Beware The Dip

^{A bi-weekly T&L bulletin for staff at Community Schools Trust}

It’s around this time in the term that it happens: The Dip.

We started strong. We came in, armed with our repertoire of classroom strategies. We had reset assemblies and first lessons back where we practised perfecting chosen teaching and learning plays with our classes. We were on our doors, deliberately upbeat, ready to cancel out those surly teenage grunts with a cheery GOOD MORNING! We practised behavioural and instructional routines to remove distractions in our lessons and avoid ‘multitasking’ because we know that when our students are paying attention, they’re more likely to be thinking hard. When our students didn’t meet our expectations, we persevered – we applied our behaviour systems to allow them new opportunities to be successful. 

We pushed through with these strategies even when the days got super cold and the rain poured down just as we called for whole school line up…

But alas, The Dip has waited patiently for us. 

We’re 3 weeks in and that start of term determination and energy is but a distant memory. Our brains are foggy from the marking and fatigue. With 3 weeks to go, we can’t really see the end just yet either…. 

Enter The Dip.

It approaches silently but if you look carefully, The Dip leaves signs…

Do students walk past you with their coats on inside the building?

Perhaps you tell them to take it off instead of issuing a sanction?

The DPR Dip is a very specific Dip

Before it was a routine in your lessons but now, do you forget to put the DPR up during SLOP (Shedloads of Practice?)

Perhaps you don’t collaborate as much as you did at the start of the term?

The Dip is socially contagious too. 

It works through others in order to get to you… It knows that we are social beings and are likely to follow what others around us do. 

Perhaps you see a colleague walk past a student running in the corridor and do the same – neither of you have the time!

Maybe your colleague likes to moan about others in the school and you find yourself nodding along or joining in! #walnut

Dealing with The Dip

The Dip may be here colleagues, but luckily for us at Community Schools Trust (CST), we are armed.

3 ways to deal with The Dip:

1 Lean into your systems

‘You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.’

James Clear

We have a system for almost every eventuality in our schools. These systems free up the cognitive burden every new problem would otherwise pose.

Running inside the building? Issue a behaviour slip. Students know the expectation and they know the system it lives in. They expect the consequence. Application of these consequences en masse, means a safe and thriving school. Inconsistent application of these consequences en masse, means unpredictability and potential anxiety for our students, particularly the most vulnerable.

Live marking during SLOP? Get that DPR up. We are constantly gathering data on our students as we live mark. Our lesson framework – our system – is there to ensure we maximise the learning in our lessons. With DPR, we can constantly formatively assess our students using the data we collect, in real-time. And for this generation of young people who love a bit of instant gratification, live updates are not only meaningful, but highly motivating too.

2 Social strength 

A new staff member told me last week, ‘people seem to genuinely care about each other here’, which made me feel all fuzzy and nice. And it’s true. That’s why live coaching works so well – we have pledged to ‘get better faster’ and we are invested in each others’ development. 

So when we see ‘imperfect’ practice, for example, a student walking past a colleague with a coat on inside the building, we might feign a gasp and say something like, 

‘oh Sir, did you just see what I saw?’ 

And your colleague might take your cue and mirror your feigned horror, with, 

‘I don’t believe my eyes! Thank you so much for pointing this out to me…’

or something of this nature…

3 Reframe The Dip

The Dip is an incredible place of learning.

When the going is good, things feel easy. We don’t think too much about it all; we just repeat what we’re doing.

When the going gets tough – when The Dip rears its head – it is a huge opportunity for us to pull it apart. If we can recognise it for what it is, The Dip becomes a chance for us to evaluate our own practice. 

The Dip separates those who say they have high expectations from those who live those high expectations. 

At CST, we live high expectations. So this week then, let’s look out for those insidious signs of The Dip, use our systems and the support of each other, to tackle it down.

Our cumulative efforts to combat The Dip will mean our students will continue to get the best deal from us, all year round.

Have a great week.

And beware The Dip.

Thahmina