NQPH Placement: My preparation

It's been a complicated process arranging my NPQH placement (for reasons not worth going into). But tomorrow I belatedly start my placement at a lovely school around 25 miles from where I live.

I have been tasked with raising standards in Science as part of a cycle of subject reviews. Science is not a subject that I feel is a personal strength of mine. So the task will be challenge - one that I'm looking forward to. I haven't any real success criteria yet as I need to determine these myself through a review of the subject in school tomorrow.

I will be working with the Subject Leader to carry out research into standards of Science in the school. As part of the process I plan to:

Meet with the Subject Leader
This is the best person to be able to give me an insight into the current standard of the subject. I hope he'll be able to articulate his vision for Science. It would be good to find out about what he believes are the strengths and areas to develop. I wonder how a 'buzz' about science is created by the school.

Meet with the Pupils
I want to speak to a cross-section of children who will be able to tell me what they like and what they don't like so much. I'd like to find out things like how they prefer to work in science, and how they like to record work.

Learning Walk
I'm hoping to look around the school for evidence of science being valued and enjoyed. It would be great to see displays.

Book Scrutiny
I hate the term 'book scrutiny', but that's what I need to do. I'd like to find out about the planning of the work, and see the progression, continuity and challenge between each year group. I wonder how the work is marked?

Finding out
I want to find out any data that is recorded for science - and how it is obtained. I have an audit for the teachers to find out their views. I hope they'll have time to fill it in.

By next week I want to have devised an action plan with success criteria based on what I have learned. I want to use Lesson Studies as a method of developing teachers. I also need to consider whereabouts the school is in working towards fulfilling the objectives of the new national curriculum. Perhaps this will form part of my plan.

I've prepared my questions, printed my staff audit, made notes on the lesson study process and printed the science pages of the new curriculum. I'm nervous as working in a different school will take me right out of my comfort zone. But I guess that's why I need to do it. As I always tell everyone else - it'll be fine!

Image: http://littlemisshypothesis.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/diy-tinted-safety-goggles.html