Blog 5 - New Year, New Habits

The theme for our January training day was habit change. The new year is typically a time for resolutions and determination to change, but change is hard. Last year I read a fantastic book on habit change by Charles Duhigg, a Harvard Business School graduate and award winning journalist. His book is called ‘The Power of Habit’ and the central idea is that we cannot rid ourselves of bad habits, instead we must override them with new habits. This is an idea we have embraced within our professional development; all teachers have identified one thing that they would like to improve in their practice and are trying one or two strategies that will ultimately become new habits. For example, this might be planning simple activities that ensure students read and use feedback to improve their work, or, strategies to encourage more students to answer questions in class. Many of these changes are tweaks, but they are often the key to improvement. 

Habit change is not just restricted to teachers. Our Y11 students are weeks away from trial exams and only a few months away from the real exams. This is also true for Y9 and Y10 students too. Tracker 2 for all our Key Stage 4 students went home before Christmas and our ever tenacious Head of Key Stage 4, Mrs O'Connor, has been examining the data and planning ways to help students who will benefit from support beyond the classroom. As part of this I have been meeting Y11 students: all fabulous young people but all of whom could fly a little higher. These conversations are not to add pressure or stress (we all know these can be stressful times for students) but to talk about habit change; tweaks that could make all the difference. For example, I have shared a fabulous article about 'the power hour' - an approach to revising that does not necessitate more time, but ensures students use their time better (this wisdom comes from a fantastic blogger I follow on Twitter who shares revision tips and more for young people and their parents @Lucycparsons). I have also discussed ways to get more out of time in the classroom - answering more questions and staying more focused, for instance. 

Qualifications open doors so it is vital we help students build the best habits for success. All my conversations with students thus far have been incredibly illuminating and have proven to be invaluable in helping me get to know High Storrs. These students are exceptional. I was so impressed to receive an email one Saturday from a student I had met and conversed with on the Friday. He thanked me for my time and asked me to share anything else I had found or read that might be useful. What a wonderful example of an ambitious student seeking to achieve all they can with the help of their teachers. Fabulous!