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This is what I want

2014-05-20T18:30:32+01:00May 20th, 2014|Featured|

In the past few days I've told you what I think and a little bit about who I am. This post outlines the role I'd ideally like. Choosing to leave the classroom has had some surprising consequences. It was very flattering that my local paper wanted to write about the fact the blog won an award, but look at that headline! I'm not at all sure how I feel about being an 'ex-teacher'. Does it necessarily follow that just because I'm not currently at the chalk face, I'm no longer a teacher? Maybe it does. There were some pressing push factors as well as [...]

This is who I am

2014-05-18T20:27:42+01:00May 18th, 2014|Featured|

This post was written at the behest of Rory Gallagher (@EddieKayshun) who assured me that some people might find it interesting to know a little more about my background. He has persuaded all sorts of fascinating teachers to share their stories on his marvellous Who I Am, What I Do site. I recommend you check it out. My experience of school was troubled. It took me a long time to get over it. Apparently, my mother took me out of school for several months at the age of seven in order to teach me to read. My primary school had written [...]

Some pictures and reviews of #litbook

2014-05-26T10:17:09+01:00May 17th, 2014|Featured|

Many thanks to all the people who have kindly been in touch to tell me their long-awaited copies of The Secret of Literacy have arrived; I hope you find it useful and enjoyable. If you do like it, please don't underestimate how grateful I'll be for a positive review on Amazon (Many thanks to D Hewitson for the first 5 star review.) If you'd like to send me a picture of your copy of #litbook, Crown House have promised a prize for the most imaginative... Here are a few of the pics I've been sent so far: @RachelOrr @TeacherToolkit [...]

Some nice things people have said about my new book

2014-05-01T17:54:46+01:00May 1st, 2014|Featured|

After months of frustrating delay (don't ask!), The Secret of Literacy has finally been printed! It will, I'm assured, be available for 15th May. I hope it's worth the wait. To whet your appetite, here are some of the charming things said by some of the people I admire most in education: David Didau’s book is everything a book about the work of teaching should be: clear-eyed, lively, wise, and funny. Written by a  front-line practitioner of the craft. And best of all, reading it will make you better. Doug Lemov, Managing Director, Teach Like A Champion Team The Secrets of [...]

On compromise

2014-05-05T16:06:39+01:00April 30th, 2014|Featured|

The right of thinking freely and acting independently, of using our minds without excessive awe of authority, and shaping our lives without unquestioning obedience to custom, is now a finally accepted principle in some sense or other with every school of thought that has the smallest chance of commanding the future. Under what circumstances does the exercise and vindication of the right, thus conceded in theory, become a positive duty in practice? If the majority are bound to tolerate dissent from the ruling opinions and beliefs, under what conditions and within what limitations is the dissentient imperatively bound to avail himself [...]

Progressively Worse: a summary and a review

2016-08-07T20:41:26+01:00April 28th, 2014|Featured|

I’ve just finished reading Robert Peal’s blistering polemical attack on progressive education in England, Progressively Worse, the burden of bad ideas in British schools, and, while it clearly has an agenda and an axe to grind, it’s a book I hope everyone involved in teaching spares the time to read and absorb. Doubtless, it’s intrinsically biased nature will ensure that many readers will find it easy to dismiss as ‘prog bashing’, and it certainly takes every opportunity to go for the jugular. In many ways, the endorsement from Michael Gove could well be a kiss of death; Gove could announce longer [...]

Getting feedback right

2015-04-08T10:06:49+01:00April 10th, 2014|Featured|

For the sake of convenience I've collated and condensed my recent series of posts on getting feedback right, and they are now available as a single download. It's not intended to be a complete or exhaustive exploration of everything to do with feedback or as a necessarily right; instead I hope it provokes discussion and that it's useful for classroom teachers in considering why and how they might go about providing their pupils with feedback on their work more thoughtfully. If you do find it useful, I'd love to know. Getting feedback right from David Didau

On dichotomies

2014-03-28T17:14:40+00:00March 27th, 2014|Featured|

I seem to regularly find myself embroiled in various polarised debates, and invariably, at some point in the discussion, someone butts into to dismiss the entire exchange as a 'false dichotomy'. (And hence, a waste of time.) The answer, they claim lies not at the margins but somewhere in the centre. In this way we can dispense with the futile bickering between 'traditionalists' and 'progressives', and those who champion either the teaching of knowledge or skills because they are both right. We just characterise our adversaries as occupying an extreme position but no one really believes something so diametrically oppositional. Do [...]

The mystery of Oldfield School's missing Ofsted report

2014-03-17T14:08:59+00:00March 17th, 2014|Featured|

Oldfield School in Bath has a long history of being graded Outstanding and throughout Headteacher Kim Sparling has been at the helm. I worked there briefly and took part in their successful 2003 inspection. The school was rated as being Outstanding again in 2012 after converting to Academy status, but following a "number of complaints and allegations made to Ofsted about the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements at the school," Oldfield was reinspected under Section 8 (and Section 5?) last December. The report remains unpublished. However on 11th February, this letter was sent to the school from the Lead Inspector Simon Rowe (HMI), concluding, "The [...]

Watching the watchmen: Is Ofsted fit for purpose?

2014-03-17T09:08:43+00:00March 16th, 2014|Featured|

You may remember a blog I posted back in December: Get ahead of the curve: stop grading lessons written after being invited to chat to Jonathan Simons and Harriet Waldegrave, the authors of Policy Exchange's new report on Ofsted's fitness for purpose: Who Watches the Watchmen? Well, today the report finally sees the light of day. It asks some big questions, and makes some bold recommendations on the future of school inspections, concluding that although we need an independent inspectorate, "significant changes ought to be made to the way in which Ofsted conducts school inspections to make it as effective as it should [...]

Ofsted's Evaluation Form: the next skirmish!

2014-02-22T10:23:54+00:00February 22nd, 2014|Featured|

The 'do they/don't they' buggers' muddle of whether or not Ofsted inspectors are supposed to grade lessons hasn't really been put to rest. Schools' National Director, Mike Cladingbowl's attempts at clarification have only really served to underline some of the inconsistencies. The crux of the situation as it stands is that while inspectors are not supposed to judge the overall lesson "it is still possible for an inspector to record a graded evaluation on an evidence form under one or more of the four main judgement headings, including teaching". This clumsy compromise is encapsulated in the Evaluation Form used by inspectors to [...]

Are we any clearer? Ofsted explain what they do and don't do

2014-02-21T19:42:02+00:00February 21st, 2014|Featured|

The story so far... On Tuesday I, and four other education bloggers met with Ofsted's National Director of Schools Mike Cladingbowl to discuss, among other things, now and why lessons are graded by Ofsted. We were told, "Inspectors must not grade lessons," and announced this to a jubilant public. Then, questions started popping up and inconsistencies began to emerge. Various inspectors expressed their confusion about what this meant as, it transpired, Ofsted's evaluation forms (EFs) contain a box within which inspectors record a grade for teaching quality. So, what were we to believe? Were inspectors meant to grade lessons or not? [...]

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