Visual Communication Lesson 5 - 27/02/2012

Today we discussed emotions at the beginning of the seminar, we looked at photos and talked about what we think they are trying to make us feel and how do they make us feel. We then had to pick an emotion and walk round campus taking pictures using cameras,ipods and phones relating to that particular emotion. I chose the emotion of fear and these are my pictures so far :

'fear of electrocution' 

                                       

'danger'

 'fear of darkness'

 'fear of hoodies'

'being scared' 

'fear of heights'

Visual Communication Lesson 4 - 20/02/2012

Today we discussed more on our sense of place. We brought in 5 things that mean something to us and discussed why they meant something. 
We started to create a board between groups of 3/4 about our sense of place. We used magazines and newspapers to look through and cut out things that make us thinks of our sense of place. By the end of the lesson we had a A3 collage of our sense of place, it mainly consisted of pictures of homely things, such as a child cooking with his mother, walking etc.


This is our sense of place board :

Visual Communication Lesson 3 - 13/02/2012

We began the lesson by talking about our sense of place. We discussed things such as :

• identity
• home
• family
• culture

We talked about what a sense of place means to us. We wrote down our sense of place on individual pieces of paper and threw them around the class until each person had someone else sense of place, one by one we read them aloud and then we asked the people to give more detail about what the particular sense of place meant to them. My sense of place was my grandma's house, she passed away a few years ago, but through my childhood I went to her house everyday and basically grew up there. She was more than a grandmother to me she was like a second mum and I really felt like I belonged there, that's why I chose that as my sense of place.

Our homework that was set in this lesson was to remember when we felt a strong emotion and express and discuss it.

Mike Day - 28/02/2012

Mike Day was another guest lecturer we had to cover for Andy whilst he was away. Mike Day is the Chair of the Education Committee and Senior Cabinet Member, City & County of Swansea. He had never taken us for a lecture before and I found his lecture interesting.

He talked about policies in education, including the role of Local Education Authorities, policy and politics. He taught us about education policy and how it is a set of laws and rules that operate the education system, The aim of the policy is to reflect political opinions, tradition and values and to make fundamental choices, he also told us about how it is used to create a work force and to produce rounded individuals, it provides guidelines which are sometimes too strict, and do not allow you to do what you want. 


Considered by the education policy:

• school size
• school privatization 
• class size
• teachers pay

The education policy is created by politicians and practitioners, within the UK levels and Welsh government. There are a few things the welsh government cannot control such as the compulsory school age and teachers pay, but they can control the delivery of Welsh Medium and the foundation phase as these are specific to Wales.

Steve Gullick - 20/02/2012

Today Steve took a seminar with us because of Andy's absence. He talked about governing bodies within a school, we learnt about under represented people within a governing body.

'The following groups are currently under represented in school governance : black and other minority ethnic groups, disabled people, people with low incomes and people who are unemployed, young people, lone parents and (to a lesser extent) business people. There is, however, a lack of evidence on the underlying factors causing low level involvement in school governance.' Ellis (2003)

The majority of governing bodies are made up of older people normally who have younger children to look after therefore don't have a job and have time to come to governing body meetings.

We discussed the four main different types of governing bodies :

• The abdicators

These are governors that are not able to get into the school as much as they like, they are very busy. They think that running the school governing body is all common sense and that the money is better spent on books for the children, they leave the running of the school all completely up to the Head Teacher.

• The adversaries

These governors are always in the school, they sometimes visit without warning to inspect the school. They are very attentive and critical of what they see. They want to make all the decisions for the school.

• The supporter's club

The head makes the decision with this type of governing body, the governors think themselves are advisers to support the Head Teachers decisions. These governors wont tell you when you are wrong, so this could lead to wrong decisions being made. 

• The partners

These are the perfect type of governing body. They work in partnership with the Head and the staff, they all trust and respect each other. Only 10% of governing bodies in Wales are 'the partners'.

Steve also gave us a flyer that he had published himself through the Welsh Government about becoming a school governor and why it is a good idea to become one for your business.


References

Ellis, A (2003) Retrieved 2nd May 2012 from Barriers to participation for under represented groups in school governance. https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/RB500MIG398.pdf

Steve Gullick - 07/02/2012

Health and Safety


We talked about health and safety. 

'Health and safety in a school is about taking a sensible and proportionate approach to ensure the premises provide a healthy and safe place for all who use them, including the school workforce, visitors and pupils.' Health and Safety Executive (2011).

We were given a scenario about a school that is going on an overnight trip and we had to write a list of what would be needed on the trip.


Checklist
-Register
-Consent forms
-Parent helpers CRB's
-Risk Assessment
-Teacher:Pupil ratio
-Gender balance of teachers/helpers
-Health and safety forms
-First aid kit & first aiders
-Emergency contact information
-Permission for photos to be taken
-Rules for the children (e.g. Stranger danger etc)
-Accident and incident book
-Insurance
-Policy on valuables and money








After this we discussed another scenario where we are the chair of the governing body. Then we learnt about strategic and tactical planning and how they are used. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of strategic planning. I found this seminar very interesting, as I didn't realize how much the governing body has to do to keep the school running at a high standard. 


Chair of the governing body
We also talked about the chair of the governing body. We were given a scenario where we had to put ourselves in the position of chair of a governing body and come up with a solution to a problem. Our scenario was :


A fellow governor comes to you two days before your next scheduled meeting with the Head Teacher and tells you a mother had said to them that they are concerned that her child rarely brings texts home to do their homework, especially for History and Geography. The parent is supportive of the school and does not want the issue brought to a full governing body meeting but is obviously not happy and would like something to be done. 


What do you, as chair, do?

• The governor should tell the parent that they need to go directly to the school as the governing body does not get involved in the day to day running of the school.

References


Health and Safety Executive - Health and Safety checklist for classroom Retrieved 2nd May 2012 from 
http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/classroom-checklist.pdf

Guest Lecturers to cover Andy's absence - 23/01/2012

Unfortunately our lecturer Andy Reynolds was taken ill over the christmas holidays. We have been provided with guest lecturers who will be talking to us about different topics involved with education studies.


Today our guest lecturer is Steve Gullick, he talked to us about the roles of the governing body within a school setting. The governing body do many things, their main role is to promote high standards of educational achievement. They take general responsibility for the conduct of the school, managing the schools budget, including making decisions on staff pay, making sure that the curriculum and religious education are taught. They governing body participate in the appointment of the headteacher and deputy headteacher and other staff, also they are in charge of drawing up an action plan after an inspection.


Steve showed us an example of an agenda for a governing body meeting from a school.


AGENDA

1. Apologies for absence
2. Minutes of previous meeting
3. Matters arising
4. Head teacher's report
5. Report of Finance Committee
6. Progress on School Development Plan
7. Change of school uniform
8. Report on Governor's Conference
9. Any other business
10. Date and time of next meeting

According to the Department of Education (2012) a governing body has 8 main roles:

• Allowances and expenses for governors
• School prospectus
• Complaints (general and curriculum)
• Constitution of the governing body and instrument of government  
• Committees formation, delegation and operation
• Meetings of the governing body and its committees
• Register of business interests of governors
• Standing orders and terms of reference.

References 

Department of Education (2012) Governing Body - an overview Retrieved 2nd May 2012 from  http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/governance/a0056658/governing-body-an-overview

Visual Communication Lesson 2 - 6/02/2012

I wasn't able to attend this seminar because I was unwell. I found out from my classmates what was done during the seminar. They were asked to take with them 5 things that mean something to them. They got a person to lie on the floor and using tape went around the outline of the person. Then they put their 5 objects within the shape and explained why they mean something to them and what the story behind it is. Everyone got up and walked around the groups, if they saw something interesting that they had never seen before, they could ask the group to explain further. This gave them a chance to discover facts independently and communicate visually.

First Visual Communication Lesson - 23/01/2012

We had our first visual communication lesson today. Firstly we sat in a circle and talked about things that mean the most to us. This gave us a chance to get to know our new lecturer. After we discussed different paintings and how we saw them. The first painting we looked at was the famous painting called 'Scream', the class discussed how the painting is being portrayed. The second painting was a picture with the words 'Ich Habe Angst' we discussed this picture and its significance. After the paintings we watched a short film called 'the big shave'. It is of a man having a shave and repeatedly cutting himself. I didn't really understand the relevance to visual communication the video had until after the clip had ended and we discussed what had happened and now it had made us feel. Personally I couldn't bare to watch it as the gore made me feel sick.