Getting off to a strong start

So much of the first 6 weeks is about 'setting the weather' for your students. What will your expectations be of them? What will they learn to expect of you? What routines will you establish so that a calm and safe environment is formed?

What follows are a selection of resources to help you to get off to the best possible start with your students. We don't expect that all of the content will be relevant to you all but hopefully there'll be one or two nuggets that each of you can take forward for the new academic year.

'In 2015-16 over 33,000 students dropped-out of their college programmes within the first six weeks before passing the crucial funding benchmark of 42 days. It is a rising trend. In 2014-15 the figure was 32,000 and in 2013-14 29,000. Level One courses suffer the highest drop-out rates with 10% within the first six weeks followed by Level Two at 8% and Level Three at 4%. Some of the students may join other programmes but a significant number become NEET at a high personal cost to their life chances and a significant cost for colleges in respect of lost income. Success is the answer. Within the first few lessons students will be silently appraising whether or not they have made the right choice. Clearly too many decide not. The most common reasons for drop-out relate to a sense of isolation and a sense of limited progress. Success within the first four to six weeks can transform attitudes, build self-belief, generate a ‘can-do’ spirit and a commitment to achieving the relevant study goals.'

Click here to read Bradley Lightbody's recommendations for 'Success in 6 weeks'

If you are about to enter the busy new academic year then you need to consider, first and foremost, how you'll be taking care of yourself before you can give your all to your students. We have shared our top tips below and a video about why you're a hero.

This guide (available in a variety of formats) is crowdsourced advice from various practitioners currently working in the FE and Skills Sector. It contains timeless and valuable ideas for getting off to a good start - whether that's keeping records, enabling digitally supported learning, establishing positive behaviour routines, or working collaboratively with your LSA.

Why not read a couple of articles alongside colleagues in your team and use some of the upcoming Friday morning meeting and CPD slot to discuss it?

Click here to access the guide

The 'meet and greet' worked well last academic year at the main entrance of Olive Grove; instilling students with a professional attitude the moment they walk in the door with all of them saying 'good morning', putting lanyards on and taking hats off. The change to this campus is remarkable in comparison to previous years. This welcoming of students has continued into the classrooms and workshops, where staff have been shaking hands with students as they enter and further instilling professional behaviours.

Steve Enright, a lecturer in Motor Vehicle, asked his students what they thought of the new 'meet and greet' approach and they shared the following:

1. It makes them feel valued as I greet them as an individual not as a collective.
2. All students are treated the same and no-one is allowed to slip into the classroom under the radar so to speak. The quiet members of the class have to engage with you verbally which is improving their confidence.
3. It makes them smile as I am trying to say good morning to them in different languages and accents just to make the meet and greet a more positive experience.

Steve has said, 'I wasn't sure about the policy to start with but having tried it I actually like greeting my students in the morning and will continue to do so as part of my daily routine, I can sense the students really do like it too. It's also very rewarding to put a smile on their faces, this positivity is carried into the classroom in both the student and myself.'

Once you've decided how you'll welcome your students into their classroom or workshop then it's about ensuring they're 'ready for learning' as soon as possible after they step through the door. Doug Lemov refers to these parts of your lesson as 'threshold' and 'strong start'.

Threshold

Your chosen 'meet and greet' approach is a great tool for building relationships with your students - 'It helps you set expectations for your class before students enter the room. And the best teachers use it to build relationships too- to greet each student by name and maybe say a little something personal (“Loved your homework”; “Ooh. New haircut. Nice.”)'

Click here to view one approach to 'threshold'

Click here to view another approach to 'threshold'

Whatever approach you choose, it will be unique to you but it should be designed to get students in the right frame of mind for learning.

Strong Start

Once students have entered a session, it is now your task to get them focussed on learning as quickly as possible.

Click here to view how this teacher ensures all students have what they need to begin their learning

The first moment of your class is in many ways the most important in setting expectations for what will happen there for the next hour. That’s why Doug Lemov loves this clip of Alonte Johnson starting his 7th grade English class at King’s Collegiate in Brooklyn. 'He’s clear and direct. His routines are simple and efficient. He balances just the right amount of formality to show that the endeavours of his class are serious without being harsh. And he communicates so much of what he expects with his tone and body language.'

Click here to watch the clip and view Doug Lemov's commentary

The classroom “weather” can be changeable, and I have found that it’s important to establish routines to counter this. One of the constants in my classroom every year is a set of name cards. In lesson 1, my students each place their first name on a folded piece of card. I use their names as much as possible during the lesson so that I can get to grips with their names quickly ('What do you think Nasser, sat to the right of Dan and the left of Melissa?') and the students hand their name cards back to me at the end of lesson 1.

For every single lesson of the remainder of the year, students enter the room and sit in the seat indicated by wherever their name card has been placed.

I established this routine when I first began teaching as I never had a base room and needed to run around the building from one class to the next, invariably meaning I had 5 minutes to get the room ready for the arrival of my students and for learning to commence. Getting the name cards out was a way of me making the space my own as quickly as possible.

• I found that if students decided where they sat, some were more productive than those who chose to sit next to their friends.
• I found that if I had one seating plan and kept it for longer than a couple of weeks, especially in the first term, cliques were quickly formed and there was a distinct lack of cohesion, conducive to learning, across the group.
• The physical use of the cards in the room allowed me to, later on in the term, see where the students were in relation to me, to others, to the board... so that I could adjust the seating around to maximise everyone's learning experience.

This routine, like so many other routines I establish early on, involve a change designed to take students outside their comfort zone, while retaining enough that’s familiar to ensure they feel safe.

This is where first impressions are formed- of your students, of you, of the course itself. It's your first opportunity to establish high expectations and routines for learning but it's a crucial time for 'building rapport'- allowing students the time to get to know one another and for you to get to know them.

What follows are a few ideas to inspire your first lessons-

There will be stacks of paperwork for students to compete in their first few days with us. Plan when these need top be done so that they're not all squeezed into the first lesson. This way, you'll have a chance that the students leave feeling excited about their future studies rather than filled with dread.

• Spread the paperwork out and get started on the content students are interested in learning. Hook them into their new College course from Day 1.
• Give them a flavour of what to expect so that they can be sure they're on the right course within the first week (making any necessary transfers less of a headache).
  
• Starting on content straight away also means that an early assessment deadline can be set so that students feel a sense of achievement, you get some marking out of the way, and you have a better sense of what students need to do to progress.

Amjad Ali - @ASTsupportAAli

This question can reveal some early clues about your students. Encourage them to be as honest as possible with you.

Last year, through this early activity, I learned that one student had been expelled from school and had found classroom environments a challenging place for him to be. I learned from several others that they wanted to pass English GCSE but didn't know if they would. They were nervous. I learned from another that they had young children, a night job, and were caring for a sick parent. They were concerned about workload.

All of these revelations enabled me to work more effectively with these individuals from day 1, rather than stumble on through the year until we worked out what was going on and it was perhaps too late to do anything about it.

Beyond any icebreakers you may wish to undertake with students (Lee Gundry, Lecturer in Sport at The Sheffield College, has a series of competitive challenges here), one great way to get to know students is to discuss their hopes for the year ahead. What grade would they like? What skills and/or attributes would they like to develop further? What kinds of experiences would they love to have?

Here are some ideas-

• Ask students to each write themselves a letter that they can open at the end of the year to see how well they progressed towards what they had hoped.
• Ask them to write their hopes on a balloon, kite or rocket and display on the wall so it's visible all year.
• Ask them to write a commitment- what behaviours will they need to display all year if they are to make their hopes a reality.

This is a great summary blog for the start of the year from Shaun Allison, author of 'Making Every Lesson Count'.

@shaun_allison

We wish you and your students the best of luck for your first 6 weeks and we look forward to hearing all about what you've been doing!

@tsc_staffdev

staffdevelopment@sheffcol.ac.uk