Rose pruning: let the light through

When we bought our house, the previous owner explained with pride that some of the rose bushes were over 100 years old!

Talk about pressure!

If I am being honest, my track record with gardening hasn’t been great (most plants that I have been 'involved with' have not made it past the 1-year mark- apologies to our maidenhair, lilly, and frangipani!),

Remembering to water plants is not my forte! But I clearly needed to 'step up' my game for the sake of our rose 'centenarians'.

My knowledge of roses was limited to the fact that they had very pointy thorns, and required regular pruning.

I didn’t know when, where or how to prune, so I consulted Google.

This is what I found:

Reading these tips made me feel better.

The sentences 'it's very hard to kill a rose bush' and 'most mistakes will grow out quickly' were very reassuring. If only haircut mistakes grew out so quickly (I remember Miss 8 deciding to cut her own hair when she was 3-that little mistake took forever to grown out!)! 

Added to that, the mention of angles in 'Prune roses at a 45-degree angle' had me thinking about maths, which always lifts my mood!

Reading about pruning got me interested in the 'why' behind it.

According to the various webpages, pruning is necessary for the following reasons: It...

• Encourages new growth
• Removes old, dead wood
• Shapes the plant
• Reduces the chances of fungal disease by increasing airflow
• Promotes better sunlight exposure
• Encourages flowering

The idea of cutting back to let more sunlight and airflow through really caught my attention and made me think of our maths programming.

So often we feel the need to add 'more', when perhaps the answer may be to 'take away' and prune our offerings. Klotz (2021) explain that we may actually be hard-wired to solve problems by adding new 'things', rather than simplifying! That explains a lot of decisions I make in life!

It seems like every day in the media there is something else that teachers and schools are asked to take responsibility for. Swimming lessons, dog education, drug education, cyber safety... the list goes on.

While I am not suggesting that any of these are not important, they are a little like the leaves and growth on the rose bush. They constrict the airflow and make it harder for the sunlight (learning) to get through to our students.

I have been reading a book by Arran Hamilton, John Hattie and Dylan Wiliam called 'Making Room for Impact: A de-implementation Guide for Educators'.

The book explains the need to 'de-implement' in order to give teachers back precious time and energy.

I found myself reading the book thinking about the 4R's strategy (Remove, Reduce, Re-engineer, Replace) in the context of our maths programming.

The book describes how we should be constantly reviewing our practices in order to uncover those that we may be doing 'because we have always done them'.

Maintaining the 'status quo' is not a reason to continue a practice, thus careful consideration and discussion is required around:

What would happen if we completely removed this practice? (Would the sky fall in?!)

What would happen if we reduced how often we complete the practice? (Would we still achieve the same outcomes?!)

What would happen if we re-engineered the practice so it takes less effort or time? (Could we re-energise our teachers?)

What would happen if we replaced the practice with something more efficient or effective? (Would we give back some time/energy to our teachers?!)

I think there are many practices within our maths programs we could look at through the lens of the '4R's'.

For example, are there assessments we have done for many years, which may no longer be serving our requirements?

Perhaps they take too long, or they provide an overwhelming amount of data for teachers to unpack.

Could we re-engineer them to be more efficient and effective?

Are there assessments we could replace with 'Checks for Understanding' or 'Exit Ticket' to give us back a little more instruction time?

Are there practices we could reduce so they don't impact on our teaching time.

For example, I have heard of 'Daily Reviews' taking 20+ minutes. For me, this is too long (too long to be focused on a screen, and too long to be focused on review).

We want our students to be retrieving, but we also want them to be building their understanding through acquiring new knowledge.

We can't let reviews get in the way of teaching.

It is like looking in the rear-view mirror as you are driving. While it is important to regularly check, your main focus needs to be on what is ahead.

I think it is really important as we approach 2025, the year where many schools are implementing a new curriculum, that we think carefully about what we may need to 'prune back' to allow enough time and space for us all to properly unpack and implement the curriculum. If we want anything done well- we have to carve out time.

Just like with our roses, I think this will reduce the chance of a 'fungal disease' getting in the way, and allow our teacher and students to bloom!!

Have a great week.

Ange 🎲🎓

P.S. You can download the PDF version of this blog to print or share with colleagues here.