Transcript

Rhian Edwards-Jones

My name is Rhian Edwards-Jones. And I’m deputy head at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bryn Tawe in Swansea. Coaching-mentoring has become quite an integral part, really, of our life here at Bryn Tawe, especially within our professional development program. Our research team at the school has taken the lead, really, into researching different strategies and models that they think would work well within our school community and looking at the best options for us.

And one mentoring model that we’ve adopted, quite significantly, really, especially within our professional development program, is the GROW model. I'm sure you’ve heard of it, but just to emphasize, maybe, the G, of course, is the Goal, the end goal. The R, then, is the Reality. And the O are the Options available to us as individuals. And then the W at the end is the What will I do, or that commitment to do something based on that process.

So for example, a member of staff, maybe at the beginning of the year, will decide on a teaching and learning priority for them as individuals based on personal reflection. And then they will go, then, through that GROW process through the year with a mentor or coach designated to them for that year.

So for example, a member of staff might decide on trying to strengthen their questioner's skills during that year. So that first step, then, is the end goal. So what are they trying to achieve from an individual perspective?

What is the end goal? During that perfect lesson, how will my questioning look. And more importantly, maybe, what will the pupils be doing? How will they be reacting? And what exactly is the end goal in sight?

And then the R, then, is the Reality. And that individual will be able to - really, to reflect on how the questioning is at the moment, which strategies they do use, what do they find effective, and maybe where they see, maybe, the weaknesses are at the moment. And then their mentor-coach will be able to come into a lesson and observe their questioning skills with a real focus on questioning, not looking at everything else, so just to look at their questioning, and also to have that discussion with regards to, this is what I saw during that lesson, and this was what I saw is the reality at the moment, and you will do these strategies, but maybe you need to look at these elements.

And then the O, then, is obviously the Options. And that is, maybe, the strength of this kind of model, is to look at different options. And that mentor-coach then will guide, maybe, that teacher through different options. And they will sort of tell them about different websites, and research, and podcasts, looking at particular books and articles, and really to guide them through different options there would be available to them to look further into strengthening their questioning skills in the classroom.

And then after that professional dialogue, that member of staff, then, the individual, will commit possibly to look in the three strategies, and to really to trial and to see how they could strengthen their questioning skills further by doing those three things. And that has to come, of course, from that individual.

And then after that, what we’re trying to enforce in the school is having that ethos of open-door policy. So for example, rather than having a one whole lesson observation, maybe that individual will contact the mentor and say, come in to see quarter of an hour, the beginning of a lesson next week, or come and see the end of this lesson in two or three weeks' time, because I've been trialing, then, this strategy.

So it’s a very fluid process where that individual can really look at different strategies and invite the mentor-coach in to be able to discuss and have-- further that professional dialogue. And that's something that we’ve worked on this year from September and something that we are hoping to develop even further from next year onwards.

And we've certainly seen a strength for those individuals to take responsibility for their own professional development but also to have that professional dialogue with another member of staff, where they can actually discuss things and think about different options, and for them to ask questions, and to guide them, maybe, through that process, for us all to become better teachers at the end of the day.