I have been drafting ideas on what skills and abilities are important when coming into the role of Director of Studies in a summer school. All too often, those who take on the job go in without a full understanding what it might entail. It’s only fair that we should set out what qualities we expect in a Director of Studies and what elements are likely to occur while working in summer school academic management.

Here are the makings of a role profile:

Essential

• An undergraduate degree.
• A level 7 teaching qualification, e.g., Delta, DipTesol, or equivalent.
• Substantial experience as an English language teacher.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• An ability to cascade information clearly.
• Office skills, specifically a good understanding of spreadsheets.

Desirable

• Experience of working with and leading teams.
• Experience of working in a summer school.
• Experience attending and delivering in-service teacher training (INSETT).
• An interest in continuous professional development (CPD) for language teaching.

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Testing, inductions, and creating cohort groups

• Set up and perform teacher induction sessions.
• Set up and perform student induction sessions in collaboration with the management team.
• Set up and perform group leader induction sessions.
• Set up, perform, and manage placement tests.
• Interpret spoken and written utterances to level place students into appropriate cohort groups. An ability to train teachers to maintain a high level of agreement when marking oral and written placement tests.
• Input student test data into a spreadsheet, before manipulating this information using an inbuilt Sort function to create cohort groups.
• When students arrive at irregular times, plan extra testing and induction sessions and schedule teachers to assist with the process.

Teaching and teaching materials

• Have a good understanding of the standard teaching materials and cascade ideas to teachers on how to manipulate them to maximise student collaboration.
• Train teachers on key pedagogical features e.g.,
  • generating a warm and secure space for learning to take place.
  • creating a language rich environment.
  • setting meaningful tasks.
  • minimising grammar work or at least not teaching grammar for its own sake.
  • giving task language.
  • maximising student collaboration and opportunities to speak.
  • giving variety to interaction patterns.
  • setting success criteria for in-class tasks.
  • giving hot and cold feedback.
  • differentiating learning.
  • reviewing learning.
• Promote an understanding with teachers of how real-world interactions between student pairs/groups will be applicable and meaningful outside the classroom.
• Promote an understanding that a ‘we only speak English’ environment is not only unattainable but counter to translanguaging theories which suggest that language is not compartmentalised but a singular resource to bolster communication.
• Promote additional teaching materials which generally compliments the standard teaching materials.
• Promote additional teaching materials which garner interest and understanding of any subsequent excursions students may attend.

Continuous professional development (CPD)

• Set up and perform lesson observations.
• Give effective post-observation feedback to foster teacher professional development and/or address problems if teaching doesn’t meet a minimum performance threshold. When applicable, schedule further lesson observations, post-observation feedback, and performance counselling sessions.
• When possible, set and manage peer observations.
• Fostering teacher collaboration when lesson planning to share ideas.
• Set up and perform INSETT sessions which are appropriate to the needs of the teaching centre.
• Encourage teacher participation in delivering INSETT. Teachers should be incentivised to use action points from lesson observations to inform their own action research and deliver INSETT on any outcomes.

Technology

• Have a working knowledge of spreadsheets. An ability to:
  • use some of the buttons on a standard toolbar.
  • use basic formula and function.
  • manipulate data using an inbuilt Sort function.
  • set up a mail merge.
• Set up, manage, and train teachers on how to use any technology available in the classroom and/or in the teachers’ room.
• Troubleshoot problems with technology or cascade issues to those who are able to assist.
• Have an understanding of programs such as PowerPoint or ActivInspire which can be deployed by teachers to add to or substitute written board work if technology in the classroom is available.
• Have an understanding of other learning technologies.
• Set up and administer an instant messaging group, e.g., WhatsApp, for teachers.

Lesson-time management, office management, and administration

• If working as part of an academic team, e.g., Assistant Director of Studies (aDoS) and/or Senior Teacher, delegate tasks to help manage the workload.
• Be reactive towards emergent problems as and when they arise.
• Provide teaching cover in order to maintain continuity of the teaching product.
• Ensure student attendance and have systems in place to account for absenteeism.
• When student absence is planned, inform teachers and if necessary, collapse and merge cohort groups when student numbers are small. When necessary, reassign teachers to other jobs if they are surplus to requirements while students are absent.
• Ensure the teachers’ room is well ordered and classrooms are kept clean and tidy.
• Perform regular stock checks and inform any relevant parties if and when items need to be replenished.
• Ensure sufficient space for teaching, testing, and assemblies have been arranged in advance.
• In full-day teaching centres, creating the school split, i.e., deciding which groups/individual students have morning lessons and which groups/individual will have afternoon lessons.
• Judiciously create teaching pairs based on experience, ability, personality, and professional interests.
• Collapse cohort groups at the end of the teaching week, i.e., removing student leavers and creating new class lists and student registers in preparation for the next week’s teaching.
• Make class lists accessible to Teachers, Group Leaders, and students.
• Make registers accessible to Teachers.
• Administer the process of preparing and delivering student reports and certificates.
• Update noticeboards.
• Set aside time to assist teachers with lesson preparation.
• Set up, manage, and if applicable, give appropriate training to teachers when external examinations are requested, e.g., Trinity GESE, IELTS, etc.
• Liaise with the management team to ensure arriving teachers and any academic visitors have accommodation, if and when required.
• If teachers are within a probationary period, monitor performance.
• Ensuring feedback forms have been completed by teachers and students.
• Write balanced and evidenced based staff appraisals for every teacher at the end of their tenure. Send appraisals back to the recruitment department.
• Seek out teachers who have an interest in academic management and/or display behaviours that may suggest they would be an appropriate fit to join an academic management team next summer. Cascade this information back to the recruitment team.

Meetings

• Schedule regular Teacher meetings.
• Schedule Group Leader meetings.
• Schedule weekly meetings with the recruitment department to ensure staffing needs are being met.
• Meet regularly with the summer school Academic Lead.
• Schedule regular clinics to answer student queries.
• Schedule meetings with the rest of the summer school management team.
• Attend weekly all staff meetings.

Welfare

• Create risk assessments for spaces designated for teaching and breaktimes.
• Create damage checks and cascade any information back to the relevant parties.
• Provide refreshments in the teachers’ room.
• Arrange or encourage regular staff social events.
• Liaise with the Fire Officer to coordinate evacuation protocols during drills or when the fire alarm sounds.
• Clinics – Advertise days and times when students and Group Leaders can come and address queries they might have.
• Plan for and foster inclusion for students with special educational needs.
• Ensure student behavioural issues during lessons are addressed and documented appropriately.
• Deliver INSETT on coping with restless learners and students with behavioural issues.
• Be a focal point for teacher problems; proactively offer informal advice either as an intervention or when approached.
• Meet with the summer school’s safeguarding lead to ensure accountability.

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Thank you for reading! If you have any thoughts, feel free to comment. This is still work in progress!

Interested in other summer school related tools and topics? Click here: Summer school ideas

Do you need a game to fill a gap in your lesson and engage your students? If yes, look no further than here: Games and board games

Do you work in academic management? You might find a handy labour-saving tool here: Office tools