Lets start with a quick recap on where we are….
- You’ve started your large ring bound file to put all your findings / information in and you have or haven’t found the old Coordinators file.
- You have made a list of “teachers” resources on your subject…books, dvd’s posters etc
- You have read and (hopefully!) understood what the National Curriculum is saying should be done / achieved.
- And in consultation with the HT / DH you have found out by various means what the current “state of play” is in the school – good or bad it doesn’t matter !
All the above – including brief notes of meetings and dates of everything should now be in your folder….excellent everything’s going well to this point.
Your next job is to look for and catalogue the schools resources for your subject….for example – in D/T (tech) the numbers of cutting boards, saws, hand drills – how much balsa wood there is and wooden wheels….you get the picture…write it all down and where it is stored. List , date and put in your folder.
Ok now is the time to start to think about an action plan – but before you do you need a meeting with the HT / DH to discuss your findings and “what they think” – especially on the “what we should be doing and what we are doing issue?
Now as Les Brown would say “what are you going to do about it?” (if you’re not sure who Les Brown is look him up on YouTube – a great motivational speaker !)
The first question you need to ask yourself is – “am I confident in my own knowledge and skills to sort this out from this point?” If the answer is no then you need to either be booked on training courses to address this or the advisor for the subject needs to come in to meet with you. Its not a failure on your part – don’t even think about it…if its not a subject you know a lot about then these are the steps to tackle that.
Again – everything should be dated and brief notes made for your file.
Now at this juncture there are a lot of variables that can come into play….most are management priorities which involve the School Development Plan or the School Improvement Plan (what was the point in changing SDP to SIP…who gets paid to think up this rubbish??) and the schools current and future focus.
However lets assume that in asking you to be coordinator the school is raring to go and there’s cash available to fund whatever you need….happy days !
In this order these are the things you need to do
- What are the timetabled requirements for your subject either weekly or across the term – and is this being met? (we are talking hours here and your school hopefully has in place a scheme to ensure curriculum balance across the subjects)
- Are these being met by staff? – do the staff know and timetable to meet these req’s?
- Physical resources both teacher ref information and subject practical needs are bought and stored
- From this point the staff now have to be made aware of your current findings (in a non judgemental way) and the requirements that the school must now step up to meet.
- Staff meetings or parts of training days can be used to re-introduce the curriculum, show new resources, introduce hands on sessions and ideas forums….advisors can help if necessary here.
- Basically you have to re-awaken the subject if it has fallen by the wayside.
All details of visits, training sessions should be recorded and go into the file – now I can hear you asking why all this filing. Well for a few reasons really. The bottom line is accountability – if someone want to know what’s been happening in your subject (Advisor or OFSTED, HT or Govs) then you can show the progression. It also serves as an excellent resource for any following coordinator if you either leave the school or change subject coordination and finally it serves as a reminder and timeline for yourself.
Ok so here are 2 other scenario’s that you may find yourself in…..
- Taking over a subject that is going well – here you will find a good file passed to you with everything in school ticking over.
Here you should be speaking to the previous coordinator if they are still there or going through the file and getting up to date with what has happened in the past and how long ago things were done.
The above checks on teacher resources should be done in addition to the subjects physical resources to make sure everything needed is in school.
In addition
- The place of your subject should be looked at in relation the planning approach of the school – x ref curriculum balance
- Does the school use a Topic Based approach to each term – if so how are the subjects grouped around this topic?
- Is coordinator input needed to frame the parts of your subject within the topic to ensure curriculum coverage over a year?
- A monitoring system should be put in place informally to enable you as coordinator to see the work being done in your subject both in lessons and through written/ displayed work – this will allow you to form judgements on which to base further decisions and action.
Again all monitoring should be noted and filed as well as opinions and actions taken.
The big question for any Coordinator is “HOW DO YOU KNOW?” if you are reporting back in any situation and giving information of any kind then you must be able to answer that question….if you can’t then you will just be judged as guessing. The best answer is ” well I carried out A, B, C on these dates and found out this information and took this action on these staff meetings, training days etc…
And lastly when everything is in place you need to rewrite the School Policy on your subject – Don’t put out a generic one size fits all with the subject name changed…you’ve put in a lot of work so summarise it neatly on what you do and how you approach things. No specific details need to be given – this is not a handbook. It should be no longer than 2 sides of A4 !….its reviewed every 3 years.
The 2nd scenario I mentioned is being asked to be a coordinator for a big hitting Core subject – but that’s a completely different ball game and so I will write about that on its own !
good luck and get organised
Charles