Outwood Family Catch Up Series...Tom Highnett

As part of our new feature, we are talking with members of the Outwood Family and finding out how life has changed for them since the school closures announcement.

This time we chat with Tom Highnett, Head of Geography at the Outwood Grange Academy. 

Read on to see how Tom’s day to day life has been changed due to the social distancing measures taken by the Government.

[Outwood.com] Hi Tom, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. We appreciate you’re busy, so let’s get to it! Things have been turned upside down recently, for reasons we are all too aware of. So, for you what has been the most difficult aspect of the lockdown period for you and your work?

“Hi, thanks for asking me to take part! Well, ensuring that the work we provide for our students is accessible and sufficiently challenging has probably been the most difficult aspect of this. 

“We are treading a fine line between setting work that becomes impenetrable for kids and work that does not give sufficient guidance. 

“I am constantly exploring ways to improve the work provided - experimenting with different formats of work from voice recordings to reading and I am spending lots of time discussing strategies with colleagues too.

“Additionally, spending time discussing what's working with parents. They are able to offer insightful feedback - but it's hard to be 100% happy with the work we're providing and ensuring all students are engaging.”

So after juggling all that, what’s a typical day like for you now?

“My approach has been to create a timetable for myself, I know what you’re thinking; typical teacher! The timetable splits the day into three broad categories: working with students/parents, working the department/SLT and planning. 

“Working with students involves marking and feedback on work produced, following up on any outstanding/incomplete work. Working with parents is making contact to check in on students/offering any extra support. The time spent on this varies and I have to learn to accept that, sometimes, this will take place over a number of days for an individual class.

“The work with the department involves having lots of Google meets to check on staff wellbeing, any department specific notices, and flagging and sharing CPD we have undertaken. 

“Departmental work also includes QA-ing resources and collaboratively sharing our work. SLT link work is as it says, liaising with SLT link on any key whole school notices/work.

“Finally the planning is really about trying to get ready for whenever we're back. This involves planning resources, lessons, long term plans, schemes of learning, homeworks, interventions, Obviously this is taking an enormous amount of time as we do not have the structure of knowing when things will be back to 'normal' or what that may look like!”

Very busy days then for you, within these days what have you found most satisfying in your work since lockdown began? 

“This is simply the support and engagement of parents and students. 

“We serve a brilliant community and they have been inspirational in their support of our work. The channels of communication have been established and it has worked to everyone's benefit.”

That sounds incredibly positive. What has surprised you most then?

“The time spent on planning and preparing work. 

“I think people, and even some teachers, naively thought that setting work would be as simple as throwing some questions/a PowerPoint onto Google classroom and being done.

“That couldn’t be further from the truth. The amount of time spent refining and scaffolding work has been enormous, shows how much work we do in the classroom relies on human interaction!”

And finally, how do you think this will affect your approach to work moving forward when the current measures are lifted?

“I think it has made me realise the importance of giving teachers 'space' to work. It will make me review how long meetings take place or the subject of meetings and I think much more time will be spent on the subject, with my team. 

“When we strip things back, we need to make sure work, and our working patterns, work for students and staff. Much to reflect on!”

I think that rounds this off nicely. Thank you very much for your time, Tom.