A Case Study:
Castle Hill School
Goal: To give every child that attends the school the best possible start in life.
Outcome: Outstanding lessons went from 0% to 60% in under a year. Children Thrived. Parents engaged.
This is the type of school I would want my own children to attend.
Nothing at this school happened by accident. Everything was the result of an extremely dedicated and inspirational leadership team, leading a switched on and hard-working staff community.
What made this school special was a real drive to go beyond what was ordinarily required, coupled to boundless imagination and great teamwork. They also understood that a great school must be a community and did a great job of using Packtypes to bring their parents into the fold.
They made learning exciting for everyone, and everyone involved became a learner themselves, contributing freely, and benefitting from being part of the Castle Hill School community.
Castle Hill shows what can be achieved when you get a team that believes good isn’t good enough and decides to rip up the established rule book and shape their own future. It also highlights the importance of being principle driven and strategic, not merely opportunist, responsive and tactical."
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Will Murray, Founder Packtypes
Laying the foundations for success in later life
“At Castle Hill we believe that promoting self and social awareness is central to improving pupil’s learning. Since we introduced Packtypes to develop awareness across the school, teaching and learning standards across the school have continued to rise and rise.
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Packtypes has provided a framework for understanding different types of behaviour and when and how to adjust your behaviour to greatest effect, both in and out of the classroom. Children are now so much more reflective about their work and curious to learn more.
Most evident, is the improvement in the vocabulary children use to describe their approach to learning. They talk of needing to be imaginative, factual, persevering, of encouraging each other, the benefits of being competitive when appropriate, and at other times, resourceful, reliable and efficient.
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One child said to me recently ‘I’ve learnt to be really smart with my feelings’.
This is why children leaving this school will excel in later life. It’s also what the future job markets will expect of young people starting out in their career. We are building these foundations early so that high levels of self and social awareness are securely embedded in our children by the time they leave our school.”
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Su Broadhurst, Headteacher
Using Packtypes with our staff
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During the past three years, the staff at Castle Hill have used Packtypes to address and enhance a variety of school systems, projects and initiatives. Teachers have used Packtypes to gain a greater understanding of their own teaching style, which has seen teaching standards improved from Satisfactory (30%) and Good (70%) to Good (40%) and Outstanding (60%) within one academic year.
We are also:
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Developing a strong, inclusive staff spirit.
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Holding regular and highly relevant performance reviews.
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Ensuring that the we’re appointing the right staff for this school.
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Playing Packtypes with our pupils
Packtype resources and strategies are now being used within our Foundation Stage and across both Key Stages to great effect. Our pupils regularly use Packtypes Cards and apply the Packtypes behaviours to a whole variety of their lessons. Being naturally playful and appealing (kinaesthetic and visual) there is never any shortage of enthusiasm for working with Packtypes.
The level of self and social awareness that children display is exceptional. Children generally understand what attributes and behaviour is required to complete different tasks and can adapt the way they behave to fit.
Ofsted recently observed one of our lessons where we used Packtypes to group the children together and allocate them relevant tasks. The pupils were fully engaged throughout and the lesson was judged: OUTSTANDING.
Getting our school community playing Packtypes
Getting parents positively engaged with school life, and in particular their own child’s learning, is a constant battle for any school. Whilst some parents naturally engage, many others are notoriously hard to reach.
Our solution to this perennial challenge was to introduce our parents to Packtypes, and the results have been phenomenal:
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Parental engagement in homework has increased by over 200%.
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Parents have been taught to recognise the different Packtype behaviours so they can recognise them in themselves and their children and respond accordingly.
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Parents have a greater understanding of why different children behave differently and how to bring out the best in different children.
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Parents understand and value the role that increased self and social awareness is having on their children’s learning and development and the impact it is having on their children achieving higher academic results.
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Unleashing latent creativity
Having such a powerful and versatile learning tool available to us has led us to set up a working party of teachers, parents, and Governors, tasked with continually creating new and exciting ideas for using Packtypes across the school community.
Case Study Results:
North Birmingham Academy – Key Cultural Indicators
There are always certain ‘Key Cultural Indicators’, (KCIs) that provide a clear view of the health of any business or organisation. These are not just ‘performance indicators such as turnover, profitability etc, but behavioural indicators that let you know whether that organisation is on the right path or not.
In the case of North Birmingham Academy, the story could not have been clearer.
As a result of introducing Packtypes across the school:
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Detentions decreased by 32%
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Exclusions reduced by 75%
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Serious incidents decreased by 35%
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Student engagement at functions and clubs increased 40%
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School Behaviour Policy
A new School Behaviour Policy incorporating Packtypes was launched focusing on the key positive behaviours associated with each Packtype. The result has been that every student who needs it can have a Behaviour Programme designed around their individual needs and requirements that complements their specific strengths. As a result, every student now feels valued and validated.
Example Student A - Incident Log
At the start of year 8, Student A was excluded. They were regularly verbally abusive to members of staff and found it extremely difficult to recognise when they were in the wrong, it was always someone else’s fault. They experienced real anger issues. Using Packtypes with them helped to significantly speed up their process of reintegration.
Student A is now a leader and role model to a group of Year 7 students whose behaviour has been quite challenging. Developing his self and social awareness and social skills through using Packtypes, has been the main reason for this speedy transformation.
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Example Student B - Incident Log
Student B was part of a Packtypes based program designed to illustrate to young people how their behaviour and choices effects other people around them.
As a result of using Packtypes with them, Student B positively took control of and changed their own behaviour as the graph illustrates. Again, it was using Packtypes with them that empowered them to take ownership of their own behaviour and choices and learn how to adapt their behaviour and responses to the needs and behaviour of others.
Academic results
All 12 students who went through Packtypes academic intervention programmes are no longer Grade D. We also believe that increased self and social awareness creates more inspirational classrooms and more interested and engaged learners.
Packtypes was also used with Post 16 Students to help them write their own personal development plans and in making their own college and job applications.
Packtypes EISAF School Award
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Our Emotionally Intelligent School Award presented to North Birmingham Academy for exceptional students and staff development. Of special note was the outstanding way they have used Packtypes to develop greater personal awareness, confidence, teamwork, leadership, and employability skills in their students.
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What can we learn from North Birmingham Academy's Experience?
'Seeing children and young people learn incredible things about themselves and each other, and as a result start taking responsibility for their own attitude and behaviour, is one of the most rewarding things I have ever witnessed. Their ever-increasing ability to adapt their behaviour in response to different people and situations, makes them feel far more empowered and independent'.
Will Murray, Founder Packtypes
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Packtypes changes lives: Dramatic, but true! Nowhere is the power of Packtypes clearer than in schools where you see the course of students’ lives change in front of you. Dramatic impact like this is not limited to schools, as I have regularly witnessed similar transformations in the workplace.
Assessing behaviour and attitude is key: North Birmingham Academy were able to measure the dramatic impact of Packtypes because they were already measuring key student behaviours. Key behaviour measures (we refer to them as Key Cultural Indicators or KCIs) provide a more valuable perspective on organisational performance than standard outcome measures (KPIs).
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Make development immersive: Don’t make enhancing performance a bolt on activity, make it central to the way you operate. Packtypes is so visual, you can feature it on walls, doors, offices, shopfloors etc. inspiring people to keep looking for new ways to improve performance.
You can actually change the way people think and behave: Traditionally changing attitudes and behaviour has been extremely hard, but with Packtypes you can. Even in the hardest situations like prisons, young offenders’ institutes and schools with disaffected students, Packtypes inspires people to reassess their choices, responses, relationships and aspirations.
Personal ownership turbo charges improvement: However good your leaders and managers, the people best placed to drive improved engagement and performance, are the people themselves. Giving everyone their own Packtypes Pack and showing them how to use it, is pretty much guaranteed to improve your organisations performance.
People learn visually: Never underestimate the importance of making learning and development tactile, playful, and visual. When learning comes alive, it stops being an activity of last resort and becomes something people actively want to get on and do.
Improve performance one person at a time: Every person you engage using Packtypes, helps your organisation perform better. With full engagement in UK organisations running at a lowly 9%, it seems a tragic waste to not being using Packtypes with your staff, even if only in small way initially.