Plus points: Asking more of students

There’s a lot expected from sixth form teachers. No longer is it enough to be ‘just’ a subject specialist or an expert in teaching, learning and assessment. We’re data wranglers, tech buffs, invigilators, PR maestros, motivational speakers, progression dynamos, trips and visits (and, thus, health and safety) specialists. And by and large, teachers lean into their ever-developing roles, taking on their additional responsibilities with vigour and professionalism. We’re a dynamic, stoic and gritty bunch!

As part of the National Professional Qualification in Headship, candidates are expected to concoct, develop and deliver an implementation project. The parameters are that it has to be a school / college-wide project and be designed to stick around: something well-researched, evidence-based, impactful and likely to be sustained indefinitely. Given the readymade cohort of dynamic, stoic and gritty teaching staff at my disposal, my instinct was to craft something that was carried by them. They’d have obliged, I’m sure. But something didn’t feel ‘right’ about this approach. I’ve been in dozens of post-results meetings where the conversation has placed an emphasis on what more teachers can do to improve outcomes. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. After all, if there were no precedent set for continuous professional development, pedagogy and the education sector in general would never move onwards or upwards. I’ve always been struck, however, by the aversion to asking students to do things differently—or do more. Sharp intake of breath! I know, I know: How can we possibly ask a group of young people associated with a huge and growing mental health and wellbeing problem to up their ante? We see this very real crisis on a daily basis. It’s counter-intuitive (almost perverse) to load more onto our young people.

Having just outlined the fundamental skills (grit, dexterity, stoicism) that sixth form teachers need to survive and thrive, however, I’d argue that it’s almost perverse not to ask sixth form students to do things differently and, yes, do more. There’s a strong and historic evidence-base for this not only leading to better outcomes, better productivity and better-quality work, but also better wellbeing, which I’ll touch on later.

When deliberating with my line manager about what my implementation project should focus on, we decided that independent learning was an area that had head room for improvement. The starting point was to ascertain what the college was doing with regards to independent learning and what seemed to be working. As a college, we don’t have a strict homework policy. That has its benefits with regards to flexibility and autonomy. What we did find, however, is that the students of staff who set regular homework (i.e. weekly) seemed to have better outcomes and higher pass rates and value added, while retention was no lower. In short, students who received regular homework fared better and were gritty enough to see out their qualification.

There was also a second group of subjects that set pre-reading as homework. Again, nothing earth-shattering here, but there was another clear difference with regards to student success between subjects that set some kind of preparatory work and those that didn’t. The final pocket of good practice didn’t necessarily relate to a subject area, but to a group of students who were dotted around the curriculum offering. These students were highly motivated, clearly driven, organised and hard working. Many of us will have had ‘that’ dream student who just does it. They get what’s needed to succeed and they proactively pursue this. And therein lies the challenge. It’s a basic expectation for teaching staff to set homework and preparatory work. But can we - dare we - ask students to proactively set their own homework, read around their subject, engage with material that (heaven forbid) might not appear on their exam paper? Well, we can, we did, and we should.

By this point in the project, three clear strands of independent study were starting to emerge; directed (homework), preparatory, and self-directed. Lots of reading and theory were starting to make sense. Take the VESPA model, for example, a brilliant and accessible system fashioned by Steve Oakes and Martin Griffin, which outlines an ideal A Level mindset: Vision, Effort, Systems, Practice and Attitude. You’ll find details of each of these on the Vespa Academy website, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on Effort. Effort has to work in tandem with a growth mindset: A belief that you can always improve and develop and that natural ability does not predetermine your chances of success. In fact it is effort (‘the willingness to put in great amounts of time and effort’) that is more likely to determine success. VESPA also highlights two types of independent learning; reactive (directed work, set by the teacher) and proactive (work that the students set themselves). The latter is where the headroom was at our college. And it makes sense when you think about the expectations at school: I suspect ‘independent learning’ is not a big part of the pre-16 vernacular. I suspect even more that ‘self-directed independent learning’ is totally absent.

This difference in expectation was laid bare to me personally in a Film Studies lesson a few years ago. In my welcoming-but-assertive introductory lesson, I was outlining the components of success. I mentioned verbally that students would be well advised to undertake their own independent learning and read around the subject. “How do we do that?” enquired a brave, well-meaning newbie. I was vexed. My initial response was that the student had been somehow let down by her previous school. But then I realised that I’d assumed that every student sitting in an A Level classroom was well-versed in the art of self-directed independent study. Not so, clearly. And the more I delved into it, the more it became clear that, for me personally, this was a tool missing from my student’s toolbox. I set about rapidly trying to address this and fashion a finger buffet of resources, information, tasks, websites, podcasts, and periodicals related to Film Studies that my students could (and hopefully would) delve into.

Getting a single Film Studies class to understand the importance of and engage with self-directed independent learning was one thing. Encouraging 1700 students across two sites with buy-in from 100+ teaching staff was another. The campaign had to be clear, well-thought out and low-maintenance for staff. Here’s how we did it.

We focused on a September launch. We also felt independent study needed a rebrand. We settled on ‘Study Plus+’: not particularly sexy but, a little less banal than ‘homework’ or ‘independent study’. Next, we had to deliver this to staff. Teaching (and support staff) were the key to this project working. Without their understanding and buy-in, it would fall at the first hurdle. So, we essentially presented this new approach to independent study (Study Plus+) with the tagline ‘better grades, better value added, no additional workload’. That was met with some scepticism of course, but by and large staff were still paying attention. We then went on to explain that, rather than ask more of them in terms of support sessions pedagogical wizardry, and time, we were going to ask more of students. All staff were doing a third of Study Plus+ anyway, by setting homework, even if not all did so on a regular schedule. Most were doing two thirds by setting preparatory work as well. All teaching staff needed to do was give their students the tools to allow them to direct their own independent study. In short, a repository of ‘stuff’ that would develop a student’s knowledge and understanding of their subjects. It wouldn’t be marked and it was the student’s choice as to whether they utilised the additional support. Staff were asked to create three things; 1) a Study Plus+ guide, which was an instruction booklet on how to study independently. 2) A dedicated area on their subject Google Site which offered a range of advice and guidance on where to find useful resources, information, tasks etc. related to their subject. And 3) a section on their subject Google Classroom, where students could submit homework and access preparatory work.

Next we enlisted the support of parents and guardians. We didn’t shy away from the fact that we were going to be setting high expectations with regards to independent study. And we were humble enough to say we needed their help to make it work effectively. After all, parents see learners a lot more than teaching staff do. We expected quite a bit of fallout from parents but, aside from a handful of snippy emails, parents seemed to get it and supported the concept.

With parents onside, we turned our sights to the people most impacted by this project: the students. Their timetable was the first thing to change. Rather than having blank periods on their timetable or “free periods” as our students referred to them, students would now see ‘Study Plus+’ in their “frees”. We allocated a number of rooms as Study Plus+ rooms so that we could literally timetable their Study Plus+ periods. These sessions weren’t registered, but students knew where they could go to study independently. We then rolled out a series of presentations and activities in tutorial sessions so all students got the uniform message that Study Plus+ was important, necessary and expected. Finally, we created a Study Plus+ tracker, available to all students to document what Study Plus+ work they had done and for how long.

To use Ofsted language, we’d seemingly cracked the intent and implementation. What about the impact then? The obvious ultimate goal was to improve outcomes for learners: pass rates, high grades and value added, and also to improve retention. They’re lofty measuring sticks though and we’d need a couple of years to properly measure the impact against these criteria. We were clear that this was a cultural shift and they take a while to be realised. What we did see, however, was this: a three-fold increase in students using our learning centre. We knew this because students swipe in when they enter the LC. And the LC staff were bamboozled about the popularity of their fiefdom. The vernacular changed from “frees” and “homework” to “Study Plus+, Study Plus+, Study Plus+”. Staff and students alike know what it is and what the expectations are. Have our outcomes for learners improved this year? Well, no, not really. Our results are broadly in line with last year’s. However, the outgoing cohort only adopted Study Plus+ at the start of their second year; the tracking element wasn’t adopted particularly well, so we didn’t really get a clear picture of how much self-directed Study Plus+ was being done; and not all staff fully embraced the project. Interestingly, we did see an increase in the number of subjects with a 100% pass rate: no surprise that those with a 100% pass rate were Study Plus+ advocates.

What next? Well, Study Plus+ remains in place in almost the same guise as it did last year. The monitoring will improve however, and there will be a focus on consistency so that all students, regardless of the subject, get the same Study Plus+ experience. We will see whether long-range improved outcomes follow, but regardless of the stats, we are seeing students directing their own learning: a key skill for life and an important end in itself.

Learning and Recommendations

• Give teachers a break and ask students to step up.
• Introduce and outline independent study as a necessary element of success in education and beyond.
• Enlist the support of parents. They’ll be more agreeable than you think.
• Set up a good tracking and monitoring system to measure the impact of independent study.
• Check out The A Level Mindset and the VESPA model.
• Teacher seem to enjoy considering the skills and knowledge learners engage with outside the classroom, which may step outside the box of the spec and/or shed new light on it.

Simon Wright is Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Quality in the sixth form at Strode's College and Windsor College, part of the Windsor Forest Colleges Group.