Testing, testing… why one test can’t do everything
The thing which most seems to rile people about testing is the fact that it puts children under stress. A certain amount of stress is probably a good thing - there's nothing as motivating as a looming deadline - but too much is obviously a bad thing. Martin Robinson writes here that ... a teacher needn’t pass undue exam stress onto her pupils, and a Headteacher needn’t pass undue stress [...]
Why study grammar?
Trying to express complex thoughts in simple English ... is demanding, challenging and takes time. Terry Leahy There's been a lot of fuss over the past week about whether it's appropriate to assess children's knowledge of grammar at the end of Key Stage 2. Various commentators even seem to take a perverse pride in their lack of knowledge boasting that ignorance hasn't held them back. But amidst all the confusion and vitriol, [...]
Improving critical reading through comparative judgement
The following is a guest blog from Dr Chris Wheadon of No More Marking. The reformed GCSEs in English present new challenges for pupils in critical reading and comprehension. Teachers across the country - and pupils - are studying mark schemes and trying to interpret what they mean and how they may relate to standards. No More Marking, working with David Didau and a group of 11 schools took a [...]
What every teacher needs to know about… students who leave secondary school unable to read
Many thanks to the good folks at Teach Secondary magazine for publishing yet another of my incoherent rants. This time I set my sights on the lamentable and inexcusable failure of secondary schools to teach students to read with adequate fluency and accuracy. If a student leaves secondary school unable to read it is the school’s fault. I’ll leave that opening sentence hanging, parked like a tank on your lawn, while [...]
What I know about whether ‘no excuses’ behaviour systems work
I read John Tomsett's account of his speech at Michaela School's Debate on 23rd April on why 'no excuses' behaviour systems don't work with great interest. As a speech it is well researched, well argued and kinda misses the point. He acknowledges this when he says, "If I’m against “no excuses” discipline, I must, logically, be in favour of “excuses” discipline" but then dismisses this as "nonsense". But is it? He says [...]
Workload Challenge: Marking
The three areas identified by teachers' responses to the Workload Challenge as particularly burdensome were marking, planning and data and a separate report has been prepared on each. On of the problems encountered in preparing these reports is the lack of a robust evidence base. Too often those involved in compiling the reports were forced to rely on professional judgement and 'common sense' interpretations of what little evidence there was. One of [...]
A plug for Teaching & Learning Conference on 2nd July
The following is a guest post from Anne Williams wherein she promotes the Teaching & Learning conference she has organised on 2nd July in Leeds. I'll be speaking there and so will loads of other rather excellent people. Tickets are selling fast so don't miss out. At the end of June last year, I was hosting a visit from two other schools when a particularly portentous email dropped into my [...]
Walking the tightrope between cynicism and sincerity
Life is either always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope. Edith Wharton I wrote recently about unscrupulous optimism. Mostly this seems to have been understood as a warning against the unbridled enthusiasm for the new and the recklessly blinkered belief that the best possible case will always come to pass. Naturally enough I suppose, some readers read into it a celebration of negativity and cynicism. This could not be [...]
The revolutionary wisdom of the tribe
In A History of the World, Andrew Marr suggests there needs to be a balance between new ideas and what he calls 'the wisdom of the tribe': What is the right balance between state authority and individual liberty? No successful state is a steady state. All successful states experience a relentless tug-of-war between conservatism, the wisdom of the tribe, and radicalism, or new thinking. The wisdom of the tribe really matters: it [...]
Proof of progress Part 2
Back in January I described the comparative judgement trial that we were undertaking at Swindon Academy in collaboration with Chris Wheadon and his shiny, new Proof of Progress system. Today, Chris met with our KS2 team and several brave volunteers from the secondary English faculty to judge the completed scripts our Year 5 students had written. Chris began proceedings by briefly describing the process and explaining that we should aim to make [...]
7 habits of genuinely expert teachers
Science is not 'organized common sense'; at its most exciting, it reformulates our view of the world by imposing powerful theories against the ancient, anthropocentric prejudices that we call intuition. Stephen J. Gould Being a teacher is a tough job. The quantity and the complexity of the decisions and responses we make in the course of a day is daunting. Useful as it would be to think deeply about and [...]
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