Joined up thinking

1 October 2014 | Blog

I have alluded on a previous post in relation to PISA testing the danger of one person having ultimate control over something – don’t get me wrong I am not saying no “one person” should be accountable for education policy, but the least we can expect as teachers, is for there to be some joined ... Read more

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So what has changed?

29 September 2014 | BlogEdexcel

Now that the last “big” or should that be the “biggest” maths exam board has been accredited looking at the specimen papers can begin, so hopefully you’ll find this post useful. Someone once said to me that part of the decision-making process will be about how close the exam boards interpret the technical spec published ... Read more

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One-to-one or One-to-many

28 September 2014 | BlogIntervention

I am sure that there is a maths joke in that title somewhere! Anyway, I promised to post more information about the logistics of the one-to-one programme that we mentioned yesterday – I must remind you that this isn’t the model we’re adopting in our new school as we have no under-allocation (just in case anyone ... Read more

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PISA tests .. grrr!

28 September 2014 | Blog

Yesterday Dr Vanessa Pittard (Assistant Director, Curriculum and Standards) gave a DFE update as the opening speech at a maths conference – a section of this was devoted to showing our position in the PISA tests. Not a biggie? How worried should we be that international surveys of student achievement are making such appearances? Not ... Read more

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a quickie post

28 September 2014 | Blog

Yesterday’s maths conference organised by La Salle Education was amazing … so much so that I am exhausted from the adrenaline rush of the excitement, and haven’t even started to catch up with tweets and emails as I went out to dinner with my husband when I got home. (If you do want a copy ... Read more

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4 weeks down

27 September 2014 | Blog

4 weeks down and it has been a roller coaster ride. Actually let me add to that: it has been a roller coaster ride with an upward trajectory! For those of you that started new jobs this September I am sure some of you will empathise and others won’t be able to relate at all, ... Read more

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Naughty Naughty!

24 September 2014 | Blog

Very naughty! This morning my timeline was flooded with tweets from various newspapers screaming the headlines that students are to sit longer maths exams. Now if you are a parent and this sent you into a blind panic let me just say: “this isn’t “new” news!” and shame on the journalists for making it such – ... Read more

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KS3 Bread and Butter

23 September 2014 | Resources

We’ve just started using the bread and butter starters (here is the link  to my original POST ) with our year 11 “super group” and it got me thinking about how I could do something similar with years 7 and 8, so that by the time the students get further up the school they are used to ... Read more

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Spend more time in the classroom

20 September 2014 | Blog

This week our new Education Secretary wrote an open letter to the unions (OPEN LETTER TO UNIONS) and the key line is “teachers join the profession to teach and we have a common interest in reducing – where we can – unnecessary work that takes teachers time away from teaching”. Now the thing is, this ... Read more

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A couple of dates:

18 September 2014 | BlogEdexcel

Over the next few weeks I will be at a couple of things where there will be more maths teachers than you can shake a stick at, so …. what do you call a collection of maths teachers? … ooh get me! I’m sure there is a little bit of literacy in there somewhere?!? Well I ... Read more

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