To the new Chief Regulator at Ofqual

So Glenys Stacey has (or is just about to) finished her time with Ofqual and if the DFE have their way Sally Collier will take up her role shortly. In the meantime, as I understand it, Amanda Spielman is acting director of the organisation, so just when we are going through one of the biggest … Read more

What we know and what we don’t – THE FACTS!

EDIT 28th MARCH 2017 – Given the news today -> TES report here about the change to accountability measures this post is now outdated!! I will post a proper updated post soon!! I‘d like to have called this post .. the truth, the whole truth and … ummmm … what we don’t yet know! Further to my … Read more

I wish I could keep my gob shut – a “good” pass!

This evening has been one of the most frustrating I’ve had in a long time. I’ve been distracted and I can feel my blood pressure rising; today was MathsConf6 and from my twitter timeline it looks like a great time was had by all that attended – that is what the events should be about. … Read more

Oqual Teacher Focus Groups

A contact sent this through to me to share with fellow teachers. In the body of the email forwarded to me it mentions that the aim is to “elicit teacher preparedness for the upcoming and recently implemented GCSEs and A levels.” It goes on to say; “At Ofqual we hear a lot of anecdotal feedback … Read more

A suggestion for DFE …

It seems apt given both the financial situation schools are finding themselves in but also the recruitment issue to point out that we’re STILL doing our bit. At the start of the 2014 academic year we launched SchoolScanner and contacted every school – initially there was a rush of jobs appearing but we’ve had to … Read more

NRT’s

I mean National Reference Tests! An update was published recently on the Ofqual blog  and on several occasions I’ve written about these in December 2015, June 2015 and April 2015 so I’ve been following their development quite closely. Basically I think they’re a rubbish idea! I get the fact the government are crapping themselves about … Read more

A little bit every day …

Here in Warwickshire we’re in the shortest half term I have ever experienced – it’s a “4-weeker”. It hasn’t been helped by me being off sick today and yesterday for the first time in forever! My husband had enough on Sunday evening and forced the point with me, in no uncertain terms! He’s right (as … Read more

Resits …

My thoughts recently have been concerned with resits of one form or another, both at either end of the 11 -16 age spectrum. So not only are we dealing with the impending new 9-1 GCSE, the ends of my spectrum are blurred with uncertainty (it isn’t as painful as that sounds!?!) and I find that … Read more

MA/ATM CPD Session – Sat 12/03/2016

“Making Numbers” – Supporting children’s understanding and reasoning The marvellous Rob Smith (call him Robert James .. he loves it!) sent me some information about a session that the joint MA/ATM branch is running on Saturday 12th March in Leicester. Delivered by Jenni Back, Sue Gifford and Rose Griffiths (Leicester University and University of Roehampton), … Read more

Keep an eye out

Recently I’ve approached my teaching with a renewed focus – part of this stems from the fact that the teaching is the part of the job I really love. The main driver though is a quest to understand common misconceptions as I’ve been thinking about where they fit in my chain of thought when it … Read more

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