Study leave or not? that is the question! There is always some debate at this time of year about how different schools structure their study leave and lots of schools now run a “revision timetable” once the exam season starts; I have recollections of having my last day at school where shirts got signed and … Read more
Just a quickie … busy, busy, busy … We’re on the home run with year 11, but we’ve already started reflecting on what went well and what we need to refine from September and post the GCSE exam is a good time to introduce new routines to embed them prior to the start of the … Read more
Occasionally (ok quite a lot of the time!) I see resources and think “ooh that’s a great idea” and last week I was shown OCRs “check in” tests .. which are just brilliant. Check them out in the “Teaching and Learning” section at the bottom of this page Basically it’s a way of assessing the … Read more
Back in March 2015 Ofqual announced that NFER had been awarded the contract to provide National Reference Tests ( OFQUAL ANNOUNCEMENT ) The idea is that Ofqual is introducing the new National Reference Tests (NRTs) to provide additional information to support the awarding of the new “big fat” 9-1 GCSEs. The intention according to Ofqual is … Read more
I’m just home having spent the last 3 days of the Easter Holiday at Keele University for the annual conference of the Mathematical Association and I’ve come away with loads to think about as you do after events of this type. Subject associations and where they “fit” in the day to day grind of teaching … Read more
Just a quick update about the GCSE debacle. I am not letting this lie! I know I’m a stubborn sod but this is not about ego, it’s about making the right decision and to reuse a quote I’ve used in one of my letters: “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is … Read more
At the recent La Salle Maths Conference there was a session labelled the “great mastery debate” (don’t … do you hear me? … don’t say it quickly!) where Bruno Reddy, Alan Patel and Amir Arezoo debated the whole mastery thing. The idea being that the three guys would debate “what is mastery? Is it an … Read more
Yes I know, it’s the Easter break for some of us (and for those of that are still at school you will get your revenge when we return to work earlier than you guys) and today I’ve been ticking off all those “housey” jobs that I never get time to do in term time (nothing … Read more
If you haven’t heard … where have you been!! … this weekend is the 3rd Maths Conference run by La Salle Education at Aston University and it is looking like it should be fun! Check it out -> here During the lunch break there is a “tweet up” where there is an opportunity to put some … Read more
There have been a couple of headlines recently that have caught my attention but I know regular readers (do I have regular readers? if so **waves hello**) will find the it as no surprise that I’d be interested. The BBC Education Page ran with “Exam changes risk problems for schools, say heads” and the online version of … Read more
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