How do children learn best? It is a complex question isn’t it. It is striking that as teachers we may be knee-deep in our pupils learning for most of the …
The Problem with Judging Teacher Performance
We don’t grade lessons anymore, right? That would be foolish, wouldn’t it. Back in 2013, Professor Rob Coe made a challenge to the teaching profession and OFSTED. He proved …
Regrets? I’ve had a few…
The only guarantee you get from the job of teaching is that you will learn and fail. The trick – well, doing a little more learning than failing, whilst trying …
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 …
The Teacher Workload ‘Collection’
This last month, the Department for Education, the teaching unions and OFSTED united. Yes, you heard me right. The topic that saw this unique collaboration: teacher workload. The recruitment and …
OFSTED: Signs of Improvement
The news about education this week has been filled with the reemergence of Grammar Schools and the rightful concern about the stresses and strains of school budgets. Flat cash is …
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. …
Going Beyond Gifted and Talented
(Image via Geniussis) I can picture the scene. I arrive home from work to be greeted by my young daughter. The end of the summer holidays hasn’t dimmed her enthusiasm; she …
Target Setting and Summit Fever
(Image via Wikipedia) In his excellent real-life account, ‘Into Thin Air’, American journalist, Jon Krakauer, recounts how in 1996 he was part of a tragic Everest expedition. Krakauer, though …
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 …