Neath Port Talbot Local Education Authority is eager to use the Internet as a means of promoting and disseminating good practice. To this end we have decided to utilise space on the Baglan website to feature examples of good practice in short term planning. We see this as being a first step along the route of ensuring that all that is seen as being good in the authority is available to be shared by others. The value of such an innovative initiative is potentially immense, John MacBeath in his book, 'Schools Must Speak for Themselves', makes the point that:

'schools improve when they provide opportunities and time for teachers to share with one another. The system as a whole improves when schools are enabled to learn from one another.'

Hopefully our website will facilitate this.

The website is called 'The Glass Cupboard' and will be easily accessed by all teachers via the Baglan website. We chose the name 'Glass Cupboard' because of obvious connotations regarding transparency, and it is also the title of a story by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) which promotes the idea of sharing. The glass cupboard in the story is able to provide you with whatever you need as long as you remember to put something else back in. It is with this principle in mind that we are seeking to initiate the sharing of exemplary practice.

If we are to consider the dynamics of a school, then I'm sure that we would all agree that the aspect that has the most immediate impact on classroom performance - the learning and the teaching - is short term planning.

Each unit will include the following elements:

• context of the lesson
• planning notes for the lesson
• any worksheets used during the lesson
• examples of pupils' work from the lesson

Schools can feel free to download these exemplars and obviously modify or adapt them for their own personal needs. The aim is not to highlight one way of planning as being the correct or perfect way, and the variety in the units reflects this. However, we did meet as a steering group prior to creating the units and agreed that the following aspects are crucial to effective short term planning:

Learning objective(s) - What will the pupils learn? What does the teacher intend them to learn? This would be a one or two sentence statement, e.g. 'To learn to identify and record the position of objects on a map.'

Activity/activities - What will the pupils do? Three or four bullet points, e.g:

• Discuss the area that we are going to look at using aerial photographs.
• Ask children to try and describe where buildings on the photo are in relation to other landmarks. (This will reveal the difficulty of working without grids).
• Take map of the same locality, ideally at the same scale as the photograph, and look at grid lines. How are they marked?
• Find the buildings on the map that you found on the photograph and identify the position using the gridlines. Compare the usefulness of photographs and maps.

Assessment opportunities - What have they learnt? How will you know that they have learnt it? This may focus on an individual pupil, on a group within the class or on the whole class according to the needs perceived by the teacher. This would be a brief reference note.

• By oral questioning/completing tick list.
• During class lesson as part of teaching activity, then a pencil and paper task on grid references.

Differentiation - By task, by level of activity or by outcome. Two or three bullet points.

• By outcome.

Key Skills - Which key skills (literacy, numeracy, ICT) can make a significant contribution to the lesson? Do the activities offer opportunities to promote key skills? An identification of opportunities for the pupils to utilise key skills. One or two bullet points.

• Use and develop an understanding of spatial information.
• Key Vocabulary - Which important or new words do you want the children to:
  • learn
  • understand
  • and use in the context of the lesson / specific to the subject
• Aerial photographs, vertical and oblique photographs, land use, landmarks, grid references, four and six figure grids.

Any other relevant notes regarding:

• Classroom organisation.
• Resources - aerial photographs and maps of same area and scale (one between two), one or two magnifying glasses, assessment tick list (photograph), written task for grid references, homework sheet combining elements of lesson.
• Use of classroom assistant.
• Evaluation of lesson.

The one question that remains unanswered is, 'Why do we need short term planning?' Short term planning is an interpretation of the school's schemes of work aimed at meeting the needs of the pupils. Effective short term planning facilitates good learning and dovetails neatly with other relevant and essential aspects such as effective assessment and school monitoring procedures. Specifically it should:

• Recognise the range of needs/abilities within the class.
• Rely on selecting appropriate activities and resources which take account of pupils' prior learning.
• Outline assessment methods appropriate to learning objectives and planned activities.
• Include strategies for sharing the learning objectives, individual targets and assessment criteria with pupils.
• Take into consideration a range of teaching techniques and assessment approaches which reflect pupils' different learning styles.
• Take account of agreed priorities for what will be assessed in depth.
• Recognise that assessment does not need to be planned for all learning.

As I mentioned earlier, this is a first step along the route of ensuring that exemplary practice is identified, celebrated and disseminated across the authority. The units will be available for others to use as a benchmark, to reflect on, to learn from and to inform their own practice, though we accept that there will always be differences of opinion about any practice which is held up as being particularly effective. I'm sure that the site will reflect this. The one thing I am anxious to avoid is for the site to be used as a 'swap-shop' for work sheets!

The effectiveness of 'The Glass Cupboard' depends very much on the response from teachers. Ideally it will be seen as an opportunity to share not only ideas as regards short term planning, but also views and practices on wider relevant issues. I believe that there is a huge amount of creativity at work daily in our schools. Much of that creativity is hidden within the walls of Victorian buildings, I believe that it should be seen and shared, that is why we set up 'The Glass Cupboard'.

Feel free to look inside, take out whatever you need and then replace it with a little of your own creativity.

Aled Evans
Primary Development Officer