Getting Ready to Teach the New GCSE

I do try to be impartial about the different exam boards (trust me I try!!) and previously I’ve let you know what support OCR are offering (blog post -> HERE). I’ve also been contacted by Andrew Taylor at AQA just before Christmas (sorry it’s taken me so long to blog about it!) to let me … Read more

“Doing my bit”

I am conscious that some of you don’t have the same sense of humour or outlook on life as me – after all “my perception is my reality” – so when I blog about the teacher shortage I don’t mean it to be all “doom and gloom”. In fact I do whatever I can do, … Read more

Now means “Now”

Today (a Saturday!) the letter from Nick Gibb to the awarding bodies was published on the DFE site (here). The content doesn’t really affect me or our students directly, but nonetheless does concern me for reasons I shall explain. The DFE have made the decision that iGCSEs (and that includes the “level 1 and 2 … Read more

mmmmwwwwahahahahahaha

When DFE/Ofqual published some letters in relation to the new GCSE’s I had a vision of someone sat in an office, rubbing their hands, cackling and laughing because it was Christmas Eve. Surely no one would think that you could sneak this stuff under the radar? Think again! Not even the festivities would stop some … Read more

Nov 14 ResultsPlus Template

Just a quickie .. it’s late … Below you will find our Results Plus Template (along with instructions) for the November 14 1MA0 Higher Tier that you can import your ResultsPlus data into to produce more user-friendly student question level analysis. ResultsPlus Instructions – Nov 2014 2014 11 November ResultsPlus Higher – Original 2014 11 November ResultsPlus … Read more

SMSC in Maths

I’ve been meaning to post this since before Christmas as I know lots of you will be searching for help (as I was) in order to put something together for SMSC for your maths department. We’ve done a whole school audit and we went a stage further and put together our departmental statement/policy … call … Read more

Bread and Butter again!

So thoughts are turning to the new term and I am genuinely excited. Tomorrow evening I may feel differently!?!? We have a new member of staff joining the department who will be responsible for numeracy, which means together with myself, Seager, Will (who is also teaching his Science specialism) and two Assistant Heads we are … Read more

Cheese and Onion Crisps

Every time I eat cheese and onion crisps (usually because they’re all that’s left!) I think “these really are nice and I quite like them”. I do the same with lots of things: going to my mother-in-laws, making bread, digging at my allotment, swimming etc etc. I bet you’re wondering if I’ve gone slightly mad or … Read more

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