M: First can you introduce yourself and tell me about your role at Yewlands?
L: I’m Lucie Wainwright and I am the Assistant headteacher here at Yewlands (which sounds very posh.) As a teacher, I teach PE. My leadership role is that I line manage PE and PSHE. The leaders of that are accountable to me and I check to make sure they are doing their job as leaders and that is what being a line manager is. My wider role is obviously in charge of Project based learning across the school but obviously specifically with year sevens. And that involves developing staff who teach it, setting curriculum, setting structures and guide what is taught within PBL. Also, this role involves oversight and line management of the students as well. I am ultimately responsible for the academics of every child in year seven. Thats ultimately 168 students that I line manage as well. I need to make sure the teachers are doing everything in their power to make sure the kids are making progress.
M: Can you remind me what PSHE is again?
L: PSHE is personal, social, and health education. It covers sex and relationships education, financial education, and we are strongly encouraged to deliver anti-bullying education. Along side that, we deliver citizenship education, health education in terms of health and hygiene and we spend a lot of time developing social skills so you students can learn how to get along with each others inside and outside of school. A lot of that lives within PSHE. If it wasn’t all there, it wouldn’t be taught anywhere else. PSHE is also delivered to every kid in the school all the way up to year 11.
M: How did you first get into teaching?
L: Oh wow...it seems like a long time ago. When I left school at 18, which you call graduation, I wasn't really clear on what I wanted my career path to be so I then spent the next two years living different lives. I spent nine months living in the states working as a summer camp counselor in New York and then I moved back over to London and I worked as a “house sister” in a private girls school where they were boarded. It was a posh school with posh kids and on the weekends they needed someone to be responsible for them. I would make sure they did their homework, their laundry and I would drive them to places around London to get this, that and the other. I also had a large budget and I would keep them amused and occupied for the weekends. We took some lovely trips into London, to musicals and toured the city. During the week, I would be a reader and I would help little kids read. It was a brilliant year. So much fun. All that made me decide that I did want to teach. I knew that I always wanted to teach sport and of course I have stuck to that decision. I then went to Sheffield Hallum University and I earned a Sports Science Degree and completed units like biology and anatomy. Obviously it’s a very science based degree. After three years of all that, I popped out and I walked into my first teaching job. I guess the answer of why I wanted to become a teacher is because it was my calling. You can’t decide that you want to make yourself a teacher. You either are. Or you’re not. I think going into teaching in this country also means that you can specialize and teach your passion. I have been able to do what I am passionate about. I am not contained to a classroom. I am lucky enough to go outside and do most of my work outside.
M: When did you begin teaching at Yewlands?
L: I have been here for 12 years. I began teaching in 1998 and I was at my first school for five years so I began teaching here for 12 years.
M: What was it like when you got here? Was it like this or something completely different?
L: Nope. This building didn’t exist. The last government put aside money to rebuild schools because schools were in such terrible shape and out of the 27 schools in Sheffield they picked the top four that needed work. We were number 1 on the list. The school was disgusting. It was built in the 30s or 40s and the roofs were leaking and windows were broken. As a PE teacher, we worked in a really old nasty gym that had old, clanky heating and I felt like I was teaching in a different era. The physical building was horrible. As a place, we served a very deprived area and that culture was in this school. It was a rough school. If you ever told anybody you worked at Yewlands, there would be a sharp intake of breath. It was really rough. It had a horrific reputation for being a tough school. In my first year of moving here, I clearly remember having to be locked and protected by Tony and Tim in PE in the storage cupboard. They had to stand guard in front of it because a parent was running through the school after me with a baseball bat because I had allegedly called her daughter fat. Everyday in the first two years of my career, I have had to split up fights and have been caught in the middle of physical violence. I had been told to go do all sorts of things and that was daily life at the school. It was tough. It was really really a challenge. Over the years it has become something completely different with a completely different culture. It’s changed and I think that is really powerful to have been apart of that change. We are in a completely different school. It still has all the same kids because the area out there has not changed. It’s still a deprived area and the kids have still got horrific backgrounds and challenging circumstances. Their parents have low literacy and numeracy levels. None of that's changed. But the culture of when the kids walk through this gate, has changed. That is ultimately going to make a difference for those kids. The school was a very different place compared to how it is now.
M: If you were talking to someone who was unsure whether or not they wanted to become a teacher, what would you say?
L: It’s something that you can’t decide for someone else. I couldn’t just walk up and say: “Oh yes, you should teach...it’s a wonderful career choice.” Because, it has to be in your heart. I guess what I would say to them is: “Go spend significant time in a school.” Not just a day where you get shown all the nice things. But do what you are doing and go spend time in the classrooms with those kids and at that point you will know whether thats a job for you because you will also realize how damn hard the teachers have to work. And that’s both at school in front of the kids but also it doesn’t stop. The long hours...it’s not an easy life. But, its brilliant. If you spend two weeks in a school and you don’t see the brilliance of it, you’re not a teacher. It’s that clear. There is a teacher shortage and theres a draft to get them but you will get some people who decide after a while that they don’t really like it and go away. Teaching is a calling. You have to just be a teacher in your heart. You can’t create that. You’ve either got it or you haven’t. Which is an awful thing to say and there are people who have got the passion and the quality to be a teacher but they aren’t good teachers. So, to sum it up, go spend time in a classroom and you will know.
M: When I am walking around school or I am sitting in the office here, I always hear about OFSTED, OFSTED, OFSTED. So what exactly is OFSTED and how does it work?
L: It’s the devil. OFSTED are an independant body and their role is to judge or to make judgement on the quality of the school. They do this by what they call inspecting schools. They normally ring around lunch time. If the phone rang at about 1:00 today, and it was OFSTED on the phone to tell us that we were going to be inspected, they would then turn up for the next two days. They will come with a team of inspectors and they will crawl all over the school and judge the quality of teamwork and lessons. We have to follow an OFSTED framework for every lesson and we have to make sure we are challenging our students and have the appropriate standards for behavior for learning. I have to have my lesson plans prepared and ready to present if asked by an OFSTED inspector. They will also judge the test results we receive as a school and they will judge safeguarding (how well do we look after kids.) After being here for two days, they will slap a label on the school. You are either a 1 (outstanding), 2 (good school), 3 (requires improvement) or a 4 (special measures.) Basically, if you are a 3 or 4, you are in some serious doo doo. A lot of measures are added and you are inspected frequently until you become a 2 or a 1. The issue is that it is a very rigorous accountability measure and they have to report to the government and the board of education. If your school was given a 4, they could come in and get rid of your entire leadership team they can impose sanctions and measures and close schools down. It’s a big scary beast. Everyone hates it.
M: How did you originally find out about project based learning?
L: As a school, we have always looked for innovative and different ways of teaching. We used to deliver a skills based curriculum. We have a mapped out skills framework. Some of the skills were things like time management, teamwork, communication. All students did one day of what we called: “skills for learning day.” I think we were doing project based learning. We didn’t have the rigor of quality products or a specific audience but the kids were doing it for themselves. From that, certain pods started developing bigger projects. For example, Battle of the Bands is a great projects where kids are in their own rock band. They write their own songs, schedule their tour and manage money all at the same time. We started seeing quite a lot of projects in cross curricular areas. The starting point is the subject content. Then, through that work we worked with Innovation Unit and thats when we started getting into national recognition and people started going: “I see what Yewlands is doing.” Links were being made and people understood what Project Based Learning was. We heard about High Tech High and saw what they were doing. In September 2012, a number of staff went to Chicago and started learning about charter schools and other different styles of learning. As a senior team, we made the decision to change what we were doing. In January 2013 is when we decided to redesign the year seven curriculum. We started implementing the protocols and designing projects and officially started in the classroom in September 2013.
M: What are some of the “hoops” that you had to jump through in order to achieve Project Based Learning at Yewlands?
L: Winning hearts and minds of teachers and staff. We all have teaching degrees and no degree teaches you about project based learning. We had to win staff over. That is a job that was never completed. We had to win parents over and we still have to. We have to win students over because students come up from secondary school and expect a nice, neat timetable but their not getting that. There are jobs that are not completed and we are still trying to work on achieving them. I have made 4 appointments next week for parents who despite their child still being apart of the program, they want to come in and go: “Why are you doing it again?” People from above me want to know that it’s making progress and it’s working. I don’t really consider anything else to be a hoop. The one constant that probably won’t change for decades in this country is that we are always going to be questioned. Because it is not the traditional way of teaching. Unfortunately it may seem like something that is innovative this year, PBL is still going to be innovative in 10 years time.
L: I’m Lucie Wainwright and I am the Assistant headteacher here at Yewlands (which sounds very posh.) As a teacher, I teach PE. My leadership role is that I line manage PE and PSHE. The leaders of that are accountable to me and I check to make sure they are doing their job as leaders and that is what being a line manager is. My wider role is obviously in charge of Project based learning across the school but obviously specifically with year sevens. And that involves developing staff who teach it, setting curriculum, setting structures and guide what is taught within PBL. Also, this role involves oversight and line management of the students as well. I am ultimately responsible for the academics of every child in year seven. Thats ultimately 168 students that I line manage as well. I need to make sure the teachers are doing everything in their power to make sure the kids are making progress.
M: Can you remind me what PSHE is again?
L: PSHE is personal, social, and health education. It covers sex and relationships education, financial education, and we are strongly encouraged to deliver anti-bullying education. Along side that, we deliver citizenship education, health education in terms of health and hygiene and we spend a lot of time developing social skills so you students can learn how to get along with each others inside and outside of school. A lot of that lives within PSHE. If it wasn’t all there, it wouldn’t be taught anywhere else. PSHE is also delivered to every kid in the school all the way up to year 11.
M: How did you first get into teaching?
L: Oh wow...it seems like a long time ago. When I left school at 18, which you call graduation, I wasn't really clear on what I wanted my career path to be so I then spent the next two years living different lives. I spent nine months living in the states working as a summer camp counselor in New York and then I moved back over to London and I worked as a “house sister” in a private girls school where they were boarded. It was a posh school with posh kids and on the weekends they needed someone to be responsible for them. I would make sure they did their homework, their laundry and I would drive them to places around London to get this, that and the other. I also had a large budget and I would keep them amused and occupied for the weekends. We took some lovely trips into London, to musicals and toured the city. During the week, I would be a reader and I would help little kids read. It was a brilliant year. So much fun. All that made me decide that I did want to teach. I knew that I always wanted to teach sport and of course I have stuck to that decision. I then went to Sheffield Hallum University and I earned a Sports Science Degree and completed units like biology and anatomy. Obviously it’s a very science based degree. After three years of all that, I popped out and I walked into my first teaching job. I guess the answer of why I wanted to become a teacher is because it was my calling. You can’t decide that you want to make yourself a teacher. You either are. Or you’re not. I think going into teaching in this country also means that you can specialize and teach your passion. I have been able to do what I am passionate about. I am not contained to a classroom. I am lucky enough to go outside and do most of my work outside.
M: When did you begin teaching at Yewlands?
L: I have been here for 12 years. I began teaching in 1998 and I was at my first school for five years so I began teaching here for 12 years.
M: What was it like when you got here? Was it like this or something completely different?
L: Nope. This building didn’t exist. The last government put aside money to rebuild schools because schools were in such terrible shape and out of the 27 schools in Sheffield they picked the top four that needed work. We were number 1 on the list. The school was disgusting. It was built in the 30s or 40s and the roofs were leaking and windows were broken. As a PE teacher, we worked in a really old nasty gym that had old, clanky heating and I felt like I was teaching in a different era. The physical building was horrible. As a place, we served a very deprived area and that culture was in this school. It was a rough school. If you ever told anybody you worked at Yewlands, there would be a sharp intake of breath. It was really rough. It had a horrific reputation for being a tough school. In my first year of moving here, I clearly remember having to be locked and protected by Tony and Tim in PE in the storage cupboard. They had to stand guard in front of it because a parent was running through the school after me with a baseball bat because I had allegedly called her daughter fat. Everyday in the first two years of my career, I have had to split up fights and have been caught in the middle of physical violence. I had been told to go do all sorts of things and that was daily life at the school. It was tough. It was really really a challenge. Over the years it has become something completely different with a completely different culture. It’s changed and I think that is really powerful to have been apart of that change. We are in a completely different school. It still has all the same kids because the area out there has not changed. It’s still a deprived area and the kids have still got horrific backgrounds and challenging circumstances. Their parents have low literacy and numeracy levels. None of that's changed. But the culture of when the kids walk through this gate, has changed. That is ultimately going to make a difference for those kids. The school was a very different place compared to how it is now.
M: If you were talking to someone who was unsure whether or not they wanted to become a teacher, what would you say?
L: It’s something that you can’t decide for someone else. I couldn’t just walk up and say: “Oh yes, you should teach...it’s a wonderful career choice.” Because, it has to be in your heart. I guess what I would say to them is: “Go spend significant time in a school.” Not just a day where you get shown all the nice things. But do what you are doing and go spend time in the classrooms with those kids and at that point you will know whether thats a job for you because you will also realize how damn hard the teachers have to work. And that’s both at school in front of the kids but also it doesn’t stop. The long hours...it’s not an easy life. But, its brilliant. If you spend two weeks in a school and you don’t see the brilliance of it, you’re not a teacher. It’s that clear. There is a teacher shortage and theres a draft to get them but you will get some people who decide after a while that they don’t really like it and go away. Teaching is a calling. You have to just be a teacher in your heart. You can’t create that. You’ve either got it or you haven’t. Which is an awful thing to say and there are people who have got the passion and the quality to be a teacher but they aren’t good teachers. So, to sum it up, go spend time in a classroom and you will know.
M: When I am walking around school or I am sitting in the office here, I always hear about OFSTED, OFSTED, OFSTED. So what exactly is OFSTED and how does it work?
L: It’s the devil. OFSTED are an independant body and their role is to judge or to make judgement on the quality of the school. They do this by what they call inspecting schools. They normally ring around lunch time. If the phone rang at about 1:00 today, and it was OFSTED on the phone to tell us that we were going to be inspected, they would then turn up for the next two days. They will come with a team of inspectors and they will crawl all over the school and judge the quality of teamwork and lessons. We have to follow an OFSTED framework for every lesson and we have to make sure we are challenging our students and have the appropriate standards for behavior for learning. I have to have my lesson plans prepared and ready to present if asked by an OFSTED inspector. They will also judge the test results we receive as a school and they will judge safeguarding (how well do we look after kids.) After being here for two days, they will slap a label on the school. You are either a 1 (outstanding), 2 (good school), 3 (requires improvement) or a 4 (special measures.) Basically, if you are a 3 or 4, you are in some serious doo doo. A lot of measures are added and you are inspected frequently until you become a 2 or a 1. The issue is that it is a very rigorous accountability measure and they have to report to the government and the board of education. If your school was given a 4, they could come in and get rid of your entire leadership team they can impose sanctions and measures and close schools down. It’s a big scary beast. Everyone hates it.
M: How did you originally find out about project based learning?
L: As a school, we have always looked for innovative and different ways of teaching. We used to deliver a skills based curriculum. We have a mapped out skills framework. Some of the skills were things like time management, teamwork, communication. All students did one day of what we called: “skills for learning day.” I think we were doing project based learning. We didn’t have the rigor of quality products or a specific audience but the kids were doing it for themselves. From that, certain pods started developing bigger projects. For example, Battle of the Bands is a great projects where kids are in their own rock band. They write their own songs, schedule their tour and manage money all at the same time. We started seeing quite a lot of projects in cross curricular areas. The starting point is the subject content. Then, through that work we worked with Innovation Unit and thats when we started getting into national recognition and people started going: “I see what Yewlands is doing.” Links were being made and people understood what Project Based Learning was. We heard about High Tech High and saw what they were doing. In September 2012, a number of staff went to Chicago and started learning about charter schools and other different styles of learning. As a senior team, we made the decision to change what we were doing. In January 2013 is when we decided to redesign the year seven curriculum. We started implementing the protocols and designing projects and officially started in the classroom in September 2013.
M: What are some of the “hoops” that you had to jump through in order to achieve Project Based Learning at Yewlands?
L: Winning hearts and minds of teachers and staff. We all have teaching degrees and no degree teaches you about project based learning. We had to win staff over. That is a job that was never completed. We had to win parents over and we still have to. We have to win students over because students come up from secondary school and expect a nice, neat timetable but their not getting that. There are jobs that are not completed and we are still trying to work on achieving them. I have made 4 appointments next week for parents who despite their child still being apart of the program, they want to come in and go: “Why are you doing it again?” People from above me want to know that it’s making progress and it’s working. I don’t really consider anything else to be a hoop. The one constant that probably won’t change for decades in this country is that we are always going to be questioned. Because it is not the traditional way of teaching. Unfortunately it may seem like something that is innovative this year, PBL is still going to be innovative in 10 years time.