HPL Updates

HPL  Update

18 October 2023

HPL 5th Annual Conference 2024 - 20th and 21st March 2024

Connecting Vision to the Classroom

Join us for two days of inspiring and challenging presentations, dynamic workshops and discussions for school leaders on achieving High Performance and the continuing journey towards everyone becoming a high performer. School leaders interested in strengthening their teaching and learning will leave our annual conference with new and innovative ideas, reflections on their own practices and great memories of coming together with colleagues from across the global community of HPL Schools and beyond.

Our 5th Annual Conference will focus on the critical role HPL plays in connecting the visions of school leaders with the real-world classroom.

We are delighted to bring the HPL family together again and unite to answer questions including:

• How do you engage staff with your vision and values?
• How do you transform culture for the better?
• How does HPL turn vision into reality in context?

Upcoming FGC Webinars

Creating the conditions for effective dialogue with colleagues as you lead practice in an HPL school with Nicholas McKie

24 October 2023 | 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. (UK time) 

In this webinar, Nicholas McKie from Persyou Ltd will talk about tools and techniques to influence others through dialogue, especially when your standard approaches have not been successful. 

Nicholas McKie is the Director of Persyou Ltd where he works with individuals, teams, and organisations all over the world to empower people to flourish. Nicholas’ book, 'All Ways Coaching' outlines how to create a coaching culture in schools. His award-winning podcast, ‘Inspiring Leadership’ brings together the best thinking from across the world of leadership. 

Register below for this thrilling webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

HPL in Primary Schools with Mark Tomlins

24 October 2023 | 10.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. (UK time)

The aim of this meeting is to establish a self-led network for those leading HPL in primary schools in the FGC with the aim of identifying common interests, aims, and concerns, sharing ideas for optimising HPL in primary schools, and providing well-informed mutual support.

Mark Tomlins is the Assistant Director for Teaching and Learning and the HPSA Course Leader at HPL. He works with HPSA schools, supporting their development from Induction through to accreditation and he has several areas of responsibility within the Fellowship and Global Community.

Register below for this exciting meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the session.

Explore the Evidence: Student Grouping with Melanie Saunders

16 October 2023 | 10.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. (UK time)

During this session colleagues will discuss the paper by Wiliam & Bartolomew (2001) . It’s not which school but which set you’re in that matters: the influence of ability-grouping practices on student progress in mathematics.

Register for this session below. Please note that places are limited for these sessions . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the session and you will be sent the relevant material to read ahead of the meeting.

Teacher Certification Award Scheme 2023 - 2024 

FGC teachers and HPSA middle leaders can now register for the Teacher Certification Award Scheme of: 

• HPL Teacher (FGC only) 
• HPL Expert Teacher (FGC only)
• HPL Teacher Leader ( FGC and HPSA only)

Registrations: 

• For FGC colleagues , please find the registration form here . The deadline for registrations is Friday, 1st December 2023. 

• For HPSA colleagues , please register candidates for the HPL Teacher Leader Award, by confirming the number and names (in full) of candidates with your Associate by Friday, 1st December 2023.

Pathway Programmes Linking-Up Meetings

Heads/ Principals and HPL Leads don't miss out to mingle with like-minded individuals! Register and save the dates for upcoming WCSA and HPSA (Year 1) Linking Up Meetings.

Dates for November 2023:

• 7th November - 11am (UK Time) - WCSA Year 1 (Heads/Principals) - Register here for this meeting
• 8th November - 11am (UK Time) - WCSA Year 1 - (HPL Leads) - Register here for this meeting
• 14th November - 11am (UK Time) - HPSA Year 1 - (Heads/ Principals) - Register here for this meeting
  
• 15th November - 11am (UK Time) - HPSA Year 1 - (HPL Leads) - Register here for this meeting

Baseline Impact Survey - All New Schools Only

Please be reminded that there is three weeks left to complete the Baseline Impact Survey.

These surveys provide valuable information about the views and attitudes of key members of your school community. Please do encourage as many people as possible within your school community to participate by taking the brief survey. This will provide a better analysis when the survey window closes on 4th December 2023 . If you have any questions around this, please contact Michelle Bradbury .

How have you been implementing the HPL #ACPs and #VAAs in your classroom?

Mohamed El-Gizawy, Arabic Coordinator for Arabs at Scholars International Academy consciously includes HPL breakpoints in his lessons, linking student learning to the VAAs and ACPs. Mohamed's HPL journey has been transformative, providing valuable insights into his teaching practice, particularly in relation to cognition and creativity. Check out Mahmoud Ismail Maged's Islamic and Arabic subject community discussions and join in. Have your say!

Last call to register for the Command Task Magic Encounters Competition with the Inspirational Development Group (IDG)

This is a friendly reminder to sign up your students for the Command Task Competition with IDG by Friday, 27th October 2023 . Thereafter, registration closes.

Please complete the attached entry form and send it to IDG as soon as possible at magicencounters@inspirationaldg.com

After signing up, teachers will be sent the competition requirements, rules, and marking criteria.  They are looking forward to seeing your students' submissions!

We have three Magic Encounters Competitions running simultaneously, click on the orange links to find out more.

• IDG's Command Task Competition
• The Economist Educational Foundation Topical Talk Competition 
• 8billionideas World Changers Competition

FGC Programme Round Up

Explore the Evidence: Expertise Development with Deborah Eyre

Last week Professor Deborah Eyre chaired our first Explore the Evidence session focusing on Expertise Development . During the session colleagues interrogated, discussed, and critically reflected on the paper by Ericsson et al (2007) : Giftedness and evidence for reproducibly superior performance: an account based on the expert performance framework. Colleagues were able to delve deep into the evidence and explored a range of key aspects from the paper such as deliberate practice, retrieval, how successful people learn and develop and how Expertise Development is a fundamental pillar of High Performance Learning .

To access the reading material for Explore the Evidence please follow the link below.

HPL in the Classroom: Adaptive Teaching in an HPL School with Catherine Noble

It was a privilege to welcome Catherine Noble from St Edmunds College and Prep School to the Fellowship and Global Community to deliver a webinar on Adaptive Teaching in an HPL School. During the webinar Catherine shared her expertise on how to embed effective strategies for adaptive teaching in an HPL school. Colleagues who attended the session provided the following feedback, ‘insightful and thought-provoking’, ‘extremely informative’ and ‘the session provided a wide range of real-life examples’. On behalf of the FGC, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to Catherine for delivering a high quality and inspiring webinar.

If you have missed the webinar. You can access the presentation and the webinar recording below.

The Big Question

For this update we are introducing "The Big Question" and welcome colleagues to attend their relevant subject community to debate and discuss their views on a current issue, topic or challenge in education.

This update's Big Question:

The UK government recently announced proposed changes to A-levels and T-levels which could be replaced by a new qualification for all school leavers in England. The proposal laid out plans for all 16 to 19-year-olds to study five subjects as part of the new Advanced British Standard. A key aspect of the proposed changes would enable students to combine both academic and vocational elements, with typically three major and two minor aspects.  Do you think these proposed changes will benefit all students?  In your view what should 16–19-year-old qualifications look like?

Congratulations to the Sheffield Private School for being honoured with the prestigious "Best Schools 2023 - A Level" award at the 4th International Middle East Education Awards 2023! The HPL Central team celebrates this outstanding achievement with you!

We are pleased to announce that the British School Muscat has been recognised as the leading school in Oman and one of the top 15 schools in the Middle East by Carfax Education for the third year running! Well done to all staff, students and parents who made this possible.

Well done to Nadeen School  for achieving status as Bahrain's First Google for Education Reference School. This is impressive and it sets a benchmark of excellence to all schools out there! Congratulations to the Principal, Paul Walton and his amazing team.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Truro High School for Girls claiming the top spot on the Cyber Explorers High Achiever Schools Leader board. We are extremely proud of staff at Truro High School for Girls for empowering students to stay ahead of the curve in this everchanging digital age.