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Raising
boys’ achievement and motivation at
KS3 in design and technology |
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School: John Cabot CTC,
Bristol |
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Fellow: Joanna Postlethwaite |
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Email: joannapostlethwaite@blueyonder.co.uk |
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Final Report |
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The aims of my project |
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To decrease the gap between
boys and girls achievement at Key Stage
Three |
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To increase the number of level 5
and Level 6 achieved by boys in DT. |
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To improve the behaviour and effort
of boys during DT lessons. |
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To increase the number of boys opting
for DT possibly within food and textiles. |
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My objectives by
the end of the project |
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Challenge the stigma and
sexist notions attached to my subject. |
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Make learning fun again |
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Increase the numbers of pupils opting
for textiles and DT in general |
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To stop double Year 9 ‘hell
afternoons’! |
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To make me a better teacher? |
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All Year 9 pupils in DT are in single gender
classes. I have spent the last year working
with groups of boys in textiles. The project
we have been doing is looking at designing
and making hats. |
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In my previous report I talked
about the findings from last years pupils
and how they responded well to being put into
single gender classes and how it not only
improved their behaviour but also their attainment.
It was this initial feedback that resulted
in all pupils in the year being put into single
gender classes in DT. |
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What I have found out |
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I have recently surveyed all
of the pupils in Year 9 on their views on
the experience within DT this year and have
found out that 90% of the boys asked have
enjoyed DT this year. 83% of the boys preferred
their single gender classes to the mixed DT
classes from last year. 62% of boys felt that
there was an improvement in behaviour. 54%
felt that the teacher treated them differently
and they gave the examples of how the teachers
were different. |
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On the positive side they felt
that the teachers taught differently, they
make more jokes and Miss is more relaxed!
This is excellent as it shows that the pupils
are aware of how we have had to change not
just the way we cover the topics but also
how we teach them. |
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Another viewpoint that came
out was that the teachers were grumpier and
that they shouted more. This came out a few
times but all from the same group, so I looked
back at a register for this group and found
that it contained a high number of extremely
disruptive, disaffected pupils. It is a difficult
class to teach and they did not respond very
well to many of the techniques that were used
by a number of teachers. This raises the issue
that we need to be very careful when we split
the genders that we do not end up with a group
of low ability, disaffected pupils as they
have no one to ‘set a good example’
and this can be very wearing on the staff. |
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The boys were all aware of
the reasons why it was better to split them. |
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Out of 271 pupils:
1% dropped one level from Year 8 records
30% stayed the same
68.5% raised their level (55% by one level,
13% by two levels and 0.4% by three levels)
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“Boys are more disruptive”,
“It’s easier to concentrate and
not be distracted by the girls” |
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69% said that they preferred
being in a single gender group! In this questionnaire
I asked the pupils what we could do to make
DT better for them; their responses have definitely
given us a lot to think about when planning
the projects for next year. |
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Boys Wish List |
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More practical, less writing,
more cooking lessons, less designing, use
a wider range of materials, longer time on
each project, more feedback on our folders
after they have been marked, more challenging
work, smaller group sizes |
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This was all very useful and
will help a lot with the planning, as many
of the points raised correspond with issues
we have been discussing as a faculty. |
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Personal Reflections |
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I have really enjoyed with
fellowship project and have very mixed emotions
as it is drawing to a close. I am relieved
in a way to be able to let go of one of the
extra things I have been doing on top of my
normal teaching load, but I also feel that
it has been incredibly rewarding and has helped
my development as a classroom practioner greatly. |
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My relationship with the boys I teach is
so much better now and I feel confident in
my dealings with both their good and bad behaviour.
I am able to respond to situations differently
and feel much calmer when dealing with a possible
explosive situation. |
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There have been two additional issues that
have come to my attention when I have started
to evaluate this process, and I had previously
not considered them. |
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My relationship with a large
number of the previously disaffected boys
in textiles has not only been effected by
the fact that I now teach differently but
randomly also by the fact that I run the school
ski trip and they all want to go. It is a
condition of the trip that you are behaving
well in all your lessons and obviously I now
get the final say. In the six years I have
run this trip I have never before realised
the power I had!!! |
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The other issue is more concerning
and has just come to light. The number opting
for GCSE Textiles has dropped dramatically
for next year. We have always been able to
run two groups. Next year there will only
be one small class. |
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When I looked back over the
class rotation for this year I noticed that
out of the possible six groups that have completed
the textiles project this year, three of them
were all boys. Although these boys have all
achieved excellent results they are unlikely
to choose textiles for their GCSE option and
this has effected the numbers opting. At the
present moment we are likely to continue with
single gender teaching next year but we are
going to have to plan the rotations more carefully. |
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Next steps |
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During the last week I have
been collecting in the Key Stage Three results
from all teachers and am in the process of
analysing it, I will be able to give more
details during my presentation but the initial
results look very promising. I am also well
on my way with planning the KS2/KS3 DT Day
with our feeder primaries and I hope this
will be able to instil a love of all areas
in technology in both our present and future
pupils. |
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The Future |
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Unfortunately I am not going
to be at Castle in September as I am moving
to John Cabot CTC to be Head of Textiles and
Food and so will be leaving this project in
the reliable hands of my colleagues, and who
knows what ideas I might be able to come up
with in my new school. |
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