feel comfortable with and, by extension, the path you follow after school: a lack of cultural capital can place a ceiling on a pupil’s aspirations.

I had been thinking about this problem for some time when I happened to hear Ruth Powley, a DHT in Wallasey, speaking about her approach to developing More Able pupils at her school, Weatherhead. Inspired by her approach, I have spent the year working with colleagues to take the first steps in building a culture of ambition and scholarship amongst the student population.

Creating an Inclusive Year 7 Scholarship Programme

We took  as our starting point the Y7 Most Able cohort – a group of around 15 pupils with an average of 5A in English and Maths and a CATs score of 115 or over. We prioritised those pupils with high ‘non verbal’ CATs scores. Having identified this group, we then included Pupil Premium pupils who had achieved high SATs scores at the end of Y6 or who achieved high scores in CATs testing. These pupils were to form the core cohort.  I then went into Y7 assemblies to introduce the programme to Y7 and to invite pupils to nominate themselves.

I introduced the following rationale:

The purpose of the programme is:

  • to harness the ambition and academic purpose of pupils joining the school;
  • to celebrate and promote a scholarly attitude to learning;
  • to develop the skills associated with scholarship;
  • to build cultural capital;
  • to work in partnership with parents and guardians;
  • to develop a group identity within the scholarship programme.

 

We opted to use the language of scholarship because we felt it emphasised the role of hard work, determination and independence in academic success and the cohort – now forty strong – was divided into ‘Scholarship Forms’ each with its own form tutor, who would act as a mentor to their form and as a point of contact for the pupils and their parents. Tutors would also review the progress of their charges at each whole school reporting point and be a presence at parents evenings.

All pupils undertook to meet fortnightly to attend ‘lectures’ aimed towards building their cultural capital and to complete the Edexcel Level 1 project, in order  to develop the skills of scholarship, such as independent research .

At the first of these meetings pupils took part in an ambition audit – one of Ruth Powley’s fantastic ideas –and where appropriate the results were communicated to the relevant department. If one of our pupils dreams of being an astronaut, the Science department should be aware of it.

One of the best things about this project is that staff have really got behind it: our Head of Physics lectured on time travel and one of our brilliant English teachers spoke about The Nose by Gogol. Pupils have also enjoyed talks on the political situation in the Congo and the treatment of snake bite victims. They have also been given a tour of Anfield cemetery by a local historian. It has certainly been an eclectic programme, but our scholars have responded very positively indeed. This coming year, I intend to rope parents in to speak on their areas of expertise.

What next?

Our intention is to grow the programme – creating vertical forms with the incoming Year 7 scholars. This will create opportunities for peer to peer mentoring and we envisage our established scholars leading workshops on scholarship skills, such as independent research.

My hope is that as our scholars develop a group identity and grow in confidence, the programme will begin to have an impact that extends beyond the relatively small number of pupils who are directly involved.

I’d be grateful for any suggestions about how to take the project forward.

radiating_ripples

 

6 thoughts on “Building a Whole School Culture of Scholarship

  1. wendy maria

    I just love this Jamie and feel the need for a face to face chat about what exactly you did. Now we are ‘further along our journey’ towards coming out of SM I feel that this year I can really develop some ‘more able’ projects/activities and this is right up my street. Things were a bit on hold last year due to circs but more able students is in my remit and I need to up the ante this year so will be coming for advice if that’s OK.

    Reply
    1. deadshelley Post author

      Really happy to talk any time, Wendy. Early on next term? TBH it would be good to talk. There are aspects of next year’s programme that I need to clarify. Thanks for your support, Wendy 🙂

      Reply
  2. Rachel Walmsley

    Can I suggest that you approach RSC education in Stratford and look into accessing their workshop programme? I’ve trained with them this last year and am now filtering their approach out to local schools: the results are amazing across the board. We use rehearsal room techniques to access Shakespeare’s text, with history, drama, language analysis, ethics – you name it- all thrown into the mix. It’s an outstanding programme and the impact is amazing. Feel free to email if you have Qs or I think you follow me on Twitter (@rjw66rjw)

    Reply
  3. Jill Berry

    Thanks for this, Jamie.

    Just one thought about the word ‘scholarship’. I taught (English) for 30 years and, after finishing, embarked on a Professional Doctorate in Education. I found that the tutors at the university talked about ‘scholarship’ all the time – and about the process of ‘becoming a scholar’ through the doctoral programme. I realised it was a word that I had very rarely heard through my teaching career.

    Good that it’s being heard here! Very best wishes with your work.

    Reply
    1. deadshelley Post author

      Jill – Thank you very much for commenting on the post and for adding weight to my feeling that scholarship and the associated skills should be promoted in our schools.

      I’ll blog about the progress of the programme.

      Reply

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