Having been a subject coordinator for several years I feel I have made some headway into developing my understanding of quality subject monitoring (although as my subject is changing I still have much to learn!). So often have I been asked by subject coordinators for evidence of planning for "monitoring purposes" with no insight to the focus except seemingly to "put in the subject folder where it will never be looked at again but at least it looks like I have done something for my subject this year...." I myself have been guilty of this in the early stages of subject leadership; being handed the 'subject file' full of lovely photographs of displays and photocopies of planning it seemed like the right thing to do but as time went on I realised that this was having no impact on the teaching and learning of the children and in fact it seemed to be a case of "suffocation by folders". My cupboard was beginning to resemble Rymans and this endless paperwork was beginning to blur the lines of what was actually important and what we really needed to focus on when developing our subjects.
Apart from being environmentally unfriendly, this suffocation by folder approach to subject monitoring is also a waste of everyone's time. For monitoring to be meaningful and have an impact on learning (which, lets be honest, should be why we are doing it) it must have a clear focus which will allow the school to assess where they are and where they need to be.
Apart from being environmentally unfriendly, this suffocation by folder approach to subject monitoring is also a waste of everyone's time. For monitoring to be meaningful and have an impact on learning (which, lets be honest, should be why we are doing it) it must have a clear focus which will allow the school to assess where they are and where they need to be.
- What good practice are we already doing?
- What impact are we having on learning?
- What can we do better?
Monitoring obviously poses it's own potential problems; it would be lovely if everyone did everything they were supposed to; all showing exemplary practice but not just to be happy to settle - always looking for a way to improve and develop their own practice. Hurrah! The perfect staff! However, I am a realist. There will always be people who feel like you are 'out to get them' and see monitoring as a personal attack, almost as if you have put up wanted posters around the school "Wanted for not using the correct coloured pen when showing verbal feedback!" "Quick, everyone give them a wide berth so you aren't tainted with their uselessness!" Monitoring is not useful if it is not truthful and that sometimes means having to call people out when they are not meeting expectations. I tend to link monitoring to training I have completed in staff meetings; sewing the seed of "I will be looking at x y and z in my monitoring during the summer term......" because if people are given clear expectations and have been told the exact purpose and focus of the monitoring; then they can ensure that they have the necessary evidence, if they don't they have to be accountable; there are no grounds for complaint (You would think, although it's amazing how people can still argue with your findings when they themselves have failed to provide the evidence! An email along this vein is what has actually prompted this blog post).
We bandy round the term accountability all of the time; how it has gone mad and people are afraid to take risks for fear of accountability. But, is accountability always a bad thing? Sometimes we have to be accountable for the things we do or don't do, there has to be some form of consequence for doing or not doing something because if not, what is the point? it just becomes another piece of paper in another folder.......
We bandy round the term accountability all of the time; how it has gone mad and people are afraid to take risks for fear of accountability. But, is accountability always a bad thing? Sometimes we have to be accountable for the things we do or don't do, there has to be some form of consequence for doing or not doing something because if not, what is the point? it just becomes another piece of paper in another folder.......