The Engineer Leaders Award is a fantastic scheme run in both primary and secondary schools across the country. It asks the question
If you were an engineer, what would you do?
and pupils are encouraged to think of innovative ways to solve problems in daily life. Part of the award involves meeting a visiting engineer. This year we carried out the award with all pupils in years 1, 5 and 6 and were lucky enough to meet Eleanor Mackle, a biomedical engineer from UCL and Robert Rayner a robotic engineer from Kingston University. The inventions that they girls came up with are fantastic. They drew pictures, wrote letters explaining their ideas, and carried out lots of research.
We were absolutely delighted that we have a trophy winner in each of the age categories and many girls received judges commendations and distinctions. When the certificates arrive these will be awarded in assembly. In the meantime our three very excited trophy winners will be going to an award ceremony at Kingston University. This is an amazing achievement as many thousands of entries were received from pupils all around the country. A very special well done to Ren, Beatrice and Keira. All of the entries will be on display in school on 28th June.
Mr Richard Finch, Oxbridge Coordinator, looks at how WHS works with partner schools to develop effective Oxbridge admission support programmes.
We all have a responsibility for widening access to Oxbridge
These days, any article you read about Oxbridge entry focusses on widening access. The Sutton Trust[1], for example, recently reported that Oxbridge currently recruits more students from eight leading public schools than it does from 3,000 state schools combined. Few disagree (not least the universities themselves) that this needs to change. But it is not just the universities that have a responsibility for widening access.
At Wimbledon High, we work with our partner schools to share ideas and activities to develop our Oxbridge support programmes. These programmes seek to dispel myths about studying at these institutions and ultimately support students to be as well prepared as they can be for the application process. At the heart of any successful support programme is the ability to galvanise enthusiasm and guide independent exploration of their chosen subject.
How we help pupils decide if Oxbridge is right for them
In order to help pupils decide if Oxbridge is right for them, our introduction to Oxbridge starts in Year 10 with a day trip to either Oxford or Cambridge. As well as the tourist hot spots, we visit individual colleges (hosted by Wimbledon High alumnae) and receive a lecture from our link college admissions tutor to understand the realities of living and studying in these historic university cities. The purpose is to plant the seed for the right candidates to pursue an application in the future.
For those that do decide to take part in the programme, the real preparation starts in Year 12. Despite encouraging the girls to learn independently, the opportunity to discuss ideas with likeminded people is possibly the most valuable part of the programme. Each girl is therefore linked with a personal mentor (a teacher at the school) whom they meet regularly from the spring term of Year 12. Sessions vary greatly by department but the common format is a guided discussion using a particular stimulus (perhaps an artefact in Classics or a graph in Economics) chosen by the student. The idea is to allow the girls to forge their own path of academic discovery.
Building links with departments is vital
Pupils are also encouraged to engage with Oxbridge departments as much as possible. Cambridge, for example, offer subject “master classes[2]” which enable students to experience typical undergraduate teaching. Entering essay prize competitions are also a great way to engage directly with departments. Oxford, for example, offer a range of essay prizes[3] across a number of departments. We also link candidates with Wimbledon High alumnae studying their subject. Current undergraduates are well placed to suggest current reading lists and give specific advice on how to prepare for their application.
Confidence is key
Jasmine delivering her WimTalk entitled, “who legally owns your dead body?”
A common misconception among students, whichever type of school they attend, is that are not “clever” enough to go to Oxbridge. Of course, these institutions are highly competitive but girls especially often underestimate their abilities and fail to acknowledge that a deep academic interest in their chosen subject is possibly more important than a stellar set of GCSEs. The WimTalks programme is there to encourage WHS girls to express their love for their subject with confidence. Girls are required to present a series of short presentations to their peers on a topic of interest. They then have to field questions from subject specialist teachers. Encouraging the girls to develop expertise in a range of topics has proven a great way to boost self-confidence and prepare for interview.
The results
These are just some of the ways in which our programme supports and empowers our girls. In an increasingly competitive environment, we have managed to increase the percentage of the cohort securing offers year on year. This bucks the national trend for independent schools and we think our support programme has helped our Oxbridge success grow. We continue to work with our partner schools to develop our programmes to encourage candidates to pursue an application and to support them wholeheartedly throughout the process.
Isabella, Year 9, discusses the impact that plastic has on our oceans, on humans, and what we can do to make a difference.
Plastic pollution is debilitating the Earth’s ecosystems and is a controversial topic being discussed worldwide. It is a material that is in nearly everything we use, despite it being commonly known that it is not a biodegradable substance. In fact, it can take up to 1000 years for a single plastic bag to decompose!
The image on the left shows how much plastic enters the oceans every half second. Now imagine how much plastic there is in the ocean. Nearly 400 million tons of plastic were produced last year, and it is estimated that there is more microplastic in the ocean than there are stars in the milky way. All this could remain there for the next 1000 years, and with the current rate of usage of plastic, this number will only increase. This is a dire situation, with catastrophic effects and something has to be done about it.
How does plastic impact the environment?
Recently, my family and I went on holiday to Brazil, where we stumbled upon an organisation called‘Projeto TAMAR’. Its purpose is to rescue turtles from the sea that are either injured or in need of help and nurture them back to health. We were lucky enough to witness one of the turtles being released back into the ocean. This particular turtle had been found in extremely poor health, with a lot of plastic in its stomach, including a whole plastic bottle. This isn’t a rare occurrence – in fact, over 50% of turtles have consumed plastic since they cannot differentiate it from food (such as jellyfish). However, turtles are not the only sea creatures to ingest plastic. 100,000 marine mammals and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually. It has been predicted that by 2050, the mass of plastic in the ocean will exceed the mass of fish.
Is it only the sea creatures that suffer from plastic?
It is not only the aquatic species that eat plastic. As a result of humans eating fish, there is a strong chance that we are consuming plastic too. A study showed that seafood eaters ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic every year. Furthermore, chemicals such as oil, mercury, pesticides, lead and other heavy metals can now be found in the ocean due to plastic pollution. These can all result in dangerous health problems; hormonal issues, reproductive problems, and damage to our nervous systems and kidneys. Mercury is absorbed by plankton, and exposure to this can cause Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
What can we do?
Firstly, we can support non-governmental organisations like ‘Projecto TAMAR’ which make a huge difference in saving aquatic species. Secondly, we need to start recycling more – the average citizen in London buys 3 plastic water bottles a week – that’s 175 plastic water bottles each year – but on average they only recycle a quarter of them. If the usage of plastic was to decrease (and the amount recycled increase) it would significantly benefit the planet.
How can an individual limit the use of plastic?
We can all do our own bit to help, including:
Recycling
Use reusable materials
Avoid the use of plastic straws and disposable cutlery
Buy milk in a glass jar rather than a plastic carton
Carry a reusable shopping bag rather than buying one every time
Isabelle Alexander, Specialist Teacher Assessor and Head of Learning Support at WHS, considers the merits of carrying out a diagnostic educational assessment.
We have all seen the news articles and reports about parents or carers who try to get as much help as possible for their children in school, particularly when public exams are on the horizon. It would seem that they want their children to have an educational ‘label’ and will pay considerable sums of money to experts such as Educational Psychologists to try to achieve this, assuming that in so doing their children will gain a competitive edge.
At the other end of the scale, there are those parents/carers who refuse to accept or acknowledge that their child might have a learning difference worthy of further investigation and who reject all suggestions and advice from their child’s school.These parents are often convinced that it’s the child’s work ethic or the teaching in a school that needs to be addressed and indeed sometimes it does, but to dismiss the likelihood that there may be an issue worthy of further investigation with a child, might put the child at a disadvantage.
It is also true that students with certain educational needs are eligible to receive access arrangements in their GCSEs, A Levels and beyond, but most importantly, only once strict, regulated criteria are met, including, and in fact beginning with, evidence and support from the school.
The process of having a student assessed is about finding out what their strengths and weaknesses are and what, if anything, is having a detrimental effect on their learning and stopping them from achieving their potential.
The process
Educational Psychologists and Specialist Teacher Assessors assess for educational differences, some of which may lead to access arrangements in public examinations. They run batteries of tests that look at the child’s underlying ability, processing skills and attainment. They then produce a comprehensive report detailing the child’s profile. Other professionals may well be called upon in the instances where a student is displaying other symptoms, which could include difficulties with executive skills, socialising, maintaining attention, copying from the board, restlessness, excessive fidgeting, slow and/or poor handwriting – and school SENCos should be able to advise accordingly in these cases.
Advantages
The advantages of assessment are numerous regardless of any diagnosis:
Often a sense of relief is experienced by both parents/carers and child as the report clarifies why things have not always fallen into place or why, for example, it takes longer to complete a piece of work. Contrary to expectations, this can lead to an increase in self-esteem and confidence as there is a realisation that there is nothing ‘wrong’ with the child; they might simply process things differently.
Educational assessments provide a greater understanding of learning strengths and weaknesses (we all have them), which then enables teachers to make appropriate accommodations and differentiate their teaching so the student can maximize their potential.
Assessments may also explain why work takes longer and why the student can’t always finish a task in class.
Assessments may explain why the student has to work harder to keep up.
Assessments can also explain why the student might feel awkward or does not ‘fit in’. They provide them with at least a part of their identity that they might have been struggling to understand.
Assessments usually provide answers and as such, give explanations and ways forward.
Disadvantages
Naturally, parents and carers are concerned that any diagnosis will result in fewer opportunities, particularly when it comes to Further Education. It is therefore important to know that all universities, including Oxbridge, accept students with learning differences and neuro-diverse profiles and most significantly have departments that offer support where it is needed.
There is a fear that the child will be ‘labelled’. ‘Labelling’ has come to have such negative connotations but I have yet to hear it used in an adverse way in a school in the context of a learning difference or where a child has an educational need. A diagnosis is not about attaching a label, it is about getting the right support and expertise in place to maximize self-esteem and potential. Knowing that a child has, for example, ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder), Dyslexia or issues with attention, no matter how mild, changes perceptions, and reactions for the better both at home and in school as it increases understanding and that has to be a good thing, doesn’t it?
It is possible that a diagnosis becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; teachers and parents might expect less from a child with learning differences and stop challenging them or the child might assume that they are incapable and stop trying. However, focussing on the child’s strengths and positive personal characteristics and offering encouragement and support usually stems feelings of doubt and negative thoughts.
It is expensive. Maybe, but a great deal of time, professional expertise and work go into assessing a child resulting in a full diagnostic assessment. This major piece of work that identifies strengths, weaknesses, with recommendations for support, could and most importantly, does, prove invaluable.
Concluding remarks
Clearly, it can be argued that I have a vested interest in promoting diagnostic assessment; after all, it goes with my job and I have spent many hours training to do this. However, I have not always worked in this field, I came to it following the assessment of my daughter, who at primary school could not learn rhymes, the days of the week or to read, but seemed intelligent. Her school recommended that she be assessed. The assessment revealed that she was indeed a bright child with excellent underlying ability who had dyslexia. Interventions were put in place at school and she attended sessions with a specialist tutor. The result is that at 21 years of age, she still has dyslexia. She also has the most amazing work ethic and organisational skills and has done extremely well academically. She firmly believes that diagnosis and intervention made a huge difference to her in a multitude of ways.
Learning differences and neuro-diverse profiles are often invisible and are not always easy to spot and are not always identified by the school, no matter how many checks are put in place. Young women and high achievers often mask their differences as they do their best to fit in. Not wanting to attract attention and stand out from the crowd, they work excessively at home to try to keep up. The views of parents are therefore relevant; if you notice for example, that your child is spending an extraordinary amount of time on their homework, or that their reading speed appears to be slow or that they have difficulty remembering things or communicating, call the SENCo at your school, discuss your concerns and observations and let them investigate further.
For me, there is no question or doubt in my mind. When a school suggests that an assessment might be useful, it will be; whether or not a firm diagnosis is made, you will gain a deeper understanding of your child’s learning profile and your child will ultimately feel happier in themselves.
Learning differences do not discriminate; they are not a measure of intelligence or ability and they can be present in anyone. They are certainly not a barrier to achievement. So why is there still so much stigma attached to them?
Rebecca, Year 9, looks at how the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method works to calculate the required score in a cricket match interrupted by the weather.
A rain delay at the cricket at the Oval
With the arrival of summer comes the Cricket World Cup in England and Wales. Although England are the favourites, there is no guarantee that they will win. One thing that is pretty much guaranteed though is rain. After all, it is England! But how do you calculate the revised target score in a rain-interrupted match?
The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method (DLS) is a mathematical formula designed to calculate the target score for the team batting second in a limited over cricket match interrupted by weather or other circumstances. It is an attempt to set a statistically fair target for the second team’s innings, which is the same difficulty as the original target. It was devised by two English statisticians, Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, and is generally accepted to be the most accurate method of setting a target score.
This method is needed as there are so many cricket matches that experience rain delays. Without DLS, there may not be a result from the game or the incorrect result (statistically) may occur. There were many other methods set up before DLS, but none of these took into account both the wickets lost/remaining and the revised number of overs remaining. For example, the Average Run Rate method took no account of how many wickets were lost by the team batting second, but simply reflected how quickly they were scoring when the match was interrupted. So, if a team felt a rain stoppage was likely, they could attempt to force the scoring rate without regard for the corresponding highly likely loss of wickets, skewing the comparison with the first team. Therefore, the DLS method was created.
What is the DLS Method?
The basic principle is that each team in a limited-overs match has two resources available with which to score runs (overs to play and wickets remaining), and the target is adjusted proportionally to the change in the combination of these two resources.
The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method converts all possible combinations of overs (or, more accurately, balls) and wickets left into a combined resource remaining percentage figure (with 50 overs and 10 wickets equalling 100%), and these are all stored in a published table or computer. The target score for the team batting second (‘Team 2’) can be adjusted up or down from the total the team batting first (‘Team 1’) achieved using these resource percentages, to reflect the loss of resources to one or both teams when a match is shortened one or more times.
In the version of DLS most commonly in use in international and first-class matches (the Professional Edition), the target for Team 2 is adjusted simply in proportion to the two teams’ resources i.e.
The actual resource values used in the Professional Edition are not publicly available, so a computer which has this software loaded must be used.
A published table of resources remaining percentages, for all combinations of wickets lost and whole overs lost
If, as usually occurs, this ‘par score’ is a non-integer number of runs, then Team 2’s target to win is this number rounded up to the next integer, and the score to tie (also called the par score), is this number round down to the preceding integer. If Team 2 reaches or passes the target score, then they have won the match. If the match ends when Team 2 has exactly met (but not passed) the par score then the match is a tie. If Team 2 fail to reach the par score then they have lost.
May 23rd 2019 is Outdoor Classroom Day, a global campaign to promote and celebrate taking learning and play outside. At Wimbledon High Juniors we encouraged teachers to take their lessons outside and enjoy the sunshine. Pupils hunted for maths in the playground, enjoyed library club in the fresh air, took part in STEAM busking, enjoyed Spanish outside, as well as carrying out lots of science of course! There is more information about the campaign here.
In May a team of year 8 girls were invited to the Science Museum to attend the final of the Ultimate STEM Challenge to show and celebrate the project they had been working on during the year. They displayed their “Teapods” innovation to the judges and were quizzed on their research, investigations and suggestions for improvements. The team had a fantastic day meeting students from other schools, talking to the judges, looking around the Science Museum and even receiving fantastic goody bags! Congratulations on such a fabulous project! More information about the Ultimate STEM Challenge can be found here.
We were delighted to find out that four Wimbledon High teams were chosen to attend the prestigious national TeenTech finals on 24th June. The event took place at the Institute for Engineering and Technology at Savoy Place in London, and our teams impressed the judges by explaining all of their innovative ideas to them. Aerotrans, Pen for the Blind, Stress-Less Desk and the Passenger Organisation Device were all carefully researched, and the prototypes have been thought through with the help from mentors at Thames Link, Kingston University and UCEM. On the day the VIP judges spent a great deal of time discussing the innovations with the teams and there was also an opportunity to meet lots of other pupils, hear about their ideas and also to meet Maggie Philbin!
When the winners were announced we were absolutely thrilled to discover that Team Aerotrans were winners in the Transport category. This was especially impressive as they were a year 7 team competing in the 11-16 age category. In the Spring term they will be going to Buckingham Palace to receive their award. Look out for Aerotrans – it may well be the way you will be travelling in the future!
Abhini, Year 10, looks at some of the issues surrounding climate change, and the potential impacts this will have on our lives.
During the Easter holidays, London and other parts of the UK witnessed a significant protest against the government with over 1,000 people being arrested for blocking streets. The wave of protest began with Swedish born 16-year-old Greta Thunberg who, every Friday, would sit outside government buildings in September, accusing her country of not following the Paris Climate Agreement.
What are the concerns?
So what is it that everyone is worried about in terms of climate change? The world is seeing more extreme temperatures being recorded increasingly across the globe. The 21st century has seen records broken with increased temperatures all through the season and the rise in temperatures also has an impact on the Arctic and melting ice caps. 2016 was the hottest year on record since 1880, with average temperatures measuring 0.99 degrees Celsius warmer than the mid-20th century mean. Since the 1950s, every continent has warmed substantially.
New Scientist graph on global temperature change
An additional impact that climate change is having on the earth is on sea levels, as they are rising at their fastest rate in 2000 years and currently changing at a rate of 3.4 mm per year, causing major impacts such as increased flooding. If sea levels continue to rise, countries like Bangladesh will cease to exist, leading to a refugee crisis, as an average of 21.5 million people have already been forcibly displaced since 2008 due to climate change-related weather hazards. Not only are our water levels increasing, but the ocean is now 26% more acidic than before the Industrial Revolution. This also means that the waters are now more acidic than at any other point in the last 300,000 years.
NASA data on sea rise change from 1880-present
Another shocking fact that is due to climate change, is the damage of two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef. In April 2017, it was revealed that two-thirds of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has been severely damaged by coral bleaching, usually a result of water temperatures being too high. However, there are many more important and recent events due to climate change such as last week’s cyclone attack in Mozambique and the wildfires that took place in California late last year. The pictures below show these significant, global events.
Is climate change real?
What about the people who deny climate change? A large proportion of the public in Western democracies deny the existence of climate change[1]. Some climate change denial groups say that because CO2 is only a trace gas in the atmosphere, it can only have a minor effect on the climate. Climate denial groups also argue that global warming stopped recently, or that global temperatures are actually decreasing. However, these arguments have been made clear to be false and are only based on short term alternates. Climate change deniers are often those who are economically making a financial interest in it and, in some cases, their generation is not necessarily going to be impacted by it.
We all know about ‘being green’ by walking to school or unplugging electronics when we are not using them. However, it is not enough anymore to just switch our light off as times now call for drastic change. The energy sources in our home need to be renewable, gas must go, and people should start investing in an electric or hybrid vehicle rather than using petrol or diesel.
We cannot sit and wait on the government to change. Change is in the hands of the people. We need to force the government’s hand and can only do so if we unite to try and save a world which we are currently destroying. Change occurs when we take action.
Ms Lucinda Gilchrist, Head of English, considers the roles of writing and grammar across subjects.
For English teachers, addressing writing and grammar skills is our bread-and-butter. However, in 2012, Ofqual introduced directive that in History, Geography, and Religious Studies, 5% of marks must be allocated to what is traditionally known as ‘SPaG’, or spelling, punctuation and grammar. Meanwhile, all other subjects with a significant written component must ‘make similar requirements for appropriate grammar, spelling, punctuation and legibility’ (Ofqual, 2015: 4). And of course, even more importantly, we need to ensure that pupils understand what is going on around them and communicate clearly in the world outside school. Not only that, but literacy is a form of social and academic empowerment, ensuring that all of us are able to access and interact with texts in a range of academic fields and social situations.
In a recent survey of WHS teachers, 68% of respondents agreed that ‘writing is important in my subject’, and 64% agreed that ‘the crafting of writing has a place in my subject area’. But what is really interesting about this is that, despite clear agreement that writing and grammar skills are important, there isn’t really much consensus of what grammar actually is, how much time and energy teachers across subjects should dedicate to it, and why it is important. If writing and grammar are so universally agreed to be important, it’s even more crucial to unpack what we mean by these terms, and how therefore we should approach them in our teaching.
Defining grammar
So, what do we even mean by grammar? Even this is hotly contested. In the survey, what was particularly interesting was that there wasn’t much agreement of what grammar is, and therefore what role it should play, even within subjects, with even Maths teachers having different views on the importance of writing in their subject. Much of the literature suggests that this is also down to our own perceptions of our competence in writing and grammar (for more on this, see Wilson and Myhill, 2012). Of course, on the broadest level, there is the macro-level view of grammar as the ‘structure’ of a language, an idea which came up in 32% of responses to the survey. However, when it comes to teaching grammar for writing in academic contexts, there are essentially two main approaches to grammar, although, as there is with any debate in education, polarisation of these views is unhelpful.
Most common is the correction/accuracy model, which perceives language as a set of pre-determined rules of spelling, punctuation and grammar (or ‘SPaG’) to which writers must adhere for the sake of clarity and erudition. In a recent survey of WHS teachers, words and phrases associated with this model came up frequently, with 64% of responses referring to ‘accurate’, ‘correct’, ‘proper’ or ‘clear’ English as the aim of teaching grammar. Traditionally, this approach would result in grammar taught primarily through decontextualized practice questions, unflatteringly called the ‘drill and kill’ approach by Laura Micciche of the University of Cincinnati (Micciche, 2004). This has also led this approach to be characterised as a ‘traditional’ (Hudson, 2004) approach to teaching grammar, and although we have moved beyond yawn-inducing practice exercises in teaching English grammar, it is worth interrogating what this model assumes about language and how this informs the way we teach it.
Figure 1: should we mark to a ‘single version of English’?
The main assumption is that there is a single version of English which is universally agreed upon to be the ‘correct’ version of English. When we mark pupils’ work, of course we have to contend with the bug-bears of misused apostrophes, comma splices and ‘would ofs’ instead of ‘would haves’, but this could end up being a very reductive view of what language actually is. Linguistically speaking, what we are judging pupils’ work against is Standard English, which is essentially just another dialect of English, in the same way Scouse, Mancunian and Estuary English are all dialects – dialect here referring to the grammar and vocabulary as opposed to the pronunciation. However, unlike other dialects, Standard English has less to do with geography and more to do with class and social groupings; it is a prestigious form of language descended from 1950s BBC English, into which we have to induct pupils so that the writing they produce means they can be taken seriously as scholars.
However, Standard English is more complex than that. Compare the sentences below:
Father was exceedingly fatigued after his lengthy peregrination.
Dad was exhausted after his long journey.
Dad was well tired after his journey.
Father were very tired after his lengthy journey
My old man was knackered after his trip.
Evidently, the first is not Standard English; the register is absurd for most everyday language contexts, and many of us I’m sure would caution pupils who were writing like this against ‘over-writing’. And it would certainly not be fair, or even politically correct, to tell a Cornish or Welsh dialect speaker that the way they were speaking was ‘wrong’. The only one of those examples which most would agree is Standard English is the second, but it’s hardly eloquent prose.
More than just correcting errors
An added layer of complexity here in that we are asking pupils to actually develop a good understanding of different types of English within the dialect of Standard English; using phrases such as ‘CO2’ and ‘ox-bow lakes’ would sound very weird in a Philosophy essay. And this isn’t just at the level of vocabulary: in different subjects, there are different syntactical structures which are held to be more prestigious than others. For my MA research, I undertook some analysis of the indicative content in GCSE mark schemes in History, Geography and Religious Studies. You can see some of the key features in the table below, where you’ll notice that there are quite clear differences in the expectations of language usage for each subject area.
Figure 2: exam board mark schemes for History, Religious Studies and Geography, showing the differences in the expectations of language usage.
Evidently, it’s not as simple as being right and wrong when it comes to grammar – but that doesn’t mean that the other main model of grammar teaching is a case of throwing the rule-book out of the window in abandon, even if what is traditionally known as ‘SPaG’ isn’t explicitly part of the mark scheme in the English Literature iGCSE; the only reference to the quality of writing in the mark scheme is for AO4, worth 25%, which refers to a need to ‘communicate a sensitive and informed response’.
Figure 3: a sign at Victoria Station, London.
Before we throw our hands up in horror, let’s unpack the genre-based model of grammar first. This model essentially posits that different academic subjects have their own very specific rules and conventions, which pupils will need to confidently use to write convincingly within their subject areas. Thankfully, 92% of responses to the survey disagreed that grammar should only be taught in English; with the genre-based model, part of the requirement of all teachers, regardless of subject area, is to teach pupils how to successfully craft their language for the academic genre they are using, and many subjects have several academic genres: consider the difference between a case study and a discursive essay, for instance. We can see this from our everyday language too: examples of non-Standard English which would be acceptable in a text message or shopping list would not be acceptable in an email or formal school communication, but that doesn’t make them ‘wrong’ in the appropriate context. In this approach to teaching grammar and writing, teaching grammar is a case of making explicit the different ways of writing in different subjects and the appropriate generic conventions.
What next?
So, how do we do this? Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy answer here, and with increasingly challenging examination specifications and curricula, nearly 50% of us cited ‘curriculum pressure’ and ‘time’ being the main hindrances preventing us from tackling grammar as much as we would like. Other major hindrances are our own confidence and knowledge of grammar; given that in the 1980s grammar teaching had all but disappeared from the curriculum, many teachers were either not explicitly taught any grammar, or taught by teachers who themselves were not explicitly taught any grammar, hardly an auspicious start for teaching an area which we so overwhelmingly agree to be important.
Figure 4: “it’s not as simple as being right and wrong when it comes to grammar”
However, I think there is also scope to be excited about this challenge, to help pupils see their writing within subjects less as ‘Is this right?’, and more as ‘How much do I sound like a trustworthy and intelligent scholar within this academic genre?’ In English, we regularly consider this through the lens of literature: how do modal verbs e.g. ‘shall’ convey the forcefulness of Old Major’s political speeches in Animal Farm, or how do reflexive verbs highlight Ralph’s self-control in Lord of the Flies? It’s a process which can work just as well applied to subject-specific writing, and to do that, we need to open up the dialogue about grammar, seeing it not as a closed and monolithic body of knowledge possessed by a prestigious few, but as something that within our own subject areas, we absolutely are experts in.
Wilson, A. C. and Myhill, D. A. (2012) Ways with words: Teachers’ personal epistemologies of the role of metalanguage in the teaching of poetry writing. Language and Education 26: 553‐68.
These are just some of the ways in which our programme supports and empowers our girls. In an increasingly competitive environment, we have managed to increase the percentage of the cohort securing offers year on year. This bucks the national trend for independent schools and we think our support programme has helped our Oxbridge success grow. We continue to work with our partner schools to develop our programmes to encourage candidates to pursue an application and to support them wholeheartedly throughout the process.
The image on the left shows how much plastic enters the oceans every half second. Now imagine how much plastic there is in the ocean. Nearly 400 million tons of plastic were produced last year, and it is estimated that there is more microplastic in the ocean than there are stars in the milky way. All this could remain there for the next 1000 years, and with the current rate of usage of plastic, this number will only increase. This is a dire situation, with catastrophic effects and something has to be done about it.
the sea that are either injured or in need of help and nurture them back to health. We were lucky enough to witness one of the turtles being released back into the ocean. This particular turtle had been found in extremely poor health, with a lot of plastic in its stomach, including a whole plastic bottle. This isn’t a rare occurrence – in fact, over 50% of turtles have consumed plastic since they cannot differentiate it from food (such as jellyfish). However, turtles are not the only sea creatures to ingest plastic. 100,000 marine mammals and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually. It has been predicted that by 2050, the mass of plastic in the ocean will exceed the mass of fish.
