Every teacher and school leader wants to please the parents of their school children. And quite right too. From a warm conversation at parents evening, to a celebratory phone call, it can …
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 penalty). If …
The Feedback ‘Collection’
Since 2012, I have written numerous posts about feedback and marking. This is no surprise given our school system has been seemingly addicted to making ‘progress’ visible, with feedback becoming a quick …
The OFSTED Marking Myth
Some habits are hard to shift and some myths are difficult to bust. Arguably, over the last five years or so, excessive marking has become the biggest workload burden on teachers. The kernel …
Focusing on Feedback
And the evidence says… Feedback is the answer! It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a teaching wanting to help their students learn effectively must give lots of feedback. Marking, lots of …
Teacher Workload: What Can Schools Do?
We know the problem with teacher workload is nothing new. It is the regular complaint of teachers across the nation. And yet the mountain of paperwork never appears to shrink! Most often, …
10 New School Year Resolutions
School starts again on Monday for me and so it is an appropriate time to procrastinate…sorry, I mean plan for the year ahead. Now, I know that the best laid plans of …
Confidence Tests and Exam Wrappers
We all get our students to do tests. We do long answers, short answers, multiple choice, long essays, or performances in Music, Drama, PE and Art. In short, there is lots of …
Learning (and Assessment) First
(Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt) We so often get assessment wrong in schools. Under perennial accountability pressures, assessment often loses it chief purpose: aiding learning. Today, in Sheffield, hundreds of teachers are gathering to …
Student Grouping: Setting or Mixed Ability? AN UPDATE
Very recently I asked the question about the thorny topic of student grouping: Is it better to group students based on their prior ability, in mixed ability groupings, or something in …