Just wow! Changing job is THE hardest think I have ever done in my career. It must be the best kept secret in teaching, because no-one ever tells you what to expect until you’re “in the moment”. I have no idea why this is the case, maybe it’s because people think that if they admit … Read more
The last six weeks I have had to go back to basics in terms of my lesson planning and behaviour management … let’s just say that at times it feels like doing my PGCE all over again. Of course I’ve had the data on my groups (I’ve had that for months!!) but this only tells part … Read more
There! I’ve said it! Don’t hate me! I’m not sure what it is that I like about them – it’s difficult to put into words but I always feel that another piece of the jigsaw falls into place when you meet students with their parents or even just their parents. Several years ago I came … Read more
Very shortly after accepting our jobs in the summer term we were dealt a blow: our NQT wasn’t going to accept his position; our new gaffer dealt with this swiftly and managed to sweet-talk a Physics teacher to come over to “the dark side” and teach maths – he was considering leaving the profession and … Read more
I have written what seems to be endless posts on homework … arghh!! You would imagine that the question “does homework work?” would be easy to answer, wouldn’t you? As a teaching body, we are all professionals and you would think we would be able to come up with some conclusive proof, either way to … Read more
Right … where to start? I suppose I start at the beginning and see where it takes me .. remember I have blogging tourettes! Changing jobs in schools is not very well chronicled … ok , so others have written about changing jobs but I’ve yet to read any that tell you the truth, the … Read more
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
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
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
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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