Dates for your diary

Just a quickie to let you know about the forthcoming dates for the collaborative network meetings that Pearson Edexcel run. If you haven’t been to one you need to get yourself involved – the emphasis in these meetings is meant to be on teaching and learning, rather than exam focus but inevitably given that this … Read more

Someone sent me an email …

I’ve written before about the pressure of making the right/wrong tiering decision -> here but an email I received this week (more about that below) coincided with something I found in the board meeting papers from Ofqual last week that made me go … hmmmmmmmmmmmm then grrrrrrrrrr. The specific piece is shown below and is … Read more

A little every day .. February 2017

Short and sweet … Calender for Feb can be found here -> Monthly Maths – February 2017 NOTE: I’ll update this post with the solutions for January up tomorrow as I’m a world away from home at the minute – somewhere up north!!  Update: Jan Solutions can be found here -> Monthly Maths – January … Read more

Common Questions – New 9-1 GCSE

I’m just gonna say it … I think I need to get a life! I’ve been doing some work following the letter I’ve had from Ofqual in response to my own letter to them where I raised the matter of how comparability across tiers was being ensured. You can see from the below extract Ofqual … Read more

From the coalface 5

Occasionally I open up the blog to others to write a post or two … (don’t worry Seager isn’t getting another chance … EVER!). Some of the motives for doing this stem from being able to offer a different view on life at the coalface but also because I find other people’s views fascinating and … Read more

A little every day – JANUARY 2017

I did mean to get these posted last week but sometimes forget how manic the end of term is … just starting to chill out – it’s only taken 4 days! The file for the January maths calendar and also solutions for the December one can be found below: January 2017 -> Monthly Maths – … Read more

What we know and what we don’t know – 9-1 GRADING

To avoid raising my blood pressure every time someone posts something about grading that isn’t right I thought I’d collate how it is actually going to work in one post and leave it pinned to the top of the blog so that I can keep referring people to it.  I wish we could stop playing … Read more

H v F ..

No-one knows what the boundaries for any grade are going to be next Summer; There is lots of second guessing going on and I’ve seen some things that are glaringly wrong and I’ve seen some things that are founded on good common sense but what is obvious is that the make up of the papers … Read more

Grading consultation Part 3 – New Maths GCSE 9-1

The week before last, Ofqual published another consultation on grading (I know!! 7 months to go!!) which on the face of it looks like they’re tidying up the “subject level conditions and requirements for mathematics” and in my opinion, in the main, it is just that. To be honest there is one thing in it … Read more

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