Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the fifth national researchEd conference. It was the biggest event yet and the scale and quality of the speakers was really superb. It really was a privilege to attend, speak and connect with so many teachers and researchers.
I really enjoyed hearing from the formidable Stephen Gorard on edu research, Martin Galway on grammar and writing, Martin Robinson on ‘growth mindset’ (I disagreed with a fair few of Martin’s points, but it is good to be challenged!), as well as Amanda Spielman’s talk on the welcome changes she is leading at OFSTED.
My talk entitled, ‘50,000 Small Solutions to the Big Problem of the New Curriculum‘, was a forty minute whistle-stop tour of the academic demands of the new curriculum – at pretty much every phase. My argument, if our students do not have a wealth of words, then they simply won’t access the academic curriculum of school. We need to recalibrate our teaching and better help children to crack the academic code.
You can see the recording of the presentation here:
Here is the PPT from the session:
A big thank you to Tom Bennett, Helene Galdin-O’Shea, Alex Weatherall and all of the helpers who brought the event into being. We should not take for granted how a hugely busy cadre of teachers and supporters offer their effort and time over for their teacher colleagues for a national event like this.
Thanks for sharing Alex. The slides aren’t showing; perhaps you need to change permissions on the Google Slides file? Will watch the recording now. Thanks again!
I’ve just had a look Mark and it is working for me. Hmmm. Not sure what is going on there.
Sad that I couldn’t make the journey, delighted that you have shared the video and slides. Many thanks indeed from a grateful research-based academic principal. Shorn of both hard copies of books at home and as a consequence of love of reading, how are so many children going to recover the vocabulary to which otherwise such lost opportunities give rise?
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Hi Alex,
Sharing this with staff in our CPDL meeting tomorrow afternoon – a great talk to listen to as I plan this afternoon and to share with staff via this link. Thanks from all of us here!
When we read Antigone with year 12 last year, I asked them to sign post every word they were unsure of so that I could give them definitions. The final document runs to five pages of size 12 font… It topped every expectation that I could have had, but has cemented many helpful processes in our learning – not least saying when you don’t know a word without shame.
Bec Tulloch
St Ambrose Barlow, Swinton
Thanks Bec. Really interesting and revelatory about how aware we need to be about the vocabulary knowledge of our students.
What was the word Alex?
This is a really useful piece, Alex -I am sharing it today with everyone in our Trust as it addresses an issue that we have been discussing at length! Thank you!
Cheers John!
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