It is decades since Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam opened up the ‘Black Box’ to reveal the crucial importance of assessment as learning, but it would appear the messages from …
Seeing the ‘Big Picture’ (On Expertise)
As a young boy, little more than a toddler, Magnus Carlson possessed the ability to remember complex patterns and to play chess like an aged master. His proud parents recount when …
General Election ’17: An Education Policy Overview
The run up to a general election often trots out the good, the bad, and the ugly, of education policy. We know that what sells to the voter on the …
ResearchEd York 2017 – We’re Back!
It is back! ResearchEd returns to York, for researchEd York 2017, at Huntington School, on Saturday the 8th of July. Once more, the array of speakers for this summer in …
Rosy Retrospection & Education in the Election
“Memoria praeteritorum bonorum” [‘The past is always well remembered’] Roman saying The general election is a matter of a few short weeks ago. For those of us in education, we …
How to Train A GCSE Essay Writer – Part 2
Thinking about better assessment is not always at the forefront of the mind of a busy English teacher. We are so hassled by marking, planning and well, teaching lots, that …
Five Teacher Fears
Teachers share many of the same hopes and fears. As much as we all yearn for the long summer holiday, we all loath the inevitable onset of September. The nightmare …
How to Train a GCSE Essay Writer
I have written a countless number of essays. At school, university, and back at school again, showing my students how to do it. In my fourteen years teaching I must …
The Problem with Past Exam Papers
Over the weekend I had the joy of watching my little boy, Noah, play one of his football matches (there was a little pain too – just don’t mention the …
Duvet Days & the Teacher Workload Problem
You can almost smell the burning indignation of Daily Mail readers as they read the following story on ‘Duvet Days’ for teachers. “Lessons in Laziness from lie-in teachers” is the war-cry. …