One of the conversation points that's come up a lot recently is around the existence of The T&L Policy. They look beautiful, clearly a lot of work has gone into them, but they bear no reality to what's happening in the classrooms. Is this familiar to you? What's going wrong? - ThreadSky

adamboxereducation.bsky.social • 7 days ago

One of the conversation points that's come up a lot recently is around the existence of The T&L Policy.

They look beautiful, clearly a lot of work has gone into them, but they bear no reality to what's happening in the classrooms.

Is this familiar to you? What's going wrong?

Comments

teachingwrens.bsky.social•6 days ago

Easy to end up stuck. No, or poor, codified policy? People do whatever and hard to give ‘reasonable’ feedback. Detailed policy? Potentially just gathering dust with no impact. I think you need solid policy with *a lot* of (well-delivered) CPD in-person.

adamboxereducation.bsky.social•6 days ago

i agree a policy is needed, but i think too many people are essentially writing a description of what your dream school would look like, and that's not a smart move

teachingwrens.bsky.social•6 days ago

Yeah, I agree. Same problem could be applied to the curriculum I think. As (primary) English lead, it’s awfully tempting to write a bunch of fancy documents to create an English utopia, but I know they’d gather dust without proper action.

mathsimpact.bsky.social•7 days ago

Two school syndrome.

People needing to justify their roles.

Not understanding that a document on its own changes nothing.

doctorpreece.bsky.social•6 days ago

I think at least part of the problem is that people usually write from their own subject lens, and I don't know the extent to which T&L looks the same across all subjects/KS.

If you have a 'core' person, the assumption of frequency of lessons/non-optionality for e.g., but lots of nuance needed.

doctorpreece.bsky.social•6 days ago

So you end up with some bits applying - but when push comes to shove, you'll take the exam outcomes over the T&L principles for your KS4 classes, or you'll do it differently at A Level because...

But if you want a policy that's high-level enough to allow all that, it becomes genericism & pointless?

mrmountstevens.bsky.social•7 days ago

Depending on the policy this might be a good or a bad thing.

mrmountstevens.bsky.social•7 days ago

Obviously bad for leadership either way but not necessarily for learning.

adamboxereducation.bsky.social•7 days ago

Yes, cynical, but accurate

mrmountstevens.bsky.social•7 days ago

Call me Diogenes.

mrdhillow.bsky.social•6 days ago

it's largely down to the poor implementation IMO. Namely, too many focii, giving each one HT to implement, and above all else, just poor CPD (lack of applying the science of learning to teachers). But 'you get to mark your own hwk' so you can paper over this if you wish.

mr-n-wood.bsky.social•6 days ago

If your CPD programme doesn't reference your T&L policy, you've probably got a problem.

If you're going to take the time to write & maintain policies, staff training & development should align.

markgoodrich.bsky.social•7 days ago

Isn’t this just another symptom of two school syndrome?

adamboxereducation.bsky.social•6 days ago

I'm not sure. A lot of these people know that the things aren't being implemented, but think that part of the problem is the policy not being [x] enough

markgoodrich.bsky.social•6 days ago

So if I have understood you right, they are thinking that the answer to their policy not being implemented is…..more policy? 🤔

adamboxereducation.bsky.social•6 days ago

oh yeah for sure, that is what happens in a lot of places

markgoodrich.bsky.social•6 days ago

Reminds me a bit of my previous life where one office I worked in had a problem with a guy who always took a sickie on his first day back off holiday. Management answer - new very onerous sick day policy involving getting doctor's note!

dworker.bsky.social•6 days ago

I’ve never seen much point in writing a T&L Policy. But certainly there is a need to communicate a school’s vision for T&L in some way. But making that vision lived is surely about implementation. And that requires effective training and follow-up.

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