There appears to be a significant rise in coaching in schools at the moment that provides hope for a more coherent approach to teacher improvement. The whole topic of Performance Development is …
Shared Writing: Modelling Mastery
If the path of repeated deliberate practice makes something like perfect, then imitating good models of writing provides solid foundations for the pursuit of writing excellence. ‘Shared writing‘ is one specific strategy …
What My Parents Taught Me About ‘An Education’
Educating Rita! On Friday the 15th of March I had the great pleasure to watch my mother, Rita, finally become a graduate, a couple of years short of sixty. It was a …
‘Gallery Critique’ in the Classroom
“I believe that work of excellence is transformational. Once a student sees that he or she is capable of excellence, that student is never quite the same. There is a new self-image, …
Character and Student Outcomes
We often focus upon the quantifiable outcomes in school: league tables, international measures and evidence based outcomes of cognitive ability, but we too often neglect those non-cognitive learning dispositions which will see …
Questioning and Oral Feedback – Our ‘Bread & Butter’
A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure to present to the staff of my school for just over an hour on teaching and learning. My session, in the main hall, …
Reading Fast and Slow
Reading too slowly? The movement towards a ‘slow education‘, encompassing deeper, richer learning experiences, is surely the antidote to our assessment driven, checkpoint laden curriculum. In my previous post I explained that …
Reading with Michael Gove
“I thought I’d begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then I thought, why should I? He never reads any of mine.” Spike Milligan My usual attitude closely resembles a ‘less …
Make your ‘Marking Policy’ a ‘Feedback Policy’
Marking workload getting on top of you? Many schools, and departments, have been reflecting about their marking policies ever since OFSTED declared more than a healthy interest in scrutinising books. Progress over …
Evidence Driven Education
I started the school year talking with my faculty about our success in the summer and throughout the previous year and of course the areas we needed to improve. Upon reflection we …