4th September 2018 Today my elder grand daughter , Alice, will experience her first day in Reception. She was born in March 2014, the year that the “new” National Curriculum came into being in September. When she was three months old I was asked … [Read more...]
Creating the Conditions for Deep Learning
New training available from Inspir.ed In her report (November 2016, Teaching Schools Council) Dame Reena Keeble cited the research she engaged in to determine key features of Effective Primary Practice which states clearly the importance of … [Read more...]
Mind the gap! Busting the progress myth.
Are you informed about tracking pupil progress? “We do what we can to make sense of learning and give it value. Learning is complicated and when we try to simplify it and reduce it to some kind of code for recording purposes we begin to lose the … [Read more...]
Thinking deeper learning, expert learners!
High Quality Provision in Mastery Classrooms - creating expert learners! What we as educators understand to be the key aspects of high quality teaching has not changed but the curriculum has. It is now standards based, and to provide … [Read more...]
My (personal) Response to the Primary Assessment Inquiry
The Primary ASSESSMENT INQUIRY is underway. We have been asked as professionals to respond to the Commission by Friday 28th October. You have to go online and send a written submission, and I thought you might like to see mine. My biggest problem … [Read more...]
Newsletter Autumn 2016
Welcome back to the new school year and to the data checking exercise that the DfE have sent you whilst you were away enjoying a well earned break! I strongly suspect that your priorities on the first day back with pupils are likely to be firmly … [Read more...]
Newsletter Summer 2016
Well, SATS are here at last at the end of a year where the updates and the changes have been as disconcerting as the unseasonable weather! Let's get them over and done with and hope for something better next year. Seems to me there is a lot of … [Read more...]
The move to become an Academy: Where do you stand?
Schools are coming under increasing pressure to move to academy status. It is likely that in the next year or so, this will become a mandatory move. To help governors and school leaders through this challenging change, INSPIR.ED and Merganser … [Read more...]
Holding Schools to Account 2016
So now we have the guidance on the reforms to primary accountability that will come into effect from 2016. The new attainment and progress performance measures and the new floor target finally explained in a document that I hope everyone knows is on … [Read more...]
Remarkable Marking!
Heard from my New Head teacher Network group that reviews of their provision by those who conduct these things are asking for more evidence that comment marking leads to action by the pupils that improves their work, and that this evidence needs to … [Read more...]
