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The Secret of Numeracy (across the curriculum)

2014-12-11T10:25:06+00:00December 10th, 2014|Featured|

A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns… The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test. GH Hardy As some readers will no doubt be aware, I'm no mathematician. It might then seem presumptuous to take a view on the teaching of numeracy, but I think the fact that I'm not naturally numerate gives me a perspective that other, more mathematically minded thinkers might lack. My first, rather trite observation is that numeracy is not [...]

Turning the tanker: lesson grading

2014-10-29T15:24:18+00:00October 29th, 2014|Featured|

I spent a good part of the past year or so railing against the injustices of lesson grading: My impatience with some Ofsted inspectors 24th July 2014 Ofsted: The end of the (lesson grading) affair 4th June 2014 Should Ofsted judge ‘quality of teaching’? 26th May 2014 A horror story: Does Ofsted get it wrong again? 23rd May 2014 Ofsted inspectors continue to do whatever they like 21st May 2014 Watching the watchmen: Is Ofsted fit for purpose? 16th March 2014 The mystery of Oldfield School’s missing Ofsted report 17th March 2014 What inspirational teaching looks like according to Ofsted 18th February 2014 What I learned from my visit [...]

Some thoughts on truth

2014-10-19T18:10:31+01:00October 19th, 2014|Featured|

Every truth has two sides. It is well to look at both before we commit ourselves to either side. Aesop This weekend I took part in a panel discussion on the meaning of literacy at the Battle of Ideas. Before I was about to go on, grammarian Nevile Gwynne asked me about the stance I was planning to take; I said he’d probably find me ‘quite traditional’. He then took me to task for my equivocation. Gwynne is a man untroubled by doubt and dismissed the position that to err is human as nonsense. But how can we ever know with [...]

Can you be too independent?

2014-10-01T22:30:48+01:00October 1st, 2014|Featured|

If the man doesn’t believe as we do, we say he is a crank, and that settles it. I mean, it does nowadays, because now we can’t burn him. Mark Twain Today I discovered I had been 'let go' by Independent Thinking Ltd. Of course accidents happen, but I hadn't received this email so it came as something of a shock. This post is in no way intended to be sour; it is merely an attempt to work through how I feel. For those those of you who may not be aware, ITL are essentially a employment agency for education consultants. Here [...]

Where do I want my daughters to go to school?

2014-09-28T10:44:39+01:00September 27th, 2014|Featured|

My eldest daughter is in Year 6 and applications for secondary school applications need to be in by the end of October. To my shame, I've taken the route my middle-class parents take; we're moving into the catchment of the school of our choice. But why have we chosen it? Well, the results are very good; the view of parents is overwhelmingly positive; it offers about the right blend of academic and 'creative' subjects, and it has the kind of ethos that chimes with our values. I think. But I don't really know. I'm basing these judgements on league tables, Ofsted reports, [...]

Forget about assessing learning after lessons

2014-09-19T18:27:37+01:00September 19th, 2014|Featured|

Today I not only have my first ever article published by the TES, it's made the front page! Those of you familiar with my output will recognise the arguments and be familiar with the thinking that's led to these conclusions. But for anyone new to the blog, a little background wouldn't go amiss. The first and perhaps most important brick in the teetering edifice I've been constructing over the past couple of years is the idea that learning and performance are not the same thing. Maybe this sounds obvious, but it rocked my world to its rotten foundations. Read this post if [...]

What I learned in my visit to King Solomon Academy Part 2 – The Lemov lecture

2014-09-12T13:57:31+01:00September 12th, 2014|Featured|

When I reported my observations about King Solomon Academy, a number of commentators pointed out the similarities to some of the Charter Schools in the US. Any similarity is the Charter model, particularly the KIPP schools (Knowledge is Power Programme) share many of the same aims, values and structures as KSA. Although I've never visited one of these schools I was aware of the influence they've had on a number of English Free Schools and Academies. How synchronous then Doug Lemov, managing director of the Uncommon Schools network in New York state and author of the highly influential, Teach Like a Champion: [...]

What I learned in my visit to King Solomon Academy Part 1

2018-10-24T17:55:35+01:00September 11th, 2014|Featured|

Yesterday I wangled a visit to the latest ministerial touchstone for excellence in English education, King Solomon Academy just off the Edgware Road in Westminster. The Ark sponsored academy has the dubious privilege of being situated in the most deprived, socially disadvantaged ward in London. 12% are on the SEN register; 51% are in receipt of free school meals and 65% speak English as a second language. They can hardly be accused as cherry picking the most able. And yet it achieves some of most astonishing GCSE results recorded this summer with 93% of pupils getting 5 good grades including English and Maths and 75% obtaining [...]

Do you need a research champion in your school?

2014-09-08T17:19:14+01:00September 8th, 2014|Featured|

If you haven't read this great article by Carl Hendricks, Director of Research at Wellington College, on the need for 'research champions in schools, you should. In it Hendricks persuasively sets out the case for the importance of there being a designated member of staff to champion the cause of education research in every school: Education research has provided teachers with enlightening and elegant ways of approaching their practice. There is an ever-growing and robust evidence base in a wide range of areas that have improved standards and enfranchised both teacher practice and student achievement. However there has also been a history of ideologically driven, [...]

#ResearchED – Everything you know about education is wrong

2014-09-07T17:36:49+01:00September 6th, 2014|Featured|

If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong. Charles F. Kettering I realise I must have come as something as a disappointment for all those expecting the curly-headed medical mischief-maker, Ben Goldacre, but it was wonderful to have the opportunity to try to explain where my thinking currently is on the thorny matter of education research. Really I have no right to a place on the big stage at a conference like ResearchED; I've never done any proper research; I have no qualifications beyond my PGCE. I'm just a very geeky chancer with a big gob and [...]

Further thoughts about evidence in education

2014-08-31T15:21:42+01:00August 31st, 2014|Featured|

Facts as facts do not always create a spirit of reality, because reality is a spirit. G. K. Chesterton Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them. Hermann Hesse I reached some tentative conclusions about evidence in education in my last post. One of the criticisms I keep coming up against is that my thinking is 'positivist' and therefore either limited or bad, depending on the biases of the critic. To understand this criticism we need to briefly explore some conceptions about reality, or ontology. Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature [...]

Some tentative thoughts about evidence in education

2014-08-30T16:31:39+01:00August 29th, 2014|Featured|

To get anywhere, or even live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again, without enough data for a logical answer. Robert A. Heinlein I've been thinking hard about the nature of education research and I'm worried that it might be broken. If I develop a theory but have no evidence for it then it is dismissed as 'mere speculation'. "Show me the evidence!" comes the crowded shout, and currently in the sphere of education evidence is all. But can we really trust the evidence we're offered? Clearly, sometimes we can. I don't want to be [...]

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