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Why interview feedback is a waste of time

Feb 27, 2020 | Category: leadership

A few years ago I wrote a series of posts on the subject of improving the interview process in schools: Part 1: A brief review of the evidence Part 2: Intuition vs. statistical prediction (in whi...

#feedback #Interviews

Can observation pro formas be used well?

Feb 09, 2020 | Category: leadership

Should observers waltz into lessons armed with a clipboard full of hoops they hope to see teachers jump through? No, probably not. Some years ago I wrote about my preference for how lessons should be...

Does the new inspection framework trade off reliability against validity?

Jan 15, 2020 | Category: leadership

Yesterday I saw a thread on Twitter from headteacher Stuart Lock on the pros and cons of the new inspection framework:https://twitter.com/StuartLock/status/1216475275514523648?s=20In it he discusses t...

#Ofsted #reliability #validity #Amy Finch #Stuart Lock

What do Ofsted reports reveal about the way schools are being inspected under the new framework?

Oct 17, 2019 | Category: leadership

Ofsted's new inspection framework went live at the beginning of September and the first reports have now been published. Anecdotally, I've heard whispers from two different inspections about the sorts...

#Ofsted

The school leadership bubble

Sep 24, 2018 | Category: leadership

Some years ago the English faculty I led was subject to a week-long leadership review. Knowing that every member of the department was to be observed and that we would be expected to showcase loads of...

The secret of successful schools: the Anna Karenina Principle

Jun 14, 2017 | Category: leadership

For men are good in but one way, but bad in many.Aristotle Tolstoy's great novel, Anna Karenina, opens with the famous line, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own wa...

#Anna Karenina Principle

Can we improve school interviews? Part 1: A brief review of the research

May 09, 2017 | Category: leadership

Recruitment for most employers is straightforward: you advertise, read through applications, invite the people you like in for an interview, think about it for a bit and then enter into negotiations w...

#lesson observation #Daniel Kahneman #Interviews #IQ

Should we give teachers the 'benefit of the doubt'?

Mar 03, 2017 | Category: leadership

Earlier in the week, Schools Minister, Lord Nash announced that schools should be more like businesses and jettison underperforming staff. According to this TES report he's reported to have said, "“I...

#Dylan Wiliam #intelligent accountability #Lord Nash

How can school inspection get what it wants?

Feb 10, 2017 | Category: leadership

I read a great piece by Dr Becky Allen in Schools Week this morning on inherent unreliability of school inspections. In it she makes the point that human beings are incapable of making reliable, high...

#Ofsted #accountability #Becky Allen #school inspection

Less marking, more feedback: A challenge and a proposal

Dec 01, 2016 | Category: leadership

I've been arguing for some time that if teachers spent less time marking (by which I mean writing comments on students' work) then they might have a lot more time for giving meaningful feedback which...

#marking #feedback #intelligent accountability