EDIT 28th MARCH 2017 – Given the news today -> TES report here about the change to accountability measures this post is now outdated!! I will post a proper updated post soon!! I‘d like to have called this post .. the truth, the whole truth and … ummmm … what we don’t yet know! Further to my … Read more
This evening has been one of the most frustrating I’ve had in a long time. I’ve been distracted and I can feel my blood pressure rising; today was MathsConf6 and from my twitter timeline it looks like a great time was had by all that attended – that is what the events should be about. … Read more
A contact sent this through to me to share with fellow teachers. In the body of the email forwarded to me it mentions that the aim is to “elicit teacher preparedness for the upcoming and recently implemented GCSEs and A levels.” It goes on to say; “At Ofqual we hear a lot of anecdotal feedback … Read more
I mean National Reference Tests! An update was published recently on the Ofqual blog and on several occasions I’ve written about these in December 2015, June 2015 and April 2015 so I’ve been following their development quite closely. Basically I think they’re a rubbish idea! I get the fact the government are crapping themselves about … Read more
The National Reference Tests (NRTs) made the headlines again last week in this article on the TES website about how the results from the new tests which are designed to indicate whether GCSE grades should be allowed to rise are unlikely to be used until 2019 and suggests that exam results across the country are likely … Read more
I’ve split this post into two parts .. you know how I love to “rabble on”. This part looks at the most recent (since 2012) government documents relating to their (read that as Gove’s) drive for a single exam board and the second is looking at it in the wider sense with a bit more … Read more
Looking at the SAM’s at the minute and it’s dawned on me that it’d be worth making it clear some of the following from Ofqual’ s document ( THIS DOC )that sets out amongst other things how awarding bodies must interpret the interpretation of subject content, how the tiering must work and also the use of … Read more
Prior to the release of the SAMs last week I received a message saying that Pearsons new “new” SAMs had been bounced back again. I’m not and never have been privy to the details but didn’t follow this up publicly (I do have some scruples!) for fear of scaremongering people and as it turned out … Read more
So I’ve finally gotten a response from Nick Gibb and I suppose in a roundabout way he hasn’t said that the accreditation process was or wasn’t flawed but that lessons have been learned. He states that he is confident that we can trust the comparability of the SAMs and that we are in an excellent … Read more
Now that we have Sample Assessment Materials (expect a lengthy blog post later this week as I’ve been working through them) some of this is somewhat “background” but also me reflecting on the bo77ocks that are public sector organisation putting “spin” on things. It’s also me finally making publically available some of the letters from … Read more
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