Wednesday 16th February 2012

Client Feedback and Recent Work page is currently under construction.

Please check back soon.

Click here to talk online with Tiger Solutions

Wednesday 25th January 2012

19 delegates present
19 positive evaluations

Impact on pupils’ learning:

• Eliminating low level disruption
• Improved behaviour in lower sets
• Improved behaviour whilst implementing the strategies
• Pupil engagement. Positive classroom environment
• A more positive and happy classroom environment
• Good ideas to promote positive behaviour
• Consistency and increase engagement

The best features of the training:

• So useful in every lesson
• Fantastic
• Funny and excellently delivered
• I want to use a lot of the strategies
• Justine was very informative, interesting and humorous. I learnt a lot and found the workshop extremely useful – thank you Justine
• Lively, enthusiastic and entertaining
• Very engaging personality. Well delivered
• Humour, fast moving, great ideas
• She was engaging and realistic
• Miss was lively and comical to watch and listen to. Brilliant, highly engaging – thank you!
• Humorous delivery, practical ideas
• It was more upbeat than other twilight INSET sessions
• Made it fun. Not boring
• Brilliant ideas
• Good delivery and pace. Excellent non-threatening style
• Justine is a lush trainer and made everything really relevant to me, my pupils and my CPD

If you’d like a non pushy, friendly and informal chat about our training then get in touch with Tiger Education and Training Director Justine Drury on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.

Tuesday 4th October 2011

8 delegates present
Representing Leicester College, Boston College, Dearn Valley College, Newcastle-Under-Lyme College, West Nottinghamshire College and Nottingham Hairdressing Training Agency

8 positive evaluations

The best features of the training:

- Having things ready to go for 9.00am tomorrow and run with it
- Sharing expert hints and tips and meeting other practitioners
- Ideas for managing the environment to achieve positive discipline
- Opportunities to gain resources that can be used
- All of it – Justine you were inspiring!
- The session was informative, creating good ideas and sharing ideas
- Practical creation of artefacts is something I will definitely
share with colleagues
- Leaving with tangible resources

Further comments and reactions:

- Engaging, pacy session. Loads of ideas and solutions
- It’s really made me think and will trial ideas tomorrow
- The event has made me think how to turn negative into positive.
- Thank you Justine, really enjoyed the input
- Well organised. Enthusiastic delivery
- Excellent session

If you’d like an informal chat about our training then get in touch with Tiger Education and Training Director Justine Drury on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.

Friday 13th January 2012

Teachers are loath to promote vocational options, a survey reveals. Read the article and find out what Justine thinks below.

Article published in TES magazine on 23 September, 2011 by Stephen Exley

FE institutions have long struggled to shed the “Cinderella” sector label. While schools and universities hog the limelight, colleges all too often toil away without even an invitation to the ball. Countless campaigns have been launched over the years in an attempt to raise the profile and prestige of vocational learning, but according to new research their impact has been negligible: ignorance is still bedeviling the efforts of FE to gain a higher profile.

But according to a study released this week by the City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development (CSD), parents and, perhaps more shockingly, teachers do not know what is happening in colleges and so cannot advise potential students about what is on offer. “Outdated, negative perceptions about vocational education could be driving young people away from what could be the best choice for them,” said CSD head Nick Grist. “Not enough is being done to educate parents – and even some teachers – about the benefits of vocational education.” For the most part, parents feel happy about advising their children: 60 per cent said they had no qualms about offering general advice on careers and employment. But just 37 per cent of parents said they were confident to give information or advice about vocational qualifications. Not surprisingly, this appears to have a knock-on effect, with barely half of young people rating vocational qualifications highly, compared to 80 per cent who rated more traditional courses highly.

Worryingly for the FE sector, that trend is mirrored in the classroom. “Parents and teachers did not challenge young people’s perceptions of vocational qualifications,” the report says. “As a result, relatively few young people taking general qualifications had actively considered vocational options.” This is being exacerbated by the fact that some colleges are finding it increasingly difficult to promote their qualifications in schools. School sixth-forms are especially reluctant to risk losing their students – not to mention the associated funding – after they have finished their GCSEs by allowing rival institutions to advertise their courses. “It’s like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas,” said Nick Moore, chairman of the board at Somerset College of Arts and Technology. “Nearly all of the schools are willing to work with us during the earlier stages, but it’s when the students get up to 16, and it’s a school with aspirations for setting up its own sixth-form, then it gets difficult. It’s frustrating and it’s something we’re finding generally – schools are being less and less willing to co-operate.”

The survey also found that snobbery played a role, with parents who went to university tending to have a more negative opinion of FE qualifications. Of parents who left school with O-levels or GCSEs, 29 per cent said vocational routes would suit their child; among parents with a degree, this dropped to 21 per cent. The situation was made worse by a lack of decent careers advice. The report said that just 42 per cent of young people found it easy to access good careers advice; 29 per cent said they found it difficult. And those problems look set to deteriorate still further.

With Connexions being cut across the country and schools set to assume responsibility for providing impartial advice themselves, careers services are becoming increasingly stretched. “There are no funds transferring to schools for carrying out this duty, and there’s no stick – Ofsted inspections will not look at careers advice, and there are no implications for school funding,” said Joy Mercer, director of education policy at the Association of Colleges. “What will the quality of advice be like if there’s no money?” More careers advice is expected to be dispensed online or over the phone, at the expense of face-to-face sessions, but Mr Grist says this will not fill the void. “Computer-generated life choices should never be seen as a substitute for a face- to-face conversation with a qualified career professional,” Mr Grist said “It’s not enough to hope that a remote telephone operator or website will be able to give them the personalised support they need, or that hard- pressed headteachers will be able to find space in their budgets for top- quality, face-to-face guidance services.”

Perhaps most shocking of all is the stark statistic that a quarter of young people said they have never received careers advice from anyone. Ministers may be vocal in their assertions about the importance and value of the FE sector, but it seems that the message about the wealth of opportunities it affords is not trickling down to the young people it needs to attract. How would Cinderella have ever made it to the ball if she had never heard it was happening?

Work placements – While 72 per cent of the parents – and 35 per cent of the young people – surveyed think work experience helps ease the transition to the world of work, the study found that placements often leave plenty to be desired.
“Young people told us that their work experience is limited, and that they’re not being given much responsibility. Sadly, it seems that mind- numbing, shelf-stacking placements are still with us,” said City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development head Nick Grist.

SURVEY FINDINGS
29% of young people find it difficult to access effective careers and learning guidance
60% of parents are confident giving advice on education and employment in general
37% are confident giving advice about vocational qualifications
56% of young people think vocational qualifications are high quality.

Justine’s Response:

This is a really crucial issue for FE Colleges and Collaborative / Alternative Learning Providers that deliver high quality and effective vocational programmes for young people. Individual institutions and organisations will have to adopt a methodical approach for working even more closely with their surrounding primary and secondary schools in order to change attitudes towards vocational qualifications. Because if they don’t who will?

There are of course some other issues that also have to be taken into consideration:

- a falling roll i.e. fewer young people
- no statutory duty for schools to provide careers education from Year 7-11
- schools don’t have to provide careers advisers with access to and information on students

Therefore how will our young people be able to make well-informed and realistic decisions about the best education route for them?

This answer I think is fairly straightforward. I’d like to see both FE and Collaborative/Alternative providers work in partnership and up their game in terms of offering impartial advice to young people and informing them of appropriate progression routes at post 16. This doesn’t just mean a presentation in a school assembly or an hour’s visit; this is more about a systematic approach to getting a message across to young people about vocational options and pathways. It’s also about students having access to the experts and not just a marketing officer whose brief it is to undertake a PR tour of the surrounding schools and learning providers. In fact I’m not even sure whether many FE colleges are aware of what alternative learning providers exist in their catchment, let alone linking up with them to ensure an appropriate progression route.

Therefore FE and Alternative Learning Providers have to be far more imaginative and savvy, by putting clear systems in place whilst at the same time maximizing the use of social media, in order to spread the word and get students clued up about all of their options.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts via our facebook page or twitter.

Friday 28th October 2011

The Tiger Toolkit is now available to view on our website. Please visit this page for more.

The Toolkit is a suite of tools that facilitate exploration and evaluation of business ideas. The first tool is concerned with developing a vision for a business idea, the second with organising a strategy, and the third with evaluating financial viability.

Tiger Solutions has developed the Toolkit through work with small business owners and entrepreneurs aiming to start or expand their businesses. Find out more here.

Ok, so I understand you provide effective systems and training. But effective in what sense?

A system that works is not necessarily effective.  A system that is effective must support the broader aims of your organisation.  Our approach is to view your organisation as a whole to ensure that systems and training push your organisation forward on a strategic level – that they are effective.

‘Viewing my organisation as a whole’? Sounds a bit vague…
It may do, let us explain. A typical analytical approach when confronted with an issue would be to look inside it. There is an IT problem, let’s look at the computers. We argue that you can only understand an issue by looking around it. If there is an IT problem, let’s look at the flows of data into the computers, let’s examine the systems that the IT is part of. It may be that the root cause lies elsewhere, although the issue manifests itself in an IT problem.

I see. Are you talking about holistic thinking?
We are, since holistic thinking is about seeing wholes. We are talking about using the idea of systems to lift people out of their everyday grooves, re-engage with purpose and create improvement that supports your strategic objectives. This approach can generate systems and training that are truly effective.

Tiger Solutions Ltd was founded in 2009 by Chris Mortimer, a then MSc student at Warwick Business School. Chris explains what motivated him to set up the company:

“I saw applications for analytical tools and techniques commonplace in the corporate and academic worlds in other parts of the economy”, Chris explains, “for example, in education, small-to-medium-sized enterprises and the third sector.”

In the early days the company engaged with small companies in the vicinity of Warwick Business School, completing one project with a local entertainment venue that used crowd simulation modelling to formulate a new, cost-effective staffing strategy.

The company subsequently built a client base in the education sector in the Midlands, with a focus on schools and colleges in Nottinghamshire. By 2011 the company’s offering to the education sector had broadened to encompass practitioner training, supported by new staff, and a new brand. In the changing educational landscape, Tiger Solutions has helped educational institutions access and interpret analytical tools in a practical manner to support decision-making.

“It is more than fulfilling an entrepreneurial ambition”, Chris believes, “It is about redistributing analytical capabilities with a social and ethical focus.”

Friday 21st October 2011

Justine Drury is Director of Tiger Education and Training and leads the company’s engagements with training providers and further education colleges in the Midlands. She has two decades experience as a secondary school teacher and senior manager, and as Head of School at South Nottingham College where she led the College’s 14-16 provision. Here she talks about the need for intelligent discipline policies and strategies for implementing them, with reference to a recent TES Article.

Positive Discipline really is the way forward.

I read a very interesting article in the TES recently entitled ‘Putting a “Why?” in behaviour’ (Times Educational Supplement, 7th October 2011). The article resonated closely with my approach to behaviour and discipline. Below is the article in its entirety. Afterwards I have drawn comparisons with our own positive discipline training and strategies.

Here is the article:

It’s official: David Cameron and Michael Gove are going to make school discipline a key part of their education drive. The PM announced earlier this month that he is in favour of “tough love”, while Michael Gove promises a far stronger approach to school discipline, including greater ability for teachers to restrain pupils by using physical force, and tighter rules on truancy and disruptive behaviour.

Their comments have produced a shower of abuse. Much of it fails to understand that it is those students with the least suffer from the most ill discipline in schools. 15 years ago. Tony Blair reorientated Labour from a concern primarily for the perpetrators of crime to those who were the victims. We are now witnessing a similar change in thinking on school disciple, with the concern shifting away from those who behave badly towards those who suffer from it. Make no mistake; a sea change is on its way.

The danger is, as we saw with the August riots, that the debate becomes polarised. The left highlights the backgrounds of those who create the problems, while the right resorts all too easily to the “strong arm of the law” as the catch-all solution. What we need is an intelligent approach towards school discipline that fuses the analysis of left and right. For those with little prospect of employment, or who lack a stable home background, there will always be less incentive to behave in a way that we might like. Equally, you cannot avoid individual responsibility. Not all those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds behave poorly at school, while plenty of “toffs” behave appallingly.

So her is my 5-point plan for excellent school discipline:

First ensure that the school rules and values have buy in from the whole community – teachers, pupils, support staff and parents.

Second communicate the rules and punishments regularly to pupils and parents, so no one can say they did not know about them.

Third, ensure the rules are applied rigorously and fairly by and to all

Fourth, give pupils positions of responsibility, which will breed confidence and character. These should be chosen in a system that is seen to be fair, with pupils voting. Student voice remains all talk for too many schools, which are reluctant to trust their charges with authority over others. In assemblies, it is more effective for pupils to talk about the importance of abiding by the rules and upholding the values and ethos of the school than for teachers to do so.

Fifth, punishment should be intelligent. The experience of far too many is that the punishment they receives makes them angry and does nothing for wanting them to avoid making committing the same offence in the future. Re-offending rates in Sweden, where the criminal justice system is based on restorative justice, are up to 4 times less than in the UK. Punishment in school should educate, not agitate.

Intelligent discipline system in schools, which many currently have, will transform the outlook for us all. But let us remember that the riots were caused in part because the balance had been tilted too far away from the perpetrators to the victims of crime. In schools, we need to give equal weight to thinking about why poor behaviour occurs as to punishing it when it arises. That way, we will have not only better schools but a better society too.

(Article ends)

Tiger Education and Training’s Positive Discipline training provides tried and tested strategies that support the above points. The strategies are positive and focus on prevention, rather than fire fighting and issuing sanctions. Just as the article suggests, it’s about educating young people about how and why they need to behave in a certain way and doing this in a consistent and cooperative manner.

Our Positive Discipline training focuses on 5 main themes:

Prevention – every classroom must have a vision and a plan. By allowing students to become partners in the classroom, less time is wasted on discipline issues. Positive Discipline identifies the important procedures and routines and then models and teaches them so that students and teachers share the same expectations.

Caring – knowing your students is key and incorporating consistent and cooperative classroom management strategies will maximize achievement.

Cooperation – encouraging the sharing of classroom management with students and creating and adhering to a set of rights or Magna Carta, as we like to call it.

Organisation – student manager roles, such as a Cover Teacher Manager help organise the learning environment and distribute leadership and responsibility in the classroom.

Community – good news is consistently shared and the positives reinforced and rewarded

I’d really like to hear your thoughts about positive behaviour management via our facebook page or twitter and also any strategies that have worked for you in the classroom.

You can get in touch with Justine today on 020 7903 5028.

Click here to talk online with Tiger Solutions

ATLS
Associate Teacher Learning and Skills
BIS
Department for Business Innovation and Skills
CPD
Continuing Professional Development
DfE
Department for Education
GFE
General Further Education
GTC(E)
General Teaching Council (England)
IfL
Institute for Learning
NQT
Newly Qualified Teacher
PGCE
Postgraduate Certificate in Education
QTS
Qualified Teacher Status
QTLS
Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills
SFC
Sixth Form College
Ofqual
Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation
E-bac
The English Baccalaureate

For more detailed explanations, or for a chat about your educational organisation, get in touch with Tiger Education and Training Director Justine Drury on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.

Click here to talk online with Tiger Solutions

Friday 9th September 2011

Notts County Football in the Community have adopted Tiger Solutions’ Excel-based student tracking and reporting system known as STARS (Student Tracking and Reporting System.)

Notts County Football in the Community (NCFITC) is an award-winning charity, affiliated with Notts County Football Club, that uses the themes of football and active lifestyles to re-engage young people with learning.

The Charity will use STARS to underpin its behaviour management policy. The system allows tutors to set expectations for learner outcomes on the basis of prior attainment and to monitor progress against these expectations.

STARS runs out of Microsoft Excel and uses visual basic programming to achieve the required levels of functionality and user-friendliness. The result is a piece of bespoke software that can be tailored to the needs of the client organisation and set up with minimal investment.

Tiger Education and Training provides systems, training, knowledge and experience to training providers, universities and further education colleges.

You can get in touch with Tiger Education and Training Director Justine Drury on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.

Click here to talk online with Tiger Solutions