Back in December 2015 the DFE published a document -> GCSE_Early_Entry_Guidance that clarified some rules about “early entry” – you may remember when new early entry rules for key stage 4 qualifications were announced on September 29 2013 (I remember it well!) that only a pupil’s first entry to a key stage 4 qualification would counts towards their school’s … Read more
Whether or not you agree with the 4/5 change that was announced last week (some people do! read the comments at the end of my blog post -> here ), the fact is that Nicky Morgan (and yes I know she’s gone!) together with Nick Clegg (him too!!) pledged as part of their commitment to teacher workload that … Read more
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Proudly built by </encode>
