News

During a period of intense national pressure to “raise standards” I have been asked to write an article on raising attainment in Art.  Whenever attainment and Art are mentioned in the same sentence, it is usually followed by the gender gap in results between boys and girls. This continues to be a real focus and for good reason.

By Sophie Fegan

The removal of national curriculum levels at KS3 has, I am sure, been both the joy and the bane of many KS3 raising standards leaders like me across the country. How to assess, report and show progress at Key Stage 3 has filled my working days for the past two years and I am certain is a topic that we will continue to debate on and disagree on over coffee.

By Benn Griffin

Behaviour policies can divide the teaching profession. One only has to look through blogs and Twitter feeds to see what a polarising issue it can be. Steve Adcock of United Learning has recently written an excellent article on the “scourge of low level disruption.” Allowing poor behaviour of any kind rewards the naughty students and, crucially, means the others are a silent majority who don’t learn.

By Graham Dakin

If we are not reality TV fans, we would tend to think of apprentices as those learning a particular skill or trade, and most readily associate apprenticeships with practical learning. ‘Practical’ is a matter of degrees – replacing a fan belt, grilling a chop and solving an equation are all practical, in the sense that there is a doer and a task. So let’s not limit our idea of apprenticeship to the learning of physical skills; we can see that students in classrooms are our apprentices.

By Phil Wilson

Mention homework and students groan as though it is our pleasure to make them suffer.  But the reality is that it can also provide the teacher with many hours of work – firstly selecting the correct task, then setting it, marking it, DIT, chasing those students who have not done it; all this to provide students with one common task. Then come the excuses – ‘I lost the sheet,’ ‘I didn’t know what to do,’ ‘I wasn’t in when it was set.’  Is there any wonder why a teacher might tactically forget to set the task?

By Lindsey Ford

When I was an NQT, I can vividly remember writing out a list of interventions for every child I felt I needed personalised help after an assessment. This document ended up being about a page and a half of A4 for one of my 10 classes and, I’m ashamed to say, I wrote it, filed it and then didn’t look at it again until the next assessment.

By Rebecca Sayers

A few years ago I would have run around the classroom stamping student books with a “verbal feedback given” stamp, rather than ensuring the verbal feedback I gave was actionable and modelled what I wanted the student to do.

By Rhiannon Jones

These are the principles that have guided the development of Nova’s revision vision:

By Phil Wilson

It’s very easy as an English teacher to espouse the value and importance of the reading we do during tutor time, but the question remains: why do we value tutor reading so much?

By Nick Hetherington

Teachers should believe their subject can change lives. No, let’s go further: teachers should have a sweetly dewy-eyed belief in their subject’s potential to change the world; that a deep knowledge and understanding of their discipline opens the door to a better future for humanity.

By Phil Wilson