Pivotal

[Hercwasonaroll]

theunofficialteachersmanual.blog/2020/02/19/why-we-should-boycott-pivotal-education/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

This blog is doing the rounds on twitter. Shows how harmful Paul Dix is.

I am not sure what CPD my SLT attend but it mainly seems to be PiXL.

We’ve got a PiXL SLT too. I swear if I hear the words ‘PIXL Unlock’ again. So many training sessions it’s been brought up in and I still don’t know what it is.

I don’t think they can afford to go on Paul Dix training though, we seem to get his message through podcasts.

tea and Ikea? Perhaps he has two accounts!

I think they are all just echo chambers of each other's views , tbh. I sometimes wonder what would happen if they spoke to each other and others IRL like they do on SM...

I've been to ResearchEd events and found them pretty cosmopolitan and Tbh they've restored my faith that there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. That's the craziness of marking for marking's sake is coming to an end etc. Speakers like Mary Myatt, Oliver Caviglioli etc are so worth seeing.

I've made loads of contacts who are genuinely helpful and lovely.

Andrew Old is far less controversial in real life. I do think there's a lot of SM "pile ons".

And I used to loathe Katherine Birbalsingh but I have grown to think she may actually be very right in lots of things. This still doesn't really sit well in my head but I'm glad for the mental stretch it's giving me.

But if my school went full Pivotal I'd hand my notice in that day!!!

Oh yes, I've actually had some lovely discussions with KB on Twitter. As an English teacher I've found it hugely useful. Discovered LitDrive there and Stuart Pryke's ace resources. And that's where I read about TeacherTapp.
I have had to block some people though. The tribal extremists are ridiculous and Pivotal is one of the things that can bring them out on both sides.

I find EduTwitter weird. I know it’s old hat now, but when the prog/trad thing was raging, it felt like it was from another world. Literally no one at school knew (or cared) about it at all. Same with a lot of things on there. I don’t follow enough people to ever get the full debates though (stopped following OA because he only ever seemed to tweet about people being horrible to him) Honestly sometimes EduTwitter feels like low budget daytime TV.

Pivotal is something my old school tried when it (Pivotal) was fairly new. The school was in a mess and it was just one in a line of new and ineffectual initiatives SLT tried. It never worked.

I have met some lovely drama people on twitter though...

I'm not knocking but honestly where do you get the time to do all this reading? If not part of working hours, where do you get the desire?

I'm just a bookworm : you will also find me over on the 50 Books thread. I have no other hobbies...

evil : prog was used as an insult on Twitter only yesterday , so it's not done with!

Piggy must have missed that! It’s bonkers. No one in the real world cares!

On the subject of OA someone tweeted an old blog of his comparing some Pivotal consultant raving about how awesome a school was for transforming behaviour contrasted with the Ofsted report a couple of years later slating the school for poor behaviour and poor leadership teachingbattleground.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/will-a-behaviour-consultant-help-your-school-get-through-an-ofsted-inspection/

In the real world most people seem to be more traditional with a bit of prog. Not one or the other.

I would have walked out of an INSET where anyone asked me to rate myself according to "Bare Madness" and "the Shizzle". Is the consultant 12?

Im so glad I'm out of schools.

Started reading the consultant's bit in the blog. I have no time for anyone who puts and apostrophe in agenda's.

The phoning home and postcards carp is a major contributor to teacher workload. It's bullcrap.

crap obviously although they also carp on about it.

I’m not sure bad grammar is their worst crime.

Interesting that Ofsted tore the school apart. My experience is that they are likely to reject a staff survey saying behaviour is poor if it doesn’t match what they see over a couple of carefully curated days.

Well, you know from me what sometimes happens to staff surveys!

Me and a colleague caught the school secretary and Head's PA going through the staff surveys and removing the negative ones.

I haven’t worked in a Pivotal school but I would certainly ask at interview whether there were any plans to go down that road.

Does anyone know where the buzz phrase 'flying in formation' comes from??

Not heard that one, is it like ‘everyone rowing together’ from Michaela?

Possibly!

Are they polite versions of 'We're all in this shit' ?

No, it’s ‘don’t be an individual, we all have to do the same things because if you break step the formation will fall apart’.

Which I agree with in some things, like application of a behaviour policy. But some schools take it to cultish levels about everything.

The thing about geese thought is they all take turns for one to be in the lead. and they aren't in a school

Piggy I'm stashing that one for when it gets reeled out in some shit speaker led CPD !