The start of this academic year seems to have been more manic than the previous ones, and I’ve started to notice the use of buzz words and acronyms more and more. “Intervention” is one that is used a lot at work and especially within the Maths and English teams – I’ve even found myself saying it!  Recently I got to thinking about what it actually meant, the dictionary definition is:

in-ter-ven-tion / intar-venSHan  (Noun): 1. The action or process of intervening 2. Interference by a country in another’s affairs.

intervening (present participle of in-ter-vene (verb) :  1.Come between so as to prevent or alter a result or course of events. 2. (of an event or circumstance) Occur as a delay or obstacle to something being done

To me though Intervention is not just one single thing or action, its a whole range of ideas and strategies, at both a whole-school level and teacher level. As a maths teacher it must encompass decisions about which topics to teach and how they are taught and the thought that goes into developing the resources. At a whole-school level, decisions must be made about what students we intervene with, and with the focus and pressure on those “borderline” students it is no surprise that most schools will focus on those that “have a chance” of getting the golden C (and above) grades. For some teachers the idea that only these students were the priority could be distasteful and I know we are lucky that this is NOT the case for us – we have had students with target grades of F’s and G’s go onto achieve B’s and C’s. That makes me proud for those students, knowing that their hard work and the systems put in place to support them really made a difference.

I could go on and on (I haven’t even mentioned assessment or planning or …. ) Its definitely something I want to elaborate on so watch this space.