Options, SEND resource bases and improvement plans
11 questions you're asking; and how checklists increase recognition and reduce drama for students and staff
It’s that time of year when your students start thinking about what GCSE options they’ll do.
So, naturally there are lots of conversations about timetabling, blocking and choices happening inside the We Are In Beta community.
Members have also been asking questions about how to best manage onsite resource bases and alternative provisions.
Improvement planing and parent communications are high on the agenda too.
So, like last week, I’ve rounded 11 questions your fellow members have been asking in the community feed.
The kindness and generosity in the threads below is even more incredible than last week.
If you can add to it, please do.
It not, tapping the like button will let others know you see them and appreciate them
Your input is hugely appreciated by them and the We Are In Beta team.
Thanks for everyone who joined last week’s conversations.
We - schools - Are In Beta - always learning (when we ask questions, share answers and acknowledge others).
🤔📍11 questions you are asking
⚙️ How to use this bulletin board.
To help you decide (before clicking into them):
which conversations you can add the most value to and
which ones you can learn the most from…
…I’ve divided them into 3 groups:
A bit more input needed, threads available to all (🤝🙏🌐)
Really helpful answers worth reading, threads only available in a private, paying members only space (💡👀🔐)
Really helpful answers worth reading, threads available to all (but will be moving to private, members only space soon (💡👀🌐🔜🔐 )
Before we kick off…
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1. 🏫 SEND resource bases alongside mainstream
We use our Resource Base as a standalone feature but also interweaving with mainstream lessons. I am looking to find out how other schools work their mainstream lessons alongside their Resource Base students.
🤝🙏🌐
2. 🤖 Digital literacy
Hi Everyone, Can anyone share their experience of how they are incorporating digital literacy within their establishment? Thanks
🤝🙏🌐
3. 📋 School Improvement plan
Would anybody be willing to share with me a template for a School / Academy improvement plan?
Read replies here (including and attachment and a recommended blog)
🤝🙏🌐
4. 📈 Year 11 Raising Achievement plan
Hello - does anyone have a Y11 Raising Achievement action plan please?
Read replies here (including a very wise 7 point checklist)
💡👀🔐
5. 📚 Options and timetable
For Options choices, we currently have 3 options blocks where students select one subject from each block.
However, I have seen a number of school use only 2 blocks where students select any 2 from block B. If anyone's school does this, I would love to know how this is timetabled to allow for so any different combinations of choices students would pick.
For student choices, we would very much like to offer a similar options choice to students but would need to know how that logically works with timetabling.
Any help would be much appreciated!!
💡👀🔐
6. 📚 Ebacc - offering choice vs keeping numbers up
Hi there, I'm hoping to find out about how secondary schools deal with EBACC and the KS4 options process, particularly where they don't force all students down an EBACC route.
Two main things I'd like to know are:
If you allow freedom of choice, how do you keep EBACC numbers up?
And if you push some down the EBACC route, but not others, what criteria do you use for this?
We currently have an all EBACC offer, and are looking at changing this to be more flexible, but want to keep EBACC entries at around 80%.
Thanks in advance!
Read 7 replies here (including survey results from 95 DHTs)
💡👀🔐
7. ✅ Tracking Extra Curricular
I am interested in schools who have found an effective way to track student involvement in extra curricular activities. Thank you
Read replies here (including 3 software recommendations)
💡👀🔐
8. 📅 Timetable models
We are going to a 9 form entry next year. Could anyone share their timetable model - we are looking at 5 groups on one side of the year and 4 on the other, but would like to consider other models if they work. Many thanks.
Read 5 replies here (including a timetabling service recommendation)
💡👀🌐🔜🔐
9. 🏡 Home-school agreements
Does anyone have a home school agreement resource?
Thanks,
Read replies here (including a link to access 25 homeschool agreements below)
💡👀🌐🔜🔐
10. ✅ Attendance - letters, processes and fun stuff
I've been in post as an AHT for attendance for 5 weeks now and I'm building our systems and processes. I am looking for support with 3 different areas at the moment:
1. Good quality letters!
2. Attendance processes.
3. Fun stuff. What do different schools do to recognise good attendance?
Looking forward to hearing from everyone.
Read replies here (including an offer to share a bank of resources)
💡👀🌐🔜🔐
11. 🤝 Inclusion and resources bases
Can anyone recommend a secondary school that has a really strong inclusion culture/structure and set up? Ideally has a resource base too. Would love to forge a connection and share practice
Read 8 replies here (including open invitation to visit and join a call to discuss)
💡👀🌐🔜🔐
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On a personal note
Last week I discussed the problem you suffer if you allow absence blindness to bias your perception of your colleagues and/or students.
This week, I share a solution.
If you missed it, here’s a summary of the phenomenon:
you are more likely notice and reward colleagues and/or students who cause problems and then fix them, than those who quietly get the job done (because you are blind to the absence of drama)
It’s not fair.
It’s the quiet and dependable ones who should be recognised and rewarded.
They shouldn’t be disadvantaged just because you don’t see their good work.
So how do we turn the tables?
One way is checklists.
When you plan in advance what you will do to achieve a task and write the steps down, you make invisible visible.
You can now see what, and how, the quiet and dependable ones are doing.
Checklists also provide a recipe for success that might help prevent your more chaotic colleagues and students from causing issues.
Why am I telling you this?
Two reasons:
I’ve been guilty of overlooking the quiet and dependable ones - both students and staff. If this can help you avoid it too, that’s a good thing.
There is a lot of invisible work that goes into running a community of school leaders and teachers - carried out, not least of, all by our Community Manager, Tom. So I want to make the invisible work he does visible
Here’s the checklist that guarantees our paying members benefit from the expertise of their peers in other schools and MATs
(when they ask questions in the community feed):
Read and understand the question and the profile of the colleague asking it
Record and tag the question with a topic (see tracking system below)
Find a selection of members who are well placed to answer the question (using our not so little black book): eg location, job title, experience, subject, school type and more)
Message those members to ask them if they’d be happy to help out the member
Manage responses: thank members for contributing, ask clarifying questions, bring them to the original poster’s attention, reach out to more members if needed
Evaluate the responses - ask the member how the responses have helped. Repeat process above if necessary.
Would that be helpful for a question you’re grappling with right now? Ask it here
Thanks for reading.
@NiallAlcock and the We Are In Beta team
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