Seriously

Gobsmacked. That is the only word I can use to describe the announcement today that Justine Greening made via a letter to the Education Select Committee. (BTW If any of the committee are reading this I suggest you clear the diary in Autumn because I suspect you will be opening an enquiry into this Summers GCSE … Read more

Common Questions – New 9-1 GCSE

I’m just gonna say it … I think I need to get a life! I’ve been doing some work following the letter I’ve had from Ofqual in response to my own letter to them where I raised the matter of how comparability across tiers was being ensured. You can see from the below extract Ofqual … Read more

What we know and what we don’t know – 9-1 GRADING

To avoid raising my blood pressure every time someone posts something about grading that isn’t right I thought I’d collate how it is actually going to work in one post and leave it pinned to the top of the blog so that I can keep referring people to it.  I wish we could stop playing … Read more

Grading consultation Part 3 – New Maths GCSE 9-1

The week before last, Ofqual published another consultation on grading (I know!! 7 months to go!!) which on the face of it looks like they’re tidying up the “subject level conditions and requirements for mathematics” and in my opinion, in the main, it is just that. To be honest there is one thing in it … Read more

Presentation “watch”

I’ve been a little quiet on the “teaching” blog front recently because we’re all so pre-occupied with the new GCSE. I am sooooo looking forward to when it is no longer “new” and we, as teachers get more of a grip on what a grade 5 etc looks and feels like. It is so very … Read more

They know that I know!

We’ve just finished our first assessment cycle (well .. one more paper to go with year 9’s tomorrow!) and we’ve done the whole RAG’ing of questions and reviewed the papers so when someone asked me last week if we re-test students it really made me think. The answer is no we don’t but I definitely … Read more

Busting to tell you something

I am rubbish with knowing news that I have been sworn to secrecy with; When it comes to my hubby and friends they know not to expect too much at any celebration event because I’ve got myself in a right tizz about what they’ve got that I force them to open their pressies weeks before … Read more

Fluency

I’ve been thinking a lot about the need for “fluency” (whatever that means!) and how not having a firm grasp of the basic number facts and relationships sometimes holds students back from accessing higher order topics. I think that there is a definite difference between “sums” and “maths”. Now, don’t be getting all academic on … Read more

Blown Away – Our WINNERS!

Last night I drew names out of my hat for the giveaway competition the JustMaths “boys” announced a week or so ago. OK so it wasn’t a real hat but I did print off my spreadsheet and cut every entry up into slips – as Sunday progressed and responses kept coming in I found it … Read more

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